Human ignorance is really dangerous because it is not only about not knowing but also lacking the will to know.
I don't loathe people who keep "wishing" that I do better. I do wish they would shut the f**k up once in a while.
I don't take hints. What do you think I am? An Oracle PL/SQL Compiler? /*+ HINT+If Exist female admirer */
If you don't want your glass to be half empty... then STOP drinking from it!
Is it such a grave crime to have looked for affirmation once in a while?
Never question your subconscious. You may not like the answers.
Oppose me if you should. But before doing so, ask yourself a question. Is the cause I stand for evil? If the answer is no, ask yourself why do you really oppose me?
The biggest obstacle visionaries face is the gene pool of their own species which is geared to only tackle immediate threats and not mitigate long term ones. And this is also why saving the environment is such a dormant concern in most of the humans.
The difference between a masterpiece and a monumental failure is the perception of the audience.
The problem with people is that in their dictionary rights come before duties.
It is so improbable that the Infinite Improbability Drive should construct itself out of thin air right here any moment now.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Here comes the sun... err... umm.. no... the next 10
Be sure that there will be one person who doesn't cry at your wake and that be you.
Beliefs should be like wine glasses. They should be kept clean, protected, cherished and handed down as family heirlooms. But when the right wine and the right moment comes along, they should be consigned to the flames of the hearth in celebration of newly found ones.
I am the result of 3 billion lines of code.
P.S. Send all bug reports to God!
I refuse to be part of a movement. I wish to be the movement.
It doesn't matter how you got here. What matters is what your next step is going to be. What you choose it to be is going to define where you go from here.
It's not about the half full glass mate... It is about the whole beer fridge.
Just because I am not famous doesn't mean I don't have a story to tell.
People want others to believe that their values are constants. But they actually declare them as variables.
Space is the final solution to wars. Why? Because annoying neighbors are less of a concern for someone who has the ability to vacation in a foreign land.
There is a fine line between being naive and being delusional. I think I am on the right side of it.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Rise of the Über-Geek
Recently I was drawn into a discussion that I had managed to troll myself into. The subject (link here) was rather benignly interesting but turned out to be rather insidious as it triggered the organic growth of the discussion. At the end of it, which it finally did before having been put down about thrice (Cue the “Die! Die! Why won’t you die!”) I was left with a question. The answer to which I had a realization. A realization I’d like to now share.
Back in time when I was growing up, (and this was a really long time ago), the word ‘geek’ had a special meaning. A meaning which embraced a certain stereotype that fit the meaning and the lives of those who were forever affected by this tag. Even today Wikipedia lists the following definitions of geek
"A bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who felt so little kinship with his own planet that he routinely traveled to the ones invented by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his computer took him to as cyberspace—somewhere exciting, a place more real than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager's room in his parents' house."
“A derogatory reference to a person obsessed with intellectual pursuits for their own sake, who is also deficient in most other human attributes so as to impair the person's smooth operation within society.”
And the mainstream media has done little to not fit to this stereotype of a socially awkward, fashion derelict individual who would most often be found wearing glasses resembling the sawed off bottoms of coke bottles. This was the mainstream geek. He had one and one superpower and that was his obscenely extreme intellect, so well-endowed that most of the time his mouth would not be able to keep up with his mind. Forever shunned by the opposite sex in all forms of attractiveness he would end up being tormented by the athletic type of his own gender. All in all, there was no class differentiation between a nerd and a geek. All geeks and nerds were alike to a layman fun-maker, like penguins. Waddling in their own worlds there was no need to distinguish them apart as Emperors and Gentoos. Being called one was a slur and being one was not any kid’s dream.
But halfway across the world from where I was growing up, a change was happening. Four geeks aptly titled as “The Pirates of the Silicon Valley” were starting a paradigm shift related to the social view towards geeks. To that effect that one of them could actually go on to state, “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.” And the world took notice. Suddenly the intricacies of normal life like finances were realized to be merely easy puzzles that these geeks could solve on their way to untold riches. But in their deepest hearts these individuals were still the geeks, the old school ones.
Suddenly being a geek was cool and fashionable. This is where the genesis started. The new millennium, now a decade old, has a new class of individuals. These individuals conform to none of the old stereotypes of geek-hood. They proclaim themselves to be geeks. In their defense most of them do possess the superpower but lack the persona to fit in. That would be a fundamentally upsetting situation in case of (for the sake of example) superheroes. How would you react to Superman mouthing, “Up! Up! And Away!” while dressed as Bozo the Clown? And only a similar reaction comes to an old-school person when faced with individuals who could give Lily Cole a run for her looks (yeah that Lily Cole) and yet call themselves “geeks”! (In all fairness Ms Cole aced her tests as a student at King’s College, Cambridge). These individuals are well-adjusted to social nuances, less prone to social awkwardness, are never known to sport unkempt looks and all in all, still are the smartest lot of people around. Understandably they take it as a compliment when called a geek and an insult when not classed as one. This is exactly why the article, I referred to, got me into trouble. As an old-school believer of geekdom, it was impossible for me to imagine the context of relating the two titular entities of the article.
As with our understanding of life around us, we are sometimes required to coin new terms to refer to insights arising out of a deeper study. And in this case, I think it is no longer fair to either class of individuals, new or old, to be referred with the same name. And thus rises the uber-geek, a result of Darwinian evolution, having suppressed undesirable traits and enhanced the desirable ones, as a new species that is so splendid that being one could be every kid’s dream.
P.S. The author claims no affiliation to any of the species mentioned above mostly because his application for membership was denied with the comment, “Has no superpowers”
Back in time when I was growing up, (and this was a really long time ago), the word ‘geek’ had a special meaning. A meaning which embraced a certain stereotype that fit the meaning and the lives of those who were forever affected by this tag. Even today Wikipedia lists the following definitions of geek
"A bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who felt so little kinship with his own planet that he routinely traveled to the ones invented by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his computer took him to as cyberspace—somewhere exciting, a place more real than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager's room in his parents' house."
“A derogatory reference to a person obsessed with intellectual pursuits for their own sake, who is also deficient in most other human attributes so as to impair the person's smooth operation within society.”
And the mainstream media has done little to not fit to this stereotype of a socially awkward, fashion derelict individual who would most often be found wearing glasses resembling the sawed off bottoms of coke bottles. This was the mainstream geek. He had one and one superpower and that was his obscenely extreme intellect, so well-endowed that most of the time his mouth would not be able to keep up with his mind. Forever shunned by the opposite sex in all forms of attractiveness he would end up being tormented by the athletic type of his own gender. All in all, there was no class differentiation between a nerd and a geek. All geeks and nerds were alike to a layman fun-maker, like penguins. Waddling in their own worlds there was no need to distinguish them apart as Emperors and Gentoos. Being called one was a slur and being one was not any kid’s dream.
But halfway across the world from where I was growing up, a change was happening. Four geeks aptly titled as “The Pirates of the Silicon Valley” were starting a paradigm shift related to the social view towards geeks. To that effect that one of them could actually go on to state, “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.” And the world took notice. Suddenly the intricacies of normal life like finances were realized to be merely easy puzzles that these geeks could solve on their way to untold riches. But in their deepest hearts these individuals were still the geeks, the old school ones.
Suddenly being a geek was cool and fashionable. This is where the genesis started. The new millennium, now a decade old, has a new class of individuals. These individuals conform to none of the old stereotypes of geek-hood. They proclaim themselves to be geeks. In their defense most of them do possess the superpower but lack the persona to fit in. That would be a fundamentally upsetting situation in case of (for the sake of example) superheroes. How would you react to Superman mouthing, “Up! Up! And Away!” while dressed as Bozo the Clown? And only a similar reaction comes to an old-school person when faced with individuals who could give Lily Cole a run for her looks (yeah that Lily Cole) and yet call themselves “geeks”! (In all fairness Ms Cole aced her tests as a student at King’s College, Cambridge). These individuals are well-adjusted to social nuances, less prone to social awkwardness, are never known to sport unkempt looks and all in all, still are the smartest lot of people around. Understandably they take it as a compliment when called a geek and an insult when not classed as one. This is exactly why the article, I referred to, got me into trouble. As an old-school believer of geekdom, it was impossible for me to imagine the context of relating the two titular entities of the article.
As with our understanding of life around us, we are sometimes required to coin new terms to refer to insights arising out of a deeper study. And in this case, I think it is no longer fair to either class of individuals, new or old, to be referred with the same name. And thus rises the uber-geek, a result of Darwinian evolution, having suppressed undesirable traits and enhanced the desirable ones, as a new species that is so splendid that being one could be every kid’s dream.
P.S. The author claims no affiliation to any of the species mentioned above mostly because his application for membership was denied with the comment, “Has no superpowers”
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Past 200...
Most people know that I go by the name True Realist. Very few know that my middle name is "Cynic and Bitter"
Such is the beauty of ideas and research, that tend to materialize at the most inopportune times, when all that may be at hand is toilet paper.
The most dangerous secrets that we have are the ones we keep from ourselves.
There are ways and then there are ways. It is not about the ways we choose but rather the ways we don't.
The light at the end of the tunnel is just a decoy. The hidden sycthe is what's meant for you.
There are stereotypes and then there are stereotypes. The one stereotype that has never failed me is that most humans, by themselves, are jerks.
We wear masks because all of us are afraid of mirrors...
Whoever suggested that when going through hell the best option is to keep going, clearly never heard about U-turns!
Copernicus proved centuries ago that the Earth is not the center of the Universe, much less so is an insignificantly minute entity residing on it. And by that, I meant you,
I swam through a sea of perfumed revelry, of sweet nothings, of happy endings & new beginnings, of gay abandon without the worry for tomorrow. I emerged onto the sands of my penance, arid & hot, blown not by a gentle breeze but that of the hot breath of fleeting time. I touch my brow, to wipe off an odd droplet, find none has clung to me and only chance upon a stoic realization, "Wow! God really made me water-proof!"
In a moment of astounding clarity, I dawned upon a question. What if the soul was still matter, just not bound by the Higgs field? The Higgs field is what makes matter as we know it, unyielding and unwilling to share the same space. If the soul was the matter free of the Higgs field, it could traverse anything and everything at the speed of light or maybe more? And that makes the ancient wisdom talking about freeing oneself of the materialistic plane of existence a lot more sensible. It asks the soul to be able to free itself, not unto death, from the matter that binds it within the body and thence explore a whole new universe of possibilities that lie beyond it.
Such is the beauty of ideas and research, that tend to materialize at the most inopportune times, when all that may be at hand is toilet paper.
The most dangerous secrets that we have are the ones we keep from ourselves.
There are ways and then there are ways. It is not about the ways we choose but rather the ways we don't.
The light at the end of the tunnel is just a decoy. The hidden sycthe is what's meant for you.
There are stereotypes and then there are stereotypes. The one stereotype that has never failed me is that most humans, by themselves, are jerks.
We wear masks because all of us are afraid of mirrors...
Whoever suggested that when going through hell the best option is to keep going, clearly never heard about U-turns!
Copernicus proved centuries ago that the Earth is not the center of the Universe, much less so is an insignificantly minute entity residing on it. And by that, I meant you,
I swam through a sea of perfumed revelry, of sweet nothings, of happy endings & new beginnings, of gay abandon without the worry for tomorrow. I emerged onto the sands of my penance, arid & hot, blown not by a gentle breeze but that of the hot breath of fleeting time. I touch my brow, to wipe off an odd droplet, find none has clung to me and only chance upon a stoic realization, "Wow! God really made me water-proof!"
In a moment of astounding clarity, I dawned upon a question. What if the soul was still matter, just not bound by the Higgs field? The Higgs field is what makes matter as we know it, unyielding and unwilling to share the same space. If the soul was the matter free of the Higgs field, it could traverse anything and everything at the speed of light or maybe more? And that makes the ancient wisdom talking about freeing oneself of the materialistic plane of existence a lot more sensible. It asks the soul to be able to free itself, not unto death, from the matter that binds it within the body and thence explore a whole new universe of possibilities that lie beyond it.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
The unnoticed 200...
24 February 2010 was a landmark date in history of cricket. The most famous man of modern day cricket (Bradman was from a prior generation) had entered his name in the annals of history by notching up 200 runs in an ODI. Tributes and praises flowed like a flooded river on a rainy day. A few days later, something else happened too. Something that started out on 19 January 2007 and finally reached a similar numerical mark on the 9 March 2010. So while no one will quote that it took 1145 days to get there and while it didn’t garner so much attention, here it is anyways...
The 15 that bring me to my 200th quote:
A little fantasy is necessary for the sanity within reality. The trick is to know where to draw the line.
Edison is known less for the 2000 failed experiments with the light bulb than he is for the 1800+ patents he filed. Bottom-line is, it is ok to fail only if you eventually succeed.
Education doesn't teach us how to deal with the harsh realities of life. When faced with these, it teaches us that we ourselves are to be blamed.
I don't want to believe in life after death because I don't want to see God standing at the end of the white light with a smirk on his face that says, "You got it all wrong!"
I like real women. Unfortunately all the ones I've met so far are complex.
If you hit rock-bottom hard enough, you might just get lodged there.
It is never the end of the world, except unless it is actually the end of the world.
I've got all the trappings of a genius, except maybe the intellect.
Just because it has been all bad so far, do you think everything's gonna turn round and become positive? What do you think life is? An integer?
My pet peeve about smart-phones is that they fool some of their users into believing that having one makes them smarter.
Some describe a lifetime in a sentence. Others describe lifetime as a sentence. I wish to do neither.
The colour of an object is the one which the object rejects and reflects out. Even in nature you are best known by what you don't do.
The necessary conditions for saving the earth are that the process is either fashionable or economically profitable to do so.
What we are, is the sum total of all the hurts we've received.
When the grapes are sour, get into the vinegar business!
You cannot change the world. You can only change the world.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Than loose it!
There are people who have pet peeves about English grammar. There are people who are peeved by the desecration of English grammar by people. And there are others who are vexed by the English language itself. Then there is me. I am a non-native English speaker and refer to it as my father tongue. Unlike the native speakers, especially those who are less tolerant to others, I understand that this language can be hard to deal with. Though wait till you see French. But this is not about French. This is about English and my specific peeve related to it.
I find it easy to let people off the hook for mistakes related to tense. Ask the Chinese. Their concept of tense and time in language is very different. So when they are translating a thought in their mind to convey it to you in English, they might just falter with the tense. This is pardonable easily and necessarily. They are quick learners.
In the same vein, mistakes in construction of sentences or punctuation, is pardonable. That is only as long as the meaning is not changed to something incomprehensible or hilarious. “Eats, shoots and leaves” over “Eats shoots and leaves” provides comic respite instead of being a source of irritation.
The queerness of the language and the queerness of people trying to use it can be an endless source of entertainment. As a challenge, I would rather take it upon myself to understand the intended message instead of trying to throw off a speaker by ridiculing him for incorrect usage.
So then, what is it that rankles me when it comes to English language? It is these four words: Than, then, lose, loose and all the associated use or should I say rather misuse associated with them. I don’t really know the history of origin of these four words, but whoever chose to give them a. similar sounds, b. similar spellings; is in my opinion the biggest moron of all time. And these happen to be used the wrong way around 9 out of 10 times they are used.
Nothing takes the edge off a message than the line, “If he can do it, than you can too.” (No I can’t because you and he are morons!). And then there’s the other one, “Than we realized our mistake.” (No you didn’t, you just made another). Even veterans tend to make this mistake then what can I say about the other not so fortunate ones?
I’d say that if I had a penny for every time I ended up losing my temper over the misused ‘loose’ I wouldn’t have to worry about having a job. A friend once wrote to me, “I think I am loosing her.” (Good for her, I wish you’d lose my email address too) Maybe I should loosen up a bit on someone asking me, “Should I carry some lose change?” (I don’t know. Can you carry something that’s already lost?)
Call it an esoteric allergy, like one to male cockroaches that gives you a nasty rash on the bum. But the misuse of these words is ever so prevalent like male cockroaches. And I hate rashes on my bum. To add to this, there are the consistent offenders who despite being corrected, continue to use the wrong ones in the same conversation. This makes them bigger morons than the person who made these words similar sounding. Alas, only the Queen of Hearts can scream, “Off with their heads” and have it seen to effect.
In conclusion, it is only fair to mention a trick for remembering the correct usage. Years ago Readers’ Digest put to rest any confusion that could arise around the two similar words, ‘stationary’ and ‘stationery’ by a simple trick. The ‘a’ in stationary stood for ‘action’. And hence, the pencil, ruler, clips had nothing to do with it. They would all be the loyal followers of stationery. In a similar way, here’s something to remember:
The extra ‘o’ in loose is the excess that makes your pants loose. With extra ‘o’ lost, you have no more ‘o’s to lose.
The ‘e’ in ‘then’ stands for ‘event’ and hence subsequently something else happens. The ‘a’ in ‘than’ stands for ‘another’ without which there can be no comparison.
Hope you have this memorized and tucked away in a handy corner of your brain. And if you happen to have any other misnomers about the usage of these four words, than please loose them right away! ;)
Friday, January 08, 2010
The first 10 for 2010
Being your own doctor is about knowing when to self-medicate on alcohol.
Fashion is not about beauty. It is about ugliness. For beautiful is perfect and doesn't need to be changed. Fashion on the other hand, needs to be changed every now and then.
I know the horizon is not real. Yet I chase it so that one day I'll be able to run fast enough to get past it!
I won't ask why it rains on me though I do want to know where I can find my umbrella.
It's unbelievable as to how people hope that the new year is going to be wonderful and great whilst they have just seen its predecessor beat all records of crappiness.
Never say no to an offer that will never be made!
Relationships are easy. Just like 5th grade maths. The only problem is that most of us aren't past the 2nd grade.
The easiest way to a man's heart is through is stomach because it is ridiculously hard to cut through the ribcage!
The trick behind being intelligent is about knowing when to be stupid.
Going beyond the obvious at times just requires a good look at the obvious itself.
Fashion is not about beauty. It is about ugliness. For beautiful is perfect and doesn't need to be changed. Fashion on the other hand, needs to be changed every now and then.
I know the horizon is not real. Yet I chase it so that one day I'll be able to run fast enough to get past it!
I won't ask why it rains on me though I do want to know where I can find my umbrella.
It's unbelievable as to how people hope that the new year is going to be wonderful and great whilst they have just seen its predecessor beat all records of crappiness.
Never say no to an offer that will never be made!
Relationships are easy. Just like 5th grade maths. The only problem is that most of us aren't past the 2nd grade.
The easiest way to a man's heart is through is stomach because it is ridiculously hard to cut through the ribcage!
The trick behind being intelligent is about knowing when to be stupid.
Going beyond the obvious at times just requires a good look at the obvious itself.
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