Micro Fiction: Cheater

"Hey, I just made it. My cab should be here any minute. You okay?"
"You got another call... I talked to him... He says he's sorry. He wanted me to tell you that. May be I should've seen it. I knew it was something. When I'd offer to meet you on the road before Sam was born, you always had some excuse. Fewer and fewer visits every year, always some reason. You distracted yourself with friends even when we had only a day or two together. You could never wait to leave. Anything not be here, not to be with me. It's amazing how we fill in the blanks, the way we want to see them. And I kept filling them in. I'm not pretty today. I'm not funny or smart or interesting enough. Next visit, I'll do better, I'll work harder, I'll figure it out. I felt so unattractive sometimes, so unwanted, you have no idea how hard it was always trying to find some reason, some way that I failed. Somewhere deep down, I knew something was wrong, I'm sure I did. Guess I must've been afraid to ask somehow. But I wonder if I had, if you would have told me the truth. Even in my arms, you were always out of reach. And may be you didn't love me the way I did you, but you didn't even care enough to be honest with me. You didn't choose someone else, Carl. You are someone else."

(Blatantly adapted from a TV show)

CO Awareness

Carbon monoxide exposure: silent killer

As winter sets in, most people should become aware that turning up the heat from whatever source, and sealing all doors and windows to keep warm, may as well become a death trap from a faulty heating / burning device that emits Carbon Monoxide. Invest in a decent CO alarm and save lives.

Plutocracy

"Party of the Rich"
Limousine liberals are upgrading to Lear jets.

By Peter Schweizer

Although obviously right-biased, this article shows an interesting trend about how Democrats have joined the party of the rich politicians that used to be Republicans mostly because they were allegedly in the pockets of oil companies. Now anti-Bush Democrats and others with silver spoons have themselves amassed a party that may not be in touch with middle class America either. Even if Democrats use Iraq to kick Republicans out, is there much that they can do?

Nicaragua Bans Abortion

Nicaragua Passes Total Ban on Abortion

- NYTimes

It's sad to see another country go in the opposite direction of progression along with Chile and El Salvador in the name of Catholic Church. Total ban on Abortion without exceptions for rape or life threatening emergency. The vote was 52 to 0. Zero - not a single representative to take the side of the 32,000 illegal abortions that happen every year in Nicaragua. What is wrong with these people? Do they think they are being good by banning sin? To quote Dr. Gregory House:

I have a theory on what makes good boys “good”. It’s not because of some moral imperative. Good boys have the fear of God put into them. Catholic Church specializes in that kind of training, to make good boys afraid of divine retribution so they will do what their daddies tell them.

55 Friday: Fidelity

"She knows you're always there for her."
"Yeah... If this is true, it means she wasn't always there for me."
"It means she made a mistake."
"Can't help it. Part of me, a big part of me, can't handle that. It doesn't want her to get better... Does that make me a terrible person?"
"...Yes."

(Blatantly adapted from a TV Show)

Free Health Care

Hospitals Try Free Basic Care for Uninsured - New York Times

Finally someone is trying to do something about rising healthcare costs. Instead of throwing money at the problem, institutions like the Seton Family of Hospitals are managing it in corporate style with the intent of minimizing financial losses from treating uninsured emergency patients. Ulterior motives aside, if this works out for the better for both the healthcare providers and the needy, may be my insurance will go down a bit.

Never Meant To Be

You won't get anything unless you ask for it. Then if you ask for it and you don't get it, maybe it wasn't worth having in the first place. Some things are just never meant to be, no matter how much we wish they were.

-- Dimestore Psychology from Gilmore Girls.

Occam's Razor

"The simplest explanation is almost always that somebody screwed up." - House M.D.

Micro Fiction: Devotion Under Suspicion II

"Do you wanna talk about it?"
"Talk about what?"
"Them. It's been bugging you. I can tell that it is."
"Why would it be bothering me? I'm the one who told him to ask her out, remember?"
"Look, I know something happened between you guys when I was gone. So just tell me."
"How did you know? Did he ... ?"
"I figured it out. Why don't you just tell me what happened?"
"Cause it doesn't matter."
"Well, it matters to me."
"I missed you and no one really understood. Then he came along, and he just got it somehow. And so we spent a lot of time together because he was the only one that I could bear to talk to. But I mean ... I know this is gonna sound lame, it was always about you."
"In the beginning, you mean."
"One night we went on this field trip and we got stuck in the mine. And ... he kissed me. I don't know how I let it happen or why. I was crazy that day thinking about your surgery. And ... I don't know what I was doing."
"Did it happen again?"
"Once."
"Did you know what you were doing then?"
...
"What happened between him and I amounts to about 10 seconds. Before you judge me for it I want you to think about the hours of bus trips that I took to go see you, the thousands of pages of books that I read to you, the hours of music that I played for you because they said that you might be able to hear it. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't focus in school, I lost most of my friends. When you finally did wake up, you didn't even remember who I was and your own mother wouldn't let me go see you. What was I supposed to do because I don't know anymore."
"I don't know. I wish you had been this honest with me a month ago. See, when I got out of the hospital I didn't know who you were. But I do now. And I really like you. The only problem is you haven't been able to take your eyes off him all night."

(from a TV show)

Ashwin Sood

I just found out that Sarah McLachlan (my favorite singer) is married to brown drummer Ashwin Sood. How cool is that!

Being good

"So you're treating her for African sleeping sickness... because you don't think it's possible for someone to be faithful in a relationship?"
"And you do?"
"Yes."
"And you need to tell me that."
"Look. I am not having an affair. I had lunch with someone I work with - at work. Once."
"I believe you. What I don't believe is it'll be just once."
"I love my wife."
"You certainly love saying it... I'm sorry. I know you love your wife. You loved all your wives. Probably still do. In fact, you probably love all the women you loved who weren't your wife."
"You can be a real jerk sometimes, you know that?"
"Yeah. And you're the good guy."
"At least I try. As long as you're trying to be good, you can do whatever you want."
"And as long as you're not trying, you can say whatever you want."
"So, between us, we can do anything. We can rule the world."

(from a TV show)

Micro Fiction: Devotion Under Suspicion

"Maybe someone cheated."
"That's impossible."
"Because?"
"They're completely devoted to each other."
"Because?"
"They love each other."
"Or?... They're overcompensating for guilt."
"You're that convinced that infidelity is the cause of their problems."
"No, you're the one convinced that they are a perfect couple. I think that is at least one of the causes."
"Which? Infidelity or me?

(Blatantly adapted from a TV Show)

Pet Shop Boys

Went to the Pet Shop Boys concert last Thursday with a friend. I thought I should catch them before they get too old to tour. Boy, was I in for an interesting show!

It was very flamboyant. Very. I now know how to say "How are you doing?" to a Pet Shop Boys fan, - "Are you fabulous?". There were pink spot lights, and backup singers that doubled as backup dancers! And of all the concerts that I've ever been to, this was the first that had an intermission. I guess the boys had to retouch their makeup.

The audience was having a really good time throughout. After the intermission I had a gay couple that were all over each other and little over me. It was that crowded. And smoking second hand pot just added to the whole experience.

All in all, it was a night I can't easily forget. Loved their classic hits "It's a Sin" and "Go West". Not really familiar with their other hits or their newer releases, but I enjoyed what I went to see the concert for.

55 Friday: Cynic's Birthday

"It's a birthday. It's an excuse to be happy. You think that's lame?"
"Why are you here? Did you buy me something?"
"Come on, I'm taking you out. You are not going to spend today sitting here."
"Do I need an excuse to be happy? More likely you need an excuse to drink with someone."

55 Friday: The Callipygian Edition

Ref: 55Friday: The Callipygian Edition

“It doesn’t matter. Anything you want babe.”
“Don’t you have a preference? Pick something. We can go to the Brick Store Pub, we haven’t been there in a while,” she said.
I noticed this desi kudi walk in front of us to her car in her gym shorts.
“Let’s go to Bhojanic instead,” I said.

The Light In The Piazza

I never thought I would be an opera kind of guy, but The Light in the Piazza was awesome. Went to see this off-broadway winner of six 2005 Tony Awards on Tuesday, because somebody offered free tickets. Loved it.

Boy, do they know how to sing. The live music and the impressive sets were brilliant. Nicely done!

Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever has generated quite a few headlines recently. Several hundreds of cases have been reported in India. Some facts about the disease ...

• There are two kinds - Dengue Fever and more deadly Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever.
• Caused by four antigenically distinct virus serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, DEN-4).
  
• Spread by infected domestic mosquito (of genus Aedes and specifically only species Aedes aegypti and sometimes species Aedes albopictus). This type of mosquito occurs in most tropical urban areas of the world, including India, and breeds in stagnant water. Cannot be spread from person to person.
  
• Symptoms of Dengue include high fever, severe headache, backache, joint pains, nausea and vomiting, eye pain and rash. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is characterized by a fever that lasts from 2 to 7 days and does not have any differential symptoms which makes it harder to diagnose by a physician. This stage is followed by hemorrhagic manifestations and finally circulatory failure and shock resulting in death.
  
• No vaccine or cure is available at this time, but infection from one of these serotypes provides immunity to that serotype for life.
• Effective treatment of early diagnosed Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever can be done through fluid replacement therapy and hospitalization to manage it.
• CDC describes some of the reasons why this epidemic has recurred more frequently in recent years:
  

• Uncontrollable urbanization in these countries and corresponding urban population growth along with inadequate sewage systems.
• Since the disease has been endemic for centuries, health officials don't react adequately until situations reach a crisis stage, which is insufficient for dengue control.
• Lack of sufficient differential symptoms prevent physicians from adequately detecting it and alerting health officials in advance before an epidemic ensues.
  

References:

• Dengue Fever
  
• Dengue Fever Fact Sheet
• Dengue & DHF: FAQ
  
• Chikungunya ...Dengue....What?
• CDC World Dengue Map 2005
• HEALTHmap