On The Ning Nang Nong

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Iravati, Apr 5, 2017.

  1. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Kisshie Kisshie and Missie Missie

    We belong to a tribe who have abused the "kiss" emoji in whatsapp. In the beginning, when I was bid with a "kiss" emoji by a friend I was embarrassed and before enough I was indiscriminately dispatching it to the old and new and young and old and silly and serious — all the bods out there. Earlier, I demurred on emojis. These days I rarely end a conversation without a "kiss". I was thinking, how did such a private gesture turn out a public adieu. I cannot trace the roots but it started with a friend and enfolded the rest. Today, puckered kiss has become synonymous with a wavey bye.

    upload_2018-3-19_12-46-37.png
    Next came the plumpy "hug" emoji. Ditto! Today, we friends hug and cuddle each other like primates from Borneo who met their kin from Madagascar. We are unsparing in hugs.


    upload_2018-3-19_12-53-30.png

    Funny to note how these intimate gestures morphed into enthusiastic symbols of affirmative fondness. No more "Hey, I care for you. I think about you. I am fond of you. Thanks for being my friend. I miss you. I don't know how to put it but you mean much to me." Smack a pictorial "hug" and "kiss" emoji which conveys all those hushed sentiments.

    Is it me? Of course, me, flashing all these saucy orangey orbs to my girlfriends. But, they drove me up to it. Blame them!
     
  2. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Here's a Hawking quote you might enjoy - and IL-worthy to boot:

    ON WOMEN
    “They are a complete mystery.”
    — To New Scientist, January 2012

    And some others ... :lol:
     
  3. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    If the Stephen Hawking could not crack our species, what hope for ordinary men?! Tsk tsk your species is doomed with no sire to lead you all now.

    Hawking was adored more for his brash sense of humour than his scientific allure. I just went through the linked page and particularly liked:

    "Einstein was wrong when he said, 'God does not play dice'. Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen" - The Nature Of Space And Time, published 1996.

    Imagine a nerdy family with lowered heads reading books around dinner table and nipping into the soup. That must have been a scary sight to the wayward prowling neighbours. I immensely liked Eddie Redmayne as SH in the movie. He stabbed the role better than SH himself. To be frank, I never finished end to end his Brief History. I merely riffled the pages and underlined science-sounding jargon here and there but one of these days I need to reread the book. Why? I loved the cute Redmayne in the movie. If not for SH, do it for ER.
     
  4. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Why are you so maddeningly excited these days?

    I don't know.

    I feel like whistling into a playful limerick. Feel like kicking my butts with my upswung feet. Never to cease the rap of my frenzied mind in the shimmer of my lighted thoughts. I am awakened to these maddening sensations by people who changed my life drastically such that the reflection of the self in a mirror is altered thereafter. They fill me with euphoria. They elevate my sensibility towards life. They teach me about me.

    Why did these people come in my life?

    What was I even before I met you?

    In the beginning, they appeared only as silhouettes. Later, they thickened and whispered and then surrounded me. The rapt talk and companionable walk of these passing creatures impressed upon me which further contoured my awakening in their tutelage. They casted me into an enlivened soul with their vague yet forceful presence. I no longer inquire why good leaves me, because, it disintegrates to summon the better. Our paths tangle and diverge yet in that knotted encounter, my very essence and being has been affirmed by them.

    I have to leave.

    But why?

    Something much better awaits you.

    What if there is nothing beyond you?

    There is always something beyond the nothing.

    ... that something will uplift you to unknown but fulfilling heights. I can only push you from behind but someone awaits to pull you from ahead. Go, life calls you! Wait, but. That blink of an untimely bid flashes anew strange but welcoming eyes of another. I slip from those fading arms to discover strength from a curled finger ahead. I clutch that finger and inquire.

    Are you?

    No, I am not.

    Then, why me?

    For no reason.

    ... am picking up from where you plummeted off. Hold me and come over. Rediscover your world, the world which is constantly being reshaped by all these people. Why did these people come in my life? What was I even before I met you? Are you ready for shifting adventure? Yes, I am.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2018
  5. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Sticky Golf


    I was puzzled that wikipedia has an entry on "sabbath golf stick" with no corresponding knowledge article in Atlas Obscura. Very unlikely for the AO team to miss this quirky trivia lost in history.

    Obsolete golf clubs - Wikipedia

    Sunday sticks or sabbath sticks were the golf enthusiasts' answer to the Church of Scotland's discouragement of golfing on Sundays. Clubs were disguised as walking sticks, the club head comfortably fitting into the palm of the golfer's hand, until when the golfer was unobserved, the stick was reversed and a few strokes were played.

    Ingenious and charming! Such craftiness excites me. I can almost imagine two men on a Saturday cracking over their wives' resentment of a game on Sunday. How do we disguise and play? Thus, surely, no doubt, emerged the sabbath or sunday walking stick to play golf on the forbidden days.

    upload_2018-3-21_17-36-17.png
     
  6. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Retro earworm of the day



    I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
    I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
    I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
    I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
    I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
    I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone
    I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
    I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
    I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
    I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
    I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
    I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
    I believe that your most attractive features are your heart and soul
    I believe that family is worth more than money or gold
    I believe the struggle for financial freedom isn't fair
    I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires
    I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
    I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
    I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
    I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
    I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness
    I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
    I believe that God does not endorse TV evangelists
    I believe in love surviving death into eternity
    I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
    I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned
    I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
    I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
     
  7. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    English Attention

    Blinky in Trollhunters: I internetted Otto.

    What?! Internet is now a verb or was that a playful construct? Blinky used "internet" to mean "search", and I was surprised to find that , indeed, internet is listed as a verb in urban dictionary though in a different sense, which is "to casually browse". Usage: I am internetting FB.

    In the sense of "search" or "browse", I was alarmed. Was I living in a cave that I didn't realise that internet is now proclaimed a verb.
     
  8. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Rules of engagement

    Are happy people snubbed? If you ask me, yes, they are! Because misery loves company and can unite a nation but happiness is stranded on an island. Happy people are ever confused why their happiness sows unhappiness in others. When I had watched Effie Briest, I liked the dialogue: Unhappy people always feel that happy people are obscene and vulgar. True, happy folks appear obscenely joyous and slight the less-happy.

    Plutarch, who covered almost every topic on the planet, once said, "Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself." Both Effie and Pluto discerned this long ago hence instructed to be careful with our proclamation of happiness lest it offends or upsets the morose.

    In short, happy people should be cagey in their interactions. With miserable people, pretend that you are more miserable to make them feel good of their own misery. And with happy kin flash your natural self. Jeez! I wish someone taught me the 'ways of life' as a kid. Damn! I had to discover the worldly guidance on my own.

    Don't rush and beam your happiness to the world. Cover up your happiness not to antagonise the grump. Yop!
     
  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Bushido

    The Western knights had their chivalry, so the Eastern "samurai" warriors must have had a counterpart. That counterpart is "bushido"! A code of conduct for righteous living of the samurai. People in the West are familiar with one of its gory tenet seppuku/harakiri, a practice in which death is called upon with a slashed belly to uphold honour of an untenable warrior. But seppuku is only a sliver of that bushido canon. Bushido had fine directives on every aspect of the conduct of a samurai. It reads like a rulebook to consult on matters of doubts on how to withstand or surrender to inward conflicts.

    Why Bushido today? Last night I was reading about General Nogi's unshaken loyalty to Emperor Meiji. When the Emperor died, his loyal aide also ended his life by committing suicide in the style of seppuku.

    Chivalry engendered romance and other courtly largess as well. Similarly, bushido might also have a tender underside to it which I need to find out whether there had been sweet romances of the samurai cult steeped in bushido, while the young warriors were not contemplating disembowelling.
     
  10. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Four Aboriginals and an English King

    Did you ever wonder, when the interactions of the indigenous with the West are not glorified in mannered turkeys and pumpkins, how did the English generals communicate with the natives? Language must have been a challenge. Australian historians tell a sordid account of this incipient communication.

    King George III ordered the English generals to launch communication with the aboriginals. The hapless generals barely understood the ways or the words of this exotic tribe. In desperation, the governor of Port Jackson, Arthur Phillip, abducted an aboriginal, Arabanoo, to teach him English. Arabanoo was fettered and compelled to learn English. Soon, Arabanoo died of smallpox. His death didn't deter Arthur Philip of the futility or barbarism of this enterprise, as he continued to abduct two more aboriginals, namely, Bennelong and Colbee, to prime them as interlocutors of the withdrawn tribe. Before long, Bennelong escaped from the captivity and met up with Arthur Phillip later and also travelled to England on a cultural exchange token with his friend Yemmerrawanne, who died from a chest infection upon reaching England.

    I have never thought much about communication during colonial occupation. How was that even achieved? After reading these accounts, I am dismayed at the harsh ministration which involves brutal captivity to train the natives in English tongue.
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2018

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