Aum

Was looking for a course website recently and came across a friend's page that had links to half a dozen other pages, all of my fellow collegites. Some of them have some very interesting things to say! It's nice to relive the times when things other than here and now used to occupy my mind. Sigh! Such is growing up I suppose...

My scores have been inching up gradually, but its rather demoralizing when people who have been at the same level as you suddenly shoot up somewhere into the stratospehere and you are left struggling to clear cut offs. Nothing is so demoralizing as DI, I swear! I hate those stupid numbers! I don't see why I should be made to add 20 6-digit numbers to become a manager!
:( But then again, that is what being 'multi skilled' is about I guess. The quintessential aptitude for mathematics. Why they have no use for the skills I do have is beyond me. >:

Read this very interesting article about how men don't really mean to not listen when women talk. One of the main grouses most girlfriends and wives seem to have is "You're not even listening!" or "You never listen to me!". Apparently, that is because the male hearing mechanism is attuned to hearing basic intonations, and the female voice is sort of musical and has complex variations which the male brain doesn't register at all. So, in fact, it's probably not that he isn't listening, but that he isn't hearing. That should give the men a weapon for defence. :D

In a heated discussion the other day, I said something like "I don't care if you have to go all the wy to Timbuktoo to figure it out" or something. And then started grinnign sheepishly because the quizzing enthusiast I was talking to knew exactly where Timbukoo was, and I didn't have a clue except that it was somewhere in Africa. So I went back to my room and looked it up. Timbuktu, in French ("Tombouctou") means "well of the woman named 'Bouctou'". And "Bouctou" is a word that means, "belly button". Because Timbuktu is so remote, and so desolate, and incredibly difficult to get to—not just because of the terrain and heat (110 degrees is common), but because of the bandits who would rob everyone going in and out of the city— rumors spread about the true nature of the city. It had been said that it was a land of wealth and gold, where everyone lived on high. (!!! is there an "a" missing there??) But, it has rightfully retained its reputation as being the most distant place in the world. In fact, it wasn't till the 20th century that a European or an American ever made it back from Timbuktu.

How boring. Now it's no fun saying Timbuktoo again. Why should everything be such a .. fact! No place left for anything to float slightly above the ground anymore. Everybody wants everything firmy rooted in boring old fact and reality. And nobody wants to ramble on about the above-ground flotsam without any desperate need to reach a conclusions, or resolution, or learn some old geographical or botanical or historical fact. Pah!

Oh! I am the rightful (well.. near rightful) keeper of a TA position this semester. For the first time in my life! Fulfillment! And I just saw that I've cleared all cutoffs in the previous mockcat. But there's TOEFL. And mid sems. And FYP. And applications and more prep and catching up and .. Gasp! Wah..terr...

Auuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. This is my new remedy for attckss of nerves. I have dissmenated the knowledge of peace to who ever has asked me the secret to my.. er.. myness.
All panic shall pass.
Aanandan shall prevail.
Auuuum.