Messenger vs Pandora

[Original post on my Blog | My Blog]

The phrase “don't shoot the messenger” can be abused to absolve one from any responsibility.

Arguing against the abuse needs to be done with a minimum effort. After all, I certainly don't want to speak until my mouth dry, only for my opponent to simply retort with “ah, but I'm only a messenger. So please, don't shoot the messenger”. That's where we need to counter with another short metaphor...

And one that I have, so far, is “Blame not the box but Pandora”.

So what's the story behind this Pandora-esque phrase? In the Greek mythology, Pandora is a woman tasked by Zeus (head of gods) to guard a box. Zeus doesn't tell her what's inside, but only cautions her to never open the box at all cost. Sadly, Pandora succumbs to temptation. She opens the box which then unleashes all sort of evil stuffs: hatred, envy, anger, etc. Because her act causes a dire consequence unto the world, Pandora is often portrayed as the person to blame.

Side note: Actually there's a bright side in the story. Unknown to Pandora, after the box is opened and left unattended for quite a time, a small butterfly comes out. It's said that the butterfly symbolizes “hope”.

“No, I like women.”

[Original Post at my Blog | My Blog]

...thus said Diego Armando Maradona, the manager of the Argentina football team, during the post-match press conference on 15-Jun-2010 after beating South Korea 4-1.

In a matter of hours, his Argentina team will play Germany in one of the most eagerly waited quarter-final showdowns of WC’10. Therefore, it seems befitting to write about the man who has brought and is still bringing cheerful colors to the footballing world.

A writing about the man who becomes the best example to illustrate how a particular technician is slowly, but looks surely, changing from a utopian to a pragmatist (i.e., a cold blooded calculating b*st*rd).

[I hope my c.b.c.b analogy won't bring me any serious implication in the future. I've heard and seen too often unexpected consequences of publications, in any form, on the ’net.]


The Utopian Technician, in the Past...
the technician had a rigid view on footballers. The view that as role models, they must be perfect in all their conducts.

No flaws are allowed, at all.

Therefore, it becomes strikingly obvious this technician had paid no admiration to Maradona (still a player at that time). He’s not fit to be a role model. He “cheated” with his hand-of-God goal. He was totally messed up with drugs. He was completely out-of-order for firing an air gun to journalists. And so on.

Mention Maradona, and the technician was left wondering how could this player be idolized by many people. He has, afterall, the most screwed up life...


The Pragmatist Technician, Now...
after years of seeing various things happening, the technician is becoming less and less utopian. Instead, the technician becomes more and more realistic in viewing circumstances. That...

footballers are just humans. And no human is perfect.
Therefore, flaws are the norm, while perfection is the most impossible exception.

That’s how the technician accepted that Maradona should be a solely judged by footballing standards — playing and managing. His flawed character does not in any way deny his greatness as a footballer. Whatever his weaknesses are, they do not take away his right to be admired as one of the greatest footballers ever grazing this world.

Besides, how can he, as a manager now, not be liked for being a refreshing droplet in the desert of “football managers”?

He dared to get back passionately (read: swear/curse) at his detractors (i.e., journalists, commentators, and a host of arm-chair critics) when his Argentina team had managed to barely qualify to the final-round of WC’10

He who cheekily yelled at a paparazzi “What an ***hole you are. How can you put your leg there where it can get run over, man?” after accidentally drove over the paparazzi's leg.

And when asked by a journalist why he always hugged and kissed his players after games, he responded candidly (scroll to the bottom): “No. No, I like women. I still prefer women. I am dating Veronica who is blond and 31-years-old. No, I have not gone limp wristed. But I like to acknowledge and congratulate my players when they play as well as they did today. ” And his facial gesture when hearing the question? Priceless (click here if you don’t see the video below).


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic


Epilog
This is the man, the football manager, who is coloring the footballing world with his imperfection and flaws and weaknesses. [See also the top-10 Maradona’s crazy moments in WC’10]

It’s extremely rare to find such a spirit among football managers nowadays. Probably only Jose Mourinho is on par. Of course, Mourinho has been in the business longer, so he might have a few more tricks under his sleeve. Nevertheless, give Maradona enough time, and I’m sure he’ll equal Mou (in terms of character, that is). Just imagine the banters that will occur, if both ply their trade in the same league...

By the way, if you’re still reading ’til this point, then allow me to wholeheartedly offer you my eternal gratitude. And not only that. I also congratulate you for reading my one rare post on football, after “retiring” from it (club & international) nearly a year ago.

Tuesday Water Cooler: 9-Mar-2010

[Original Post at my Blog | My Blog]

“For 37 years I've practiced 14 hours a day, and now they call me a genius”, Pablo de Sarasate, violinist and composer (1844-1908).


Sarasate, apart from being a virtuoso, is perhaps best reknown for his composition, Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs). Apparently, he composed that song specifically to showcase his mastery (much like Paganini's motivation for his concerti).

Surprisingly, there aren't many videos of Zigeunerweisen by top-tier violinists in Youtube. The cleanest one found is by Zino Francescatti. For the impatients who thirst only for fast-paced virtuosity, please jump straight away to 5:22 onwards and enjoy all the left-hand pizzicatos. Left-hand pizzicatos is analogous to playing a guitar with left-hand fingers only.

Actually, I wanted to put Anne Sophie-Mutter's, but it's audio only aka. no video. Well of course I could've put Perlman's yet again, but I thought this time should be by somebody else, for a change — still, check it out at least for the banter in the beginning.

(i) napping is a trainable skill, & (ii) nap proudly

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Sara Mednick visited Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss her book, “Take a Nap! Change Your Life.” This event took place on October 15, 2007 as part of the Authors@Google series.

An old gem

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Just digging out my old bookmarks, and look at what I found...

An interview with Brian Kernighan (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mihaib/kernighan-interview)

It's music time

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Title	:	Classical Music for Dummies
Authors	:	David Pogue and Scott Speck
Preface by	:	Zarin Mehta (Zubin Mehta's brother; Zubin is a well-known conductor who happened to lead a performance at Singapore in 2005, IIRC)
Foreword by	:	Glenn Dicterow (violinist and concert master)
ISBN	:	978-0764550096

This book is by far the most hilarious title of the “For Dummies” series, out of ones I've read. Which implies it's the best “For Dummies” for me, to date.

Iyep, that's right, pu(1) chuo(4). Perhaps the authors want to dispel the impression that classical music is boring, difficult to understand, and not fun. Or even sadistic — ever watch movies on Sicilian mafia where godfathers seem to have a penchant for this kind of music?

Here are some examples from the book.

On when to clap:

• the conductor puts down his hands and keep them down
• all the players onstage put down their instruments
• everyone around you starts clapping
• the concert hall lights come up
• the players exit the stage, carrying their instruments
• the entire audience leaves the auditorium
• the cleaning crew comes in and begins to mop the stage

On why conductors occasionally ignore the tempo specified by composers:

As a result, in the past century, conductors have felt free to treat the metronome marking only as a starting point — or even to ignore it completely. Beethoven's symphonies, for example, are virtually always played at a slower tempo than Beethoven himself specified. Tradition, along with various theories about the condition of the old man's metronome (not to mention his brain cells), has had generations of musicians to contradict poor Ludwig's specifications.

There's another one on violin: of course you want to play it with the accompany of X. Except that X is dead. [Can't recall X's name, but X is supposed to be a famous pianist.]

Other jokes are thrown here-and-there too, though some feels a bit “crispy” (Indonesian slang for rather-dry jokes). Like these ones on violin vs viola (note: a viola is simply a slightly larger version of a violin):

• Q: what's the difference between violins and violas?
  A: violas can burn longer
  
• Q: how many vioalas are needed to change a lightbulb?
  A: none, they can't reach that high.

Oh, you can find the book at Pageone@vivocity. Disclaimer: I'm in no way associated with the bookstore.

You never Appreciate...

...what you have until you lost it. That's what people say.

In case you're wondering what is “it”, I'm talking about technologies. Specifically, the three-in-one Mio plan of internet + tv + phone. When subscribing to this plan, our internet + fix-line phone + tv will go through one modem-cum-router device. Ah, “centralized scheme has always the potential of single-point of failure” is what distributed-system practitioners would say. Fortunately, I'm here not to talk about computer science or information technology.

So what happened? Well, three days ago, the Mio modem-cum-router was spoilt. It's as if being back to stone age. As if being isolated from anything that was happening outside.

And being reminded how I'm not what I think I am; that this little box is in fact an integral part of my life, no matter how much I've been very wary of internet addiction; no matter how I've condemned the so-so quality of free-air TV programmes.

But I know I'm the not only guilty person — it's my nature as a human to occasionally drag others down into the equation. The place where I'm staying was extremely quite and dark (but not haunted loh!!!) when the box was down. You know, just like in some movies picturing a big, old, dark, deserted castle.

Ah, which bring me to this question: Am I a geek for feeling abit sore just because of internet+phone+tv fasting for three days?

Or, the more proper question is: are you, if you were in the same situation as I was? The answer is yours.

Dilbert (Again!)

Some people gave a stronger reaction to the minus points of Dilbert's face lift, especially on the first two.

Btw, here is the old layout for those who misses it.

Dilbert and Friends Underwent Plastic Surgery

A well-known guru for self improvement of IT-and-management got a total face lift.

Plus:

• strips are in color
• animations (new)

Minuses:

• pages are more crowded compared to the old, plain version
• more Flash usage!
• Animation pages refuse to work in Linux (web-browser = Firefox 3.0 beta 5)

:-)

:-)

Who am I?

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

When people look at my name, they think that I'm from continent X.

When people look at my appearance, then they are puzzled because I do not look like a person from X.

But when I open my mouth to speak English (a proper one I must add), they pinpoint exactly with 100% accuracy where I'm from. Seriously, no joke.

In conclusion, as long as I shut my mouth, people would keep guessing about my origin.