Hi. Just got back from watching the movie Hotel Rwanda starring Don Cheadle. This is probably the best movie I’ve seen in the
last year. It’s an intense film, and one that shouldn’t be missed. For some reason, among its various Academy Award nominations it hasn’t been given one for Best Picture. Hollywood jackasses.

It made me think that with all the problems in the world, like the Darfur genocide in Sudan, that if the US will actually do something this time. Various people in the media have said the key to making the
world love and respect the US would be to actually do helpful things around the world instead of just showing up and blowing things up. I wish we took our troops out of Iraq (they don’t want us there anyway),
finish the job in Afghanistan (rebuild and capture that bastard Bin Laden) and help people out in Sudan and anywhere else people are being oppressed. Idealistic? Definately. Go see the movie.

Happy New Year to all.

That tsunami is one hell of a way to start the new year. Donated a little to UNICEF’s tsunami relief fund. We gave what we could, but I wish I could do more. If someone could pay my plane fare to India, I’d gladly help clean up. Interestingly, India has refused any official foreign aid (that is money donated by countries, not charitable organizations) feeling that it is more than capable of dealing with the domestic damage. India infact, rushed $23 million to Sri Lanka within hours of the disaster, and dispatched a hospital ship to Banda Aceh in Indonesia. Just a bit of Indian Pride for the day!

Some good news – my friend and fellow Bengali, Abir was vacationing in Thailand when the tsunami hit, but thankfully he is fine. Looking forward to his return.

Well, it’s certainly been a long week. Let’s just get to it. Ebay screwed me. I jumped through all the hoops to score the contract. After waiting a week and a half for my start date I received a phone call saying “sorry we ultimately couldn’t get you approved. We’ve been ordered to stop spending across the board. Have a Great Thanksgiving!” My first instinct was to yell “Go to hell!” but I kept it professional and pleasant. Welcome to my world. I guess the worst thing is they had me clear my calendar through January. Now I’m scrambling to find some new clients.

Thanksgiving itself was good, we did the usual practice of splitting time with both of our families. A bit of a health scare from Kris’s grandfather but in the end everything turned out alright.

Working on the next version of the site and a bunch of illustrations. Stay tuned…

Well this was my 2nd band audition this week. Jammed with a guy named Bill McLauglin, who plays a pretty mean bass. He plays in a very aggressive manner. He wants to do a combination of surf and hard rock and punk. Anyway, we had a decent jam. Not sure if he’ll call me back for another jam. Our styles weren’t exactly similar, but it’s not entirely impossible that he may call back. In any case, I’ll keep working on my own music till I get another band together.