28 January 2009

Letting others decide for me!

A small little smile at you… just for you! :) Now continue reading.. :)

Let me break the good news first! – the post is not a long one.  :)

Once again I am relocating. I have stopped counting my relocations. The only unusual part is that I am coming back to the same place where I had lived in 2007.  End of this topic.

From the times during which one had to carry his own music collection, we have come to the age of YouTube – go click on the playlist (created by someone somewhere in the planet) and just listen/watch the songs. Technology and Internet have brought such pleasures to our lives.

Well, YouTube even offers “videos recommended for you”. Not surprising though, the songs are of my taste. So, that’s what I am doing lately. Whenever I feel like listening to songs, I just go to YouTube main page and they have recommendations for me. GREAT!

I do enjoy this special personalised treatment. Life becomes so easy right?  (Really?)

At the same time, I am also worried about What the Web Knows About You (worth reading). Some day I should expect recommendations like “things for you to buy”, “the best things to make you happy” etc. Personally targeted advertisements which I wouldn’t even be able to recognise, let alone refuse! (Scary.. right?)

Signing off, Sands.

PS : Yesterday, I played my “recommended list” (which is mostly malayalam film songs from 1980s) and came to kitchen. After a couple of songs, hearing Tamil dialogue, I went to check out what is going on. It was “Ankita wearing Sari” – which was a little hot stuff recommended for me! :P  - Awesome right? ;)

20 January 2009

Ogling and Speed Test

Straight to business... :) [Warning: Long one]

This is a train-incident. First I shall tell you how the underground-trains in Munich are. 

In the middle, there is a way to walk through. On both sides, there are seats. The seats are arranged in groups of four. And the side walls are mostly glass. The picture here might give a better idea. (Couldn't find any better picture in the web)

Last Saturday, which was a very sunny day, I was going to the city. I was sitting with other three men, in my four seat cubicle. I saw a girl boarding the train. She was really beautiful.. Gorgeous!

She came and stood, facing us, in the pathway just by our 4-seat cubicle. Now, we all four males are looking at her... I should perhaps use the word ogling. She took her sunglasses and wore them. She was looking at her reflection in the side-glass. She started adjusting her hair, dress, sunglasses....

For a moment, I took my eyes off her and looked at my fellow travelers - just to make sure that I was not alone! And I wasn't! ;)

But it all happened suddenly. The train jerked a bit. She lost her stand and was falling ... then the train jerked in the other direction and the fall was to the other direction.... The train was shaking a bit and she totally lost her control. She held somewhere and very soon went, sat in the one of the seats a little away.

A moment after she left, we looked at each other and burst into laughter. I don't know why... but it all was funny. We simply couldn't stop laughing. Was it just the anti-climax we just had witnessed? Or was it the nice thing of ogling at her together? I don't know! But we simply knew that we all were partners in crime and also enjoyed all of it! ;)

Train journeys always have something like this, some little thing to enjoy. And I love those small little things.

Speed Test:-

I was watching a show in which someone does fast math - which he calls mathemagic. He tries (and does) squaring/multiplying big numbers in his mind. First he starts with two digit numbers, then three digit, four digit and even five digit numbers - within a few seconds/minute. He even does this thing of telling the day-of-the-week for any given date.

I tried the same. I generated random numbers (two and three digit numbers) and timed my MENTAL MATH. ;)

Well, the result is a little disappointing. :( .. I don't know the average time taken by a normal man though.

For any two 2 digit numbers, I need, on an average 15-20 seconds to multiply them. Squaring is faster though. I tried it in a medium-crowded train. And it was my first trial to do something like this. So I expect to bring the time down to less than 10 seconds for multiplying any two digit numbers - with practice and without much distraction.

But, for three digit numbers, I took about 2 minutes per every multiplication. I want to improve to reach a level of one multiplication per minute.

And for dates and days I don't know exactly how long do I take. But given any date, I can give the day-of-the-week in less than 2 minutes - and I consider it an achievement. :)

Signing off, Sands.

PS: I was accused of complex stuff and complicated language. Am I better now?

9 January 2009

Critical Time

I think that most people would call it a bit of crisis-situation, if they knew my present status. Well, it should be called a self-made crisis. I am taking up lot of responsibilities which I necessarily don't need to. But trust me, it IS fun to get crushed! ;)

Sometime in the past, I had made it my policy - "Compromise Not", which has made things a little tighter. I am just not ready to leave anything, anything which I want to do/achieve; and ((un)fortunately) I want to do/learn so many things - some totally unrelated to my publicly-declared-fields-of-interest.

A bit of sociology, more than a bit of philosophy, juggling, etc. are some of the new items. The first two require a lot of reading - which I am doing a little; and the last one needs loads of practicing - which I am not doing! ;)

The other day, I was listing out the small little things I want to do, to a friend. After telling her, I was just happy that when I get around these things, I'd have grown up a LOT. So, for the same reason, I call it the critical time of my life, during which I am learning lot of stuff.

The fun part is that, all these things, which are taking up a lot of my precious time, could be dropped anytime. No pressure on me - no pressure at all. But remember : "No Compromise". Do stuff; learn new things; achieve things; make it BIG. What is wrong in dreaming, if I am more than willing to put the effort to materialise my dreams!? And, trust me again, IT IS FUN. At the end of day, you have some kind of thrill! :)

Along with my list of things, I have, at present, my major philosophical confusion. Especially in the past 4-6 months, my reading has gone really wide (wild) and mostly about the stuff that matters. The clash of ideal world and real world and practical world and even some virtual worlds ;) . Well, now some of my readers might be thinking that these are the stuff which don't matter. Perhaps....!  ;)

So, now I come back from useless abstract things to the mundane world! ;)

After the accident, till date, I was not able to give due importance and attention to any of my blogs - neither English, Malayalam nor German was updated regularly. Now I am back - officially.

Signing off, Sands.

PS: I used to think that I think out-of-the-box. But I realize that the first box in which the majority of people stay and of which I am outside is inside another box. Now I have to get out of that box too. But if I am not inside any box, then it will be too bad.

PPS: There are people out there - with crazy ideas. I am reading two books:

  1. "Cultural Software - A Theory of Ideology"
  2. "How the mind works"

The kind of things people know! I have finished just one chapter each. Would take ages before I finish them, if at all I do finish them. But I would have witnessed so many dramatic debates inside my head before putting them down. Looking forward to getting someone to argue with. :)