Monday, December 22, 2008

The Confessor

Continuing from an older post of mine on the wizards rules put forward by Terry Goodkind, I present the 11th rule. I skipped the 10th rule because I didn't feel that it really warranted mentioning.

The 11th rule: "The rule of all rules. The rule unwritten." The meaning of which was best explained by  Michael Barnathan - Truth is sought internally. Truth handed down is insufficient; truth reasoned out is not. You must come to your own conclusions.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Exercise 3

Yesterday I thought of a new exercise offered in Michaels School for the Gifted (click me). True multitasking. We have the hardware, but we lack the adequate training.

School feed us information and frameworks of thought. But they do not provide adequate methods of expanding our information processing skills.

When faced with an issues, the vast majority of people analyze it from various vantages. However, each vantage is analyzed seperately and sequentially before later on being brought together to form a decision.

This is very similar to the method computers used to in ages past: shifting the majority of focus from one application to the next. The application in the foreground would be given a 90% focus, while applications in the background share 10%. This is a facade of multitasking. True multitasking is the ability to have 100% focus on each seperate unit processed i.e. 100% processing functionality for the foreground, and 100% for each application in the background.

My idea is in training people to be able to do the same. Training should include:

1) Physical training while trying to do increasingly difficult mental tasks: mathematical and logical
2) Increasingly difficult physical training while trying to do increasingly difficult mental tasks: mathematical and logical
3) Reciting a memorized phrase (60 words or so) while solving simple mathematical problems. Leading up to logical problems.
4) Reciting a memorized phrase (60 words or so) while reading another phrase. Leading up to finally memorizing the new phrase.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Legend of the Seeker

Some years ago, my mother bought a book for me of a relatively unknown author. Out of boredom, I opened the book and started to read. The author soon became my favourite due to his writing style, character development, the rich universe he created, the philosophical elements thrown in. But above all else, I liked the absolutist ideal of Kahlan Amnell & Richard Rahl.

So when I heard that the books were now going to be transformed into a series, I had many reservations. Finding suitable actors for the lead would prove difficult. No actors in the hollywood sphere would be able to fulfill those roles. I caught a 'sneak peeks' of the series at the authors website and was utterly dissapointed with the casting choices. Richard Rahl was supposed to be a powerful man... while this guy was not exactly puny, he was simply average. Kahlan Amnell was not a bad choice except her hair was all wrong. Zed was too large a man for his role. Zed here looked more like the character Nathan. Chase was too short.

Despite all of that, I decided I'd watch the first episode @ surfthechannel.com
While it was really hard at first to get used to the casting choices, plot changes and character inconsistencies, it was simply so nice to see some elements of the story play out. I am not sure how long this series is going to last, but while it does, I shall enjoy it.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

"It's like seeing someone for the first time, and you look at each other for a few seconds, and there's this kind of recognition like you both know something. Next moment the person's gone, and it's too late to do anything about it. And you always remember it because it was there and you let it go. And you think to yourself, what if I stopped? What if I said something? What if?" - Jack Foley, Out of Sight

"The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do" - Jack sparrow, Pirates of the Carribean I

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“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough” - Frank Crane

"We have to distrust eachother. It is our only defense against betrayal." - Tennessee Williams

“To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward is in my actions and not from them.” - Hugh Prather.

"all that glitters is not gold"

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." – George Bernard Shaw
"Mind over mind"

"Know thy enemy and know thyself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know thyself but not thy enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not thyself, wallow in defeat every time." - Sun-Tzu

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Twilight (2008)

"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."

Edward Cullen: And so the lion fell in love with the lamb. 
Isabella Swan: What a stupid lamb. 
Edward Cullen: What a sick, masochistic lion.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.” - Neil Gaiman

Sourced from one Janani Alvapillai

Thursday, December 04, 2008

"There are shop boys, and there are boys that just happened to work in a shop for the time being." - Stardust