My experiences with ... arguments ...

Song for the mood: Paranoid - Megadeth

Yes ... paranoid. That's what my friends call me sometimes ... which is not true. I just happen to - think more ... :-)

Ok! Coming to the topic, well the point is I like to have small 'verbal jousts' i.e. debates or discussions albeit in a sporting way with a touch of good natured humor in between. I think it is a great and refreshing way to pass time. The recent most debate I had was with Vijay and Santosh a few days back - the debate aside, they were quite sporting.

It is fun to argue, sometimes for another reason too; to observe how other people argue. Yup! It's great fun!

For instance there are the conservatives , "... well I agree with you fully but you see ... blah blah I am so boring blah blah... but I still agree to your first point ... ".

Their opposites are the ones who go like, "... fk u dude, whatever! I just don't give a shit! ... I know we are speaking the same shit but fk u anyways! ... ".

The truly most boring are the pausers, "... So I think its better to ... ummm ... hmmm what was it that I was thinking? ... ? ... ? ... (on hold) ... (I just took a bathroom break I hope you don't mind) ... (still thinking) ... yes! better to do it this way than ... (snore snore ... eh! ... sorry, what?) ... " Dude, first you put a guy to sleep then you rudely bring him to his (non)senses!

Some people I absolutely refrain from arguing with, after the first showdown, "... Oh you think I am wrong is it? ... Hmpff! ... now you did it! ... see my cheeks are puffed which means I am angry ... now my arms are crossed and I'm not looking at you ... so you better apologize and say I am the king of the world! ... I'm waiting ... I'm waiting ... ". I am affirmatively scared of these species ... the repercussions are ... nevermind :-)

Backseat drivers are just as annoying in this context; the one's who will interject a perfectly good argument and then insist to one, or sometimes both, of the people involved as to what they should say next. Well, and if you happen to ignore this gentleman it only encourages him further ... check it for yourself. Try out the following: set a trap for one such guy if you know any, and then when he starts giving the ideas, you and your partner in crime turn on him! You will get the laugh of your life on seeing his reactions!

There are others ... the spectators, the clowns, the Einsteins etc but they can more or less be traced to one of these elaborated here (he he!). And although I steer clear of the cry-babies, sometimes for the sake of a good argument I just don't give a damn!

All in all, all of these perfectly blend into this great confused world of ours. So ... what do you think? Am I right about this or am I wrong? Want to argue about it? :-)

New year resolutions? What's that?

Song for the mood: Same old song and dance - Aerosmith

It's the first weekend of 2008, am back in college after half a December worth of vacation (wanted more ... badly) and things look ... well ... the same :-). Which is good, coz there was nothing wrong with anything in the first place :-P

This is about the time of the year, any year, when funny things come to view. The foremost of those happens to be, "Hey, I made a New Year Resolution!" (Let's call it NYR for the rest of the post). Now, I like the concept of 'New Year', if nothing else for a chance to spend good time with friends, have a nice dinner, and getting to see TV shows showing people do amazing(ly stupid) things to catch the first rays of light of the year. Wow ... go my species, go!

Ok! Coming back to NYRs. So, a couple days back I heard a 'foodie' friend of mine refusing to go to the best ice-cream joint in town, saying he has made an NYR to not eat ice-cream ... because he is on a diet ... and ice-cream is his biggest weakness as far as food is concerned. So, he won't have ice-cream anymore. Knowing this guy and his liking for ice-cream it is not a mere resolution it is a revolution, however, I personally am gonna be on a spy-watch to see how long his resolution lasts!

NYRs don't last. I think they are just extended hangovers of New Year party mania ... a lingering thought carried on for a week into the next year of something that you wanted to do long ago but couldn't or didn't do then. Point is, why wait till the New Year's eve to do something? It's not like the earth flips on its axis on this day!
"Hmmm ... if I am on the right spot on the planet on this New Year's eve, maybe 20 kilos will just fly off my body into space!"

The following are a list of NYRs I have seen friends make ... and needless to say none of them lasted!
1. Not to swear at people any more - I remember this one clearly because my friend made it in the following way, "F**k dude! I will not bl***y swear at anyone anymore!" Didn't help ... he got into a quarrel with someone a few days later at the railway station and came back to life ...
2. Lose weight - The most popular of all! If you want to lose weight, it would help not eating at the new year party like it's your last day on earth ...
3. Quit a habit (munching, drinking, smoking ... some 'ing') - My question is how? Abstaining only makes it worse for even those 12 hours that the NYR lasts!
4. Start exercising - my personal favorite non-lasting NYR. The advent of the TV remote killed the last bit of exercising that you could get by at least getting up to change the channel. And, if you know how irritating it is to call someone for a jog, morning or evening, you'll know what I mean.
5. Become a vegetarian - If you know someone who has done this, try the following; at dinner in some restaurant say the following sentence three times aloud for everyone, "Wow! This chicken is tasty, right?" If becoming a vegetarian is an NYR for that person then he will be ... angry ... criticize you for mocking his steely resolve ... and the next time you meet to eat, will dig into a nice juicy kebab ... "What? You wanna say something?" ... no I was admiring your table manners ...
6. Start an activity (reading, music, chess etc) - if you never did this activity before, what's gonna prompt you to start?

... so on and so forth. NYRs are just another irony of being an 'intelligent creation'. But I sincerely hope the trend continues, which in all probability will ... we need NYRs and NYRers to show us the funny side of being a human ... Happy New Year again!

(All right, all right! I am going to do a few things myself but not as an NYR - I wanna get my hands on some Opeth albums coz I think they are amazing, I wanna read more books - I just finished an Arthur Hailey book last night and it was splendid, and I want to spend some more time on my guitaring skills which sadly to say I suck at ... :-) )

Happy New Year

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year. A new article will be up soon ...