Schools Kill Creativity

There is a direct correlation between my affinity for schools and number of days to finals. And discernibly, the relation is inverse. In fact, my affinity for schools is inversely proportional to the square of number of days remaining for the finals.

As finals approach, I think I channel my mental energy to activities that I am made to to instead of ones I think are important in my personal development intellectually. This drives me into a mental introspective state where I conduct philosophical surgeries and spiritual operations as to what truly is the purpose of exams. Call it undue mental stress levied due to academic pressures or my bias against conventional testing methods, namely examinations, I fail to see its benefits.

Since I did not want to study for my Mechanics and Differential Equations exams two days from now or work on my paper, or on my design project or presentation, I watched this video that resonated with my current state of mind. The video argues that schools kill creativity by giving rise to academic hierarchies at the top of which sits mathematics followed by humanities and arts at the bottom. And, this hierarchy is precisely determined by marketability of each discipline, meaning how suitable is it for getting a job. We study what we study not necessarily because we truly are passionate about that discipline but because it has a better scope and has a greater probability of making our lives better, monetarily and tangibly of course.

Take a look at the video, if you have time. It's fascinating, not to mention humorous.

Site of the Month (November)- Ted.com

Ok, so I came up with a great idea, namely - nominating a site for the month.

Reason: To promote the site and spread great ideas that others may not be familiar with prior to it.

For the month of November, I chose Ted.com. And again, this is not a scientific decision but rather a personal one. I think Ted.com is a great website to learn from whenever you have free time. This semester my reading hobby has suffered a strong blow due to a very tight schedule. As a result, I thought I really need to compensate for this loss by watching some intellectually stimulating videos with great ideas implicit in them. Aptly, one of my friends suggested Ted.com and I've been an addict ever since.

An excerpt from Ted.com's website:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

Every video has subtitles in several languages thereby widening the scale and scope of spreading ideas to non-English speakers and the deaf. Take a look at the website and browse through some videos and I promise you won't be disappointed.

I have embedded a sample video that I liked of a simple guy in Africa who on his own built a windmill. It will inspire any youth from a poor nation to do something for one's country.

Thanksgiving Dinner, American Style

When I tell my friends that I will be staying at Trinity (on-campus) over the Thanksgiving Break, they flood me with their sympathies. I really don't that much because I had no idea what Thanksgiving meant until I came to the US. I actually used to think it had something to do  with appreciating others and saying thank you. How stupid right? Turkey, eating a turkey dinner should have sprouted to my mind. Anyway, I feel sad when I miss festivals celebrated back home.

I thought Thanksgiving would never have any meaning for me until I had my Thanksgiving Dinner with my host family. No, Turkey was not the part that appealed to me. Turkey does not even taste good. Oh, oh, I just said it. Goat and chicken meat resonate with my taste buds better. Can't help that goat's meat is the most delicious meat in the world, if you know how to cook that is. This year I had Thanksgiving Dinner at two places. I know, right. The first one was on Wednesday, a day before with InterVarsity. The second one was with a half-Nepali, half-American family. The food was good but the atmosphere was even better.

I could imagine how blissful it would be to see all family members unite for a nice family dinner. Amazing. We talked about a lot of good things. And then it was followed by a game of Poker. Before we left, I also got a chance to play records on their really old device. I don't even know what the name is. Wait a minute. It is called Gramophone. No, that did not come off top of my head, I wikipedia'd it.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. And thanks everyone for reading this. It's Thanksgiving day.

New Moon is a waste of time and money

Alert: Anyone considering watching the Twilight saga-New Moon should know this before hand. This movie is a total waste of time and money.

I fell asleep several times during the movie. I do not even know why I went to see this movie. It was actually because my friend really wanted to see it and it was his birthday so, we could not opt for 'Men who stare at Goats'. The only incentive for me to watch this movie was the actress, who is somewhat beautiful.

There was no high point in the movie. People in theater seemed to be very bored. The script was borrowed from old style Bollywood movies  and sounded really silly and hilarious. I could not make any sense why Edward suddenly left Bella (on a fine day). And, how could he leave her in the middle of the jungle? If he wanted to leave her, at least he should have taken her safely to her home.

The movie was absolute nonsense. Warning: Do not watch it unless you do not have anything worth to kill your two hours. The hype created is overrated.

Trinity Students Don't need a reason to be Innovative

Trinity's students don't need a reason to be creative. Their creativity spills in whatever they do. See this artistic  arrangement of chairs in Murchison Computer Lounge by an anonymous artist who did not know what to do after completing his paper. Trinity students keep innovating.