Control Alt Delete

Remember the Y2k hype and all that jazz? Well if you don’t let’s get you a reminder. Control Alt Delete is a 2008 movie set in the days just before new year’s day 2000. The movie uses the Y2k ‘problem’ as a backdrop against the personal & sexual problems of a young programmer going through a difficult phase. Directed by Cameron Labine in his debut, the movie stars his brother Tyler Labine along with Sonja Bennet, Alisen Down & Laura Betram.

Lewis Henderson is a computer geek in 1999 who has somehow scored himself a sexy girlfriend named Sarah. However he finds himself unable to couple, all of Sarah’s efforts go in vain. When she sleeps, Lewis goes to his computer and downloads internet porn pictures and masturbates, only being able to achieve orgasm in this manner. At work he applies for a promotion when his boss Angela announces two posts for heading networking & programming respectively. Lewis gets the head programmer’s job while his arch nemesis Gustafson gets the networking job. Their main focus is to save their data from the expected fallout after Y2k hits.

When Sarah finds out about his downloading porn, she leaves him and immediately starts dating again. With no watchful eye and relationship restrictions, his cyber-love increases to hardware love, his sexuality requiring not pictures of people shining on the monitor, but carefully drilled holes in the side of his computer case. This weird sexual satisfaction becomes an obsession for Lewis. He also does it to an office system. Despite this he also manages to get something of an interest in the new receptionist Jane. He asks her out, initially to ward of attention towards him in finding the computer rapist but soon he develops an interest in her. But he is still unable to have sex with her and only using the holes in his computer’s CPU can satisfy him. As New Year’s Day, 2000 approaches, Henderson’s work and romantic issues intensify.

He tries to approach Sarah but she has clearly moved on. He is also getting pressure from his boss (played hysterically & humorously by Alisen Down) as his efforts to create the program keep failing. The countdown to Jan 1st is looming. His team, which includes his close friend Keith, is losing confidence in him. Plus Gustafson is on the hunt for the computer rapist and recruits Keith in setting up cameras to capture the culprit in action. Lewis gets upset when he finds out that Jane is an infamous internet star with her own voyeurism website; known as Tracy in the site, fans can watch her toilet cam as she does her business without being able to see her face just her….parts! He gets upset and leaves. He gets fired the day before the deadline for failing to deliver and as Angela goes berserk, the other employees leave the office to go for new years parties rather than stay on and try to finish the work. Lewis has hit upon the answer – there is no solution and there won’t be any problem and so they have to not try and fix it!

He sneaks his way into the office and drills a hole in the main server to sexually satisfy himself but Gustafson catches him in the act. After the latter is knocked out by his own walky talking, Lewis finishes the sexual act even getting himself a big shock that knocks him out. Keith sees this, takes Lewis over to Jane’s house and leaves Gustafson there. The next morning everyone things that the rapist is Gustafson. With no major issues happening worldwide the Y2K threat is over but the company still shuts down. As Lewis looks forward to searching for a new job he joins Jane, asks her forgiveness for judging he when he himself has a strange fetish and they leave together in her car. Keith finds success in his porn websites.

Funny & sweet in places it’s weird look at sexual relations gets some good points through. Despite that it’s a simple story of trying to fit in and just finding some satisfaction. I found the over usage of surnames, all ending with son (Peterson, Gustafson, Henderson etc)  in the company hilarious as they intended. 6 outta 10!

So Far, I’m Liking It

It’s 3 weeks since I joined my current job and office and so far it has been good and I’m liking it and I even find a lot to enjoy. Although it is not as big as Firstsource (my place of employment for 4 years and 2 months, it certainly is much bigger than my last place in Koratty. In fact these past 3 weeks have let me lay down to rest the bad things of the past almost 2 years.  And I hope it only gets better. I’m not asking for much from any place of employment – just a big paycheck :) , some enjoyment & job satisfaction and occasionally challenging me to do things differently & better myself. The office isn’t that posh but it’s comfortable and there’s my assigned desk & chair plus the entrance to the big floor and the training room.

I’ve been doing a 3am – 10am shift (yes just 7 hours) for the past week. Sleep is spotty but I like the night time drive to the office, the city looks so peaceful. But without a working cafeteria (there is a place for it but you only get tea from a machine and some tables & chairs which are setup for you) and or/decent hotels nearby I have to rely on food from home for breakfast. I choose a time when everyone else is back at their stations so I can go down to the empty cafeteria, take my favourite table and eat my breakfast in quiet. The breakfast I usually have is malli chammandhi (corriander chutney) & cucumber sandwiches which I bring from home along with cardamom tea from the machine.

I’ve liked the bus rides home during the first couple of weeks which was regular working hours. Since Kakkanad is new to me, I enjoy the sights and sounds of the area and look out for interesting things to photograph. This new office building that has come up right at a junction is one I always like. The bus always stops there for a few minutes as it is a busy junction, so a few days ago I took a couple of snaps.

I love the evening sky & clouds reflecting off the large windows. It almost makes it look like the clouds are part of the tinted windows.

The past few days have seen the news of the death of a young man by food poisoning with shawarma that he ate from a particular eatery found as being the culprit. The place has been shutdown as it was found in violation of hygiene & food safety laws and also operating without a proper license. With increasing raids on hotels across the state we have found lots of such violation and lack of hygiene in the cooking area. Ironic to me that the two Saturdays before this incident I had had shawarma from a popular Arabian specialty place after a gap of almost a year. The places I go to are safe and clean as you can see them doing the preparation.