Back to the Basics - Reading

The moment I thought of what I used to do a lot when I was a kid which made me a better person that I am now, only two things came to my mind:

1. Read a lot of books (- which I haven't done in a while)
2. Play Chess (- either I lose or win)

Somehow the first option sounded better to get back to. I just bought 3 amazing books (atleast thats what I got from the reviews).

"Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" - Steven D. Levitt

"The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" - Thomas L. Friedman

"Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" - Malcolm Gladwell

Though my personal favorite author is Malcolm Gladwell. I have read his earlier book - The Tipping Point - which gives an tottaly different view of how small things affect the world is a big way, I am looking forward to reading "Freakonomics".

My peronal reviews for each of these will be posted in the coming weeks.

My Memory Theory

Have you ever stood at the ATM machine for 2 minutes trying to remember you PIN or had to think about what your phone number is then sang the words to the entire McDonald's menu song on the way back to your car? We have all had that experience or something like it. It is the subject of numerous musings and comedy bits, Dave Barry's probably being the best.

It's commonly known that you only have a certain amount of your brain to utilize--the rest being needed for storing penguins (RIP Douglas Adams, you were a genius), and therefore have only a certain amount to use for storage. Now you take in a lot of information in the course of a lifetime, everything from how to use chopsticks, to who the winner of the last Survivor thing was. It is only natural then that you will run out of storage space rather quickly. Some people I know refer to this as "hard drive being full." This is an apt metaphor.

When the brain fills up though, it doesn't disallow incoming information. Maybe at one point in the evolution of our species, that was the case. But those that were stunted from learning anything new were bound to miss something important for survival and all die sometime, paving the way for those that still were able to learn.

So then after that there were two types of people left: people who could choose what to remember and those that couldn't. Now you'd think that the people who could choose what to remember would have a better chance of survival since they would be able to remember everything that would help them to survive right? Turns out you'd be wrong. You see there was still so much information that when we stopped to sort it all and figure out what to remember and what to discard etc., a lion ate you. You see the packrats went first since they had the hardest time deciding. So eventually the ones that survived were the ones whose brains sorted this out for them. Over time the brain has completely taken over this function.

Of course evolution isn't perfect, and so the brain uses a sort of pseudo-random approach. When you are full and you get some new information the brain just kicks out some random bit of information. So you really have no control over what you remember and what you don't. The brain has limited capability to predict what will be important and what won't be important later, since in the early days it was so hard to know what would be crucial for survival later. A random approach worked as well as any, and persists to this day.

So this has a few implications. The most important being of course that it is not your fault that you forgot your anniversary, or to do your reports for work, or your daughter's middle name, or the name of the Lakers' backup point guard. It is the fault of course of the damn lions and other predators that were trying to eat us in the earliest days of humanity.

I can't, I won't

Now I know I can handle this
I'll close my mouth and clench my fist
I've lived this day in a thousand ways
But there's a flaw to add to your list

Go on and squeeze a little more
Coz if I scream you'll just ignore me
But I've rehearsed this scene in a million dreams
You're getting closer to my core

I'm so damn frustrated
Losing breath and now I'm thinking
Gotta keep myself from breaking down
Someone get me out

Tears won't fall, my eyes won’t cry
Need to get me round this corner
I can't break down, I won't
Pride don't cave in, head don't fall off
While I'm open you can read me
I can't, I won't

Think I blocked it out for long enough
Think I got really good at playing rough now
I've been prepared and not really cared
But being brave is getting tough

You smile like the cat that’s got the cream
I'm vulnerable and I know you see me
There's so much I wanna say
But this aching heart makes me walk away

Someone get me out
Someone let me out

Think of it or Damn you ..

I really dunno why I want my own blog ? Since ppl do lottza stuff without reasons, here goes another one of the kind.

The real reason behing my blog ? - Thinking of it, there are quite a few

1. Tryout new things just to feel what it is like.
2. Peer Pressure - ppl around me have a blogspot, even when they don't have anything to write about. This is a chaotic condition. When everyone starts blogging, there wont be enough people to read all the blogs (I figure this is gonna happen in my case).
3. Damn.. I cannot find a third reason.

I can post my favortite music, movies, hobbies, etc. But who cares ? The one's who might be interested in what I post might be thousands of miles away. I might not get to meet them at all. I am not a journalist to write my views on something and sell it as news.

Politics, Poverty, War, Terrorism - These are some topics on my mind, but posting them online - does it make any difference ?

Forget me. Just think of why you started your blogspot ? Are you able to do something with it, let alone wastage of time to type ?

Or are you just like me, having enough time to waste wihout reasons ? If yes, then that makes millions of us similar.