Friday, December 29, 2006

The greatest invention after sliced bread

Notpron! no it's not porn. it's the saddest thing that happened to me. the damn riddle! i can't sleep, can't drink, can't eat - i only think of how to find the chicks and what is the meaning of 279943359. of course there are many other digits as well. 13,59,22,d7,33,93.....4|48|21|25|74|57.....what is the meaning of it all? maybe ascii and hex has the solution. but believe me, it's the best entertainment to be found on the net!
What made this riddle so fascinating is that it took a whole butt load of skills to complete. You needed to be aware of computer functions such as how to find that sound program in system32 folder (which I didn't even know was there), decipher maths and codes using hex, ASCII, and binary, you needed to learn a little about music, know how to Photoshop, how to hunt, how to do word scrambles, anagrams and such, learn foreign languages, make an origami number figure, and learn how to cheat at minesweeper (which I didn't know was possible). Usually people are good at one or two of those things, but you had to get good at them all to succeed.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Art: The Importance of it



Art is the strated expression of the human soul. When a person picks up an instrument, paint brush, pen, camera, dance shoes, or any other tool that they feel will help them express what is in their heart, they are preparing to give platform to an emotion, an idea, a dream or a story. Without art we would not be moved to understand. We would not be lifted to comprehend. We would not have a window to another person's world that would help us identify with them or propel us to gain knowledge of ourselves.Art presents history. It records details and generalities that give us information. It can give us the breadth, width, and height of a person's experience. We can briefly taste what has gone on before us and allow it to move us to a better future.Art can present beauty or brutality, simplicity or confusion.Art can move us to think beyond our own world. The psalmist wrote, "When I view and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained and established. What is man that you are mindful of him..." Art is the exclamation point on the human experience. Without art we would be mute.

Reflections


In truck stops and hamburger joints
In Cadillac limousines
In the company of has-beens
And bent-backs
And sleeping forms on pavement steps
In libraries and railway stations
In books and banks
In the pages of history
In suicidal cavalry attacks
I recognise...
Myself in every stranger's eyes

And in wheelchairs by monuments
Under tube trains and commuter accidents
In council care and county courts
At Easter fairs and sea-side resorts
In drawing rooms and city morgues
In award winning photographs
Of life rafts on the China seas
In transit camps, under arc lamps
On unloading ramps
In faces blurred by rubber stamps
I recognise...
Myself in every stranger's eyes

And now, from where I stand
Upon this hill
I plundered from the pool
I look aroundI search the skies
I shade my eyes
So nearly blind
And I see signs of half remembered days
I hear bells that chime in strange familiar ways
I recognise...
The hope you kindle in your eyes

It's oh so easy now
As we lie here in the dark
Nothing interferes, it's obvious
How to beat the tears
That threaten to snuff out
The spark of our love

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

“What fits true friends, true wisdom is, that birth and blood transcends”.

Six mistakes of a man



The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.

The tendency to worry about things that cannot be corrected or changed.

Insisting that a thing is impossible because we can’t accomplish it.

Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.

Neglecting development and refinement of the mind and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.

Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

a love note

I say that when she appeared from any direction, then, in the hope of her wondrous salutation, there was no enemy left to me; rather smote into me a flame of charity, which made me forgive every person who had ever injured me; and if at that moment anybody had put a question to me about anything whatsoever, my answer would have been ‘love’, with a countenance clothed in humility.

Attitude Matters


Life is full of unexpected sufferings. Even so, if you can live through that, you can live through anything. When you look fear in the face, you stand to gain in strength, courage an confidence. Isn’t it up to us to forge the path to a fulfilling and an enjoyable life? If you have the depth of faith to regard everything as a source for creating happiness, and add value to your existence, you will surely find contentment. Conversely, if you view everything in a pessimistic light, your life will surely be plunged into darkness. According to the pundits the most important ingredient for a successful and fulfilling life is having the right attitude.
Look around you. You will find that all the successful people are those who keep on trying and never give up. Failure does not make you a loser, quitting does.
Though Brutus regarded ambition a crime, I think it to be a virtue. Ambition has been quite the driving force for most people who have tasted success in life.

The greatest danger,
For most of us,
Is not that our aim is
Too high
And we miss it
But that it is
Too low
And we reach it.

One thing that I’ve noticed amongst us is that we tend to worry too much and take unnecessary tensions about events that have already happened. What has had to happen has already happened and there is no way we can change that, not unless we have a time machine. Shouldn’t we instead learn from our mistakes and not repeat them? I personally don’t think it is wrong to make mistakes. But it is foolish. Extremely foolish to repeat them over and over again.
They say that if you take a path that hasn’t been tread upon, you may stumble. So what? At least you will be a pioneer.
You should have enough courage and ambition to face difficulties. To the weak, difficulty is a closed door. To the strong, however, it is a door waiting to be opened and new horizons discovered. The choice is yours. Difficulties impede the progress of the weak. Fro the strong, they are opportunities to open the door to a brighter future. Everything is resolved by our will, our attitude. You can train a new recruit, but you can’t instill attitude.
Having the right attitude can help you scale the highest peaks. By the way, everyone knows who was the first person to scale the Mount Everest or walk the moon. Do you know the second person to do so? I don’t either.


Life

Many a time I have wondered what am I, whom am I. what is the purpose of life? The universe? I have tried finding the answers to them in books, but they have eluded me more. I know only one thing for sure – life is an illusion, a dream that ends when you wake up. There is no purpose of life, for it is too short to comprehend it.
You come into this world, grow up, earn money, give birth to children, watch them grow, and then die. Where does all this lead to? Nowhere. Death is the destination we’re all heading. Death will wipe you off the face of the earth as if you were no more than a burrowing mouse. So why do people celebrate and exult in material gains and look down upon those who couldn’t be as successful? For me journey is more important than destination – means are more important than the end. But the end is same for everyone – death. So it all boils down to the means of attaining it – life.
Here is my philosophy: lead a simple life so others may simply live. Extend help to those who need it, give shoulder to someone, who is feeling blue, to cry upon. Love. We are unhappy because we can’t find what we are looking for – happiness, peace and love. Alas! These are the very things which you need not look for. They are with you. Love and you’ll receive love. If you want to feel happy, you will. If you are at peace with yourself, you will find that the world is peaceful. Don’t give in to the rat-race for materialism, for even if you do win the race you will still remain a rat. Show mercy to everyone, for someone has shown mercy to you without yours realizing it. Forgiveness is the greatest virtue. No man is perfect, so why condemn those that have wronged you?
In short, either love or perish. That’s my philosophy. I’m not a spiritual guru, neither do I want to be one. All off them are pseudo who talk of life as if they’ve created it. They have not and they do not understand life more than a child does. They have had a glimpse of the coral reefs and they believe that they have explored every nook and cranny of the ocean.
I don’t believe in god. God is nothing but a manifestation of our fears. Read history and you will know that it was not god who created man, but vice versa. After reading the scriptures I can say it with even more firmly that god doesn’t exist. If there was one, he/she would have treated man and woman alike. He wouldn’t have demanded alms with threats of death to those who refused it. God would not have to ask for your devotion.
There is no heaven, no hell. What is there is mind and conscience.

Mind is its own place and in itself
Makes a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven’

And if mind is heaven and hell, then our conscience is god. God does not know everything we do, if indeed it exists, but our conscience does. It is the only thing we can’t fool. Above everything else, how can we assume that god has a gender and that it is male? Quite convenient for the male chauvinists who wrote the scriptures.
However, I do not condemn the scriptures completely. The single thing I like most in Geeta or the Bible is the philosophy of loving your neighbour as yourself – the crux of my philosophy.
Life is too complex to understand in a lifetime. We should not spend time in comprehending it. Instead, spend the time in extending love and happiness to others. In giving we receive. You will understand it when you will experience it. The greatest thing that you ever do is to love and be loved in return…

Death


Death. The ultimate calm. The time when everything merges into oblivion. Indeed the time stops. It is the freedom from this world. Death is the truth, while life is an illusion. Death is nirvana. However, all things said and done, there is no afterlife – no heaven, no hell or purgatory. Everything there is, it is here on the earth. It would be absurd if it were otherwise. The whole purpose of life would be defeated. We are just a complex macro-molecule residing on an ordinary planet, revolving an ordinary star in this vast universe. How can we so arrogant so as to assume that any part of us can be so special so as to be eternal? Yes, if you apply the law of conservation of energy then you may claim that we always existed and we always will. But then, it would not be same as residing in heaven or hell.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Universe Unexplained


You physicists have become annoying
You can't seem to make up your minds
Did everything come from nothing
Or was nothing all there was to find?

What was that first singularity
And what made it start to inflate?
You say a vacuum is not really empty
As long as energy potentiates?

At time zero there was zero space
But fluctuation took care of that
Now there's space of an ill-defined shape
That's full of live/dead cats.

Continuing on you tell us
That we're here cause CP ain't conserved
I never thought of myself as a leftover
This is becoming absurd.

But the universe is here now
At least part of it, I guess,
How is it you can't find the dark matter
To account for the missing mass?

And what is this dark energy
Permeating like a fog?
Einstein was shamed by his fudge factor
But you've brought it back in vogue.

The news from Canada is distressing
There are too few neutrinos from the sun
But physicists aren't constrained by facts
They'll make three neutrinos from one.

So the standard model is in danger
It's time for a paradigm shift,
Well paradigm shift, shmaradigm pfffft,
Will you guys please get over it.

Any idea how the story will end?
Big crunch, cold death, lost souls?
Or a slipper slide to a new universe
Through a slimy little worm hole?

Which confirms my general suspicion
That reality is just theory for this bunch
Waves are particles, particles are strings,
And the universe is the ultimate free lunch.