Stealing a bloggie game / tag / meme / whatever-you-call-it

... for the first time ever, from Double-Dolphin, my one and only commenter for the past few months. Thanks for this, dude! I sooooooooo wanted to do a fun post today. So here goes...

AGO S.I

Everything in the world may be endured
as much as you please

No matter how rich you become
you are disbelieved

A myth is a religion in which
you don't stop biting your fingernails

A verbal contract isn't worth
a good five-cent nickel

You can observe a lot
that would suffice

Here are the rules:

1. Go to wikipedia
2. Hit "random"or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
3. Set the title of the first random wikipedia article that appears as the title of your poem
4. Go to "Random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
• Select the first three or five words of the very first quote on the page for the first line of your poem
• Select the last three or five words of the next quote on the page for the second line of your poem
• Select the first three or five words of the third quote on the page for the third line
• ...and then use alternate quotes until you’ve made it to the last quote
5. Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
6. The fifth picture, no matter what it is, should be your poem image; this is optional
   

Here's what I did could do:

1. Accessed to wikipedia
2. Clicked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
3. Set the title of the first random wikipedia article that appeared as the title of my poem
4. Clicked http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
• Used the first three or five few suitable words of the very first quote on the page for the first line of my poem
• Used the last three or five few suitable words of the next quote on the page for the second line of my poem
• Used the first three or five few suitable words of the third quote on the page for the third line of my poem
  
• ...and then used alternate quotes until I made it to the last quote
5. Flickr and Picasa are both banned in my office, and so are most of the picture / photo websites
   
6. ... so I simply used a picture that I had just stolen download from my arty friend's blog this week, because I wanted a picture even though this was optional

Of course, the freaking title has nothing to do with the image or the text that follows. Drat!

But some of the quotes do make a meaningful / fun poem when mashed up together like this:
A verbal contract isn't worth a good five-cent nickel! Beat that!!
...and what can I say, I'm very mythical :) (Line 3, you dummies!)

Beautiful quote(s)

... that I came across when I was hunting for Calligraphy courses online.

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value."

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection."

~ Thomas Paine

I don't whether they were quoted in continuation, but they do seem to go together.

(Hubs, you got to think about the second one.)

Attempts to focus

...at work are bound to fail when you have AR Rahman's music playing through your headphones. It wants to make you hum along, it makes you want to dance with abandon, you begin to grin like a fool (at the awesome sound effects), your fingers automatically leave the keyboard and start tapping other objects around you, and then you end up getting weird looks from coworkers or passers by.

What's more, all thoughts about crappy product defects and their even crappier descriptions simply seem untouchable and you feel silly about wanting to be at your desk in the first place. All motivating thoughts that you've brainwashed yourself with... the ones about how you like your job, how essential it is to be proactive, innovative, and that you should strive to work better than you worked yesterday... all go down the proverbial drain.

Sigh! Could someone please pay me to simply listen to the genius?

And for the record... I think the Jay Ho / Slumdog Milllionaire score is nothing when compared to Roja, Bombay, Taal, Lagaan, Saathiya, ... What about an Oscar for each of these?

Like TMM or someone else said on her blog (can't find the exact post), our medicore is their best??!

Personal quotes

"It is very difficult to work with the imagination of things whose reality the brain has ascertained through the sense organs. We accept our imaginations very easily until we ascertain their existence in reality. It takes an effort to convince the brain that we can, or we already have, magnetized our imaginations."

This is something I wrote about 4 years back. When I found it in one of the many lost treasures a cupboard in my home, and read it again after so many years, I was like... huh?! What was that all about?! Now my poor brain has to go fetch its meaning from the many repressed memories. :(

A friend, a brother

He's leaving for Seattle this evening. Vacation over, time to go back. My college-mate-good-enough-to-be-bro R, who was away for 4 years. Whom I met after 6 long years. Who hasn't changed a bit--physically. There's quite some change in his thought process / attitude, though--he acknowledges that.

So what's to write about? Well, I don't know... I'm missing him already. We only met for a few hours, but it was nice... just like we were back then... ourselves. As our short conversation on GTalk was ending, my eyes turned moist. He hasn't really been in touch all these years, except when I repeatedly bothered him over emails and rare phone calls. But I know there's a bond. I know he'll be there for me if and whenever I need him. He might judge me, criticize my behavior, even yell at me if I act real crazy, but he'll be around in my hour of need. We haven't spoken about these things at length, but it's just this connection I feel in my heart.

We're quite a contrast--I'm short, plump (ok, fat!), and giggling-away-to-glory; he's very tall, skeletal, and always pretends to be serious (actually he's the one I'm giggling at!); but I believe like to think we enjoy each other's company. During college, I would often be found goofing around with the guys in our group, while the other girls sincerely attended lectures. I don't smoke or drink, but I would always hang out with these guys who did. I don't think they were ever bothered, because I was cool with things they did, and didn't try to correct them all the time. There's nothing to be proud of here, but it's just the way I was. And certain people, I always felt an affinity to. It was never spoken / expressed, but we just knew. R was is one of them.

There's another thing common among this group of college mates. None of us got to marry the ones we were in love with, back then. We either broke off, or were made to break off (intolerant parents), or just gave up when the relationship went long-distance (moving to different locations for work and life ahead). R is the last of that set of people. The intention of his trip to India was to get married with his girlfriend of 6 years, but the same old story happened with him--parents not being ready to accept the relationship. One of them gave up and the relationship ended. It bothers me as much if not more than it bothers him. He underplays such significant events in life, and this time, I was torturing him with questions--hoping that he would open up and vent--no such luck, though. Anyway, hope he gets over it and has a better life ahead... I'm more concerned because he lives alone and has a social life, but not many "friends." I can't say it matters, because when it comes to really personal matters, I too don't share a lot with my friends, but it's always good to have them around. To know that they are in the same city and can spend time with you when you need it.

Ok, that's enough burbling. I'll be lucky if R reads this through the end. But it doesn't matter. I had to write. I had to do something to stop myself from brooding. And crying under the weight of all those memories. Love you, R. Hope to live closer to you some day. Because you're as weird as I am... a different kind of weird, but weird enough to be my bro.

Good news and bonding

My ex-boyfriend's long-since-awaiting-the-ex-status-wife called yesterday. They finally reached a settlement after about a year-long wait. Her bloody asshole husband never turned up on all the days that the court had summoned him. Then finally things got settled in her favor. That was easy because she didn't ask for alimony or anything. In my opinion, the most important thing she lost was time... good time she could have had, had he not decided to screw it up. How can time be compensated for?

Anyway, she was relieved that it was all over. I was damn happy for her. We'll have a small party this weekend--by ourselves. Sometimes, we gain friends in the strangest possible ways. I'm glad I know a beautiful and strong girl like her. Cheers, P!!

Update: Hubby and I met her one Saturday--a lunch and movie gig--and it was so much fun to be with her. The blasted arse of a guy through whom we know each other... he said nasty things about her to me, and even nastier things about me to her... thankfully we had more sense than to believe the fucker. We disregarded any of his statements and met secretly; I'm glad she accepted my invitation.