Life As A New Graduate
Life as a new graduate in a company, on the 1st job is very clearly summed up here
When I Beat Christopher Nolan
To put it simply: http://thebecomeing.blogspot.com/2008/12/rollback-nightmare.html
:)
While on the subject of nightmares, I'd like to share something more:
The most bizarre nightmare ever
Every now and then we have a nightmare where we are failing, dying or even walking with no underpants on the main road or some other familiar location.
I can handle them
But then a few days back I woke up at about 2AM with my entire sense of reality upside down thanks to my nightmare.
In this particular one I was an XML file.
Yes, a damn XML file with every node representing a particular body part with the attributes providing specific metrics about them.
Now thats a dream which even Christopher Nolan wouldn't have thought of eh?
Inspired Man
Joseph was at his wit's end. He was 39 years old, unmarried and living on a waiter's salary. He didn't have any savings and was barely making his ends meet.
It so happened that Joseph was a brilliant musician but not a very successful one at that. He had a couple of critically acclaimed album releases in his early 20's but they hadn't really taken off in the charts. It wasn't soon before his label and band mates dropped him. But Bernard had pressed on..
Joseph now had a one of chance to prove his worth. He had been given the chance to write a song for an upcoming big budget movie. The story was a love story about 2 lovers who never saw each other but yet had fallen deeply in love with each other. Bernard worked day and night on his song. He toiled to write a love song like nothing before. He spent many days and sleepless night pouring his heart and soul into the song till the song reflected his entire existence. It was Bernard's masterpiece.. and he knew it! After much thought he named the song "Love Boat River", a metaphor for everything that life was to him. He proudly submitted the song to his producers and started his long wait.. to fame and stardom!...
-------------------------------
In some bar,
Person 1: What is this shit?
Person 2: Its a new song man, "Love Boat River"
Person 3: Haha, what a stupid name. What senseless loser gave it such a name. And it sure has a weird tune. Its nothing like the other romance songs. There's something missing in this yaar, a sense of melody and beat
Person 2: But its so unique and new. I kinda like it!
Person 1: You have bad taste and c'mon you always like stuff which no one else likes. Its just your way of being 'cool' isn't it?
Person 2: Umm, umm.. yea.. lol ..
Person 3: Bah, what a shitty chorus. Why do they even play such songs on the radio. Bad pathetic music. I wonder when the next Bieber song will come on, at least it has an awesome melody........................
"Love Boat River" stopped coming on the radio within a week of its release.
I wonder what happened to Joseph's soul..
Murder
[The effects of reading too many comics and a lot of code]
[late at night]
*woooot woooot wooooooot*
*pitter patter pitter patter pitter patter*
[lone car on the road]
*screeeech*
[get out of car]
*tip tap tip tap tip tap*
[take out keys]
*click*
[look look]
[push open door]
*creeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaak*
*tip toe tip toe*
[push open door]
*tick tock tick tock*
*tip toe tip toe*
[wonder wonder fetter fetter]
.
.
[raise knife]
.
.
.
[lights on]
*Surprise! Happy Birthday!!.... *
.
.
*silence*
[....]
THE END
Soldiers Of Tomorrow
[A post after a long time! And its more the economist in me which is doing the talking. Also this post is more generic than country specific]
When I was little I was enamoured by the armed forces. They had the fastest jets, sleekest ships and the most rugged looking tanks and jeeps. Soldiers I thought were the backbone of a country, ready to lay down their lives for all of us and seemed to me to be the coolest people in the world. For a large part of my school days I wanted to be a scientist for the armed forces and work with all that awesome technology.
And then I grew older.. and hopefully smarter...
Now I think that the armed forces are useless. With there being nucler weapons, no country would dare launch a full a scale occupation of any other country (unless you're Saddam Hussein and dumb enough to not suck up to any of the nuclear powers before you had a weapon yourself) for threat of nuclear obliteration. So why have the armed forces?
I can think of the following reasons:
1) Disaster Relief
2) Border Patrol
3) Counter Terrorism
4) A signalling mechanism to satisfy investors about the stability of a country
5) Reduce Unemployment (A current dismantling of the military machine would lead to an influx of so much labour that a country's economy would collapse)
Now I don't see why points 1 & 2 cannot be left to the hands of smaller and more specially trained teams or even completed automated!
But I still see soldiers, brave soldiers protecting our country from the greatest villains of the coming century, such as
1) Disease
2) Economic Inequalities
3) Ignorance
Yes, I'm talking about social workers. The unsung heroes of the modern day world who fight against those enemies whose one agent (HIV?) kills more humans than all the wars in the world combined. They are battling not in far off lands using big machines, but most likely in your neighbouring street and with their bare hands. It is indeed a great shame that billions of dollars worth of weaponary is being procured by countries all over the world just to build machines most of which are never really used due to fear of all out nuclear war. I can only wonder how much good these resources would bring if channeled to the proper agents. Why we might even be able to bring down the prices of green technology making them far more affordable and accessible! I truly feel that the possibilities are endless if the resources wasted on the armed forces are put to good use
The Silver Screen
It was one tiring night at about 9PM when I was returning home from work. I got on the good ol' 342F and as the bus rattled along I slid into an empty seat and searched for my music player to listen to a good 3-4 songs of Cream before I reached my destination. Then to my horror, onto the bus came a gang of bratty boys full of jokes, laughter and random 'kalais'. They were making a huge ruckus, but were having fun nonetheless. It felt just like being back in college.
I wanted to punch them all square across the jaw and throw them off the bus..
A couple of days later, it was again a tiring night at about 9PM when I was returning home from work. I got on one of those private buses and as the bus rattled along I slid into an empty seat and searched for my music player to listen to a good 3-4 songs of Cream before I reached my destination. Then to my horror, the TV on the bus turned on with the speakers at full volume. It showed a random scene from a movie about a gang of bratty boys full of jokes, laughter and random 'kalais'. They were making a huge ruckus, but were having fun nonetheless. It felt just like being back in college watching that scene from the movie.
I didn't mind it, in fact I quite enjoyed it..
It was only after getting off the bus that I realized my hypocrisy. Why was so intolerant of those boys who got on the bus but didn't mind the exact same thing happening on the TV. From my point view, both ways, it should have simply been 'entertainment'!
Are we biased to let our guard down and accept easily what we see on TV? I wonder....
The Real Thing
[Sorry for being Abstract]
The most important thing ever is aptly described here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYyK-ZvpR_M&feature=related
Thank You
Thought Of Inflexion
[While listening to "Better Man" by Oasis, exam answers at school, "Better Man" by Oasis again, a long bus ride, missing my blog, knowing that life gets you no where unless you do something, trying to make a mark in the world by writing something new, knowing you might suck at it but old enough to know that you'd suck more if you didn't try.. yea, you get the picture...]
Imagine your life to be a function.
Yes, a function, those f(x) thingys. What you do is mostly f(x). What you say or feel is mostly f'(x) (or even f'(-x) considering the fact that we sometimes so the exact opposite of what we say or feel). And its our thought which is f''(x).
Now the point of inflexion is the point where f''(x) changes signs.
-x-x-
Now imagine that you're gonna do something real bad. You know it as being bad of course, yet you get some (which you know is sick/bad) pleasure out of it .... and you do it anyway.
(You're know angel, c'mon think of SOMETHING! Got it? Good lets proceed)
Now just forget everything and think of something where you did something you had never done before... and loved it!
(C'mon, you must have plenty of memories!)
What really happened here? How did YOU do it? Sure there may have been cheering, memories jeering or even a gun or two pointed at your back, but really, what happened?
I want to take an example of someone trying to reduce weight(Thats a 'politically correct' example :) )
Lets assume that he/she has fixed a new exercise regime which starts at 6 AM and they are all gung ho about it the night before, while lying in their bed about to sleep.
Its 6 AM the next day and the alarm rings when ....
Scenario 1
----------
f(x)=what you do = hit the snooze button
f'(x) = what you say or feel = i know i suck.. i'll stop sucking from tomorrow though. i'll pass for today. The sky isn't going to fall on my head is it?
f''(x)= what you think= zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Scenario 2
----------
f(x)=what you do=jump out of bed and do ten push ups!
f'(x) = what you say or feel =today I'm gonna make a change and be awesome!!
f''(x)= what you think=Get up at any cost, now!!!
(Yay! so many exclamation marks!!!! f'''(x) = n00b)
f''(x) here is the Thought Of Inflexion
To me here, the most interesting thing is f''(x). Our whole lives are governed by thoughts which drive our everyday lives[f''(x) affects f(x) and f'(x). Its the inner drive for f(x) and f'(x)]
Every little choice that we make throws our life this way or that. But if only we could control a thought, the thoughts that follow from it can all be useful and awesome.
Hope that wasn't preachy, f'''(x) = zzzzzz
The Silence Thereafter
[n00b poem :D]
A triumphal joy, a winner's dream
One was fat, while the other was lean
The thing they had in common, they both were in jeans
Me? I was playing pool
With meager skills, we sure looked like fools,
And then there were some trying to act cool
Smacking balls in, the cue as a tool
And then suddenly the noise there stopped,
The bubble of joy had but popped
With every ball down, all egos cropped
The silence thereafter, like a teardrop
"Yo!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
