Beware of this kind..

The kind of person who always always had someone to take care of things and expect you to do the same, no matter who you are.

This short little girl, whom we shall call Short, walked in class last week looking extremely huffed and flustered. She automatically turns to me and announces, "My watch's battery is gone out.'

Oh, I reply, not really interested.

"I hadn't noticed it" Short continues walking towards me. "It happened all of a sudden. Before and all, I used to give to him and he'd take care of it"

Hmm..

Now, I didn't know who 'him' meant. It could either be her husband (poor sucker) or even the watch repair fellow. But I did know what's coming up next.

"Do you know anything about watch repair?"

Err..no.

"Ok..what's the time?"

Since then, every time she's run into me, including at class today, she's asked me the bloody fucking time.

Profs and theatricity

I had a high school chemistry teacher who was so fond of exuberant hand motions that once during organic chemistry class, he got so excited that along with his hand-thrashing he kicked his foot out causing his slipper to fly off his foot and onto the studious first bench girl.

But, that was then.

Yesterday, HT after a five-minute energized discussion on the avian and the human influenza virus strains pointed his finger dramatically and asked this - why, even though there are strains of influenza that commonly recognize birds and humans, does it not pass from bird to humans?

No one answered.

Come on, think..why why

I raised my hand and delivered Blah answer.

Hmm...not quite but close. Think think..why does this happen?

Ok. I raised my hand again. Blah answer.

No No! You're going too far. It's simply because of Blah..

And then he saw the expressions on our faces - the 'oh that's so obvious, we were expecting some mega answer considering the amount of anticipation you created' expression. He mistook it for doubt.

'Whaat..?' said he, looking like a kid who's balloon got burst by a pin. 'Do you not think that my hypothesis is reasonable? At least it's better that the answers that were given to me.'

:)..That's my prof.

Curbing

Happiness is relative i.e. it is in relation to projected or simulated realities. Given a choice, we make a set of all possible futures, each associated with its own level of happiness. The simulated realities comes from choice. The more the freedom the choose, the more the number of simulated realities leading to more confusion and lesser final happiness. Does this mean that we curb choices? That Destiny is the best course to follow?

Reference: TED Talk

"The Hound of Heaven"

'Here, read this' said the retired English literature prof. thrusting a book of poems in my hand. I winced inside - I suck at reading poems. A small voice inside me goes yeah no, and I immediately tune off. The strange thing though is that I can follow recited poetry to the t, which is why I like Slam I suppose.

Anyway, I winced. Wrong time to do the wrong thing.

Come on, give it a shot. You can do it. Pretend it's your voice that you're hearing the recitation from.

A whole twenty minutes later, I confess to the prof - I didn't quite get it.

You didn't? It's simple, really. This guy is running from something that he calls the Hound. It could be God, it could be Death, or it could even be your own true Self. He runs away far and fast, asks for protection from Dawn and Eve, but he realizes he cannot escape. He is shown a snapshot of what it could be like if he stopped and allow himself to surrender. It definitely is a better picture. A truer picture. But he's still scared. So he continues running. Until last, he ultimately surrenders and is overwhelmed.

My mouth was half-open. I could relate to it so well, running from the truth instead of surrendering to it. Of the real thing catching up to you. Of letting it be. And I hope never to lose it.

Ever notice..

that the quality of your day is directly linked to the quality of music that Pandora chooses to play for you? ON ALL YOUR CREATED STATIONS!

Or is it just me?

Early wish for Santa

Dear Santa, please don't let the X-men movie series stop. Do keep them coming. And oh, try stop by at C-city on the day, yeah? To take a break?

Sigh..

For the wedding, I am going to have to remember a zillion people's names including their kids, and not just from my family.

I need a system.

My own personal familywiki.

I'll have to find some way to make everyone's name rhyme.

My experienced brethren, how did you do it?

Life is..

- Hitting the snooze button a bit too often.
- Regretting not getting up earlier to read/chat with the gf.
- Trying to stick to a overly-optimistic schedule envisaged at the beginning of the semester when one is idealistic and promise changes stricter than new year's resolutions.
- Not biking often, and thus primarily in pain during the spin class.
- Wondering about the gf's work, feeling slightly proud.
- Waiting for Tech to restore my system fully, and meanwhile painfully shuffling between laptops.
- Moving from a giving a presentation to doing assignments to doing assignments to..
- Loving the Glycomics class, hating the Biology class. Complex systems is too enjoyable for me to take seriously.
- Feeling slightly upbeat since Papa T. asked me to edit his lecture notes and comment on them.
- Yup! I get to comment!
- Throwing aside the book to watch mindless TV episodes before hitting the bed.
- Thinking about the trip home.