A (Good) Story (?)

He looked around him.  He was surrounded by around seven or eight soldiers with their AK-47’s aimed straight at him.  He had been to the country on a visit, and he was not a martial arts expert or a political figure: he was just an ordinary employee of an IT firm based in California.

His heart was pounding, he was sweating like anything, and he wondered where he was going to land up next.  If this was real life, he knew he was in deep, deep trouble.  He still was in deep trouble, but he was cool, and could afford to look it, because he had faith.

Faith in the writer—he knew that the ending would turn out to be great and in his favor, and that he would look like a hero, nevermind the pounding heart, the screaming emotions, the feeling of complete bewilderment.  He knew things would turn out all right, that nothing would happen to him.

And they didn’t.  He was in a fictional setting, being nothing but a fragment of imagination.  He was indeed, the protagonist of the fiction, but the piece of fiction itself was just a fragment that was designed to illustrate some small fact that anyone knows about, but that had re-asserted itself in the writer’s mind in a brief instant of realization, and that writer, who had not written for quite some time, decided to write down something in a whim.

He had been created, in a tight situation, and he could have potentially gone far in his adventures.  Unluckily, he was destined to be stuck in it till he disappeared from the minds of his readers, and the way the piece was written, his initially scary situation had turned out to look somewhat comical, somewhat nonsensical.  However, he still was the protagonist, in a piece that was unique if nothing else.

Thats all folks .  I had started writing to illustrate one point, but somewhere at around 60% of the piece, I just went with the flow, and ended up writing it completely differently—I somehow liked the ending, but I’m not sure if anyone else did—hope so though!   My original intent can be guessed from the initial part of this entry, just in case you are curious.  Hope you enjoyed it, even if it was just a little .  BTW, its not Friday or early Saturday, but I thought this much was allowable after a long break, since I felt like writing on a whim all of a sudden .

A new habit, an observation, and a bit more of this and that!

I read something, quite a while back, about how habits form the man.  I think it was in my most frequently quoted book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  As I vaguely remember it now, it went something along the lines of  “A man rarely becomes great because of one great achievement, but more because of his character, and his habits”.  This is a gross approximation of the original passage, as I do not remember the exact details now.  However, I had been very impressed with it back then(I still am, to some degree, when you think about it ).  Since then, on and off, many times, I have tried to form new habits that I desire and break old ones that I don’t like (who hasn’t really?).

Yesterday, I was doing something I’ve started since the past few days..  I think it would help me in the long run if I keep doing it daily, but it was feeling like a bother at that time.  Anyways, I completed it, just barely paying enough attention to get me through the task.  That’s when I realized I was actually on the way to forming a new habit, and that I had just seen a road-sign,  the road-sign being that I finished the task, even if I did it just as a formality.

Completing things as a formality is not the best way to do things.  However, we all have our highs and lows (don’t we?).  If you can stick through your worst lows, just with that sense of taking the task as a mere formality to be completed, and perhaps just a little bit more, you will soon enough reach another high where you are enthusiastic about it.  You might of course, reach another low given enough time, but you will stick to it.

Then, I noticed that that was how we (or at least I) progressed with knowing many people in life.  First, they are a novelty.  You see just a little bit, and you are very formal with that person (try to act your best around them, …).  Slowly, you get to know them more, and they slowly become part of the background that forms the details of your life.   You think you know them, you take them for granted, but still, you are friends.  And the cycle of taking them for granted vs. showing active recognition of them kind of goes on, with different time periods and amplitudes for different people you know.

So I had started with a thought that a new task was somewhat bothersome, noticed the generality of that thought in any habit forming process (for me, to some extent at least), then extended that to the general way humans deal with things in life (at least one instance: dealing with people– the rest, I’m not even looking for examples, just philosophizing, if you can call it that ).

However, that had all happened pretty quickly yesterday (5-10 minutes???).  Today, I took the whole thing one step further.  I thought that since I didn’t have anything else to write about anyways, I’d put it in as a rambling (My conscience, or rather, self-dignity, prevented me from posting another ‘I don’t have anything to write about’ blog today).  So, for better or for worse, here it stands in front of you, hopefully, as some food for thought, or perhaps, as a minor distraction in your life which took away a number of precious seconds forever .  Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend!

An Unwilling Composition

I think I missed a deadline by a few hours this week: the about section says: “Friday evening or Saturday morning”, but its a bit past morning this Saturday.   However, I have an excuse .. I was sleeping all morning, well into the day today, and wrote this quite early when you consider when I woke up, so here goes!

Note: Make sure you do read to the end: Its not as pointless as it seems (or is it… :S)

An Unwilling Composition

Unwilling,

or perhaps unable,

to weave new words

into a fabric

that they call

a composition,

but driven to write,

out of a sense

of duty,

and restricted in choices

by a need

for originality,

I write down something

that looks like a poem

when viewed from afar,

though my words,

may actually be

no more than a sentence

broken down into lines

to form a pattern

that looks like a poem.

Who knows?

Its all your fault!

I haven’t written stuff in a while.  Today, I had nothing to write about in my head, as I opened up a new post.  A topic came into my head, but it happened to be a very complex one, and it requires a lot of analysis.  I can write how I feel in general, but writing in a more rational way would require much more effort that the 15-20 minutes I will attempt to dedicate to it.  Hence, I call it a ‘rant’ and present it below.  I look forward to hearing what you think as well, and look forward to comments.  To see what kind of comments I like, please look at the about section .

People sometimes mess things up for us, real bad. We have to go through extreme misery just because of them, day after day, seemingly without end.  In the end, after its all over, the bad taste is still in our mouth, and we might feel that we’ve been scarred for life.

Then again, people sometimes mess things up for our predecessors.  Things are ok for us, but for so long, our predecessors had a real hard time.  Sometimes, we have a hard time too, to an extent.

And then, sometimes, our predecessors didn’t have such a hard time, but we are against the status quo of certain things.  In the air of our revolt, we try to break the status quo, and we blame everything that has happened so far, including the state of status quo that was there when our predecessors existed, and blame the receiving end for it.  It is all a ‘tool’ to help further our revolt.  The past, the present, anything that we can manipulate with words.

No matter what had happened, is the choice we are left with: “what do we do now?”.

The question is: with the initiative in your hands, what do you choose to do?

Would you choose to simply break away: forgive them or just leave them be, and get on with your future?  You could do something constructive, or if they are involved too, get them in a win-win situation with you, get things working for a better future for both of you?

Or would you choose a path of active aggression, attacking the alleged wrongdoers, gaining benefits from them to some extent, both by showing you are morally superior to them, and taking what they think is theirs, while doing very little constructive work yourself?

If you choose the second option of course, I have some questions: who is the judge of your own actions: that you are right, and the other is wrong, in the past, and more importantly, today?  Also, what is your true intent behind choosing that path, all words left aside, including the words you tell yourself?

A note on why I ask these questions:  I see so many situations where people react to the past, some examples being revolts in my own country.  Someone did something to a group a long time ago, someone took away an independent state from someone else a long time ago, and ever since, they have been forced to live as colonies of the invaders.  A note to those who do not know about my country: it is not very big, and as far as I know, everyone was trying to increase territories back in a feudal area.  The example of states being colonized is but one possibility of seeing wrongdoing in the past.  You might be angry with someone in your personal life, or in various other contexts as well.  However, I choose to only look at this particular example for now.

Why is it such a big deal?

Everyone now seems to want their own ‘territory’, free from interference from the other territories, or at least that is what I understand.  Who does it help?

I guess the people who get to be in power in the small territories in the small run.  Perhaps neighbors who would love to attempt to slurp up a few chunks of land if they can: much more difficult to do from a unified Nepal than from small pieces of it.  Perhaps the people there, but really, do you think it would help them that much?  Couldn’t there be a much better solution if all the ‘territories’ overlooked the ‘past’ and decided to work together as one single nation?  Difficult for the ones shouting the most—their chances of getting into power would perhaps diminish, but what about the rest of the gang, the ones that actually have to live a life free from politics one way or another?

I end my post with these questions for this particular example.  However I feel that the questions I raise apply to most situations where grievance is involved, though the situations are sometimes very very different. The final question is:  is it possible to still walk away with your future in your hands, completely free of the initiator of misery, or must justice always be dealt? My choice slightly leans towards leaving the offenders be to a certain extent, perhaps because I like to believe that your karma eventually catches up to you, no matter how much you try to leave it behind.  I think I would choose to neutralize any means of aggression they possess, and leave them be after that if I can.  However, that is from my perspective.  I leave your answer upto you.

Note:  This is a post written in a hurry, so I might end up editing it later.  Most likely not though, but lets see.

You are what you eat!

I do not see how this post could offend anyone, but just in case it does, please remember that this is meant in jest!  I just remembered that some people told me that you become like what you eat, and an observation made the whole statement sound somewhat difficult to assert .  Here goes the main post:

I’ve heard this time and again, in different places, from different people from different backgrounds.  Not so often, but still, enough to make me notice, though the strange assertion is perhaps enough to make one remember it even if heard once.

I remember someone acting like a chicken (or turkey.. I forget now) in front of an audience in order to demonstrate that if you ate too much chicken, you would become like chicken….. semi-humorously, but I think, still believing in the statement that “you are what you eat”.

That assertion has been a tiny bother in the back of my mind for a long time: “why do so many people think it is true?  What observations did they make that led them to believe in something like that?  Is it true, at least to some extent?”

Then today, as I was eating rice with cauliflowers and ‘Kimchi’ (a korean dish made of fermented cabbage and shrimp), the statement came to mind again… “If people are what they eat, I am eating fermented cabbage and shrimp… what might that make me ”

Within a few milliseconds, I came across a proof that the statement is false, and was proud of myself.  Until of course, I realized that the statement could still hold true in the sense of Hindu philosophy (and I think Buddhist philosophy too).  In that sense, characteristics being transferred would simply be “Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas”, and inherent in food itself, much more than whatever became the food.  Excluding that slightly different interpretation (which I am still perhaps pondering over in the back of my mind), here is my disproof:

If you eat much chicken, you become more like a chicken.

If you eat much pork, you become more like a pig.

Which would imply:

If you eat many humans, you become more like a human…

Hmmm…. in a radical sense, this kind of promotes cannibalism, don’t you think?  In a less radical sense, aren’t the mosquitoes that are perhaps the ones that get to feast on humans the most, more human than humans who feed on animals?

Perhaps, perhaps not.  After all this post is but an idle reflection, and not meant to give you any deep insight as such, and I leave the rest up to you to decide!

In Appreciation of Appreciation

A long time back, in class 7, we were standing in line to go inside class.  Unexpectedly, one of my english teachers called me aside, and gave me a hard-covered red diary with a design of small flowers on the cover.  She was going to be leaving soon: she was one among many teachers of mine who was a volunteer: they came for terms of two years to both my high school, and later, my college, to teach, and went back after their term was over.

The diary was blank, and on the first page, she had written that it was a gift to someone, who she hoped, would be able to fill those pages with wonderful poems someday.  She had written more, but that is perhaps the most important line for me, and the feeling that came with it of course.

I got more wonderful gifts from teachers and friends along the way.  The most wonderful thing about them was not the material that came as the actual gift, so much as the appreciation that came along with it.  I’ve had wonderful gifts that have been no larger than a slip of paper, which made not just me, but even other members of my family very happy.  Even just praise, sincerely given, with heartfelt words, can make a large difference in your life: one such incident still makes me strive to make myself better than what I am often when I remember it.

And then again, more expensive gifts, while they may have made me happy, might not last so long as the gifts of true appreciation and encouragement.

I’m sure all of us have received such gifts in one form or another at different times in our lives.  The only regret that I might have about the gift of appreciation, is that I might not have been able to give as many as I have received, sometimes even when I have thought I should.  Expressing yourself is really something that requires a lot of courage if you are not used to it!

I think appreciation from others sometimes shows you aspects of yourself that you might not even have noticed.  Sincere appreciation, in contrast to flattery, helps you to see those aspects, and to take what you already have, and develop it to its full potential.

So from my side, heres to appreciation, and to more opportunities to both give and receive sincere  appreciation in the future!

A Paper Flower

A Paper Flower

Green, shiny, and light,

a slightly fragrant box,

sitting among many others,

in a shop shelf,

with contents

that must be delivered

to its target:

just some passerby

who will randomly prefer it,

pick it up,

use its contents,

and discard the box itself:

a flower,

of human consumerism.

To memorize or not to um…. what was I saying?

I used to look at memorization as if it was something that was not fit for people really interested in learning.

That was in the past.  Nowadays, I look at it in a different light.

Long ago, I preferred to derive formulae for mathematics rather than try to remember them, even in exams.  I believed that what was important was understanding the concepts, and being able to do things yourself.  I still believe this though.

But then, I’ve also begun seeing things from another angle: the fact that a man with the right tools can achieve more results than a man without those tools, though the one without tools may be a very good worker.  What does that have to do with memorization?

Its pretty obvious that memorization serves as a tool for various purposes.  Students cramming their way through exams is one purpose it serves quite well.  However, providing a framework of readily accessible facts in your mind when you need them is another very important use it has.  Think of two people: with the same level of understanding of a subject.  One understands all the concepts, but he needs to refer to his books, the internet, or whatever he has at his disposal to remember hard facts.  The other knows all of the facts in his mind.

Let me take an aside from the scenario above for a while, and go to the world of Buddhist monks in Tibet, where I read once (in a book called The Third Eye by T. Lobsang Rampa) that the monks were supposed to memorize numerous thick volumes of books, and were able to remember anything in any of the pages using a memory system.  “The feat might be incredible, but what is the point?”, you might ask .  Anyways, that was one of the questions that had come to my mind.

I am not sure.  One thing though, is that they have two advantages: i. they can refer to, and mix and merge any number of concepts in the books at will, and they have a reference that is always at their disposal (thus, helping them gain a deeper understanding in the long run); ii. the discipline that it took to memorize those volumes forced them to concentrate, and I believe that, the density of the time you put in is much more important than just the raw length of time you put in. By density, I mean the amount of concentration you put in.

Jumping back to the first scenario:  the second person has the facts he needs in his head all the time, which means that he can refer to these facts anytime– something I seem to frequently do (since it seems my unconscious mind keeps working on problems even when I am doing something else– something I have noticed frequently when I try to solve brain-teasers and other problems).  In other words, he has a framework in his mind, which he can customize as he wishes to.  That is a very valuable tool for learning.

The second advantage he has is in self confidence.  Both people might be experts, but the one who can easily answer any questions fired at him instead of having to refer to notes gives the ‘feel of an expert’ to a random observer.  And being able to convince random people that you are an expert is part of the art of selling yourself, something that is quite important in competitive times.

As a final observation that I found quite interesting:  after you work for years in a field, you find you know certain things by heart, i.e. you have the knowledge/skills at your fingertips.  If you are a person used to memorizing+practicing things well in the beginning itself, you thus gain significant comparable expertise much sooner.

The subject of course, deserves much more detail than what I have covered above (my customary apology– this is a blog, not an essay ).  However, the aspects I mentioned above are quite important (at least to me), and are part of the reason of why I am beginning to find a newfound respect for memorization.

Birds of a feather….

I’ve heard the word for quite some time now: TWITTER.

Never really gotten around to it that much– I do use FB once in a while (much less nowadays), and I really like the fact that I can get in touch with people I had lost all contact with since long back.  Which is why I can kind of understand why it is so ‘happening’.

However, twitter was a bit of an enigma to me… I guess it still is.  It seemed to me that if fb could help you get in touch with your friends, mail could be used for more private communications (then phone, then face-to-face talks, in order of privacy), and IM was a much more realtime way of communications, where exactly did twitter fit in?

I am a ‘newbie’ to twitter, though I have been a member for quite some time.  Recently, I installed twitterfox, which seems to be a very handy addon to firefox which lets you tweet without having to open another application or opening the twitter webpage.   I also started ‘following’ people– some friends, some people sites had told me I should follow (think in terms of people/organizations relevant to my fields of interest).

Soon, I noticed that I would be seeing tweets regularly, especially tweets from the ones that I did not know.  The tweets, however, seemed to be trivial enough to ignore when busy, and interesting enough to read when I wanted to.  Two examples are News From Nepal and BBCNepal.  Both seem to give periodic updates on stuff happening in Nepal.  Other tweets come from companies whose technologies I am interested in.

I don’t really pay much attention to these tweets, but when I open the twitter page once in a while (or when I use certain firefox profiles where I have installed twitterfox), I do enjoy looking at the periodic updates once in a while.  It is in fact, kind of like listening to a multitude of voices around you, and choosing when to pay attention, and when to go about your own business.  Further, the tweets you are hearing are those of the ones you have chosen to come within hearing distance of– those that are apparently similar to you in some aspects.

Hence the thought that crossed my mind: “birds of a feather tweet together:)”

In the end, this comes from someone who is not really that much into twitter (yet anyways), so you might want to ask your local twitterguru if you want to know more:).  Or just listen to one of the guys behind twitter here.

The other aspect of computer software evolution

“This is the Unix philosophy. Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.”

—Doug McIlroy

Before I go on with my intended post, I will write in a few lines why I like Linux so much.  The fact that it is Open Source is there, but much more important to me is the Unix philosophy I quoted above.  You have programs such as awk, cut, sed, etc., and concepts such as i/o redirection and piping that let you join these programs together to do so much, and you have environments such as bash that let you do the same thing a hundred times over, with small variations, using scripting (programming).  In short, it is simple, but very powerful!

On to my main post now:

We can think of computer evolution as the evolution of Dos 3.1 to Windows Vista (7?), the evolution from sneakernet to wireless and satellite connectivity, and whatnot.  Frequently, I used to think of computer evolution in terms of how bloated programs could get, while maintaining marketing hype, without really doing much more besides get horribly huge and slow (so that you buy new hardware, and the hardware-software computation requirement makes your computer still feel about the same).  I know that there is more than just bloat– there have actually been many improvements, both in user interface  and in features.  That is one aspect of computer software evolution, and is definitely impressive.

But then, I think there is another aspect of computer software evolution which is much more important to me– the development of “Legoware”– a term I coined on the spur of the moment.

What is Legoware?  Any (generally small) software program that can be easily used in conjunction with other tools to do what the user can imagine (and not a fixed set of components fixed up and packaged by a single vendor in a rigid, non-modifiable structure).

Legoware could be the programming (or more apt perhaps, scripting) environments like bash, python, perl, etc to use those tools extra-intelligently, specialized tools such as awk, gnuplot, sed, veusz, etc to do very specialized stuff, latex, etc for great formatting and text-editing, etc.  You can create arbitrary programs to do as much as you can imagine using these– the concept of a computer as a (hacker’s) playground.

And then again, come the application plugins.  OpenOffice, Firefox– the two I can think of right now.  The applications do just so much, and you can get plugins to extend everything beyond measure!  I use so many firefox plugins that using firefox is an experience in itself not just because of the application, but much more so because of my favorite plugins.  Which is why I hate it when upgrades break some plugins.

I got a long distance call from home a couple of days ago, and my dad told me over the phone that no matter how hard he tried, he could not make firefox look as good as it was before after the tech who had visited had reformatted his computer (virus problem or something).  I think he was missing the adblock plus extension I had installed for him…. though I am not sure yet.

Further, I keep bumping into new add-ons that I google up when I need them, and though I lived my whole life up to that point without using them, they seem indispensable from that day onwards.

I have even considered writing a few when I did not find any plugin that did what I wanted– I might eventually end up writing them… hehe… lets see.

The point of this rambling is…. I am sometimes very impressed with computer software evolution… the other aspect of computer evolution that comes in small, distributed packages, is generally free, and very very helpful!

Cheers to the ongoing development of these packages, and to the inventive souls who manage to keep coming up with and maintaining them!