Monday, October 25, 2010

London Coffee Walk - follow link below...

"the coffee bar was the place where you would go, to sit all day, past midnight, to meet up with people, painters, writers, intellectuals...you would have brown sugar on the tables, they did cappuccinos, and you could meet women if you wanted...the coffee bar was the perfect antidote for those suffering from insomnia...nowadays, you have Starbucks. Insipid tasting coffee for the masses..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/interactive/2010/oct/25/london-coffee-walk

Friday, October 15, 2010

The strangeness of a life less ordinary - (investigative reporting from the very rim of reality!)

I was seated at my desk today. At work. With my computer screen humming away in front, and me slouched in an unhealthy posture on my chair, legs outstretched in front (to prevent deep vein thrombosis!), and in my hand I held a sheet of paper. I was holding a sheet of typed paper in my hand and I was looking at it. I'd just printed it and pulled it off the printer. It was still warm in my hand with a whiff of ozone. Immaculately white I noticed. I'd never before noticed how white these things are! I peered closely at the paper screwing my eyelids together to get a microscopic look. The girl sitting next to me turned her head to look at me and then turned away smiling enigmatically (I thought). It was almost perfect; the paper that is. You couldn't make out the individual fibre strands of the pulp from afar. It was thin and 'smooth' to the touch. I held it up to the light. Again the girl sitting next to me turned her head in wonder. The paper: a slight glossy sheen. It wasn't really for writing on with ink pen. The paper had been specially designed (after much lab research no doubt) for printing. It had low absorbency - so the ink wouldn't stain or spread. And it was treated with chemicals that stopped it from turning yellow with age. I kept looking at it - Ahh, how the ancients would have marvelled! And there was so much of it! Skyscrapers of the stuff packed in those A4 sized brick like packets of 500 leaves. How much of this stuff was consumed around the world in a single day! How much of it was then thrown in the bin! The folly! The sheer madness! The waste! The ancients had to contend with clay tablets at first, and then came papyrus, then reeds (A stray thought pops into my head: I wonder if the word 'read' is derived from reed?) Then I noticed that the paper had marks or 'symbols' imprinted on it in black ink. And the symbols or marks were contained within larger demarcating lines that crossed and criss-crossed. Oh, yes - it was writing. My writing in fact! And the lines? Oh yes, that was the table I had just prepared! A table of audit adjustments for our German entity. It had various columns, with neat descriptions: a column for the currency, another for the amount in Euros, a column for the General Ledger account codes...It had a neat heading at the top left. It had a date of preparation. and probably other stuff that I can't recall right now. The spreadsheet related to the year ended 31 July 2009.

Why am I telling you this?

Because, as I sat slouched in my chair, in unhealthy posture, in deep thought, staring at the spreadsheet - reading it - understanding it - knowing what it was about - the meaning of the letters - the numbers - knowing how to read the layout of the table, knowing that you begin from the left hand side, even...thinking back to my preparation of it, how I'd quickly made a decision in Excel on what column lengths to use, the amount of space in between, layout of the headings, Italic or normal? Bold or normal? Underlined? Big or small font? How best to present the information to aid understanding, what can I leave out? etc. etc. etc...It made me wonder about the sheer quantity of unconscious thought that went into its preparation.

It suddenly occurred to me; as I lay staring at this white sheet of paper, that what I was now doing, i.e. reading and interpreting and understanding this sheet of paper, was actually an amazing thing! Let me explain: Firstly (and not as importantly) it is amazing in the sense that I realised that I spend a lot of time thinking about formatting i.e. how to present information to make it easier for others to understand, but more importantly, it is amazing because here I was - an organic 'life-form', and I was holding in my hand a sheet of paper (constructed from tree pulp), and on this paper were symbols made with ink, symbols I could understand! (because I could read), I knew what the letters meant. I knew all these things! The letters didn't look alien to me like the letters of a language you can't speak inadvertently do. I recognised these symbols. And at that moment a rolling wave of strangeness crept up on me, and put its hand around me, and suddenly, abruptly...the symbols, the words on the paper no longer made sense.


How was it that we got from sea living creatures to this: reading stuff of a sheet of paper! Doesn't the thought of this impossible thing just blow your mind?

This feeling of the strangeness of everything that had crept on me, also had other symptoms: it made me wonder who I was. A strangeness that made me look at my hairy hands in disgust and also with some interest. A strangeness that contemplated the beating heart inside me, and the watery eyes (reddened from a days staring at spreadsheets) that allowed me to see, and the ears that picked up transmissions on the airwaves - from my chatting colleagues, the constantly whirring photocopier, the air con vent above. Then there were the hormones and neurotransmitters secreted by my glands that gave me; this organic life-form, 'feelings!'. What I mean is that I also have an emotional system that makes me 'feel stuff' - annoyance, happiness, love, irritation, contentedness, and a stomach that makes me anticipate my evening meal. And this entire seeing, feeling, thinking, contemplating thing I call myself, also has a body wrapped in these clothes. The layers upon layers - a mind that wonders how it could read these strange symbols printed on the flattened pulp of a photosynthesising organic life-form called a 'tree'.


At that moment I could see all. At that moment, sitting slouched on my chair, staring at a white sheet of paper, you could call me a god. A god whose job description happened; just happened to be: accountant!

Life is weird.


I am awed.
I am humbled.
I am...
Well, 
I am very much alive.

Are you?


Thursday, October 14, 2010

Schopenhauer's Curse


Random words
when typed
out
in funky
w a Ys
make for
interest
ing
SaYs...

I Am a
man who
seem s
2B
Lost
n
found
but not yet
discovered...

Not yet discovered
I.
For I
must b
found
Or Else
who knows?
Mysteries
(deep 1's too)
will stay
buried
UNDER
life's
DEADweight.

TearAway.
BCome
a
Tearaway
from Life
n
Discover
Ur
Trueinnerdeeperburiedwonder
full
self
calling.

Ameen.



Playful Me


To know
is to see
is to laugh
is to live
is to smile
is to walk...

...is to wander
at the wonder
of the miracle
of the wonder
full
you!

you are my
wonder
full
wonder
thing...

and to love
you
is to feel
alive
is to touch
heaven
is to know
life
has a
purpose
beyond me.

To know
is to love
is to be
you.
be me.
Be all
you can be.

Ameen.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Reluctant Philosopher strikes again

Sitting on the train today, whilst reading a chapter of Schopenhauer called 'The Metaphysics of Music', I stopped in mid-flight of thought, and stared out of the window and smiled; for Schopenhauer had finally told me why I love music. Yes, I also happen to love movies and books and paintings and poetry - but music, ahhh music is different!


Only music can move me to an emotional crescendo. A U2 guitar solo by the Edge recorded live and on my mp3 player, has the singular magical effect; on a dull Monday morning on the station platform, of 'moving me' beyond the physical realm I am occupying. The shimmering electric guitar seems to rise up into a capacious empty sky - taking me with it. You are literally transported - heart, soul and mind, to a place deep inside you of a billion possibilities - a billion stars flickering in the night of your soul. The music gives you wings. It's an illusion to think that what you are experiencing is outside of you. It's not. It's inside of you. Your inner being! That's what music does! It strums the strings of your inner self and brings it (your inner self) to the surface. Your feelings become evident to yourself and perhaps to others. Music makes you naked. Why do you think 2 lovers are so enraptured by a jazz trumpeter? Why do you think it is that random people on an underground train can be made to feel acute embarrassment by a guitarist playing a love ditty to all of them? Because the music brings to the surface those inner feelings of love and passion and desire; which in public, we repress.


With me music does many things. It inspires me. It gives me ideas. It draws forth from the chaotic froth of my inner self. A self, that even I; contemplater as I am, cannot access. It plants seeds that sometimes grow into archaic monsters and sometimes into weirdly wonderful flowers. Suddenly, through listening to a particular piece of music, I am overtaken with a hypnotic and obstinate desire to travel somewhere far. Far, far away. Music can do that. Makes me wanna do things! Before I stick on those headphones I'm just an ordinary accountant on my way to work. But somewhere, in my journey, I become an adventure seeking superhero! Dying don't matter any more. I just want to see things. And write about them later. Music makes me feel like that. It acts on a level beyond deliberate conscious knowledge. Some may say; I know Schopenhauer would, that of all the mediums of art, it is music, that speaks the truth of how we are feeling. I agree.


There is nothing better that captures the feeling of a world of unsampled possibilities then the soaring opening guitar of U2's 'Where the streets have no name'...it starts off as a faint jingly jangly sound that reminds me of street-lights reflecting off water, and ends up making you fly - skywards.


Purists working for NME or Q-Magazine may denigrate certain music for its lack of sophistication, or for not being 'in' right now - but does it matter? If music can move you - then who cares what the critics think. For as far as you're concerned, the music has done its trick. And the trick is to wash you up and tumble you about in a soapy bubbly rainbow coloured lather of emotion and feeling. To make you feel. To make you live. Love. Learn. And Explore.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Review: My brand new Sony X-Series VAIO (the worlds lightest laptop)





Do you believe in love at first sight?
I do.
I love small laptops.
I've always loved small laptops.

Over the years I have owned a succession of smaller and smaller laptops.
The first small laptop I purchased in Dubai. It was a Sony VAIO Z series. At the time it felt small, but now the same laptop, feels like a brick. That particular one weighed in at 3.5Kg.

The next portable laptop I purchased about 2 years ago. Again it was a Sony VAIO but a TZ Series. It was for a special mission so had to be light. It weighed a staggeringly feathery 1.2Kg with battery. Just to give you an idea, the new Macbook Air weighs 1.36kg AND it has no DVD drive. The Sony VAIO TZ weighed less AND it had an optical DVD RW drive! Go figure! I took it along with me tucked away in my rucksack to Pakistan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma and India. It survived the trip. It survived numerous onslaughts. Jungles. Rivers. Mountains. Rain. Bugs. Snakes. Thieves. Earthquakes. Heat. Damp. It still lives. I still have it; though at home I tend to use my Macbook Pro. The great thing about the 1.2Kg Sony VAIO TZ was that it could do everything I wanted it to: Photoshop CS3 worked great on it which allowed me to process my travel photographs 'on the move'. It has great battery life - which is perfect for those far flung and cut off places where electricity blackouts occur often - such as Northern Pakistan. You never know when the power will return so a long battery life is a must.

I've now bought myself another portable laptop. Judging from the evolutionary history of my past laptop purchases you have probably guessed that this new addition is lighter still. Yes, it is. In fact; as it stands today, it is the lightest, smallest laptop in the world. Again it is a Sony VAIO and it is part of their new X-Series Range. It weighs a mind numbingly paltry 0.7Kg! (with battery). I'm typing on it right now, and when I hold it up with one hand it literaly weighs less than a paperback book. It is that light! This baby I'll be able to take with me wherever I go. I don't need to put it in a bag, I can just grab it with a book in my hand and shoot off. No more thinking: 'Oh, do I really want to carry a laptop around with me today?' - It doesn't matter. I won't even feel it in my hand.

The screen measures 11.1 inches, which is the same as my previous 1.2Kg TZ. In fact the screen has exactly the same high resolution image quality. Great for detailed Photoshop work. It is also very svelte measuring less than a cm in thickness. It has plenty of connectivity: 2 USB ports. A headphone jack. An SD card slot and another for the Sony Magic Gate memory sticks. Bluetooth. SIM card jack for mobile surfing anywhere on the planet - even Antarctica! The keyboard keys are cut out and placed in separate slots to aid typing. They are small, but for me it is no problem at all, since my fingers are small also. It has an inbuilt motion eye camera. It has 250Gb of Hard Disk space, 4GB of ram. A 2Ghz processor. It has a GPS tracking device in case I get lost somewhere and need to be rescued. Fat chance! Should I continue? Put it this way: It does everything my TZ did for me and weighs 500g less!

As you can tell I am extremely enamoured with it; so gushing with love for it! How Sony managed to pack all these goodies into a body that weighs 0.7Kg is beyond me. It really is a modern technological marvel. Jam-packed with electronic wizardry. This little thing has more computing power then the Apollo space mission.

It's the small portable lightweight take-everywhere-without-noticing laptop I've always wanted and dreamed about. It makes writing anywhere possible. It makes blogging a real pleasure! I will be taking it along with me on my next trip. This baby will see action. It'll be in my bag and I won't notice a thing...


And that, is the whole point. Isn't it?

Blogger Out.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Coming soon...The Return of the Vagabond



We travel not for trafficking alone
 By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
 We take the Golden Road to Samarkand...