The top five items

Posted on January 17, 2013 by The Nameless One

If you had to evacuate your home in an instant, what five items would you grab on your way out?

Well let’s see:

My laptop bag with my ~~laptop, hard-disks and others stuff~~ precious.
Passport (and other documents and certificates)
Whatever money I have, if I have any that is.
Cell phone (well technically always in the pocket or somewhere do doesn’t actually count but still)
Some of my most precious books and music stuff.

I would have mentioned some clothes but unlike most others I can survive with the same ones for quite a long time. And why would I carry around with clothes if I have to go in an instant? (may apply to some or all of above points depending on circumstances)

Also in response for a daily prompt.

Tied to technology

Posted on January 17, 2013 by The Nameless One

What technological device could you not live without?

While there are many living in today’s world, if I have to come down to one thing, it would be a no brainer- my laptop(s). And considering Electricity and the Internet are not technically ‘devices’, otherwise without a doubt the former be be true, as nothing can possibly work without it. (The soul of the machine, but we have soulless folks around here too right?)

Hell I wouldn’t be here in the first place if not for (them).

Again And Again

Posted on January 15, 2013 by The Nameless One

Do you have a favorite quote that you return to again and again? If so, what is it, and why does it move you?

I have already answered this sometime back here for a previous daily prompt.

Instead here I would like to mention this:

and let also would like to share my old man’s most favourite one here:

Rule #1: Never lose money.

Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1.

– Warren Buffet

Sounds about right.

“How are you?”

Posted on January 13, 2013 by The Nameless One

If there is one question I hate from the bottom of my not so existing heart, it’s this one. And its other alternative forms.

I mean seriously, isn’t that the most just-for-the-fucking-sake-of-it asked question without even a single thought to it? Why ask it to someone when you don’t even care and perhaps not going to see him/her for the next ten years or so, perhaps ever again? Heck I have seen people asking that just while passing by, like walking, asking “Hi/Hey, how are you?” without stopping one’s pace of walking. Wait, aren’t you supposed to answer that? Is it today’s extension of a simple hello? And to my shame, unaware to my sharp ninja senses even I have fallen prey to it a couple of times, so much is the effect because of the humans around.

And not only the question itself, but the answer(s) to it is another pain. Anybody would agree, that “I’m fine.” is perhaps the world’s biggest lie, followed by “I’ve read the terms & conditions” when installing a piece of software. And after hearing out the person for 10 minutes, if the conversation actually lasts beyond that in the first place, you will find out how not so fine the person actually is. Oh the irony.

I’m always confused on how to respond to this question when asked, from someone whom I know very, for many years or whom I just met or know; and irrespective of the circumstance I’m in, whether I’m cool or in deep shit (which usually is the case).

So among the other annoying questions like “What do you want to do with/in your future?”, “Do you have a job?”, “Why you have such long hair/beard” and more, and some in general, especially the pathetic one “Do you cook?” generally asked by the backward mentality people here to females with whom I sincerely sympathize.

These questions really annoy me, and it becomes worse when you are advised/preached upon by arbitrary people, most likely by good for nothing relatives or colleagues of my parents. I just respond smiling/shaking hands/bro fist/embracing, depending upon how well I know the person and how much I really care. Hey, I do get away with it most of the time.

So when I’m asked this question, I will follow this brilliant advice by Andreas and just resort to simply saying “yes” or “I’m sweaty”, or get into detailed explanations of how my current situation is, how hungry I always am, why Batman is the true god, and how stupid people really are, without being much rude, as it is I’m not much of a social person. In this process, just sow confusion and subtly hint the questioner that he/she has no reasonable thought or genuine care with his/her question and it just being a thoughtless repetition of words of the ever same phrase. And I could direct them to here saving myself some effort and get some more readers too.

Someone whom I admire

Posted on January 12, 2013 by The Nameless One

There are quite some individuals whom I admire, most notably Steve Jobs who has been my life long idol. But here I would like to be a bit different and talk about someone quite different and uniique.

To start with I’ll list some of his traits:

Trained to physical and mental peak
Arsenal of gadgets, vehicles, and advanced technology
Inventor, detective, genius-level intelligence
Expert in most known forms of martial arts
Trained in all aspects of criminology
Mastery of the physical sciences
Computer expert
Master of disguise
Photographic memory
Trained in stealth and espionage techniques
Expert escape artist
World’s Greatest Detective
Unbreakable Will

By now (especially looking at the last 2 points for sake of humanity) you must be sure about whom I’m talking about- (the goddam) Batman. You must be thinking, hey he’s not even real! But let me tell you this – Batman has been more real than any hero on earth, and let me try to tell you why and why I admire him.

Batman is a fictional character created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger who came into this world in May, 1939 making him one of the first superheroes (#2 after Superman in 1938) and after over 73 years with various iterations from a funny costume guy running with bombs to the most sophisticated/complex character ever created, is still the most, immensely popular in practically all areas ranging from comics, books, video games and movies. He is a phenomenal icon in pop-culture and needs no further explanation and this will be just another post about him among hundreds or even thousands of fan sites and others.

Now why me? I grew up reading and watching Batman, and I would safely say that must be probably one of the first things I’ve read when I became capable of reading. What I listed above are more of his skills/attributes than traits, but I would like to highlight the last one – Unbreakable Will. Although he is a fictional character and anyone can spin up a story about always trying and never giving up, that is perhaps the single most thing among the others which always gets to me.

While there are many other characters with whom we people can relate to more, and Batman being more of a god. There is in fact a famous line which goes:

“There are only two gods – Death, and Batman”

Okay honestly, I made that up and full copyright goes to me. If that goes viral by any chance, then odds are I will be able to buy a Ferrari than claim I said that, but oh well letting you know just in case. There is no doubt he has been an inspiration for me and personally and millions in the world. The very purpose of his character was perhaps give hope to people in our real world, that anyone can be a hero and stand up to make a difference, just like his fictional world (and make billions of $ for DC)

Thank you Bob Kane and Bill Finger. I can keep on quoting from hundreds of sources, but I will end this with the one which really got to me and must have had a tear in my eye:

“And as the sun, that had been too afraid to show its face in this city, started to turn the black into grey, I smiled. Not out of happiness. But because I knew… that one day, I wouldn’t have to do this anymore. One day, I could stop fighting. Because one day… I would win. One day, there will be no pain, no loss, no crime. Because of me, because I fight. For you. And one day, I will win.”

Three Doors

Posted on January 11, 2013 by The Nameless One

In a nightmare, you’ve encountered three doors. Choose one, and let us know what you find on the other side.

This reminds me of the most famous problems in Probability Mathematics, the Monty Hall problem. Well I’m not much a digger for maths, but some subjects especially like probability I have a very deep interest in which is one of my favourite. Most people must have heard about it, just not necessarily with the same name.

Now instead of winning a car, or worse getting a goat, instead I might get a bad dream, or ‘win’ my nightmare. Either way, that would suck. But in this case, not much a big deal for me, as I seldom have dreams in my sleep, be it good or bad. The only things I have ever dreamed must be traveling around in nice exotic places, ~~eating~~ hogging lot of amazing food, hump a beautiful woman, or just sleep on a hammock in a nice tropical setting (now that’s a dream within a dream)

Coming to the doors, one might have a room with terrible food. Another one might lead me into a helpless jungle-island filled with dangerous beasts, animals and pirates alike, just like in Far Cry 3 perhaps. And the one which I’m most likely to pick (the ‘winning’ one) is a huge fall as big as from space to earth straight into a pile of shit. Dam that would be a nightmare indeed!

Vagabonding

Posted on January 10, 2013 by The Nameless One

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life – from six weeks to four months to two years – to discover and experience the world on your own terms – Rolf Potts

Taking time off from your ‘normal life’, just that in my case, I want that to be ‘my normal life’! Generally when we hear the word ‘vagabond’ we think of person stricken with poverty/unemployment or just simply a fool wandering from place to place. But in reality, (or so I would like to think it that way) I would want to be a vagabond (my kind old man already claims I’m one of sorts), travel around the world, meet new people, see and do things which I always wanted to, get familiar with lot of new things which I might have never heard before, (it’s all about vaga-bonding right?) and live on the go.

Oh how I dream of such an ideal job. Looks like I’ll have to do a lot for that. The world seems small yet so large. (And I’ll keep my love for paradoxes for later)

In Search of Lost Time

Posted on January 7, 2013 by The Nameless One

What song, when you hear it, transports you back in time? What time in your life does it transport you to?

For me, this brings me back to 2005, when I got my first computer, the good old days when the biggest problem was the land-line phone vs. the slow pathetic dial-up internet connection which was a big thing back then. The world wide web was building up, Google became synonymous with God, and peer-to-peer was on the rise. (I don’t know why I said that)

This brings my memory to late ’05 through ’06 and ’07. Linkin Park one of my first and till date most favourite band/music artists close to my heart, (the) Mike Shinoda had released his own side project collaborating with some other artists as a hip-hop group called ‘Fort Minor‘. Fortunately I knew some people back then (they are not dead for fuck’s sake, just not in contact anymore, dam sometimes I sound so inappropriate) who shared my enthusiasm for Linkin Park (now I hardly know who doesn’t)

The album ‘The Rising Tied‘ was a different direction from Linkin Park but yet so great that most of the songs resonated with me, my thinking, feelings (quite questionable to many) and life back then. I remember many days coming back from school sitting at my (then garbage, sole) computer at listening to Fort Minor among many others and forgetting about my shitty life.

I guess music is indeed the gift of the faceless one isn’t it? (now sadly demeaned everywhere, do I need to even start on this?) I don’t listen to music much now compared to earlier years, but sometimes (co-incidentally was the last thing of 2012 and first thing of 2013 I did) was listening to an old or such a song brings me back down the memory lane.

The cure for the disease.

Posted on January 6, 2013 by The Nameless One

There are many diseases which desperately need a cure like Malignancies Cancers and HIV/AIDS and other hazardous ones. We see many saddening stories of very unfortunate demise of people young and old. There are many others like Cardiovascular, Infectious and parasitic diseases which have a higher morality rate than the ones mentioned before.

But if I were a mad scientist and could create a cure for any disease, which disease would I cure? Stupidity. Yes you read that right, human stupidity.

Why? Need I even explain? Just look at the world around us. The complete picture. The good part is shouting at you for attention because it is amidst all the garbage in the world. Like few diamonds scattered in the sewer (alright that might be a bit too much, but you get the picture)

And just one beautiful word for all the illogical, irrational, fanatic, ridiculous mindset and whatever word you can bring out from the English language all in one word- (Human) Stupidity. This is the worst among all the diseases prevalent in our existence, not just a high no. of deaths, but I fear for the extinction of our ‘human’ species itself because of it.

Heck a simple common example, people ‘feel sad’ for poor people and children, millions of whom are dying because of poverty and hungry but find a gay couple kissing very disgusting. At such instances, I think to myself, are you out of your fucking mind? As long as people are not causing you trouble, leave them alone why do you care? (In this case, as said by many, homosexuality is not a disease or something ‘wrong’ at all, the only problem/disease here is you, your mind and your kind if you think that way, which i already covered above)

Referring to the recent rape cases and havoc in the country (India), people first don’t approach to help themselves, then we have all these ‘peaceful protests’ and candle marches being outraged at what happened. With all respect I admire that people are fed up and want a change, and better than me perhaps doing something on field instead of me who is sitting at home writing this, shooting emails and tweets to news channels and sorts.

But I just can’t help but laugh at all of them for the simple reason- Will you accept these victims as normal people? Stop ‘victimizing’ them than they already are? Stop bloody sympathizing for them and just consider it a bad event in their life and help them cope up as a normal person? No. “arre ladki ki izzat lut gayi, bichari pura zindagi baar rahega uske maan mey” (Oh the girl has been demeaned, this will remain for the rest of her life!”) A girl doesn’t lose prestige when she is sexually attacked, she is a victim. Fucking idiots!

This fucking attitude and hopeless mindset of people first needs to change. It’s all good to talk about change, but acting them out is what very few people are capable of apparently. Once we change ourselves, then we can deal with screwing the corrupt and good for nothing police, politicians and government. And this is not just limited to the recent happenings here.

Stupidity. One word. Can be the end of humanity. Quite literally (and I’m very serious when I say ‘literally’)

Ghosts?

Posted on January 5, 2013 by The Nameless One

Ghosts- one of the most oldest and (un?)interesting ‘concepts’ which has taken over the world.

It is quite interesting as we perceive these ghosts/spirits as an extension of our lives beyond death. I also find if quite funny as we categorize these ghosts/spirits as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ just like we do with our human species. Wait, can dogs be ‘good’? Cats are ‘bad’? Then what is with these humans? (as a species in a manner of speaking) And subsequently, ghosts.

And the most interesting of them all, the ‘bad’ species of these ghosts (if that even makes sense) are the most interesting since more than a century in popular culture! Count Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy to several mutated humans and beasts.

Oh and how could I forget fan favourite zombies? The ‘third middle’ option also termed as undead, the state of neither being alive or dead (which makes more sense then ‘dead’ if it is even possible)

Vampires were always cool, until you know that happened. (I don’t want to even speak about it)

And coming to them, we have the other ‘good’ spirits. Angels (whom I perceive more as pedophiles more than half the time, no offense to anyone) What’s more, we name many of our real world ideas or intellectual concepts as these angels. ‘Angel of Justice’ or ‘Angel of Death’

Death: “Angel of Death?!” Not cool bro, Not cool at all.

And coming to the actual question, whether do I believe in ghosts, No.

Though I would like to, no matter how irrational it sounds, the idea of them is always so intriguing thanks to over a century of existing in our popular culture, I simply don’t. For now they are well off in our books/movies/tv/games and other media, unless the zombie apocalypse actually happens (in which case atleast all my years of gaming and the likes of Resident Evil, Blade and The Walking Dead comes in handy)

Oh and while we are talking about this, what about God?

Ok I’ll stop it here before getting at jumped at. 😛