Speaking of my brother's friends ...

one of them got hit by a car today. In the most freak of accidents. It's so odd that the news has continued to update the story every broadcast but nobody seems to know what actually happened.

Apparently somewhere near Sandy Hollow and Kishwaukeee (where I know the drivers to be crazy), this guy was driving down the street with no breaks on. He saw that this was an issue (Not sure what the deal was with his emergency break or other vehicle features), so he jumped out of the car. That car then proceeded to travel a few blocks until it either A.) crashed into a teen or B.) crashed into a telephone pole, which then toppled and pinned the Auburn high student.

Now, I don't get these discrepancies. One would think you'd be able to tell if a car had impacted him or if it was a pole. My annoyance is this - was the car on fricking cruise control or something? How did it keep going so far with no driver. Why did he not try to steer it into something (where no one would be harmed) before he dipped?

Another sad fact: this kid's parents are supposedly very much out of the picture. So nobody found him until his bus pulled up (did I mention he got critically injured while waiting for the school bus??) and called into 911. So a busload of kids got to traumatized for life there, as they all noticed a profusely bleeding, seriously injured classmate.

He's in critical condition now and though I don't know if I ever met him, I hope he survives because that is just a ridiculous situation and no one ought to die in such a manner.

That's one hot sister

Hi guys,

So I'm deep into a very unattractive phase in my life. Can't decide if that's a double chin I'm viewing the first signs of or if my chin bump/scar from falling in India is disfiguring and puffing up my facial profile. Not that I'm used to extreme male attention or offers for dates - in fact, if ya read my blog, you know it's quite the opposite experience. But life at home is an arid experience. I don't really dress cute to go anywhere (not that those clothes fit as well as they used to) and well, there aren't that many attractive, unattached young men floating around Rockford.

Instead of lines from guys in bars, I'm getting responses from random Indian townies and teenagers. As I've said before, many people assume that I'm a teenager. Despite my new plumped appearance, apparently, my brother's friend have described me as "hot." Not that I've interacted much with them; maybe they're even remembering a more toned, better-dressed version of me. Whatever the case, I received a seal of hotness from a group of 16-year-olds. Score!??? Haha. Oh life, you mock me so. I'd have to be pervy to get excited about that. It's more just slightly flattering.

As for the creepy Indian dudes, it's same old. But they were usually grad students. Now they're my small-business-owning customers. Convenience store guys, gas station owners, and motel clerks. And they're older and unattractive and have nothing in common with me. Except that they've noticed I'm Indian. Which gives them license to ask where I live (WTF?), how long I've lived here (Umm... my whole fricking life), and what I did before I worked at the bank. Nonononono. This is not real-time shaadi.com. I think they assume that since I'm the Southside (where mostly immigrant Indians live), I must be new to the entire experience of Rockford and India. And that their questions will be welcomed because oh my god, I've been dying to find another homesick Indian person in Rockford! Not so much.

Old Minds Think Alike

Working at the bank has been an interesting experience, to say the least. Mainly because the customers are so outrageous. They do things like sign their checks and zoom off from the drive-thru, leaving me to interpret the move as a desire to deposit. Or they ask me if deposit checks are used for withdrawls. Or they ask me to balance their checkbooks. Honestly, the list of ridiculous behavior trails on and on.

Most people are just crotchety and old. They decide immediately that they totally dislike me. I suspect it's cuz of the way I look, I'm not going to lie. Usually the snarl at me and refuse to make small talk, which is fine, sometimes talking to people can be annoying or awkward. They usually whip out some other slip at the last minute or disagree with me for following their directions precisely, so that I have to reverse their transactions or double the time it should have taken. Most of all, the love to pretend they can't read my name tag. Maybe their eyes really suck and they can't but usually they spell it out all crazy Dwver or something, or pronounce it terribly. Then I correct them. And they tell me my name is weird. Or strange. Or different. Today this guy told my name is different, but pointed out that I'm different anyway. Thanks old man for pointing out my non-whiteness. Old people can be a tricky bunch (though some old ladies are real sweethearts who complement me a lot) so I can only think that I some perceive me as a terrorist, or harbor deep hatred for Indian people "stealing their jobs."

Sad. I wish for their own sakes that they would wise up and learn to love modernity. At least, decide to trust machines and invest in a free debit/check card so that they can withdraw money any time they want. And not have to lurk outside the bank before it's open so they can take $20 out of their account. I guess for them customer service trumps convenience. But customer service really only works when you have some one responsive on the other end.

Profiling much?

So I just wanted to get this rant off my chest.

Clearly by now, we all know about the stock market drama. How everything started with the housing industry and mortgage brokering. Essentially, lending people more than they could afford to pay back for houses that were just out of their range is what started us on this path. And then, several banks went under/got bought over. Stock markets around the world started dipping.

Whose fault is it? Well yes, the home buyers had inflated ideas of their assets. The brokers allowed them to start on a path that wasn't right for them. There're a lot of people to blame in this situation.

How convenient then for various politicos to blame it all on the low-to-middle-income minorities. Ya know, those people who through various forms of racial profiling are generally denied loans? Well, according to several infuriating newscasts, it's all their faults. Bankers should have kept up their profiling policies and not allowed these people to take out mortgages that they would never make good on. Because apparently people of color are the only ones who won't be able to follow-through on the sometimes next to impossible. Because why should they be allowed the dream to better themselves.

WHAT?????

The way I see it, low-income people defaulting on their payments isn't going to change the economy. It's the yuppie-types who can only afford half-million dollar houses but decide to go for the million-dollar homes but run into financial troubles and just can't afford that house anymore that make a bigger impact. Really, do we have to blame minorities for everything? I know it's easy and convenient but it's just so demoralizing.

Also, what about low-income white people? How come they aren't getting the blame. Because, historically they aren't profiled as much?

The other day at work, while discussing lending products, my manager used the word profiling in regards to sales strategies. I think he heard himself and tried to take it back, but it was too late. He put it out there and decided to roll with it. That's just something I hate. This whole judging a book by its cover thing, which I'm trying hard to better myself on. That's what the sales world is all about. It was like that at Best Buy and it's like that now. If you're of color or lacking in some other category, apparently, you're just not worth my time.

What's to come

I have a great rant or two, maybe even a celebration of facts to come soon. Right now, I'm tired. Cuz I worked all day and will finish out a 6-day week (as usual) Sat. And maaaaan, my customers are wearing on me.

Reality bites, so here's a rather long escape into fantasy

Well, it's October. I'm still working at the bank and dream internship passed on me. But that does NOT mean I won't keep dreaming, sheming, and reviewing stuff.

Lately, I've been catching a lot of movies on their opening weekends. Usually, I'm cheap and I wait for the Kerasotes $5 club card to kick in, but now that I have some disposable income (I know total denial) and an extreme desire to escape reality, the theater's my main source of entertainment. Since the good citizens of Rockford are understandably more outraged at the high price of tickets and concessions when their economy is crumbling around them, there haven't been too many other people at Showplace other than myself and my fellow escapees Sha'Donna and Mike. And that's great because it allows us to be participatory, which is sometimes just necessary, especially when you're watching Sam Jackson movies.

First up was Lakeview Terrace. This movie is so ridiculous that it's almost amazing. Samuel L. is a crazy racist neighbor who decides to make quiet, suburban LA a living hell for the cute new mixed-race couple on the block. This movie would absolutely not have worked without Jackson. His ability to contort his face into so many degrees of outrage is brilliant. His eyebrows should win an honorary Oscar. The plot is pretty much crap and the other actors do what they can with their roles, but it's all about Samuel L. As Mike said, the movie should have been titled, Samuel L. Jackson is a Dick to His Neighbors. I highly recommend this movie for one of those when you're completely exhausted and require some pure, silly entertainment. Or for a Samuel L. Jackson drinking game party. If you drank every time he raised an eyebrow, you'd be gone in the first 15 minutes of the movie.

Next was Eagle Eye, with Shia LeBeouf and an older woman (not old, just old enough that they made an unlikely pair). If you want an uncomplicated action flick, don't choose this movie. Eagle Eye attempts to be the thinking democratic-minded man's thriller, and therein lies its problem. Thrillers can be political, intellectual even. But they should present tighter, somewhat easy-to-follow (hopefully more plausible) story lines. And go after a few issues, not too many at once. Eagle Eye was like a live-action Wall-E in that it poked fun at society's over-reliance on technology and our ensuing complacency. But Wall-E was so much better. Not only is technology evil (but at the same time more moral than humans) in this dystopian adventure, but government is corrupt. The state of warfare, especially pre-emptive strikes, is also questioned. Plus, there's also a riff on terrorism thrown in there.

Then of course, our main characters have their psychological issues. Inferiority complexes, family drama, and deadbeat dads all make appearances. And though I won't say how the movie ends, it's really quite awkward. Maybe watch it at the dolla theatre.

Lastly, I just saw Blindness Friday. Be prepared, this is an intense movie. Quick breakdown (this is in the trailer, so I'm not giving anything away): pretty much everyone other than Julianne Moore ends up going blind due to some sort of contagion. In an attempt to stop the disease from spreading, people are sent to a prison-camp like quarantine quarters. There, left alone, the three wards are forced to create their own societal order. We see the movie mainly through Moore's eyes, as the only seeing person in the camp. Another dystopian allegorical movie, people start returning to animalistic roots, abandoning their morality, or at least reconfiguring it. This is a great, though incredibly twisted story. And it's made well, though I must warn that it is the most graphic, disturbing movie I have seen in a long time.

It's apparently based on a book, and I'm sure the book is much better, as they always are, but this is an actual thinking man's movie. If you're in the mood to watch complex performances and expand your mind a bit, go see this movie.

WTF

I had the day off today due to the ridiculous out-of-town corporate training I will be undergoing starting tomorrow. But my paycheck came in, so I had to go to work. And everybody knows how annoying it is to go into your place of work when you're not on the clock. It's worse for me considering that I bank at National City too.

Anywhoo, I wound up with 800+ dollars for 32 hours of work. There was no hourly breakdown anywhere on my check, so I don't actually know what I'm getting paid for. Like the pay period ends tomorrow. So am I get paid for tomorrow too? Did I wind up with more than $10/hour? I guess I'll never know. Sadly, the biggest what the fuck came when I saw that $200 had been taken out my check. You know I support social programs. But $200 is a quarter of my money and I don't have enough in the bank to be generous right now.

As I drove home, the old Alanis "Hand in My Pocket" angry girl song came on, and seriously, I think it's the anthem of this time of my life. "I'm sad but I'm laughing/I'm tired but I'm working." So so so true, lady. This about sums up the 20-something breakdown/post-college age of discontent that I one day hope to write about.