Calvin and Hobbes...

...show why the economy stinks. 

Most religious countries

I would've thought Pakistan would be in there somewhere, but clearly we're all talk and no action where religion is concerned. 

Going Vegetarian

Having tried being a vegetarian before (long ago) I know how difficult it is. I love eating chicken, even more then that I love seafood. The thought of giving up chicken is actually less scary then not ever being able to eat shrimp, prawns or crabs again. Still, I'm thinking of going vegetarian. Here's why:

1. If you haven't already, watch "Meet your Meat". It's a 12 minutes documentary about how the animals we eat are treated, and absolutely horrible. I couldn't watch a large part of it. I know that that may not be how animals are treated/butchered in Pakistan, what with the whole halal thing, but I know that conditions are far from ideal, and I don't think that something we should support. 

2. It's healthier. Every freakin' vegetarian I know is really healthy. They have lots of energy, they glow (literally!) and what with the whole health thing I'm on, I wonder if this is the way to go. 

3. I don't eat a lot of meat as it is. I eat the occasional chicken when it's made in some nice form, not being a big lover of the general home-cooked meals. And I haven't eaten much seafood since I got back from Karachi. I'm thinking I won't even notice the change.

4. I don't want to eat Daisy. So you're wondering, who the hell is Daisy. Well, when I was a kid and read Enid Blyton, she had all these stories set on farms and there was always a cow named Daisy or Buttercup. I've always remembered that, and now (after watching Meet your Meat) all I can think is that I don't want to eat Daisy. 

So, I'm going to try and see if I can be a vegetarian. Usually I only tell people I'm doing something after I've done it (giving up soda, working out, eating healthy) so that no one laughs if I fail, but this is something I think I want to let people know about in advance so I don't get any shocked "you're what!" comments at the next family dinner. I'm going to try this for 30 days first, and if I feel like my reasons are valid after that then I'll keep going till as long as I can. 

WiFi

For all those who know me, my parents complete lack of knowledge about all things techy, and my complete love for all things techy is no news. When I moved home last year, I moved into a home with dial-up internet (horror!) which meant I could barely check my email. Anyway, that was fixed so we now have the PTCL connection which is pretty good, I can download tv shows and stay up-to-date with BSG and Gossip Girl, as well as follow news, play online games, and chat. Cool. 

However, we still didn't have wireless Internet. I work in the living room, which is ok during the day when no one is home, but then once everyone comes back from work the TV is blaring (usually on some annoying channel) so I take my laptop to my room. Since I don't have wireless, I have to keep coming back to the living room to check mail, send documents etc, which is annoying, and distracts me to no end (I end up watching news, or some show, and the living room is really cold as well) and so I finally gave in and got a wireless router.

Since the salesperson was confident I would be able to install it with a little help from PTCL, I didn't think much about it, but when I got home and got everything set up the PTCL customer services girl who took my call was far from helpful. She couldn't figure out why I kept getting random errors and bad connectivity, not to mention why I couldn't set a password and secure the network. Finally, I disconnected the router, waited a few hours for the customer services shift to change, called back, and talked to a guy who after 50 minutes of guidance said that the problem was with the modem they gave me back in August, so I needed to have it replaced. Pisses me off that every time I called up PTCL in the last six months to complain about a connection that was better than dial-up but far from stable, they'd say they were doing maintenance. 

Anyway, today they're sending some tech guys over to fix both the modem and set up wifi. Now I can work out of my warm toasty room without having to watch 'hum sub umeed say hain"!. 

Driving Update

Driving lessons are kinda boring now. We've taken to reversing on the track at the ITP office  (as that's where the test will be), so I see the same track everyday and it's really annoying. Test is on the 10th, yikes!, and the latest news is that we only get one attempt at reversing around the roundabout and parking and if we hit a traffice cone, we fail. There's also a theory exam before that. 

What's fun is that I can now drive the family car if one of my parents is there too, so I do that sometimes. I'm still not over my fear of accidents, but it's getting easier to drive with more confidence. I wonder why I'm learning to drive, the car isn't at home all day anyway...