Andrew's Blog

I recently rewatched an episode of Star Trek Voyager about the doctor faced with a critical medical problem. This critical medical problem involves the chief engineer of the ship and a sentient parasitic organism surviving on the chief engineer's body to compensate for what was lost in the parasitic organism. The doctor is out of his element so a suggestion was to create a hologram medical consultant with expertise in similar matters. Unfortunately, this consultant is a representation of a docto...

I did my five minutes of doing nothing yesterday and forgot to write about it. I am really having a hard time sticking to writing an entry a day. I only remembered when I woke up to take a pee in the middle of the night. In my five minutes of doing nothing, I was sitting on the bed with our cat Seven. Nothing was going on the background. I tried hard not to think of anything. I was able to do this for some time but found myself thinking of the phrase "open your eyes". This led me to think abou...

Recently, I bought a cookbook with title "Pakistani and North Indian Cookbook: 30+ Recipes Quick, Easy and Authentic". I was surprised when I opened the package. It was a thin book with no pictures except for the front and back cover. I also do not see any author information. I picked the book up from an online store (which took about a month or two to arrive) and I was just curious because it is hard to get good Pakistani and Indian cookbooks. I have never had Pakistani food and the Indian foo...

I heard a line from a TV episode about a person revealing a truth that is not theirs to reveal. The counter-argument to that is that truth has no owner. This counter-argument struck me deeply. The question is what kind of truths belong to which category. I have always felt that if someone reveals a truth to me, then it is not my place to reveal it to others. That someone ultimately has priority over revealing (and even not revealing) the truth. If it were my truth, then it is also in my disc...

I sometimes wonder if food served at restaurants should have taste that is consistent. Of course, I have to define what consistent means. Consistent means that the way a particular dish is made is the same regardless of the eater ordering it. In this sense, consistent is closer to standardized. Maybe I should have used the word standardized. I have to think more if there is a subtle difference between standardized and consistent. Anyway, I would accept inconsistently made dishes, provided that...

I did my five minutes of doing nothing. I am sitting on the bed. I could not hear my blood pumping. But an episode of Columbo called Negative Reaction was playing on the background. My mind did not wander a lot. I think my mind was fixed on the dialogue. My mind was stuck on the name of a minor character from the episode. This character was a driving instructor named Mr. Weekley. It is such a strange surname. At first, I thought it was Weakley. But even then, it is quite a strange name. If this ...

I really cannot sustain the habit for various reasons. I am preparing for a conference and using the momentum to generate some new stuff. I even stopped playing the piano for the past two days. Thankfully, there was some new stuff to compensate. I did my 5 minutes of doing nothing exercise. During that the time, I looked around me, noticed my blood rhythm and the light bulb that needed changing, and looked closely at the cat. Our cat had four seizures today. I looked at him while he is trying...

Today's variation of doing nothing for five minutes: I am sitting on the bed playing the finale of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. I did not do anything, but the episode playing in the background drew me to the dialogue. Apparently, interactive porn could be marketed as virtual eroticism. When you asked someone to dance and they decline your invitation, say "your loss". The episode featured James van der Beek. You may know him from Dawson's Creek. Here he seems to be playing a bad guy, and I...

I had a busy day today and found myself not having the chance to have 5 minutes of doing nothing. They say I should not break the resolution twice in a row, otherwise, a habit cannot be sustained. Tomorrow, I will come back to the resolution and write about it. I spent about an hour practicing the piano. I recently learned how to play, to finally read sheet music, and then map the preceding knowledge to the piano. I started with Oscar Peterson's jazz piano book. I did not learn basics and I di...

In the last post, I mentioned that a new year's resolution could be to do nothing for 5 minutes. I have done it and I am writing about it now. I put 5 minutes in the cellphone timer, sat down on the sofa, and crossed my legs. I kept silent the whole time. The cellphone was giving notifications of messages. I was looking at the electric toothbrush charging station directly in front of me. I kept my legs crossed and could feel the blood pumping through my leg. My mind did not wander to researc...

A typical question asked around this time would be about one's resolutions. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to look back and take stock. I have never made resolutions. Or, if I made some, I must have forgotten them halfway to achieving them. I am not sure what is so special with making resolutions at the beginning of the year. Is it because it is a "new start"? But then it is quite arbitrary. We could have started on the new year using some other calendar, say the lunar calendar. Per...

We recently got COVID or at least we tested positive based on the rapid antigen testing kit. We were religiously using masks, which we know only provide limited protection. A lot of this COVID affair depends on the behavior of other people around you. Because of our strict approach to our own behavior and the reduction in our movements, it was easy to trace where we could have gotten the 'rona. I want to thank the administration and the leadership for bestowing upon us the valuable opportunity...