Dinosaurism

Living your life by a set of rules, in a way, gives meaning to it. A life without a purpose is not much different than that of a wanderer. Personally, I think, Life is more about Time. Think of it this way, we are allocated a particular amount of time in this world and we are all gonna die someday. So what truly matters is what we do in this stipulated time period. How we spend this time or with whom we spend it with is actually spending a part of your life with that person or that subject.

Learning is a life long process and there are many things that we learn; actively or passively. One of the fastest ways to learn, I believe, is learning from mistakes. This statement doesn't exactly promote the more misinterpreted meaning to MAKE mistakes so you can learn from them. It can also mean learning from mistakes made by others. Another approach is to foresee mistakes and to avoid them completely. But that's moving away from my point.

Well so here I am, trying to learn from the wisdom left by some of the most ancient species known to mankind - The Dinosaurs. It's amazing, how simple their life was, yet so systematic. Fascinating creatures, they were and shall be. Following are the commandments that I have learned from them.


The Ten Commandments of Dinosaurism

1 - You are free to be ANY dinosaur, anytime you want. Hence you can follow behavioral patterns of any other dinosaur depending on the situation. For instance, Kids love Barney.

Observe closely the expressions of the kids.

2 - You are free to eat anything. ANYTHING. Even other Dinosaurs. However, that also means other Dinosaurs can eat you too. (here, eating can be a metaphor to 'messing with')

Like. A. Boss.

3 - You are to follow the laws of your jungle. If you are to go to a new jungle, learn the rules; follow them to ensure survival. Knowing the rules tell you what NOT to do. If you know what not to do, what you CAN do is only limited by your imagination.

Unrelated picture; but she is really cute.

4 - You must take care of the jungle you live in and ensure it is fit for yourself, other Dinosaurs and the future Dinosaurs to come.

and the environment.

5 - You are allowed to suffix your nickname with -saur/-osaur in informal and -saurus/-osaurus in formal situations. Every Dinosaur has a right to have an awesome nickname.

"Dear no! It's SIR Tyrannosaurus!"

6 - You will be nice to little Dinosaurs. You, YOURSELF, will not indulge in activities you don't want THEM to do. However, you must not hamper evolution. Dinosaurs would've never taken to the skies if their parents had prohibited any attempts to fly.

You really don't want kids to do stupid things just because they saw you do it first. That would only result in devolution.

7 - You will leave your nest once you can hunt on your own. Don't be a burden to your creators. They can manage on their own, just like they did before you existed. You must be grateful to them for everything they did and didn't do for you, for those are the very things that make you the Dinosaur you are.

What's a post without cutesy artwork. So there, dawww all you want.

9 - You will prioritize the evolution of your species. If you are required to, a mate must be chosen with utmost care, prioritizing factors that you would want to see in the future generations.

Apparently, large eyes and long legs are still hot.

10 - You will one day go extinct but you must leave behind something that will baffle the humans for centuries to come; only then shall you be a true Dinosaur.

A human, baffled at what you left behind.

Thus I conclude my findings and studies. The path shown to us by the dinosaurs is a very harsh one, indeed. Even though we, as individual Dinosaurs, WILL, one day be extinct, it's this limited amount of time we have that makes life so important and interesting.

Nemosaurus,
Signing off.

How not to be Forever Alone

Have you ever known that one guys who is actually a genius and knows how things are done but is stuck in a miserable situation? Yeah, this post is for that guy or girl. For that forever alone guy or girl who encounters rejection and gives up hope.

It's often when you do something you enjoy, you lose track of time. This simple statement has evolved into a concept in psychology called the Flow. Immersing yourself into a task or process might seem simple but for some it is a fairly challenging task. Some might even fool kids into thinking that they have ADD (attention deficiency disorder) thereby scarring them for life. But I've known someone who was classified with ADD and had to grow up with that label on his head. The guy's a freaking genius (and no, he is not a character in the fast and furious series). It's often when a person is handicapped with a label, they get this intense urge to outperform. The reason why I like to be around these people is because they emit a certain positive aura, despite all odds. Optimism, hope and faith are very strong driving forces.

This chart indicates the emotions you might experience when you encounter a tasks of a certain challenge level with your expertise at that task (simply put, during flow). You can test it out with yourself while performing some tasks and seeing if the emotions displayed are true. Do let me know in the comments below.

Over the months, I've been promptly following Rule 32 of the Rules of the Internet. Amidst my lurking sprees, it's hard to avoid the rage comics and adventures of Forever Alone. Every time I look at Forever Alone Guy, I won't lie, I did find it amusing. Reflecting upon certain situations, I must admit, there are a few to which I can co-relate to. These are the times when one can't help picturizing himself/herself as forever alone guy.

But the question is - is it really that bad? Personally, I need some time where I need to be left alone. It helps me think better; gives me the space I need. There is a saying in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, which goes something like this, "ati parichayasch avadnya". Literally translating this makes it a mess, so I would prefer to convey the meaning behind it. It means, 'if someone or something has always been there, that presence gets taken for granted'. It's closest to the English phrase, "Distance makes the heart grow fonder". Being alone helps you relish the company of people. You learn to appreciate them further.

But if you really don't wanna be this forever alone character, what should you do? How do you stop yourself  from making a rage comic about the funny things that happen to you and later feeling miserable. The thing about not being forever alone is being social. It is by being a contributing member to whatever you are a part of that you can interact with people and people interact with you.

I remember watching Fight Club, a long time ago. What started as a small hobby group ended up becoming a HUGE organization. That truly illustrates how someone can start something and get things rolling. Even if this genius is not recognized or entertained by someone else, they can always start their own jig and get something going. This 2006 movie that I recently watched, Accepted, joins the dots for my hypothesis. Didn't get into a college? No problems, MAKE ONE. If you need it, then there are people out there who need it too; probably, just as bad. If you can't get it, then there are people out there who want it but can't get it either. If you feel lonely and rejected, there are people out there who feel the same! So if you feel that way, try to search for these people and support them with a goal that you share. Coz together, you can't be alone :p

Modes of Life

One reason why I am writing here is because people don't generally read my blog. It helps me get things off my head by writing about them. So whatever I write will remain a mystery for the onlookers but those who are truly interested in taking a different view at the common things we see in life (and who are interested in me, of course) go that extra mile and visit my blog. It's more like yapping and ranting without having to torture someone. But if that someone is interested in being subjected to this torture, then continue reading.

Commoners say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

However a great man (in a fictional universe) has rather... different opinions,

When I was a measly teenager, I used to think that living alone away from your family (maybe in a different city) would be fun; I was right. But I must admit, now, I have a new-found respect for my parents and the way they raised me over the years. It's only because of that kind of tough upbringing that I can survive on my own without submitting to follies common muggles might make. Although unlike my teenage days, I love and respect my parents now. 

From the way I'm getting all sentimental about this and reminiscing the past, it can't be more clear that I'm in trouble. For the simple reason of keeping this post short (which I assure you it wont be), I won't be ranting about those; at least not right now. This tale, I will leave for a day when we will be drinking at a table and then we can laugh at the whole thing. But yes, things are under control now and the explosion has been contained. Extensive personal experience with them has improved my skill of disaster management.

But honestly, when life gets hard it means that you have been playing on easy mode for too long and it's time to play hard mode. So face this situation like a boss. Screw the hard mode and set it to veteran |-_-|

Dimensional Explanation

This video has been bugging me for such a long time now. Hence here I am sharing it with you. A seat and an open mind are required to watch this. This might be a bit disturbing to some, entertaining to some but certainly thought provoking. Have fun ^_^

How being enslaved by an alien race would benefit humanity

Firstly, what's with the hysteric look? You probably clicked that link wondering, 'wtf is this about?' OR 'Seriously, how is that even possible?' In the next few paragraphs, I'm gonna try to elaborate my point. It's just one way to look at it, so if you disagree/ don't like it/ hate me in general, please don't shoot me. Secondly, to my friends, families, supporters, fans and haters (yes, my dear haters, I do love you) apologies for letting this place gather dust over there past few months. I can rant about how life is becoming busier day by day, but hell, that's not what you are here for, are you? Therefore, without further ado, let's get down to business.

So throughout history, we have seen a technologically superior race invade and enslave an inferior one; exploiting them and resources, which rightfully belong to them. The same old same old. As time progressed, they ran out of ideas for motion pictures (yeah, that's what they used to call movies, back in the day) and since science fiction was booming, they thought, 'HEY! Why not try something new; something from the past and something from the new!' and thus was born the epic genre of the Alien invasion movies. There are just SO many of them, the thought of listing a few intimidates me (not just because of the sheer numbers but also thanks to the raging alien movie fans who would go, 'you n00b! How could you forget the most epicest awesomest alien movie of all time - <insert name of the so-called epicest awesomest alien movie of all time here>').

Getting back, the basic theme of these movies is pretty much the same. A hi-tech alien race decides to come to Earth and enslave or destroy all human beings. The destroying part doesn't really make sense, unless they want natural resources, say minerals or vespene gas, without human interference.

But then again, they'll need to mine or extract these minerals or gases, which again, would require someone to man the stations. (or should I say, 'alien the stations'; no joke intended there) Here, they will have to either employ staff from their own planet OR implement machinery (or some psyonic technology) to look after it. Strictly, from a financial point of view, that requires investment and maintenance (at the very least). Why go through all this bs when you can just ask the humans to get it for you? That's the reason why I feel, destroying the human race isn't in their best interest.

Then again, there would be the old school non-believers, still living in their little bubble of, 'No, aliens don't exist.' I mean, seriously, grow up. You exist, I exist, we exist. A thriving population of nearly 6 billion species of the human race, so why not some other race on some other planet? [note - for those who talk about 'life supporting' planets, you must always remember, the Earth's atmosphere wasn't made for us, WE were made for it. Our ancestors evolved and adapted to it. So who knows, our alien invaders might just be Nitrogen breathing, Sulfuric acid drinking badasses] (< paranoia)

The other thing is, we, the human race, are trying so hard to venture into outer space. What if THEY have already succeeded? (< major paranoia)

Now ever since I came to Singapore (YAY!!!), I realized how different things would be if the British hadn't ruled this place so many years ago. One of the biggest differences, for a foreigner like me, would be that I would be speaking either Hokkien or Mandarin or some other Chinese dialect or Malay or maybe even Tamil! Overall, we have this linguistic uniformity thanks to the British gift of English.

For illustrative purposes, let's consider a fictional planet called Xeforonia (by common sci-fi conventions it has an X in it and is hard to pronounce. I can almost imagine our Xeforonian commander trying to communicate with Raj, the fictional Indian slave from Russel Peter's illustrations.

Commander : xquiie fuu ze kottan meeneraals, Raj  (Raj, go mine the minerals)
Raj : Saar.... It's not kottan... it's called Cotton. *picks cotton from the fields*
Commander : -_-"    *facepalms*

Raj : 1
Xeforonian Commander : 0

My point being, they will need to educate the humans and teach us their language and technology. Now this is the point where they are, practically, nailing their own coffin. Because once the humans, master their language, we will do what we have been doing for the past 'I-don't-wanna-count-how-many' years. MIGRATION XD

At this time, our Xeforonian bosses would wish they had never met us.

The benefit for humanity, here, would be a common language that all humans would be able to speak, since it was forcibly taught in school. Isn't that how people of most commonwealth nations learnt English? (Hell, I did) Might sound silly to an extent but it would foster a sense of oneness, unity, mutual understanding and <more words from the sociology text book here> amongst us humans.

Over time, what seemed like slavery, suddenly turns out to be an opportunity! So the next time, you see a flying soccer slowly landing, don't panic, scream and run; rather anticipate your new bosses. Wave to them, give them a warm welcoming smile, get to know them better. Because at the end, they might be invading our planet and enslaving us but in the long run, it's WE who will be taking over their planet XD

To top it, who knows, they might just be kinda cute! ;)