June 17th, 2013 I’ve always wondered what parents find so adorable in sonogram images of the fetus that they have to carry it around in their wallets and phones. Maybe the realization that they are responsible for the creation of a life. That there in those photographs is a representation of themselves – their own DNA. Perhaps the closest to ever feeling that you’re a God. I don’t know, I’m just guessing.  Scary Stuff! I have to confess though that I’ve always been kind of creeped out by the whole concept of a baby. Especially when it hasn’t been born yet. The sight of a person’s tummy bulging with a life form, sucking their nutrients out day after day…growing bigger and bigger until the time comes when the host’s body can’t contain it anymore. And then it rushes out, almost exploding into the world in a terrible crisis of pain, rupturing the body that fed it for 9 months. Brrr. Like something straight out of “Aliens”. And it doesn’t look too pretty when it emerges either. I get chills just thinking about it. There must be some kind of maternal instinct at work here because from a logical perspective, I would have just one thought were I a pregnant woman – “Get this thing outa me!!” I mean is it just me, but does a fetus feel a hell of a lot like a parasite? Contributing nothing to the host organism, and making use of the sheltering body to sustain itself. Even after birth, it gets its emotional tentacles into the mother, drawing milk from her and emotionally blackmailing her into caring for it for the next ten or twenty years. Now I know the formal definition of a parasite is that they have to from a different species. Also the birth of the fetus is just the beginning of its lifecycle. But these are just technicalities. In its very essence, we have one organism feeding on another. It’s not a symbiotic relationship with a give and take. It’s parasitic, pure and simple. Does it matter? Probably not since people seem to enjoy having this thing growing inside them. Occasionally it some areas it becomes illegal to remove it after a certain stage. It’s just that it’s a whole new way of looking at the process and most people to whom I pitch this idea take a while adjusting to the notion, trying to square off their image of dangerous looking parasitic organisms like worms etc with the cute cuddly runts we see running around all the time. Hey, it is what it is! I guess it also feels good to throw those off who believe that “life begins at conception” and that abortion is “killing babies”. I particularly enjoy the outrage when they sputter “How could you think that?” :D June 12th, 2013 Raise your hand if you often find the anticipation of the weekend better than the weekend itself! See here’s the problem. I hate working. And I don’t mean I hate my particular work as such, though my current work life isn’t exactly an adrenaline rush. I hate the idea of work itself. I’m kind of silently outraged that the universe doesn’t just provide for me. Yeah, yeah I know it’s dumb and life doesn’t work like that and it’s tough etc etc. I know it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.  Friday Rules! Now some of you know that I work for around an hour a day. And I’m also currently earning more than I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve worked as a shop floor manager with grueling 14 hr work days and also at another pretty strenuous job too. And compared to that, my current life is a cakewalk. You may think that it’s enough for me. That one hour of work a day isn’t such a terrible thing. And you’re right it’s not. It’s not such a terrible thing. But I’m a greedy little shit. Nothing ever satisfies me as far as this is concerned. I want no work, not less of it. So while I’m grateful that I’m better off than 99.99% of the population on the planet, I hunger, I thirst for more. Or less come to think of it. I know what you’re thinking. That I’m an ungrateful wretch who doesn’t deserve the gifts showered on me. What can I do? I have long been the god of laziness and I enjoy trying to perfect it. I’ll get there someday when I retire. But I have miles to go before I sleep… In the meantime, there’s the weekend problem. You may think I’m happiest on Saturdays and Sundays since I don’t have to work, but NO! Nothing could be farther from the truth. I hate working so much that Sunday is pretty much the worst day of the week for me with the knowledge of the upcoming start of the next day. Even as a kid, I used to walk around the house spreading doom and gloom on Sundays. And Sunday evenings? Oh god I would be almost suicidal. Coming to Saturdays. How do you think I feel knowing that the next day is going to be the worst day of the week? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Saturday is the “neutral” day for me. It seems I should be happy but the knowledge of an upcoming Sunday kind of destroys it. Which leaves…drumroll…Friday! Oh Friday, Friday! How I love thee. And especially the part where I’ve just finished work. Oh bliss! The anticipation of not having to work for two days is an absolute topper. Friday night especially is when I have a shit eating grin plastered all over my mug. The horror of Sunday is still too far off to emotionally register. Friday is so much fun that the anticipation spills onto Thursday. It’s not nice, but I like knowing that the best day of the week is just ahead. Thursday nights are pretty damn satisfying as well. I want every day to be a Friday. But that would make Friday lose its meaning :( . So everyday cannot be a Friday. Which means I’m doomed so suffer on some other days of the week. Dammit, why can’t this be easier? I’m 31 years old and retirement seems so far away… *sigh* June 7th, 2013  Game of Thrones is Overrated Everyone’s jumped on the Game of Thrones bandwagon these days. It’s a geek’s dream come true because we finally have a serious attempt at transforming a well known fantasy series into a watchable TV show. Most shows end up doing a horrible job like the terrible “Legend of the Seeker” based on the Sword of Truth books. This is a trend. TV shows usually end up mauling the source material. So when geeks see a classy production closely following the Song of Ice and Fire book series, they go overboard praising it. And they’re right to do so. HBO makes awesome shows and it’s clear they’ve done Game of Thrones with a lot of love and respect for the source material. Unfortunately none of that can make up for the shortcomings of the series itself. Warning: I’m not shy of giving away lots of spoilers, so read this at your own risk and peril. So here’s why the entire story line of Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) sucks hard. Good Guys ALWAYS LoseI keep hearing how this series is a “breath of fresh air” where Martin isn’t afraid to kill off his main characters and that in “real life”, the good guys don’t always win etc etc. This is true. In real life, the bad guys win some and the good guys win some. Except that in Martin’s world, the good guys never win. Character after character bites the dust without gaining a victory. Ned, Robb, Catelyn, Bran…they all get shitty deals. All of them without exception betrayed. Even our darling Arya gets royally screwed.
And the baddies? While some shit happens to them, they’re essentially self goals. Joffrey gets his comeuppance not at the hands of any hero, but from within his own side. Cersei self destructs. Tywin gets it in the gut from his own son. In other words, revenge is tragically missing from the entire Game of Thrones series. All the good guys (and wolves too!) die horrible and humiliating deaths and the bad guys essentially slip down some stairs and break their neck. Like I said in “real life”, both goodies and baddies will have victories. But Martin is just a sadist. I get the feeling that whenever Martin feels like his plot is losing its way or is in danger of being resolved, he just sits down and thinks “Hmm..this can’t happen. Let’s kill someone!” In other words, he uses the death of his characters as a substitute for plot development and for sheer shock value hoping that others will laud him for being “gritty” and “real”. No New Engaging CharactersI wouldn’t mind Martin polishing off his characters if he comes up with new ones at the same rate with which they exit the stage. But he doesn’t. Instead, he gives us lame creatures like Davos who no one really cares for. And then he kills him too! So who the hell is left? Brienne? So while the initial books were riveting for the sole reason that tragedy and betrayal abound, Martin pays the price for his carelessness by not having a plot to carry the story forward. No wonder he took five years to come out with “Dance with Dragons” and openly admitted that he was working on other stuff in the meantime. He didn’t know what to do with the story! He’d killed off or crippled every single person of interest to us on Westeros so what more was left? Moral of the story: Don’t be so casual with your main characters. We were emotionally invested in them and you chose a single big payoff by disposing of them at the cost of future story lines. Congratulations. You now have colorless remains. I haven’t even bothered to pick up Dance with Dragons because I saw nothing in the previous book to interest me further. My wife started reading it, and gave up halfway. Too boring. Did anyone expect differently? When your main characters are missing it’s like trying to squeeze water out of a rock. It’s not Real FantasyAt the most, we can say that the series has a passing acquaintance with magic elements. A couple of dragon scenes and veiled references to “walkers” do not a fantasy make. I initially picked this up because I was told it was one of the best fantasy writings ever. The truth however is that it’s basically fictional history. The fantasy elements are kept down to a minimum or are even non existent. I felt pretty cheated. So much potential. All wasted by lazy storytelling. The solution to the current hysteria is to have more good fantasy novels converted into TV series with the same attention to detail and production quality that HBO is showing the with Song of Ice and Fire series. Only then will we get a sense of perspective and finally stop mooning over Game of Thrones simply because it’s all we have to look forward to at the moment. June 3rd, 2013 Lately I’ve been involved in some curious discussions with various people over incest laws. I feel such laws are not necessary if we’re talking about sex between consenting adults. What happens in a private bedroom has nothing to do with the government. In fact, it’s one of those examples of the law getting in over its head – simply out of their jurisdiction. Like making suicide illegal. Adults who want to have sex with each other will damn well have it regardless of the law. These are instances where the famous saying from Oliver Twist “The law is an ass” are applicable. One line of argument goes that without such laws against incest, everyone will start having sex with their parents and siblings. Such reasoning is also used for homosexuality where people believe that legalizing gay marriage will be the end of traditional marriage and that we’re all secretly longing to boink someone of our own gender. And of course that will be the end of the human race as we know it! The truth is that the overwhelming majority of us dislike the idea of sexual relations with our close family members. And it’s not because of the law. We’re not even aware of laws against incest till much later. Either due to the Westermarck effect or social taboos or whatever, we generally don’t feel like making out with our brothers or sisters with or without the law. Proponents of incest laws claim that children born out of incest have a higher risk of genetic defects. This is true. But there are two objections to this line of reasoning. First, incest by itself merely refers to the sexual act. Most acts of sex don’t lead to kids. It’s more reasonable to have a law saying that all sexual relations between siblings etc need to utilize a contraceptive. Sure, it won’t be 100% effective but given the low rate of incest in the first place, this probability becomes vanishingly small. Not worth having a broad law for. Second, the problem of prohibiting sex just because there’s a chance of genetically problematic kids is dangerous. There are any number of genetic abnormalities like Down’s syndrome for example that are passed down from parent to child. Do we ban all people with Down’s syndrome from having sex? Or having kids? Hell, there’s evidence that having kids when you’re over 40 significantly increases the chances of genetic abnormalities in children. So we ban sex for everyone aged over 40? Or outlaw having children? How about we issue breeding licenses? Bottom line – Incest laws need to go. By itself which adult has sex with whom is none of the government’s business. Sex harms no one. There’s a stronger case to be made for having children, but these are problematic also. Most people simply dislike incest because of tradition or whatever and this is perfectly fine. No one is forcing them to have sex with anyone they don’t want. The problem comes when they try and dictate to other people what they should do. May 21st, 2013 I get particularly irritated when in the middle of an argument or debate with someone, they suddenly say “Read xyz book and then get back to me!”. Oh yeah? Take my time for granted much? Look, I read a lot. I don’t deny that. But I have a huge reading list and I have my hands full. A book is a pretty big commitment. Hours and hours of dedicated attention. A pretty heavy burden to saddle someone you’re talking to for the first time no? Now I don’t mind people recommending something to me that they think I’ll like. So if a friend says “I read this awesome book. You should too! You’ll be blown away”, I’ll be curious and I might even add it to my reading list. But to suggest that I read something to prep for a discussion on the Internet? You must be nuts. This doesn’t mean you can’t refer to books in the discussion. You just need to provide a summary of your point in addition to giving the book reference. If you can’t put the entire argument into your own words and summarize it then and there, then I question your understanding of the point you’re trying to get across. Leave a book reference if you have to. Who know? I might even decide to look it up if I find it beneficial. May 13th, 2013 Freedom, Dignity, Privacy…all that is a WESTERN concept man! . . . → Read More: “That is a WESTERN Concept!” :D May 9th, 2013 Sometimes I get bored and do crazy stuff like this.. . . . → Read More: My Treasure Hunt Prank :D April 22nd, 2013 Soon we will have the technology to record all our public officials whenever they interact with us. This will be a massive revolution in the way bureaucrats behave. . . . → Read More: Should We Record all Police Interactions By Default? April 10th, 2013 Many have asked me why I focus so much on women’s issues in India despite being a man. It’s because the way we treat women represents our mindset. . . . → Read More: Why Do I Focus So Much on Women’s Issues? April 5th, 2013 Book Review of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. A powerful reminder of the horrors of war and the havoc that totalitarian regimes can wreak on the lives of ordinary citizens. . . . → Read More: Book Review: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières | |
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