(un)Productive Day – not!

Just a few notes from the day… the sleep cycle is totally out of whack, such that now I cannot sleep during the night and since the day demands that I be at a place of work, I am forced to doze off intermittently during the day at inopportune times! (I literally awoke 3 minutes before the CEO and CFO stopped by my desk to say hi and to welcome me…this could have been the shortest career, if I had kept on dozing!!) Next stop – I create an incarnation of Tyler Durden!

Today, during a cab ride which I shared with some inquisitive co workers, who insisted on asking me my age, my marital status, my background etc… I seemed to have shocked the cab driver when I said my parents are from Pakistan… I actually saw him rise in his seat and check me in the rear view mirror – I have never had that happen before – at the mention of me (or my family) being from Pakistan! Either I had sounded too strange to be desi or that I was a potential threat to him… I think the former as he too was of S. Asian descent.

It seems I am working for a group of phenomenally smart engineers and it’s cool to see that some companies STILL work with real engineers and not marketeers posing as engineers! Also, it appears to be worthwhile (so far, am highly skeptical of all things now) to work for a small company where the engineering department is just within reach and not like at a large global company where the engineers are in some other time zone so you never get to actually see them! Today seeing all them Canadian engineers (iron rings on nearly all little fingers) I realized that it was like being back at university. The quiet, understated (nearly modest) *NEARLY* modest way of the engineer was apparent, the peeps that are interested in FGPAs, knowing what they know and knowing it well… all else is fluff anyway!! The obligatory xkcd.com cartoon on the wall, the sneaker supporting, T shirt wearing wiry men who sit looking through code and literally blowing up bits as they solder and drill stuff (there was a mini explosion as we stood around them because someone seemed to have drilled something too hard and bits flew across the room!).

Strange things I saw during my ride home!

On the way home or across the water in a ferry then, I was with other passengers one of whom seemed to be attending circus school as he sat across from me practicing rotating some orbs in his palm. Also on this ferry I saw a couple of men who caught my eye, at first, because one of them had tattoos all around his arms – from his wrists to his shoulders (which btw I see ALOT of here, or I see the same people – who knows!) but what I then noticed was that

1. this person was a mix of Keith Richards and Ron Wood (Rolling Stones) but only if they were ANOTHER 20 years older – clearly this man puts his body through some serious abuse
2. the guy with him was having some drug withdrawals as I saw him scratch himself all over his legs and arms during the 15 min ferry ride -(this could have made me sad – but I saw it as an academic ferry ride and refused to employ emotion).

O and as I was nearer the house at the train interchange I saw a pair of black sneakers with socks stuffed in them, just sitting there, in the middle of the pathway.. no owners no business… just sitting there!

ALSO, I must, MUST insist (to those of you who listen to music) that THE NATIONAL are now quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. Why have more people NOT been going on about them? Their earlier work (though High Violet IS mind blowing) – both Alligator and Boxer are precious pieces of musical subtlety. The gentle to the ferocious guitar work, and the drumming… omg the drumming (military style with strange complicated loops), they have it all…. And then the man with THE voice… if James Earl Jones were a singer, his voice could not have competed with the depth and richness in this man’s voice… and of course a voice that literally sounds as if it is holding the world’s woes deep within it…listening to them is highly recommended and yeah, please try to avoid the suicide you MIGHT feel compelled to commit after listening to them! (though, some songs have a dark humor hidden deep within – so you see, they are not all doom and gloom!)

Just another quick reminder, folks in Pakistan – those NOT flying across the world as the country goes under, DO still need help from everyone in this time of crisis. The flood victims suffer endlessly and no respite seems apparent. There are very few individual donations and yet the people wait….please help if you can. If you need avenues to help through, please check out the
Wiki here
and here

or you can contact me for more info.