I was a bit surprised by how few of my 109 in 2009 I accomplished this month, still, something is better than nothing I suppose! However, I am pleased to announce that one of my favorite goals, reading 100 books in 2009, is coming along well, so far I've read about 31 books though not all have been updated on the site yet. I'm running out of books in my queue, if you have any books to suggest please share I've been enjoying reading many of your recommendations!
#38. Update my resume. Well it's done and I'm glad it is, one should always have their resume updated particularly in these times, however I do want it to look better. I've heard of professional resume services but don't know of any in particular, if you have one that you can recommend please share!
#51. Eat a mango. What a pleasurable goal to fulfill! Mango shakes, lassi, ice cream, and just plain chopped up eating the seed messy with your bare hands, all delicious. In Brazil I became known as the mango girl due to my insistence on eating mango at every conceivable opportunity. Once, walking down a street in Rio De Janeiro after dinner with a group of friends we passed an old man with a long graying beard wearing tattered clothes sitting on a street corner. As we walked past him he stared intensely at me and slowly stood up pointing a finger in my direction and bellowed "Mangoooooo." I have no idea why or how he knew, perhaps the scent permeated through my skin, but it was a memorable moment on a memorable trip.
#90. Try Masala Dosa. A new Indian veggie place opened up near my house and I had to finally try this exotic delicacy. [If you're South Indian you're probably laughing at my describing it as exotic, it might be as exotic as a bowl of cereal for all I know]. I got a spicy one with potatoes and it was yummy.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Ferdinand remains so
Nearly two years ago, I posted a blog post about how I don't like confrontations which is a bit counter intuitive considering my chosen profession is law. I ended that post with: Maybe time will teach me how to embrace it. Maybe 2 years from now I'll eagerly hop into the boxing ring like Muhammad Ali. Still not there yet. Now I wonder if I ever will, and on a deeper level, if I even should.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Random thought of the day
Its good I was born a girl because I really don't enjoy sports and as a boy I would feel ostracized from other boys since I could not chime in with stats and the progress of my fantasy football team and would prefer instead marathons of America's Next Top Model. Sure I wouldn't feel the urge to get my nails painted since even as a girl I do this more for gender role reasons as opposed to true joy at the sight of painted nails, but still I can imagine that a boy like me would get beat up quite a lot at the playground growing up. Granted, as a boy its entirely likely I would be environmentally and/or genetically preconditioned to enjoy sports, but the thought of that makes me very very sad.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Random Update
It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd drop in with a random update of what I've been up to. Hope everyone reading is doing great.
1. Battling Indian Call Centers: I cannot stand the Bobs of Call Center India. I opened a Macy's account to get a discount on some dishes and since December I've been trying to pay my bill. Sometimes they get my bank account wrong, sometimes they forget to remove late fees they charged because they didn't get my payment because they got my bank account wrong. I would ask them, can i speak to someone in the US. To which they bristled, to which I responded I'm desi dude, don't get snippy but y'all aren't heping me! To which they told me that there was no way to reach anyone in the US. Ultimately four months later I was transferred to the US and my problem was solved in a matter of ten minutes, but the frustration is so bad that I'm cancelling my Macy's card. It's just not worth the hassle.
2. An awesome author read my novel! A five chapter excerpt! I grew up reading her stories and on a whim e-mailed to ask if she'd read an excerpt. I felt a little weak in the knees when she said yes. Explaining to K, what this felt like I said, "It's like you ask Jason Kidd to give you advice on shooting hoops and he says sure!" He was then quite impressed. She gave me some wonderful encouragement but also some honest humbling critique which I know will help make my novel even better. I'm excited at the steps I'm taking to slowly reach my dream.
3. Loving Big Love. Getting frustrated with LOST: Big Love is an HBO show following the lives of Bill and his three wives in Utah. They are a member of the FDLS and the show trails their daily issues, as well power struggles in the sect and Bill's business ventures which are often filled with intrigue and danger. The acting and character development on this show is superb. I wish the seasons were longer than a mere 12-15 episodes. LOST on the other hand... I've been a fan for quite some time but lately its disappointing me to no end. Sure you suspend disbelief when watching fiction, but this is too much. I feel like I watch not because I love the show anymore, but because I want to finish what I started. The time travel, I was willing to buy into it, but now they live in 1977? Wouldn't "the others" recognize them later from their stint in 1977 on the island? When Jack and Kate, etc came back to the island, why is no one doing a group meeting to catch up on everything that's happened. I miss the days of character development and consistency, that is what made Lost great... its a great disappointment now.
4. Trying to be patient. Sometimes people are difficult. I need to not let the negativity and entitlement attitude of others affect my sense of peace. The more you practice your patience muscles, the stronger they grow... Time will tell very soon how patient I am.
1. Battling Indian Call Centers: I cannot stand the Bobs of Call Center India. I opened a Macy's account to get a discount on some dishes and since December I've been trying to pay my bill. Sometimes they get my bank account wrong, sometimes they forget to remove late fees they charged because they didn't get my payment because they got my bank account wrong. I would ask them, can i speak to someone in the US. To which they bristled, to which I responded I'm desi dude, don't get snippy but y'all aren't heping me! To which they told me that there was no way to reach anyone in the US. Ultimately four months later I was transferred to the US and my problem was solved in a matter of ten minutes, but the frustration is so bad that I'm cancelling my Macy's card. It's just not worth the hassle.
2. An awesome author read my novel! A five chapter excerpt! I grew up reading her stories and on a whim e-mailed to ask if she'd read an excerpt. I felt a little weak in the knees when she said yes. Explaining to K, what this felt like I said, "It's like you ask Jason Kidd to give you advice on shooting hoops and he says sure!" He was then quite impressed. She gave me some wonderful encouragement but also some honest humbling critique which I know will help make my novel even better. I'm excited at the steps I'm taking to slowly reach my dream.
3. Loving Big Love. Getting frustrated with LOST: Big Love is an HBO show following the lives of Bill and his three wives in Utah. They are a member of the FDLS and the show trails their daily issues, as well power struggles in the sect and Bill's business ventures which are often filled with intrigue and danger. The acting and character development on this show is superb. I wish the seasons were longer than a mere 12-15 episodes. LOST on the other hand... I've been a fan for quite some time but lately its disappointing me to no end. Sure you suspend disbelief when watching fiction, but this is too much. I feel like I watch not because I love the show anymore, but because I want to finish what I started. The time travel, I was willing to buy into it, but now they live in 1977? Wouldn't "the others" recognize them later from their stint in 1977 on the island? When Jack and Kate, etc came back to the island, why is no one doing a group meeting to catch up on everything that's happened. I miss the days of character development and consistency, that is what made Lost great... its a great disappointment now.
4. Trying to be patient. Sometimes people are difficult. I need to not let the negativity and entitlement attitude of others affect my sense of peace. The more you practice your patience muscles, the stronger they grow... Time will tell very soon how patient I am.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Three Beautiful Things
1. Tickets to Ray LaMontagne. Once he was our little known secret though recently his appearance on SNL will certainly pull him from obscurity. He's a guitar playing, singer-song writer and one of my favorite musicians. Last year he came to my city but I found out too late and he was sold out. This year he's performing in Asheville, NC. We signed up for the pre-sale and at ten o'clock on the dot when tickets went on sale we bought. I LOVE Asheville. I'd live there if I could. I am so excited to see my favorite musician in one of my favorite cities.
2. Brothers. They are the kind of brothers who will come for a visit and help you fix up your house as though its their own, who will dig through a trash can on a hunch your missing camera fell inside. They are friends I share my fears and joys with. They are two of the best people I know on this earth.
3. Walks on beautiful days. A friend and I go for a walk in the park every Saturday while our spouses play football. Lately the weather is stunning, and the walk breathtaking as deer play in the creek below, and small flowers begin to emerge from the brown earth.
2. Brothers. They are the kind of brothers who will come for a visit and help you fix up your house as though its their own, who will dig through a trash can on a hunch your missing camera fell inside. They are friends I share my fears and joys with. They are two of the best people I know on this earth.
3. Walks on beautiful days. A friend and I go for a walk in the park every Saturday while our spouses play football. Lately the weather is stunning, and the walk breathtaking as deer play in the creek below, and small flowers begin to emerge from the brown earth.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Witnessing a deportation
A group of undocumented workers stand on a particular side road I pass each morning on my way to work. They line up leaning against a wooden fence, looking at the ground or glancing at cars passing by. Sometimes a truck pulls over, they huddle close. A few hop in the back. The truck u-turns and veers away. The others compress their line, and continue waiting.
Today, stopped at a red light by the road, I glanced to my left and saw five police cars, their lights flashing, heavily armed cops standing in a huddle around one Hispanic teenager, maybe twenty, tops, sitting on the curb, his elbows on his knee, his head in his hands, a vacant expression on his face.
The light turned green, the car behind me honked, I drove on trying to make sense of what I saw: A boy whose life today on March 5, 2009 is forever changed. He will sit in holding cells, he will second guess why he wasn't fast enough to run away like the others, in the end, he will be deported.
I haven't formulated my solution to the issue of undocumented immigrants, but there are a few things I know:
1. I am a legal citizen because I was born here. I didn't choose the place of my birth, none of us did. My status does not make me better than anyone else, it just makes me lucky. Even if your forefathers came on the Mayflower, you're still the recipient of happenstance.
2. Most rational people don't want to leave their home for a foreign land where they don't speak the language, where they withstand the risk of death and exploitation just to get there, where they will live in constant fear of getting caught, where they know from the glances of people on the street they are not wanted. Is there a less offensive term besides Mexican that I can call you? Asks NBC's The Office boss to his Mexican employee. Yeah its a joke, but it reflects a truth in our society that those who endure know better than others. There is a desperation, that drew those men here that I cannot understand because I have not endured it. Ask any undocumented person, the ache they feel when they think of home.
3. No matter how we feel about immigration, the truth is most undocumented people aren't here to steal your jobs, or rob your house, they're here because they felt they had no choice. We can argue it until the dogs come home whether this is true, but unless you had to make that choice, you really can't say for sure.
Watch The Visitor. It was a tremendous movie and it helped shed a light ever so subtly on this controversial topic.
Today, stopped at a red light by the road, I glanced to my left and saw five police cars, their lights flashing, heavily armed cops standing in a huddle around one Hispanic teenager, maybe twenty, tops, sitting on the curb, his elbows on his knee, his head in his hands, a vacant expression on his face.
The light turned green, the car behind me honked, I drove on trying to make sense of what I saw: A boy whose life today on March 5, 2009 is forever changed. He will sit in holding cells, he will second guess why he wasn't fast enough to run away like the others, in the end, he will be deported.
I haven't formulated my solution to the issue of undocumented immigrants, but there are a few things I know:
1. I am a legal citizen because I was born here. I didn't choose the place of my birth, none of us did. My status does not make me better than anyone else, it just makes me lucky. Even if your forefathers came on the Mayflower, you're still the recipient of happenstance.
2. Most rational people don't want to leave their home for a foreign land where they don't speak the language, where they withstand the risk of death and exploitation just to get there, where they will live in constant fear of getting caught, where they know from the glances of people on the street they are not wanted. Is there a less offensive term besides Mexican that I can call you? Asks NBC's The Office boss to his Mexican employee. Yeah its a joke, but it reflects a truth in our society that those who endure know better than others. There is a desperation, that drew those men here that I cannot understand because I have not endured it. Ask any undocumented person, the ache they feel when they think of home.
3. No matter how we feel about immigration, the truth is most undocumented people aren't here to steal your jobs, or rob your house, they're here because they felt they had no choice. We can argue it until the dogs come home whether this is true, but unless you had to make that choice, you really can't say for sure.
Watch The Visitor. It was a tremendous movie and it helped shed a light ever so subtly on this controversial topic.
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