s! the outlaw torn

what a beautiful saturday.. the joy of a weekend completely unfettered.. i have made my peace with all the issues in my life.. happily lubricated by copious amounts of the Captain’s best.. Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum!! woke up late.. purposely shunned all things biomaterials – related.. played cricket all afternoon, went grocery shopping.. had free doughnuts at Krispy Kreme (free food rocks!!), then got home.. cooked fish stew, and we listened to some oldies.. Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Eagles, Dire Straits and Iron Maiden, and we drank lots of rum n’ coke. lots.

we’ve all been stuck in ruts at some time or the other in our lives. when it all feels like one mindless routine, and you just wanna get out of it, but can’t find a shallow bank on the sides of the ditch to clamber out.

yesterday afternoon around 4 i was headed to the supply room for some liquid nitrogen for the experiments i was doing.. to get there i gotta go across this parking lot, and i see this youngish guy pulling out in his Mercedes convertible, top down and Greenday blaring. he’s got his shades on, shirtsleeves rolled up and tie off. i can imagine him heading downtown to Thursday At The Square, knockin’ back a few beers with the boys and enjoying the concert. hell, for all i know he’s prolly heading out to Grand Island or Lake Erie over the weekend with the gf/wife for a spot of tanning and lazing around, catch some fish and ride the sailboat too. and me? i was going to the lab to do some experiments. and over the weekend? yeah, i’ll be writing the thesis and wondering if a 0.237 radiance really means anything.

fuck it man, i gotta get out of college. seeing that bloke yesterday in the parking lot really pushed it home. i’ve gotta finish this thesis, get a job and start making some money, if its the last damned thing i do.

this is me, from OzzFest last thursday..

for newbies, this is what its all about.. and here is where you can see all the entries for the day!!
(scroll down till you see Hiding Half-Nekkid This Week in the Back Row on the right!)

NB: severe gripe post.. feel free to skip.

ten things that are kinda worrying me, or are on just my mind, or i wish i could complete, or that should just go away

10- this damned humid summer.. when the air lies still with all the menace of a lurking beast, but it never really rains properly, just a spitter here and a spatter there, which only serves to increase the humidity.. rain damnit

9- FDA Substance Screening rules and regulations being embraced wholeheartedly by corporate america. what’s wrong with the management? they had their fun when they were in college, and now they wanna spoil it for us

8- need a holiday.. yes, i need to get away from buffalo for a few days.. party like mad, drink some alcohol.. no wait, make that a lot of alcohol.. chill out on a beach and swim in the surf. alas, no time and no money either

7- no time to read properly all the blogs on my list, nor to read all the comments, and no time to click on the ‘Next Blog’ button and discover more weird and wild people.. in fact i think up my posts and just type them out when i get a chance

6- no time to vegetate and watch junk tv, or any of my favourite TV shows.. no time to catch up on what’s happening with my beloved Buffalo Bills.. or watch stupid cable movies.. no time to even flex my unlimited Blockbuster account

5- not getting nearly enough sleep.. throughout college i’ve slept either 3 hr/nights (when i’ve been partying and doing other non-academic things) or 10 hr/days (when partying till dawn and bunking classes).. and now, i’m a zombie getting by on 5 hours a night

4- this hectic, monotonous schedule.. work at the library from 8-2, then off to do experiments in the lab until 6/7.. come home, send out resumes, cook (sometimes).. eat and write the fuckin’ thesis, then crash

3- the severe shortage of money.. this library job pays nowhere nearly enough what is really needed, and monthly bill-balancing is all a matter of keeping my head above water, and legs kicking out under me, barely

2- the employment scene.. i hear everywhere, on the bus, in bars, even up in the trees that it’s getting better, and it’s looking up, and other assorted horseshit. i’ve sent out nearly a hundred resumes, and.. nothing. fuckin’ nothing

1- the research and thesis.. everytime i think it’s near the end my advisor decides more needs to be done. everytime i start writing the thesis another research paper shows up telling me i need to know more and more

i’m just venting.. don’t mind me.

it had been a quiet weekend, which apparently is a thing of surprise to a lot of you.. what sort of a hellraiser do you make me out to be eh?! okay, you’re right.. we have been known to wake the dead, and steal road signs, and other assorted activities that lead to one spending the night in lock-up under the Civil Disobediences Act.. but let’s not get into that now shall we?

watched ‘Employee Of The Month’.. which i kinda liked! i’m not really surprised it got by under the publicity radar and quietly disappeared onto the DVD shelves.. as it doesn’t really win any screenplay awards, but does have a plot as twisted as a cow’s four stomachs (raise your hands whoever did not know that!) and an ending you certainly did not predict! it’s like the first half and second half belong to two separate movies altogether! Matt Dillon is good, as is Steve Zahn.. this is a cableflick kinda movie, so call in a pizza if you see this playing on TV anytime soon.

went to watch ‘Wedding Crashers’.. now this is a movie that started of with real potential of being one of THE funniest comedies ever, it just lost the plot somewhere 2/3rds down the road. Vince Vaughn was very, very good and Owen Wilson was quite plastic, but the two together do a great job as a pair of buddies who crash weddings to sample the wedding cake, the dinner fare and pretty guests.. not necessarily in that order either! no wedding is uncrashable, no alias too improbable, no venue impenetrable. and of course, no woman unattainable!

unfortunately, Christopher Walken was underutilised, the ‘villain’ Brad Cooper was just pure evil and a lot of possible threads just frayed out. do watch this for a bag of rolling-in-the-aisle laughs and not-so-subtle sexual innuendoes; do not watch this if you think you will learn anything you didn’t already know about scoring with the ladies! oh yes.. do watch this for the pretty women

had dinner at IHOP.. the Monster Cheeseburger is a beast, but pretty bland tasting.. keep some space for banana-nut pancakes for dessert.. yummy!

two of our closest friends moved to the City this weekend. that really makes it sound like we live out in the boondocks doesn’t it?! Jason & Azmi moved to NYC as they’ve both graduated and gotten jobs there. you’ll never meet a more mild-mannered and unlikely couple anywhere. they have a few things in common, which are what make them so great together.. they are madly in love, both brilliant architects, love offbeat foreign films, and can talk, analyse and discuss the boots off a weathered cowboy!

Azmi is indian, from a very orthodox family, with a very rebellious streak in her. and she has the poise and mannerism to carry it off with aplomb too! so her undergrad years in india were filled with substance delinquency and other assorted small misdemeanours, while her parents remained blissfully in the knowledge that their daughter was an angel. she is some sort of angel i gotta say, i have never seen such a hardworking and patient woman!

Jason is a man’s man. hailing from Jamestown, NY.. he has switched careers more often than he has switched cigarette brands.. spent time in the Army Reserves in Afghanistan as a surgical intern.. absolutely loves DIY projects – he gets himself a new power tool everytime he feels happy/sad.. can barbecue anything that is edible with a choice of three home-made marinades.. spent time working as a bartender at his mom’s bar – he makes a mean mojito!.. *pause for breath*.. has wildly-varied music tastes (Rage Against The Machine, BB King, Apex Theory, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tori Amos).. loves his beer, so much so that we go on monthly beer tours.. has the most hilarious stories from his high-school and college days.. and is really funny and patient too!

we’ve had some great times guys.. fare thee well!

it’s quite unbelievable, we’ve been in Buffalo for close on two years now and never been to the Six Flags at Darien Lake! well, they have a great scheme this year.. for an extra $9, any concert tickets at Darien Lakes can be upgraded to a combo amusement park plus concert!! (well, concert tix were $35 too!!) during OzzFest yesterday ash & i decided to try it out too..

so we were there bright and early, having had no breakfast cos we were determined to try on the biggest baddest rollercoasters! first we hit the Mind Eraser, thinking that this would be the worst of the lot, and after this all else would be easy (yeah right!)

whew.. that was some jolt! man when we went spinning around and around in a corkscrew, that shit was wild!! nerves somewhat settled, we headed to the Viper! this baby was a more conventional coaster, in that it was like a car.. and your legs weren’t hanging free. while we were walking to it, this corkscrew looked scary.

afte riding that, i can say with quite some conviction that it was scary!! on wobbly legs we headed to the Predator, which apparently was a completely wooden rollercoaster! yes, completely wooden!

it was wild again, especially on the banked turns when you felt the wheels of the car clattering against the rails and the whole wooden structure shook.. whoa!! finally we queued up for ages to get on the Superman Ride Of Steel.. and it looked scary enough, but we had to try it man! Will Smith came in with his entourage to ride that.. wonder why he’s in Buffalo?! well, he screamed his head off too on this baby!

you get completely weightless on the 200 ft. first drop, and that is really unnerving, as it feels like the cars are falling away under you, and then before you catch your breath, your ass is plonked back on seat and you’re thrown into a banked left turn, and suddenly your head is lolling out under you and pine trees are flashing by very very close!! we had seen the strobe cameras before we got on, and made a sincere effort to smile for them, but ended up with these garish faces, eyes popping out and fingers stretched out in devil’s horns!! but hell yeah, you gotta do it!!

done with the coasters, we decided to mellow it down a bit.. and headed for the waterpark and chilled out on the Barracuda Bay waterslides.. it was a hot day and was a relief to get into the water.. did a couple of very relaxed water-splashy boat rides after that, then dried out, and headed to the OzzFest parking lot for the tailgate parties.. for the OzzFest account check out the next post!

Ozzfest is the arena where nu-age metal meets classic heavy metal.. and gets bitchslapped. of the multitude of young bands who played all day in the scorching sun.. and tried their best to show the legions of dysfunctional youth the way forward.. their efforts went largely unnoticed. Mudvayne were the best of the lot, and that wasn’t saying much either.. they still have a long way to go before they gain the appropriate skill and talent to really play some heavy metal.

as the sun slowly dipped over the distant horizon, and the day faded into an orange dusk.. a black banner fell and hung from the rafters above the stage.. upon it the sneering skeletal figure of Ed Hunter.. and a wall of sound exploded over the wildly cheering masses.. Iron Maiden was here! as all the banners fell away, there were four guitars crashing away wildly and a bass drum pounding away the sounds of ‘Wrathchild’.. but where was Bruce Dickinson.. the vocalist?! and then from the back a figure in the classic English army redcoat, waving a Union Jack came marching onto the stage..

classic rock just showed once again why there is nothing quite like it.