Unwelcome guests ...

Sometimes, just as I feel that I am getting a handle on my day-to-day life and beginning to act more mindfully (rather that in a reactive fashion), something comes along that puts a wrench into the whole works. It is like having unwelcome guests coming and intruding on the peace and quiet you have worked hard on building up. After a week of diligent work, avoiding laziness and generally positive outlook, the past weekend was one of utter sloth. Partly this was down to my catching a rather bad cold - but I found myself using this as an excuse to slip back into my bad habits of lazing around, not doing any of the work that is piling up around me and just looking for the next diversion from my perceived 'boredom' - from renting a few DVDs and pigging out on popcorn, to randomly surfing the web looking for more cheap thrills. On the whole, a very unsatisfactory experience, but I guess this is just how it goes sometimes. Only thing to do is to follow that age old advice from the movie "Swing Time" - "Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, take a deep breath, and start all over again" :-)

3 years, 51 weeks ...

The man asked for 'four more years', and it looks like people listened. A week into George Bush's second term and I have to admit I have a little trepidation about what the next four years will hold. The analysts and pundits talk about how second term presidencies look to legacy and how this is likely to moderate administration's agenda. But one has to wonder exactly what kind of legacy Dubya, and more crucially those around him, has in mind.

Well, I guess it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. Can't worry about it too much since it is so far outside our control, and being realistic about these things I am pretty sure America has gone through similar periods in the past (the McCarthy era is one that particularly springs to mind). All that remains to be seen is whether Tony Blair can survive his electoral test next year. Somehow I think the British are going to be much less willing to vote for him than the Americans were to elect Dubya.

Hair-ology

From time to time we are all (well, at least I would say men are) inclined towards odd impulses in grooming. One week you decide to grow a beard, and the next you trim it into a goatee, before finally settling on a moustache. And then a few weeks later, you have a lapse of concentration whilst shaving, and you are back where you started again. This is the weird and immersing world of hair-ology :-) .. Well, in my case I have already tried the goatee experiment (lasted about 6 months earlier in the year) and this past weekend graduated to a more daring adventure.

I have needed a haircut for a while now. Usually I get it done at a local barber shop near my parents' place in Manchester. In the past the time for a haircut seems to uncannily coincide with when i make a trip home. Even in the days when I lived in the USA and India, I would end up needing a haircut close to the time I came home for a break. At only £4 a go, it is pretty good value too. This past few months weeks however, going home has not been that easy because either myself or my parents are travelling. So my locks have been getting steadily out of control. Then this past weekend I was cleaning out my apartment when I found an electric trimmer (from my goatee maintenance days!) in one of my travel toiletteries bags and the thought crossed my mind, "Why not cut your own hair? Better yet why not shave it all off?!?" So after thinking it over for a little while, meaning I thought about it for all of 1 minute (hair-ology is an impulsive science!), I laid out some newspaper and set to work and 15 minutes later, I was able to say "Mission Accomplished!".

Of course, just like George W., I might have been a little prematurein making such a bold statement since although I got used to the 'new look' pretty easily, I had yet to win over friends and family. Today was my first day at work after doing the deed, and I have to say that after the initial shock had worn off (many people didn't recognise me at first), all the feedback has been quite positive. I might even be tempted to post a picture here on the blog if this goes on :-) Of course I have yet to meet my mother, who will probably dislike it - in general I find mothers are very sceptical about hair-ology - but I need to let it grow out again before December anyways since I am going to be bestman at a friend's wedding.

So, there you have it - my latest experiment in hair-ology, a semi-success. Of course will be meeting more friends throughout the week so am sure to get lots of feedback :-)

Vote or be celibate !!

This has got to be the most effective voting incentive going - there is a movement in the US where people are being encouraged to deny their partners sex (yes, you read that right .. deny them sex) if they don't vote in the US presidential elections on the 2nd of November (link - BBC NEWS) .... The summary is that people pledge to deny their partners sex for 4 years (until the next election) if they don't make the effort to vote. Of course, this is a completely non-partisan thing, but I can't wait to see the post-election analysis attempt to tell us how many people out there would rather give up sex than exercise their democratic right :-)

Wisdom is around the corner ...

I have been sufferring from this twinge at the back of my jaw these past few days, and it now looks like the cause is the appearance of one of my wisdom teeth. This phrase, "Wisdom tooth", is something I can remember hearing since my mid-teens, but it was never quite clear to me what it referred to. Even after looking it up and discovering that these are teeth that suddenly decide to grow their way out of our gums when we are in our late-teens to mid-twenties, I never really took in their full implication. Of course now that mine are finally deciding to put in an appearance - almost 5 years later than the books say - I have to admit that there is nothing else on my mind.

The curious scientist in me wants to know, what quirk of human evolution left us with this late (and apparently sometimes very painful) growth spurt? Do wisdom teeth have a purpose? And if they are supposed to show up by the time you are 25 - who the *%$$ thought of calling them "wisdom" teeth?? I mean, I think most people beyond their 30s would have serious reservations when attaching the label "wise", to the average 25 year-old :-) Actually, I expect most 25-year olds wouldn't describe themselves as wise either! Whilst Google provides a wealth of clinical information about wisdom teeth and advice on whether they should be removed or not (I never knew dentists were so web savvy), there are no quick answers to my more important questions. My semi-serious theory is that wisdom teeth arrive around about the time that most people have their first kids, so that parents and baby can have a shared teething experience :-)

Anyway, since my "wisdom" teeth have decided to take so long to put in an appearance, I can only hope that this is the reason that I haven't felt particularly wise thus far in my life. And now that the teeth are here, I can only hope that I will feel the rush of wisdom soon. Does anyone know what the time lag is between the teeth and the wisdom ?!?! ;-)

Getting up and getting out ...

Or maybe not ... the past couple of days have been a battle of willpower of getting up in the morning and getting off to work - and I have failed :-/ Maybe it's the flexibility of academic life allowing me to work from home when I don't have meetings; maybe it's having a TV again after so long and staying up late glued to the idiot box; maybe its because it is pouring outside and I feel a bad cold coming on; maybe I am just a lazy person :-) Why is it that sometimes self-motivation seems next to impossible?!?

Well, in my case I think all of the above reasons have something to do with it. Of all of them, being labelled as 'lazy' is probably the explanation I dislike the most. In fact when I was talkingto a friend yesterday he was joking with me - I said "I am working from home coz I felt like a change", and he replied "Well, maybe for a change you should come into work". Of course I was immediately on the defensive - was he implying that I am lazy and don't go into work enough?! .. well, the fact that the statement hit my buttons would indicate that even I think I am a bit of a lazy so and so .. at times I probably am. But can anyone define ourselves to be one thing or the other - isn't it more the case that we are different people every day, every hour even every minute?

Now, all this doesn't mean I think it is OK to be lazy all the time, every day - when stuff needs to get done, I get off my butt and get it done. And I definitely enjoy those mornings when I get up *wanting* to get into work, which is the case most days. But then on occassion I just want to chill out and work on my own schedule from home - which is one of the reasons I sacrificed the big money of software consulting to return to academic life. And anyway, on a good day I am even more productive when I am at home :-)

So here I am, sitting on my living room floor and working away (well, ok writing this blog right now, but I have done some work this morning! and more will get done later on - I promise) Thank goodness for broadband and wireless networks.

Murphy's Law ...

It is probably the most obvious "fact" of life - if anything could possibly go wrong, it will. For example, this morning when I was headed into work with a friend who had to be in central London by 9am. This would have to be the same day that the Victoria line decides to run extra slow, and also King's Cross station (where my friend had to change trains) becomes overcrowded :-/ We got into King's Cross at around 9:45, and she only had to go another couple of stations on the Nothern line, so hopefully it wasn't too bad and she still made it on time (or at worst only 5-10 mins late)

Of course I am thankful that Murphy's 2nd Law ("When somethine goes wrong, it will be in the worst possible way!!") didn't come into effect :-) ... in general I am the kind of guy who tries to see the silver lining in every cloud, and shrug of the minor tribulations of daily living with a throw-away "C'est la vie". Of course, I have to be careful not to be too let this tendency go too far since sometimes the people around are not that receptive to looking at the bright side of what, to them, is a very stressful experience. But I wonder whether it is a general trend that we always seem to focus on the negatives of day-to-day situations, when in reality things are not *that* bad and we really have lots to be glad and happy about. Maybe it is the fact that so much news focusses on what is going wrong in the world, and over time this shapes our attitude to look for the downside - coz if it was all good, it is not really worth telling people about!

I sometimes catch myself thinking the worst in a particular situation, or remembering the worst aspect of a person's behaviour towards me, and can just feel the negativity sweeping through my mind and body. This can be an almost reflexive reaction in some cases - but then, provided I make some effort to also look for that silver lining in the situation, as time passes I remember less and less of the -ve things and more of the +ve. Which, I have to say, is quite a blessing :-) ... I read the following story some time ago, which I feel illustrates this attitude quite nicely:

Two men travelling through the desert, and one day for some reason one man hits the other. The man who got hit wrote "Today my friend hit me" in the sand, and the two of them walked on. A few days later, tired and thirsty they stumble into an oasis and the first man helps his friend, who is on the point of collapse, get some water. This time the man finds a stone and carves the words "Today my friend saved my life". The first man, who had wondered about the previous behaviour, was even more puzzled by this and asked his friend why he had written those things in that way. To which the second man replied - "When a person hurts you, your anger should last as if they were words written in sand; but when a person helps you, your gratitude should last as if they were words written in stone"

From a Buddhist perspective, I think this is the sentiment being referred to in the Dhammapada, where it is written that the Buddha said:

'He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed me'
-- for those who brood on this, hostility isn't stilled.
'He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed me'
-- for those who don't brood on this, hostility is stilled.

I can't remember the context in which this was said - something I should look up when I get home tonight :-)

A Geek Index ?!? ..

I was just talking to a friend and by some weird twist (don't ask me how), we ended up comparing our relative geekiness - I am a geek in denial, whereas she is a geek and proud of it :-) ... I am in denial because people keep telling me how I have wide interests and generally 'a life', which I somehow think disqualifies you from being a geek. Don't get me wrong - I think it is perfectly cool to be a geek - I do have many geek qualities that I would never want to change! But anyway, this rather odd conversation led us to question, what are the characteristics of a geek? Some suggestions for traits included "Thickness of specs", "1/number of places your laptop doesn't go with you", etc. So how about taking these traits and coming up with a Geek Index - that would answer that all important question, who is the biggest geek?!? :-)

A quick Google showed that most web content on geekiness relates to IT stuff (how many computers you have, what OS you use etc etc), but obviously we can all think of geeks who come from other disciplines - my friend is not in IT, she is a Doc - so, in fact probably every field of human activity can boast at least one person who is considered a geek! And yet there does not seem to be a geek index! Obviously something the world is crying out for ... so over the coming weeks we are going to come up with one ... just watch this space :-)

Debating for votes ...

So I started out writing this long rant about the US presidential debate and how Bush seems to have got off lightly for making a pig's ear of the Iraqi situation, but then decided it was just too rambling and I don't have time to make it make sense :-) The short version is that Kerry made some good points about Bush's misjudgement (how hard is it not to!) but reading the opinion pieces about the debate the consensus seems to be that it was a draw. My personal views about the war are rather mixed - the reasons for going to war will never be truly known, and the only +ve result seems to be that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power - but to me it seems to be a bit of a toss-up if this outweighs all the -ves that the Iraqi people (and others) are going through at them moment. Hopefully I am wrong, and the violence won't continue at the current rate for much longer - but who knows!

Apparently a recording of the debate is going to be shown on my university campus later today, but I don't think I will have time to attend. Will have to make do with reading the transcript on my way home instead :-)

200% unemployment??!

A friend sent me the following link to a news story on BBCi, which talks about the situation in Zimbabwe - link - I knew that Mugabe has some pretty dire policies, but had no idea that the economic situation there was so serious. The statistic of 200% unemployment ('Ecomists talk of "200% unemployment"') struck me as rather weird - what does this mean?!? To me 100% unemployment would mean that there are absolutely no jobs - so every person who would be considered to be of working age (say from 16-65 years) is unemployed. So what does 200% unemployment mean? - makes no sense. Why do economists use such weird measures when their only effect is to scare the person who takes them at face value, and put doubt in the mind of the person who actually thinks about what the number means. This news story also talks about 600% inflation in Zimbabwe, which is enitrely feasible - but the reliability of the number has to be questioned given the implausible unemployment figures.

However this is all just splitting hairs - it is obvious that the situation in Zimbabwe is desperate, and it appears to be an issue forgotten by most of the world. America only has eyes for her presidential race, and the war in Iraq. In Britain the situation is not much better, but I guess the fact that a British cricket team have been forced to tour Zimbabwe in the coming weeks is going to bring things into the spotlight again. Mugabe is obviously being driven by thirst for power and greed - a feature only too common in third-world politics. The situation in Sri Lanka is not much better, although thankfully we still seem to have a semblence of democratic process left there.

I am listening to a series of lectures (this year's Reith Lectures) at the moment, where part of the series is about the nature of dictatorships and the fear they inspire in people. The speaker, Wole Soyinka has some interesting insights into this topic.

Well, here it is .. after a long absence from the blogging scene, I have decided to restart an online journal. Partly because I miss the opportunity to vent and pontificate on various issues I come across in day to day life, but mostly because I can't think of a better place to jot down those "great" ideas I have :-) ... or rather, I am hoping I will have.

No promises of daily updates, or even profound sayings - just the chaotic bits of daily life, in chronological order!