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But we don’t want to do the effort involved in playing the guitar, or the drums or even just head-banging to the music. All we want is to flick the long curly hair back, raise both the hands towards the sky and soak in the euphoria of the crowd chanting our name.

For the people who still didn’t get it, the above lines are just a metaphor (go dig out your Wren & Martin’s).

There exists a “matrix” in this world. Matrix is all around you. But fortunately this one is of the can-be-told-and-explained types unlike the one in which Neo and Morpheus had to fuss over red and blue pills. Every day when the world wakes up to the sweet baritones of trucks/buses honking (birds chirping, you say? in the city? joking, right?), the only thought that covers everyone’s minds is “How do I score another point today?”, in the manager’s score book, that is. Working, producing results isn’t a concern anymore. It’s all about the game and how you play it. As the Neo in you fights through the “sentinels” of bugs in the code, the “agents” are busy firing away e-mails at the rate of gazillions per hour. After all, its the one who sent the email that counts.

But before you jump to conclusions, let me tell you it’s not the agents’ fault. The “architect” designed them this way. Some time ago I bought a t-shirt which said “Job Appraisals are blackmail” (and I made it a point to wear it to all my appraisal meetings, until it faded down to the extreme that it began to read “i blackmail”). So far I have been unable to fathom the dynamics that govern this. The anomalies in the equation seem to be just too many for any human being to solve. May be it’s like that “Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle” we read about. The moment you measure the anomalies, the rest of the equation changes, and you are left with a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces too less or too many.

The easiest way out would be to request the dolphins to approach the mice and get them to carry out a simulation that gives us our “42″. After all, the dolphins are indebted to us for all the fish and it’d be easy for them to pitch in a bit more than just saying “so long, and thanks…”. But of course, the mice have better
things to deal with than the minor nuances of measly human beings’ daily lives.

The next best thing would be to get an audience with the architect, but who is he? Everyone. Each one of us is the architect of one’s own demolition, and of everyone else around us. Each one of us contributes to the fallacies that plague “the equation”.

But of course, we can’t rectify it, because we can’t accept it.

‘cuz we all just wanna be Rockstars………….

without playing the guitar, or the drums, or head-banging………..

(PS: You, at the back, in all your “frowning” glory, how much more coherence do you want from a guy ranting away at 3:00 in the morning?)
© Shantanu Goel | ‘cuz we all wanna be Rockstars…

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Came across this funny, but still thought provoking, definition of an engineer.

(Taken from “The Embedded Muse”, a useful embedded stuff related newsletter published by Jack Ganssel.)

“An engineer is a person who passes as an exacting expert on the basis
of being able to turn out with prolific fortitude infinite strings of
incomprehensible formulas calculated with micrometric precision from
vague assumptions which are based on debatable figures taken from
inconclusive experiments carried out with instruments of problematical
accuracy by persons of questionable mentality and doubtful reliability
for the avowed purpose of annoying and confusing a hopelessly
chimerical group of esoteric fanatics referred to altogether too
frequently as technicians.”

Crossposted to both my blogs: My Technophilic Musings and Never Knew I Was Living In The World

© Shantanu Goel | Engineer: A New Definition

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All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go..
am standing here outside ur door….
and so goes the song, but the difference is that I don’t hate to go. I’m excited…
So guys, my next post will be from Dallas as my flight leaves tonight…:)

© Shantanu Goel | Leaving on a jet plane…

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Its 8:15 PM. Am sitting in the office. And will keep sitting for atleast another 4-5 hours. Working? Nah.. Doing nothing at all….Its not that I don’t have work. Got loadsa it right now. Have to do so much for the oncoming trip….but its that I just dont feel like working. Life’s become a drag…
The same old routine everyday. Wake up, get ready, go to office, work, come back, sleep. Throw in a couple of eating time slots in there too. Even the games now bore me…
What am I missing??For Christ’s sake its been only about 10 months since I’ve been working and I already feel spent….No enthu left for anything…
While in school, it was always like, just pass 10th, then life’ll be cool.
Then college, I thought, just get into a good engg college, then life’ll be cool.
In engg college, the feeling was, its just the last hurdle man. clear this, get a good job, then life’ll be cool…
Now it feels life has surely become cool, rather, *thandi* (for those not knowing hindi: *without any spark*) as it should be put..
Read on someone’s blog a few days ago: The motto of life should be “Wake up happy, sing a tune during the day, and go to sleep with a smile”. And the way I am living right now, its more like:
“Wake up with a splitting head ache, roam around like zombie through the day (the only tune on the lips being that of the grim reaper’s song), and go to sleep wondering if i’ll indeed be able to sleep”

GOD, whats happening to me….
Is it homesickness?? Is it my laziness coming to fore?? or maybe I’m going crazy..
Or maybe its nothing at all…
Hope this phase gets over soon…
© Shantanu Goel | Why….

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Just came across this:

And still ye mortal programmer soul tries to sweep out the bugs.
ALAS! The irony of ignorance….*big sigh*

© Shantanu Goel | Remember this before bug fixing

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Just received this mail from the HR deptt:
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Hi
You have been given a 2 year multiple entry Visa. Please collect your passport from me..
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What do I say now???
“Yipppeee” is the only correct word I think…

© Shantanu Goel | Visa Update

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