Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we all just took the trouble to talk to each other? I mean, how difficult can it be. Of course, there’s no need to be blunt about matters. Use tact when broaching difficult subjects or whatever. It’s not such a difficult thing to do. And it makes everyone’s lives easier.

Let’s face it. No one’s a mind reader. You can’t expect people to guess what you’re thinking or feeling. And that’s how misunderstandings and arguments normally begin. By people not communicating properly with each other. And these arguments get worse, because communication gets even worse. And it keeps going on and on and on…

Just talking about issues can make life so much more easier, and probably make people happier as well. So everyone, just talk! Talk with your estranged relatives, your psychotic neighbour, your wife (or ex-wife), that girl or guy you’ve got a crush on, your friend who’s recently begun to annoy you, etc. A lot of problems can be solved this way.

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Memories can be both blessed and cursed at the same time.

Every year, when I’m back home for the summer, I go through my cupboards and do a sort of spring cleaning. Just to see what I have, what I need, what can be disposed of etc. While doing the so called spring cleaning today, I had a ‘Ross Gellar’ moment. I think it’s my first and only. Anyway, I was going through some stuff, and came across my old report cards from primary school and high school and went ‘Oh! My school report cards!!’. And immediately, the scene from Friends popped into my head, when Ross and Monica were going through their childhood stuff in the garage because the parents were selling the house. Ross came across his report cards, and pretty much did the same thing I did. And I have been told, on a number of occasions, that in some ways, I’m like Ross Gellar. But I’ve also been told that in some ways, I’m like Harry Potter. Which led to the names Harry Gellar and Ross Potter being created, both for me apparently. I personally prefer Harry Gellar. Why? I have no clue at all.

For the heck of it, I went through the cards later. It’s always nice to look through and see the comments your teachers had for you. I also looked through my scores. I was slightly shocked though. I thought I’d done reasonably well in school. But my exam scores didn’t look like that. I think I’ve lost track of what scored constitute good here. Or perhaps I was just crap in school. Hmm, that’s also a very real possibility!

I was just watching this program about a guy preparing a feast for a wedding. Seems the happy couple wanted venison served at the feast, but they preferred it if everything served was home grown, natural etc. Basically, nothing store bought. So the guy gets a friend, goes to a nearby field, and hunts deer. And of course, he finds and kills one.

Now I like eating meat. I love eating chicken, fish, mutton etc. But still, seeing an animal being killed for the purpose of feeding people is disturbing. Sure, animals kill each other for food, but somehow, this seems different. It’s not like I’m going to stop eating meat or anything. I’ve toyed with the idea a couple times, but it’s never going to work. It’s just disturbing, that’s all.

Politics politics politics. Too much of it going around. Too many things to worry about!

I don’t particularly like it
I don’t particularly care for it
I don’t particularly agree with it
But I don’t have much of a choice

So again, it’s been some time since I was last here. Joined Twitter in between. Not that I’m using the thing properly. Semester is over here. Wrapping up work on my paper as well. Hopefully the journal accepts it. I kind of need a publication.

So I’m going back home in a couple of days. And I can’t wait! My family and friends, Mum’s cooking, my home home, Singapore, the weather, places I’m familiar with etc. So many wonderful things there!

It’ll also be a chance for me to go into detox mode and take care of myself. I’ll admit it, I love partying with my friends. I always over-indulge myself when it comes to partying. Work hard, play hard right. And in recent years, the partying has gotten a tad bit more frequent. Not that that’s a bad thing. Getting together to have a good time is even more special since we’ve all had to move to different parts around the Midwest. Well, ok, I never moved, but my friends did. So when we get together, we always have a good laugh, lots of fun and memories. But fact is, we’re getting older, and the partying is beginning to take its toll. It is for me at least. I need more time to recover and a particularly fun weekend. Generally lots of sleep. And that question ‘Why on earth did I drink so much’, followed by ‘I’m never going to drink again’. Inevitably though, you do.

Of late, I find myself getting more tired than I used to after such a weekend. I’m not the most able-bodied person, so I do need to take care of my health. And going home fits perfectly with this. Good food, good environment etc. Complete abstinence is what I need right now, at least for a couple months. And that’s just what I’m going to do. Many people have told me over the years that I should slow down and take it easy. Well, guess what, you people are right. While I do idolize the rockstar lifestyle, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it (dare I say any more?). There’s that old cliche: You only live once. I normally go by that to a fair extent. But another thought comes to my mind now: Although you only live once, shouldn’t you try to live it comfortably? I’m going to stick by that, for now at least. Eat right, sleep well, exercise and what not. And then perhaps try to strike a balance with this whole partying thing.

For now, I’m going to go with the sleep well part. My bed, hot chocolate and a book beckon! Goodnight everyone!

My last post was quite a while back. I’m sure quite a few people must have figured I’m never going to post again. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but no such luck! Ok, comedy aside, my innate laziness has kicked into full gear for the past few weeks or so. I haven’t done as much work as I should. I’ve partied a lot (but that wouldn’t count as being lazy right?). On the plus side, I’m re-discovering a part of myself which I thought was lost.

Anyway, yesterday was Tamil New Year. So, I thought I’d try to put my laziness back into its place. Not that it’s going too well. I have to hold office hours soon for the 2 grad classes that I’m a TA for, and I haven’t touched the homeworks at all. So everyone is going to bombard me with questions, expecting me to give them mind-blowing answers, and all I’m going to do is stare right back at them, looking dumbfounded. And instead of looking at the questions, here I am writing a post. Though, to my defense, the site with the homework questions is down.

What a digression! The title of the post is ‘Twitter-ing’, and here I am writing about my laziness. Ok, so I don’t know how many of you know what Twitter is. It’s a kind of blog. Micro-blog, to be exact. You join up, and you can SMS, IM or use the site to post feeds. Basically, there are a ton of ways for you to tell the world at large what you’re doing or thinking or planning or etc. You get the idea. A friend introduced me to the site, and she seems to use it a lot. And from what I’ve seen, there are lots of people using it. Now, when I first came across the site, I was quite sure I would never use it. I’m still not, but I’m beginning to wonder if I should. It looks like a perfect way to waste time, which is what I’m all about. Looks like a great way to meet new people, albeit on the web. And most of all, it does look like a lot of fun. But here’s the thing. From what I’ve seen, the majority of feeds seem to be people saying ‘I’m doing this now’, or ‘Why am I doing this now?’, or ‘I just bought something’, and things along those veins. If I was to use it, I’m probably going to be not so different. Of course, I’d have a few rants thrown in there . Would it really be all that interesting for people to read about what I’m doing or thinking every few hours of my life? And given my innate laziness, would I even bother to post feeds on a regular basis? So I’m kind of in 2 minds about this whole Twitter thing. Oh, and my friend is trying her utmost best to get me to sign up, so there’s that as well.

Most of you are probably thinking ‘What the hell? Why is it so hard to decide whether you want to join this thing or not?’, and you’re actually right. It isn’t a big or hard decision to make. I was just feeling bored, and this seemed like a nice thing to write about, in order to kill some time

But to those of you who do use Twitter, I’d love to hear from you about using it, if it’s good, bad, fun, waste of time etc.

Finally, I got round to installing Parallels onto my Macbook. And now, I can run Windows XP and Mac OS X at the same time. I’m a self-confessed Mac fan, and I can’t stand Windows. It’s fraught with too many problems in my opinion, and not enough benefits to make the OS worth my time. But sadly, most of the world revolves around Windows. For example, data sets for my Management class are always given in Excel format. And for the Mac, I only have Office 2004, which isn’t native. Instead, it has to use Rosetta to run on my Mac, and that makes it incredibly slow. And there’s no word about when we’re going to be able to buy Office 2008 for the Mac at student prices. Another example. Most of the people I know use MSN messenger to chat. And Microsoft refuses to update the MSN Messenger for Mac to be more compatible with the version that is out for Windows. I can’t see most of the emoticons people send, and that’s a bit annoying.

Annoying no more, because now I have both Windows and Mac on my Macbook! Running Windows on Parallels on my Mac is almost like I’m running Windows natively. There isn’t much of a lag. Applications work seamlessly. And best of all, I can drag and drop from the Mac OS straight to Windows! Even this post is being written on Windows Live Writer on my Macbook. Strange how much joy all of this gives me. Needless to say though, I will be using the Mac OS much more frequently than I will be Windows.