Shopping Woes...

So we finally have some money, and we can't seem to find anything to spend it on.

Inspired by my mom's recent success in wardrobe enhancement, I had Amit drive me over to the Atria Mall, where I glanced through the largely hideous and mostly overpriced foreign shops. The problem with anything foreign is that there's a very high (around 30%) luxury tax on imported goods. So not only are you paying the steep 100% retail markup, you're paying an extra 30% on top of that. Needless to say, I was not thrilled about paying upwards of $60 for a cheaply made pair of trousers of questionable material. And why oh why must everything be festooned with ruffly flounces and extra pockets and - worst of all in my book - enormous shiny buttons?? Whatever happened to the nice, classic, simple feminine silhouette?

Fortunately, these days, there are lots of lovely local designers coming out with well-made pieces in very nice fabrics. I stopped in a few of these stores instead and liked what I saw. Unfortunately for me, the clothes were large and small in all the wrong places for my shape. For instance, I assume that Indian girls are generally not as broad-shouldered as those of Northern European descent. And fashions today all completely hide the waistline - the one place I am actually lean. After a dozen strikeouts, I gave up.

Well, if you want something done right, maybe you do need to do it yourself. I am determined to find some nice fabrics, in pretty soft shades that will look nice on pigment-challenged girls, and have a tailor make something tailored for a feminine figure. As usual, I'm relying on Tanya to help me out!

Meanwhile, Amit, who desperately needs a new phone (the Motorola Razor, by the way, wasn't such a great buy to begin with) is wading unsuccessfully through the neck-deep swamp of the current cell phone market. After a week of visiting electronics stores and sorting through unlimited combinations of features and brands, he finally decided on a simple Nokia model. We figured at least we'd cross one badly needed shopping trip off our list. Sadly, they were sold out of everything except hot pink.

Just not our day, I guess!

so far so good...

Hey everyone.  thought i would update since i left things looking pretty grim.  well things have been a lot better as of late.  i've managed to hang out with a few friends who have been a big support and encouragement.  thanks for the prayers.  it's nice to have friends you can identify with and who are in need of the same fellowship.  

i think what really pushed me into the positive side of things is a meeting i had with gitesh late last night over some beers.  we talked about the projects we had lined up and the projects we had finished this year.  i don't know much about the numbers but these last few months have been very profitable - not so profitable that we can throw parties but enough to give us breathing room and an on-time paycheck.  gitesh has said many times that he feels guilty we are so underpaid but he sometimes goes home with less money than we do.  i remember the projects we worked on when i started almost a year ago.  we were doing corporate a/v's, which are shown at conferences and what-not, that were motivational in nature. they involved splicing together movie clips.  our other major client was a motivational speaker whom i have talked about for crediting himself with the quote "Freedom is never free." having seen a similar quote with my own eyes engraved on the Vietnam Vets Memorial i question whatever credentials he thinks entitle him to that trademark.  he really took advantage of gitesh.  but i digress.  that's what killed my appetite for editing and pushed me into motion-graphics and other technical roles (such as turning pc's into macs).  since the end of last year we have done a website, documentaries, a few minor a/v's, and some tv commericals that the client liked so much they have given us the deal for 4 more.  our client list includes samsung, hero honda, and icici bank and other major companies that most of you won't recognize.  all this to say that our reputation has grown tremendously.  

i hadn't really sat back and looked at what we've accomplished because i see overworked, understaffed tension.  the projects have been much more interesting and fun as of late and it's been motivating.  but last night, after listening to gitesh wheel-n-deal with a prospective client, i realized that we are no longer an unknown studio competing for the scraps but are actually able to command double what other studios charge because "we know [they] will be satisfied and will come back to us for more work" as gitesh told the prospect over the phone.

i'm glad to see him finally gaining the confidence that i told him he should have had way back when.  it will be better for all of us.

my confidence has been growing as well.  i've managed to get a few clients out of scrapes with no time to allow for mistakes.  it's pretty cool that i'm one of the big reasons samsung has been sending us projects on a regular basis and having us do shoots for them.  i don't have the satisfaction of hearing praise from them directly but gitesh hears it.  i also made a pitch to do a website for an alcohol brand.  what the client was asking for seemed odd but i made a proposal nevertheless.  i came up with the features, etc.  gitesh didn't like it but used it anyway.  client loved it and chose us over 8 other studios.  i think i can credit my knowledge of formal english because it is a huge advantage in conveying ideas clearly.

we also discussed projects that we are pitching for and several of them involve shooting outside india including one for a client we have done a lot of work for that is in south africa.  that one is a long-shot but a year ago the work we are doing now were long-shots.  gitesh likes to use the car-washing illustration (adapted).  you want your neighbor's mint-condition 57 t-bird.  he asks you to wash it and you wash it and if you do that well enough then maybe he'll let you drive it and if you take good care when driving it then maybe he'll let you borrow it and if you take good care when you borrow it he may never ask for it back. =)  anyhow, last night was about as encouraging as could be and i have renewed motivation.  we are still spending most of our time staring at walls and screens but the way things are going, it's going to be a really good year.  now if we can only find more people to work for us.  we have a lot more work ahead but i know that things are only going to get more interesting.  other than gitesh, i've been working here the longest.  i'll make sure to bug him about the grimy fingernails so he doesn't forget next time.  okay gotta run.  mom, if you know of any resources i could use for making a business plan i would appreciate it.  we're gonna need one pretty soon.  love to you all.  thanks for the prayers.

btw - is this blog public or do you have to have an account?  it doesn't look like you need one but i can't tell.  later.

Spa Day

...with the kitties.  At last!  As always, we go in a certain order.  Pekuah is first and complains the loudest.  Anyone walking by the house would call the SPCA for sure thinking there is a cat who, at the very least, is being skinned alive.  But her misery is over the fastest.  And as soon as she is mostly dry, has had her allergy shot and flea drops, I open the bathroom door she is gone in a flash - to remain out of sight until the next filling of the food bowls.

Next is Eliza.  Her evil eye says she knows I hate her and she hates me back.  She doesn't complain much, but she's strong and is the only one who comes close to pushing open the shower door.  At least she only bites me once. That's par for the course.  One bath, one bite.  After leaving the bathroom, she hangs around because she wants to see another suffer also.

The Shah.  By this time he is under the bed.  (I have had the foresight to catch them all in the bedroom before I start.)  He hisses threateningly - even realistically - as I spot him.  Unfortunately, he is sitting on the lid of a large storage box.  Just right for sliding him out like a drawer!!  Caught.  He hisses again, but with no conviction at all.  Then he tries to talk me out of it.  "There must be some mistake," his eyes say,  "You love me.  Everybody loves me.  This can't be happening to me."  In the shower he is the quietest of all.  That's because he's concentrating all his energies on putting a strangle-hold around my neck.  We have to "discuss" that a couple of times before he gives up.  Add one set of scratch marks on my torso.  But he didn't mean it and he's a good boy for the soapin' and scrubbin' and rinsin'.  

Once he gets out of the shower he doesn't try to get out of the bathroom.  I think it's because he's embarrassed for the others to see him without his majestic fluff.  Even if it were warm I wouldn't let him out without a blow dry.  He'd be rubbing recently freed winter cat fluff all over my everywhere.  Better to contain the stuff in the bathroom, so for the next hour, no exaggeration, we go to with brush and dryer.  At first he is very patient.  I am working under his chin and on his jowls and chest and he just loves that.  He sits patiently with his nose pointed to the ceiling while I work and tell him how handsome he is.  He loves that part, too.  But as we move on to everything else he starts to give little mews now and then.  I finally realize I have stopped telling him how beautimous he is.  As soon as I start again, he is happy to let me work on until I think there's more cat hair in the trash than on the cat.  But at last, he is ready to be admired.  As he strolls out the door, majestic fluff and all, there is Eliza, as usual, waiting to make sure he is OK and then batting him on the leg to let him know not everyone lives to admire him.

All of us are happily exhausted by this point.  Pekuah comes later to make friends again.  Eliza - well - she suffers my attentions, as long as they are short lived.  And Gyu, with one last hiss to let me know how privileged I am to have him to admire, strolls off with Eliza to find a spot of sunshine. 

A matter of doctrinal import...

Anybody else wish that certain passages of the Bible were a little less obscure?

Luke 17

34I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left."

37"Where, Lord?" they asked.
He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather."

Say what??

I bet one of us knows what that's all about, right?

(By the way, in case you were wondering about verse 36, some manuscripts include a verse 36 as follows: "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.")

what is this Brown Blog biz?

so i will write a post to put something there.  really stressed right now.  email, calls n facebook posts would be great.  super busy at work so can't write much.  working over 70 hours a week.  often sleep at the office.  the company is combining with another web development company which will effectively double our size but right now we are at least 2 men understaffed which is a lot to 5 people.  finding any sort of talent seems to be near impossible.  i've only seen one resumé in hundreds that actually looks like a professional resumé.  the last guy who came in gave me a double-folded resumé and i was about to tell him to leave and stop wasting our time and his. he should go back to whatever sorry excuse for a school he went to and demand his money back.  yeah, most of these people couldn't get a job at mcdonalds and i feel bad for them because it's not their fault. we need 5 new employees and we are finding none.  the demand is pretty huge i guess. and the talent is mostly in bombay. i would really like to move to bombay and be with anna and amit although that (and a better film environment) are probably the only things i would like about the place. being a guy, i don't have to deal with ogling but i get stared at all the same. 

work is interesting enough and it's a good distraction. i suppose the opportunity to learn is the thing i enjoy the most. i directed my first shoot last week. just an interview for a corp training vid but it was fun all the same. nothing like the discipline of amit's shoots. my biggest contribution was coaching and looking for minor detail issues. the crew had no concept of this and had i not been there the "talent" would have looked and sounded as bored as they probably were. what can you do? i was capturing (transferring footage from tape to computer) one of gitesh's samsung shoots. they were doing close-ups of product-in-hand and the "actors" had a lot of grime under the fingernails which contrasted heavily with the brand-new sleek, shiny phones.  clean hands were clearly not a priority.  i wonder how this stuff can be overlooked but i guess it's all the same and most people won't notice.

gitesh is an amazing editor and visual story-teller but he makes priorities for some things and no priorities for others.  i noticed this from the beginning. another instance is improper use of the english language. he butchers it in his scripts with lines like "we are above the epitome of greatness" which i guess sounds good to him but makes me shake my head. he's been letting me do more writing and it has been for the best. however, a lot of my ideas are over the heads of the general public. i wrote one that made reference to einstein's theory of relativity and although i crafted an explanation and the client applauded the concept, he told me that most people wouldn't understand who einstein was. it bugs me to have a broader (or at least more international) concept of things that work well and an audience that doesn't understands them. gitesh is very much an indian and he has no desire to broaden his world-view other than through movies, which is a horrible medium to be solely relied upon for multi-cultural awareness. the effect of american cinema on his creativity seems limited. i imagine that he spends his time analyzing the technical qualities of a film as amit does. anyhow, i have a hard time finding an appreciative audience and i feel like maybe i'm cassandra's secret brother or something.

i enjoy writing whenever i can.  i was only going to contribute a few sentences and look what happened. consider this a much needed outlet for creative expression. this week i've written a poem, a song for a friend - lyrics and all, and a gangsta rap about the struggle for sanity. it is an appropriate and satisfying form for that subject. i actually wrote another song in español but i woke up the next morning to find the song gone from memory and a half of the scotch gone from the bottle. let that be a lesson to me. my two big literary inspirations are the book of job and u2. i've enjoyed the way the agony flows from the pages and it's a reminder to keep things in perspective. i imagine lyricism brought job comfort and sanity as well. as for bono, a lot of his songs have become eerily relevant and what i originally dismissed as existential for the sake of existentialism became a lightbulb glowing inconspicuously over a bed, upon which lies human nature.  i have to cite anna for the "human nature" concept. "who's gonna ride your wild horses," a song that i dismissed for the last 13 years because i didn't really appreciate the melody or lyrics, has become singularly enlightening:

you're dangerous cause you're honest

you're dangerous.  you don't know what you want...

it's like that verse in the Bible you read a thousand times in your life and never notice until an experience brings it to life, not in the sense that it has become true but in the sense that it was true all along and the lightbulb finally clicks on...and you are no longer lost. the fact that this has happened so much since i got back from the US must mean that i am very lost.

well someday i will trade my deepest, darkest thoughts to you all for one-too-many glasses of wine but for now this is all i can say. i'm sure anna is more inclined to tell you about what this place does to people since she doesn't have to deal with it but i think i've said all i want to say. sorry this is so long. i forgot about the blog but now i have found a useful outlet for expressing my thoughts and feelings to the people i trust and love the most. i feel muuuch better. if you are afraid i will turn to alcohol rest assured that i don't have that luxury because i work too much, nor do i have any desire to, nor do they make a drink strong enough for this place. i've been spared from many vices in life because they are just too inconvenient or too expensive or because i have too much pride (which is a vice, i know). substantive contributions to the lives of those i hold dear is all i really need...and a Bible and a guitar...and prayer, lots of prayer. God is good and has been sending supportive people my way, but i could count the number of people i call real friends on one hand. i know that things will be much clearer in the not-to-distant future. i'm starving so i'm gonna blow. i'll read the blog when i get a chance. i don't know how much i'll be able to contribute since work is the only place i have internet access and i don't like spending more time staring at walls and computers than i have to.  but i'll do my best.  love you guys.

A Nice Day!...

It's started to get very warm here during the day, it's cracked the 90's already. But this morning, I opened the windows and was greeted with a gust of deliciously cool air! I switched off the fan and just threw the windows open wide. Ahhh. Perfect 70 degree gusts of cool breeze in my 73 degree apartment. Even the air looks semi-clear and you can see the horizon between sky and sea. Boy, this is the life. I'd better enjoy it before pre-monsoon heat waves kick in.

Today, I finally have nothing pressing to do (or at least, I can schedule myself a break) so the paints are coming out. It couldn't be a nicer day for it, I'll have the windows open wide to let all the light in, at least until the sun swings westward and heats things up.

Lacking an easel, I'll have to use my coffee-fueled brain to come up with some resourceful alternatives. I'llll just... get to that script reading... later in the evening when the sun goes down. Yeah. That's a good plan. :)

News from L.A. is good - Amit wrapped on Friday and says he is very happy with most of what went into the can. (That means it's excellent.) He had a brilliant Director of Photography who inspired him as well. Telecine on Saturday was "a disaster" (direct quote), the colorist apparently had no idea what he was doing, so they walked out. Sunday he had a day off, and went to church with Dyball. Editing starts Monday, and they'll try again for telecine then too. He'll be staying on a few extra days to cram some meetings in, which is wonderful. (I had hoped to do this in December, before he had to return to Bombay for a shoot.) So he should be back in a week now.

I feel like I've managed quite well without him, thanks in great deal to Tanya and Karan, our best friends here, and it's been nice having my own way all the time. ("Tonight I want to watch... a musical!" or "For dinner, I'm just going grill some veggies in garlic and butter.") But make no mistake, I'll still be leaping for joy when he gets back!

Speaking of dinner, Kathryn's Mushroom Risotto has been a hit everywhere I've made it. Karan in particular had been drooling over distant memories of the time I made it here. So last night, I had them over, and fortunately, the risotto lived up to the memories of its glorious past. Kathryn, you got any more stove-top recipes for me?? I'm looking to expand my repertoire!

IV's - no, not 4's

I had my last anti-viral IV Monday!!  I didn't realize it until I went in yesterday and the nurse told me I was done.  She was out sick Monday when I went in, which is why I didn't get told then - the sub didn't know.  So YEAH!  That's over two hours twice a week freed up and, hopefully, a little more energy.

Today is beautiful and I had hoped to work outside a little.  I did, clearing away last year's growth of vine and perennials on and by the iron fence along the driveway along with piles of dead leaves that collect there.  The hard part was stopping after an hour. By that time I had filled the big trash can.  That sounds impressive, but vine and leaf and branch take up lots of room.  If Daddy were to squash it down - which he will have to to put in any garbage - it wouldn't be so impressive.

Only a smidge tardy

Hi family! I'm catching up on all 7 posts and loving this blog thoroughly. Good call Anna! Somebody's gunning for Golden Child '08.

I'd like to say something more insightful, but unfortunately I'm watching a reality show called "Pussycat Dolls Presents: Girlicious" and so my brain cells are pretty much numbed for the evening (at least). I believe my quote of the day from that would have to be "miss thing has some sass!".

I finally followed TMB3's recommendation and purchased "East of Eden". I was chagrined to find that it is by the same author as "Grapes of Wrath". I can only explain my literary ignorance of the author by saying that I have avoided that book like the plague after Mom's apparently very influential review when I was 8(ish), and so never learned anything about it or the author other than its a VERY HORRID book about the depression and farming and stuff, and in my head I often confuse it with Animal Farm (which I also often confuse with Charlotte's Web cause of the farm animals and the pigs and the joyful singing about keeping your chin up during the Bolshevik revolution). So Tom, if I made it up and you didn't recommend this book to me, I'm screwed. Although I did see that it's in Oprah's book club so that's something to hold onto if I start wishing the book were over sooner.

Love to all!

PS: My battery on my computer died, but I'm cheap so I'm clinging to life support on my wonky power cable which I just knocked loose, causing my poor puter to die. Can I just thank Google and their "we are automatically saving your draft" because I would've had to rewrite the whole thing and we all know its never as good the second time around. Thanks Google!

F-105

 Foxy got to look at an F-105.  Really made his day.

nano

My assigned trainer at the Y has been upping the aerobic time in my exercise program.  Now anything more than 10 min of moving but going nowhere is annoying, so I decided to get an ipod nano to listen to audiobooks while on the exercise machines.  There's now an Apple store at Northpark Center.  I brought my nano home in its transparent plastic box.  Couldn't get it open. Then I discovered it was sealed by plastic tape the same shade of transparent as the box.  Once the box was open I couldn't get the device out of its plastic clip that held it in place in the box.  I think, "I haven't even gotten to the technologically challenged part yet."  The owner's manual consists of about a dozen pages, mostly pictures.  That's the way they write owners manuals now.  They know my children's generation will already know what to do by intuition; why waste paper?  I really like using it.  It's just so much work getting it going.