Suffering -> Pity -> Sympathy -> Generosity -> Charity -> Money
Fear -> Anxiety/Aversion -> Panic/Hostility -> Dodge -> Loss
Signing off...
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Gluttony, a virtue...
I sincerely hope that Gluttony is a virtue else Michael Phelps will be rotting in hell for eternity...
The athlete consumes 10,000 calories on an average every day, it is common knowledge that an urban male adult can sufficiently make do with 2400 calories on an active day. That means this gentleman's daily calorie consumption is over four times that of a regular person. Roughly 3,500 calories translate to one pound, simple math would suggest that he is putting on 3 pounds every day. His body fat content is only 8% so that means he is also burning a major chunk of the calories he consumes.
A healthy adult (in his 20s) can burn up to 500-600 calories per one hour of rigorous workout.
It is logical to assume a world class athlete can double it, so 1000-1200 calories per hour. Even if he works-out for 5 hours a day (a standard Olympic preparation), he would burn 5000 calories on the conservative end and 6000 calories on the aggressive end. That would still leave him with an additional 200o calories, even after discounting 2000 calories for daily usage.
Obviously he does not have calories piling on, or they are not visible at least (8% body fat, remember). So how are these 2000 calories accounted for. The only logical answer is that his metabolism is such that he is burning calories all the time,. If one were to see him after a world record breaking/setting swim he never seems out of breath. His metabolism might be facilitating expending of calories at all times.
Imagine the possibilities if your metabolism was such, you could eat all those kebabs and chocolates and fries and ice creams and cakes. You can always give in to the wafting aroma of a biryani or a steak. You could down a couple of bottles of wine everyday and not worry about your body's ability to break it down.
If a lady had such a metabolism, she would never have to worry about her weight or curves. She could but any dress she wanted without having to worry about weather she will fit in to, remember she can gain and lose weight at will. Losing post-baby fat is no longer a concern.
Sustainability is the only question...
Singing off...
The athlete consumes 10,000 calories on an average every day, it is common knowledge that an urban male adult can sufficiently make do with 2400 calories on an active day. That means this gentleman's daily calorie consumption is over four times that of a regular person. Roughly 3,500 calories translate to one pound, simple math would suggest that he is putting on 3 pounds every day. His body fat content is only 8% so that means he is also burning a major chunk of the calories he consumes.
A healthy adult (in his 20s) can burn up to 500-600 calories per one hour of rigorous workout.
It is logical to assume a world class athlete can double it, so 1000-1200 calories per hour. Even if he works-out for 5 hours a day (a standard Olympic preparation), he would burn 5000 calories on the conservative end and 6000 calories on the aggressive end. That would still leave him with an additional 200o calories, even after discounting 2000 calories for daily usage.
Obviously he does not have calories piling on, or they are not visible at least (8% body fat, remember). So how are these 2000 calories accounted for. The only logical answer is that his metabolism is such that he is burning calories all the time,. If one were to see him after a world record breaking/setting swim he never seems out of breath. His metabolism might be facilitating expending of calories at all times.
Imagine the possibilities if your metabolism was such, you could eat all those kebabs and chocolates and fries and ice creams and cakes. You can always give in to the wafting aroma of a biryani or a steak. You could down a couple of bottles of wine everyday and not worry about your body's ability to break it down.
If a lady had such a metabolism, she would never have to worry about her weight or curves. She could but any dress she wanted without having to worry about weather she will fit in to, remember she can gain and lose weight at will. Losing post-baby fat is no longer a concern.
Sustainability is the only question...
Singing off...
Michaels take over the world...
Wonder what is with the name 'Michael' and sporting glory...
Michael Johnson
Michael Jordon
Michael Schumacher
Michael Phelps
Is the name just common and that some of the name-holders have gone on to greater things or is there really a correlation. There are a good number of atheletic Michaels who are not as august as the ones named above, viz.
Michael Vaughan
Micheal Youzhny
Michael Clarke
Gene Michael
Though no mean achievers themselves, but the names formerly mentioned would each figure in any 'best in class' list of their respective sport...
A research in 1990 revealed that, about 3.2 percent of American parents chose the perennially popular name Michael for their new baby boys.
Sheer numbers aside the quantum of success achieved by individuals named 'Michael' is way more than that done by those with any other name...
Another unique phenomena is that the name is not geographically bound or professionally bound...
Michael Jackson -> An American Performer
Michael Gorbachev -> A Russian President
Michael II -> A Russian Czar
Michelangelo -> An Italian prodigy
Michael Caine -> A British actor
My favorite Michael without doubt is 'Michael Corleone', fictional maybe but surely fantastic...
Signing off...
Michael Johnson
Michael Jordon
Michael Schumacher
Michael Phelps
Is the name just common and that some of the name-holders have gone on to greater things or is there really a correlation. There are a good number of atheletic Michaels who are not as august as the ones named above, viz.
Michael Vaughan
Micheal Youzhny
Michael Clarke
Gene Michael
Though no mean achievers themselves, but the names formerly mentioned would each figure in any 'best in class' list of their respective sport...
A research in 1990 revealed that, about 3.2 percent of American parents chose the perennially popular name Michael for their new baby boys.
Michael is a popular name in the United States, and has been the first or second most popular name given to male babies in the U.S. for each year since 1954. It is in the top 50 most popular boys' names in England and Wales. The name has been popular in Orthodox Christian countries, and was borne by several rulers of the Byzantine and Russian Empires. In recent years, Michael has been the most popular name in the Philippines,the second most popular name in Finland (Mikael) and ranks among the top ten names in Denmark (Mikkel) and Ireland. It is the 23rd most popular name in Canada, and the 37th most popular in Mexico (Miguel). -> Wikipedia
Sheer numbers aside the quantum of success achieved by individuals named 'Michael' is way more than that done by those with any other name...
Another unique phenomena is that the name is not geographically bound or professionally bound...
Michael Jackson -> An American Performer
Michael Gorbachev -> A Russian President
Michael II -> A Russian Czar
Michelangelo -> An Italian prodigy
Michael Caine -> A British actor
My favorite Michael without doubt is 'Michael Corleone', fictional maybe but surely fantastic...
Signing off...
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Targets for H2...
The 10 things I 'will do'/'make happen' in the second half of this year...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossed off...
- 1 account each in Australia, India and Singapore...
- 1 client each in gaming and gambling...
- 1 week long holiday and a new country...
- 1 chess tournament...
- 1 blog post per week...
- 1 new stock...
- 1 new investment medium...
- 1 finance textbook...
- 1 blood donation...
- 1 new language...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossed off...
- 3. 1 week long holiday -> Goa...
- 4. 1 chess tournament -> won a Virgin mobile...
- 9. 1 blood donation -> exactly an year after my first donation...
- 3. 1 new country -> of all the misses, this hurts the most...
- 4. 1 blog post per week -> will work towards this...
- 6. 1 new stock -> the market did not help my cause...
- 7. 1 new investment medium -> still on the look out...
- 8. 1 finance textbook -> hhm...
- 10. 1 new language -> German/Spain, yet to decide...
- 1 account each in Australia, India and Singapore -> chucked my role off...
- 1 client each in gaming and gambling -> chucked my role off...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The reprieve...
Today marks the end of the second week since the bolt hit me...
The bolt in question is a 2lac bill that I assumed to be a relic of my past...
Briefly put:
I made an international transaction of US$2720 on my Girl's credit card, needless to say I received a confirmation for the same from the recipient. It so happened that the transaction had to be canceled. Under normal circumstances I would have gone ahead shot a couple of mails or put my self proclaimed fluency in French to use with the recipient over the phone (the party in question was a French establishment). However, this was no normal situation and I was definitely not in my element. As per the bank the transaction had not gone thru and the allowable credit limit on the card was half the value of the transaction. Putting two and two together I assumed that the deal stands canceled and that I do not have to give it even as much as a second thought.
Actual happenings:
Same day two weeks ago I had a whale of a week-end, however the icing was not as good as the cake. My Girl informed me late in the night that the transaction had actually gone thru and that the amount has been charged and to complicate things further the bank had called her to seek permission to extend funds to a French enterprise for another US$1000. To put things in perspective this happened a six weeks after the request was raised and we were also way past the period of requested service.
Repercussions:
Now one cannot even imagine how miserable I felt. To make things worse I had to spend an agonizing night cursing myself, as nothing could be done till next afternoon (France is three and a half hours behind Indian time).
I 'work from home' the next day and put game theory to use, trying to think of ways to curtail the damage and if possible zilch it. I call the bank and the French establishment. At the end of the day the losses are cut to half.
A result of:
I earned US$1360 for one day of effort, not what are the odds of that happening...
I deploy a few more parameters and dimensions to limit my personal loss...
As days go by I realised that I can recover my damages in a couple of months. Not the best of situations to be in but what the heck I will atleat get the money back, eventually.
I hit the ATM machine to clear the bill, do as and leave. My Girl calls to inform that the transaction is no longer reflecting on the card.
I reel out instructions:
Now that the worse is over, I sit back to think how it all happened. The nincompoop vendor side people I interacted with got confused and made two refunds one was half the amount and the other was half the amount on the credit slip...
Even a second grade student would know that half and half makes whole, and come to think of it the French will rule Europe this term (God save Europe)...
Signing off...
The bolt in question is a 2lac bill that I assumed to be a relic of my past...
Briefly put:
I made an international transaction of US$2720 on my Girl's credit card, needless to say I received a confirmation for the same from the recipient. It so happened that the transaction had to be canceled. Under normal circumstances I would have gone ahead shot a couple of mails or put my self proclaimed fluency in French to use with the recipient over the phone (the party in question was a French establishment). However, this was no normal situation and I was definitely not in my element. As per the bank the transaction had not gone thru and the allowable credit limit on the card was half the value of the transaction. Putting two and two together I assumed that the deal stands canceled and that I do not have to give it even as much as a second thought.
Actual happenings:
Same day two weeks ago I had a whale of a week-end, however the icing was not as good as the cake. My Girl informed me late in the night that the transaction had actually gone thru and that the amount has been charged and to complicate things further the bank had called her to seek permission to extend funds to a French enterprise for another US$1000. To put things in perspective this happened a six weeks after the request was raised and we were also way past the period of requested service.
Repercussions:
Now one cannot even imagine how miserable I felt. To make things worse I had to spend an agonizing night cursing myself, as nothing could be done till next afternoon (France is three and a half hours behind Indian time).
I 'work from home' the next day and put game theory to use, trying to think of ways to curtail the damage and if possible zilch it. I call the bank and the French establishment. At the end of the day the losses are cut to half.
A result of:
- 8 international telephone calls
- Multiple escalations
- Endless negotiations, I topped Negotiations course in the schools you see
- Numeous mails
I earned US$1360 for one day of effort, not what are the odds of that happening...
I deploy a few more parameters and dimensions to limit my personal loss...
As days go by I realised that I can recover my damages in a couple of months. Not the best of situations to be in but what the heck I will atleat get the money back, eventually.
I hit the ATM machine to clear the bill, do as and leave. My Girl calls to inform that the transaction is no longer reflecting on the card.
I reel out instructions:
- Block all transactions on the card
- Surrender the card
- Recover the money I paid the bank
Now that the worse is over, I sit back to think how it all happened. The nincompoop vendor side people I interacted with got confused and made two refunds one was half the amount and the other was half the amount on the credit slip...
Even a second grade student would know that half and half makes whole, and come to think of it the French will rule Europe this term (God save Europe)...
Signing off...
Sunday, May 4, 2008
An elopement drama...
It is around 2 in the night, we had crossed Agra half hour ago and were about 2ish hours from Delhi. The eccentric antics of our co-passengers kept us entertained. Just as we thought that after 26 hours of traveling we had seen it all, the unthinkable happened.
A half sleepy dude walks up to our cubicle (excuse my IT lingo) and inquires about the train's Agra schedule. We reply in concerned amazement that Agra was a good 50Kms behind. Needless to say he was anxious. The guy's worry seemed misplaced as the train was akin to a bus, stopping where ever there was a station (even when there wasn't one, at times).
He drags out his brick of a phone and starts dialing, he stops midway and looks around. A good 10 pairs of eyes were on him. He says to no one in particular that his mobile is out of currency. A concerned neighbor lends him a mobile. He calls and reels out the situation to the listener, it was difficult to make out what the listener was saying thanks to the wind speed.
The call ended abruptly and the guy was visibly shaken, he starts sobbing. None of us knew exactly what the issue on hand was so we did our best to calm him down, we succeeded in a couple of minutes.
As it turned out the guy had planned to elope with the village Sarpanch's daughter and get marry her in Agra before leaving for Delhi and immigrating to Dubai. The driver put a spanner in his best laid plans by missing the schedule first and catching up later. The train reached Bhoopal an hour late and later took numerous halts, thus making our dude inform the girl to reach the station at half past 3.
The call woke up half the people in the lady's house and she got grounded for good...
I had half a mind to get his contact details to track their lives in the future, but decided against it. Maybe I should have!
Signing off...
Monday, April 28, 2008
We are off...
Post 30 hours in the train we badly needed something to rev us up...
The Delhi Metro and the Karims are only two of the many things...
Will get in to details and publish pics later...
Signing off...
- A dude who was least interested in his newly wed petite mind-blowing wife...
- A couple of 22 year olds who were instructed by thier Dad to not put their hands out of the window...
- A master marketer who wanted to use the leg-space as a bed-space, this guy actually set the scene up perfectly before getting his companion along to share the spce..
- A dude on the upper berth who was miffed with a lot of things ranging from the light-bulb to the pace of the fan to the pitch of our voice...
- The three of us shared two berths, this was royalty when compared to most others who shared an unreserved berth with atleast three other unreserved dudes...
- Some of the place names were rather funny -> Amla Jn, Chichora...
- More later...
The Delhi Metro and the Karims are only two of the many things...
Will get in to details and publish pics later...
Signing off...
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