Saturday, October 30, 2004
bloody education
Exams are the plague-ridden pillar on which our society is built. Now I know most people who criticize formal education are the ones who aren't very good at it, but that doesn't make the message any less potent. Education sucks! I don't want to freaking rote learn a bunch of formulae just to forget them five minutes after an exam. I don't want to be force-fed concepts at Olympic speed just because the teacher wants to leave for their damn vacations early. Also, I don't want teachers who became teachers not because of their aptitude for teaching and getting along with children, but because they're desperate for a job or a bored postgraduate student looking for some extra cash. Most of all, I don't want to wake up early for a class. What's the point, I'm half asleep anyway, and the time not spent yawning is spend clock-gazing. When will the antiquated ritual of early morning classes be cast aside already? Wouldn't people be more receptive to learning something if they could have a decent night's sleep? I personally need about 9 hours of sleep
at least to be a fully-functioning human the next morning. Realistically speaking, I'd have to be asleep by 9 pm to get the requisite number of hours of sleep and who the heck goes to sleep at nine anyway? It also proved my point: formal education does not make a person smart. If it did, all those Ph. Ds sitting in university boards would decide to have all classes begin at 11 am instead of 8 am.
Misha
at Saturday, October 30, 2004
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Thursday, October 28, 2004
tax
What is with the mystery about tax when paying for food? Instead of yanking my chain by saying I can have X amount of food for, say 200 plus tax, why not just tell the customer up front on one of those mile high billboards that you have to pay 250? When was the last time one customer got charged more or less of a percentage of tax on the same amount of food? What's the surprise in calculating 15%? Does the result vary from time to time? (Actually that could happen if I were calculating since my math is notoriously poor)
This post has no real point. It's just another minor pet peeve out of a hundred.
Misha
at Thursday, October 28, 2004
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Dreaming of cell phones
While my brother negotiates his night job options since he's taking a break from his studies, I negotiate buying a new cell phone. It's been a year, it's about time I get a brand new phone. This year, it's Sony-Ericsson all the way. The only question is, which one can I convince the folks to buy me, the now old but very handy T310 (Black) or the brand spankin' new T630?
In the end it may come down to price, anyway.
As much as I hate waiting for things, I hate screwing up a nearly done deal due to my own idiotic impatience, so I'll put a lid on it and wait it out.
It's sort of sad how excited someone can get over a new gadget.
Misha
at Thursday, October 28, 2004
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Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Abid Goes to Defence
Be careful what you wish for: its may come true and then some! Was really disappointed at not being able to make it to a pizza hut plan later this week, but a last minute plan for Pizza Hut was concocted instead. God, I had only about four-five slices and two and a half glasses of pepsi, but I could barely walk afterwards. Had a great time, although I still can't bring myself to move and the thought of any more pizza this week makes me want to throw up.
Misha
at Tuesday, October 26, 2004
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Sunday, October 24, 2004
a post about the futility of posts
I could whine some more about teachers and their general spirit of unfairness this semester, but who wants to hear that again (unless impressions are included)?
I could rhapsodize about how much I'm enjoying first person shooter games this semester, for obvious reasons, but who wants to hear about that (psst: 7 levels finished in four hours)?
I could go on about things that piss me off recently such as the goddamn receptionist who kicks everyone waiting for their cars out into the scorching heat to dehydrate to their deaths, but who cares about that but the subject of the scorching?
I could also go on about how I think I may just flunk two subject I
have to clear this semester to keep my extended stay here from become even more extended, but then we all know I pull through in the end.
I could also go on about people who seem to have an allergic reaction to traveling by bus, even if it is an ultra clean and air conditioned bus like the Green Bus, but what would that accomplish?
I could also compose a near-murderous rant about people who come up to me and
insist that I
must fast, but I would rather use them as videogame playing fuel.
I could throw in a belated birthday post to a certain paala paala bacha but there's no point since I'm not all free-flowing with the sappy-happy right now, as I would have liked to be.
I could also spread my newfound wisdom on how absolutely everyone in the media field is either eccentric or nuts, but that would just be stating the obvious.
I could put an end to my reader' misery (yes, I do care about all four of you) by shutting up now. And I will. Thanks for listening to the rants, y'all! (Texan style!)
Misha
at Sunday, October 24, 2004
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Thursday, October 21, 2004
What I do when I'm supposed to be working.
Misha
at Thursday, October 21, 2004
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Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Skeletons
I remember the days when scandal was spent conveniently and relentlessly under the rug. Skeletons were tossed into the closet and left there, not paraded for hits and ratings. Someone said the best revenge is living well, and I guess all those miserable kids with repressed/depressing/abused/insert negativity childhoods are living well by selling their stories to the media in some form of another. Forget 'got milk?'... 'got problems?' is the new slogan. Cash in and get revenge from all the nut jobs in your life who treated you like crap by going public with it. Those skeletons make some pretty music once you let em out.
What brought this on? Was just noticing the amazing amount of 'scandal advertising'. The E! Channel, for one. They advertise even the smallest mistakes/scandals to hell and back to get ratings. Reality TV gets higher ratings with more scandal/conflict and dirty linen airing in public. Check out the Osbournes, American Idol, The Bachelor, Temptation Island and God knows how many others.
Misha
at Wednesday, October 20, 2004
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Tuesday, October 19, 2004
lemme see your 'game face'
So here we are, two hourlies tomorrow, zero studying done, if you don't count the one hour going over the condensed lecture notes. I was just thinking about this person I know who completely panics when faced with absolutely incomprehensible questions in exams. I suppose a lot of people are like that, but when you're used to facing papers which might as well be in Chinese for all the sense you can make of them, you get tougher and you learn an essential skill, which we informally call 'chorhna'. The gist of it is to utter complete crap without giving away the fact that you're in foreign water and have very little or no idea what you're talking about. The key is to mix in a healthy dose of interesting sounding terms related to whatever subject you're dealing with and, if possible, make up a few terms of your own. If you're lucky, you have a teacher who'll need to get out his/her dictionary to figure out what on earth you're talking about, and just to get the whole thing off their backs, they'll give you a passing grade.
There are downsides, though. One old law teacher actually wrote 'Less stories, more actual case law, please!' on my midterm report card. Rather embarrassing.
The point, though, was that an exam paper that seems like you personal Golgotha is nothing to get panicky about. Just breathe.
Misha
at Tuesday, October 19, 2004
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Monday, October 18, 2004
Who? What? Huh?
Misha
at Monday, October 18, 2004
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She promised she'd call...
Misha
at Monday, October 18, 2004
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Saturday, October 16, 2004
Bride and prejudice
Shahrukh Khan is now of the cover of Time. Add that to Aishwariya Rai's appearance earlier (both in the list of Time's Asia's Most influential People') and you have a picture of the sorry state of the world today. We can only imagine 'what a wonderful world' it is when the people on the cover of time are Actors, Osama Bin Ladin and George W. Bush.
*yawn*
To add to her collection of rubbish movies, the lady in question, Aishwariya Rai, has released another movie that can be, at best, classified (and left to rot on a dusty shelf somewhere) as a romantic comedy, and at worst classified as a remake/butchering of the classic 'Pride and Prejudice', now with the sad title 'Bride and Prejudice'. I'm sure you can guess what the theme would be of said movie. Arranged marriage, strong-willed local beauty teaches seemingly arrogant 'Darcy' (who's American in this version instead of British) all about the 'backward' India and the values of family, love, life, beauty, trust, family, arranged marriages, yadda-yadda-yadda.
A random snatch of typically brilliant dialogue:
Miss Rai: "Bohot suna hai tumhaaray baaray main, Darcy..."
Darcy: "Kia aap meray saath dance karaingi? *insert firangi accent* Chakh day phatteh?!"
Oh yes, and let's not forget the 'snake dance', which Indian movie enthusiasts would remember from such classics as 'Nagin'.
Misha
at Saturday, October 16, 2004
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bah
Don't you just love people who come up and ask you if you're fasting? What the heck is up with that? On the 'Mind your own Damn Business' scale, that one ranks right up there with 'Namaz parhi aaj?'. What the hell do you care?
Misha
at Saturday, October 16, 2004
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Thursday, October 14, 2004
junkie
My eyes are friggin burning from staring at a computer screen literally all day. If I go blind, you'll know whose fault it is: Worldcall for providing Malcolm In the Middle episodes on the FTP server and my GL for dumping yet another report on me two days before a deadline. Moreover, I need, nay,
I demand specific instructions about how to do things and what to include and what to exclude. I demand sleep as well. I also demand more hours in a day so I can more easily and efficiently procrastinate while watching season after season of downloaded tv shows.
Luckily, with Ramzan coming up, I get two days more a week off than normal (normal = sundays off), yay! More time for me and my useless hobbies. Sadly, I'm out of smallville episodes, but any one of the tons of other downloadable shows will do just fine. Any recommendations for a pro tv-junkie?
Misha
at Thursday, October 14, 2004
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more procrastination
There have been times this year when I've been so productive it scares me. Up untill two weeks ago, I was at the university for an average of 10 hours a day, despite classes being over, just typing out reports like a slave monkey, but I've used this analogy before. Now, at the most crucial period, it's back to procrastination. Who am I kidding, I'm still the eternal child who needs someone with a ruler standing over her to work. I would make a lousy parent. I would make a lousy everything, now that I think about it. Oh, wait, I make a semi-decent whiner.
This can't be good. At all.
Misha
at Thursday, October 14, 2004
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Peekaboo!
Misha
at Thursday, October 14, 2004
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
old school
It's odd, however much you run from your past and choose to ignore/suppress it, the more unexpectedly it'll return to bite you in the ass. A really old friend from primary school found me on the resident obsession cum social network, Orkut, today, and while it's good to hear from her, it mostly brings back painful memories of an awkward adolescence.
Now I know you're thinking, 'what's the big deal? Everyone has that weird phase with braces or unnatural gangliness or bad hair', but mine was worse than your average awkward phase. In fact, to me it feels as if I was barely conscious the whole time. More like invasion of the body snatchers where I was in the control room as an impartial, unaffected observer. Due to this impartiality, I had no noticeable control over anything, much less my mouth, hence it was mostly unused. You might say it was sort of 'broken in' in university. And Oh God the hair, don't get me started on the hair.
So anyway, fascinating as my hair is, we must return to primary school. I think it was the place I was studying in that brought me down, to be honest. Who the heck wants to study in a convent school, for god's sakes? I did like the church though. Was a loner. Had an imaginary dog for a pet. And a horse. Okay, that's embarrassing enough, thank you.
Misha
at Wednesday, October 13, 2004
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Sunday, October 10, 2004
17
My sister has still not grown out of the birthday party phase. The rest of us have resigned ourselves to just going out for dinner or such with close friends to celebrate being a year older, but my little sister insists on having an annual function to celebrate in which we (my brother and I) are to be participants, willing or unwilling. So the way it goes is, since the year my sister turned 12, an assorted collection of boys and girls from our neighborhood would gather 'round the birthday cake.
This year, my sister turned 17, and I found myself looking at an old group photo of my sister's 12th birthday. We were all so young and pimple-free back then, it's unbelievable. People have changed, and not just their heights. I can point them out one by one. One lost his dad, one's been to jail, one died his hair pink, another carved his lady love's name on his forearm (or tried to), yet another cried in my living room about his unrequited (bah) love, another was deemed 'brilliant' by my old lit teacher, yet another has since found the love of her life and so on. Way back then, we were so innocent and carefree it breaks my heart to see them all now. Tall, lanky, alternatingly at ease and lost, worn and carefree.
Misha
at Sunday, October 10, 2004
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Saturday, October 09, 2004
the sanctity of human life
Since the moment we are born till the moment we die, we're fed this crap about the sanctity of human life. What sanctity? Is it somehow a relief for parents upon hearing that their sadistic kid killed an animal instead of one of (gasp) God's mighty ruling race? I mean, God forbid there should be one or two less people in the world, we are so few.
What exactly makes us so special that killing us is a big deal? I honestly believe that I would be more disturbed by an animal lying dead somewhere than I would be at finding a human body lying around. Animals are glasses of milk, we're all cans of red bull. An animal would never hurt you on purpose, be it for money or a cruel joke or even hunger unless it was
really hungry, in which case, even a human would devour another. I've always felt that morals are a matter of circumstance. We may start puking at the thought of being asked to eat human meat, but leave a person in a room somewhere for a few days without food and water and We'll eat just about anything we can get our hands on. We don't deserve to have a planet. God should be corporal and whack us on the head when we do shit we're not supposed to. We should all lock ourselves in our houses. Too many people out there to be safe.
Misha
at Saturday, October 09, 2004
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monophonic ringtones
People with cell phones need to keep them on silent as much as possible.
Especially those with monophonic ringtones.
Don't you just love people who, despite having a cell phone ring in class/study rooms, will slowly rummage in their bags for their precious cargo, take it out and stare at the name on the screen. I imagine during this time, while they annoy the hell out of others, the internal conversation in their head goes something like this:
Who could this be?
Oh it's you.
Should I, should I not?
Hmm.
Oooh, pretty lights.
What am I doing here? What is the meaning of my existence? Why does the amount of meat in a Zinger decrease every year?
Oh, are you still ringing? Persistent idiots...
By this time, everyone within the painful hearing radius is praying for the phone to explode or about to jab a pencil into their ear and end it all.
Misha
at Saturday, October 09, 2004
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the langoor and the modem
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there was a girl who wanted to have broadband internet installed on her PC. After much persuasion by the girl, she was given the go-ahead to call the bestowers of this wonderful connection. The bestowers, henceforth known as dumbasses, sent over a friggin langoor to do a man's job. This langoor sat for a full five minutes, staring at the PC and wondering how to get rid of the Task Manager that he has used to abruptly terminate all programs that initialized on startup. Feeling the temper that is so close to the surface these days rising, the girl told the langoor to press Alt+F4 to close the Task Manager's window. The langoor calmly proceeded to press
Shift+F4. Upon being corrected a bit more loudly, the langoor pressed
Ctrl+F4. The girl bit back the urge to tell said langoor off.
An hour later, and langoor is still staring at the screen, wondering why the cable modem is not working and girl sits counting Venetian blinds. Langoor says he shall return the next day with a fully configured modem. Girl restrains herself from bodily throwing langoor out.
Why the hell is it so hard to find competent people to do anything these days?
PS: For the non-urdu, langoor = baboon.
Misha
at Saturday, October 09, 2004
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Thursday, October 07, 2004
media blues
When I gave the test to be accepted as one of the 15 students who would be admitted into the spankin'-new ( I use that term too much) media elective, I figured it would be fun, like English Writing Skills. What I did not expect was a old man with a power complex to be the teacher and dock my marks in hourlies because of ludicrous reasons like not mentioning a certain unit member in a definition's examples. Whereas before I would gladly wake up early to get to the 8 am classes, I know find myself unable to get up the same enthusiasm.
Additional whining: We begin accounting soon in the BM elective, the one business subject I detest with all my being.
Why is it that every third person I know makes me want to punch them in the face these days?
Misha
at Thursday, October 07, 2004
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Wednesday, October 06, 2004
arrgghh!!
You have, after God knows how long, gotten a day off without having to skip a class and feel guilty about it. The night before, you decide to catch up on some quality gaming time, since you haven't touched a video game for approximately two months now. You're playing thief 2 and after creeping slowly and noiselessly behind one annoyingly vigilant guard nearly around the whole side of a building, you're almost caught up and about to knock the sob senseless. Suddenly your concentration is rudely broken by someone screaming 'Karan' and some super dramatic swooshing sounds. Welcome to the pain in the rear that is Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi.
Misha
at Wednesday, October 06, 2004
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Tuesday, October 05, 2004
liquidity
Whenever anyone fancies someone else, they should make it absolutely obvious. So obvious that it causes embarrassment to all directly concerned and amusement to all not directly concerned. It's the only way to cure them, really, plus it would make the world a more fun place to live if little 'declaration-explosions' were going on all over the place.
I nearly fell asleep in class for the first time this semester, and woke up to the sound of the instructor vehemently telling us '...in such times, you
want to be liquid!'. Ah well, starting tomorrow, it's business (management) as usual with little or no attention being given to work and gaming at odd hours of the day. In short, back to normal.
Misha
at Tuesday, October 05, 2004
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Monday, October 04, 2004
Ctrl+S
Control+S, Control+S, Control+S.
Even in my sleep, I'm typing endless reports now. Even as I type here, instinctively after each sentence, I press Cntl+S to save my work, lest the damn electricity should decide to ruin me and my work.
What is this obsession with Indian Dramas like Saas Bahu and the like? Mum and sis can't seem to miss a single episode, and the ones they watch must be watched with maximum volume regardless of the slave monkey with red eyes sitting in the corner typing away. gah, just pressed Cntrl+S again... This post may end up being posted multiple times.
There's something about familiarity now. Most people I see now, as Nome rightly observed, are the people I can't stand. It seems hard to believe that there was a time (birth to a month ago) when I was so ready to please I would do anything for anyone who asked me to. All they had to do was smile and say 'could you do this for me, if it's not too much trouble...?' and I'd bite, like that poor trout whose last thoughts are 'oooh, what a pretty shiny thing this is...'. Nowadays, thanks to overwork and relatively few rewards (If you're reading this A. G. Khalid, I shall slap you with a large trout soon). In fact, my temper, which was relatively under control for the past five years, has begun to re-rear its ugly head. So much so that I very nearly got into a full blown argument with aforementioned unfair teacher.
I, who never so much as tells someone that their emergency is not necessarily mine nearly got into a shouting match. Talk about anger management issues. Ah well, back to reports.
Misha
at Monday, October 04, 2004
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Sunday, October 03, 2004
Weekend ponderings, in no particular order
Don't you want somebody to burn?
We all need somebody to burn.
I just want somebody to burn.
The more I think about it, the more certain I become that all we can truly know is ourselves, and even that's a stretch sometimes.
Just got out of a Smallville marathon. Call me a comic book geek, but I don't like it when someone takes 'artistic license' with a perfectly good story and bunch of characters and turns it all upside down for you. At least some elements of the story are still faithful to the original tale. I'll just content myself with that while waiting to download season three. It's sad how utterly TV used to rule my life. Much like someone else's once-waning, now back in full blast passion for U2, my once obsession with watching every episode of every season of my few favorite shows is back in full swing. Most people don't get the fascination with Superman. He's too perfect, they say, too indestructible, not enough like a regular Joe. That's just the point. He isn't a regular Joe, he's an alien. The Kill Bill speech had it right. Clark Kent is the fake identity, superman is who he is. I guess I just completely relate to the whole having to tone yourself down to fit in, to not stand out theme that dominates the life of superman. *warning - geek mode activated* Plus, no he isn’t indestructible. Just ask Doomsday.
Misha
at Sunday, October 03, 2004
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Friday, October 01, 2004
The Pink Phase of the Sunset.
Misha
at Friday, October 01, 2004
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Today's sunset. Was such a gorgeous day today, the end deserves to be applauded.
Misha
at Friday, October 01, 2004
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Phuljhari - the quiet firecracker :D
Misha
at Friday, October 01, 2004
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