diphThong

2006-12-07T00:06:00.000-06:00

Au RevoirIt's good-bye Chicago! Tomorrow is my last exam (Operations -- God, I hope I pass) and only a few hours later I'm catching my flight out to India. The car's been shipped, as have most of my meager possessions. What's left will fill two suitcases, or be discarded.Does it feel strange to be leaving? Not really. Personally, I can't wait to get out of here, and get on with life. Job, money,

2006-11-30T00:24:00.000-06:00

New York state of mindThe 10 day vacation in Philly is over. Finals are approaching. This week is the last of my classes at Chicago. Yeah, it's exciting! I leave for India next Thursday, spend a month in India, before heading off to Singapore. Might do a trip out to Angkor Wat. Samir's been telling me to learn some Bahasa, for my trips into Malaysia and Indonesia (yes, the trips are, as they

yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

2006-10-31T23:03:00.000-06:00

Wharton's halloween party rocked. I went as a pirate, complete with clip-on ear-ring. Yeah, yeah, I know: scary. Deepti went as a naughty schoolgirl, due in part to a malfunctioning sailor-girl outfit. Transit was jam-packed by the time we got there, which was around midnight. Since I wouldn't have recognized anybody anyway, I didn't try. Random he-devils (too many people dressed in drag for my

30 degrees centigrade... in Singapore

2006-10-25T00:31:00.000-05:00

It's mid-term week at Chicago GSB, but I found myself selecting classes for Winter '07 at Nanyang Business School, Singapore. So here's what I'm going to take:Business Process ManagementMultinational Financial ManagementSpecial Topics in Finance I: Issues in Corporate GovernanceServices MarketingBusiness Environment in ChinaActually, I don't have much choice. I have to take 5 classes (IBEP

Numero Uno

2006-10-13T00:20:00.000-05:00

In 2004, Business Week made a huge error. They ranked us at #2. It took them two years to correct that mistake. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/06/full_time.htmhttp://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2006/0643_bschools.pdfhttp://www.businessweek.com/bschools/06/index.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story

2006-10-09T02:13:00.000-05:00

< eom >It's not been a secret, but I'm fairly close to being done with the embeea. I've accepted the Salesforce.com offer, and am completely and totally psyched about it. (Recruiting, no mas!) In a few weeks I'm off to Singapore, for my last quarter. Surrounded by all the exchange students at the I-house as I am, and hearing about their experiences, I can't wait to go abroad. It's going to be

second year, second wind

2006-09-20T22:48:00.000-05:00

It's good to be back. Good to be meeting up with so many familiar faces and friends. Classes start tomorrow, but corporate presentations have already started for the second-years. The first-years have their industry immersion stuff going on, and LEAD I guess is keeping them extra-busy with their brand-new class-participation requirement.Living at the I-house is cool, exactly the way I'd

il nome della rosa

2006-08-22T00:50:00.000-05:00

The MBA-internship season is coming to a close. Most folks I know are finishing up this week or the next. On the other hand, I have a month to go before I fly back to Chicago, but that's because I started late. The internship at Salesforce has been an awesome experience. I really like the company, have enjoyed working with the people there, have really liked the work I've been doing,

those lazy hazy crazy days

2006-07-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

On summer break from biz-school, my days have been neither lazy nor hazy, but crazy yes. Moved out of Chicago, went to Mexico for 5 days, then to India for 3 weeks, and have just barely started my summer internship with Salesforce.com here in San Francisco, all within a month. A friend from Wharton is already finishing up his internship (with the same company) at the end of the week. And to

2006-04-25T08:19:00.000-05:00

WhereaboutsIt has been brought to my attention that I never said nothing about my internship. Oops. Pretty clear where the priorities lie, right? I am, of course, overjoyed to be going back to SF for the summer -- doing strategy for a high-tech company. But, but. We first go to Mexico (my 7th time there and 2nd time to the Yucatan and Deepti's 1st time south of the border) before we go to

Happenings

2006-04-14T16:42:00.000-05:00

Wharton's Welcome Weekend rocked. They know how to throw a good party. Really nice bunch of people. The highlights were (in no particular order) a sit-down dinner at the Academy of Natural Sciences, "Wharton Live" -- a two-hour show, of some of the most popular numbers from previous Wharton Follies, the pub-crawl, and of course, the WHALASA (the LatinAm group at Wharton) party at Transit

Wait-listed at... UCLA?!

2006-03-26T12:31:00.000-06:00

Deepti got wait-listed at her safety-school. So much for strategy.

Chicago GSB... and it's a hat trick

2006-03-21T16:44:00.000-06:00

Deepti got the call from Chicago GSB today! Yay!

And Berkeley Too

2006-03-17T14:32:00.000-06:00

They're rolling-in now...

Deepti gets into B-school

2006-03-16T08:32:00.000-06:00

Hot off the press! Just found out that Deepti got into Wharton. Still waiting to hear back from other schools, of course.

2006-02-27T11:16:00.000-06:00

Blast from the pastAn uncle of mine just dug-up this photograph from the MIT archives. It's circa 1936. The "girl" on the right is my maternal grandmother, to her left is her sister and the boys are their cousins. The picture was taken at MIT where the boys were studying. My grandmother and her sister were at Boston University, having just transferred from Mills College in Oakland. I never

what time is spring break?

2006-01-21T19:00:00.000-06:00

Many of my Sales-and-Trading-type friends already have job-offers. Hearty congrats all around. But I am so envious. Oh, to be in their shoes! To put all my recruiting efforts behind me, and start planning Spring Break 2006! Talking of which, I'm completely cased-out; I've done cases in hall-ways, I've done cases on the phone, I've done cases at Regents And at HPC too. I

Who says Recruiting can be fun?

2006-01-09T00:14:00.000-06:00

Winter quarter. It's been t-shirt weather in Chicago -- in the mid 40s, that is. I'm loving it. I'm taking four classes (again.) * Competitive Strategy * Investments * Strategic Leadership in Uncertain Evironments * Network Structures of Effective Management By Chicago standards, these are fluff-classes. I beg to differ. The last one does derive from sociology and

got my grades!

2005-12-19T22:54:00.000-06:00

I didn't screw up! Thank God! It'd been weighing on me! Whew.The winter-break is going by way too quickly. It's too cold to go outside. I've been indoors for the past 4 days. I don't think there's ever been a period in my life that I've been indoors for so long at a stretch.So what have I been doing? I've been researching industries. Apparently, the management consultants are going to

it's snowing... in ahmedabad?!

2005-12-14T22:52:00.000-06:00

Google's Sidebar is cool, but "cool" isn't always right...

feels like 0 degrees

2005-12-06T21:01:00.000-06:00

That's because the weather man says so. It's been cold, but I wouldn't know, because I've been studying! Had a couple of finals already. They were okay. If I do well on them, I'll be real proud, because they were tough as hell! Especially Accounting. But that's to be expected at Chicago, I suppose. This time last year was much the same for me -- in terms of time pressure -- I was

moment of truth

2005-11-28T22:25:00.000-06:00

I can't believe this quarter will be over by next Friday. I have to sit my ass down and do some serious studying, because otherwise I'll be getting grades I really won't want to disclose. (Aforementioned noble intentions of putting in some serious study-time over Thanksgiving came to naught.) Figured out classes for next quarter: Investments, Pricing Strategy and Network Structures of

is an MBA right for you?

2005-11-17T17:32:00.000-06:00

Ask yourself that question. Then don't believe your answer. It's nearing the end of the quarter. Finals are looming. I did okay on my mid-terms, but I really need to work hard on the finals (especially for the classes which had an "optional" mid-term -- which means that the mid-term score is discarded if you do better on the final.) All of this is, of course, Grade Non-Disclosure

can someone please tivo the whole MBA thingy?

2005-10-28T21:02:00.001-05:00

Just so you could press the pause button every now and then. BothDeepti and I have been saying that it's like we've put "life on hold"for the MBA. I haven't watched any movies (indie, non-indie, Hindi),haven't even been to the art institute yet, haven't eaten a decent $7ethiopian meal in so long I've forgotten the taste of injera, haven'tread anything "real" in so long (GGM's autobiography is

...mine's on the 45...

2005-10-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

Oh, what a week! A case-competition, a case-presentation and twomid-terms! At least I'm not in IB. Because I haven't gone to anypresentations, so I sure hope the Consulting companies haven't beencoming to campus. (Didn't even make it to any of thelunch-and-learns.) Don't know how the IBers do it. An IB friend toldme he had a breakfast appointment, followed by a lunch, followed bycocktails,

2005-10-18T15:09:00.000-05:00

Note-taking in MBA group meetingsIt's a photograph of a whiteboard. Talk about lazy.

first week of classes

2005-10-03T19:49:00.000-05:00

First week of classes is behind us. It was hectic. It's not just thatclasses started, and pre-class assignments (readings, mostly) had to bedone, and study-groups were to be formed and homeworks were to beworked on . No, additionally, we had LEAD and Career Services -- eacha 3-hour time-chunk, a Mocktail to attend (we got to practice networkingskills at mock corporate presentations complete

2005-09-26T23:07:00.000-05:00

Here's where I'd rather be. Day hiking in the Pinnacles... It's become real busy. No time to blog!

2005-09-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

Last one for the day. Alcazar, Seville.

2005-09-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

Generalife. Oh, to travel...

who's afraid of cold-calls?

2005-09-24T13:26:00.000-05:00

I admit it. I'm petrified of cold-callING. (Previous life, in a Strategy Consulting group, I did a bit of that, and didn't like it much.) I think I'm pretty okay with BEING cold-called, though. Classes started Thursday. I had Regression followed by Micro on Friday. I'd been startled to see the "Be prepared to be quizzed on basic statistics" warning in Bandi's coursepack. To prepare for

unblogged!

2005-09-23T14:32:00.000-05:00

At a go, I've discovered the identities of three of my heretoforeanonymous blogger classmates. Le Voyageur, Alator and Poweryogi have allbeen unveiled. Wakechick is known too (but only from her pictures.)To tell you the truth, I didn't do any "discovering" -- I just askedaround.A couple of classmates told me that they chanced upon my blog. Sothat's cool. Someone's reading all this sh*

do rankings matter?

2005-09-21T20:30:00.000-05:00

Yes they do! But not the WSJ rankings. We just fell out of the top-10in the latest WSJ rankings. We're now 13th; we were 5th last year. What gives/gave?! But seriously, the rankings look a little dubious. Here, take a look. Here are WSJ's National Rankings (taken from WSJ'sonline edition):2005 2004Rank Rank University (Business School)1 3 Dartmouth College (Tuck)2 1 University of Michigan (

i have a schedule

2005-09-19T00:37:00.000-05:00

How could I forget?! I have a schedule. I got all the classes Iwanted. That means I have no classes on Mondays, but an 8:30 AM classon Friday. (Clarification: I didn't really WANT the 8:30 AM class.)Marketing with Dhar (it's pronounced Dhaaaaar, BTW) Wed eve.Micro with Stole on FridayAccounting with Srinivasan on TuesdayRegression with Bandi (cost me 2000 points) on ThursdayAnd of course,

so long and thanks for all the fish

2005-09-19T00:18:00.000-05:00

They made us wait in the rain to get into Spoon at TNDC.The semi-formal was awesome-. The music sucked, but everything elsewas A+. Actually, the food wasn't all that great either, now that Icome to think about it. But they more than made up for it, withdessert and of course, they kept the wine and beer flowing. Goodmingling, and let's just say, some dancing. Oh, and the dolphins andthe

Bidding for classes at Chicago GSB

2005-09-15T10:54:00.000-05:00

We've just finished the first round of bidding for classes. Efficient markets notwithstanding, this was painful as all hell. Here are the variables that went into the decision-making process: 1. Quality of professor 2. Price of professor+course 3. Work-load for the course 4. Maximize pre-reqs 5. Minimize bid/price (maximize accrual for future classes) 6. Determine bids/price required for

Disappointment @ the Field

2005-09-14T22:47:00.000-05:00

We visited the Field Museum of Natural History on Sunday. Yay, forstudent-tickets. Deepti and I got in for $12, total. We spent a good4 hours there, but were only really impressed with the dinosaurexhibit, including, of course, "Sue, the world's largest, mostcomplete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex." We did like theirstuffed-animal zoo, but after a while we got really fatigued by

Busy-ness

2005-09-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

Samir and Anshu came to visit last weekend, with Samir's cousin and herhusband from Indianapolis. They took us on the Architecture boat-tourof Chicago -- which was really awesome of them. The tour was reallygreat. Chicago is such a pretty city! (And I never knew it!) We wentthrough the locks (which was interesting) and at the end of the tour,we went out for a spin on the lake at 40 miles/hr.

2005-09-05T11:26:00.000-05:00

Sexism on DevonOne of the first tasks we'd set ourselves when we moved to Chicago, was to find ourselves an Indian-tiffin source. (Food delivered or to-go on a regular basis.) We'd been spoilt by a wonderful Gujarati lady in the bay-area, who had supplied home-cooked meals to my family for the past 4 years. We figured we'd have no trouble finding something similar in Chicago, with the large

mediocre but arrogant

2005-09-02T18:03:00.000-05:00

I went to play Racquetball today. It felt so good to swipe my new student-id card and walk into the spanking-new Ratner Athletic center, after all those years of sneaking into Stanford's dilapidated Racquetball and Squash courts with a totally smudged-out id-card. I ama student again! Turned out that the rball courts weren't in Ratner though, so I walked a short distance down 55th to Henry Crown.

2005-09-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

Watch for partner perspectives...

cocktail parties and all that jazz

2005-09-01T15:43:00.000-05:00

The partying has begun in earnest. Tuesday was Blues night at Kingston Mines, one of Chicago'smost famous blues bar. (Turn on the volume on your computer, for some good streaming blues if you visit their website.) A HUGE bunch of GSBers showed up (75, in my estimation.) It was a fun group. We got there really early, so we had a chance to talk to everyone as they trickled in. The music (Dion

pre-school

2005-08-29T18:10:00.000-05:00

First day of pre-MBA classes. I like it! Even if it's accounting!For someone with NO prior experience in accounting, I didn't think itwas boring at all! Looked at Hershey's annual report. Basicfundamentals about assets, liability, shareholder equity, and debitsand credits and of course, balance sheets, and income statements andcash-flow statements et al.Great way of getting back into "school

like raagas, morning and evening fruit

2005-08-28T01:30:00.000-05:00

I have been informed, in no uncertain terms, that bananas are decidedlymorning fruit. Eating bananas in the evenings is like having milk andcereal for dinner.Cars, here in the midwest, aren't all that nice.Concrete roads sound different from asphalt roads.

of mujibur and sirajul

2005-08-21T16:49:00.000-05:00

Life is slow. The afternoon heat is oppressive, and it seemsinconceivable that in a few short months, it'll be colder than allhell, the lake will be frozen over, and life as I know it will take ona strange new turn. Not to mention that b-school will have started,500 type-A personalities will be rarin' to have a go at each other, thesuits will descend upon campus, recruiting parties will be in

chicago -- first impressions

2005-08-21T01:41:00.000-05:00

In a word -- hot as hell! We got char broiled today, at the Ohio Street Beach. The world was out, conservatively dressed we thought, in jeans and shorts instead of swim-suits-only had it been Cali or Miami with 90 degree heat and 70% humidity. The water was an awesome 75 degrees. Anyway, so the Thunderbirds airshow over Lake Michigan for which aforesaid world had gathered to see, was prematurely

2005-07-24T22:51:00.000-05:00

Ram Gopal Varma's SarkarAn independent review(This was first written as an email response to some friends. Hence the abruptness.)I'm a HUGE RGV fan. Satya had been my all timefavorite movie before I saw Sarkar. Recently we saw his "D", and werereally disappointed. But we followed that up by Sarkar, and werereally really blown away. You can see a lot of Francis Ford Coppola inthe movie. I

2005-07-04T21:11:00.000-05:00

Mummy's birthday videoMummy's 64th birthday, Tahoe Keys, cake cutting!!

2005-05-31T23:31:00.000-05:00

"New Hostal", Las Ramblas, Barcelona

2003-10-01T02:19:00.000-05:00

On August 5, 2000, twenty letters were sent by Daniel O'Mara to the chief executive officers of twenty Fortune 500 companies. This is one; four more follow. [Thanks to Tullia for typing these up, and for sharing them. I had first blogged this here but have to re-blog because the link to the text of the letters is now defunct.] ------------------------------------------------------------------

2003-09-10T03:13:00.000-05:00

Okay, just getting the word out that there's a new Yahoo Group called gls_1990_alumni for, well, GLS alumni, class of 1990. That's Gujarat Law Society. Ahmedabad. Google, are you listening? Oh yeah, MKSS. Get yourself on the list. Satish Acharya, Sushil Saraf, Nischal Nayak, Anal Patel, Mayur Patel and Mandar Parikh. That makes 10% of XII A, 1990. Ba.

2003-07-10T03:27:00.000-05:00

Right. Long time, no posts, I know. Thing is, nothing has been happening. My thought processes have slowed down considerably, even if they (the thought processes) had never been anything to write home about. It's been raining intermittently. It (the rain) has been very welcome, except in the evenings, when it interrupts my basketball-playing. "Jhankar Beats" was really good. Goddamn

2003-05-24T22:55:00.000-05:00

Everest base-camp trek Today, I leave for Kathmandu, Nepal. A friend of mine and I are going on a 14-day Everest base-camp trek. I will NOT be blogging for the period (internet cafes, satellite- and radio- phones and audio blogging notwithstanding.) Here's our itinerary: May 26 Arrive Kathmandu May 27 Fly Kathmandu - Lukla (2,880m); start trek to Chumoa (2743m) May 28 Chumoa - Namche (

2003-05-19T04:49:00.000-05:00

115 degrees, 2003, Ahmedabad Crosswords Unconnectedness means that I'm reading by the foot (if you don't get the reference, I wouldn't worry about it, and neither should you.) I just finished Poisonwood Bible - by Barbara Kingsolver. Spectacular. Bought a bunch of books from Crosswords, including a couple of collections of short-stories -- now that I am of the short-fiction bent of mind. BTW,

2003-05-16T01:22:00.000-05:00

Like Salam Pax, I arise, again, In the tandoori oven that is India To cool, AC-cooled, mornings And s l o w lines; To a new Quit India Movement. But indefatigable, I am, in my unconnectedness. I will write more, I promise. Meanwhile, I'm convinced Baghdad has better internet connectivity than this. BTW, a taxi-driver claimed that this year's "unusual" heat-wave (which it is not; just the

2003-04-24T17:16:00.000-05:00

From a dog named Steven "On August 5, 2000, twenty letters were sent by Daniel O'Mara to the chief executive officers of twenty Fortune 500 companies." The letters are written "from the point of view of a dog named Steven". Some of the letters appeared in Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern -- a 19th century-style literary journal, another brain child of Dave Eggers of "A Heartbreaking Work

2003-04-24T11:25:00.000-05:00

Maya One summer, when he was 10 years old, he'd fallen for a tomboy his own age, who would regularly chase him through the bushes, roll down the green hills with him, put bugs down his shorts, pin him to the ground, sit on top of him and spit in his face. It was the closest he'd come to love, he often joked. He told Maya that story on their first date. He had bumped into her at a bike-ride,

2003-04-20T14:44:00.000-05:00

Golden Gate Park I didn't know Golden Gate Park, SF was larger than Central Park, NY. Well, it is. 3 miles x 0.5 miles vs. 2.5 miles x 0.5 miles. What I still don't believe is that there are reputed to be 1 million trees in Golden Gate Park, vs. a mere 26,000 trees in Central Park. [The Presidio has about 100,000 trees. See tree-huggers vs. sand-huggers.] So I did some math. GG Park is

2003-04-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

Curry: a non sequitur (originally an email to a friend) Curry is a generic term. "Curry Powder" is a mixture of spices that probably have a few spices in common with every other curry powder but the proportions of the ingredients may, and do, vary. The best translation for Curry Powder that I can think of is: "masala mix". A potpourri of masalas - spices. Of course there are common

2003-04-16T00:05:00.000-05:00

So "transexual" is currently leading the hotly contested most frequently misspelled words online competition. A few days ago, it was "doesnt". My personal favorite -- "definately" -- is only a measly 6th. The List.

2003-04-15T02:25:00.000-05:00

As you would imagine, it's entirely reasonable to wonder what people are thinking about your blog. So you expend great energy prettying up the site, because you couldn't think of anything quipy today, in the hopes that people will be fooled by your better-than-OxBlog design, and not notice the absence of any relevant content. You try to come up with something timely -- like a list of movies to

2003-04-14T01:43:00.000-05:00

I think the coolest anti-war-group name we've seen so far has to be: Lesbians Against Boys Invading Anything (LABIA). No, they don't have a web-site.

2003-04-13T02:15:00.000-05:00

Amazon's answer to PayPal (kinda): Amazon Honor System News article about the service. I think it's cool. It'll work. But then, I was so sceptical of PayPal when it first came out, maybe I'm once bitten.

2003-04-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

Mandar's SF International Film Festival's Most Wanted 124 movies. Will you give your Netflix a rest? Here's my selection of 10 movies (+ 1 bonus) to watch. You'll notice a definite bias towards Latin-American and Asian movies in my list. It's true. A Peck on the Cheek and A Tale of a Naughty Girl. I'll probably go see them, but including them on the list would be commiting "duh". "Drowned

2003-04-02T17:50:00.000-06:00

Impressions Cathedral Written in short, simple, staccato sentences, in the first person. The language is collquial. The narrator - Robert - is introduced to his wife's friend - a blind man who comes to stay for a night. Robert is brutally honest about not knowning how to deal with a blind man. There is some confusion about the blind man's race too, and that of his ex-wife. Robert is

2003-03-19T01:14:00.000-06:00

A Mercurial Affair Chapter 1 I mean, it could be some new-fangled, all-inclusive, post-modern, politically-correct bullshit, but come on, man, don't do this to me in the morning. I thought that's why they collected demographic data, so they could target information at you. So get my horoscope right, dammit. The man of my dreams will cross my path today - my left toe. I was full of no coffee,

2003-03-18T14:04:00.000-06:00

Who is Ajay Naidu? Ajay Naidu is a US-based actor and motion poet. Notable recent movie roles include parts in K-PAX and The Guru. He has developed a style of movement that draws on South Indian martial arts, ‘pataphysics and break dancing. Ajay co-founded Bhomshankar and Futureproof, seminal collectives in the early US drum ‘n’ bass scene and his vocal talents grace Talvin Singh’s albums OK and

2003-03-18T13:58:00.000-06:00

More Mukul. Biography. SudeepAudio.com : Mukul Patel

2003-03-18T13:55:00.000-06:00

Mukul : : : a m b i e n t t v . n e t : : :

2003-03-18T13:46:00.000-06:00

Where The Hell Did My Job Go?

2003-03-18T13:45:00.000-06:00

ROTTEN TOMATOES: Movie Reviews & Previews

2003-03-18T01:08:00.000-06:00

Robin William's Inspirations T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and E.E. Cummings. (In an interview on NPR.) On the topic of poets: http://www.poets.org is a great site that has nice little biographies of American poets and poetry excerpts and samples.

2003-03-18T00:17:00.000-06:00

Cricket What-Ifs Samir's blog is for you if you thought Srinath was a vegetarian.

2003-03-18T00:15:00.000-06:00

Impressions Jon - George Saunders With a style that is instantly reminiscent of Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange", in "Jon", Saunders introduces us to an indeterminate future that is at once repugnant and fascinating. Like laboratory mice, some of the more "fortunate" humans have chips ("gargadisks") embedded in their live flesh and live in sterilie (in more than one sense), protected and

2003-03-18T00:14:00.000-06:00

Coming to America Eduardo was 17, but people told him he looked 13 or 14. It was true, when he first landed in Miami, the immigration official asked him who he was travelling with -- in Espanol. He had responded in his perfect English that he was travelling on his own, that he was on his way to Austin, to start college. Everyone said school for school and school for college, and that was a

2003-03-16T17:28:00.000-06:00

Make Up Saturdays I visit my Dad. He picks me up in the morning, and brings me back home in time for dinner. I like Saturdays, because Dad is fun. Julia says her Dad is no fun. Julia's Mom and Dad live with her, and they fight all the time. When they fight Julia comes over to my house and we talk about boys. My Mom and Dad never fight. I think they used to fight when I was little, but not

2003-03-16T01:43:00.000-06:00

Impressions Phrase Book - Rick Moody What a wonderfully confusing, trippy, helpless, depressing story. It's Lucy's story. Or is it? It's many of Lucy's stories. It's what the narrator thinks are Lucy's stories. It's what we think the narrator thinks are Lucy's stories. It's what we think the narrator thinks are stories that Lucy thinks are her's. You see, Lucy took 70 hits of acid in one

2003-03-16T01:28:00.000-06:00

Impressions Axolotl - Julio Cortazar This is a descriptive piece, where the author brings our attention to the voice of the narrator, and then swaps the characters and the voice simultaneously. Curiously, I didn't know the gender of the narrator, until after the shift, when the fish starts refering to the original narrator with a masculine pronoun. I believe there was nothing in the story

2003-03-15T17:55:00.000-06:00

Impressions The Halfway Diner This is a story about a group of women who make a weekly 12-hour journey by bus to visit their partners in prison. This is a story about their lives, intertwined, through the forced togetherness of space and purpose. This is a story about unlikely, tenuous friendships that cross social and racial boundries, and that would otherwise be entirely implausible outside

2003-03-15T17:37:00.000-06:00

Impressions The Blues Ain't No Mockingbird - Toni Bambara This is a very intimate piece written from the point of view of a small child. It is intimate, because it is told in the colloquial. The setting is the south. The county is making a documentary (a survey?) for the food-stamps program, and two men, dubbed "Camera" and "Smilin" by the children, are intruding at Granddaddy Cain's place,

2003-03-15T17:02:00.000-06:00

Impressions A Conversation With My Father - Grace Paley and Happy Endings - Margret Atwood Both pieces are an introspective, solipsistic look at writing, and to a certain extent, the process of writing. In the Paley piece, the author is asked by her old ailing father to write a "simple story", about "recognizable people". In the first draft, she produces a mere paragraph about a mother who

2003-03-15T16:41:00.000-06:00

Impressions The Druvy Girl - Sam Lipsyte Very slick, very economical prose, with a lot of dialogue that sets a fast pace. It's written from the point of view of a pre-pubescent boy whose father is suffering from cancer. A lot of the humor in the piece is injected by the father's voice -- dry, cynical and fatalistic -- and by the boy's quietly observant, recalcitrant tone of one who's growing

2003-03-15T16:11:00.000-06:00

On Trip-hop Morcheeba, Massive Attack, Portishead. Have a strange effect on me. And I like it... :)

2003-03-06T15:40:00.000-06:00

Goran Bregovic Is the bomb! Wow! Just got introduced to the soundtrack of Emir Kusturica's "Underground" (1995). Blew me away. This is the stuff. It's a curious mixture of Jazz, Ska, Gypsy, Russian Cosack (if there's such a thing) and drum-n-bass?!! It's very danceable. For the first time, I feel like going to Europe! To the underground clubs of Serbia...

2003-02-26T03:00:00.000-06:00

A Pivotal Decision In retrospect, even in retrospect, you wouldn't call it a pivotal decision. He'd just succumbed to his day-long craving for a little pau bhaji, and had decided to make the 20 minute detour to Honest Corner on his way home from work. It was really in the direction away from home, and he knew Ammi would be worried, but he really had to go. Plus, it'd been a few days since

2003-02-26T01:41:00.000-06:00

On "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" Written in the second person. The author is simply the narrator, not a character in the story. The author addresses the reader as "you", for example, "...I fear that Omelas so far strikes some of you as goody-goody." The effect is that of being transported into the midst of things in Omelas, having a tour guide take you around town, and then actually

2003-02-20T01:57:00.000-06:00

In an extended moment of insomnia...

2003-02-19T06:40:00.000-06:00

Rising Diphthong