A Very Happy New Year

Technorati Tags: new year, 2008

My New Year Resolutions

Although I’m not given to formulating New Year resolutions there are some things that I would like to accomplish in the coming year. They are not resolutions per se because I’ve seen many few people, in fact none, sticking to their resolutions and consequently achieving something, and anyway, personally too I am not very great with them. Besides, I don’t think one has to wait for the new year to begin something good or productive. The list of things that I want to do is nothing like the 43 Things thing (I’ve got an account there but never used it so it shows how keen I am to formulating and then following resolutions) but here they are:

Reduce my weight and become healthier

This is something I urgently need to do not because I look quite bloated but it is affecting me physically. A long time back I wrote a post on my knee pain: I have figured out that the pain is a gift from my weight. Aside from that it feels great to have less weight and so I have noticed during the past month when I have been, very slowly, shedding weight. I am not on diet and am not doing excessive exercise; I have simply reduced the amount of food I take. This doesn’t mean that I’m giving less nutrition to myself. I’m trying to eat healthy food like dry fruits, regular fruits, things with no sugar or less sugar, and things with no oil or less oil. This means I can keep eating what I like and don’t have to deprive myself and in the process increase the craving for more food. I’m also trying to drink lots of water but in winter I don’t feel like having much. It’s working but unlike my previous attempts I would like to continue this throughout the year.

I also plan to create a healthier family. In fact presently too we are trying to invest more on health. As a family we’ll keep on exploring new ways of improving our overall health.

Organize my work and earn more

Both these things are interrelated. This year I couldn’t help it because of the nature of my work but in 2008 I will make sure that I do my work in such a manner that I can organize it better; less or more work is not my problem, my problem is organizing the work that I have. Yes I do need to increase the number of leads I generate every month but that too is a part of the organization process.

Do things that I need to do

The shocking assassination of Benazir Bhutto has reminded me that life is too unpredictable (yes, even for the lesser mortals like yours truly) and one should focus on doing what he or she wants to do. For instance, I have been neglecting my writing and my singing for years now and I can blame nobody — it’s simple procrastination. As long as you’re alive you should make use of every moment you have because every living moment is precious and you never know when the clutches of destiny will snatch these moments away from you: you realize this when you go through something like a near-death experience. There is another thing that I want to do in the coming year and keep on doing it for as long as possible: spend more time with family. I have already initiated this process. In the end the only thing that matters is how much time you have spent with your loved ones and what has been the quality of that time. No matter what you achieve and how famous you become if you cannot be with your family on a regular basis nothing really matters.

Read more

I don’t believe that in order to become a better writer you must read a lot but reading does influence you and feeds you with more ideas. There was a time when I was quite well read compared to the resources (access to books and money to get more books) I had. Now I have more resources but no time/inclination to read. One can always squeeze out time if one really wants to do something.

Be more social

It seems I have lost all my friends and I don’t have a social circle. Not that it really matters but sometimes it is healthy to talk to people who are not living with you 24 x 7. I was never great with friendships and even during my college days I had very few friends although I knew many people because of my involvement with the fine arts association. But still, a few years ago I had some friends. Some grew old, some grew rich, some are too happy and some are too sad, and some simply drifted away and I too played my part amply by not making enough effort to keep in touch with old friends and approach new friends. In fact these days it’s easier to make friends due to scores of social networking websites but I feel too lazy to make the gargantuan effort of interacting over there. I still don’t plan to use those websites but I will be more receptive when people approach me.

Well, I guess that’s it for the time being.

Technorati Tags: new year resolutions

How Does It Feel To Die?

Beheading, if somewhat gruesome, can be one of the quickest and least painful ways to die - so long as the executioner is skilled, his blade sharp, and the condemned sits still.

The height of decapitation technology is, of course, the guillotine. Officially adopted by the French government in 1792, it was seen as more humane than other methods of execution. When the guillotine was first used in public, onlookers were reportedly aghast at the speed of death.

Quick it may be, but consciousness is nevertheless believed to continue after the spinal chord is severed. A study in rats in 1991 found that it takes 2.7 seconds for the brain to consume the oxygen from the blood in the head; the equivalent figure for humans has been calculated at 7 seconds. Some macabre historical reports from post-revolutionary France cited movements of the eyes and mouth for 15 to 30 seconds after the blade struck, although these may have been post-mortem twitches and reflexes.

If you end up losing your head, but aren’t lucky enough to fall under the guillotine, or even a very sharp, well-wielded blade, the time of conscious awareness of pain may be much longer. It took the axeman three attempts to sever the head of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. He had to finish the job with a knife. [ link ]

A Really Stupid Deer

The Ugly Side Of Consumerism

Obsessive consumerism is the bane of our times. An article titled 19 Ugly Things You Didn’t Know About Materialism aptly asks these questions:

• Are you a wage-slave, working at a job you hate so you can afford things you don’t need?
• Are you more focused on remodeling your kitchen than developing relationships?
• Are you more interested in how you’ll look in a bathing suit than in your actual health?

It’s hard to believe people actually run behind material gains rather than developing themselves as human beings and achieving their optimal physical and intellectual potential. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, you should only have sufficient money and above that it is merely a nihilistic pursuit. You should live to earn, you should earn to live. So does that make Bill Gates bad, as he has billions of dollars. No I don’t mean that.

Bill Gates, or people like him, earn money from what they do, because of what they do. Money in that case is an outcome, a consequence. The problem arises when money no longer remains a consequence, it becomes a pursuit, an obsession. It becomes a problem when it’s not the functionality of the car that matters, but how rich it makes you look.

Excessive materialism is a sign of low self-esteem. You are always seeking acknowledgement from the others, and you always fear their scorn for not having certain things.

There is a strong positive correlation between materialism and several mental and physical maladies. In other words, people who pursue money and things at the expense of relationships and other meaningful endeavors are more likely to suffer from these 19 problems:

Read about these 19 problems.

Technorati Tags: materialism

More Than One Million Iraqis Dead Under US Occupation

Isn’t it tragic? And the US and its allies say they are there to avoid such large-scale deaths.

When those responsible for the American war in Iraq face a public reckoning for their colossal crimes, the weekend of September 15-16, 2007 will be an important piece of evidence against them. On Friday, September 14 there were brief press reports of a scientific survey by the British polling organization ORB, which resulted in an estimate of 1.2 million violent deaths in Iraq since the US invasion.

This staggering figure demonstrates two political facts: 1) the American war in Iraq has produced a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions, with a death total already higher than that in Rwanda in 1994; 2) those arguing against a US withdrawal on the grounds that this would lead to civil war, even genocide, are deliberately concealing the fact that such a bloodbath is already taking place, with the US military in control.

…

The real motivation for the war was spelled out by former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan in a newly published book of memoirs, in which he wrote, “Whatever their publicized angst over Saddam Hussein’s ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in an area that harbors a resource indispensable for the functioning of the world economy. I’m saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: The Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Read the whole story.

Technorati Tags: iraq war, american aggression

Around The World For Love

Is it true love, an obsession, or love bordering the sublime? This person pursued his lady love for 12 years, almost around the world. Read the complete thing, it’s quite engaging.