Musical Reflection

When your music preferences go from listening to 'Take Away My Pain' in an endless loop to 'Hold Me Tight' ... you know you are in a positive mood.

:)

Distance

What is distance?

The dictionary offers a few clues in the first two definitions

dis⋅tance
  /ˈdɪstəns/ [dis-tuhns] noun, verb, -tanced, -tanc⋅ing.
–noun
1. the extent or amount of space between two things, points, lines, etc.
2. the state or fact of being apart in space, as of one thing from another; remoteness.

Actually, when applied to two people those definitions do clash sometimes. Its very much possible to be close to someone an ocean away. Its so much more easier 'these days' with our 24x7 net access and cheap ISD rates. The days of my grandparents' might well have been Good Old Days, but I am glad to be where I am, when I am.

FMyLife

After lots of dilly dallying around, I finally made my way to an Ophthalmologist. So turns out what I initially dismissed as 'staring at the screen' is an eye inflammation due to an allergic reaction.

Also, when reassessing my power, I was blown away by how little I can see out of my left eye. Classic seeing-double-when-drunk-as-portrayed-in-movies double. What I have to do is wait out this inflammation and then get it checked again. A week of eye drops and that should do it, apparently.

So why am I typing this out here.

The eye drops.



How appropriately ironic.
Perfect.

Atheism, again

Spent the majority of the day listening to this ..
Very Interesting.

I do think on these lines sometimes and I find myself increasingly subscribing to an agnostic/atheist point of view.

It also is the 200th post here, apparently ..

And so it is ...

Its been a while that I have written something personal here. Not that I haven't noticed it till now, but somehow there was never anything I felt like writing. Though as such, there was a lot to write about.

But yesterday, while chatting with Sudnya, she happened to mention it. I retorted with 'you should be the one to talk' and she replied on the lines of .. 'I'm not so interesting when I'm peaceful / happy. That's where I usually rant'.

So, I thought for a moment, and I realised, that its more or less true for me too. For the first time in many months, I feel happy. Its not that happiness is an emotion which prevents you from displaying your feelings. Far from it. The difference lies in the fact that there are people around me now. I can talk, I can laugh and I can share. All person to person, without resorting to this medium.

So in a way, its a good thing that this place has been empty for a while. Because it means that I haven't. Its a good thing that my phone bill exceeds my rent bill because that's my outlet now.

Which also means that I devote this place to criticizing Hrithik Roshan ads.
Like this.



Yes, we know the secret ingredient of any good cookie is 'Love'. But not when the word before that is 'making'. On the same counter! Disgusting!

Afternoon Drowsiness

Monday Again.
The disturbed sleep cycle of the past two days tries to wobble into normalcy today.
But it takes its time.

Atheism

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/23/god_poll/comments/

If you believe in one true god then you don't believe in all the thousands of gods that have gone before, roman gods, greek gods, norse gods, mayan gods, egyptian gods etc. I agree with you. I don't believe in any of those gods either. I'll just go one small logical step further and not believe in your god either.

Point is, you should be trying to be a good person, which basically comes down to a lifelong Hippocratic Oath of "first do no harm". Every ethical position comes about naturally from that. And according to JC in the New Testament, it doesn't matter who we pray to - the good guys get to Heaven anyway, and the bad guys don't. The humanists and atheists are at an advantage here, because they can consider "first do no harm" without the laborious framework of how to do no harm which has built up historically around every religion - the utterly unholy Catholic doctrine of "every sperm is sacred", for example, which has no basis in the teachings of JC.

So it's the reverse of Pascal's Wager. Blaise Pascal reckoned that you should go to church regardless of whether you believed or not, because if the Christians were right then it'd get you to Heaven, and if the Christians were wrong then you'd not lost anything. But according to JC it's the other way around - you'll get to Heaven whether you follow a religion or not, so long as you behave well. And if there isn't a Heaven, you've still led a good life which has generally improved the world as a whole (even if only in a small way).

Besides which, there's a deeper point. Unless your god bases its decisions about an afterlife on the way you actually act, and the reasons you act that way, that god isn't worthy of worship. And if it does (cf. Christianity, Judaism and Islam), then it's handling admission to Hell, not Heaven.

Saw this while going through the above article.
Exactly my position.
Just be a good person.
Who cares if you say your morning prayers or don't.

Is that your zoom lens or are you just happy to see me?

After a long hiatus, and some dithering about, the FZ18 is back where it belongs - with me.



Hopefully, the output will be worth the wait ..

What would I do?

Reminds me of a rather special someone ...



:)

The End

Conclusion and Epilogue:

To sum it up, Sony tried to push me into buying a new camera. Previous experience, here and here.

After showing them the finger, I gave it to a dinky small time camera shop figuring I had nothing to lose. So a couple of missed connections and a weeks delay, I finally got it back. Cost me 1800 for replacing the DC-DC converter.

Test 1: Put in approximately 80% charged 1900mAh and left it on in video mode. Lasted 1 hour 21 minutes till the battery ran out. I think that is a pass.

Later, I got a call from Sony about the feedback form I had filled in while collecting it. Apparently they wanted to know why I had marked most of the fields '0' and 'Poor'. I explained to the lady that when I take my vehicle to the service center and complain of low mileage, they don't recommend that I change the engine.
I think she got it.

Aaaand Good Morning!

How could I let this go ...
:)

Goood Night!

Well, its 9:30 and I was late by a few minutes...
So, here goes.



You know who you are ..
:)

Wait for me

Hey You,



Turns out you didn't have to wait all that long.

Gtalk

I sit here, waiting
Alone, but not quite
I see resolute grey
but expect blinking orange.

Good Morning, errr ... Vietnam!

So you wake up early this morning ... early by your loose standards. First thing you do is check your phone. No activity there equates no activity here.

A few minutes later, the phone buzzes to life. You flip it open and smile. Its time to get up - the day has just begun.

Pigs on the Wing ...

Pune.

I am standing in line at the checkout counter at the grocery store, with my two packets of chips and a block of paneer. Third in line.

The nice couple at the counter have finished billing their million items and then proceed to have an extremely educated discussion with the clerk about whether the brand of Basmati Rice they bought is VFM.

Ten minutes.

There is a lady with a small kid in front of me. Both wearing masks. All of us are getting fidgety now.

I check my watch again.

Right next to where I am standing, is a stack of discount agarbattis for sale.

I have been sensitive to agarbattis since I was a kid.

I sneeze.

Woman in front looks at me with sheer terror in her eyes.

She grabs the kid and moves to the furthest counter just as the couple decide that their Basmati is actually the best.

I move in and place my goods on the counter.

WIN!

[Update]

Growing up ...

You are watching Top Gear with your brother and James May cracks a very dirty but extremely subtle sex joke. You look sideways at him, wondering if he is laughing just because everyone else is. But you also really wish he got it. And you don't know whether to feel relieved because of the former or a strange pride because of the latter.

That is me.

:)

Life. Is. Good.

Nothing more to say right now.

The key

To Whomsoever it may concern,



This is something I had to come up with very last minute and very hurriedly, so please forgive the extreme lameness.

But what went inside is really from the heart.

Happy Birthday.

Update

Sometimes it is just so hard to state the obvious.
(and I do not mean the answer to 'Does this dress make me look fat?')

But you chip away at the matter, careful to only take it away piece by piece, hoping, trying to avoid the big blow. But sometimes, that is not always the best strategy.

The flip side is that one really can't be sure which was the way to go until you look back after its all over.

I, however have shifted the thinking a little. Decided to give it a push. Let's see how it goes.

In other news, I find the Sony Ericsson default ringtone more than a little irritating these days.