Category Archives: Random

Bun in the Oven

It has been eons since I last posted, but I have some good news. I am preggers — 23 weeks preggers. And the little dude inside me is currently kicking and moving around. I think he may be a dancer.

Sujal and I are both very excited. Perhaps soon I can post some preggie photos.

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Indian National Anthem

This is too cute to pass up! My nephew sings the Indian National Anthem:

Check it out. He’s pretty darn good!

What the Hell??!!!

What the hell is wrong with people? If President Bush wanted to address kids, people would have at least been respectful enough not to forbid their children from hearing the address. This article in the NY Times is unbelievable. I’m almost a little sad the the Times is helping to spread the word.

The Village is a nonprofit organization that serves the Hartford area. I have worked with them when doing community service with my students. Corporate sponsorship is down this year, which is affecting their Backpack Program, which provides Hartford youth in need with backpacks for school, full of notebooks, pens, paper, etc. Please consider donating.

Backpack Program Flyer

Click the above link for a flyer with information.

A Guest Post from my Nephew Evan

My aunt and I went to the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is very beautiful, but I did not go inside it. It is made of gold. I actually did not like it. It was very hot, and I was thirsty.

Have a Cold, Will Travel?

I’ve had a really nasty cold all week. I have also spent three solid days (and nights to some degree) with relatives on Sujal’s side. I have been very busy. Yesterday They took me to the Taj Mahal, more on that later (sadly, I forgot my Wyvern Nation t-shirt. Sujal’s aunts and uncles have been very welcoming, which I fully appreciate. Communicating can be a little tricky at times, but we are doing our best. Photos and stories to come…

Wagah Border

While in Amritsar, we went to the Wagah Border, which is the border between Pakistan and India. Each evening, they do a ceremony to close the border. You can see it on You Tube.

Cheektowagan Spotted ‘Splosion

Wordsplosion, that is. While Sujal and I were in Buffalo, I spotted this McDonald’s sign with “sandwich” spelled incorrectly. The funny thing is, we were so focused on the misspelling of “sandwich” that we missed “breakast.”

This one is also flippin’ hilarious.

The Wire

This is a post I wrote over the summer but somehow misfiled.  Since then, Sujal and I saw David Simon, the creator of The Wire speak at The Connecticut Forum.

form 6/22/08

The past few weeks, Sujal has gotten me hooked on the HBO show The Wire. It’s a pretty gritty show set in Baltimore, and it follows several police and various police “targets.” It’s pretty addictive. One of the things that drives me a little nuts is that there is so much product placement. Being that the show focuses mainly on cops, you can imagine there is a lot of coffee drinking, and there are no shortage of front and center Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cups. Once they showed a junkie eating McDonald’s food, again, name prominently displayed. The cops are often drinking — the show must have contracts with Jameson and with Miller Lite.

I just started watching season four, and a kid buys a nail gun (for all the “wrong” reasons, I might add) in a large home improvement store. But Home Depot seemed unwilling to give the okay (or perhaps the cash), because the storefront had a very similar style sign — same colors — called Housewares Barn.

The show has some great character development as well as good storytelling.

California’s Proposition 8

While I know this is not a new viewpoint, I just can’t help but see proposition 8 and laws banning gay marriage as akin to anti-miscegenation laws. And as a “miscegenator,” I deeply empathize with those disallowed to marry. In 1924 in Virginia, a “Racial Integrity Act” was passed, outlawing marriage between anyone white and non-white. Who could find fault with a law that claims it has “integrity”? If you name an intolerant law a “family” law, it does not make it innocuous.

If we go down that road, or the road of banning gay marriage, both of which seem to have arguments based in religion, shouldn’t we then outlaw marriages between two people of differing religions? And then once we do that, shouldn’t we just outlaw all religions but the one true religion? Oh — look, religious fighting and religious intolerance. Isn’t that what we complain about our enemies — they are so intolerant. Why can’t they just get along?

This article by Paggy Bascoe explains the link well.