Not Much Use Being The Early Bird If The Worm Is A Tubelight.

So I was going to post all the configurator screencaps I had because I have stupid repetitive graphs to plot and don't want to, and then I realized I'd forgotten one shot and went back to the Aston Martin site...and then I saw that in the Virage configurator they'd moved that damned ugly circular angle-control thing discreetly to one side.
Possibly they have plans to do that for the rest as well.
So I'll have to make time to screencap all of them again.
Also now the Vanquish has turned up and damnit.
Damnit. 

PS. You still can't configure a One-77, even though they've all been sold. Aston, you stolid matter-of-fact stick-in-the-mud petrol-fuelled Brits, you.

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This Is Not My Cup Of Lassi.

Bol Bacchan was ridiculously fantastic (see also: fantastically ridiculous). If half the thought that went into this film were put into relatively serious movies...we'd have better serious movies (in other words, not utter bilge like Teri Meri Kahaani.) Not only was the movie hilarious (though it had its crass moments - got to please the galleries, I guess, but they can be survived by pretending they don't exist), it also had a clear message about religious tolerance, and even a sneaky little one about gender equality.

Also it displayed a delightfully surprising awareness of how the inherent anthropomorphism of vehicles can be used to further a visual goal. It's like the rule of three: you can use cars to enhance the comedy of a comedic situation or the drama of a dramatic one, or anything in between. This used the former: Ajay Devgn's cars (Scorpio?, Elantra, some kind of Toyota SUV which wasn't an Innova or Fortuner) all had exactly the same expression he did. And the backup Scorpios all looked exactly like stoic all-brawn-and-no-brain flunkeys should. It was hilarious. I get the impression it's Mr Devgn himself who gets the car thing (Lambo racing at Buddh International what?), but I've never seen such frankly brilliant understanding of their body language onscreen before. Respect, good sir.

Incidentally, discussion of Indian comedy films in general is the only context in which it's possible to say 'Well, I prefer grammar to sex.'

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Impartiality? When Dealing With Chauvinists?

No. No, science is not a girl thing. Nothing is a girl thing - or a boy thing, for that matter. Cars are not a boy thing, computers are not a boy thing, Sanskrit is not a boy thing: nothing that involves logic is merely a boy thing, and nothing that involves passion is merely a girl thing - either gender can possess both. And any field can involve both. Then again, men in music don't seem to face that many stereotypes, do they?

There is no such thing as an '[insert gender here] thing'. You're your own individual: you don't have to be a brash leather-clad cricket fan if you're a boy, and you don't have to wear miniskirts and goggles and lipstick if you're a girl, let alone if you're a female scientist. You can be a female scientist if you like to wear miniskirts and goggles and lipstick, but you can also be one if you wear denim - or even if you are the kind of quirky person people think all scientists are. You don't have to conform to any stereotype in order to be, well, anything.

Science doesn't bloody discriminate. I'm sorry, European Union, but Jim Kirk had it right. There's only one kind of woman - or man, for that matter: you either believe in yourself or you don't. 

For the moment, Cain out.

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