Thanksgiving and Henry James

It's Thanksgiving Day today in the USA. This is the day people remember the things they are thanksful for. What are the things I am thankful for? Well, that will make a very long list, but let me stick to the past year or so.

1) A new career; rather the beginning of one. To say that I was bored and frustrated with my corporate job would be a gross understatement. Moving from the IT scene to research in biomedical engineering...bliss! The fact that I made this move right before the market crash everywhere didn't hurt either.

2) Friends, old and new, older and younger...all of them, some who I have not even met yet. My teachers, my lab partners, my neighbours, my roommates and my colleagues. And Frodo. They are my support system.

3) Books, books, and lots more of books. Library sales, thrift stores, abebooks.com and different other online book sellers. Henry James, Herodotus and Daphne du Maurrier. Saki. I don't know how I would live without them.

4) My sanity. And that of the people around me, and generally everywhere. I am thankful that we've not yet had a nuclear war, and that we are finally waking up to the global issues of discrimination, exploitation and negligence, however slowly the process may be. I am happy Sarah Palin is not in any powerful post currently. I am happy India and Pakistan have not started another war yet.

5) My family. My parents and my elder brother. I am thankful that I have these three wonderful people in my life. I am happy that they are people whom I would have respected and honoured even if they were not my family, and that they are.

Nilanjana...

I can't stop listening to this song for some reason. Mostly because it defines to me how bengali as a language has evolved from the ornate to the simple and still has maintained its imagery and its beautiful, oh so beautiful, poetry.

Also, this song sings about adolescent first love like no other song that I've heard, does.

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Funny thing I saw today

This is an ad for Abercrombie & Fitch.

Yes, a prepped up plastic pretty boy with impeccable hair is indeed the epitome of 'fierce'. (I'd have used the noun form, but it's 'fierceness', and sounds rather lame. English does need to be revamped!)

Oh, and Arthur Conan Doyle, seriously? Somebody really got paid for this ad!

Even olde english can carry trash only so far!

Its been one of those days.

My mouse bone cells have been contaminated by fungi.

My fingernail partially split while i was lacing my boots.

I missed my statistics class so i could complete my homework.

My nanoparticles are micron size in diameter.

My mice refuse to have sex, well...at least they refuse to breed.

I had a hamburger for lunch. Yes, i know i should watch what i eat.

My labmate's newly wed wife is waging a facebook war on me.

A mouse we had anaesthetized woke up in the middle of a surgery.

I scored below the class average in the statistics midterm exam.

I got 5 different emails from naukri.com based on a 4 year old resume. (Do they never upgrade?)

Some kid in urging the PM in India to join all the major rivers so as to fight draught.

I am out of milk, eggs, oats, cereals, shrimp and honey.

I am so utterly jobless right now that i am whining on my blog.

Betty will be pissed :D

my mood is gradually improving at the thought of that; and at the thought of this song. There's a context here that i am not going to divulge...at least not yet.