Advertisements for social and public health issues tend to generate a lot of creativity, a lot. It is often one finds that the Advertisements highlighting these social and health issues actually are a great deal more creative than the adverts of any other. And none has been the beneficiary of greater creativity than the biggest health issue of all till date, AIDS. Over the years there have been hundreds, thousands even, of Advertisements trying to create awareness for AIDS; and a good many among them are truly works of art. What I mean to say, instead of going on and on like this is that on a recent search I found these Adverts for AIDS awareness to be most stimulating.
You know, I am not the kind of person one should come to for relationship advice. Relationships require a lot of patience and understanding, and definitely a lot of holding back. To make things worse, in Indian, particularly the very conservative Tamil Iyer community, committing to a serious relationship can sometimes, actually feel like hell. Now, I'm not blaming all the Tamil Iyers, only some of its people.
A month back, Anand (name is changed), a close friend of mine said he wanted to talk to me, he said he wanted my opinion on something. I don't like to tell people what to do, but Opinions? I have a lot of those to go around. We met up at one of those cafe`s where you can get cups of overpriced-not-anything-really-special coffees and sat down to exchange the usual pleasantries. After a couple of how are yous, and whats up with yous, he told me he wanted some advice. Now, Anand is a decent man with a good job, wonderful family and a really beautiful girlfriend. He is a confident, self-assured person who enjoys life and doesn't take it too seriously. Thats when I realised the only thing he would want my advice was - Oh Shit! Woman Trouble!
As I said before, Anand has a really great, beautiful girlfriend and they have been together for at least a year now. I personally know the girl, she is really good looking, very friendly, and she adores him a lot. And they both seemed very happy with each other. You ask then what the hell is the problem?
The problem is, Sex. They haven't had sex with each other since they have been together, and I know as a matter of fact that the girl hasn't had sex, ever. Yeah, she still maintains a death grip on her virginity.
The thing about Anand is, he is a pretty normal guy who wants sex just like any healthy person does. And he figures, since he and his girlfriend have been together for a whole year, he is entitled to have sex with her, with her consent, of course! The problem is, the girl is a bit narrow minded about sex, what am I talking about? The girl is very narrow minded about sex, she is somewhat a prude and she has made it clear to him that she doesn't want to lose her 'virginity' before marriage. What the hell?
You might say that you have to respect the girl's wishes, its her choice whether to engage in sex or not and that no one has any right to comment on it. I would agree, but for the fact that the girl isn't alone, she is in a serious, committed relationship with a good, healthy male who has had a very active sex life before she came into his life. She says she'll engage in sex only after marriage, she is rock firm on that, and Anand says he is not ready for marriage, he wants to secure his finances somewhat before even thinking about marriage, and that may take a couple of years. He tells me he can't take it anymore, he can't deny himself and be celibate for another two or three years. And now he asks me whether he should be in this relationship anymore.
Oh Shit....What do I say now?
I am of the belief that sex is a natural function of life, if you want to have sex, and you have a willing partner, then by all means, just do it already. And I definitely think that when it come to sex, you shouldn't deny yourself, you just go at it as often as your libido wants it.
Coming back to Anand's predicament. Now, I know him very well, if he is in a relationship, he commits to it a 100%. He wouldn't stray out of it, he wouldn't cheat his partner, no matter the circumstances. But he likes sex too, he craves for the physical intimacy that sex provides. So when he asked me whether he should continue his relationship with this girl who he really likes, but who wouldn't give him what he feels he deserves, what do you think I said?
I told him if I were in his situation, I would give her an ultimatum. I would ask her, in no uncertain terms, to either break her stance on her totally unreasonable, not to say, really idiotic decision of 'No Sex before Marriage' or break off the relationship. And I told him it wouldn't be bad on his part if he breaks it off on account of this reason.
I ran into Anand again, last saturday, at a friend's party and I am pleased to say he introduced me to his new girlfriend, great catch I must say. He looked happy, he looked satisfied.
yours truly, The RA
A new type of plastic derived from corn starch is touted as a practical solution to the ever-growing menace of the Plastics, but if implemented successfully, could be the one major move that will throw the now-simmering global food crisis into a freaking nightmare.
A story on the POPSCI website reports that Missouri S&T scientists are working on a biodegradable polyester that could be the solution to the problem of the plastics. Plastic bags are a popular villain in these eco-friendly times, what with them being produced by the million every year and left to sit forever and ever in landfills, never biodegradable. But researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology are furiously developing hybrid plastics that would hopefully biodegrade within four months.
If used in the ubiquitous plastic grocery bags, it could make a huge difference in our nations landfills, greatly reducing the amount of waste, as opposed to currently used plastic that has the amazing ability to stick around forever, polluting everything. And this new bio-plastic could be used in other things as well, such as product packaging, which would be a huge victory for the environment.
It is a major victory for the green movement, isn't it? The single greatest menace to pollution, apart from fossil fuels and hydrocarbons, bio-degrading after a relatively short 4 months. It sure does feel like a major breakthrough. But why am I not happy, why does it feel like the pre-cursor to an even bigger crisis?
Using food to manufacture plastic. Yeah right, thats a great idea!
Polylactic acid is a polyester derived from corn starch which decomposes and mineralizes into water and carbon dioxide when composted. It's already being used in some brands of compostable "plastic" bags. The research team is working to blend the acid with other bio- and oil-based polymers to find the right kinds of resins for commercial use.
Another crap idea from some brilliant minds that can't look two feet into the future. Why don't we just start building everything out of things people eat, like rice or some other staple food? In an era of a simmering global food crisis, they come out with this, a brilliant move, you guys. To hell with hunger! To hell with deforestation!
Once again, self-proclaimed "environmentalists" prescribe a "cure" that makes everything far, far worse.
Here's what an article in Britain's (very left-wing) "The Guardian" newspaper says:
"The substitutes can increase emissions of greenhouse gases on landfill sites, some need high temperatures to decompose and others cannot be recycled in Britain. Many of the bioplastics are also contributing to the global food crisis by taking over large areas of land previously used to grow crops for human consumption."
More here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/26/waste.pollution
There is only so much land on our earth that is exploitable for farming, and quite frankly even that is not enough. There needs to be a balance somewhere... REUSE,REUSE,REUSE for SUSTAINABILITY, lets not try to figure out how to use more resources, lets just make current products durable enough to last for MANY uses. Reusable Shopping Bags are the best course of action, and they are already in everyday use.
Many retailers in Europe and America are doing their bit by urging customers to switch over to BYOB(Bring Your Own Bag) and also selling their own reusable shopping bags. Top retailers like WholeFoods, IKEA, Giant Eagle, Toys R Us are making honest efforts to wean shoppers off plastic shopping bags and replace them with reusable bags. As part of Earth Month 2008, Walmart & Kellogs partnered to give away one million custom-made reusable shopping bags on Saturday, April 19th at 8AM local time.
Ah...you finally bought that new printer, didn't you? Feeling pretty good about yourselves, uhu?
With so many advertisements and offers touting those Printers with impressive features and high quality printouts, how could you miss it? And the feel of that sample photo printout the salesman slipped into your hands pretty much made up your mind, didn't it? You just had to buy it, yeah thats what I keep hearing all the time.
Printers have become so much more affordable in recent times, with the cheapest inkjet and laser printers costing just about Rs.1500 and Rs.6000 respectively. That is the picture we see, at least in the beginning. What is obvious, but really known only to a handful few is that you don't spend much of your hard earned money on the actual printer, but on the INK.
A typical inkjet cartridge costs Rs.500 for black & white, and a color cartridge is priced at Rs.750, all for a massive Ink capacity of 8ml. Printer Ink is is the real earner for the dozens of manufacturers putting up their latest models on the market every day.
My Printer's Dirty Secret
That in itself is not that bad. I can live with that, if not for a startling fact. The dirty secret of my printer. I don't know if this is the case with all printers though more than a few of my friends also reported it to be true once I told them about this, but I strongly urge you to check your printer. Well, you can't do jack shit about it, except stop printing and throwing out your printer altogether.
I would definitely not be aware of this dirty little secret of our home printers(or any printer for that matter) if not for this informative video.
The Dirty Little Secret of Inkjet Printers - video powered by Metacafe
Who knew what is going on inside your inkjet printers? Yikes, I for sure did not. A lot of that ink, which costs you three times more per milliliter than a Rs.20,000 bottle of the finest champagne, is pouring down into a sticky well of useless black slime. Holy fuckin' hell, what a waste.
My solution? Stop printing altogether
I came to know that I don't need to make prints, like in ever. If I really need to get a printout, I now go to that Print shop in the next street. I know its not the ideal solution for everybody, but it sure is the ideal solution for over 80% of home users like me. Ditch that piece of overpriced junk and save yourself a shitload of money and stress.
I did not mention this before, to anyone.
For the last four years, I had been diagnosed with moderate-to-severe clinical depression. It was a period of darkness for me where I had to overcome my personal demons, rather it was one demon, namely ME.
My therapist has gained a rather sizable fortune from me, but I do not grudge her anything. She had worked hard for it cos' I was not an easy patient. I am extremely lazy and slow witted by nature, and my lifestyle only added to the problem immensely. Also I am not the least bit emotional by nature, I am not affected by anything. Or so I thought.
During my initial sessions with my therapist, we found out that the air of un-affectance to anything and everything around me that I projected was merely a mask I was unknowingly hiding under. Everything that happened to me had affected me on some level. I just put on a I-am-above-everything attitude. My sessions with the therapist brought forth a lot of factors which led me to depression, but there were two main reasons, which ironically were the most obvious of all - they should have been picked right away. One of them was the messy splitting up of my parents, and the subsequent leaving of my sister with my mother. And the other obvious reason was the death of a loved one.
Why did the treatment take so long ?
Well, for one thing, my yo-yo-ing with the treatment schedule wasn't helping things a bit and the absence of a support system (family, friends etc) confounded the problem. My adamant stance (it was stupid, I know), that I did not want to open up to anyone except my therapist, in spite of his literal urging and pushing meant that I denied myself probably the most effective treatment method (talking and opening up to others) for depression. I was darn stooopid, wasn't I ?
Anyhow, we tried many things to pull be out of this most damning of conditions , but nothing seemed to work. Even some of the more promising treatment methods fell flat after some time, and we were back to square one. But then, it was only four months ago that she (my therapist) suggested an experimental idea. There wasn't any guarantee that it would work, but I figured what the hell, and tried it anyway. Nothing seemed to work, why not try this also ? And the good news was, this worked for me.
What was it ? To make a long story short, my therapist suggested that we try out a treatment method with which one of her fellow therapists worked with successfully. It was not a proven treatment method, only experimental, but I told her that I would give my best. She put forth the idea that I develop a secondary personality.
to be continued...
Now that all the excitement over the passing away of Abishek R'Nath has ebbed out, it is the time to make sure that all traces of that said person is done away with.
What better occasion for that than Bhogi ?
This festival is all about getting rid of the old and ushering in the new. So, in the spirit of Bhoghi, all effects of the late Abishek has been cast out, burned, torn up, pulverized.....whatever you may call it. There is nothing that remains of the old Abishek r'Nath.
So, during this period of transition, RA has something to say - and what he said was,
"Have no fear, RA is here."
it is a God-only-knows-how-many-times used cliche, but it suits the occasion rather perfectly, don't you think ?
