knee pads!! i got knee pads!!!

woo hoo! I got new kneepads!!!!

for those who are wondering - "why does he need kneepads?", the answer is - because i do photography.

well. after kneeing a lot in rough terrain, some muddy, slimely, some stoney, and others just painful, i realized that i need some way to prevent myself from killing myself this way. since praying doesn't seem to callouse my knees as much, another solution finally came to me: get something to protect my knees. and the skate board people just have a great solution to my problem.

sure. other photographers are going to look and stare. but who cares? when it comes to kneeing on hard rocks (nothing to do with the cafe), they will have their pain, and I will have my .. kneepads. ;)

limitations exploration: a theoretical discussion.

one of the limitations of photographs is that alot of interpretation is left to the viewer. A friend pointed out that "a picture is worth a thousand words". of course. they come from the different interpretation.

It is however interesting to note that the element of imagination is often required from the viewer - given certain pictoral elements composed in the picture, how does the viewer see it? how does the viewer interprete the ongoings?

some have scoffed - "we cannot build a society on imagination - we live by hard facts and cold science." How true. but we have first conceived ideas from our imaginations, explored it with our thoughts before attempting to verify the hypothesis. Without imagination to go beyond the fixed boundaries of our knowledge, no new knowledge seems to be birthed.

since multimedia - video, etc, seem to eliminate the need for imagination- could we claim (loosely) that such things actually make us "more stupid" and less able to launch our minds into the unknown? This seems to be an overly big generalization, but it feels plausible.

the wave rolls on..

as more information pours in, one can't help but to feel the frustrations that others are feeling. How could lives be so cheapened and demeaned? are humans no more than cattle, measured in terms the absolute profit they bring to a company?

of course, having survived a corperate blitz one year ago, I was familar with the situation unfolding before me. the memories are still vivid.

what can we say? nothing. except perhaps this: if you see a member of the top management and a snake, kill the management first. You're more likely to survive the encounter intact when facing a snake.

.. i'm not sure that people are treated like cattle: at least, cattle (cow, that is) is holy in india. here, they are treated as trade goods, to be disposed of when the value is no longer present.

of rats, snakes and management.

The news just broke: another management decision is having a tsunami impact on the lives of people working there.

And given the profile of the current employees, most of those affected are unlikely to follow the relocation plan, but instead, will be forced to leave the company.

I would personally describe the people on top as "rats and snakes", but somehow, that seems to be derogatory to the rodents and reptiles.

I have yet to find a term that is lower than that.

I'm back!

After being in bed for a week with a darned viral infection (overwork induced thing), I've finally gotten away from that virus.

I'm now back in office - and happily sipping my coffee. Gosh. I missed the coffee, the hair-yanking while dealing with new technologies and the head-banging sessions.

Colleagues (both the caring and the cautious ones) were asking - "well. are you healthy again?".

I couldn't resist it - "physically or mentally?"

you know its bad when..

your neighbour who lives on the floor above you ( a motherly figure) stops to talk to you at the front entrance, and tells you that you need to slow down and do less. especially when she belongs to the generation who believes that "hard work doesn't kill you. I'll kill you if you don't work hard"

gee.

a lack of service..

am writing this from Aachen Hbf (main train station) now. Have tried to get some service from the local service personnel at the train station, but was informed that the computers are experiencing a glitch.

I'm tolerant with computer glitches. In fact, i believe in gremlins. But what i find it difficult to understand is the fact that there are no fail-safe systems for the customer-service people - such that a failure would result in a lowering of service levels.

while it is all good and well to say "such fatal errors don't happen that often", "we could live with the risk" and "it costs so much more to have a good system in place" (i.e. get good engineers instead of the crappy ones), the costs in terms of loss of reputation and potential income is actually so much higher.

i would love to see a computer company provide a compensation service system - when a system provided fails to live up to a certain service level (under normal situations), the company will willingly compensate the customer for loss of income. This calls for alot of confidence, guts and good engineering!

the making of ghost towns..

the wind blows.. apart from the sound of dead trees creaking, nothing seems else seems to be present.


you walk down the hallway - and the echos of your steps break the omnious silence.. and the echoes bounce off the far side of the hallway.

where did everyone go?

.. on the left, a hastily scribbled note can be seen pinned on the signboard. you approach it only to see the words are written in red. blood-red.

suppressing the urge to throw-up and run, you grimly try to decipher the cryptic words:

"first there were a group of us. we knew it was bad, but we thought we were strong enough. good enough.

Then it started. First they eyed us, as if to pick up the first victims. We stayed true to our honor and bravely fought. but it was too much for us. Friend after friend fell, dragged screaming to whatever awaited them. it seemed like regardless of how good we were, it didn't help us fend off these attackers.

God help us! I hear them coming. There are only 6 of us left now - and I don't believe that we can survive the next wave. Oh God have mercy on our souls!"

the rest of the note was covered by a big red stain..

grimly shaking your head, you prepare to explore the rest of the ghost town...



I'm referring to the beheading downsizing trend that many companies are doing now. When will they ever learn that it costs so much more to find and train good talents, than to downsize?


written in tribute to those selected for the chopping board. I share your pain.

seeing and understanding

scientist, as a whole, are a cursed race. these are people whose curiosity and minds give them no rest until they have probed the unknown.

surprisingly, it is also this trait that allows any artist involved in the creative arts to perform well - be it a photographer, an oil-painter, a musician, a writer or even a dancer. Curiosity is needed to investigate new possiblities, and much imagination is required to see possibilities and areas of potential development.

having this trait, however, can be a cursed thing: what happens when your mind is fixated on something and you are not able to get some rest? what happens if you are just so curious that it becomes a very real concern?

I have seen, yet i do not understand. and my mind and curiosity gives me no rest for now. Perhaps all will be revealed in time, but for now, i will need to let curiosity gnaw at me, my imagination lead me, and graciousness guard my mind.

holy cow! this is getting spooky..

Was looking at one my favourite comics and found the depictment of a whiteboard. and the resemblance is strong enough for me to start getting worried.

take a peek at it.
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1091