Small gems.

The world of a comic strip ought to be a special place with its own logic and life... I don't want the issue of Hobbes's reality settled by a doll manufacturer.
Bill Watterson.

Today's wish.

I know what I want.

I want to be able to highlight interesting bits of lines on a web article I read and then email it to whomever I choose, all on the same web page I am visiting. That makes my email far more personal than just a text box that I can type into before sending the person the link.
Oh and to take it up a notch just in case the techies are yawning at my request, could I also have small pop up text boxes like little sticky notes (like “MS ONE PAGE”??) where I can type in my comments or analysis to the article and then email it all as a bundle and then the same link can be sent back and forth connecting the entire discussion. Well, it may help the website get far more hits as well.
I know someone is doing it already or someone can come up with it in 2 hours. Is that someone reading my blog page?

The Honeybee syndrome.

We dream of breaking loose, running away, starting a small company; a café perhaps in a small lazy town where locals have their own heroes, their own history and their own identity. But we only dream; paralysed by the fear of mortgage payments, the loss of subtle comforts of a feather pillow and sweet smelling candles. We don’t break the rut; we don’t turn our backs to all the other rats. There is comfort in quantifying that elusive concept of value of life. Even though deep down we know, this is that one thing that should not be quantified.

Today as I was having a cup of coffee with my friend and a few regular jokes later, he happened to mention an astute thought that most people are living through a decision they probably made decades ago, bored in their jobs wondering how they ended up there. What’s seemed like a smart idea, even enjoyable some 10-15 years ago is just plain humdrum now. We fail to acknowledge that it was a smart decision in those set of circumstances, in that mindset, in that era. And the more rapidly our world changes the more obsolete that decision will become, even sooner. Some people force the idea of discipline on themselves and live with the decision; many like me stay up awake and wonder what that heavy drone feeling is?

I don’t want my life to be a series of disciplined acts; I want my life to be a series of enjoyable experiences, fulfilling times. How am I to find that balance between being able to pay my rent and not labour the weight of an old decision? Most people in the world will applaud you for your sense of diligence, but who will recognise the creativity that flows from randomness? I want to celebrate the impulsiveness in me. I want to enjoy the inquisitiveness of my childhood all over again. I don’t want to beat myself up for not being as passionate about some thing I was very passionate about 10 years ago.
I look all around me and I dread ending up a sour middle aged person just coz I didn’t indulge in my core personality attribute. And least of all I so don’t want to lose that. I don’t want someone telling me that, losing it is growing up. Coz growing up is so much more than becoming boring.

Our Startrek reality.

Are we in an age where we can live with other human beings failing us rather than having our technology fail us. I feel I can cope with a friend not being able to keep her promise than me not being able to get through the phone line to talk to my mum. How inhuman is such a revelation. I am surprised at my dependence on technology. I have in a very private way always been proud at being empathetic to people around. But if this empathy sort of stems from my high expectation on technology instead, I think that is a backward move.

I don’t know if I am one of the few or we as a society are moving towards a bubble where we better prepare ourselves for the uncertainties of human moods and behaviours rather than accept that the technology we have come to rely on as a way of life will fail us unexpectedly. Why is it such a big deal in the day if the international phone lines seem to be jammed or the internet down for a couple of mins?

I remember when computers and mobile phones was just about getting popular no one minded that they failed to deliver all the time. People however took other people seriously and relied on ‘keeping a word’ and those things were such a big deal.

Why don’t we regard human relations as much now, just coz we have some fancy looking mobile phone or a 8Mbps internet connection?