Of this and that..

I hate days like today when I do not have much to do at work.I got a latte from Starbucks, checked my email and did a blog roll round-up all of which took less than an hour.I now sit at my desk in front my computer, fighting the strongest urge to go back home and plop myself in front of the TV and watch three of my most favorite shows on TV : Project Runaway , Top Chef and So You Think You Can Dance.Lord,I am so addicted to these shows!I can watch reruns after reruns without the slightest hint of boredom,a privilege that was reserved solely for M*A*S*H until now.Blame on it on the Direct TV recorder.

One thing that gets my goat is how the fact that three out of four of the final contestants on Top Chef are women, has created such a huge controversy.In the previous seasons,the male chefs have always dominated the competition although there has been one female finalist in all seasons.Scores of people from all over the country have been leaving comments on the official Top Chef blogs as to how the TV channel,by design,chose to have more women contestants in the last stage of show.I think this is utterly ridiculous.So if the women are outnumbered it is considered natural but if the men are outnumbered, it is considered improbable and an outcome of rigging?The fact of the matter is that these women are outstanding chefs and two out of three of them are clear winners by any standards.Such baseless insinuations are doing nothing but undermining their talent and capacity as a potential Top Chef.

My day started off with some bad news at the doctor's office.Apparently,they have discovered another bulge and this time it is my cervix.That explains the dastardly pain in my neck and shoulders.Like I did not have enough pain already what with bulges in two discs of my lower back.This saga of pain and discomfort has been going on for almost 1.5 years now with no relief in sight.I have tried everything that I possibly could but my situation remains unchanged.I must be doing something weird to cause so many bulges in my spine but I have no idea what and neither does my orthopedic surgeon.According to him, for now, the only thing close to a solution seems to be lot of physical therapy and strong anti-inflammatory medication.Lets see how that works out.

Oh and we went to Russell Peter's show at the Improv.This guy is good!In fact the whole show was very good as the guys who opened for him were really funny too.One of the them was Paul Verghese, whose act I had witnessed not too long ago and I wasn't impressed at all as he was overly abrasive and obnoxious that day.See the USP of these guys is to poke fun at all the different ethnic groups in this country.They capitalize on the misconceptions that Americans have about people belonging to different ethnicities and come up with hilarious material.And both these guys are of Indian origin so most of their jokes are about what it is like to be a desi.Sometimes they tend to go over the top but on this particular day,both guys were at their humorous best!Well Paul more than Russell.I guess Russell lost steam midway as Paul and the other Filipino comic,Edwin something, had done a superb job earlier and their material was very similar to what Russell normally does in his shows.This guy,Russell Peters is so popular that his shows were sold out even without any publicity or advertising whatsoever.And the tickets were fricking expensive at $45 a pop.Good fun it was!