August | 2006 | Procrastiblog

August 19, 2006

20:12 IST, 19 August 2006

Filed under: India — Chris @ 9:21 pm

There’s this project on Flickr to have lots of people submit photos they took at exactly 2:42pm GMT, 19 August 2006. At the appointed hour (as ajudged by my insanely accurate timepiece), Carolyn and I were stuck in traffic coming back from Koramangala. I’m not sure what the exact rules are wrt sub-minute accuracy and what-not, but I now have three candidate pictures for submission. Let’s take a vote!

The auto driver next to us (not our auto driver!), who thought we were two completely insane tourists:

Carloyn, centered and washed out by the flash, with a hint of another auto driver giving us the skunk eye:

Carolyn, off-kilter and trying to simultaneously take a picture of me:

Vote in comments.

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Day Report

Filed under: India — Chris @ 9:08 pm

Vijay invited us to visit his Dad’s business, which is AFAIK to train pilots, build specialty aircraft, and sell aviation novelties.
I didn’t even realize it was Vijay’s family business until we were already there and he said, “Do you want anything? Just take it.”

After a while I got bored and decided to just annoy Deb.

Later, we went to Cunningham Rd and had a disappointing meal.

What a day!

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High Quality Women

Filed under: Not Tech — Chris @ 10:10 am

This is classic. And more here. Via Becks.

May I suggest a conservative over-approximation for Ms. Mackey Paisley Passey that avoids the arrogance charge? “I do not accept romantic propositions that I receive from strangers via email or blog comments. Thanks but no thanks.” Wasn’t that easy?

[UPDATE 8/20/2006] As Ms. Wei points out in comments there’s more fun here. Executive summary: ugly people beat their girlfriends and poor people are immoral. You go girl!

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The Taj Mahal is Deviationist

Filed under: India — Chris @ 7:54 am

Sitting in front of the Taj Mahal (which, for my American readers, was built by the Muslim Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife, incorporates verses of the Qu’ran into its design, and has an on-site mosque), I remember asking Hilleary what Osama bin Laden would think of it. The pinnacle of Muslim civilization’s accomplishments or an impious despot’s folly?

She said she had no idea and that predicting Osama bin Laden’s thought patterns is not an activity that interests her.

I think this helps answer my question. (Although, it is not clear how legitimate this threat is or how well it ties in with the Islamo-whatsist world-view.)

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1 Bottle Whiskey == 0 Bottles Beer

Filed under: India — Chris @ 7:35 am

Gilbird just handed me a bill of Rs 120 for 2 bottles of beer. So they weren’t intended as repayment for the Jack Daniel’s.

I spoke with Lepakshi on the phone and asked why I had received the beer. He said I received it because I had asked for it. But I hadn’t. Gilbird says he was pulled away from his other work to go on an emergency beer run on my behalf.

This is all very strange, no? But I like beer. I even told Gilbird I am willing to pay for it (it’s a fair price and I am glad to drink it), but he refused to take the money. He wants to get to the bottom of this. Good luck, man! I give up!

[UPDATE 9/4/2006] I paid for the beer before I left (at least I tried to). And Gilbird quit.

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August 17, 2006

Liquid explosives

Filed under: Not Tech — Chris @ 7:40 pm

Not so easy to mix up. Via Kevin Drum.

Bonus happy talk about terrorism from John Rogers:

Who the hell am I supposed to be scared of? Joseph Padilla, dirty bomber who didn’t actually know how to build a bomb, had no allies or supplies, and against whom the government case is so weak they’re now shuffling him from court to court to avoid the public embarassment of a trial? The fuckwits who were going to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches? Richard Reid, the Zeppo of suicide bombers? The great Canadian plot that had organized over the internet, was penetrated by the Mounties on day one, and we were told had a TRUCK FULL OF EXPLOSIVES … which they had bought from the Mounties in a sting operation but hey let’s skip right over that. Or how about the “compound” of Christian cultists in Florida who were planning on blowing up the Sears Tower with … kung fu?

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John Mark Karr

Filed under: Not Tech — Chris @ 11:33 am

I have never been particularly interested in the the JonBenet Ramsey murder, partly because I just don’t get into this sort of tabloid-y stuff and partly because the whole gestalt was just so Ick-Ick-Icky. But the story of this guy who claims to have murdered her is just really interesting. The dude looks exactly like a child murderer is supposed to look. He says he was “with JonBenet when she died.” He was picked up in Thailand, to which he had traveled in order to quasi-legally fuck children.

This is a tabloid story, people. Not Kate and Chris. Get real!

[UPDATE] His wife says he was in Alabama. Could this face tell a lie?

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GWOT

Filed under: Politics — Chris @ 4:49 am

Josh Marshall flunks rhetoric, but captures my heart…

Is there anyone in the country who can say honestly, in their heart of hearts, that when that moment of fear hit them after the recent reports out of London, they said to themselves, “God, I’m glad we’re in Iraq”?

Anyone?

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August 16, 2006

Pity the poor mangosteen

Filed under: India — Chris @ 7:28 pm

Either (1) the mangosteens I bought the other day were not the best of the batch, (2) those damn ants got in there and ruined them, or (3) they don’t take well to refrigeration (although it stuns and/or kills the ants). Mangosteen, my exalted queen! Why have you forsaken me?