Effects of a Stupid Rule!

The pictures explain it all

Siva Sena ppl on roads with TRADITIONAL headgear in the protest march!

Effects of a stupid rule on a handsome young man

Don't know why am against(yeah am against this crime which makes me look like an idiot) this rule which is supposed to save lives. But then the guys who ruled from the courts in Kochi will have no idea how uncomfortable and clumsy these CHATTI helmets are, would they? These things were designed for one purpose and that was to save the head of the wearer from injuries and i feel they do justice to that role. In addition to protecting one's life they also help guys(and their girlfriends) who want to hide their identity from the glaring eyes of the public.

But then the major headache comes when we go to buy one of these. One friend was telling that the queue in front of the helmet shops reminded him of the queue he saw in front of New theatre for the tickets of Sivaji, if not more. The major problem facing the riders is that the helmet prices have increased overnight and the govt is taking no action against traders exploiting the situation by levying excess price from consumers. Helmets that used to be priced around 450-500 before the ruling suddenly jumped to the 700-800 price range. This time the shop owners aren't that lucky because the last time this rule was implemented(in 2003) the condition was that ANYONE who's in a two wheeler has to have a helmet, even the pillion rider. Thankfully the court somehow spared the pillion riders this time.

Lets look why the Honourable High Court of Kerala came up with such a ruling in short notice. Well first of all wearing helmets is COMPULSORY under the rule 347 of the Kerala Motor Vehicle Act. So till now the govt. hadn't implemented it because it caused a lot of trouble for the motorists to wear it and take it around. Even now while implementing the ruling from the court, the Hon Home Minsiter Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has given strict orders to police not to harass two-wheelers in the name of helmet. The main issue here being that the policemen are liable to fine a motorist without a helmet Rs 100. But trust me the minister's ruling has been obeyed strictly, i'll say even stricter than the court's directive. Nowhere in the city will one be seeing a policeman checking if the riders are wearing helmets or not. Seems even the police dept doesn't want that 100 bucks from the riders. But this same court had in 2003 said that effect of the Rules and the Act was that the driver and pillion rider were "under the obligation to wear a protective headgear''. So i don't know how long this is going to stand.

Rules stipulate that the helmet should be of ISI standard. But the people who buy never care and we can see numerous non existent brands coming up with all kinds of shapes and sizes. Its like the "Make hay while sun shines" syndrome. Traders are fleeing the customers till the rule is there and i can't see an end to that exploitation.

Would like to hear what you all will say. I just wish this is repealed as soon as possible.

PS: People will start a community for anything these days. Proof for it is the I Hate Helmet community in orkut.

A later addition i got today:

Thought ppl should see this!

Sivaji-The Boss, whose boss i ask!

Today i had the privilege to watch a Rajni film on its first day. To be honest am NOT a big Rajni fan. No not even a small one. I just find his antics funny and YES there are some of his films that i adore for their story and for the style. We can't go for a Rajni film expecting it to have a logical story or a stunt that is close to what can happen actually, NO. My 1st Rajni film was Muthu if i remember and that was a film that i didn't like that much. Mainly coz of a basketball stunt. For guys who have seen the film, you'll know what am talking about. Till date the best Rajni film i have seen is Baasha. That had the amazing dialog "Naan oru dhadavai sonna nooru dhadavai sonna madhiri" (நான் ஒரு தடவை சொன்னால் நூறு தடவை சொன்ன மாதிரி) - for non tamilians it translates to "If i say it once, Its equal to saying it a hundred times"(don't curse me if i got it wrong). That was a dialogue that created waves and still is the 1st thing that comes to mind when Rajni comes to mind.

Coming to Sivaji:The Boss. I didn't plan to go for the film till today noon. Mainly coz i had a series of examinations and didn't have the time to stand in the serpentine queues for the tickets and all the fuss associated with it. Also as i said before am not a BIG fan who'd go for the 1st day's show. But luck struck me when Rakesh called up today around noon and asked if i will be willing to come for the film's 6 PM show. I said no probs boss as long as you can get the tickets. So i got ready to go and was supposed to be there at 530. I had to face a slight drizzle on my way and by the time i reached there i was fully wet. Then we waited for Rakesh's contact to show up with the tickets. Then i got the news that there were 3 tickets for the 3 of us(Me, Varun and Rakesh) but 2 were in the balcony and 1 was in the reserved category in the ground floor. I hadn't planned to sit in the ground floor, but then Varun's puppy face look and the dialog "you selfish guys planned to dump me" made me grab the ticket and get in the ground floor seat. The theatre was New, supposed to be the BEST in the town(I'll come to that later) tried to get a seat as back as possible and succeeded in getting a 3rd row seat(from the back) in the middle row. The seat was bw two chain smokers and i had a pretty bad time. Even before the film began the guy on right had done wth 2 and the one on left 1.

Warning Plot spoiler follows:(don't cry later on, or come to beat me up)

The film began by 645. The intro was simply too good, the audience jumping around throwing bits of papers. I was like "Thalle Thiruvanthorathu itreum paandikalo" :O. After the intro they showed Rajni who's a US returned "Senior Software Architect" supposed to be in his early40's(yeah you read it right, 40's for a guy who's 67). 1st thing i couldn't digest was that fact. He looks around 40yish(at the minimum) with all the makeup and the paunch make him look very old than 40's(even for a software GEEK that he is). He's back in India coz he's TIRED making software for the computer giants of the world and wants to invest the money for the improvement of our Indian society by building colleges and hospitals for the poor where education and treatment is free of cost. BTW he's earned about 250-300 CRORE from his great software skills. He shows this off by giving a 500 rupee note to a begger in the opening minutes of the film. Wish we had more NRI's with so much money and such noble thoughts. He finds it a tough deal to start colleges and hospitals and the story is good in this part coz it shows that corruption is rampant in the nation and even if someone wants to start something new for the welfare of the society he has to pay bribes to get his way through.

Then comes the search for a girl to marry for this ELIGIBLE BACHELOR. He needs a girl who's having TAMIL in her looks, thoughts and ways. He finds that in Shriya, our heroine, who's unfortunately not impressed by the hero's wealth and style(rather too much of it). So the story takes a break and Rajni is busy pursuing Shriya in the movie till the interval. I didn't like many of the songs in the 1st half mainly cause they were just there for the sake of having a song. I really felt bad at the Music too. The film just goes on and on without much progress in the hero's plans to build the university in his name, except the moves to get the building sanctioned and paying bribes to people starting from the panchayath officer to the chief secretary. He starts off well and by the interval the villain makes sure that he gives up all his hopes and our Rajni is on the road without any money, except a 1 rupee coin given by the villain as a sign of being the bad guy. Maybe i felt like this because i was waiting to pee for a long time and just wanted the interval to come ASAP. But then that's what I FELT.

Now the facilities @ New theatre's ground floor have been really bad from time immemorial or maybe i felt so coz this was the 1st time i was sitting in the ground floor there. But the queue for the toilet was very long and i was having a BIG problem. I wish the management took note of this and did something to improve the facilities. I felt pretty bad more coz the ticket rates were 10 more than the usual 30 for a reserved seat(40 for reserved and 50 for balcony). Still there was no change in the pathetic conditions.

Now during the interval there was a FIGHT(real one) near the doorway and fortunately i was just watching it from the confines of my seat and from what i saw, i'll never trade seats with the guy who was made a poster on the wall by a huge, burly, dark guy. He looked like one of the gunda's from the film. But as soon as the film restarted, the fans had a truce and all settled to watch the movie.

In the 2nd half we see how Rajni uses the same coin that he got from the villain to screw up the villain's life and then how he earns more and more money and builds up his dream infrastructure. We see his empire expanding to many places and how he uses his muscle power and mind power(i don't know if i can call it so) to get things done his way. Here Rajni uses his laptop and formulates plans to eek out the black money from all the big industrialists and politicians and convert it to good money and invest in his Sivaji Foundation. The laptop has a kool voice recognition software(designed ofcourse by the gr8 NRI himself) which is of importance in the later stages of the film. The songs in the 2nd half are much better than those in the 1st half. I liked "Sahana Saaral" and "Athiradee" quite a lot. Really felt some good effort was given by Rahman in composing these songs. The picturisation was also awesome, especially "Sahana Saaral". The props and set used in this movie are mind blowing and its very evident in this song where we see a set of glass pyramids and cubes, the size of the one in front of the Louvre museum in Paris and the Apple Retail store @ New York.

Glass pyramid @ the Louvre, Paris

Apple store on 5th Avenue, New York

In the end the movie has a surprise and that is something that i could guess about 30 mins before it happened. There was a slight hint about the surprise in the middle and a character was introduced in the movie just for this. The end is usual all out fight ending with Rajni killing the villain and returning the coin in true Rajni style.

The movie has its share of Rajni one-liners, stunts and Rajni tricks(what els to call them?). We see the usual sun glass trick, the coin trick and a new addition is the shifting the gun from right hand to left(which am sure all have seen in the trailer). We also have the amazing set of stunts that defy gravity and often logic; like Rajni getting away with a scorpio with Shriya beside him by doing a wheelie(that too front wheels, ON A 4 WHEELER), Bullet slowing down as it approaches Rajni(think its coz of the repelling magnetic effect that he has on the bullet). Also they had a kool full form for BOSS-Bachelor Of Social Service.

But this maybe the 1st film where in addition to Rajni we see the heroine, SHRIYA doing one that outshines all the tricks and stunts that Rajni does. Its like this, during the 1st half when Rajni's after her; he says that he'll jump in front of a train and die if she doesn't agree for marriage. He stands on the tracks and the train is approaching. Our heroine is watching all this from above the bridge and then she walks off. Now Rajni was putting up a bluff, but now he was really stuck there as his foot got bw the tracks. Rajni is katta desp and the audience prays something happens like a lightning strike or a earthquake that derails the train. But what do we get, we see Shriya jumping onto the track and waving her shawl that was RED (what a coincidence) and the train driver gives in and stops. The guy next to me had a better theory saying "Who wouldn't stop if those were on display". Hats off to Shirya as she's done her part to be a co-star with Rajni.

Vivek rocks in the film as Rajni's UNCLE(yeah you read it right). He has the precise timing and the dialogues that he says are truly for the fans rather than adding meaning to the story. 10/10 for him.

Also forgot to mention, the 1st song is an ITEM NUMBER by Nayanthara. She's changed a hell lot. Now she's much slimmer than she was in Vallavan or the other films.

The Art Direction is truly amazing and hats off to Thota Tharrani for the amazing sets and props, will give 10/10 for that. But that's like standard fitting in a Sankar film. His films always have a message for the public, may it be Gentleman, Indian,Boys or even Anniyan. All have some message that's to be absorbed and i really enjoy watching his films. I will give 6.5/10 for the music by Rahman. The songs don't have the refreshing feel that Rahman's music used to have. Even now when one hears the sweet melodies in Roja or the fast paced numbers in Boys its a great feeling, that is something that lacks in Sivaji's music. The cinematography is pretty good and we get to see some amazing camera work in the stunts and the songs. 10/10 to K.V. Anand for that amazing work. Editing was spot on and i didn't see any glitches even with the elaborate action and song sequences. 10/10 to Anthony for that. I didn't find anything worth mention in the choreography, but was shocked to see that it was done by Prabhudeva and a few others. Maybe coz Rajni really shows his age, they skipped the fast steps.

The film will earn millions by the time the next one comes and that was pretty evident when more than 300-350 people turned up in the queue for the SECOND SHOW. The film ended at 10pm and we were terribly hungry by then. We went and had a ghee roast each and a coffee to do away with the sleep. But i couldn't think about sleeping replaying the stunts again and again in my mind till i reached home.

This is what all that remained of the ghee roast and the ticket.


Overall 7/10 if you look at it from a film's point of view, but 15/10 if you are a Rajni fan.

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

This piece was presented as Kurt Vonnegut's commencement address at MIT in 1997. It's great stuff, but apparently it wasn't written or delivered by Vonnegut. It's still a beautiful piece...

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

But actually this is not the commencement speech @ MIT in 1997, In fact, the commencement speaker at MIT in 1997 was Kofi Annan and the supposed Vonnegut speech was an article published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997 by columnist Mary Schmich. It is also known as Wear Sunscreen or Sunscreen Speech. It's an essay actually called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young"

The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited to Baz Luhrmann.

To know more about Kurt Vonnegut click HERE.

To get the song Click HERE.

To get the actual press report click HERE.

Now to answer questions as to why i am posting all this in my blog; it's quite simple and a sad fact. Its coz my college life ends in 19 days and 12 hours and some precious seconds. I put this as a post in my blog coz the speech makes a lot of sense, i got hold of this speech at 1st when i was browsing through videos on YouTube after uploading the video that Nikhil, a classmate of mine had made from the collection of pictures from the past four years of our college life. Its been a saga that i just can't tell in one post. I have mentioned a lot of things that have happened over the past years through a post some months back. Now it hits me how hard it is to leave college.



This is that video, trust me it will take you back to your college days(or school days for juniors). Great work macha! Hats off to you!

So as i said while uploading this video i was browsing through various other videos that were in the genre of "last days @ college", "Life @ college" and so on, and like many other things the IITians came on top for this too! They have the most outrageous collection of videoz about their life in those "temples of engineering", than any other college will have. Maybe it's due to the mega wide bandwidth they get their for free, but even then kudos to the guys who take time out of their ultra-tight schedule and make these videos.



This is the video that made me look for this speech. Hats off to you guys too!

Talking about speeches. Till date the best speech that i have ever heard was the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at the Stanford University.

It goes something like this:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.....

You can get the rest of it HERE. I got to hear this speech for the 1st time at a quiz which Abhilash sir conducted some years back. It had been a tremendous source of inspiration from that day onwards. It makes me feel that anyone can be anything if they follow their dreams.

So the point of this whole blog, well; I don't know. Though i will share something useful that i found at 3 am in the morning! Still interested?? Check out my fav videoz HERE.

It really hurts to bid adieu to my alma mater for the past 4 years.

Effects of an Accident!

Let the pictures speak for themselves!

This is what an Accident can turn a Perfectly Smart and Handsome young man into!

For the attention of morons : Both pictures are of the Author! Don't think they are 2 diff people!

PS:Picture was taken by a very good friend of mine who supported me all through this: Deepa ,i owe u one!

Confessions of a Fast driver

Many will say that i am writing this post coz finally god put some sense in me while i was languishing in a hospital bed due to an accident that i met with last week. Well many will disagree with the title of the blog saying that am not a fast driver but then a RASH driver. Well i am a person who says that i like to do anything fast and even mention it in my Orkut profile and i do make it a point to show off with my AMAZING ability to drive my bike at extreme speeds. I believe that anyone can go at any speed if he can control the vehicle he's driving. For some people the speed at which they might feel secure maybe 40-45, for others it may be 50-60 and even 70-80 for a minority. If Schumi can put his Ferrari F1 race car through speeds exceeding 300 kmph why can't someone who's a lot LESS talented(like me :P) drive in a ordinary bike at 70-80 kmph?

Some will say that to drive fast is a way to show off. I would say yes and no to it. Yes when it comes to certain occasions. Well i don't know how to put it, but then most guys who drive fast actually don't care if there are people looking at the way he's driving or not. Atleast i don't. Basically not many gals(those i know) like guys who drive fast. The whole world curses us when we cut through a small gap or zip past a busy traffic block. All turn around or crane their necks to curse "Where the F___ does he think he's going" or even worse "He's gonna crash for sure". So it's with all these things upon one's head that he drives.

You might be thinking am just including the guys in this Fast drivers list. Well i do know a very very small number of gals who drive fast and do fall into the 50-60 speed range. But then you don't see many gals driving in Tvm, and of the one's who drive fast there are 10 times that number who drive slow and are a pain in the @$$ for the other drivers. So coming back to the main point, this post is not a JUSTIFICATION as to why i drive fast. It's just that i heard so many people criticize about my driving when i was in the hospital.

Some said i was too fast and didn't have any control, others said that i am fast but good at driving; still one can't say when anything can happen. Then there were others who were like "i knew he would crash someday with his driving". Well i really wanted to say "F___ off" and wanted to really cut their nuts off! Here i am lying in a hospital bed and all they can say are stories of how fast i drive and that too after coming empty handed into the room. Is there a better way to be rude??

Now the objective of this post was to tell what all one will suffer when he decided to join the elite club of people who enjoy the wind rustling along their ears as they whisk past busy roads of bask in the sunshine on empty highways. It always depends upon the road too. For driving fast you don't need a really great bike. Those who have seen my bike or have driven the model will testify that its not anyone's dream machine. But it does have it's kicks and given the day it can give any pulsar a run for it's money(unless it's a highway).

The risks involved in driving fast are enormous. Most damaging one's being the 1's being the injuries that can happen to a person who's driving fast and then has a crash. The problem becomes even more complex when you weigh a lot and this adds onto the momentum when u have the fall.


There can be people waiting to come and hit you with their bikes/cars/vans and then cause you to have the fall. That's what happened with me. It was early morning. Time was 6:00 AM when i left home for the railway station to catch the 635AM Parasu express to go for a quiz @ Kayankulam. The quiz was a personal favourite of mine coz of two reasons:

1) Our team had won prizes there for the last 2 years and this was our 3rd and final chance.
2) For readers who have read my very 1st posts in this blog. This was the college that gave me the incident to write a post about THE GAL.

At 610 AM or so i reached Nalanchira junction and saw that a guy was on the wrong side and i thought he was gonna go for a side road and so i didn't really expect him to suddenly swerve towards me and then hit me. After the crash the momentum thngy hit me hard. I was at some 50-60 kmph and he was at 40-50. I hit the road with face 1st and had a broken tooth. He had a broken finger and that's it. Even if i was driving perfectly i had the larger share of injuries. That dude was out of the hospital at 10 AM and i was in hospital for a week, with 1 more week of REST @ home! 1st thing i did after the accident was to call home and say that i had a accident and asked dad to come ASAP.

As far as i could make out i was pretty ok. I wasn't having any pain and there wasn't any profuse unstoppable bleeding or the like. Next i called the guy who was coming with me for the quiz. Poor Thomas thought it was a small accident and said we can go in the 7 AM train if i am late. I had a hard time convincing him that i can't make it. Then i msgd a few of my closest buddies about the crash and how bad i thought i was. I could sense that i had a broken tooth and that my upper lip was torn coz of this broken tooth. I had a few minor bruises on my forehead and nose and also on my knee. I waited for some 10 mins after which dad came and took me to SUT hospital.

There the doc in the casualty gave me the typical doc-patient look and then said if he stitches me up then i would kill him later on coz my face would be ruined. I admired his guts for a poor joke even when faced with a problem. Maybe that's why he was in the casualty. After that he did some preliminary cleaning and applied some medicine and patched me up for a scan to asses any internal damage. Fortunately i didn't have any and i was shifted to the Neuro ICU. Their i was fed 2 IV lines and had some bottles of fluids injected into my body. The doc came and the only real pain i suffered in the whole hospital episode came then; when the doc gave me local anaesthesia to give me the stitches on my upper lip. I vinced in pain and even went upto the extent of pushing the doc's hand off. After that i had 2 pairs of soft hands holding my hands for preventing further DISTURBANCES.

Then what i saw really was a kool experience. The doc was sewing my lip like it were a piece of cloth. I had 4 stitches on the outer side and 2 on the inner side. Then i was made to lie down. After this in the evening i was shifted to the room and then 6 days of REST and RECUPERATION.But then it had it's share of goodness as well.

· Like i stayed in a hospital for a few days after maybe 15 years or so. The last time i was hospitalised for any disease was when i was in 2nd std coz of Measles. Maybe its not that good a thing to experience, but i didn't hate it and i welcome any kinda change.

· You get a royal treatment with nurses their to do anything for u(well not ANYTHING!)

· There are nurses to check your BP 4 times a day and to tell the truth, some of them did increase it a notch or two. There are nurses EVEN asking the number of times u had a piss and if you are eating well. ( i loved the concern in those beautiful eyes when they ask that)

· The number of people who visit you and the nice one's even turn up with fruits and other eatables.

· The horrible food that hospitals serve made me say with pride that mom's the best cook.(Still the zam zam guy may beat her in tandoori chicken)

· The celebrity status that you earn when you share rooms with the like of Mohanlal's dad(Sad that he died the day before i came home)

· The relief that comes to your mind when people show their presence to make you feel that they care(nt all, some came to ogle at the nurses)

So am now grounded and dad's planning to sell-off my long time companion and get a 4 wheeler. Now he's knows that i won't be around to drive that the way i drove my bike! So i like the idea of a car at home even though i have to catch the bus to college for the last few days that's left of it. But then coming to think of it, its also for a general good. It was during my walking days that i looked best and had the slimmest of waist sizes. Now 6 inches, 20kgs and 2 years later am still looking forward to a few days when i will be walking from PMG till college.

God knows when i will be back to my old riding days and 100 kmph speeds. It really kills me when i see myself getting up and then remaining in the house the entire day. Ofcourse ther's nuthn tht i can do. But then the days am away from the outside world make me mad, make me feel isolated from the world. Now i know why they say that solitary confinement is the worst punishment. Even when i have access to the internet 24/7 or have the TV with me, it just boils down to one simple truth, no form of media can make do for effective human communication. No amount of Orkuting or chatting can replace meeting friends in the real place. It just can't be done! I used to feel the other way round till now, but i feel that the 7 days i spent in the hospital with my mom and the nurses around me were far better. Even if it's just two days into my REST @ home, i am already suffocating with the noxious fumes of being isolated from the world! I just wanna break lose of all these bonds and get out of this place as early as possible!