PHD Comics!

Some of the very cute comics on PHD Comics!! :)
Enjoy!

Wordle!!

This was a really nice site I found.. It allows you to make interesting concoctions like this:


It allows you to make this either from URLs or from a selection of text... :)
Just thought I'd share it with everyone!

Expectations

There is this tiny calendar that sits on my desk at office. It has a thought for every day of the year for my sun sign, which happens to be Sagittarius.. :)

One of them was "Don't expect too much from people. that they find it difficult to live up to your expectations."

And the first thing that struck me was, "How in hell do you not do that?!" I mean, you know.. One does tend to expect things from acquaintances. How do we stop ourselves from doing so? It makes sense, though. If you don't expect anything, you never get disappointed! But then, I fail to understand how it works... At some point, in any relationship, we tend to expect a certain level of trust and comfort from the other party. And to not do that, wouldn't that mean that the relationship never grows, matures...? We end up stuck in the same rut, day after day then..

Whether it is between friends, parents and children, lovers, unless we keep growing in the relationship, we end up stuck in a rut. And that certainly isn't good. So coming back to my first question, how does one stop themselves from harboring expectations from people close to them? And lets analyze what that actually means. Not having expectations from a person implies that whatever they do, you accept them. Do not expect more from them. Well, that makes sense, I guess... But it is not easy to do that. Imagine someone does something wrong, just because they can't help it. You expect them to do the right thing, but they don't. What do you then? I may be idealistic when I say this, but I would feel my respect for the person reduce to a certain bit. That is definitely because of my expectations. But how can it be otherwise?

Consider the example of our parents. When we are kids, we think that our parents can do no wrong. That they are the ideal human beings. As we grow older, we start realizing they are human beings after all. They have made their share of mistakes just like you, and they have learnt from it just like you. Does that mean you love them less? Definitely not! It depends on how you take it, but I simply respect my parents more, because they have learnt from their mistakes. Their experiences in life are so much more than mine, and for that I listen to them. I might have a different opinion, and might not agree with what they say, but for what its worth, its really good advice. So, here, even though we expect are parents to be ideal, we understand when they're not, and still love them and respect the same, if not more. Why then, doesn't this apply all the time?
How about now if your parents, for all their wisdom and experiences , do something really stupid and wrong now? Wouldn't you feel a little let down? Why does that happen, if we have accepted them for who they are, the good and the not-so-good?

So, its not all about accepting people for who they are. There's something more to these expectations. That is what eludes me. It's probably not a question I'll be able to answer right now.. Maybe I need more time, more wisdom.. But then, it's a question I'll always ask..

"I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between."

This is one of Ayn Rand's quotes from "The Fountainhead".

It is a very interesting quote. Why you may ask, why does it interest me? I aim to follow this rule in any work that I do. Anything that we do, should be done with complete honesty and effort. What is the use of a half-hearted attempt at a particular job? Does it not reflect on our capability? Does it not reflect on our character? Our work ethic?

At times, it feels like I'm being naive. But then, I wonder... What gives us the right to say some jobs are worthless and some aren't? Nothing. Whatever a person does, is his choice or necessity. But he has the choice to do it well. And if he doesn't want to do it all, then why continue in that job? If it is a necessity, then why do we complain about it? One might say, if we can't complain to our friends and close ones, who else do we talk to... but just ranting about something doesn't necessarily make it better. Maybe, instead of that, we need to take charge of our own lives and do something. The definition of that something might be different for different people. Does this mean something good? Or something right? By whose standards?

This reminds me of another one of her quotes from "Atlas Shrugged" ... "For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it."

How true.

Chemistry...

I have always wondered what draws a person to another. We make friends so easily with some people... Its instinctual... Chemistry, its termed. You have a good chemistry, people say. But I have always wondered how it works. Haven't you?

It is defined as a force acting between two people that tends to draw them together and resist their separation. Causes are stated as similarity (Birds of a feather flock together) , more exposure to a person, complementarity (Opposites attract) and so on and so forth. But it still doesn't explain it completely. It is easier to just presume it to be another one of the mysterious workings of our mind and let it be. But the question still stands...