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The problem is us
Godawful Poetry Fortnight - writing cue - day 13
Godawful Poetry Fortnight - writing cue - day 12
D Mervin Ffingir writes, and having writ, moves on:
September 2003 |
December 2003 |
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April 2013 |
No status messages with nothing to say
A nonsense rhyme instead, a bit of play
One guaranteed grin (for me) every day
(And you?)
Labels: kaiku
Said the happy katydid:
"A week of poetry we did"
"Er, weak (kof) poetry, you did"
Sigh. True.
Labels: kaiku
Saturday, there won't be many
Joining in the cacophony
But we must (giddyap pony!)
Charge on!
Labels: kaiku
But Ugadi is another day
That's Gudi Padwa in Maharastre
If you won't write, I will, yea
The horror!
Labels: kaiku
Yesterday's verse got little traction
the status message poetry faction
was completely out of action
woe is me
Labels: kaiku
..have you seen the cost of registering for the TEDIndia conference?
US$2,400.
That's Rs 120,984.80.*
For four days.
It includes housing (they don't say where), food and an airport pick-up-and-drop. It's happening at the Infosys campus, so we guess that's where attendees will be staying. But even if not, and let's assume that they don't have sponsors (they do), a top-end hotel room in Mysore costs in the neighbourhood of Rs 4000, if memory serves us right. You'd be hard-put to spend more than 2k on khana-peena a day. So, stretch that a bit—a massage, a guided tour—and it's like 8k a day. Add in a couple of grand to get in from Bangalore airport in luxury. That's like 35k. What on god's green earth is the rest of that dosh for?
Sure, they're going to have a rocking line-up of speakers, if their record is anything to go by. And sure, they're financing fellowships and suchlike, and chances are that a TED Fellow is likely to change the world and all that. And sure, there's a great agenda:
* Which local innovations are destined for global impact?
* Who are the young thinkers and doers capable of shaping the future?
* Can there be economic advancement without environmental destruction?
* Can a pluralistic democracy survive in the face of rising fundamentalism?
* Can we make money and be good? Really?
* What should we learn – or fear? -- from China’s investment in Africa?
* Do we have enough water for everyone?
* How do we keep our youth challenged and our aged healthy?
* How can anti-poverty solutions be brought to scale?
* Is there wisdom to be found in traditional medicine??
* Which other ancient traditions can illuminate modern life?
But.
Dude.
A lakh twenty one.
Are they effing insane?
There's a recession going on. This is the developing world. The bit they called the Third World before they got all PC, like. You can live off that much money for several months, including house rent, in most cities in India. Heck, you could become a local aristocrat with that much money in some parts of the country.
Who's going to be able to pay to get in? Loaded westerners who will probably go off, pre- or post-TED to do a bit of palace tourism and maybe some Slumdogging in Dharavi for colour. Malodourously plutocratic Indians who will happily pay up to be seen there.
And most of the folks who are actually doing their bit towards making a better future, people who would benefit from the atmosphere, the contacts and the experience; for them, it could just as well have stayed in Monterey.
Yes, we know that a lot of the people who will be invited to present will benefit, and they deserve it. Yes, we'll get to see the presentations on the TED site eventually.
But we have to say that the pedestal we had TED on is looking kinda clayey.
Yes, we're bitter.
* As per today's exchange rate on XE Universal Currency Converter.
'Tis Thursday, and the pressure mounts
The buzz goes 'round the po'try founts:
"Will he? Gawd, I hope he won't!"
Too late!
Labels: kaiku
It's Wednesday, the pressure builds
Words must flow from the dogg'rel mills
I think I'd better take my pills
for stress
Labels: kaiku
Tuesday's here, and I'm feeling better
Caffeinated, in fine fetter
Still not quite your bright go-getter
Maybe I should write a letter
to you?
Labels: kaiku
It's Monday and the joints are creaking
Strong, hot coffee one is seeking
Until one gets it one is not speaking
To you.
Labels: kaiku
Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy.
Competition for "If you come today" at last!
"[Israeli arms maker] Rafael produced a sitar-heavy twist on Rick Astley's love letter to Satan, "Together Forever," complete with a new chorus." (Wired's Danger Room blog.)
Labels: video
Ah, the memories.
How many songs do you know that use the word "efficacious" without missing a beat?
[Via Ratna Rajaiah's Facebook feed]
Labels: video
We are feeling all seerish today.
So we predict that Google will soon have an attempted Twitter-killer out.
It will run with Gtalk. People already use Gtalk status messages to communicate with friends. Makes sense to piggy-back on that, yes? So, you will be able to separately subscribe to my status messages without seeing my online status or being able to chat with me.
They'll call it G-spot.
Well, okay, maybe not.
But for the rest, remember, you read it here first. And anyone from Google who sees this, we'd like some shares, please. Thank you.
Labels: nostradam R us
Note: [*] = The site linked to requires registration.
Zig's on Twitter
Follow, all ye who must know more.Words
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually produce a masterpiece. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
~ Eyler Coates
to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting
~ e e cummings
In three words i can sum up everything I've learned about life.
It goes on.
~ Robert Frost
Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything;
That's how the light gets in.
~ Leonard Cohen
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
~ Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)
I fell in love – that is the only expression I can think of – at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behavior very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy.
~ Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet, short-story writer, and playwright, "Poetic Manifesto" in the Texas Quarterly, Winter 1961
A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
~Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955)
The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)
In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
~ Al Rogers
Assumptions are the termites of relationships.
~ Henry Winkler, actor (1945- )
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
~ George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)
Either you think - or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.
~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, author (1689-1762)
Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
~ Satchel Paige
Fake it till you make it.
~ (Heard on West Wing)
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