JLT

Funny thing about third party validations. Tolkein would never have been published were it not for Rayner Unwin- his first critic and reviewer. See, Unwin's dad was a publisher who frequently paid his 10 year old to review books written for children.
The idea was only a kid could get what had purportedly been written for them. Rayner Unwin wrote a 20 line synopsis of the novel- with phrases like- " so Frodo the Hobbit, had fun and adventures with various creatures..."
To synopsise a work like "The Hobbit" in 20 sentences requires the mind of either a genius or a kid. He was possibly both.
I have a little girl called Vanya. She's fun, sweet and as I often state, eminently user friendly. Never has been much of a reader- a state I am in the process of changing... but has the uncanny ability to zero in on the crux of a matter and like Rayner Unwin, distill things down to their essence.
Taking my cue from the senior Unwin, I am planning to ask her opinion on a book I'm writing. It's about children in their 'tweens- y'know, that time where a kid is between the ages of sweetness n adolescent angst and where the parents are torn between future stress and present serenity!
Hopefully, she'll like it and if not, then Unwin some lose some....
:)
watch this space.....

The Sweetness of Revenge

Todays news declares how pleasurable the act of revenge or comeuppance really is. Scientific research has now sanctioned the art of sanctions- apparently, we get off on the sheer anticipation of joy when we chastise, reprimand or punish others. Kinda like knowing its gonna be sweet without actually going thru with it yet.
Very auto- somethingortheother methinks.
In other news octopii- yes, it is the plural- all u msnbc columnists, please take note....octopii mimic coconuts and algae to escape predators. Gives a new twist to the chacha slide...the tentacles are very muscular and strong enuf to turn cephalopods into bipeds. Sorta like a marine ape- arms dangling as it shuffles along the sand.
Apropos of nothing, I love the net- it's so much fun to find a page on everything- no matter how inane or nutty. I only have issues with the self important morons who insist on editing open source directories like Wikipedia- the section on Delhi and its history wasn't only riddled with misinformation- the language itself was a bit like reading thru those desi coffeehouse forums with their BTM lingo.
I'm going to get nasty feedback from all desis who find the last statement snobbish, racist and outrageous. Shall get back to you later.
Back to Wikipedia- go to the section on Delhi- it's a city pockmarked with History- and yet, there's a dearth of info on it. Why cant some erudite Delhiite (yes, the species does exist) just fill in the blanks? And not with misinfo either- maybe I should start a discussion group of likeminded Delhiites who are tired of people trashing their city and want to sort these nauseekhas out. There's the anticipation of joy in my head at telling people where to get off- revenge, she doth sweet indeed.

Of this n that

The funny thing about blogs is that they sneak up on you in the middle of the night or some equally inconvenient time. I'm drowning in words now... one moment its a dream- with all its accompanying disjointedness...the next moment, I am typing what I'm dreaming...very disquieting I tell ya.
I look at other blogs and it seems to me that I really shouldnt be having one.
I'm all out of words at this point- probably because they are somewhere in dream country.
Reminds me of a story in the Sandman series- if you haven't read it, you must.
Neil Gaiman has perfectly captured the ephemera of dreams- the family of the Endless and their relationship with us flawed beings.
Now if only I could come up with something as meaningful in mine.
Oh well.... time to get back to the heart of the Dreaming....

Isees Osiris thru a distant glow

So now they've found 2 planets far far away in space eh? One they nicknamed Osiris- the other is still stuck in alphabetical nomenclature. Osiris is in the constellation of Pegasus and the other's in Lyra, called TR-es1 .
Isn't calling one Osiris a bit redundant? Orion is anyway Osiris, atleast according to the Egyptians...anyhow since these two have been called "hot Jupiters" by NASA, why not call the other one Zeus? or maybe Toutatis? or Brihaspati? naah- them thar NASA types wont do the third world thing by calling it some Sanskrit name...get Icelandic names or some equally kosher name linking it to Jupiter. By Jove has a nice ring to it...
" so daahlin', here I was , idling along Lyra, when By Jove! I saw By Jove.."
Yeah yeah u too- 'tis midday here..no coffee gets to one yknow? Stop gripin at my gripin...I have a right to be a wingywhiny....says so on my blogger manual!
And here's another one- calling space and paying for the pleasure...come on people, get a grip! Only here can we pay for what we have hitherto been doing free....calling the cosmos indeed. What do you call all those waves we send out as tv and radio junk? Barnum would be happy to know that we haven't yet run out of suckers.
Use SETI@home instead- faster, cheaper and so much more fun than calling the cosmos long distance. What will they think of next- a collect call with charges reversed to Sedna?

Fragmented Mindspiel

yeehah!
Here I yam- at long last...@ bloggers.com - the last refuge for those of us with creative impulses that no editor would ever publish!
Talk about self aggrandisement- wonder what those poor sods in the past few hundred years did if they wanted to be known for their wit n wisdom.
It's a high alright and greater pens than mine have commented on the phenom of blogging. Not trying that here...besides the wrath of a sibling shall descend upon me ...as it is the guy thinks I need to cut down on words. Why get chewed up aise hi?
Talk about a Ren man tho'- the sibling is one alright...the very brain that soaks up numbers, formulae n esoteric info that he converts to moolah is the one to write the most exquisite articles I have ever read. Wish I had half the felicity of words he does.
He's on blogspot too as Random Fractals- go check the guy out and you'll see what I mean.
Talking of felicity- I wonder how these analytical left brain types turn out to be the most creative- verily hemispheres be multifunctional.
There's another specimen I know. He's in the rarefied world of biz as an SME in SEM....hooda hada you say? Well, it stands for Subject Matter Expert in Strategic Enterprise Management. (Jesus! where do they think of these ?) Crack at the crack of dawn methinks....
His resume reads like an exercise in Jargon 101. Talk to the man or read some of his articles and you realise that this be's one helluvan artist. No one can paint pen pictures better than him- knows every line of every song in every single language- I kid you not. No reference, however obscure is new to him- the man can outsponge the Bob himself.
It's the left brain people- the same furrows that govern analytical thought turn out to be the most creative. Maybe we should stop ascribing these presumptions.
Fragmented minds like me however, cant hold a candle to all you corpo, fin, biz and scientific types. We are just a tangle of information overload. Look around you and you'll see people like us. Eclectic, scattered, intelligent but without any real focus. Sure, we can turn a phrase or two, but the gleanings of our minds are fairly convoluted and never quite stay in the same place for any length of time. Not enough to make a difference anyway.
The yodhas in my book- (look it up- its sanskrit- means warrior- this is for all the non brownies reading this blog) are the sorts who possess that mix of left n right brain- the well rounded ones. Just occured to me that Mr. THX certainly did get the concept allright when he made the little green man of the backward talking fame. He just took away the H and Einsteined him a bit. There's well rounded for you..

The funny thing is I'm going to get feedback on what I write here- and it almost always runs like this: " Wow! I liked what you wrote- didnt know you had that kind of depth in you!"
I never quite know what to say to that- either I project this amazingly bimbette image which precludes me from having any kind of thought deeper than my makeup or I have shortchanged myself and the world by not dropping these pearls of wisdom before.
Anyhow- shall post this now- the moving finger having writ findeth that arthritis waiteth not for no man nor woman.....
Later dudes....