Musings From New York

Vegetarianism and The Circle of Life

There was a bit of a outrage in the UK recently when Mars Bars went non-veggie ... specifically, they were going to have a bit of animal enzyme, rennet. The Vegetarianism Societies called on the public to protest, which they did (all 6,000 of them! Gosh isn't that a large number of people who won't buy Mars bars?) such that Mars apologized and pulled the plug on these new plans.

Now, I have nothing against vegetarianism ... people have the right to choose what they will, or will not, eat. One cannot expect a vegetarian to tuck into a bloody steak. But to protest a chemical found in an animal (and this isn't an isolated case - I know people who refuse to buy products because it'd contain traces of animal gelatin) ... this seems a little silly to me.

Cast your mind back to a fortune-reviving, animated production by Disney that gave us smelly warthogs, smart talking loner meekrats, an exciting soundtrack ... and the "Circle of Life". Simple philosophy on the surface, really - everything is connected.

So ... cow crap is used to grow plants ... ergo, plants can contain traces of that cow (and BTW, this is sometimes how diseases and evolutionary mutations can sometimes spread). Does that mean we swear off plants grown in the field, grown from manure usage? Let's all rely purely on pharma-fed produce!

Can anyone offer a rational explanation of this seemingly-ridiculous eccentricity vegetarians sometimes exhibit?

This is not about me, I swear.

I was in Kansas City the whole time.

Honest.

Achtung!

Friday is a holy day.

A Nonsensical Poem

I started this year
Enjoying better prospect
I modestly passed five fat calves
Then the farmer arrived
With three thin calves
I wait for them to become fat again

Edit: Changed "cows" to "calves"

Oh ... My ... Freaking .. God!!

It's only the sequel to one of the greatest RTS games EVER!!

Transformers!

The Lady embarked on a near-impossible quest this weekend - dressing me up to her level of fashion. This, of course, means I have to abandon my well-honed "I'm A Slob" wardrobe line that's been in use for the last 4 or 5 years.

Yesterday afternoon was an instructive 2 hours at Macy's, learning how to dress "sexy". I got to say, at the end of it all, I do look a whole lot better (ignore the bad angles and the weird looks on my face ... I always tend to blink when the flash goes off ... does anyone have any tips on how to avoid that??)

I spent a good hour this afternoon tossing out a lot of old clothes that I never wear anymore. I can't wait for the next lesson in fashion sense.

And yes Vee, I know ... "frou frou" :-)

By the way, those photos were taken at the Amsterdam Theater on 42nd and Broadway. The Lady and I went to see Mary Poppins. Excellent show - good production, FX, lively and funny cast members ... good family fun all round. If you're in New York, you must put this on the list of things to do. I didn't think I'd remember quite so many songs, but such iconic songs tend to bubble up from the buried depths of one's soul.

The Agony and the Ecstacy

(No this isn't the title of some cheesy XX flick)

As some of you readers may be aware, the Lady lives about 200 miles away, in Boston. Due to professional and personal commitments, the earliest we can look to moving in together is about February 2008. This means that the only time we get to spend together is the weekend, and we've been fairly regular in doing so over the last 4 or 5 months. We try to alternate the visits to New York and Boston, and because of some allowed flexibility from my work travel, I sometimes get to spend Fridays in Boston as well.

Because of this compressed window of ... er, let's say "opportunity", we usually plan our activities ahead of time, mix chilling with going out ... watch movies, shop, go out to restaurants, bars, clubs (albeit not much of the latter has happened in a while). The whole mentality is based around having as much fun as we can in the short amount of time.

But when you get right down to it, all we get is one evening together - Saturday evening. Flying on Fridays and Sundays means that we see each other for a very late dinner (on Friday) or part ways in the afternoon (Sundays). This has really started to get me down ... it almost feels like I'm missing her even before we meet.

Yeah, I'm weird. Deal with it.

Now, for those skeptics out there who say "Well, Axe, you're a consultant. What did you expect?", I would like to point out that after the wedding and the whole moving in thing, we'd have Thursday night- Sunday night/ Monday morning together, which is ... well, almost double what we get to spend now. Not to mention the fact that if I can get onto a local project, there's no travel, and hence we'd be together every night.

Still, that's about 8 or 9 months away. Not too long, if you think about it. But it's a lifetime in the blink of an eye.

I'm not looking for sympathy or such ... this is just something I felt like writing about.

Ah, Nostaliga

Writing about Iron Maiden sent my train of thought down a new set of tracks, towards a very happy memory from ... hmm, must've been my second year in Pilani.

Prashanth (Metal) and I had just had a rock-out Iron Maiden session, and we decided to "write" an Iron Maiden song. This from two guys who had no musical experience or education ... but what the heck, right? That's what real fandom is about! For whatever reason - perhaps mostly since Maiden wrote a lot about historical figures and events - we chose to base our song on the Luftwaffe bombing of London, and titled the song, Blitzkreig.

We tore out a clean sheet of paper from a notebook, and placed a pen next to it ... and for the next ten minutes looked at it and each other ... blankly (pun intended). Then, seized by a fit of inspiration, we grabbed the pen, leaned forward, and carefully wrote ... "Bruce Dickinson screams".

We then high-fived each other, and knocked off to the All Night Cafeteria for chai and samosas.

Ah, the good old days.

Not Just Cinquo de Mayo

Last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. Why I have not heard of this before, I do not know. As a matter of fact, I learnt about it through the New York Times (an article about comics in the NYTimes! How could I *not* click on that link?). As I was in Boston at the time, the Lady took me to a small New England Comics store off Commonwealth Ave (that area happened to be Boston University, her alma mater, and I got a bit of the nostalgic tour too, so it's all good).

Prior to this visit to a comic book store, I'd sourced my comics in graphic novel format (i.e.: collections of comic books covering a story arc forming a complete read without having to flip through multiple books) ... and mainly from stores such as Borders or Barnes & Noble. I'd visited Manhattan Comics a few times, but hadn't really spent much time browsing through there ... not really sure why the store never appealed to me. When I visited the store, I finally understood the importance of the local comic book store. To be able to converse with a knowledgeable comic book lover, I was quickly guided to titles I might find interesting ... Hellblazer, The Goon, and The Sandman (shamefully, I have not yet read The Sandman). I ended up buying quite a bit that day (most comics were on sale for the occasion) ... a couple of issues of Futurama, "The Sandman Vol. 1", and "Hellboy - Seed of Destruction". I also picked up a couple of free comics - titles that I'd never heard of

The Lady chose to continue her nostalgia trip by picking up a couple of Archie Digests. Most readers here are well into adulthood, so I'll pose this question to you - how long has it been since you settled back in your favorite chair/ recliner/ pillow-pile, and read an Archie?

Exactly.

On the subject ... of late, I've become a HUGE fan of Hellboy, most likely as it bases its stories in mythology and folklore, two boyhood fascinations of mine. As a result, the plots do not have to stretch themselves to seem ... for want of a better word, plausible. I mean, have you read a JLA comic book lately? Most JLA I've read in the last few years are too crap to even bear mentioning. And Hellboy isn't as dark, bleak, or ... angry, as Spawn or Batman. It's actually quite funny, in its own way.

Of Airports and Air Travel

Kansas City International Airport (MCI) is an interesting study of how to build an airport given virtually unlimited space (let's face it, another acre of corn isn't going to make *that* much of difference to the world). I actually like the design that every 5 gates have their own twin set of X-Ray machines. This really keeps the lines short, and fast moving. Too many times have I faced near panic in La Guardia by being stuck in the 5th row of a conga line of disgruntled travelers trying to make it past 2 scanners to a flight leaving in 20 minutes.

The downside to all that space is that there really aren't too many restaurants or stores in the terminals, either before or after security, thus forcing the traveler to finish eating and drinking before passing through ... and remember, one can't carry liquids through now, so one hopes like heck there's a small booth selling water after one has refastened one's shoes, one's belt, and put one's laptop in one's laptop case, put on one's jacket, and generally wonder why the world is such a screwed up place.

On the subject of air travel, I must say that Midwest is a very comfortable airline. Leather upholstered, double-wide seats with plenty of leg room. That come with a premium price. a LGA-MCI return purchased two weeks in advance costs about $350. On the plus side, that comes with fresh baked cookies on flights after 10am, so it's all good.