a friday fire

thought we'd get an early night in on thursday night.. but the History Channel (not arul, the tv channel) were showing 'Modern Marvels - Distilleries'.. from water and grain.. to mash, still, vat, barrel and bottl - the distilling of alcoholic spirits is a big business and near-sacred religion. its acolytes (us!!) eye the color, swirl the glass, inhale the bouquet, sip, then ponder their ambrosia. what's your pleasure? bourbon, scotch, rum, gin, vodka, or tequila? they traced the history of distilling from the 'one-man/one-still' tradition (awesome eh?!) to the Voldstead Act of 1920 that devastated American distilleries during the Prohibition (damned feds!) to the mega-sales and high-volume distillery of today (there's money to be made in alcohol i tell you!).

then at three in the morning the next show was 'Hooked - The History of Illegal Drugs'!! now this was yet another show worth watching! they went right back some 4,00 years ago to when the first documented use of marijuana, which was Lord Shiva's parties!! in fact, weed was widely accepted as an entertainment drug for long.. until the recession in the '30s, when the FBN (federal bureau of narcotics) under a wider political agenda had it labelled as a 'dangerous' drug, causing its users to engage in violent criminal acts, which is crap because as anyonoe who's ever smoked up knows, it's impossible to be pissed or angry when you're on weed, it's such a mellow trip.. and ever since then, weed's been illegal - damn! what garbage!

friday was a drag.. had an abstract for a term paper due.. posterior capsule opacification (PCO) in intraocular lenses (IOLs) (don't even bother asking me about what that is.. i still don't know!) so i woke up at 11.. ran an EndNote search and got a list of some 500 papers.. sifted through them and came down to around 40.. did a quick literature review and brought those down to a dozen.. then went to get those printed out.. after another scan through, wrote my piece, took a short nap, then went to class.. now this is how i always pictured grad school to be! those who know me well also know that 'optimisation' has been a keyword in my life.. so i never put in any more effort for schoolwork than is the absolutely necessary minimum!!

we'd planned to go watch 'The Terminal' in school in the evening, but before that we decided to drop by the liquor shop to stock up for the impending winter.. 1.5 L scotch (Ballantine's), 1.5 L vermouth (Martini & Rossi) and a bottle of japanese sake too.. and one glass of sake later, the movie plan went for a six! considering it was halloween eve and dussehra, we thought of having a bonfire! we got a few logs, some marshmallows and crackers to make smores and copious amounts of lighter fluid.. had the fire roaring around 8.. then drank some tea and sake.. called in a pizza.. and just talked.. it was awesome!

the boys from 87M also dropped by, with gandhi and some friends of his too.. so we were just chilling out in the secluded backyard.. it was awesome, no traffic noise, no loud frat party crowds, and best of all, no cops either! so we smoked up some pot, drank some more, and were out there until the fire finally faded out at around three-thirty!