Anyway, I spent about forty-five minutes watching videos on making an omelet. Let’s not forget all the videos about cracking an egg perfectly. In case you’re interested, here’s the video that helped the most – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHgbn_sVUw

With that done, I strode confidently into the kitchen, pulled out a plastic box (Yes, innovative isn’t it using a box instead of a bowl ? -.-) and three eggs. I picked up the eggs, cracked them sharply on the counter top and not on the edge and…they cracked horribly! I know I did it on the counter top and not the edge, just like the video said! Well, doesn’t Murphy hate us all?

Anyway, I proceeded to beat the eggs with a fork, which was not as easy as it was made to look, but a lot easier than I feared it would be. Oh, wait! I forgot to add the salt and pepper. The eggs were beaten for the most part, but I needed to get the whites out completely, so this wasn’t a complete disaster! Another two minutes had the eggs beaten perfectly! With that victory, I once again regained my confidence, although, in retrospect, I shouldn’t have.

I got the oil and butter on the pan, let the butter melt, and spread it all around. (That was easy! ) I then poured the eggs onto the pan and started moving the edges in just like he said. That was when I realized things weren’t going too well. The pan was too small! Anyway, I got it to solidify, added the cheese and waited.

Things didn’t go too well with the folding. although it was surprisingly easy for me to get the omelet free of the edges, it didn’t fold well at all. This was, in part, because of the pan size. The omelet was too ‘thick’. In any case, it folded alright, but it broke in the center and let the cheese flow!

After ten minutes from the time I entered the kitchen, I’d managed to produce a mangled, horrific looking entity which was brown as berries on the bottom. I slid it off , drizzled some tomato sauce onto it and took a bite…Hey! That wasn’t bad. It actually tasted pretty damn good! Now, if it looked just as good as it tasted…Well, we can’t have everything right on the first try, can we? Wait! Don’t answer!

In my defense, I do cook reasonably well and I’m good at producing meals that taste pretty good! For some reason, I’ve always shied away from beating an egg, so I’ve never tried to cook an omelet. I guess I should’ve made them scrambled or sunny side up as usual, eh?

What will I write about next? How I ruined hard-boiled eggs? -.- Well, we’ll just have to see, won’t we?

Too often in the history of mankind, a good practice has been established with the very good intentions and in alignment with the right principles, only to become institutionalized and practiced blindly, even when the practice no longer continues to serve its purpose or is no longer in alignment with the right principles. When I stopped to think about follow Friday tweets, I realized that history was repeating itself yet again.

Let us take a quick look at the reasons I think follow Friday tweets are a bad idea, before I make my case and present an alternative:

1. Everybody sends out #FF tweets en mass. These tweets look like, “#FF JohnT JaneW …”

2.  If one start tweeting follow Friday suggestions, one must do it for everyone on the list of people they follow. Why? Because you do not wish to hurt anybody’s feelings. This becomes a nightmare when one follows back a number of people who follow you.

3. I have seen more personalized follow Friday tweets. They usually name only one person and give a reason to follow that person, by pointing out how nice or unique they are. However, one can hardly give out such follow friday tweets for  all one hundred (or more) tweeps you like every friday.

4. I haven’t got any evidence for this, but I believe that follow Friday suggestions may be where bots and spammers harvest twitter accounts to  to target. This is rather like the way spammers harvest email addresses from chain mail.

5. The method most people use is a combination of personalized and mass follow Friday tweeting.  In my humble opinion, this undermines trust, because it communicates that those who are mentioned in the mass tweet aren’t really worth a special mention. While nobody might care, it still highlights a shortcoming of the current system.

6. I can’t help but take exception to the fact that there needs to be a special day to give a shout to the great tweeps out there.

Have you dipped into your twitter stream on a Friday? Everybody gives out those suggestions! You will notice almost immediately that these tweets fall into either the category of en mass or personalized. I have read a few (an admittedly small number) articles on good twitter behavior that encourage #FF tweeting. This seems to indicate that #FF tweeting is a tradition, a community established norm. Admittedly one has a choice not to do it, but society and social media in my rather limited experience do not work that way.  Follow Friday suggestions were established as a way to share good content providers with your friends and the rest of the community. The intent was to show appreciation for the people who are dedicated to finding and sending content or just those who have been really good friends. Based on all that I have said above, can one really argue that it serves that purpose well?  Ultimately, #FF tweeting can become a mechanical task, a time sink and a boring chore. What alternatives have we?

It turns out that there are quite a few alternatives -

1. Retweet often. You will be surprised at how much good content can lead to a follow. Besides, a retweet makes the person being retweeted special.

2. Give a shout out naming anybody you think is great on any day, whenever you like. Why wait for Friday?

3. Write about them on your blog. If you already have blog traffic, this is a great way to send followers to someone you appreciate.

4. Comment on their blogs and give them a good review. Never forget to retweet the link when someone you follow has posted great new content on their blog.

5. Pass the message along in Facebook, or Orkut or whatever social networking network you fancy.

6.  Make a follow Friday list and continuously add good tweeps to  it. Once you have such a list, you just need to remind your followers that they should check it out every once in a way. It’s a great idea to tweet this reminder every time you add five to ten new people to the list.

For now, I intend to continue #FF tweeting in a limited manner while I start work on writing a few words about my favourite tweeps. Expect that post late next week. In the mean time, I have some fun content lined up this week, so keep coming back!

Do you have any other ideas? What do you think of my reasoning? Would you agree with at least some of the points made here? In any case do let me know

The romantic in me would have me believe that perfection is within my reach and that I need only to train my mind to believe in perfection. The world exists within my mind and all its problems are but my thought. Can I not solve all problems by manipulating my thought then? Every time I watch a feel good movie or read of great men and their victories, the romantic in me gets stronger.  In reality however, perfection continues to elude my grasp. When faced with a problem or given a task the romantic encourages me to put in just that little bit more extra, but to no avail. In the face of stark reality, perhaps the cynic can provide a better answer?

Perfection is a fairytale, the grapes hanging just out of the fox’s reach a myth, a fabrication, a lie. Huh! Perfection is just a phantom of our minds which serves only to lower our self esteem and demoralise us. The holy grail which we all seek but cannot find. Why pursue a phantom? Why not do something more useful? The cynic within me makes a pretty convincing argument for forgetting about perfection and abandoning its pursuit. I must however groan at this point, because perfection is one of the few things that I desire above all else. What is to be done?

I may not have an answer to the question of what it is that I must do. But I do know this, I shall never surrender to mediocrity and therefore I must pursue excellence. Perhaps it is pursuing perfection itself that makes it so elusive. Could my mind be tricking me into pursuing perfection and setting me up for a fall? Taking my eyes away from the big picture and focusing it on minutiae. A man far wiser than me once said, “Seek not to be as the masters are, but seek what they sought instead”. Perhaps, the answer to this conundrum is painfully obvious to do a job as well as possible without a constant focus on perfection.

I am inclined to believe that pursuing perfection takes one’s eyes of the goal, leading to the inevitable mistake and for a perfectionist, the inescapable guilt trip. It is time for me to bid you adieu for now and go experiment to find how valid my conclusion is. Do share your thoughts on the subject with me.

~Dedicated to @jonahx, who inspired this post when we spoke on twitter.

P.S.: A critic might would call my piece above dull and uninspired, another inane addition to all the noise about perfection in the blogosphere and definitely not the best of my work. However, my intent was not to share any particular insight on perfection but to vent about having a tough time getting anywhere near perfection. As a secondary objective, I just want to get back into the habit of posting again. If you are looking for a really nice post, fear not, several are in the pipeline.

Alone in the sand

Lightning flashes

And thunder crashes

Out before me

Lay a stormy sea

Waves rolled

Encouraged and bold

Lightning struck sea

Lightning struck land

And yet, poised I was

Worry not, for far I was

From the raging storm

And yet too near

In my mind a battle was staged

As the mighty storm of nature raged

Dark twilight, embraced me

Enhanced my somber mood

The godess of wind Areashaar

Blew her cold fingers through my hair

Yet my thoughts,

cool did not

And the battle still raged

My soul and mind

Cruel and kind

The battle raged

In my mind

Thought and emotion

Traitouressness and devotion

Swirled through me

Stormy thoughts as stormy sea

Memory and imagination

Misplaced relief

The thoughts rent me beyond belief

Dark was the night

Darker still were my thoughts

Good and evil cancelled to naught

Fiery as the lightning strike

My passion would spike

….

I recently heard “If we were a movie” and it got me thinking about how different reality is. Here is my attempt at a humorous rewrite and extension of the number-

(Guys Version)

If we were a movie, I’d be the right guy,

And you’d be the best friend that I’d fall in love with,

In the end we’d be laughin, watchin the sunset,

Fade to black, show the names,

Play that sappy song again…

What a childish fantasy. Here’s my next paragraph; what I’d really like to say:

We aren’t a movie, I’m not the right guy,

You are the best friend, that I fell in love with,

In the end we’re smilin’, because you found the right guy,

Sharp contrast, names unsung

No happy song to play…

A bit on the negative side, eh? Wearing a black hat isn’t always a bad thing, so long as you remember not to wear it continuously!! It lets you see the other side of things. Anyhow, I think this version is way more realistic, even if it is a poor attempt at re writing the lyrics !! Let me know what you think of these lyrics and the original song!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the original music/lyrics. I hereby grant everybody permission to use my version of the lyrics free of cost. I only request is that you give me due credit and link back to this blog!! In no way am I using this rewrite for profit. I am not responsible for anybody who attempts to use it for profit.

Yeah, I’m paranoid!

Hide away the brutal truth

Push away this world so senseless

Leave behind your senses defenseless

At least for once you’ve chosen this nonsense

Not forced upon you like plague or curse

Reality is no place for the mindless

The violence continues on regardless

They say the weak are doomed to failure

Run after success in hot pursuit.

Life on earth is a limited tenure,

You can’t try for fear of failure.

Given a chance you’d run away

Blown away by the cruel world

You know you can’t really stay

At the place you’ve gone

You’ve gotta be back from the edge of darkness

You must come back to stay the madness

Will you come back or shy away?

Either way for this limited tenure

You really have no say

Burn into your soul this senseless reality

Bind it up in chains of hate

Scar yourself and keep the memories

Waiting till fate gives you a say

Throw away the chains of pain

Live, breathe and fight again

Use your shackles as your weapons

Hate is your holy grail

To break away from this prison of sadness

To do away with all the madness

To truly understand what goes on why and,

freely question the nature of reality

Defeat God with your willpower

Become mankind’s powerful savior

Make sense out of all the nonsense

Clean away all the slime

Will you choose to shine a light in the darkness

Or will you choose to lose it all?

All you can do is go on

Do what you think is right.

P.S.:I didn’t really feel any frustration as I wrote this poem, so I hope it has got no pretentious airs and sounds as honest as my other posts!

I found a new title for this blog, “Homo Sapient”. And for those who were wondering, I am heterosexual and no, I’m not homophobic!

Adios Readers.

To the challenges we face.

Equality, Commonality, Uniformity and Conformity. What do these words bring to your mind?

Bland, featureless, tasteless and mindless come to mine.

Difference, Rebellion, Freedom and Choice bring to life every individuals voice.

Long has mankind battled and suffered, demons within and demons without. Demons of their own creation sometimes in the name of war, sometimes in the name of recreation, sometimes by an insatiable lust for power and other times for wealth, men or women. How can this list exclude battles for honour? Indeed it cannot. It does not. Demons unleashed by forces beyond our comprehenshion, storms that rip apart a mans life and storms that decimate the collective life of mankind.

I have spoken of war now in a generic sense,  for I wish to deal with the specific, in the context of the generic. Long are the hours that I have spent decrying that mankinds fundamental nature is evil and chaotic and yet my heart tells me to keep faith that mankind is true and good. Reality often lies between the extremes of our rosiest dreams and our worst nightmares. And so again, has human nature continued to remain fickle and dynamic, eluding all attempts to classify it as good or bad. Indeed, now an attempt for such a classification seems naive.

But I digress. I return to the topic at hand, equality. Since time immemorial, man has been afraid of differences, of change, of deviations from the norm. He does not respect nature and considers animals inferior, for they are different from him. Little does he understand, that in his arrogance, he has failed to see what those differences have to offer. This discrimination has been more violent, if anything, when it came to fellow man.If a man were not to conform to an acceptable, usually socially decreed form of behaviour, woe betide, he would be an outcast, just because he dared to listen to his conscience and reason.

When the world was explored, many exotic creatures and cultures were found. Many of them more tolerant and adaptable than those of the first explorers. The men and women of these cultures were different in  customs, behaviour, speech and appearance, and hence became candidates for brutal discrimination. Man against man perpetrated the most inhuman of all crimes.

Then arose a cry for equality, from men and women courageous enough to stand up to their oppressors. And then began a battle without. This battle was of little consequence until men and women of all types could set aside their differences and accept their humanity as their first identity, their equality as a matter of course. Slowly, the tides turned. People became more tolerant. And yet the battle was not won. It is not won.

Often, equality has been confused with bland conformity, which resulted in socialist and marxist movements. Noble were their ideals and yet, as history has shown, they were doomed to fall. In hindsight, this is obvious, because every man and woman seeks to be different, to stand out from the crowd, to achieve a higher station in society, to be appreciated. At the same time, man strives for acceptance among his peers and in comes the necessity for conforming to social norms. In my opinion, neither extreme is likely to succeed.

We humans need to learn to be less tolerant of evil and more tolerant of differences. Yet, as history has shown time and time again, this may just be a pipe dream. Still, while I live, I cannot give up hope in the greater good, the better nature of humankind.

Our hope lies in coming to gether as one, as humans, as living beings. Our hope lies in knowing, no in feeling that bond of commonality that runs through us and in remembering that just because we share something in common does not mean that we have to share everything in common. Our hope! It lies in respecting and recognizing differences, not in demeaning each other because of them, not in giving them secondary importance. Differences are to be treasured, they make us who we are and so they make others who they are and there is everything positive in that, for in sharing a bond of commonality, we can harvest the best of our different capabilities.

Equals

A pipe dream?

A reality?

A sign or word on paper?

No it is a state of mind. It is a belief. It is a way of life.  It is a battle fought by us, within ourselves. It is that which grows as more people practice it. A few freak racistss notwithstanding, let us attain our goal, let us continue to be equals.

A/N:  This post is in response to mithblogsin’s post.