You Are No Greater Than Your Thoughts

A thought is the only lasting matter in this world. Its the only thing that lasts in its existing form even after you are long gone.

This is something which I have been wondering about for a while. Its come to mind now because I've been struggling to concentrate on my papers on hand. How can I control my thoughts? How can think of what must be thought about?

Well I did a bit of reading and came up with some ways to do this. If I can be at least partially successful it'll be one small step for me et cetera.



Use Your Consciousness

There are many thoughts we think about unconsciously. There isn't much we can do about that just yet. But the things we choose to think about - that we can control.

Your life is not just made up of the actual events that happen when you are alive, but rather how you feel about what happens to you. Depending on your personal belief systems, you recognize that you have anywhere from partial to complete control over the physical happenings in your life.

Predictions

I must be insane to spend a whole 40 minutes blogging today! But I just have to give this a go!

My Barclays Premier League predictions for the end of the season - - just to see how accurate they may be. (Of course there is the added bonus of being hailed as Nostradamus :P)

Well, no point in predicting weekly scores because they make no real difference in the big picture. Since my aim is "to be hailed as Nostradamus" I guess I have the freedom to be cryptic.

Final league positions:
Manchester United, (+4)
Liverpool, (=) GD+1
Chelsea, (=)
Arsenal

The last game of the season will be very important. For Liverpool it'll be against their bogey team this season - Tottenham Hotspurs. A draw.

Manchester United will pay dearly for lousy passing against Arsenal. hey won't lose a game outright but will drop more than 2 points.

Essien = hero.

Arsenal will have a very strong end to the season with a few high scoring matches. Arsenal v Manutd to be a high scoring draw.

Well I guess thats all for now. I just hope these predictions turn to be all screwed and ManUtd play the most mediocre football. I hope Torres and Gerrard set the footballing world on fire and Liverpool get the double.

Dare to dream?

Where are the Protests?

A little redundancy never hurt anyone! So here's my blog post from the Cochin Open Coffee Club

"Just done watching the news today! Only one part of the news really interested me, though. Its now time for AIG to pay their executives their huge bonuses!


AIG, as you all must have heard, almost went bust before the US govt., quite benevolently (and obviously quite hastily) decided to bail them out with a package of no less than $85 billion of taxpayers money, followed by another package of $40 billion.


Now, the company is in a bit of a fix, with their executives' contracts having been written up before the crisis and all, these guys still need their $450 million in bonuses. If paid, it would be the most undeserved pay-checks ever meted out in business history! Its like saying, "Right boys, you've lost us $61.7 billion. Lets make it a nice round figure shall we! "


Somehow, one thing thats missing from the entire situation are the protests! Forget India, if it were in Europe (France especially) we'd have a huge rally or something asking for these executives to be put in jail! Of course there are some people who are raising their voices, including the "Messiah" Obama, but even he says "he will look into the matter"


The public has been too quite for their own good. No huge protests, and thats surprising - considering how many jobless Americans there are!! There are a few disjointed voices, but in todays world,


"If it ain't in the news, its as good as it never happened."

Busy Times!

Not too many posts over the last few days, and I've been busying myself. The project still has a bit of documentation work to be done and I'm not helping much with a few tests to handle.

Friday will be my last day in college - proper. We have a Farewell (Party?) apparently, but I have no idea what to expect. I just hope its a bit better than the farewell we had in school, what with suspensions et al. But Kerala is too nice a place for that :|

Oh and by the way, all those who read this by email - It'd be nice of you to follow me. I just added the follow widget. (God, that sounds so lame :D )

Buy Yourself a Job! The Real Bubble?

Interesting topic, I say. Today's Scott Adams Blog got me thinking...

" ... can you compare unemployment rates across the decades?"

His argument is that nowadays you can "buy yourself a job" whereas earlier you couldn't, and thats why the unemployment numbers aren't as inflated as they were during the Great Depression.

"...But what happens if the economy sours and all of those people who appear to be working at their small businesses are actually using their savings to stay afloat?.."

If these people, who are basically busting their savings to appear employed, were actually unemployed (as they would have been), only then can we have a straightforward assessment of the economies around the world (especially the US).

I feel the real reason for the big bust (of the bubble) was that no one saw the real unemployment numbers till it was too late. Which means no one really noticed how many people couldn't pay their dues till it was too late.

kaboom!~~

Thats the sound of the pressure getting to ya!

Today was the day of the fateful mid-term project evaluation! And it was - we-ll - not good but not SOS-bad either.

I wish i didn't have to be so last minute. I keep thinking I'll get the ball rolling and dig into all the course-work today,tomorrow, the dayS after... never works does it?

And now the pressure is probably starting to get to me! I have a huge test tomorrow. Huge because its on 3/5 modules of a "Distributed Systems". Now, the abbreviation is DSC. So my full form isn't quite right is it? I think I should stick to calling it "Distributed" and smile to myself about my private joke.

There is still a mountain of work to be done over the next 50 days or so. Immediately though, this weekend I have a treat to attend, shivratri to enjoy, new people to talk to ....

jeez this is precisely my problem ...

Parental Advisory, Explicit Content!!

Q. Which sign was made mandatory after a heated campaign by an organization better known as the Washington Wives? The first product to have to carry the sign was named Danzig. The organization has come under repeated criticism because there is no fixed standard for the application of this sign. Initially, the warning was thought to have a detrimental effect, but of late research shows that the forbidden-fruit-syndrome is catching on! What sign is this?

My first "Parental Advisory, Explicit Content" cassette was Limp Bizkit - Choclate starfish and the hotdog flavored water, back in the days when I used to like them - when I was happy but loved their hate. Now I full of frustration but love to love.

I still remember how scared I was when I had to get Dad to pay for it! I know, now thinking back I wonder why I had to buy it with Dad around, but then when you're in 9th grade and where I was - no surprise...

It was so cool to have a cassette with uncouth words in it! That cassette has long since disappeared and now when I'm downloading stuff online, I never think about the warning. Almost know what to expect from whom.

The PMRC (Parental Music Resource Centre) - the hopeless wives behind this all, if they had their way would have the the warning in audio before each song so that even downloaded songs would warn kids of the dangers of uncivilized words...

Yawning

Lets face it, having nothing to do but 'trying to' study is boring. The funny thing is that I'm supposed to be busy with my final year project!

There are so many things to do really. I have another month of college life, another 2 weeks for the project, a load of papers at the end, and I - of all people- announce that I'm bored. Hm...

I just can't seem to excite myself with anything. No, not the perverted excitement, but the adrenaline rush you get when you do something like going on stage, laughing a lot with friends, watching an amazing movie.

So what is the problem? What should I do? I just can't seem to take the initiative and start doing anything. What is wrong with me nowadays.

Lousy lousy Neel.