Wednesday, October 27, 2010

One for the Girls

A college girl from Duke University, published her college learning, the circulation of which reached "viral" proportions.

Its not hard to see why, thought it was worth sharing, may inspire others to follow the same route, there are many fine writers and sharp analytical minds in the local blogosphere.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Its that time of the year again...

when the slaving subjects like myself pay our tribute to our lords (aka the Income tax department).

Having a long weekend on hand is ideal for this purpose since one has ample time to trawl through bank statements, salary slips, cursing all the missing pieces of paper, which need to be tracked down.

A couple of years back I hit on the bright idea of setting up a worksheet with all the calculations, so that all I need to do is plug in the figures. This has been a major labour saver and since not a lot changes from year to year my calculation comes out on a jiffy. I've also improved my filing system - previously I used to shove everything into a box and then have to scratch my head to find the various bits and pieces. Now I have envelopes labeled with each tax year for each type of document (bank statements, dividend slips, salary slips etc) and I keep filing the things every month or two. Thus things have become pretty streamlined.

Imagine therefore my horror, when I plugged my figures in and found out that I had to PAY few lakhs as taxes. I don't even have that kind of money in the bank, so spent the entire morning trying to reconcile income and PAYE taxes before discovering that it was merely a problem with the spreadsheet - the Inland Revenue has changed the format of the tax table and I had not amended my worksheet.

Anyway, I now have to pay a sum total of Rs.262 as taxes, so I'm smiling now.

Just hope the large refunds that I claimed last year and the year before were not due to a similar error.......(and no they have not paid, but this might explain the letters they keep sending, asking for more details...).

Anyway will check on that NEXT weekend, I've spent enough of this one calculating taxes. Luckily, I've also learned another trick that comes in handy when dealing with the tax man - take photocopies of EVERYTHING you ever give them - then when they ask for details later you know EXACTLY what to say, HA!.

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Saga

In the beginning there was the sore throat. The sore throat refused to respond so it was dosed with saltwater rinses.

The sore throat duly disappeared, but a cough appeared it its place. And what a cough it was! All day, all night, dry, hacking and persistent.

Finally the cough receded but did not disappear and soon after it started to recede, on came the cold. Sneezing merrily, this went on for two more days. Finally the cold began to recede and the cough returned.

Vitamin c, panadol, saltwater gargles, honey, nothing worked.

Finally went to the doctor, who prescribed a cocktail of drugs. Having read this post decided I would do some research on what I had been prescribed.

Item No. 1: Clavamox. Do google search and get following result "Canine broad-spectrum antibiotic in oral dosage form: oral tablets."

eh?

Approved Uses

CLAVAMOX® (amoxicillin trihydrate/clavulanate potassium) TABLETS are approved for treatment of the following canine infections:

* Skin and soft-tissue infections such as wounds, abscesses, cellulitis, and superficial/juvenile and deep pyoderma due to susceptible strains of the following organisms: β-lactamase-producing Staphylococcus aureus, non-β-lactamase-producing Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus spp., Streptococcus spp. and E. coli.


* Periodontal infections due to susceptible strains of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria.

Hang on a minute, that does not look like what I was suffering from and I'm not a dog.

Lets take a look at the rest

No. 2 Lorid

Search result: Lorid is NOT known to be marketed in the USA. Lorid may be available in the countries listed below.

This looks worrying.

Could it be this?

Loratadine

Introduction


Loratadine is an oral non-sedating H 1-blocker that is similar in structure to cyproheptadine and azatadine, other H 1-blockers.

.....This competitive antagonism blocks the effects of histamine on H1-receptors in the GI tract, uterus, large blood vessels, and bronchial muscle. It does not readily cross the blood-brain barrier...

eerr ok, presumably stops the blocked nose. Lets hope it does'nt do anything else. The blood brain business is worrying, especially since I feel so tired and I can't afford to lose any more brain cells, I'm already short on gray matter.

No. 3 DERIPHYLLIN TAB® [tab]

Belongs to the class of other systemic drugs used in the treatment of obstructive airway diseases, xanthines.

Ok, something else for a blocked nose?

Bricanyl

Main use: Asthma

Yes, But I don't HAVE asthma and never experienced any difficulties in breathing. The doctor asked me this question and I said no, so why this drug?

Anyway the symptoms have eased greatly, feeling much better (one day into the dosage), except for low energy (tackling that by eating chocolate and sweets) and occasional chills, for which I've started panadol again. Hope THAT does not react with this cocktail.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Menagerie

I seem to encounter three types of people with distressing frequency: fools, knaves and thieves.

Definition of FOOL

: a person lacking in judgment or prudence
: a harmlessly deranged person or one lacking in common powers of understanding

A knave

: a tricky deceitful fellow

A thief


One who steals, especially by stealth.


I don't suffer fools gladly, what have I done to be surrounded by them and the even more insidious thieves and knaves?

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The search for intelligent life

Having found intelligent life to be sadly lacking in the beloved motherland and since I am in constant need of regular mental stimulation, have decided to look for intelligent life- in outer space.

Imagine my surprise then, when I discover that I have been beaten in this novel quest. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI to the cognoscenti is already well established.

The UN has established an Office for Outer Space Affairs which is headed by Mazlan Othman a Malaysian astrophysicist, a lady that one newspaper has apparently dubbed the "alien ambassador".

Ok, ET, here I come.

Do you read me? Over. Do you read me? Over.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

A gift to the world

Its been hectic at work. I have just had a chance to look at Monday's papers when a front page story caught my
eye.

"Buddhism, biggest gift of SL to world" read the headline.

Yes, but I thought it came from India?