monday miscellania

sometimes i feel my advisor is completely cuckoo.. he's asked me to write the Introduction and Background chapters to my thesis and the literature review should include at least 50 references and citations, which i must have read myself! evidently he still doesn't know me well enough.. i haven't read 50 papers in 6 years of undergrad + grad engineering!! oh well, either he'll give up and let me use references to papers i haven't read, or i'll give up and read the papers.. what do you think?

watched the new movie 'Four Brothers' this weekend.. i actually liked it, though it did involve a bit of a suspension of reality. mark wahlberg was at his gritty best here, and this movie definitely gave you a very different outlook of the mixed-race suburbs of Detroit that '8 Mile' smartly avoided. the acting was definitely the strongest point of the movie, but the chases and shootouts were pretty awesome too!

those idiots who made 'Sideways' have a lot to answer for. the movie was not bad, but they singlehandedly killed the Merlot range, thanks to all the wine connoiseur-wannabes who are drinking Pinot-Noir and sneering at merlot lovers.. bleeding idiots! apparently merlot sales dropped over 20%, and as a result Bully Hill and Robert Mondavi (two of my favourite vineyards) are looking to cut down merlot production.. grr!!

after 2 years in Buffalo, i still bow down to the unpredictability of the weather here.. it was a pretty chilly weekend in the mid-50s, and the fall jacket made an early appearance. well, the rain and cloudy weather ensured i stayed in and got some work done.

have a great week y'all!