On Marlon Brando

I am at work. Slowish day. Spent most of the morning driving the old man to work or waiting for him or arguing with him.

I have a lot of respect for him – he is the main reason / factor shaping most of my life’s macro decisions – nearly every skill set i’ve developed / attempted to develop is almost always based around him as the Gold Standard.

But off late i’ve started to get rather disappointed. He is getting more stubborn, annoyingly crude in approach and more worryingly, appears to have sort of shut off several of his regular (in my opinion critical) stimulus receptors.

Add to this growing overall cynicism and slowly but steadily deteriorating stamina and i am going crazy.

P.s - I’ve been trying to locate the best word to describe him. Moustache pete comes close. The ideal word should be a one word alternative for this. Suggestions, anyone ?

Dog poo, O.Röhm & Bating leather

” One of the first uses of enzymes in leather manufacture was in bating. In primitive tanning, bating was accomplished by puering the hides by the use of chicken or dog manure. In this system an infusion of the manure was made with water and added to the limed hide. Although the procedure was easily followed; it was simultaneous with the deliming, and quality control was very difficult. The skill of the bate master at this point was more judging the degree of plumpness of the skins than in recognizing the actual extent of enzymatic activity.

O.Röhm, a good scientist, thought that the best way to improve the quality control was to use an enzyme preparation rather than an uncontrolled material such as manure. Through research he developed the use of an extraction of ground pancreas to obtain enzymes useful as bating materials. The ground-up pancreas, carried on wood flour along with buffering salts and deliming agents, was introduced to the leather Industry as a prepared bate. This ingenious invention was important in the establishment of the Röhm and Haas company, and the leather industry became the father of a great chemical company”

Page 112, Practical Leather Technology, 4th Edition, Thomas.C.Thorstensen

Wonderful little excerpt, isn’t it ?

Ah well! Now you know what i've been reading off late. And for some reason i can't quite figure out i find this book utterly fascinating. More later maybe.

This is the fifth time or sixth time i am starting a post. I’ve lost track and I’ve sort of given up trying to write anything sensible.

A couple of posts were about Zeenat and growing her obsession with this, its ludicrous profile filters, the merits/demerits of the Exchange & OTC markets**  

There was this epic, 1000 word analysis attempting to throw light on why this ridiculous photo is Zeenat’s favorite from a certain picasa album of mine and why this makes her cringe (i look like a ‘pundi’ and a ‘chocki’ she says)

The last one was about her and how gorgeous she looks in Saris. I re-read it the next morning and was too ashamed to post it - It was too,um, descriptive. There is a certain limit after which harmless drooling starts overlapping with plain indecent ogling. And I do have a reputation to protect.

I’l be travelling in April. More or less confirmed. To Hong kong, Brasil, Santiago and Lima. Will be a nice & relaxed trip this one – so there’ll be bursts of sightseeing. Recommendations, anyone ?

Otherwise work is definitely looking up, so is my reading.

P.S - And did i mention this before ? As soon as things settle down i am going to get us a new puppy (a german shepherd) I’ve even decided on his name – Bobo. Rather unimaginative, i know. but still cool, no ?

(** the whole thing is a super fully loaded Malcolm Gladwellish subject. Totally publish-worthy. I swear i’l tackle it, in all its colourful detail someday when i have the free bandwidth)

If all goes according to plan i’ll get through the following in March and April.

• Lose 5 kilos
• Commission water system
• Commission Nitrogen purge system
• 100% Class 100,000 area containment, validation
• Basic site documents
• Atenolol CTD – descriptive parts – Sufficient enough for Non-Reg open part – Complete vendor forms & DMF agreements for the full list of customers in Brasil and Chile.
• Pharma website
• Plant brochure – Multilingual
• Prelim audit  - Mr.S – around 15 March
• Madras 27 March
• 28 – 31 March APLF Hong kong – Agreements for South China, Zheijiang and the Rest of China. – Taiwan – Indonesia – Philippines – Vietnam and Bangladesh
• 10 April – Fatima wedding in Santos/Sao Paolo – Visits to Toledo, Porto Alegre, Goiania and Santiago – 1 Apr to 15 Apr +/- (A is going to be like a Brasilian equivalent of a bridesmaid – yum yum :P)

Each item on this chore list, when actually looked at in finer detail – is a sub-project involving many many hours of work – but all well within the scope of say, 30, 14 hour workdays.

In fact, i can tell you – if i actually manage to execute / convert, say, 75% of these projects before April and maintain a similar tempo of activity over the next 5 years – i swear i’l make enough money to buy vacation homes in Spain, Brazil, Bali & Chiang Mai.

We’ll see, wont we ?