1615 RegentW

Cheap food. Not all that great. Don’t go. Full of families, some of them extended, trying to economically stuff their faces which is great and fun to see. Very few couples. Huge restaurant. I have never seen that much seating. Nothing tasty though. Salad ok. Dessert not bad at all. In between not so good. Fried chicken the saddest thing I’ve ever had. No fruit juice! Only pop. Yuck.

2/5

So I was one day late this menstrual cycle. Not very long. However I am not usually late. I was further concerned because I messed up a little with the tiny pills this month. In those 24 hours though I saw my life tip one way and then tip back to the current stream. Have you ever watched the movie Sliding Doors? Anyways, things are back to normal. Would I have wanted a child? Yes and no. I wish I was in a position in my life where I felt comfortable having a baby. I wish I was done school. I wish I had started working somewhere long enough to be qualified for maternity leave. At the same time I am really enjoying marriage without kids. I think I have some learning to do before I can be a mom.

Today my advisor ordered a rather expensive 4 channel arbitrary signal generator for me and I had a real tough time with it. I silently screamed in my office for a while. Triple checked all the specs. Called up Tipu so I could vent some. I realized how much was being invested by everyone in my life in terms of time, patience, resources, etc and I got overwhelmed. I met a Phd student at the grad lounge where I went for quiet reflection and deep breaths. When I told him why I was freaking out he said, “Wow, that must be nice, after 2 years without funding and 7 years total with my advisor he recently got me a printer for my office”. I know I am blessed.

An appreciated quiet and calm movie about the events that took place a decade ago. Tony Blair had just been elected and Princess Diana had just very tragically passed away. The Queen was very insistent that all the arrangements relating to Diana would remain private, meaning unroyal. However public opinion swelled in grief and demanded more from the Queen than she had been trained to give. Ofcourse we’ll never know what events and conversations took place at that time so we’ll never be able to judge the authenticity. Helen Miren won an Oscar for her role as Queen. In her acceptance speech or in later press junkets she thanked the Queen for allowing this film to be made. She said in a lot of places in the world such things would not be possible. I do appreciate that but I don’t think the Queen could have stopped the movie if she wanted. She probably had the good sense not to even try. Could you imagine a movie about the house of Saud?

Tony Blair is projected as the voice of modern reason. I’m not sure whether he would be thought of as favourably now. Prince Charles seems like a fool. In the shadow of his mother, never speaking out but clumsily manipulating in the background. The Queen’s husband seems like a grump. The boys, Diana’s sons, are always at a distance from the camera. The Queen is worried about them but never seems to talk to them. She just arranges hunting activities with her husband for them.

4/5

Didn’t really want to see this movie. I wanted to see Dreamgirls. However I was nice enough to accept Tipu’s choice. I really need to stop being nice. So the movie was fine but I wasn’t really in the mood for a political violent movie with a retardedly selfish and stupid Scottish personal physician of the psychotic Idi Amin of Uganda in the 1970s. Acting was good. Things seemed historically correct. The angle of the Scottish physician was made up I believe but the other events throughout the movie are verifiable. I succumbed to Tipu’s choice because I wanted to see Forest Whitaker’s performance. He won an Oscar for his role.

I have to tell you that movies like Last King and Blood Diamonds are not doing much for the tourism industry in Africa. Right after the movie Tipu goes “Wow, we’ve got to go to Africa”. I’m like “Uh huh… sure… whatever”. What pissed me off was that Idi Amin died in exile in Saudi. According to Wiki he was “Muslim”. Atleast in the movie you couldn’t tell he was Muslim. So the night was a complete bust. I need to see a frilly movie. I had snuck in a bean burrito but was too disturbed to eat it. I love sneaking in food. Once we got in with a medium sized pizza still warm in the box. Popcorn is boring. I refuse to pay that much for popped corn. In the past we’ve brought in chicken nuggets, burgers, chocolate cake, chips, gatorade, milk and cookies. Next time I’m gonna try and bring samosas I think.

3.5/5