potpourri 11

Out of the blue I remembered that I had this series up here and when I checked it’s been close to 10 months since I last wrote one of these. Considering that recently tons of stuff has been happening and I have no inertia to make each into a full blown post, figured little snippets would serve the purpose well.

• 5 in 5: So the countdown’s now at 5 lbs to lose in 5 weeks. I have no idea how I did not gain any considering I’ve had 2 cham-chams, a sizeable piece of wedding cake and then 2 kozhakottais just over the past 3 days! Either way, I’ve decided not to sweat this out. It’s crazy times and I’ll just do what I can and will and the rest will fall in place. A runner-colleague guffawed when I told her my fat percentage. Then she asked me if I was using that thing ‘you hold in front of your body at arms length’, and then she laughed some more. According to her, that percentage would put me at a very unhealthy level, which I wasn’t. She did a guesstimate with a number I can most certainly live with for now. Rest can wait.

• Wedding: A colleague got married over the weekend. She’s originally from Poland and she and the boyfriend had their nuptials in a Catholic church this Saturday. They made an amazingly handsome pair and everyone thought so. Was the first time I attended a wedding at the church here and I was suitably excited. I get all cuckoo about weddings. So I dragged the family out all dressed in our best Sunday clothes and it was a beautiful serene lovely hour’s ceremony. After 20 years I was actually standing in a church and said the “O Father in Heaven” Prayer and remembered it word to word. That’s a joy 🙂 The reception was even more fun and for the first time the husband and I were the only desis at a party/gathering as far back as I remember. It was nostalgic most definitely as the last was in Brussels. The few Polish cousins who came down for the wedding were an absolute hoot! There was the completely vagabond-ish-I-don’t-care-attitude the Europeans carry with them, from the way they walk, to dress, to dance (something that the conservative Americans can most definitely learn a bit from) ..and o my gosh, can they boogie?! One Richard Gere look-alike and his wife did this hilarious robotic fast-paced Elaine-dance and managed to be in complete sync! Such fun.

• I recently read an article on guerilla gardening. Fascinating and a very green concept. Though I wonder why they’d want to be “guerilla” about it. I mean, this is good stuff that’s happening. Can’t imagine anyone objecting to having some color in a patch of dry brown. Check some of those pictures out, they do strike one as a spot of freshness in filth. The slogan’s neat: Let’s fight the filth with forks and flowers. I can see a few spots where guerillas would do well, and unfortunately since I have a brown thumb, no make that a brown complete hand, I’d rather spread the word than try anything myself.

• Discovered Scientific American’s 60 second blog and love it! Everyone should go read it during downtime. I found a few fascinating and then a few very sad and a couple unbelievable! I mean, for chrissakes I can’t imagine why 20% of watermelons don’t get eaten. Just this evening, the girls and I polished off half a melon under 20 minutes. Love the fruit!

• Saw Magadheera. Finally! It’s the new rage in Andhraland. The dude is cute and finally his father’s (Chiranjeevi) charm’s rubbed off on him enough. He looks all set to be the next action-romantic hero of Tollywood. The girl is hot. Shes’ sweet and cute too, in a naive doe-eyed way, not like Shreya who rubs it too much in your face. That’s a rare and lethal combination. The movie’s taken well and it’s been awhile since I saw something that classy and crisp in telugu movies. I really ought write a post on it!

• I was seriously considering plunking some money down on the Kindle. Then these questions cropped up. The free downloads are all classics. Books that I’d rather have in hardcopy and handed down as a legacy. The newer recent ones I’ll have to buy. Husband and I usually never think twice about buying books. So buying an e-book shouldn’t be too bad a deal. The catch comes when it turns out to be ridiculously horrible. A paperback I can thwack against the wall and throw in the recycle bin for wasting my time, but I can’t do that with the Kindle right?  Also, I am a loaner. I lend books all the time. I really can’t say “O you must read this awesome new science fiction. What? borrow? Are you kidding me. Sorry, no can do. You’re going to have to go buy your own, cheapo!” See? Also, one more problem, what if the husband and I both decide to read different books and considering our evenings’ the only free time when we do settle down on our respective sides of the bed with a book, er.. sharing would get a bit tricky. Like we don’t have enough things to fight about. You see my problems?

• In an effort to un-mire myself from the social web (kowthas 2.0 is in progress), not only have I sub-consciously reduced the bloghops (my time’s getting more precious as the days go by) and the reader’s blog content is pruned down to the bare minimum, I also have removed notifications. Totally. It’s heavenly. My email has thanked me a few million times already. Only relevant, personal or similar veined-mails land in my inbox – ones that need immediate attention. The rest of the stuff can wait until I settle down after dinner to login to the applications manually. Minimizing clutter and reducing web-induced stress. Sneaks up on you when you’ve spent enough time on it. You gotta try it too. Show them who’s the boss!

• ..and oh, I went ahead and put in 5 of my fables (short stories) at Indiblogger for this month’s blogger of the month thingy. There’s a nice collection out there to read a lazy afternoon even if you aren’t voting.