To cure the fever of my brain and soothe my burning throat
Ugggh. I feel like crap. I didn't go to work yesterday, and I don't think I'm going to stay very long today either. I had to get out of the hotel room though. Here are my symptoms:
Headache
Fever
Sore throat (getting better though)
Runny/stuffy nose
Phlegm galore
Achy all over
Exhausted
What do you think I have? I've been taking malaria pills (not pills that GIVE you malaria, but those that help prevent it), but they're not foolproof. Maybe it's just a bad cold or flu. Of course, my friends suggested I have syphilis. Somehow, I don't think so.

La grippe, la grippe, la post nasal drip!
I don't feel so well today. I woke up with a sore throat, and now I've got some nasty post nasal drip going on, and I'm sneezing a lot. I also feel kind of fuzzy... everything takes way more energy and effort than it should. I think I may head home from work a little early.

After two days, the stupid-ass comments aren't working again. I'm going to have to change to the new host. Uggh. Maybe when I'm feeling less like dying.

Earlier today, I watched Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo. That is the kind of quality programming you can find here. It was pretty awful. Not that I expected it to be good or anything.

Life is a cabaret, old chum.
I would be amiss if I didn't mention the demise of the marriage between Liza Minnelli and David Gest. I'm sure that you've read it everywhere else, and I have too. I saw it on Gawker first. I don't really have anything witty to say about it, since it's all been said before. However, here are a couple of my favorite quotes from my discussion about it this morning over email:

Brad:
I hope the "private" bedroom films come out. Her looking longingly on in expensive lingerie as he combs the hair on one of the Judy Garland dolls from his
collection.

Victor:
Who would have guessed that a wedding between a pill-popping alcoholic and an obsessive, flaming gay man would ever fail?

Ryan:
How can you quote me when I didn't say anything about it? I don't give a shite about judy garland and christopher guest, or whoever.....

You can always count on my friends to be inappropriate, which is why I love them so.

It's a bad hair day... I'm gonna throw my blowdryer away...
Does anyone remember that show The Guys Next Door? It was a Saturday morning show about some guys in a boy band. It came on while I was in Junior High, and I totally fell in love with Damon, one of the "guys." He was obsessed with his hair, and even had a song about it called "Bad Hair Day." I bought their tape, but I don't think that song was on it. Those were sad, sad days in my life, ladies and gentlemen. But whenever I think of blowdryers or bad hair days, I think of that song.

I just got a haircut. It cost Rs. 380, with a tip of Rs. 100. So haircut + tip = Rs. 480, which by my calculations is $10.21. So what if it's not the best haircut in the world... it was cheap! Still, I'll be glad to get back to my regular hairdresser at Hairy Situations. There's something about the whole "no language barrier" thing that I really enjoy.

Another thing to mention is that my comments are working again. Apparently, all it took was my spending $14 for a different service to scare my other comments host into working again. I'm trying to decide what I should do... go for the one I paid for, or keep using the crappy free ones so that I don't lose what's already been written... decisions, decisions. Oh wow. I just checked the homepage for my comments host, and they were down because it's based in Memphis!! Where apparently the whole city has had no electricity for days. Please forgive all of the mean thoughts I had!

In other weather-related news, I tried really hard to go swimming this weekend. But the monsoon was against me. My muscles hurt and I want to float around in the pool. Dammit, weather!

Three of my friends are moving in together this weekend. One is Ryan, whom I've known since kindergarten. Another is Karen, whom I've known for about a year and a half. The third is my boyfriend, Victor. They got a fabulous house right around the corner from where Victor lived previously. Conveniently only a five-minute walk from my apartment! I haven't been inside the house but it looks really nice from outside. There's a big yard, and the kitchen is huge, and there are hardwood floors. I, on the other hand, live in 420 sqare feet of berber carpeting. I am so insanely jealous.

If you need a good laugh, please go see The Search for Love in Manhattan this weekend. The proprietor, Faustus, is participating in the blogathan (where you have to post every 30 minutes for 24 hours). He's posting haiku about gay relationships. Very funny! And I'm sponsoring him.

Cleaning up house.
Sorry for not posting yesterday. I did get something done, though... I signed up for a new comments host. I even signed up for the paid account (unusual for a cheapskate like me), because I'll be able to get a dedicated server that way. I'm going to install them this weekend. Unfortunately, that means all of my previous comments are going to disappear. That makes me sad.

Woe is me. Plus baseball.

The effing comments still aren't appearing. If they're not there tomorrow, I'm going to have to start using a different host. I'll lose everyone's lovely comments thus far, but at least you'll be able to leave them from now on.

Happy 30th birthday to Nomar Garciaparra, who is Victor's favorite baseball player. Apparently, he also has The Greatest Ass in Baseball.

Victor, if you would like to calculate your compatibility with Nomar, just in case a situation arises where you could date him, I have provided a handy link.

Like, piss off.
In case you didn't know it, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie have made a reality TV series on Fox called "The Simple Life." In the series, Hilton and Richie were dumped in Altus, Arkansas for five weeks. Now, I've been to Altus, which is a little mountain town surrounded by wineries. The Weiderkehr Wine Cellars have a fun (if cheesy) festival every year called Weinfest. I went a couple of years ago. I'm a little angry that Altus is now set to be the object of much ridicule. I'm a little protective of Arkansas.

Anwyay, here is an excerpt from a recent National Post story on Paris Hilton. I think it beautifully illustrates her vocabulary and deep thinking.

On how her life has changed since the filming of the show: "Um ... just the way I'm, like, thinking about things, just, like, the way I am with people now."

On whether her life is simple: "I think I have, like, a complicated life. And their life [meaning that of the family with which Paris and Nicole lived] is not so simple. Like, people work their butts off there. So, it's simple in the fact, like, there's no distractions, like, like everything around here."

On what she learned about life: "Yeah, like, I met some people there, and they're so much happier than people I see in L.A., who have so much money. Like, people who didn't have anything were, like, more happy than people I've met out here, because it's just all about your family. And I think [Arkansas is] a great place to, like, raise kids instead of raising them, like, in L.A."

(like, via Gawker)

Arrgh.
Why aren't my stupid comments working?

It's shortlist time!
The Mercury Music Prize shortlist was announced today. Here's the list of nominations:

RADIOHEAD 'Hail to the Thief'
DIZZEE RASCAL 'Boy In Da Corner'
THE THRILLS 'So Much for the City'
SOWETO KINCH 'Conversations with the Unseen'
FLOETRY 'Floetic'
THE DARKNESS 'Permission to Land'
COLDPLAY 'A Rush of Blood to the Head'
MARTINA TOPLEY-BIRD 'Quixotic'
ELIZA CARTHY 'Anglicana'
ATHLETE 'Vehicles and Animals'
TERRI WALKER 'Untitled'
LEMON JELLY 'Lost Horizons'

Hmm. I don't have too many of these albums. According to NME, the current favorites are Radiohead and Coldplay. I'm interested in getting the Thrills' album, although Pitchfork only gave it a 6.9 out of 10. But what do those pretentious hipsters know anyway?

Anyone want to venture a guess as to who will win?

Good news!
Today I found out that my friend Ryan's film was accepted into the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival. Super cool! Oooh, and I'm even mentioned in the credits... I just realized that. I'm the script supervisor. But enough about me, this is really Ryan's triumph. I'm very proud of him. I'll post details (if it's ok with him) about the date, time, and location whenever aGLIFF releases them.

In other news, Victor got us tickets to see Super Furry Animals at Stubb's BBQ on September 25th. They're playing with Grandaddy. I'm so excited. By the way, kids, their new album comes out this week. Buy it. Victor's buying it for me and shipping it to India.

No news is good news
Hmm, nothing really to post about. I was actually busy at work on Friday, which is a change. Saturday, I was supposed to go out with some people from work. We were going to have a late lunch and then go to a pub called 10 Downing Street. They said they'd call or come by the hotel. Well, I didn't leave my room all day, and there certainly weren't any phone calls. *sigh* I really don't like being people flaking out. It happens a lot here.

My friends back home, on the other hand, are having a fun weekend. Several of them went up to Dallas and are hanging out with my boyfriend. Friday night there was some gay club action, and they were thinking of going to a scary strip club on Saturday night. Sometimes I think that Victor's becoming more of a gay icon than I am! Well... he certainly has a great example to follow!

Today I went down to the 7th floor for high tea, and since then I've been trying to get internet access. They only have one computer in a little room where you can close the door. If that's occupied, they offer you the computer behind the Business Center desk. You know, the one they use. Well, that's just a little awkward. I did it a couple of days ago, because I really needed to check my email, but I hate having strangers looking over my shoulder. Not to mention that it's weird when people come up to the desk to talk to the staff, and there I am, typing away. So today I told them no.
"Please, just call me when this room is free."
"Madam, you can use the computer here."
"No, I don't like using that one. Can you call me when this one is free?"
"No, madam. Is this one uncomfortable to use?"
"Yes. I don't like using it. Please, can you call me when this one is free?"
"Yes madam."
So, I went up to my room to wait. Starving, I ordered room service. As I was letting the waiter in the room, the phone rings. Yep, computer is free. So I scarfed down a couple of bites and came down here. More pizza waiting upstairs.

What a boring weekend this has turned out to be! I have to get out and about next weekend.

Monsoon!
It took a little longer than usual to get into work today. It was monsooning (that's probably not a word, but I like it) pretty hard this afternoon, and by the time I was picked up from the hotel, there were huge puddles everywhere. Hyderabad is pretty hilly, and any dips in the road had become huge lakes. It slowed traffic considerably, because about 1/2 of the vehicles on the roads are autorickshaws and two-wheelers. By the way, "two-wheeler" here means motorcycle or scooter (Vespa-style). Any time we neared one of the flooded sections of road, everyone would go very slowly to make sure they got across. Rickshaws are pretty low to the ground, and there was danger of the water flooding the floor. I guess I'm lucky to be chauffeured around in an SUV (a Toyota Qualis).

I'm reminded of a hired hand we used to have on our farm when I was young. He was a super hick, hi11bi11y through and through. One day there were threatening clouds in the sky. It was obviously going to rain like a mofo. The hired hand said, in his hick Arkansas accent, "It's gonna come a turd-floater."

I suppose we've been having "turd-floaters" here. I glanced at the papers this morning, and apparently there was a huge downpour and flood somewhere in India, and 40 sleeping laborers were swept away during the night. Monsoons are pretty deadly round these here parts.

Everybody plays along!
Hipster Bingo

Hmm. How hip are you? Friends, how hip are we? I think, together, we can get a BINGO on the second horizontal line. Wait, does anyone have a white-boy afro?

(via Gawker)

I would check out, too
Another nasty story from the news.

Body found under mattress in hotel room

I'm never staying at the Capri Motel in Kansas City. Apparently a guest complained for three days about a nasty odor in the room. Management's answer to his complaints: sorry, nothing can be done about the smell. The guest finally checked out because of the stench. While cleaning the room, housekeeping found a decomposing body hidden under the mattress.

Yes, he'd been sleeping on top of it. Pretty freaking gross.

(via Snopes' daily news feature)

Cultural differences
When some of the team left on Sunday to go back to the states, I inherited a lot of uneaten American food. One of the items was a bag of Act II microwave popcorn (and not even the low-fat kind!). So I took it in to work today, since there is nowhere to pop it in the hotel. I took it back to the little cafe and asked if I could use the microwave. Now, microwaves are not that common in India, and the guys in the cafe treat it as a delicate piece of equipment. So finally someone told me I could use it, and I put it in to pop. After about two and a half minutes, it started popping, as microwave popcorn does. The little guy that mans the microwave got all scared looking. I guess he thought the microwave was self-destructing or something, because he turned it off at the outlet!!! I said "No no no! Turn it back on! It's popcorn! It pops!" I think I scared him. Everyone in the cafe got kind of quiet, then laughed a bit. I got them to turn the microwave back on, and I let it pop for a while. A several of the cafe workers gathered to watch the mysterious inflating, popping bag.

It came out a little tough, but you can't beat microwave popcorn and a coke.

Local news
Encephalitis kills 110 children in India


For weeks, the local papers here, which are delivered to my room every morning, have been talking about a "mystery fever" that is killing people. I'm in the state of Andhra Pradesh, which is also the state where this fever has been wiping out kids. They're thinking it's probably Japanese Encephalitis. Now, when I went to the Austin Diagnostic Clinic's travel center to get my vaccinations for India, I was offered the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine but was told that it was probably unnecessary. Hyderabad is dry enough that we don't get many mosquitos (comparatively), and there isn't too much of the disease here. So I didn't get the vaccine. But, as detailed in the article above, the rains have been particularly strong this year, and I have been being eaten alive by mosquitos.

Needless to say, I'm not too happy about being here in the midst of the outbreak, especially since there's really no way to cure it. Even though it seems to be only afflicting children, I don't really like taking the risk. If it continues to get worse, I might think about asking to come home.

One more bit of news
Flaming Lips Triumph at T in the Park

So, Jack White gets in a car wreck and breaks a finger. The White Stripes are forced to cancel their headlining spot at Scotland's T in the Park festival. Our heroes, The Flaming Lips, agree to cover for them.

They then give the show of a lifetime, with guest appearances by Super Furry Animals!

"On a stage crowded with dancing animals and a giant sun all robed in the White Stripes traditional red/white get up they opened with a driven, dirty version of 'Seven Nation Army'. Confetti and balloons rained down. Other highlights included their tribute to Jack, 'Thankyou Jack White For The Fibre Optic Jesus That You Gave Me' and a version of 'Happy Birthday' with Super Furry Animals and REM's Peter Buck for Jack White."

Read the full story in NME... just click on the link above.

Mmmm, tasty!
Man cuts off penis, eats it

Next time your hallucinogenic drugs tell you to cut off and eat part of your own body, don't listen.

(Link via Victor, my source for important world news.)

Super Furry Animals - new album coming soon
Watch cute animated advert here

If you don't love the Super Furries yet, you should.

Top Ten Reasons to Love Super Furry Animals:

10. Gruff Rhys has the best smile in rock and roll.
09. Their album Mwng is on my Top Ten Albums of All Time list. And it's in Welsh.
08. Pete Fowler does the majority of their artwork.
07. "Citizen's Band" on Guerilla is accessible only by rewinding your CD from the beginning. And it's about CB radios.
06. Soy super bien!
05. "Arnofio/Glô In The Dark"
04. "Marie Curie was Polish born but French bred... Ha! French bread!"
03. Hand painted guitars.
02. Gruff Rhys once baked me a loaf of bread.
01. Victor and I made him cookies in return. I think we may have scared him.

So pardon the promotion, but I really think you should be as excited about the forthcoming album as I am.

Itch, itch, itch, itch!!!!!
The mosquitos in India are pretty freaking potent. Hyderabad isn't usually overrun with mosquitos like some parts of India, but they're pretty bad right now. I think it's all the rain. There are usually never mosquitos in the hotel, but I see them in there now. And in all of the restaurants. I went out for dinner Saturday night to a nice, pricey restaurant (pricey by Indian standards... I think my bill was about $12). I wore a skirt... big mistake. There are huge mosquito bites all over my legs... probably about ten bites in all. They have made really swollen welts, and they itch like crazy. I'm trying to be a good girl and not scratch too much... I did put hydrocortisone on but it's not really working anymore.

Another girl over here from home also got bitten Saturday night. She was at an outdoor restaurant... in a skirt. She must have about thirty or forty bites on each of her lower calves. They just look like huge rashes. I feel so bad for her. The mosquitos weren't like this the last time we were here.

There are also some people here from our facility in Ireland. They're training people to take customer calls from Ireland and the UK. I got to meet some of them Saturday night at the hotel. One of the girls was covered in bites as well. Come on, mosquitos, leave us alone!!! And yes, I'm faithfully taking my malaria prophylactic, Malarone, every day. It's not 100% guaranteed to prevent malaria, but it's worked so far.

What else did I do with my weekend? Bought some movies, watched some movies, went to a graduation party, went to a club. All mildly exciting, but everything pales in comparison with the horrific itching happening on my legs. Someone shoot me and put me out of my misery.

Blah weekend
It looks like it will be a fairly quiet weekend here for me. Here are my plans so far:

1. See what videos the hotel has to rent. I'm trying to ration out my DVDs, since I didn't bring that many. I brought my DVD player here... it plays all regions of DVDs plus video CDs. You can buy video CDs super cheap here. They're nowhere near as fun and exciting as DVDs, but hey, money talks.

2. Do a little shopping. I may go see what video CDs I can find... too bad I bought Dude, Where's My Car? last trip. I'm probably going to be shopping by myself, which will be kinda lonely, but at least I can do it this trip. Last time, we weren't supposed to go anywhere by ourselves, and that was annoying. I wouldn't feel comfortable going down to the old part of the city, but going to the more Westernized stores should be fine.

3. Cocktail reception at the hotel on Saturday night. Not sure about this one... free booze, but probably boring.

4. Brunch on Sunday. All-you-can-drink Fosters from 12-3... plus yummy breakfast stuff. The hotel does breakfast very well. I wish the other meals were as exciting.

5. Graduation party Sunday night. It's for our new class of reps. I don't know any of them, but I will know some of the management team that will be there. Gotta figure out what to wear... maybe I'll buy something!

6. Swim or gym or both.

Shout outs
It's nice to know that you can:

- work in India
- listen to radio in Seattle
- email a shout out to the station
- have them announce it to Mark and Victor in Texas, who are also listening.

Technology is grand.

4-H teaches life lessons, breaks bones.
More weird news:

4-H boys reportedly forced to fight

According to the article, counselors at a 4-H camp forced some of the campers to fight each other. They charged admission to the fights and placed bets on the campers. Apparently there was even hand breakage.

Now, is this any way to get rid of the organization's redneck stereotype? I was in 4-H for most of my youth, and while I did attend county fairs, watermelon seed spitting contests, and livestock judging contests, I did some great community service too. Even though it was often a pain in the ass, I am glad that I was a member, because I have some great memories.

Like the time I missed the New Kids on the Block concert for a heifer show.

(via Clunk)

But you're acting all upset, like you're the only one who's wet...
It rains a lot here. My previous trip, temperatures were over 100 degrees, dry and hot, and I did a lot of swimming/lounging at the pool. That explains the tan lines I was desperately trying to get eradicate before Kelly and Jeremy's wedding. But right now, it's the rainy season. Ever heard of monsoons? We're actually a little too far inland to get the full force of the monsoons, I think, but we do get a lot of rain right now. Which has really put a damper on my swimming. I guess I'm going to actually have to start going to the gym to get my exercise instead.

I guess the good thing about the rain is that it keeps the temperatures down. Oh, and it helps alleviate the horrific water shortage. One of the less pleasant aspects is the wet roads. If you've never been on the roads in India, this may not mean much to you. The people here drive like they are possessed by demons. Traffic rules? Who needs 'em! A two lane road may have five or six actual lanes of cars, autorickshaws, mopeds, and bikes, all zigzagging around each other, frequently crossing into oncoming traffic. Not to mention the random pedestrians all over the road. It's harrowing on a good day, but you get used to it. I'm not so fond of it when it's raining, though. I'm always expecting the car to go hydroplaning into other vehicles.

Know what happens when you get in a wreck here? An angry mob will descend upon the driver, sometimes beating him to death (especially if he has maimed or killed someone). We've been told to abandon ship and leg it if our driver gets into a crash. We don't want to get beaten/stoned too.

And I thought Victor had road rage.

More news from Arkansas
Lawyer charged with mailing deadly snake

An Arkansas lawyer and his son have been charged with mailing a copperhead snake through the US postal service. Apparently they wanted it to maim or kill the recipient. The snake survived the mailing only to be killed by police, after the recipient freaked out and called them.

News from Arkansas
Man wakes after 19 years in coma

"It seems as though time stopped for him after the wreck. Terry still believes Ronald Reagan is the president."

Yikes.

(via Salon)

Some comments about noise
I'm not sure if this morning was some sort of holiday or festival or what, but there was a big racket outside the ol' hotel window. It started probably around 4:30am and finally ended close to 6:00am. A of people were playing drums and some other sort of instrument. It reminded me at times of the Scottish pipe and drums thing. Anyway, I peered out the window but couldn't see them. That's right around my bedtime, so it was pretty annoying. I'll have to check the papers to see if I can figure out what it was.

On a different note, it's interesting how my attitude toward hearing airplanes has changed since Sept 11. I was nowhere near NYC or DC, and was never in any danger or whatever, so this has really no grounds whatsoever. But ever since then, the random sounds of planes has scared me a little. I used to love it - if I heard a plane I would always look up to try to see it. Ditto for helicopters (ok, I still get excited for helicopters). But now, the unexpected sound of a low plane makes me shiver a bit. It had subsided some until this recent war with Iraq. I was in India for most of it, and we were a little worried because we were away from home. I guess I started feeling weird around airplane noises then.

It happened again just a few minutes ago. I work in this huge, futuristic/menacing-looking building that houses several megacorporations. Every once in a great while, a jet will fly over us quite low. It always scares me. There are some small groups in India that aren't really fond of these foreign companies coming here... but really, I'm not in any danger at all. I'm just paranoid.

Excuse me, is that a torso in your windshield?
Man drives home with legless body of a pedestrian in his windshield

That's gotta be just a little traumatic.

(via Drudge Report)

Weak, but not giving in
OK, I'm feeling a little better and can now write more coherently about the weekend.

We left work at midnight on Friday (yay, 3 1/2 hours early!). My coworkers M., J., and I stayed up pretty late drinking beer in J.'s hotel room. The hotel bar closes at midnight, so we had to order beer from room service. There was much gossip about work and junk. I probably got up to my room about 4:30 or so, and called Victor. Drunken phone calls are the best.

Saturday, J. and I went shopping. He picked up some metal statues of Hindu gods for his brother, and some stuff for his house too. We went to a fabric store so that he could purchase some silk for his mom, but of course I ended up outspending him. First of all, the shop required that you take off your shoes before entering. That is no mean feat when there are two or three beggars trying to get a handout from you. Luckily there was a box for me to put my precious four-year-old Sauconys in... otherwise I would have been worried that they would walk away. The shop floor was covered with big cushions, and we sat on the floor while the attendants brought us fabric to see. I bought some pretty orangeish/reddish silk. I also bought some raw silk in light purple, burgandy, and silver. There was also a stack of sarees that had been brought out for someone else, and I looked through those. I bought a chocolate brown one with gold embroidery on it. All in all, I came out of the shop for only about $40. Not bad!

We also went to a bookstore. I didn't bring too many things to read, so I did a little bit of stocking up. Unfortunately, most of the books there are paperback, so I'm a little disappointed about that. But I bought Naomi Klein's No Logo (yeah I should have read it sooner than this), Bill Bryson's Made in America, and Mary Anne by Daphne Du Maurier, which is about her great-great-great grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke. I've almost finished reading it... since I've been sick the rest of the weekend.

Yes, folks, it's the dreaded "Delhi Belly," or whatever you would like to call it. I'm not sure what caused it, but I've been sick several times after eating at the Chinese restaurant at the hotel, so maybe it's that. I had Chinese for dinner Saturday night, and the trouble started soon after. I didn't really do anything yesterday, except go downstairs for 30 minutes to check my email and write yesterday's post. I did manage to watch three movies... Contact, which I liked, Sugar & Spice, which was pretty terrible, and Save the Last Dance, which I admit is a guilty pleasure.

So anyway, that was my first big weekend back in India. Exciting, huh? Oh yeah, the trip out of town that we had planned... well, we went to the Tourist Office Saturday to get tickets, and unfortunately, that particular trip is not running. We were going to go to a place with pretty waterfalls and take a boat ride... but that's hard to do when there's no water in the lake. Stupid drought!

Sad, depressed, out of sorts
The old as dirt 1998 laptop that my work so graciously provided for me has died. It won't recognize the hard drive. Now I will no longer be able to access the internet from my hotel room. Why a computer company would send their employee halfway across the world with one of their most obselete computers is beyond me. I can go down to the business center here at the hotel to access, but only during their business hours... uggh. How am I going to download my digital pictures? How can I ftp stuff to my site? I'm so mad and depressed. It's weird to think that something so small could make me monumentally sad, but here I am. A million miles away from home, cut off from communication.

My work doesn't allow me to access my "home" email, and it won't allow access to any instant messaging either. So both of those are out of the question. Unless we can do something about the laptop situation, it looks like it's business center for me. So any of you who have written to me at texas.net, please be patient. I can't answer as quickly as I'd like to.

In other news... we went shopping yesterday... I bought a saree and some silks. And some books. I'll post about them tomorrow, when I'm not so upset.

Beware, actual emotion contained within... and pizza
Happy Independence Day. I'm at work. There is no independence from The Man.

We administered a test today to the customer service reps. We're trying to determine who is the best of the bunch, so that we can make them "experts" in their field. I'm grading papers and so far the results are not as good as I would have wished... but then again, we made the test pretty hard.

So anyway, to celebrate, the manager here got us pizza. There is Pizza Hut in India, and a lot of it tastes pretty similar to what you would get in the states. They do, however, also offer Chicken Tandoori Pizza. There are always ads on TV for it, and I've been interested to try it. I'm working through my first piece of it, and it's growing on me. The first bite was pretty awful. At least it's not as spicy as I thought it might be. I'm pretty much a wimp when it comes to spicy stuff, and I can't eat a lot of the stuff here. For example, I ordered a veggie burger in the hotel yesterday. I could only eat one bite of it because it was spicy as all hell. At least the french fries were good...

Does everyone have big weekend plans? Cookouts, parties, fireworks? I'm not really going to get any of that here. After work (we get off early today, around midnight!), some of the other Americans and I are going to order some beer from room service. There aren't many places that stay open late here, so room service is pretty much our only option tonight. Tomorrow we may go shopping, and then Sunday I think we are taking a short trip out of town. There is some place nearby that has pretty waterfalls, so we're going to try to go there.

I do feel jealous of my friends back home, who are spending this 4th with their families or friends, eating hotdogs and burgers, shooting off Roman candles, or just getting piss-faced drunk. Being around people that you love, who care about you in return, is so important. I really don't get much of that over here... so I'm lonely a lot, and have no one to share my witty/snide/immature/funny comments with. So this wee bloggie is a good outlet for that. But it can never replace being around those I love.

So, friends, family, Victor... I really do appreciate you. Have a happy, safe holiday. I miss you!

It was in English and I didn't understand
God bless Victor, who constantly fills my inbox with great links. To follow up on yesterday's Beckham post...

Hail Beckham ... and his toenails!

You simply can't make this stuff up:

"They are incredibly strong, healthy and, above all, thick... perhaps those toenails reveal part of the secret of his famous ability to bend the ball."

also, regarding Becks' new number, 23:

"The number 23 makes us look back towards a mythical sportsman... Michael Jordan"

Seriously, folks.

The alien in my head.
The last two days I have had a headache. A peircing, short pain that comes and goes. I get these every once in a while, in this certain spot in my head. Above that spot is a weird lumpy boney thing, which is commonly called "Mandy's Horn."

It's always been there, at least as long as I can remember. Sometimes I feel as though it moves a little bit, you know, shifts to a slightly different position. In high school, I kept getting the headaches and convinced my mom to have my head x-rayed. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong, and said that misshapen heads are normal.

I have a theory about where the lump came from. When I was very little, probably 3 or 4, I fell out of my parents' truck. We were on the highway, probably going about 40 mph or so. I didn't break anything, but I did get a huge bump on the head. Mom took me to the doctor's office to make sure I was ok, and they gave me a human-shaped ice pack to put on my bump. I thought the ice pack was really cool. It was melted by the time we got home. My dad made a valiant attempt to refill it with ice cubes and tape it back up. It didn't work very well, but it was a nice gesture.

Anyway, because I'm in a country where I really don't trust the medical system, I'm sure that this time the headache is really a brain tumor or aneurysm or something equally horrible. Either that, or the lump was an alien all along, and it's ready to be born by breaking out of my head.

Old Goldenballs
I'm not a big sports fan. Anyone that knows me can attest to that. But I do enjoy soccer, or football as it is more appropriately called. And I must say that I enjoy the media frenzy surrounding David Beckham. In fact, this morning when I couldn't sleep I watched a Sky News report regarding his recent trip to Madrid for a fitness exam. The exam was televised, for chrissakes. Ok, so I stayed up to watch the clip.

Victor sends me articles all the time on Becks, since he is amused by his fame and glory as well. Just today he sent me a thoroughly enjoyable Salon article (accompanied by a thoroughly enjoyable sans-shirt pic of Beckham). There were some key points that I hadn't heard yet, that Beckham has been portrayed as Buddha in Thailand and he and his family as Shiva, Parvati, and Ganesh by Indian painters in England. Point your browsers to:

Beckham, the virus

If you don't have a subscription to Salon, just get the silly free day pass.

What not to do at work.
There's not much to do at work these days. The call center is running itself, and I'm basically spending a lot of time trying to think up work to do. Other than listening to calls and writing down voice issues, I basically just answer a couple of questions every hour or so. Hmmmm. I've been thinking of a way to make a project to do over here or something. I feel guilty because I'm not furiously busy every moment of the day. Why do I have to have that kind of work ethic?

I've been perusing the web and stuff a lot. Every day I read music news on Pitchfork and NME, just so I can stay caught up on the latest gossip and new releases. Pitchfork is very pretentious and way out of line frequently, but I enjoy getting angry at their columnists. They're pretty good at posting tour dates and whatnot.

This evening (I work nights, evening is morning to me), I read in Pitchfork that the Flaming Lips are having to pay Cat Stevens some royalties because their song "Fight Test" sounds like one of his songs. Apparently, godawful and now defunct Irish boy band Boyzone covered the Cat Stevens song not too long ago. I kind of remembered them doing it, but I couldn't remember how it sounded. So I went to catstevens.com, but the audio clips were all for Real Player, which I don't have at work. I tried to find it on the Boyzone site instead.

Here's a tip. Boyzone.com is not about the boy band. It's a gay porn site. I have just discovered this. At work. Balls and junk all over my screen. Oops.

P.S. I gave up after that.