Orkut (http://www.orkut.com) is a creepy place!
Strangers come up to me and ask "hey, I like your profile. Would you want to be my friend?" Apparently, wanting to be his (or her) friend is the only reason why one should exist in Orkut. It is a networking site, and so there is nothing wrong for strangers to come up and try to hobnob, violate your airspace, encroach your private property, all in the pretext that a couple of line I wrote in my profile has impressed the fellow netizen.
Hey! I don't know you from haripada, ok. For all that you know, I can be a mutant martian (as suspected in my opening blog) banished to the blue planet for trying to stage a coup. Worse still, from my perspective if you think about it, you could be one.
What makes Orkut wierd is it doesn't happen like that in the real world. I can't call up shahrukh khan and say "hey! I like your profile, can we be friends?" If a few well written self proclamations impress you to start making friends, would you call up Mr gavaskar after reading Sunny Days and say "I like what you wrote about yourself. Can we be friends?"
No, I say! I am scared of strangers for the last 38 years, since my mom told me to be, and I am glad I am. I have survived with a select few who really matter, who really cares and who I know exists outside the Matrix. I don't need a second life.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Work isnt what it used to be!
I thought I would be an architect. And what did I think architects do? Well, to start with...
1) they design something. So I would come to office in the morning and over a hot cup of tea, tickle my grey cells to come up with some nice things, small as a signage or big as a township.
2) they keep up to date with new materials, construction technology and design trends. So i would subscribe to all magazines and buy books by the dozen and go through them at leisure.
3) they obfuscate. So I would wave my hands in the air and gesture with my fingers to criticise the starkness of minimalistic architecture as cold and inhuman and give examples to suit based on the time spent on point 2 above.
You generally get the idea!
so, I became an architect and after 15 years of graduation, here's what I do 80% of my time.
1) read through e-mails and minutes of all the 8/10 projects to make sure I am up to date with whats going on. Check and correct minutes generated by my office to make sure that all backsides are covered. Write emails to cover some of the backsides which were potentially getting exposed
2) Attend meetings, because everyone wants to meet me, and talk and promise. Come back tired and with very little time to keep the promise.
3) Make sure all the cheques are signed, work orders are executed, what we are doing are as per our scope of work, fees are being billed -- and more importantly, getting paid, sign all leave applications and travel vouchers, the 15 cheques waiting to be given to our suppliers...
You generally get the idea!
Practicing architecture is a different ballgame altogether they dont teach you in college. I dont have to enjoy it, but somehow, I cant avoid it either. Its a long time since I have actually put in long constructive and satisfactory time to 'think design'. I miss it.
So let me see what I can do about it!
1) they design something. So I would come to office in the morning and over a hot cup of tea, tickle my grey cells to come up with some nice things, small as a signage or big as a township.
2) they keep up to date with new materials, construction technology and design trends. So i would subscribe to all magazines and buy books by the dozen and go through them at leisure.
3) they obfuscate. So I would wave my hands in the air and gesture with my fingers to criticise the starkness of minimalistic architecture as cold and inhuman and give examples to suit based on the time spent on point 2 above.
You generally get the idea!
so, I became an architect and after 15 years of graduation, here's what I do 80% of my time.
1) read through e-mails and minutes of all the 8/10 projects to make sure I am up to date with whats going on. Check and correct minutes generated by my office to make sure that all backsides are covered. Write emails to cover some of the backsides which were potentially getting exposed
2) Attend meetings, because everyone wants to meet me, and talk and promise. Come back tired and with very little time to keep the promise.
3) Make sure all the cheques are signed, work orders are executed, what we are doing are as per our scope of work, fees are being billed -- and more importantly, getting paid, sign all leave applications and travel vouchers, the 15 cheques waiting to be given to our suppliers...
You generally get the idea!
Practicing architecture is a different ballgame altogether they dont teach you in college. I dont have to enjoy it, but somehow, I cant avoid it either. Its a long time since I have actually put in long constructive and satisfactory time to 'think design'. I miss it.
So let me see what I can do about it!
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