October 21, 2004

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 :-)

October 15, 2004

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 ?!?! ;-)


October 14, 2004

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.

October 05, 2004

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 :-)

October 03, 2004

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 :-)

October 01, 2004

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 :-)