Way back when... The Time Machine..

I always think about all the weird things that I did when I was a kid( It's a fantastic "pass-time" while being in the bus!). They are always so fun and they always make you think, "Wow! Did I actually do that?!!", coz now, I can say with some certainty, that whatever we did then will seem rather unpalatable or downright dumb and stupid. I have done quite a lot of weird things and I'll start off one by one. I will maintain, however that these are not chronological in order ;) .

1) The time machine

This was around grade 5. My friends and I were very interested in how to go back in time and maybe see some dinosaurs and catch some awesome monsters and maybe also discover something new and weird, something so fanciful that we would be awarded the Nobel prize for it or get a "gazillion" (whatever that number is) dollars( and yes,this was before the time of the euro) for it. So we all got together and decided that we will create a machine that will take us there. As usual Dmitri( A Russian kid who is a year younger to me) and I decided to talk about the finer aspects of the "engine" that will take us back/ propel us to the past. Our design made use of a uranium core, which by some mechanism, we would rotate very quickly. Uranium being radioactive( a very mysterious and special material with very weird properties) would open some sort of time vortex in space( a bit like in the cartoons) and then we would have to propel our craft, which was being designed by three other members to have super "cool" lasers. These were the main defensive weapons of the craft and there was little doubt(in fact it was unanimous, bar one girl. Girls can have different ideas on what to do with lasers, like addling a T.Rex's brains so that it becomes Pansy Rex) that we needed them to blow any mega monsters' brains out if they tried to eat us! This took us the entire afternoon to figure out and we were very proud of our craft.

We christened it something but, I forget what!! :D
Pity it never was realised!! It was a really fine craft ;)


P.S. To any girls, I am not a sexist. It was just how I thought girls thought about stuff, then!

Something my mind cooked up in a day of extreme lethargy.... A post of little consequence..

As I lie down on the soft, springy grass, the morning dew caresses my skin. The grass is so soft, so gentle to touch. It makes for the perfect carpet- it is not rough and my skin doesn't feel any prick. The length of each blade is perfect, neither too short, so that I don't feel the earth beneath me and neither too long so that my view of the brilliantly blue sky is not impaired. All around me are buttercups, each small and dainty, each a ray of sunshine, each living on, in its own happy way. The air is filled with the sound of bees in the nearby farm, each single individual committed to fill my mouth with the sweetest of honey. The slopes of my mountain are gentle. I lie down on the grass, nestled in a valley, between my mountain and the others.

My mountain is very high indeed, his caps topped with the freshest, whitest powder snow in all the land. From the lofty summit issues a small stream, the very stream that I now place my feet in. Its cool waters soothe the pain in my feet, for I had walked many hours before lying before the face of my mountain, and his craggy slopes. On the shoulder of my stony, behemoth friend, lies a forest. It is a conifer forest, whose boughs always welcome the "unsheltered" for a day or two. Nothing evil lies in this land. It is harmony personified.

The sun has now reached his zenith and wispy clouds race along the sky, each on its own preordained path, each on an errand from its master, the wind. The heat is tempered by the coolness of the breeze. Butterflies, blue and red, fly from one flower to the next, from buttercups to the newly blossomed roses. I have with me a pitcher of milk and from the distance, I hear a long, mournful ring of a bell. The city with its vileness and evil lies below, and the crisp healthy mountain air has helped me rid of all negativity. I slowly take a long draught from the pitcher. The sun is now looking to rest. He looks closer and closer to my friend, the mountain. The sun wants to talk to the mountain about what he had seen from his long travels. The mountain eagerly awaits his conversation too, and with each passing hour, I see the tops of his craggy peak, changing colour slowly, from the purest white to a delectable orange to a fiery red as the sun approaches closer and closer. All this while, I was watching the squirrels, each running around the various pine nuts and cones, each gathering food for harsh times. As the meeting of the two great friends grew closer, I see the sun, with all his majestic redness, shining ever more brighter, in all apparrent happiness. This union of friends bathed the whole valley in a sea of red and orange, with all the warmth of true friends meeting.

And as soon as it began, the friends drew the door of darkness upon themselves, a beautiful door of sparkling stars and the night guardian, the moon, watching over us, just as the sun had. The blue night had brought with itself a whole host of creatures, elves and leprechauns, fairies and unicorns. It also gave The Sandman the perfect time to sprinkle his grains of magic sand on my eyes, and draw my eyes closer and closer together, waiting for the sun and my mountain to finish their conversation. I shall let them to it.

Awesome technology!

I just found out that my laptop had this really awesome feature and that I could use a mouse or a stylus to basically write whatever we wanted and the laptop would basically just write/type/draw out on the screen whatever we wrote. I knew it was possible 'cause I had seen the profs at NTU using it and also seen it on the tele, many times in India. But to have it as a default feature on my laptop is totally beyond awesome- it's as if a kid has been gifted a new toy and he can't wait to play with it. It also means that I don't have to waste precious time typing out sentences as I am doing now (you probably can guess that I am not the most nimble with my fingers and my "nimbleness" would rank closer to a sloth than a gazelle. I know that many people can type with their eyes closed, but I possess no such talent and nor will I practice to become better). So I am really excited 'cause this means longer blog posts, imaginative drawings and so much more!! This would also mean that typos will become less and less of a feature on this blog.

I feel particularly bloggy today- I should be studying really, but I can't help it! I seem to be infected with the "blog bug"!!! OH GOD HELP ME!!!

Feel like rolling around..

Yeah that's true- I haven't done a thing today. Nothing of note, and I am feeling this strange lethargy- I know that I have to work, what with my exams travelling at the speed of light, just round the corner, but this feeling of contentedness has enveloped me. Let the rest of the world go to hell, I need some time off. So today has been a day of forced studying, totalling up to an hour or so, and the rest of the day has passed of with me watching South Park, and a bit of the tele, listening to the odd jingle and plainly rolling around like a dirty pig, in my sweat.

Maybe it is because of the weather here- it is horribly mucky, with tremendously high humidities, and with little or no wind to lend me some semblance of an AC, it is highly sapping. Damn the humidity (Looks like I have found a convenient scapegoat here! [:D])! My brain is in a state of sweet delirium and it is throbbing ever so slightly- a pain that is bearable and enjoyable at the same time. As I glance at my sweat soaked T-shirt, I know that I need some water to sustain my indolence. I don't like this feeling, but once in a while is not too bad, eh? I reckon I will indulge for now.....

The Dark Side....

I am sure every single one of us experiences anger or hate in some form or the other, at some points in our lives. It is something that, I believe, is quite natural, for a person to experience. Some people end up using this anger/ repressed anger in the wrong way- bashing up a few guys, murdering some poor old chap who happens to stray in the "angry" person's path. But I feel anger is a fantastic feeling to have- If we can channelise this anger properly, and nurture it, it becomes a powerful feeling. I don't mind admitting it, I like being in control. I don't mind giving in sometimes, to a few people, but I should have a say in any matter or conversation I am involved in. Anger is always painted by society to be one of the "roots" of evil. I say it can be used as the root to the top. I do not know whether this hypothesis is correct or not, but it is an opinion that I form on gut instinct, more than anything else.

Let us have a look at the cons of anger. Point one, it can run out of control. An angry person may run amok in the streets and cause quite a bit of damage. It may cause the person to be irrational. It may blind reason. I use might quite often because I believe that anger is not all that "evil" a feeling. Getting back to the cons, there is a serious danger that anger may unscrew a few important components in the brain.

Now I don't mind admitting it, I do like Star Wars, and like the Senator Palpatine (Darth Siddius to the Star Wars nerds), we can use anger to focus on things that we really need (That doesn't mean we can save people from imminent death and all that). We can use the feeling of being wronged, use the repressed anger and amplify it to the nth degree using really hard music (At least, that's what I do- this song for example "drowning pool's Bodies"), and then use this amplified "negative" energy to sit down and actually do some work. I am a naturally competitive guy, I like to be on top of things. I cannot pass up a challenge, but it must tickle my sense of what is important. Anger turns out to be a useful ally in many things. It helps you focus and it helps you remember. If things go according to plan, then this anger will have manifested itself into something good. If they do not, then I have some more fuel to further my anger and go about the next thing at hand. It makes for an achiever, does anger.That is what I have experienced so far, in my admittedly short life, which is 22 years.

But one more thing before I sign off- I am not always "angry". It usually has to be work related. One must always have a level head- yes anger is good, but we need to control it- the dark side helps, but only when in our power. Anger is good but tempering it with something cheerful always helps.

CA + A little sport..

For all the b********g hours I have put in, it still seems that I am a bit afraid of what may come up for the test tomorrow. This is the first time in four years that I believe I have studied so much and put in an effort worthy of notion. The feeling is a bit odd- alright, I confess, it's down right alien to me. I have always been a bit of a cool cat when it comes to actually writing any exam( sorry about the lack of modesty, but it is the truth), and it set me thinking- does the crowd around you influence the way you perceive a given situation? It seems really odd that within the space of a few short months, I can change from a happy go lucky chap to someone who is in severe angst about the next test. I mean the people I had around me during my undergrads couldn't actually care less about anything, let alone exams. For them, a steamy Namitha dance scene in a masala movie, at the local theatre, would make their day. Here, everyone have the "oh-I-am-so-scared-about-the-test-so-I-better-read-for-it" syndrome. Everything revolves around marks. But I reckon I have finished my rant and hoping for the best **fingers crossed and kneeling in front of God, praying**

So, onto other things now- Cricket first- India have Australia on the ropes. It certainly makes for a welcome change; I mean, the Aussies are all so full of themselves, always you know, with their "rough and tough" attitude, that it makes for a good chuckle when they have their "nethers" being twisted in a vice. India's bowlers were wonderful on a pitch that offered little help- though the old ball did reverse a bit, and there was a bit of spin- it wasn't riddled with potholes(which are a stereotypical of subcontinental pitches) or something. Actually Watson and Lee were able to show that the pitch itself held no "demons" and batted resolutely to actually help Australia pass a score of two hundred. Then the Indian openers went about at a merry four plus runs an over to put India in the box seat. I certainly can't see Australia winning this test, but India have a mighty good chance. And a hearty congratulations to Amit Mishra for bowling exceedingly well and bagging five Aussie scalps!

I was really gutted when I couldn't see the Arsenal match yesterday- it is the one thing I miss most after coming to Singapore. The cable connections are so expensive, I can't afford them at all- so this means I have to resort to illegal streams or those online commentaries. Moreover when I do manage to get hold of an Arsenal match, they invariably end up losing it, or salvaging a point from the match. If you want to know how many Arsenal matches I have seen here, just glance at the draws and losses column for the Gunners in the table. But I am rather relieved that they were able to win against Everton, who are also having a rather bad time tbf, 3-1 after going behind. I saw the goals and though they were not classic Arsenal goals, they were, maybe more significant in nature.

Long hours + Is it for real? + moving to Lakseide

Well, the week has passed and with the first of two CA's actually taking place on Monday, I have a fair bit to do. What do I call this week- did it mean anything to me? Did I do anything significant? The answer to both those questions is a big, emphatic "NO"! So what am I actually writing about- I don't have a bloody clue! I have started to read a bit( my lessons have finally caught up with me- or is it the other way around. Make my mind up for me, will u?) and consider the following lines as the ramblings of a sleep deprived fool, with gallons of coffee by his side and with caffeine coursing through his veins.

This is the first time, in Singapore that I have actually picked up a book, sorry I forgot, we have slides here not books; so a correction on that issue- I have read the slides and notes for the first time and tried to make light of it. It is not to say that I have only read for the entire week- I have also watched two matrix movies, one documentary about Genghis Khan on YouTube, downloaded the award winning documentary series, " The Nazis - A warning from history", and have actively followed the "merking" of a chap on the football forum. But since Thursday, I have slept a grand total of four hours actually; and most of my time, since then, has been spent on what I might encounter on the CA, which I will be having on Monday( not to mention there is one more on Wednesday). I am not going to say that I am the only one having troubles with work- loads of people have more trouble than me( a gazillion times more than me), but it is the first time since my twelfth that I have actually cared so much for an internal test. So let me calculate the number of hours I have slept since waking up at seven in the morning on Thursday. Three hours of sleep the next night( Thursday-->Friday) and then half an hour or forty five minutes the next day i.e. last night i.e Friday-->Saturday. That makes a grand total of three hours and forty five minutes- meaning i have been awake for 49 hours your and forty minutes over the past fifty or so odd hours( do the maths yourselves- I am exhausted).All that time hasn't gone to waste- my "airhead" brain has some stuffing in it now, and I feel a lot more confident now about not only facing the CA, but also the exams. So cheers to me, kudos or whatever to me as well.

I decided to do my bit for the medical community by donating my blood- Everything went as it should have( apart from me losing some blood pressure, which was rectified quickly), and I was astonished at what I could take home, for giving a little bit of blood. I took home a stress ball, or a "squeezy" as I prefer to call it, a pen and a set of iron tablets, to replenish your "stocks". In India, you would be sent home with a bag of food and that's about it. No medicine or whatever. Now, what I want to say is that I just thought that once I donate blood, all connection between me and the Red Cross( they are the ones who get the blood) would be severed until the next time I donate blood. But lo and behold, I received a phone call from them two days later, asking me if I was okay and if I feel good. Now that astonished me, really it did; maybe coz it is so unexpected or so- but generally I thought that after I do my donation, I would have no contact with them until I go to them the next time( sorry for the deja vu). So that is a bit weird, them actually calling me. I mean, are these guys for real? Do they really care that much? Hmmmm... :S

I reckon I have done enough ranting and raving- my mind seems a bit more "drunk" than usual- I still have some work left and until then, I can't really relax. This sleepless and a bit more stressful life will probably end by the middle of next week or so- which means I can extend my "number of hours awake" counter by a bit more. I also have a bit of packing to do- I'll be moving tomorrow to Lakeside, and it means that my travelling time and costs will be slashed by almost a half. The rent too is rather low- I mean, S$ 200 is absolutely great, innit?