The End of the week!! Finally!
Joined the British Council Library this week- but they had no good books on drawing! :(. But then, they are renovating, and consequently, only part of the collection was on display. On the other hand, they had some excellent books on history, science, literature, Science, etc.
Did a spot of egosurfing today- not that it did my ego any good - a search on "Aishwariya V" on google returned two results- one from one of my quiz groups (where I had scored 1 big point) and one from XIMB. Huh!
And regarding my post on "which character are you"- I expressly forbid anyone from mentioning their characters, unless they are any one of a) The Thompson Twins (b) Beetle Bailey (c) Professor Calculus (d) Vitalstatistix (e) Big Moose (from Archie)
If you guys get anyone else, subsitute them for any one of the characters mentioned above. Royal Decree.
Hey, finally bought a really nice copy of Daddy Long Legs- at a sale at Landmark. A red, hard-cover with gold lettering and the works. No, it doesnt look cheap. It looks really classy.
Got to go. Have a great week-end!
Which character are you?
http://www.tk421.net/character/
Check it out- lot of faff, obviously. but cute!
Its over! Finally through with Peter the Great!! Free to start with India - A history.
Have gotten very interested in Robert Massie after Peter... Planning to pick up some other book of his next. Probably Dreadnought. through with Russia, for now. Will raid landmark today!
Planning to take up a membership with the british council library, for the express purpose of getting a few books on sketching- Priya cant be the only "sketcher" in the family! :)
Hey - too many "Planning"s in this post! the next post has got to be one about implementation!
There was this really cool Poem:
Brahma
If the wild bowler thinks he bowls,
Or if the batsman thinks he's bowled,
They know not, poor misguided souls,
They too shall perish unconsoled.
I am the batsman and the bat,
I am the bowler and the ball,
The umpire, the pavilion cat,
The roller, pitch, and stumps, and all.
-- Andrew Lang
He he. Its actually a take on a poem by Emerson, by the same title. Couldnt stop laughing after reading it.
Check out the link on Minstrels: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/949.html
Getting really busy at office. And the jigsaws coming along well. Doing this 2000-piece jigsaw.
Something funny happened at office today- I was fiddling arnd with a mouse which refused to function properly, when I got a call from the guard from the reception, advising me to call IT Support! Apparently the Conference Room I was in, is hooked to his CCTV! Got terribly offended- I mean, are we entitled to privacy at work, or are we not?
Am tempted to think we are- after all, if theres work, office expects me to drop my personal life. If office can take liberties, I should also be able to take liberties with office, shouldnt I?
But would i take liberties, if I were not confident the office wouldnt act on what is captured on film?
Dunno. I think not. More practical than
THAT!
A week since my last post! My only defence is that it has been a really, really hectic week. We started work on a proposal (finally!). It turned out pretty okay. Though I dont have too many standards to judge it by.
Anyway. Peter the great is on a winning spree. My heart breaks for Charles of Sweden. :(. The whole scenario seems to me, to be guided more by sheer luck than by anything else.
Have been hammerin away at my sruthi box again. Have been telling myself I ought to take up old songs that I havent sung in centuries, but keep putting that away.
Am off now. Got to go to the library.
Long time, no post!
Been very busy at office, actually.
But a great blessing to be away from the wilds of navalur to the midst of the city (mOut road)! Yes, folks, hallelujah! Am back in Mount Road. But on a very, very temporary basis. Probably for another week or so, thats it. But still, thats something.
Big week, this is gonna be- Sud's sister's getting married- wonder if our man is going to play the
shehnai singing
meri pyari behnia or something?? :)). should be worth watching.
Still hammering away at Peter... Suresh Athim will like this book, I think. Its about ALL history in the western world arnd the 16th century. the lifestyles, the mindsets, the rulers, the subjects, wars, armies, trade... everything. Started it nearly two weeks ago, and am not even halfway through! but its not my fault- its over 900 pages of fine print.
Gotta go now. start some work.
Check out Amanda Doherty's Blog:
http://amandadoerty.blogspot.com/
Its quite cool.
I especially liked today's topic of discussion- the Indentity Theory- Materialistic Perspective, etc. etc.
Basically, Amanda wants to rule out Materialistic Theory totally- I realy dont agree with that.
My Response to her:
About Science- I think you are being unfair. Science does recognize subjectivity in observation. Relativity, for one. Probability. I mean, in the 20 th century, advances in science have had a strong subjective bent. I last did science as a fifteen year old, nearly ten years back, so my arguments would be from a layperson's perspective, but still.
About your Neurophysician- that is a very solipsisistic view, isnt it? Even if the neurophysician had all his receptors in place, How does one say, his experience of pain is the same as someone else's? If something is never provable, how relevant is it at all going to be?
If I built an Artificially Intelligent super computer that could process impulses (could be fed in) and assign "feeling-names" to that- the machine, if really well programmed, could actually start acting like a human being. Now, where would its "mind" be?
I would say, the basic problem is only that we do not yet understand the working of the brain. Prior to reaching that milestone- Its rather harsh to condemn either facets of the identity theory.
______________________________
One of the best books on this subject, of course, is Douglas Hofstadter & Daniel Dennet's "Mind's I: Fantasies & Reflections on Self & Soul". Thats a truly brilliant book. Devinder lent it to me- and I will forever be grateful to him for that!
Theres another book- A Very Short Introduction to the Philosophy of Science by Sameer Okansha. Started it, but did not have the time to finish it!
So many books to read, and so little time to read them all in!!
Today's Poem from the Minstrel's:
Rather melancholy, but takes the point home.
"The Diameter of the Bomb"
The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making
a circle with no end and no God.
-- Yehuda Amichai
(translated by Chana Bloch)
The Russians in the 16th century were far worse than the Indians arnd the same time!! Sexism knows no boundaries, I guess! And here I was, thinking Manu was the worst of the lot, with his Manusmriti! And how do you divorce your wife? Push her into a convent, make her a nun, so that you can go get married again, etc etc etc. Plus other, typical stuff- Women to be cloistered, not to be given any responsibility, etc.
I get terribly irritated/annoyed/angry when I read stuff like that- I take it personally (What would i have done, etc etc). But I guess thats not really the right way to look at it, coz Aishu-2001-India has a different perspective from Aishu-1656-Russia. Probably, Aishu-1656-Russia wouldnt have minded it unless she had the 2001 perspective- which throws up an interesting question- what causes the problems in life? is it the situation, or is it merely your take on it? Do rebels invest their happiness for the betterment of society (read progress)?
As you can, see, Peter the great is coming along well. Currently, at the impressionable age of 10 (!), he has faced the Streltsy revolt. Which has generated in him a fear/dislike of even Moscow! So what does our man do? once he becomes Tsar or Russia, he builds St Petersburg, the new capital of Imperial Russia. And so the saga continues.
Today's Poem from The Wondering Minstrels:
"The People of Spain Think Cervantes"
The people of Spain think Cervantes
Equal to half-a-dozen Dantes;
An opinion resented most bitterly
By the people of Italy.
-- E. Clerihew Bentley
Rather cute, aint it? :)
Labels: Poetry
My First Post! Let me see if I can keep this up regularly. As rule, am planning to update my Blog atleast Twice a week. Lets see how it goes.
Am currently reading a book on Peter the Great. A fascinating insight on Russia in the 16-17-18th centuries. Russia is a truly amazing country. Never ceases to excite me.
