drifting away from reality

“Welcome to Google Talk!

xyz is online right now (online friends have a green dot). Type below and press the Enter key to send an instant message.”

    Couldn’t Google just welcome me without making me feel like an idiot who doesn’t know how to send an instant message? Am glad they didn’t go on to explain what an instant message is (an instant message is something similar to instant coffee, only tastes a bit different) and how to press ‘enter’ on my keyboard…they probably have that in their help pages.

    The auto-message in YM informing me, every now and then, that my friends are still using an older version of the messenger sounds a lot better than this one. Atleast it makes me feel more sophisticated and technologically advanced than my naive friends ‘cos I was capable of updating my YM successfully, all by myself, without crashing my computer and calling technical support to ask if pressing ‘enter’ will reboot my machine or send an instant message!

    I thought Microsoft was the only one following the strategy, “we think for you cos we, by default, assume you can’t do it yourself”. Looks like Google has started thinking on the same lines now. I wonder if, according to the major software players, being user-friendly is to assume all users are idiots. I think user-friendly is just making things easier for the user and stopping these nagging messages would be the first step towards it.

    And you guys at Google, if you’re listening, give me the damn “invisible” option in gtalk before you come up with such interesting welcome messages. I don’t feel one bit welcomed in gtalk without that one! (and you, Google tutors, please understand, to us lay-people, being “invisible” is different from “blocking” someone…I don’t want to use the latter as a workaround for the former)

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    If someone asks me what’s the best gift I’ve ever received, I’d probably say it’s the book “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul”, which my friend gave me during college. When I got the book, I literally groaned inside ‘cos I’m normally averse to non-fiction of any kind. Little had I realised then, what difference this book was going to make in my life, in terms of giving me hope and a better perspective on the world as a whole. Ok, may be, am exaggerating a bit here but trust me, it’s a damn good book!

    When u look at it, the book is just a bunch of simple (really simple) stories written by people stumbling through life’s ups and downs, just like you and me. No thrillers, no enthralling plots, no fascinating romances…just little snippets of people’s lives that I could relate a lot to my own. Some of those stories made me smile, some moved me to tears, while some made me realise am not alone in this strange world; all put together, the book was one heck of an inspiration to me!

    When you’re feeling really down, wouldn’t it make you feel better to just know that someone, somewhere has been through the the same kind of pain you’re going through…and survived it?

    The book is full of lessons and many of those lessons, I’m glad I got to learn from someone else’s experience before life could teach me the same in the hard way.

    The Chicken Soup series comes in different flavours targeted at different groups of people, e.g., Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, Chicken Soup for Pet Lover’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Lazy Soul (is there one? I hope so!). If you haven’t had someone gift you atleast one of these books, I suggest you buy your own copy and start reading. You’ll certainly be doing yourself a big favor.

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Why is there still so much pain and suffering being produced when there’s so little demand for it?

Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the window.

I always like to know what I’m doing, but there are times when nobody will tell me.

I could do great things, if I weren’t so busy doing little things.

Please don’t lie to me, unless you’re absolutely sure I’ll never find out the truth.

I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.

I too am a member of the human race, (but admittedly not a very active member).

Cheer up! The worst effects of what we’re doing won’t be felt until after we’re all dead

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack at once

Life may have no meaning — or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove.

It’s human to make mistakes and some of us are more human than others

Women can do anything men can do, but often have more sense than even to be interested.

Don’t be afraid — I’m right behind you (using you as a shield).

It’s good to know that if I behave strangely enough, society will take full responsibility for me.

Please don’t ask me what the score is, I’m not even sure what the game is.

Try to be the best of what you are, even if what you are is no good.

I don’t understand you. You don’t understand me. What else do we have in common?

Not only don’t I know what tomorrow will bring, I’m still not entirely certain what yesterday brought.

And the best one: Why does life keep teaching me lessons I have no desire to learn?

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Author: Ashleigh Brilliant

I have no idea who Ashleigh Brilliant is but I’m beginning to like him!!!

If you like the kind of humour I like, am sure you’ll love the big list here. Yes, whatever I’ve posted here was lifted straight from that link but wasn’t I sweet enough to let you know the source? ;)

“Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You’re gonna love it”

That’s a line from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The context is something like this: Racheal, who was until then rich and spoilt, decides to become independent and take up a job. Her friends make her cut (literally) her credit cards, for which her dad pays the bill. After much apprehension and quite a bit of cajoling from her friends, she finally cuts them, at which Monica says,’Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You’re gonna love it’.

When I was watching the episode, this line somehow caught my eye (or is it ear?) and stayed in my, otherwise, volatile memory. There are times, when I feel reality sucks and wonder why things are the way they are, never the way I want them to be. At those times, I kinda get reminded of this line and strangely, it brings a smile :) (how long the smile lasts is a different aspect though). If you’re wondering what am getting at, well…nothing! just another drifting thought…

    And the award for the most boring book goes to…

    Well, there are quite a few books I can nominate here but “Sons of Fortune” by Jeffery Archer wins the award hands down. Before you Archer fans start protesting, let me remind you, it’s my opinion and this is my space!

    If you are the kind of person who can sit through a plot that unravels real real slow, I bet you’d be a fan of Jeffery Archer. I do like a few books of his, ‘The False Impression’, ‘The Eleventh Commandment’ (No, I did NOT like ‘Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less’ for some strange reason). However, I prefer fast moving books and hence this guy has never made it to my list of favorite authors.

    Coming to “Sons of Fortune”, duped by the story outline, I picked the book up from a lending library. Determined to make the best of the book (I paid for it, after all), I sat down to read it, only to realise with just a few pages, that this was going to be the typical be-patient one. I had to drag myself from my bed to a chair to keep myself from falling asleep. I managed to read some 200 pages, hoping anytime there would be a twist that would make me sit up straight. There was none whatsoever!

    The storyline goes like this: two brothers, separated at birth, grow up not knowing each other and living entirely different lives (tamil movie buffs, getting a sense of déjà vu here?). One becomes a war hero and the other, an ambitious politician (a hero in his own way). Their paths do cross at times and each time they meet, I sit up straight hoping things will start getting interesting. But no, nothing happens. Their lives go on smoothly and then, their lives still go on smoothly and it goes on and on smoothly…trust me, until the point I gave up on the book, their lives were going on smoothly. If you ask me what happened to the story after that, I don’t know…I never got to finish the book! Come on, there has to be something in the book to keep me going right? apart from lives going on smoothly?

    If there’s anyone out there who’s read the book, managed to finish it and survived it, please come on stage to hand over the award to Jeffery Archer. You deserve it for your patience!

    There’s one thing I’ve realized now, never to trust those story outlines at the back-cover of books. They could disappoint you big time!

    P.S This is my first post to this section and I’ve already started off on a negative note…well, that’s me! :)

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