Snarly Weekend

This weekend was great. We had a grand old time even though we didn't go anywhere. Bangalore still has some good times left in it for us. It went a little something like this...

• Wednesday: Bollywood Night - On Wednesday we went out to a club called Zero G for Bollywood night. Bollywood night is great. They take the already awesome Bollywood movie music and spice it up with a little techno beat. It is awesome, and it's always packed, or at least it has been the twice that I have gone before but, you know, I am extrapolating.
• Saturday: Bangalore Expatriot Club - Saturday night found my friends and me at Park Hotel on fabulous M.G. road, for the Bangalore Expatriot Club's Hollywood meets Bollywood night. The idea behind the club is that it's a way for all these foreigners in Bangalore to meet one another, and have a good time (but don't worry, there are plenty of locals who hang out as well). The idea behind the night was that people would dress up in Western or Indian-style fancy dress, and have a grand old time. There was dancing, food and merriment. Afterwards (and because everything stops are 11:30 around here) we rode a gaggle of rickshaws back to my apartment for a hang-out sesh. Good times.
• Sunday: RSE Lunch & Lalbaugh Park - On Sunday, the head of our research group invited us over to his house for lunch. The food was delicious, and we had a little X-Box fest while waiting for some of the other guests to arrive. Afterwards we went on a little walk around Lalbaugh Park, and even later to a restaurant he claimed had the best Dosa in the city. Not only was he totally 100% correct, but this restaurant was rediculous. There place was tiny, and there was no order whatsoever. Because there were no seats available at first, we had to go stand inside the place, right next to the customers who were eating their meals. There was no room, and the waiters had to push around all the waiting people so that they could serve the people sitting down. Then when a tabled opened up, we basically started sitting down right as they were getting up. (It happened again when we left; a guy was coming into my seat while I was trying to get out and blocking the only way for me to get out!) It was fun and hectic and pretty much was exactly what I was looking for.

That is all good sirs.

Bindi

Bindi
Originally uploaded by DixiePistols.

A few hangout pictures posted to Flickr. You'll get more enjoyment out of it if you're my flickr friend, but considering I am friends-locking this one too, you probably already know that...

Communique

To whom it may concern:

I have built up quite a collection of postcards, with zany phrases and and mumblings. They are filled out and ready to go, but they want for just one thing; your address! If you would like to receive an international communique, then please email me a mailing address where you can be reached.

Sincerely,
This Guy

Cochin, alias Kochi

Shutter
Originally uploaded by DixiePistols.

This weekend Pavol (another intern from Slovakia) and I went to Kochi. It was great, and a wonderful break from all the hard work I had put in (or was telling myself I was putting in) to get the paper out before the deadline. In the spirit of full disclosure, though, I must point out that my camera ran out of batteries within hours of my arrival, and therefore I have almost no pictures. Boo. It's my own fault too. Many times while walking around my room, I saw my battery charger, thought, "Man I wonder if my camera needs to be charged..." and did nothing.

Anywho, Kochi is on the west coast of India. It was used by the Portuguese as a trading post, and therefore has a heavy European and Christian influence. The architecture was great! The food was great! Weather, not so much... It felt a lot like Central America, or should I say Guatemala, since that is the only place in Central American I have actually been to. At the same time, there were parts that felt like Southeast Louisiana, the backwaters in particular. Here are the highlights in no particular order:

• Finding a roach in my bed on the train car... Just kidding. it really freaked me out, and I was jumpy for the rest of the night.
• Fish! Seafood! I ate some bomb coconut curry fish and some shrimp in the "Kerala style."
• When a group of riskshaw drivers were suggesting places where they could take us, one of them yelling "a barber shop," and putting rubbing in hand on his beard area. Yes folks, my facial hair situation is getting pretty dire!
• The backwater cruise. Although if it were any longer, it would have ceased to be fun.
• Some seriously reckless passing on a bunch of tiny two-lane roads by a host of hired drivers.

Uh, yeah that's about it. Only two weekends left folks. Where will I go? Only time will tell!

The Grapes of Wrath

I finally finished reading "The Grapes of Wrath." It took a little longer than I would have liked because my reading time was rudely stolen by this project I was working on. I had never read it before. Maybe that tells you something about the quality of my high school, but I doubt it. Anyway, I loved it, but man is that ending sad...

NOLA Street Photog

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Originally uploaded by InspectorOyster.

Found a sweet collection of New Orleans street photography. Definitely worth checking out. I hadn't seen anything in this style done in New Orleans before.

Euphemisms

Here are two new euphemisms that I am trying to spread around. (Actually, one is a euphemism but the other is more like a catch-phrase.) Try to work them into your daily routines.

1. You had me at Hello World - This is a phrase used to complement a programming language that you like. It is an allusion both to the concept of writing a "Hello World' program in a new language and a line from the movie Jerry Macguire.
2. Applying for Dual Citizenship - This one is a bit more obscure. It refers to the act of, in a foreign country where an alternative means of bathroom sanitation is used (e.g., France's bidet or India's hose), utilzing both your home country's and the foreign country's means of sanitation. The logic goes something like, "well maybe their way of doing it is actually much better, but to be on the safe side I better also go with what I know works."

Do I see these phrases taking off? Not really. But I do feel the need to put my stamp on them, just in case the some day come to rule the world.