funeral

Today was a heart breaking day for me. I attended the funeral of a friend/aquaintance that I met during one of the tamil sangam's events. Death is the ultimate reality for all of us and it is something that we all understand the exact same way. The funeral was rather quiet, for an Indian one, but I am tempted to think everyone must have wept uncontrollably in the last week. The person passed away last week. It is very hard to come to terms with the fact that the body & soul don't exist anymore. Cancer could be very traumatizing, both for the person and for the family. His wife was one of the bravest in the hall, I guess she must have been through enough. I pray that he rests in peace and his family finds peace.

I sometimes wonder what kind of a life this is and why we all need to go through this, to ultimately end in death. What's the purpose? Why should we all be subjected to this? I guess I won't know.

Bad times.

My day didn't go very well on Monday. It was pretty bad. Though I have now, some additional knowledge of how the brain works, I couldn't help but feel disturbed on that day. My Canon rebate ($620) was about to be declined because of some stupid error "purchase made outside qualifying period". I kept calling them, but got absolutely no response. Timewarner charged us more than what we are supposed to pay for the monthly bill. Their reps started yelling at me for calling, as if they're the one who are pissed. We purchased paneer cheese from a neighboring store that turned out to be stale and we met with a pretty strong attitude when we tried to return it. The guy didn't take it back and suspected us for being careless and let the paneer rot away. I wonder how to deal with such people and what's happening to all the customer satisfaction and service in this country. Work didn't go too well either, can't elaborate on it here. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I thought I'd watch some DVD and go to sleep, but the DVD got stuck in the player. That was the end of the day...I just crashed after that.

Further developments in the last couple of days would be, my canon rebate problem seems to have been fixed and being processed now. The cable company accepted their fault (subtly though) and said they'll waive the downgrade charge and refund the money. The paneer story remains the same, I haven't tried to contact the store again.

Movies that I've been watching

I have been watching some really good movies lately. Movies that even challenge my dream to become a director ;) don't worry, it's only a dream yet. Pursuit of Happyness, Blood Diamond, Mozhi, Last Kiss, Happy Feet and so forth.

Pursuit of Happyness: I don't know how better acting can get! Will Smith has done a terrific job in this one. Very touching, real life inspired story. Highly recommend. I am looking out to buy the DVD sometime.

Blood Diamond: I have become a fan of Dicaprio and he definitely doesn't disappoint in this one. I like movies made in Africa in general, so I did like this one too. Their life seem so different to us, to the extent that it is a different world out there. People kill each other for stuff that people buy outside Africa. Jennifer Connelly was also great in the movie. Lot of violence and good acting.

Mozhi: This was a surprise winner. I really loved the movie and all of its cast and the direction. Prakash Raj has chosen a really nice movie to produce. Highly recommend this one. The beauty of the movie is that they've interspersed comedy throughout to make a heavy subject appear light. Kudos to the director for coming up with a theme like this one.

Happy Feet: I liked it overall, but it wasn't like finding nemo or Monsters Inc. I guess you can't replicate the ingenuity of these two movies anyway.

Last Kiss: Based on Will Smith's recommendation, I picked up another movie directed by the director of Pursuit of Happyness. He is actually an Italian director and directed this movie a few years ago. Last kiss is a fast paced comedy that deals with the intense emotions of men that want to avoid growing up. The movie ends on a high note.

Rebate status

My rebates almost got lost in the 'mail'. I had sent it via certified first class USPS mail with delivery confirmation. I thought I did a pretty good job of it, with the usual paranoia. Only, the paranoia came true in the unexpected channel. The mail was never delivered. I kept calling USPS to figure out what's going on until one angry representative yelled at me on friday saying that it might have been lost in transit and I'll have to file a claim. I was so pissed off. I decided to handle things directly with Canon and called them and made them escalate my rebate matter. I don't know what they have exactly done 'cause I still haven't received the "within 72 hour call" from them. Regardless, I have faxed them my documents. This morning I receive an email from USPS saying that they have delivered it. Funnily, yesterday I had filed a complaint with them. Now, the battle is between myself and Canon's rebate center. Let's see what happens.