My brain resists waking up to reality.... annoying alarm to the rescue

Have you ever had an experience where something happening around you has influenced the happenings of your dream? I mean literally, you are sleeping and dreaming and a noise like the alarm fits in the story happening in your dream. I know that events happen much faster in your dream (as shown in Inception), but I was amazed how quickly my brain was able to take the input from the environment and interpolate and fit it in my dream to probably keep me from waking up. Ok.... let me first explain what happened. Basically I was sleeping and dreaming that I was in some kind of residential place (I don't recall what I was exactly doing), and suddenly the fire-alarm goes off. I successfully locate the alarm in my dream, but was unable to switch it off. Coincidentally, the ringing alarm was the alarm set on my phone and it was ringing. While confused and unable to switch off the alarm in my dream, I realized I was not in reality and instantly woke up and switched off the alarm. This was probably the first time (that I can remember) an external stimuli had influenced my dream. I don't know if this was something normal or not, but it certainly had some sort of impact on me after I woke up. I was kind of startled, probably by the sound of the alarm blowing in my brain (I am definitely changing it to something more pleasant ;) ).
I guess the turning point of the dream was the realization that the annoying alarm could not be switched off my the expected means that I knew of in my dream and my brain got so disturbed that it physically woke me up.
As we have learned time and again that the brain can be very easily fooled, if this life is not real, perhaps someday a malfunction in the "real" world would trigger something so unreal to this world, that our brain would trigger the means to wake us up to the "real" reality (if there is any).
Till then DREAM ON dudes!! ;)

Staying hungry, Staying foolish! .... Hello Bioengineering

I just started a PhD program in Bioengineering this Fall 2011. For those, who know me from college or before, this could be a surprise and not something anybody would expect me to move. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me too when I start thinking about my future. But when I look back, I can actually connect all the dots. Reminds me of Steve Job's famous Stanford graduation speech.

"Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
-- Steve Jobs

Well Bioengineering didn't make sense a few years ago, now that I look back, I can connect those dots.

My quest for harder and complicated problems have led me exactly to them. What I interpreted to be a problem with mechanics, electronics and computers was not hard enough. Life gave me bonus of biology along to go with it. Thank you life for giving me that extra bit that I was missing. 

Now I know why people say, be careful what you wish for. ;)

Denial is the best medicine.

Timelapse Photography of Sunrise at Lake Powell

The great thing about running on the road than on a machine is that at the end of your run you actually get somewhere.

Hard work pays. Not good intentions.

It is tough giving up on denial. It works beautifully in this imperfect world.

Pointless things are so appealing.

To the young, the existing system is always wrong. To the old, its just got some holes.

Life is worth living for all the irrational reasons.

Some answers are better answered through self-realization than by referring to a book, media or other people.

Your feelings towards ideas, people, things and events, tell more about you than the respective subjects. Your feelings are the absolute you.

Sometimes we just know when something is not right but at the same time don't know what exactly is wrong.

The world is turning into this place where everybody can tell you what the right thing to do is, but nobody will actually do it.

Some people are brought up, taught that the world is unfair. And that is alright. What is wrong is that some people think its alright for the world to be and remain unfair.

Every truth today was once a vision. Every unfulfilled vision is a lie. Truths and lies are a measure of our accomplishments and failures.

The mind does not like to store and hide things in it. All thoughts and ideas want to come out, and eventually quite a few of them do in different forms like words, drawings, ideas, actions and expressions. While the represented form might not be the exact initial thought, but a little context and intuition at the receiver's end delivers the intent.  

Timelapse photography: The last of my room

That's the last time I am doing this in my room. Notice the fan going nuts. Enjoy!!

Some people have issues and some just love to rock the table.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Just make sure they are based on facts put in proper context.

Sometimes life doesn't give you a second chance. You take the second, third and forth chances for that matter.

Worrying is often confused to thinking.

Worry and guilt are the upmost sins of life. They paralyze human judgement and lead us to chaos. 

As long as we keep our emotions in the functioning of our government there will be no peace.

Trial 3: Time-lapse cleaning my room

 

Not that bad again. A few more trials and should be off to do something more grand.

Democracy only guarantees representation. Not reason, rationality or fairness.

A man should not just seek to explore what is around him but also what is inside him - physically, emotionally and intellectually. And believe me, there is a lot more than you think.

Truth might be right, but a lie is much more influential and charismatic.

Timelapse 2nd attempt

Gets a little better.

You have to be careful in life, but life should not just be about being careful.

Time Lapse photography - The first test

Not perfect, but it works.

Every truth today was once a lie.

Some of the strongest ideas motivating people in this world are based on false hope. False hope is a significant scaffolding structure in creating the future.

Its a mistake if you didn't have a discussion and conclusion.

I am not dumb. I just instinctively act as if I am dumb.

The purpose of life

I have often wondered what truly is the purpose of my life. What is the right way to live or is there really a right way to live? What am I supposed to do and what I am not? Why do I feel like doing somethings and not do others? Again am I looking for someone to tell me or order me what to do?

People have tried to answer some of these questions through spirituality, religion, politics, science and what not. I am not convinced and most of them don't make full sense to me. All of them are vague and tend to fulfill their propaganda of gaining power and control. It should also be pointed that these systems provide us with order and base in the mind. Imagine a mind with no fixed ideas or rules ..... its going to be heavily indecisive and in extreme cases maddening. I find a lot things taught to me to be wrong, but it should be credited to these wrong lessons that have taught me to distinguish between right and wrong and given me some sense of truth. You first learn the wrong lesson and then learn that it is wrong.

I feel the purpose of one's life lies within oneself. I am the authority to decide my purpose. This purpose may or may not bring good to society, but again I am the authority to decide. To me life is pointless. Nihilism is perhaps the more appropriate word to describe my conclusion. To me there is no true goal or destiny in life. Its simply what you choose to be and want to do.... till you die... which is perhaps one's true final destination.... we will die one day - naturally or un-naturally.... until someone finds a cure to that.... which will raise a whole new bunch of paradoxical dilemmas.

A significant part of the solution to problems of the world

As humanity we have many problems and issues. We have come up with one system after another to solve these problems. We have a variety of religions - each having its own unique ways of dealing with social problems. We have a variety of form of governments - democratic being widely common. We have a number of corporation to solve specific problems - products and services to help society. Financial and economic systems - capitalist or socialist.... and many more. All these systems have countless flaws. But what I find to be the biggest flaw in the system is that it requires human beings to run them. People or a person has always managed to exploit these systems and beliefs to his/hers advantage. You will always find a human behind all problems, whether corruption, war, murder, killings, rape, genocides, poverty, ....etc. Someone didn't like someone or hated some people's way of life or couldn't satisfy oneself sexually or has a small penis or smaller boobs or couldn't get what he/she wanted or had problems with parents or was bullied in school too much or couldn't find someone to love him/her.... and the list continues...... 'n' number of source reasons for all the misery in the world. All reasons are human.

So I am convinced.

'We' are the 'problem' and 'we' need to stop blaming the systems we create to solve our problems but exploited as and when we got the chance.

There are two ways to solve all this . The 1st way would be to develop a system that does not need any human beings to run it. A non-human system that just dictates us, monitors us, controls us. That way the governing system will always be fair, unbiased, corruption free, trustworthy, efficient and much more.

Or the 2nd way is to be become better human beings who can run a system properly and efficiently, without misuse.

So here's the billion dollar question. How do we become better human beings who are not greedy, don't keep grudges, don't discriminate, are unbiased, .....etc. (add your requirements)?

For a start I feel we need to understand ourselves much better. As a person I have come to realize that I don't really know myself as well I thought I did. We tend not to acknowledge many things about ourselves because we are insecure about them.

I may write more about this later as I untangle more of my thoughts and put them in words. ;)

Seeing the world

Its quite a cliche to hear people state their ambition or dream as "I want to see the world". But what does it really mean to see the world. Well the "experience" is the briefest way to describe the purpose and significance. Exploring new places also leads to self-exploration (I know that is a cheeky term, but can't come up with something better). In my experience when you are out there on your own experiencing new things, you unlock hidden closed boxes in yourself that you had no idea even existed. A new experience has the ability to touch your soul in ways that you have never dreamed or thought off. At that moment you remember the time you told yourself "that is not going to be me" or "I will never do that" or "That's ridiculous" or "That's stupid" or "This can never happen to me" or "How could someone ever do such a thing". You realize with a grin on your face that you were wrong.

So to all those people who want to see the world, be prepared for some classic humiliation.

Not only will you see the world, the world will also see you and focus its radioactive rays at you and mutate you into something or someone quite different. :P

I understand that the world is not a fair place. That doesn't not want me to make it one.

I believe I can do anything I want to. I also believe I cannot do the things I don't want to.

A lot of people are counting on "YOU" to be stupid.

In today's world every strong feeling and every good idea is encouraged to be transformed into a profitable business plan.

Everybody's got a take. Nobody's got anything to give huh!!

People are wrong all the time and mistakes are really my style.

Never regret about the things that could have been. They are a big hindrance to what still can be.

I believe I can be or do anything I want. I just need the inspiration. Inspiration to me is like the stick Archimedes asked for to move the earth.

In love you lose your rationality. When you snap out of it, you lose your innocence.

Every turn in my life begins with a shock. I need a better suspension system.

It is funny how the human mind works. One fine day out of nowhere you start obsessing for things you never thought of or even liked.

Human intelligence and stupidity go side by side. We are all intellects and idiots at the same time, but in different contexts of our lives.

There are just too many won'ts, can'ts and don'ts shielding all the dos in life.

Innocence - the adorable form of ignorance.

It's nothing personal. I am just cold and numb.

I guess there is nothing wrong in being a stereotype, as long as it is the real you.

You are good or evil only when you have power. Without power you are nobody.

While you are stuck in the moment, reality might be screwing you behind your back.

The thing I hate about science is that it tells me that I am just a biological robot controlled by the release of hormones. I like to believe that I am something more. I hope to find that thing about me someday.

I will always be an amateur in my eyes.

I am so glad that the world is not as black and white as I wanted it to be.

The most successful people are those who have the ability to follow the simplest of rules sincerely, no matter what.

While the world warms up day by day, people are turning colder.

The fate of the world lies in the hands of the loud.

If it's not sure shot, it's not worth waiting for.

You are the only person responsible for getting hurt.

I believe in love. I believe in hate. Both have the ability to get the job done.

War- personal, civil or international, is always good business.

What if you are nothing but just an outcome of what happened to you. The "you" you always believe in doesn't exist!

I like being different, but hate being alone.

I never really understood my father. During my schooling days he always told me "If you don't study, you will end up being a shepherd in our village". Today as I prepare for my PhD qualifiers, I realize where I comprehended him wrong.

Misery is good entertainment as long as it doesn't involve you.

Why is it so easy to get outraged and so difficult to actually do something to solve your cause of outrage..... outrageous ... isn't it.

If you go too deep, you will drown.

Its a rare experience to hear something that is hiding in your mind from someone else. Its a miracle if it's said with the same intention.

The scope for improvement increases at a rate higher than the actual improvement you just made.

When put in context everything is beautiful.