Its that time again- time to get 'scared', only this year it's going to last an entire weekend.
Yep its Halloween again. Though with the upcoming US elections, one doesn't necessarily need to sit through a screening of 'Grudge' to get spooked. Just the possibility that its going to be a repeat of the last election is enough to keep you tensed and at the edge of your seat.
Still its nice eh?
Only in North America would you come across such scheduled days of the year .
Days to-
- get scared,
- give gifts,
- see your relatives,
- say 'I love You',
- buy eggs and hide them,
- appreciate your mom,
- appreciate your dad,
- appreciate the Queen (in Canada),
- appreciate the labour force,
- eat turkey
- wear green

The rest of the days of the year are spent yearning for the above days.

Pretty soon there will be a day 'to hate' too!

Till then, I'm going to put on some grey makeup and false pointy teeth tonight and dance the night away- be like the proles.









Here is an interesting article on Love and fMRI (functional MRI) that appeared on Forbes.
Clearly this one is a leap from what was published on Vogue - a.k.a. pictures with activations in the ventricles (empty spaces in brain)- which gives a whole new meaning to 'madly in love'.
Still, how does such popcorn science get published?! Not only that, people get actual money to do this?! Lets see, $400/scan and they did 17+ scans so $7000 (approx) on just scanning the subjects alone. But clearly people need to know, no matter the cost- what love is!
So what are the results you ask? They are saying that same areas of the brain are involved in 'love for your mom' as 'romantic love'. More so , this love is indistinguishable from lust- in terms of activations atleast. In addition these areas are also 'reward' areas of the brain.
So what have we learned?
a) what people consider love could very well be lust,
b) people fall in love expecting something back (children/money/position/happiness) and
c) ahem loving your mom is the same as loving your bf/gf? yuck!









Waving to Sim ;) Expect your plane is flying over somewhere Here right about now !


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I've been nostalgic lately.......again.
Wondering about the past and how it has shaped the present.
I wonder how differently thinks would have turned out-
- if we had never left bangladesh,
- if the gulf war never happened,
- if we never went back to kuwait,
- if we never moved to canada,
- if I had gone to McMaster instead of UofT,
- if I had switched my major to comp sci like everyone was telling me to,
- if I had fallen in love in those undergrad years,
- if I had never got the work study placement,
- if I never moved out.

I think if the first four things had never happened, I would have probaly grown up more religious, studious and a little more prudish in Bangladesh; become a doctor, had an arrainged marriage, a kid (boy) and been fatter than I am now ;)

I don't know how differently things would have turned out in Canada had I gone to McMaster, but I am thankful that I didn't listen to people and switch my major. I would have been like these poor souls , only Canadian.

All in all, can't say I'm entirely dissatisfied with the way things turned out. I've seen and done a lof of things I'm happy about and some I'm not......still could have been worse...I could have been fatter ;)




Some other infamous Bush statements:
“He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me."
“I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."
“Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling.”
“This very week in 1989, there were protests in East Berlin and in Leipzig. By the end of that year, every communist dictatorship in Central America had collapsed."
“We had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson who's a parent, and a mom or a dad."
“I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here.”
“I firmly believe the death tax is good for people from all walks of life all throughout our society."
“I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah."
“This Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport."
"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right."
“We're making the right decisions to bring the solution to an end."
“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."
and the best “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”





How weird is it that I'm missing my old boss?
She'd been a mentor to me in more ways than one I suppose, even if briefly.






I didn't get a chance to watch the debate last night (4 channels on the TV and one of them being TVO). From the look of things it seems I missed out on some hilarious stuff. Here is an excerpt that pretty much sums it up-

Some poignant moments in last night's foreign policy debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry-

President Bush looked straight into the camera and said, "I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that." I think that makes all freedom loving people sleep better at night.

Kerry showed remarkable vision and discernment by being the first American leader to talk of "Islamic Muslims": "I have a better plan to be able to fight the war on terror by...beginning to isolate the radical Islamic Muslims," he declared.
We agree--those Islamic Muslims are bad enough, and the radical Islamic Muslims are the very worst of the lot. We hope that Kerry will clarify further whom we should be supporting in the "war on terror": the moderate Islamic Muslims or the radical un-Islamic Muslims.

- Shobak.Org (Outsider Asian Voices): The Anti-CNN

The undisputed winner of the first 2004 presidential debate is....?