Quotable quote

Came across this during my walk today:

On matters of style, swim with the current; on matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson

Something to live by.

Red-eye

They call long overnight flights “red-eye flights” I guess because one doesn’t sleep much on such flights and would likely appear at one’s destination with the aforementioned bloodshot optical organs (though I always thought that the mental picture of the aircraft’s lights – some of which are red – blinking, blinking, blinking in the night could also have inspired that term).  My flight to San Francisco left Singapore at 5.40pm or thereabouts, but it was a red-eye too, because of this baby – ethnic Indian if her looks and those of her parents are any guide – who cried through the entire flight.  How she had the energy and stamina I have no idea, but it was a good thing the other babies on board were not overly empathetic – otherwise, we’d have had one of those cacophonous symphonies that no red-eye passenger who values his/her sanity wants any part of.

As it was, I found myself hoping the baby becomes a successful and generous grownup – she has to make up for making us all endure that :p

Thought this was brilliant

But if I were one of the students who had to answer this exam question that Bob Sutton set, I’d I think be very lost, at first:

“Design the ideal organization. Use course concepts to defend your answer.” [link]

My first fortune cookie

Yesterday, I had some Chinese takeaway in San Francisco, and got my first ever fortune cookie, containing two separate strips of white paper, one of which said:

You will receive unexpected support over the next week.  Accept it graciously.

and the other of which stated:

Your choices at the moment will be good ones.  Trust yourself.

Procrastinating

I procrastinate too much.  Take this post for instance.  On the fourth of June, on my way to work on the MRT, it was nearly too crowded to turn the newspaper you are reading, standing up, to the next page.  And so I put down my newspaper and people-watched.  And saw that a woman was just in front of me, facing my right, with earphones on.  She took out a plastic folder and extracted a sheaf of A4 printouts.  For some reason, I thought she was an insurance agent or preparing for some sort of presentation, and I lost interest and looked elsewhere.  Then I saw out of the side of my eye that  she was moving strangely, so I turned back – she was holding  the printouts firmly in front of her, and while looking at them, she firmly lifted her shoulders, and sank them back down, lifted her shoulders, sank them back down, all the while looking intently at the printouts.  Which was of course where I looked next, and I saw that on the printouts there was a list of songs or tunes and beside each song a corresponding exercise and remarks – as I remember it; this is the trouble with procrastination – such as “fast-paced” and “energetic”, which I took to be instructions for how to conduct an aerobics class.  So the woman in front of me, so early in the morning (seven-something a.m.), in a world of her own taking time from her commute to rehearse her aerobics routine, was probably an aerobics instructor.  I felt minutely proud of myself for this admittedly short chain of reasoning – it was a good start to the day.  And thinking back, this aerobics instructor, who seemed to take her job more seriously than many of those with more conventional careers and would presumably enjoy it quite a lot, was indeed preparing for a presentation.  I hope she and her class enjoyed that day’s session.

Later in the day, I heard someone who was not Sarah McLachlan sing “Angel”, and felt a sudden overbearing urge to listen to the original.

But, it must not have been that overbearing, since I’ve delayed that gratification, till now.