"The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed yet."
- cyberpunk novelist William Gibson

"Don't mistake a finger pointing at the moon for the moon."
- Zen saying

Bruce Lee spoke about this in Enter the Dragon. In one scene he was teaching a young student. He asked the student to attack him, and after two weak attempts he grabs the students and tells him that he has to learn to concentrate. Bruce Lee points to the sky (while turning his head skywards) and says, "It is like a finger pointing away to the moon" (at which point he pauses and slaps the student on the forehead) and continues... "DON'T concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all the heavenly glory."

So what does this actually mean? That we should look beyond our immediate actions/activities for a deeper appreciation and greater effectiveness?

Have you recently (or ever) had powerful and vivid memories evoked by a smell?

This morning I was engrossed writing a paper on strategy development when I felt my lips were getting a little dry. I reached for a moisturizing chap stick that I had not used in some time. Even though I was concentrating on ideas for my paper, as I applied some the salt-water scent elicited a rush of memories. It reminded me of swimming with sea turtles in the Caribbean. I was actually swimming with them with the chap stick unwittingly in my pocket - that's why it has a salt-water smell.

The fear of pain is much worse than the pain itself. This statement now has special meaning to me.

It may only be a matter of time before I, too, become a victim of identity theft. An article in today's New York Times mentions:

"27.3 million Americans had their identities stolen from April 1998 to April 2003 - with more than a third of them, or 9.9 million, victimized in the last 12 months of that period alone. The crimes ranged from the theft of a credit card number to more elaborate identity thefts used to secure loans. During those 12 months, the report said, businesses and financial institutions suffered about $48 billion in losses because of identity theft, and victimized consumers paid more than $5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses to regain their financial identities."

In this digital age, the flow of information is easy, quick and free/cheap. The article says that our identities are worth about $10 on the internet. What is interesting about identity theft is that creativity is much more of an element than in other crimes. This is scary because there is no limit to creativity.

I think rice is the best or most important crop. According to the International Rice Research Institute, in 2000, 20% of the world's total calorie supply was from rice. In China and India, the two most populated countries, 30% of the calorie supply was from rice. If we all ate more rice, less meat and fewer highly processed foods, the world would be a better place. Rice goes well with almost anything. It's also very cheap and lasts for a very long time.

I found a $20 bill on a sidewalk/pavement yesterday. My initial thought was to look in the vicinity for any other bills that might be on the ground. My second thought was to look ahead for a person that might have dropped it. This was a silly idea though, because unless I saw a person drop it, anyone could claim that it was theirs and I'd have no way to really know. So, I did the right thing: I put it in my pocket and carried on walking.

Multi-vitamins tend to have 100% of the RDA of all the important vitamins and minerals. However, I've not noticed a brand that has more than 16% of the calcium RDA. I am curious if this is the case because vitamin manufacturers do not want to upset the dairy industry. I am unsure if it's better for us to ingest calcium in the form of dairy products, or in the form of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which is what it typically is in the pills. Did you know that calcium carbonate is the chemical name for chalk and limestone? Does that mean the next time I go to class I can suck on a piece of chalk?

In December I noted that Americans spend over $1 billion annually on pet food. I questioned whether it would be better to put the money towards other causes - education, fighting diseases, fighting (human) hunger, etc. However, I just learned that there are health benefits of having pets. Research (and common sense) shows that having a dog is healthy, because you're likely to take it (and yourself) out for walks, etc. Research also shows having a cat is good for your health. The reasons why aren't as intuitive. The answer has to do with petting them - it lowers stress and blood pressure levels. This makes me wonder if being evil is a very stressful thing - because in movies villains tend to be stroking cats.

Underwear is interesting. When it comes to underwear I believe in functionality and value for money. I don't see the point in owning expensive underwear. Maybe it's because I believe the substance of a person is more important than their style. If people are close enough to you (relationship-wise) to see your underwear, it shouldn't matter what kind you have on - as long as they are clean. Do people who buy 'sexy' underwear have a sense of inferiority? Sexiness is a state of mind - the images the media feeds you about sexiness are just propaganda to get your money.

To cut a long story short, unlike the girls I was around at the time, I wasn't excited when a friend of mine announced that she got an internship at Victoria Secret. Although I do feel good that something is working out for her job-wise.

In a way, Bush and Kerry are just arguing about what it means to be a man. It's about strength/arrogance vs. thoughtfulness (I know I'm simplifying hugely).

Strategy is only important in situations where there are scarce resources.

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."
- Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989)

I don't agree entirely with Dali. Someone can be perfect within a very small or limited realm. A person can have a perfect game in bowling. Someone can score a perfect 100% on an exam. However, talking about perfection in a larger context is not possible without running into some problems. Saying that someone is perfect means that they can never learn a thing more, and they can never improve on anything. A state of perfection is stagnant, so it can never be a good thing. Also, there are not always exact or valid criteria to determine perfection (i.e. 300 points in a bowling game or 100% on an exam). Notions of perfection often rest on individual subjectivity.

Surf bums and priests have a few things in common.

Have you ever had an interview where you were asking (and were encouraged to ask) more questions than you were asked?

When you apply pressure to things, there are different reactions and different outcomes. Some things will squash, twist or crack. Some resist very high levels of pressure, but eventually break. Other things mold/adapt to the pressure (e.g. dough). Some things grow stronger if you apply pressure (e.g. an unsupported arch made up of unjoined stones).

I'm not sure what happens to me under pressure. A lot of times I put pressure on myself, e.g. in martial arts training, or on assignments. The outcomes are generally good. I think of Nietzsche's line, "That which does not kill me makes me stronger." But when there is too much pressure from the outside (I keep imagining an elephant sitting on me!) I suspect I'll get squashed.

When I was about 16, I learned in a math class that a googol is the number 10 raised to the power 100. It's 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google is the most popular search engine, but there aren't a googol websites/weblinks out there. Nevertheless, I think it's a pretty good name.

I just read that "Google" appears in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams (which I read when I was also about 16). One of Deep Thought's designers asks, "And are you not," said Fook, leaning anxiously foward, "a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?"

When life hands you lemons, and people aren't interested in lemonade these days... what do you think about the people that have been handed chocolate?