Some insights

By way of a blog post, I'd like to share a few insights I've gained in the last few months. Hope you'll find them as interesting as I did.

I gained this first insight when I was brushing one morning. I was looking at my face in the mirror and remembering myself when I was younger. I've been wearing spectacles for many years and this fact always used to irritate me. Somehow I always felt that I looked better without them and I wished I didn't have to wear them (Yes, I knew I could switch to contacts later, but still). But as I grew older, I became more peaceable with the fact and accepted it. A few months ago, I'd switched to a new pair of frames after having worn the same one for many years.( I'd made this choice on the basis of the shopkeeper's opinion that it looked a lot better and thinking that it was time I changed. It's only now that I'm somewhat convinced.) I began thinking about various solutions one might try to solve this problem of not liking specs (besides the obvious contacts and laser surgery) and I came up with: better frames, better hairstyle, better clothes, better attitude.
And then it struck me: I was targeting the wrong problem. My problem was not how to make spectacles look good. My problem was my bad eyesight. By targeting the wrong problem, I'd wasted many years worrying about a problem I really could not solve. It made me wonder how many other problems I was fruitlessly trying to solve.

I gained the second insight while reading a motivation piece in the paper. It described how, when we have problems, we appeal to God asking "Why me?". At this point I myself thought about how we sometimes let ourself feel victimised and defeated. On further reading, the piece asked why it is that when we feel fortunate and blessed we do not then ask "Why me?". I thought about how fortunate some of us are compared to others. How often do we ask God if we deserve it or why we should be so fortunate? Compared the enormous griefs which some people undergo in their lives, most of us don't even ask if we deserve all we already have or be grateful for it. I think the lesson is to put as bold face to problems as we can instead to questioning as if we are the only ones with problems.

This third insight is not really an insight per se, but a comment I found while surfing. The comment was on  this page of a blog called Lifehacker. It was on a post about to do lists, especially web based ones.  Here it is:

Pen and paper reminds me of the advantages of the good old red diary.
Crash-proof (I have never had a corrupted database with a red diary), rugged (you can dropkick them), water-resistant (within reason - don't dunk your diary), excellent data retention (they have good binding), intuitive UI (just write), self-powered (no batteries required; it just needs light to work), with handwriting recognition (if you can read your chicken-scratch) and the ability to permanently delete an entire day with a single motion (rip out the page).
Sometimes, low-tech is the best tech.

What do you think?

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I've received another award! This is the Cherry on top award from Vivarjitha.

The rules are:

1. Thank the person who gave this award to you 

Thanks Vivarjitha!!!

2. Copy the award and put it on your blog. - done

3. List three things which you love about yourself.

Hmm...I'm not sure. Let's see

1. I have a huge wonderful family. So I love the fact that I'm so lucky ;)
2. I love the fact that I like many, many activities and want to try many more
3. I love the fact that I can stand back from things and observe them

4. Post a picture you love.

This little guy gave me loads of trouble when I was trying to click him  :)  :)

5. Tag 5 people you wish to pass this award on to.

As it turns out, almost all the people I would like to give this award to already have it so I'm passing it on to:

Vintage obsession

&

Writing Revived 

Congrats guys!

My vacations end on the 1st of July. Hope everyone's having a good summer so far :)

My summer holidays

The weather feels wonderful today , so I thought I'd post a little update.

First, I'll mention the board results. My CGPA is *drumroll*.......9.2. Despite the fact that MANY students got more than I did, the amount of congratulations I've received was frankly surprising. Still, not complaining. I did better than I expected in some subjects and worse in others, so overall I feel sort of mixed.

My first action as a vacationer was to fulfil my quota of complaining. Luckily, there weren't many power cuts, but the heat and lack of rain made up for it all *sigh*. Besides, I also complained that I would get bored in the holidays. I'd already had holidays before the boards, for almost two months. So here was another huge block of time to waste and regret later. Well, I thought, that's exactly what I'm not going to do. So I started the holidays in  a determined frame of mind: list of daily tasks, weekly goals and a constant stream of new material (books, music and movies). I started off with "7 habits of highly effective teens" by Sean Covey (A very good book, which I would definitely recommend to everyone). I'd made lots of plans for the holidays: new things to learn, new habits to implement, new changes to make and tasks to complete.

I started with my holiday homework straight away and as it turns out, it was a good thing I did, because this way I've been able to manage everything so far in stages. There's still quite a bit to do, but I'm sure I can finish well.

In the meantime, I've been able to visit family members and new places. I've also visited my school twice and met with my teachers. I'm also learning the piano though lessons on the internet.

Well, in essentials, that's about it. But don't worry, I'll be putting up a couple of poems about some of the different moments of my vacation so far. I hope you'll like them, but until then, hope you're having a wonderful summer!

                                                    I just liked the picture :)














Image from: http://www.eglobe1.com/index.php/2006/11/12/spider-web-after-rain/