I am a little worried right now. For the stupidest of reasons, at that. You see, I received 2 DVD packs, each pack containing six DVDs, episodes of an anime series called Rurouni Kenshin. Why I am worried is, there should have been THREE packs. 18 DVDs in all. Damn, I have this mental picture of greedy scumbag Indian customs officers ( apologies to all customs officers and their brethren ) who paw through imported packages that come by mail and see three similar looking packages and decide that two packs out of three won’t be that bad, and so they take pack# 3 home for their kids. I know that shows just how much of a bigotted anti-customs creep I am, but I can’t just help it. I will probably wait for two more days before I begin to weep and wail.
The same kind of paranoid thoughts crossed my mind when I was waiting for mrsgollum‘s 10-kilo package to arrive. It did, after two months, and very safe and sound and neatly packaged at that, but I bet if you took all the bits of fingernails and toenails and finger-skin that i gnawed off ( um, my own fingers and toes, thank you) in breathless anticipation of whether and when it’s going to come, you could stuff a fairly decent sized teddy bear and still have a pile of prickly badly gnawed fingernails left. Needless worry. I bet this kind of thing is what will lead to my premature baldness, not my faithful radioactive-impotency-ray-emiting Nokia that stays permanently wedged inside my pocket.
(Info: mrsgollum‘s package contained a fair amount of graphic novels – V For Vendetta by Alan Moore, Jinx and Goldfish by Brian Michael Bendis, Gaiman’s Stardust, Frank Capra’s autobiography The Name Above The Title, copies of Bill Sienkiewiescz’s Stray Toasters, Peter Milligan and Brett Ewin’s Skreemerand oh, precious, the first forty five issues of Swamp Thing, featuring Alan Moore’s early work on DC Comics, an awesome body of work that helped bring in the Vertigo Age of comics. I got this some two Saturdays ago )
Right. I need to stop worrying about petty details, and forgive customs officers everywhere, and focus on the positive things at hand.
I read 230 pages of Simon Singh’s Code Book last night, armed with pencil, paper, and the rare combination of sleeplessness and complete dedication that a really, really good book brings with it. I was supposed to fall asleep early, because I had just come back from a lightning-fast Chennai trip ( Landmark Quiz. Damp Squib, as always). Spending two consecutive nights on General Compartments of Charminar Express is not advisable, let me assure you. Your spine feels like a seperate entity altogether, and at about two AM, your ass feels like what Atlas (the Greek Mythology guy, not the bicycle) must have felt after all that sky-bearing. Instead of catching up on sleep, I ended up reading about the history of codes and ciphers – and I salute Mr. Singh for the brilliant readability of his work.
The above portion was written yesterday, but I forgot to post it.
Vineeth (not him ) sent me a parcel that had TWO Far Side Galleries ( Volumes 1 and 2). And also some Conan novels, with exquisite pen-and-ink sketches by Esteban Maroto, whose work I knew only from Atlantis Chronicles ( DC Comics, 1990), a Dashiell Hammett, and Pratchett’s Equal Rites. Finished The Far Side Gallery Volume One last night, and then read the complete first volume of Lone Wolf and Cub. All this when the four-cd Collector’s Edition of The Cowboy Bebop Original Soundtrack was being downloaded to my hard-drive.
One of these days, the circuits in my brain will overload, and they will find me in the morning with my brains splattered all over the bean-bag, my face frozen in an ecstatic grin. “Too Many Good Things”, they will converse in hushed tones, “you shouldn’t have too many of those damned Good Things. Just look at what happened to poor old Beatzo”.
If there is any justice in the world, there will be a draft of wind just then, something that will chill the bones of those nay-sayers, and make the curtains in my room flap loudly, and make a sound that will vaguely sound like “Shhhhhhhhhhhite”.
P.S The download ( 303 MB in all) completed today morning. With apologies to Extremely Jealous Girlfriend, I need to say this. Yoko Kanno, I love you.
When you are done with weeping and wailing, pass me those two DVDs…
Eh he he he!
Excuse me, it’s not TWO DVDs. It’s TWO DVD PACKS. TWELVE DVDS. Episodes 32-94. What exactly would you be doing with them without watching episodes 1-31, eh? Better start praying, along with me.
still have a pile of prickly badly gnawed…
hyuk hyuk…
complete dedication
ho ho ho ho hahahahaha
General Compartments of Charminar Express
ROTFFLMPO
____________________
Hey, just a sec, I was with you in the General Comartment of Charminar Express… My ass got corrugated.
What’s so ho ho ho ho hahahahaha about my complete dedication, twerp?
Still laughing your pants off, eh? It’s a wonder you still have them on….
You must be totally completely bored.
Absolutely nothing to do.
Which is probably why you deigned to comment on my most insignificant comment.
ho ho ho hoa hahahahah
Naaah. I just felt like using my word of the day.
“Twerp”, that is.
Definition please.
There used to be a definition but Vrikodhara redefined the word recently. :-)
So now it means?
Vrikodhara.
heehe.
*Pfftt*
I had similar problems with customs & postal workers, while I was in Zimbabwe. Fortunately, no one ever sent me anything major, so it was mostly just candy and batteries that went missing. Some of the other volunteers I knew, though, lost quite a bit of stuff, some of it pretty sizeable and/or expensive.
Also, I LOVE the graphic version of “Stardust”. Various people tell me they’ve read the purely-text version, and I pity them.
uh oh.
I dunno about Zimbabwe, but I have heard of things going missing courtesy the Indian Postal Service. Still, fingers crossed.
Damn. I got the text-version of Stardust. But I console myself with the fact that someday, I will get to the graphic novel. Someday.
Re: uh oh.
Ahem!
uh oh squared
I meant the Indonesian Postal Service. Slip o’ the tongue. Seriously!
Re: uh oh squared
What you doing in Indonesia man?
Re: uh oh squared
Ssshhh. I am jhoking some dhool in Jay’s eye.
Re: uh oh squared
You think we so istupid we not know?
I was reading Simon Singh’s Code Book a few weeks back. It’s nice.
I haven’t finished it yet, hope to do so tonight. I liked it a lot. :)
You’re scaring me now… I worry for all my books! waaaahhh!!
Oooh, I hate to think of all those pretty little Groo books, torn to shreds by the brats that get to them courtesy the Nasty Customs Man. My sympathies in advance.
We hatessss you!! We hatessss you!!
But we lovesssss you, precious. :-D
You read fast?
I try. Depends on what I am reading, actually.
like you finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in, what, 6 hrs?
6 hours?!
Sacre Bleu! I took 2 days!
It wasn’t six hours, it was eight. With slight time-outs for cackling fits.
Television has ruined my life.
So what happened at the Landmark quiz? Lemme guess.. kidao and co? or was it tups and gang?
Kidao and Co it was, this time. I came back before the quiz ended( needed to catch Charminar)
Amazing energy mate…. :)
On a side note , you need to make a trip to USA to collect your ever increasing bundle of whatever it is. Nobody going to India agrees to take it :)
Huh?
Ever increasing? It stopped increasing a year ago!!! Unless Cash is buying me things behind my back, or you are. ;-)
Re: Huh?
Good, U no longer remember what it is, so i guess u no longer need it.
HUH?
“need” has got to be the understatement of the year. :-)
A list of the stuff will be sent to your email address. *sniff* just thinking of them precious goodies makes my nose run.
I loved the Code Book! Simon Singh is brilliant. I also recommend Fermat’s Enigma. That one will knock your socks off. His style, and unassuming intelligence is resplendent in the book.
Will keep an eye out for that book, then.
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Priyanka, your to-be
Heh!