I’ve noticed an interesting and not altogether welcome trend in myself over the last year or so. I used to be the kind of guy who would straight up tell people how I felt. If I liked a girl, I told her. If I felt that someone was unhappy with me, I’d ask them about it. But I think I’m starting to lose that trait. It’s not a totally bad thing, because I don’t think that kind of open attitude is sustainable in the world we live in. But it is kinda sad. I guess it just reminds me that life isn’t as innocent as I would like it, and other people aren’t as straightforward as I am. Worse yet, I feel like I’m betraying myself by not being as completely honest as possible. Even when something is bothering me, I wonder more and more if it’s even worth the effort to bring it up, or whether I should just ignore it and move on.
Sorry, I’m just babbling.
And on that cheerful note, THE CONVENTION IS ALMOST HERE!!! In less than 36 hours, we will be descended upon by hundreds of young Jains from around the country. I’ve been reassured by friends who’ve been to similar events that even *I* can hook up with a girl at a convention like this. I know I’m definitely keeping myself open. I guess we’ll just have to see if the losing streak will finally be reversed. I won’t be giving you guys (all 4 of you) any explicit details via this forum. But I’m sure you’ll be able to tell by the tone of my next entry whether Chirag got some or not. Wish me luck.
So I got to the Comedy Club at about 7:15, after parking on the top floor of the parking garage. I find out that the show was sold out. Given that I had only reluctantly pulled myself there, I was not a happy camper. But all was not lost. On the way back to the parking garage, I passed by the San Jose Repertory Theater , which was showing The Underpants , a play originally written by Carl Sternheim in 1911 and recently adapted by Steve Martin . On a whim, I decided to check if there were any tickets left. I ended up getting a pretty decent seat in the Parterre section. It was pretty funny overall, with a few ;typically Martinesque gems:
“You are here under false pretenses.” “What other kind of pretense is there?”
I rated it a 7.5 out of 10. Check it out if you can. And with my student discount (yay for college ID’s that still look valid!!), it worked out to be cheaper than going to the comedy club. So the evening wasn’t a total loss.
Tonight is a YJA dinner at Puneet’s place. He’s asked for there to be no YJA discussions (yeah, right!). The plan is for saag paneer, naans, and a game of Cranium afterwards. Should be fun.
I’m such a lazy ass. I keep meaning to write, and I keep putting it off. Ah well…
Had a hard time staying awake at work today. It doesn’t help when I’m sitting in a small conference room, and they turn off the lights and turn on the Powerpoint. There were only 6 people in there, so not really a good time to drop my head. Still, I managed to survive.
I also got drafted into the group’s softball team. Our name? IWTY WHTKY. That’s short for “If We Tell You, We’d Have To Kill You”. Very cheerful indeed. The new season starts on July 22nd, I think.
The guy I was working with, Eric, told me that, unbeknownst to me, he had been sending weekly status reports on our project that we had been working on for the past weeks, and they were being read at the Admiral’s level. In other words, the Admiral’s office was reading my name in their reports. ;Of course, given how many reports they have in their offices (and the number of names in them), that’s not a huge deal. And the Admiral himself didn’t actually read my name. However, I shall brag regardless. The bottom line is that they are really interested in the project, which is always gratifying.
Going to watch Mitch Hedberg at the comedy club tonight. I’ll be going by myself, but I figure why the hell not. When I’m busy laughing at the guy on stage, I don’t indulge in much conversation anyway.
Saw Kevin Hart perform standup at The Improv last night, and he was hilarious. Only 24 years old, but very funny. He’s already starred in a movie (Soulplane), and ;created a TV show on ABC (The Big House, which I heard was good, but got cancelled). Either way, if you ever hear of him coming to your area, go see him. Good stuff.
I was going to go to Davis today for (fellow YJA member) Rinki’s graduation, but no one else could make it, and I didn’t think I was up for driving 105 miles each way by myself. I feel bad, but she was understanding and I told her I’d buy her a drink next time we all went out.
I’m almost done with the temp project I’ve been working on these past few months. Well, I’m not really done, but my new thing (the one I was hired for) starts this Monday, so today is the last day I’ll be working in this section. I’ll still come in on a later date to help them transition to the new person who’ll have to take over for me. But finally, I get to the cool stuff.
And in other news, the other thing took an interesting (and welcome) turn yesterday. Let’s see how it goes.
Parents left today. As I type this, they are flying over the Pacific on their way home. It was an interesting visit, to say the least. But God knows I’ll miss ’em.
The next objective is to lose as much weight as possible before the convention. I’m thinking around 10 lbs in 2 weeks. Drastic? Yes. Unhealthy? Probably. Definitely not going to last after the convention. I just hope it works.
A kid I know from Cornell, Akshay, is interning at the same company this summer. In fact, his cubicle is in the same big-ass room that mine is in (at least, until I move to a new building on Monday). He’s staying with his sister in San Fran, but since this week will be a bit difficult to commute, he’s gonna stay at my place ;for a couple of nights. I just hope he’s ready for the Chirag Experience.
I’ll be getting Gremlins from Netflix today. I haven’t seen that movie in years. But it has some scarily catchy theme music. Don’t know if I’ll be able to watch the whole film today, since Last Comic Standing is on from 9-10. But either way, I really need to get on with my queue. Been sitting on the same DVD’s for too long. Damn me and my obsession with watching every single thing on a DVD, including all commentary tracks.
Sirm sent me a GMail invite yesterday which I activated. I haven’t used it much, but I do like it. I doubt it’ll be my main email, just because I can’t access it at work. They’ve already blocked it (alonig with Hotmail, Yahoo, and the other free services), so I’m still gonna stay with my paid ISP. On the other hand, I do own fifadra.com. That’s gotta be worth something in the long run.
Well, Sirm ;reassured me that I have at least one faithful reader, so that is enough motivation for me to continue.
I’ve been loosely following the NBA finals. There’s a bet going on in YJA currently. Rina, Chinar and Neha are rooting for the Lakers, and the rest of us are going for the Pistons. The prize in question is a home-cooked dinner. So far things are looking positive, but I’m not taking anything for granted.
I started typing up Comkid yesterday. I figure I’ll type it all up in Word first, before pasting it here one part at a time. I gotta tell ya, it’s been interesting to read it, and pick out all the problems with it. Then again, I’m also impressed that I was capable of that kind of writing when I was 14 years old. I just wonder how different it might have turned out had I started writing it now… Anyway, stay tuned for that. It’ll be coming soon.
Saw the Stepford Wives on Friday night. Definitely worth watching. It’s a pretty funny movie. From what I hear, it’s a totally different tone from the original movie (more comedic instead of horror), but it’s still worth watching. I gotta ;tell ya though… if I had the choice to be married to a beautiful blonde bombshell who was completely devoted to me and gave me amazing sex in the middle of the day (and functioned as a real-life ATM as well), I would have to struggle a bit before saying no.
Hmm… it seems either no one reads this thing, or no one cares. Neither of those is a particularly encouraging thought, but I shall plow on regardless.
I went to a comedy club last night to see David Feldman perform. If you haven’t heard of him, check out his website at http://www.davidfeldmanisimpotent.com/ . And yes, that is a real website. Anyway, he wasn’t very funny. Given his (supposed) pedigree, I was more than a little disappointed. I guess that’s why I’m going to another comedy club tonight to see Jake Johanssen. ;It’s only $10 (plus two item minimum), so I can justify two shows in two days. And last night’s show was only $6 (plus two items). Alas, we found out too late that it was College Night, and people with college ID’s get in free. Damn.
On a related note, this week I saw the first reality show that I actually plan to follow. No surprises here… the show is Last Comic Standing. http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Last_Comic_Standing/ . This has the potential to be some really good TV. I know I’ll watch it.
And I intend to type up Comkid regardless. Even if you ungrateful bastards don’t want to read it, I wanna make sure I have a permanent copy of it somewhere. That thing is precious!
Hmmm… seems tomorrow stretched into 4 days. Lazy I am. Anyway, going over the points from last time:
1) Yosemite was awesome. Literally. Absolutely gorgeous. I took lots of scenery shots. My mom even asked me why I kept taking pictures of the same mountain. Heh heh heh. But it was really cool. I definitely want to go back for a hike sometime.
2) Mortality? Not interested anymore.
3) I was gonna complain a little, but I realised it wouldn’t really be fair. It’s not their fault, really. I just wish they had slightly more fortuitous timing. They’re always here whenever the YJA crew plans to go out and party. After a while, it gets kinda annoying to always say “Sorry. Parents are in town” whenever they ask me to join them in the City. Oh well…
4) Ah, Comkid. I’ll start posting that up soon. How soon? Well, as soon as I get motivated to type the damn thing in. It’s not terribly long, but I’m terribly lazy. And I promise, as tempted as I might be, I will NOT change a single word or punctuation mark when typing it up. You will see it in all of its 9th Grade glory. Be gentle.
4a) I actually had not just one, but TWO sequel stories planned. I even remember the basic ideas that I planned to use. But more on those later…
p.s. Actually, I figure I might as well get some feedback before I start transcribing a lot of shtit. If anyone is still reading this blog, leave me a comment as to whether or not you would like to read Comkid. Don’t ask me to email it to you, because if I’m going to type it up, I might as well post it. And for those of you who are not members of Xanga, shoot me an email. I’m curious.
1) Going to Yosemite Park tonight with my parents. Or, as mom says it, Yashomati. 2) Been thinking about mortality recently. Nothing morbid or scary, just as a matter of curiosity. Some interesting self-realisations. 3) Parents visiting = no social life 4) I found a fictional short story I’d written back in the 9th grade. It’s titled “Comkid”, and is about a boy robot with emotions. ;Even back then I was a nerd, albeit an uncreative one. ;I’ll start transcribing that up here.
;Of course, given how many reports they have in their offices (and the number of names in them), that’s not a huge deal. And the Admiral himself didn’t actually read my name. However, I shall brag regardless. The bottom line is that they are really interested in the project, which is always gratifying. 
Words of (Semi) Importance 