Terms and Conditions apply

Looks like the once a week blog idea has gone down well. The only suggestion I've gotten was to write an article on "The real meaning of Easter". I'm still open to taking other ideas, but if none present themselves I'll try post one on it by the end of the week. To clarify, this project binds me, to the best of my ability, to publish a serious article on a topic chosen myself or suggested by any reader, once a week. Also, I'd prefer if people would suggest titles in the comments section, as opposed to things like twitter and google buzz (like the one above). It just makes my life easier.

I haven't decided on publishing them on a specific day, maybe I will in time. Maybe not. There'll probably be other posts interspersed between the articles, either rants or little news posts like this one.

As you've probably noticed, I've spent the last hour customising the blog a bit. If there's anything you think I should add or if there's something that looks plain silly, leave a comment to let me know.

And last but not least,

Out.

The Proposal

Here's an idea for an interesting race. From having all your hardware switched off and unplugged, you have to update your facebook status. But you're working with a Pentium 3 processor and Windows 95. And dial-up.

So I was thinking about all this blogging lark and came up with a concept of sorts. I thought it might be a cool idea to try and blog regularly, say once a week, each time tackling a certain definite topic. This could either be a common day occurrence that I'd have witnessed or just a general 'point-of-view' monologue. If this were to be successfully carried out I'd pick the best ones and try get them published into a book of sorts. Then again, I don't really know of anyone who'd be willing to publish such ramblings, but then you never know. Possibly a magazine column? Who knows. However, to accomplish this I shall be needing your help, for though sometimes I have something on my mind to say, mostly I don't. So, with that in mind, leave your thoughts and opinions on the whole matter along with anything you think I should write about in the comments section below (sorry for the Ray William Johnson reference, couldn't help myself). So yeah, I'll be waiting for your feedback. If people actually respond to this I'm going to do my best to keep it up. I might even do research. Research!

Out.

Cost Effective

There comes a point in ones life, not one but several, where it's necessary to slow down and take stock of what's important; to realise what you spend your time doing and what you want to spend your time doing. How you spend your days is how you spend your life. I think I'm slowly progressing to one of those points.

Time management. Our single most useful ally and simultaneously our worst enemy. Well, mine at the very least. As I was having dinner I mulled over the fact that I distinctly remember a time in my life where I'd have to think up things to do because if I didn't, I'd get bored. I'd watch TV. I'd play video games. I'd read books. These days I have to try and find a slot in my schedule to do any of these things. How ever did life get so busy? I'd even go so far as to say that I miss having time to be more devoted to my studies. Now that's saying something.

Don't take this from the wrong end, I'm happy to be involved in everything that I'm doing. In fact there's a whole list of other things I'd love to do if I only had the time. And therein lies the problem - time. There just doesn't seem to be enough of it; though I'm fairly certain I still get the same daily ration I've always had, it doesn't seem to be quite enough anymore. I don't calculate in days anymore, I think in terms of weeks, of dates, and of monthly planners. Everything's a slot, an availability, a schedule. I'm enslaved to the calendar on my mobile phone.

I could probably achieve everything I want to do if I could manage my time better. In other words, if I was C3PO. But I'm human. I'm lazy. I take half an hour to get out of bed in the morning. I spend an hour on the computer "checking emails". I get headaches. The fact of the matter is that I'm just not efficient most of the time. In a world where everything is constantly advancing one thing that seems to remain in version 1.0 is me.

But you know, I don't believe time was made to be managed and scheduled. It's there to be lived. So, all in all, what does it all boil down to? How much stuff you've got going on in your life? How much you resemble a british speaking android? Possibly. It's definitely responsible for part of the answer. But I think the heart of the matter is in attitude. Where are you living? In tomorrow's meeting? In the gym session at 2pm? Or here, now?

Out.

Quite common

Is it just me or is everyone watching the big bang theory now? It's like Sheldon Cooper's become a household name practically overnight.

I have been assaulted by a viral upper respiratory tract infection in the form of acute viral rhinopharyngitis, otherwise known as the common cold. There is no cure. And symptoms may last from 7 to 10 days according to wikipedia. This seemingly minor illness has caused me to take half the day off yesterday and stay inside today after waking up to what felt like the AGM for purulent naso-pharyngeal mucoid secretions, being held very claustrophobically in my general sinus region. Consequently I have spent an entire day inside, well most of the day, doing not much else than watch the big bang theory and tinker about on my guitar. After much deliberation I have come to the conclusion that making nice sounds come out of guitar effects equipment involves hours of turning knobs and pressing buttons all the while thinking "oh ok, I didn't know I could do that...... ok wow there are a lot of these....... so if I try this with this then it should...... sound like crap.....hmmmm..." etc etc. That's only my hypothesis in any case.

I'm sorry, perhaps you were expecting something more substantial from a blog post. I could rant about my distaste for obs & gynae which inevitably every fourth year medical student is moaning about at the moment, or express my joy at the fact that I'm off to London in 9 days, but nay, I shall delay these. Let's be on to something a bit more insightful.



Thought. Perhaps in all the relentless motion of the day one does not consider just how much time is spent immersed in it. Standing still, as if waist deep in a pool, though not of water but of notions, ideas, perceptions and wonder. Instead of the sensation of the wetness of the water, or it's cooling effect against the skin, there is the warmth and complicated emotional tango of subjecting the mind's eye to the number of situations the self is being projected into. Some as real and relevant as what kind of schedule the morning will bring, others as pointless as imagining all kinds of strange and wondrous events and trying to decide what course of action would be taken should it actually occur. These both represent parts of active thinking, anticipation, planning, imagination and deduction. However they are not the most peacable form of thought. For it is those moments when all falls quiet and your sight fixes absent-mindedly upon some large item of furniture opposite, or perhaps a print on the wall, and the world around you narrates to you some secrets of life. The still, small voice that breathes into you as you are conscious of everything and yet of nothing. The small fragments of flint and material, lighter than air, floating and twinkling in the light of the lamp, dancing before you like faeries in the night. The room rests in itself as all the items sprawled around it cease to seem as clutter for the night; for all intents and purposes those are their rightful places. The warmth of the bedsheets melts through skin, as if you were butter in a giant cotton baked potato. This place is still. And safe. Say not a word, but listen to the voice of life.

Out.