scissors cuts paper.
paper wraps rock,
rock blunts scissors...
this is the age old cycle of japanese tradition. this kinda cuts the picture of three snakes, eating the next's tail. much like the dream which lead to the discovery of the arrangement of carbon atoms in benzene. Now that was a miraculous discovery, which eventually lead to the formation of organic chemistry as a different science. incidentally, that same carbon is what transforms plain old iron into steel, which is used to make scissors. this universe is simply great, man, i mean you won't find such complete closure anywhere else. closure as in the mathematical concept, but that's a whole different blog again...
now that we've seen one cycle that involves scissors, let's not talk about cycles, or i'll lose sight of my topic. scissors. that sheer metallic tool with razor sharp edges, one of the many tools that are usable solely due to the concept of opposable thumbs. i mean even if we did not have opposable thumbs, we could still have used a hole-puncher (for punching holes in what is a different matter :), but scissors needs a hand with an opposable thumb. like Ross is so fond of saying, Evolution is not an accident, it is a logical consequence. how else could you explain opposable thumbs? there i go again. lost sight of the real topic, which is scissors. also, like all tools, it uses levers. actually the whole body comprises of two class-I levers, riveted at their mutual fulcrums(or is it fulcri?). levers come in three classes. class I has the fulcrum in the middle, class II and class III have Load and Effort one each in the middle. i forget which is which. this was taught way back in 7th grade physics, which is when we also learnt that biology was a different subject, and the same age when i realised that girls are actually a different species. actually girls are much better at crafts (and boys obviously took to sports better), atleast that was the impression we had at that time in school. crafts again include lots of other arts. and in my school, a whole set was compulsory for crafts class. the set consisted of paint brushes, water colours, an old rag, pencils of different grades (even now, i don't really understand why we have 2H pencils), a clean long eraser, wax crayons, a drawing book, and ya of course, a scissors! later on, in higher classes, we were also taught needlework! (atleast they tried, but couldn't make a good job out of it). as i was saying, a needle is yet another tool (sheer metallic and pointed... ) that needs opposable thumbs to work with.
scissors is often misunderstood as a weapon of destruction, as happens with most things that are sharp (tools, instruments, wit, humour...). they tend to be destructive in the wrong hands. but place them in the right hands, and you will see creativity spout out of that complete 'closed' circle of hands and tool. again, one needs to lose some things to gain others. similarly, when a shape is cut using scissors, the border or the frame might be misconstrued as a wastage, but it makes great 'designer' stuff. i mean go through a whole week, pasting all the li'l scraps caused by the scissors onto a cardboard, and voila! you've got a collage! now that's designer stuff, ain't it? neways, i think i've blabbered enuff on scissors for tonight. meet you again next week, same time, same blog, same address. or earlier than that if i can. ciao.
February 23, 2005
February 17, 2005
Moral Obligation
what would u say? apart from parents, i really do not think we owe anything to anybody else.
Now that i've finished discussing the topic, let us move onto the fun stuff. you know what my dream life is? it's the life of a hero of a cyberpunk novel. the world at your fingertips, life is a long unending night, parties going on every other night, the day flits by like a filmy screen of dazed sleep, booze and fags at your disposal, slavering away at your terminal with a shot-induced clarity, breaking and making codes, creating cyber-fortresses, finding faults with other's, hacking into your own system to check for faults, man! i already feel like that lead role in Swordfish! imagine this. you've created a perfect cyberworld, a matrix where there is no worry. would you be brave enough to hook urself into it?
well, anyway, that's one of the possiblities. i wouldn't mind being batman either, but only if i also get to have the batcave, batgirl(s), batplane, and of course batmobile goes without saying. i wouldn't mind not having a robin though.
i picture you smiling condescendingly at this foolish outpour of childish fantasies from a yet immature adult. but, i tell you, dreams are what makes the world go round. atleast, definitely in my head.
all this is just mindless gibberish, so let's talk some math.
why did set theory come about? i say it has the same root, as the question why does wine come in so many varieties, or the question why is language necessary. see the connection? probably won't, even after i'm done, but just bear with me. i say man has this need to understand everything. atleast certain individuals did. so they said, let's give names to everything, so that i can understand what you are talking about. so they gave names to everything, and that's how language came about.
but like i said somewhere else, calling a chair a chair is pretty mundane, though pragmatic. i mean i'd love nothing more than calling a chair a chair, but certain people would not agree. they would say "hey, i agree that this object is a chair. but it is more than a chair. it was crafted 200 years ago, with so and so wood, by so and so great artist, so please give it due respect, and call it an 18th century Chippendale. It's worth more than you earn in a whole year."
you see, calling a chair a chair was not enough. they had to give it some fanciful name just so that everyone who knows will immediately recognise all the craft that went into it, and those who do not know it are left with a sense of awe and respect for something that is esoteric to their rather base tastes. it's the need to do something out of the ordinary, it's the need to break away from routine, it's the need to be creative. also, once you do something creative, you would want to label it as something special, so that people will know it has something special (even though they do not see what is special in it). so there arises the need for classification, labelling, segregation and building boundaries around things. that's the same need that gave rise to sets. by putting elements in sets, you are saying "you belong here, you element!" and then you take subsets and say okay all of you are special. and then you take another subset and say okay all of you are worthy. and then another subset says you are invaluable! extremely important. so you see, if that need for segregation was absent, we wouldn't be able to appreciate art. but neither would we have to study Set Theory! so you see, arts and science have the same root.
am i cool or what!?!
Now that i've finished discussing the topic, let us move onto the fun stuff. you know what my dream life is? it's the life of a hero of a cyberpunk novel. the world at your fingertips, life is a long unending night, parties going on every other night, the day flits by like a filmy screen of dazed sleep, booze and fags at your disposal, slavering away at your terminal with a shot-induced clarity, breaking and making codes, creating cyber-fortresses, finding faults with other's, hacking into your own system to check for faults, man! i already feel like that lead role in Swordfish! imagine this. you've created a perfect cyberworld, a matrix where there is no worry. would you be brave enough to hook urself into it?
well, anyway, that's one of the possiblities. i wouldn't mind being batman either, but only if i also get to have the batcave, batgirl(s), batplane, and of course batmobile goes without saying. i wouldn't mind not having a robin though.
i picture you smiling condescendingly at this foolish outpour of childish fantasies from a yet immature adult. but, i tell you, dreams are what makes the world go round. atleast, definitely in my head.
all this is just mindless gibberish, so let's talk some math.
why did set theory come about? i say it has the same root, as the question why does wine come in so many varieties, or the question why is language necessary. see the connection? probably won't, even after i'm done, but just bear with me. i say man has this need to understand everything. atleast certain individuals did. so they said, let's give names to everything, so that i can understand what you are talking about. so they gave names to everything, and that's how language came about.
but like i said somewhere else, calling a chair a chair is pretty mundane, though pragmatic. i mean i'd love nothing more than calling a chair a chair, but certain people would not agree. they would say "hey, i agree that this object is a chair. but it is more than a chair. it was crafted 200 years ago, with so and so wood, by so and so great artist, so please give it due respect, and call it an 18th century Chippendale. It's worth more than you earn in a whole year."
you see, calling a chair a chair was not enough. they had to give it some fanciful name just so that everyone who knows will immediately recognise all the craft that went into it, and those who do not know it are left with a sense of awe and respect for something that is esoteric to their rather base tastes. it's the need to do something out of the ordinary, it's the need to break away from routine, it's the need to be creative. also, once you do something creative, you would want to label it as something special, so that people will know it has something special (even though they do not see what is special in it). so there arises the need for classification, labelling, segregation and building boundaries around things. that's the same need that gave rise to sets. by putting elements in sets, you are saying "you belong here, you element!" and then you take subsets and say okay all of you are special. and then you take another subset and say okay all of you are worthy. and then another subset says you are invaluable! extremely important. so you see, if that need for segregation was absent, we wouldn't be able to appreciate art. but neither would we have to study Set Theory! so you see, arts and science have the same root.
am i cool or what!?!
February 16, 2005
Warning: the length of this article may contain explicit, possibly offensive content. readers are discouraged from reading further and are advised to change their fucking mindsets.
okay. now that we are done with the prelude shit, what was i talking 'bout? ya myself. now about me, i'm a stinking wussy. think about a guy who belches a lot, farts a lot, makes much more annoying noises, and revels in the knowledge that he's so disgusting that some ppl prefer to stay away from him. and i haven't even started off on his underwear usage statistics. picture a wasted 20-yr old, who's into drugs, has no dough to pay for anything. you know, a scraggly beard, sunken-in eyes, hair growing 'every-which' way, spec's with one leg hanging out, jeans worn more than a month, same t-shirt for weeks, no bath, no idea where he is, no idea what's he gonna do tomorrow, today or now. Now cut-out the drugs part, and throw in some money, enough to survive through the haze of smoke. and that's only the physical appearance.
talk about integrity, and that's one thing that you won't find in this pathetic figure. he can't stand up for anything he says, can't stand up by himself for anything at all, can argue endlessly about anything even without making sense. his words are worth nothing at all. his life is a lie. he lives just so that his parents can live in the false belief that their 'child' is pursuing his undergraduate studies. the only thread of meaning that he's hanging by is that of his respect for his parents and family. or possibly the cowardice to relieve himself from this despicable existence. nothing holds any interest for him, except possibly the globular appendages of the female species. the way he's dredging along in this river of life, you'll be surprised to know that he even has friends. attributing a pukka palahnuick character would be gross injustice to palahnuick hisself, cos there's so much more disgusting about his chracters, that there exists certain beauty in being able to live a life so low. but even that doesn't hold for this character we are talking about. he's rational, but mindless. he's intelli but definitely stupid. he's trying to grow up, but is still a mindless teenager who doesn't want to. life is rushing past him by the hour, and he's just content if he's let all alone by himself to sit on a rock and watch all this from third-person, puffing away to eternity. but then, he'll have to struggle for food, which again needs some work to do. and work is one thing this fellow despises. he is capable of doing mundane things, but he won't do them, b'coz they're mundane. a pathetic dreamer. loves fantasizing about possibilities, but hates to work for them. he doesn't even hate everything, which would enable people to label him off as a social outcast. all he hates is himself. loves to put people in a fix. but is in a fix himself.
and what still eludes him is the fact that he has friends who believe in him.
okay. now that we are done with the prelude shit, what was i talking 'bout? ya myself. now about me, i'm a stinking wussy. think about a guy who belches a lot, farts a lot, makes much more annoying noises, and revels in the knowledge that he's so disgusting that some ppl prefer to stay away from him. and i haven't even started off on his underwear usage statistics. picture a wasted 20-yr old, who's into drugs, has no dough to pay for anything. you know, a scraggly beard, sunken-in eyes, hair growing 'every-which' way, spec's with one leg hanging out, jeans worn more than a month, same t-shirt for weeks, no bath, no idea where he is, no idea what's he gonna do tomorrow, today or now. Now cut-out the drugs part, and throw in some money, enough to survive through the haze of smoke. and that's only the physical appearance.
talk about integrity, and that's one thing that you won't find in this pathetic figure. he can't stand up for anything he says, can't stand up by himself for anything at all, can argue endlessly about anything even without making sense. his words are worth nothing at all. his life is a lie. he lives just so that his parents can live in the false belief that their 'child' is pursuing his undergraduate studies. the only thread of meaning that he's hanging by is that of his respect for his parents and family. or possibly the cowardice to relieve himself from this despicable existence. nothing holds any interest for him, except possibly the globular appendages of the female species. the way he's dredging along in this river of life, you'll be surprised to know that he even has friends. attributing a pukka palahnuick character would be gross injustice to palahnuick hisself, cos there's so much more disgusting about his chracters, that there exists certain beauty in being able to live a life so low. but even that doesn't hold for this character we are talking about. he's rational, but mindless. he's intelli but definitely stupid. he's trying to grow up, but is still a mindless teenager who doesn't want to. life is rushing past him by the hour, and he's just content if he's let all alone by himself to sit on a rock and watch all this from third-person, puffing away to eternity. but then, he'll have to struggle for food, which again needs some work to do. and work is one thing this fellow despises. he is capable of doing mundane things, but he won't do them, b'coz they're mundane. a pathetic dreamer. loves fantasizing about possibilities, but hates to work for them. he doesn't even hate everything, which would enable people to label him off as a social outcast. all he hates is himself. loves to put people in a fix. but is in a fix himself.
and what still eludes him is the fact that he has friends who believe in him.
February 13, 2005
what say u?
like i was saying, i keep postponing polly to the perennial 'tomorrow'. like scarlet o'hara's so fond of saying, i'll let it worry me tomorrow. i have a question to ask you ppl. does everything you do need to have a reason? i mean given the choice of two things to do: 1., which would in some rational way help you, your life, family, health, or whatever. 2., which you desperatley want to do, just because you want to. it wouldn't really help you over much in your career or life, except that you'll have the satisfaction of looking back one day and saying to yourself "you know what? i had the guts to do what i wanted, and i did it!" so given the choice between 1 and 2, which would you pick? and given say n such choices, would you pick the same choice over and over again? i mean isn't there anything called 'irrational irrepressible passion' in our lives anymore? does everything we need to do have a reason? i really see no reason to have a reason! (so my friend naresh might instantly shoot up saying this is a halting problem, and so undecidable, but hey that's my whole point. since it is undecidable, there is no reason we need to have a reason).
its one thing that i'm allergic to. i love chaos. where there are no rules, but unspoken laws govern the state. where nothing is evident on the face, but everything does have a deeper implication. where whatever you do is not punishable, since punishment occurs only in a rational world. you have the freedom to indulge in your passions. live them out, or get burnt in the process! choose 2.
its one thing that i'm allergic to. i love chaos. where there are no rules, but unspoken laws govern the state. where nothing is evident on the face, but everything does have a deeper implication. where whatever you do is not punishable, since punishment occurs only in a rational world. you have the freedom to indulge in your passions. live them out, or get burnt in the process! choose 2.
S*x Sux or what!?
We were having this discussion the other day, okay, about how come three young adults, desperate to "lose their flower", are still virgins! i mean if this was in the infamous U.S. of A, we would already have lost it, considering that we are already going on 20. i mean, you would either find people who already have had sex, or atleast don't want any part of it ruining their lives. not like us, who are desperate, yet do not have the oppurtunity to indulge! and why would you think that the situation is so? is this the famous parampara of the largest democracy in the world, that young adults are to be kept restrained from indulging their basest instincts?
and of course there is the other type of male species of the human kind, which actually believe that not having a chance to indulge is actually for their own good! i mean how immature can one be? let alone not having had sex "all willy-nilly", but actually believing that you are not supposed to? by god we are in the dark ages! no wonder the world just swooped past us while we were still recovering from the hangover of achieving our very own independence. i mean 50 yrs of independence, and all that we have to show is the glorious past, and of course the zero contribution to math, meaning zilch. 0. nothing, and that's what we are good for.
i sometimes have a feeling all of this is our very own doing, you know, like the song which goes :we are all just prisoners here, of our own device: or was it of our only vice? here we are, caught in the very deep mesh of tradition, family values, etc.. blah blah, while all that we want to do is have some clean good fun. is that wrong? "YES IT IS", shout co-human beings of the same age, and deeper we sink into the mesh. aw for cripes' sakes get me outta here!!
and of course there is the other type of male species of the human kind, which actually believe that not having a chance to indulge is actually for their own good! i mean how immature can one be? let alone not having had sex "all willy-nilly", but actually believing that you are not supposed to? by god we are in the dark ages! no wonder the world just swooped past us while we were still recovering from the hangover of achieving our very own independence. i mean 50 yrs of independence, and all that we have to show is the glorious past, and of course the zero contribution to math, meaning zilch. 0. nothing, and that's what we are good for.
i sometimes have a feeling all of this is our very own doing, you know, like the song which goes :we are all just prisoners here, of our own device: or was it of our only vice? here we are, caught in the very deep mesh of tradition, family values, etc.. blah blah, while all that we want to do is have some clean good fun. is that wrong? "YES IT IS", shout co-human beings of the same age, and deeper we sink into the mesh. aw for cripes' sakes get me outta here!!
February 10, 2005
Here I Am
so i'm cruising along okay, mindless of the myriad worries of the world, cocooned in the comfort of knowledge, of knowing that nothing drastic can happen to me, not now while i'm cruising along so peacefully. i use the word cruise, not because i'm on an open deck of a 100-foot yacht, nor because i'm driving a Harley-Davidson, though i'd love to do both. i use 'cruise' coz the word immediately brings to my mind the StarWars like desert scooters, or the scene in The Incredibles where Dash propels Elastigirl's boat. you know, the dream of every boy stuck in a rut somewhere in the world's corner: to leave everything behind and 'feel the elements', like the wind in your hair, or sun shining on your face, or the cool touch of water while canoeing down rapids, you get my drift... cruising along is something i've always wanted to do, to take time out from this fast-paced world and get to know myself a little better. it holds that touch of adventure, that li'l dash of romance, the unknown and the challenging, while still giving you the security of knowing that you always have a safety-belt to rely on. so i am in such a state, not on any vehicle per se, unless you call this material body a vehicle. so here i am, just drifting along with the currents of time, being jostled by the madding crowd, still somehow remaining calm and unperturbed, like in the cruise i've always wanted to be on.
and along came polly. polly is one thing i've always avoided, thought of confronting it, but like so many other events in my shallow li'l life, i've always adjourned it to a 'tomorrow' that never yet came. polly has the potential to destroy me completely, so much so that i even fear thinking about it. polly has the ability to lift me up to nirvana, and so even while i fear thinking about it, i gaze at it longingly. polly is the question: where am i headed?
and along came polly. polly is one thing i've always avoided, thought of confronting it, but like so many other events in my shallow li'l life, i've always adjourned it to a 'tomorrow' that never yet came. polly has the potential to destroy me completely, so much so that i even fear thinking about it. polly has the ability to lift me up to nirvana, and so even while i fear thinking about it, i gaze at it longingly. polly is the question: where am i headed?
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