Show The Objective..

Often times you tend to be aggressive or get into bad mood, get into difficult conversations at the company or in the family, can't get over something you really miss, are confused or into any other state of mind in which you really don't want to be, but due to human nature, you find it difficult to control your emotions.

Keeping the objective in mind is the key. No matter what you do, you have to know what you are getting from it. You might think that this seems materialistic and only applies to materialistic actions e.g. by helping someone you are not getting anything. But, you are getting something and that is the internal satisfaction, the happiness which comes when you make someone else happy. This is by no means materialistic, and if it's then everything is.

Aggressiveness is one of the wide spread negative habit which most of the humans have, at least most of the people I have seen. Aggressive nature, esp. at work is quite harmful to none other than the aggressor himself. Not only at work, but in family dealings as well, this may result in disruptions in family relationships mainly due to both parties being aggressive. What can keep you from getting aggressive? It's the objective!

Nonetheless, being cool-minded all the times is not that easy, but it's not that hard too and it's necessary for one to be successful and this applies to every aspect of life i.e. there are lot of advantages. After all, who likes a person who offends and charges other people every now and then?

Whenever you are in a bad mood, you need to remember the objective..What’s the use of being into such a mood? You are just wasting time and energy, which could've been utilized in something more important to you. Controlling your emotions is one of the main elements of leading a leader's life and realizing the fact that others don't like to be taken up by someone, an element of respect has to appear in everything you say or anything you perform.

Everyone is unique or at least wants to be, distinction attracts every human. So, realizing the fact that you are in a state of uselessness is the first step towards realizing that you need not be in that state most of the time. Don't you think everyone does the same when he's in a bad mood or when he loses his temper? So, you either want to be the same as others or you indulge into something which makes you distinct.

You might want to read about EQ (Emotional Quotient), plus there's a book which you might have heard about "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and the sequels to it as well.

Something off-topic, a 3D First Person Shooter named Commando 4 has been developed by some FAST Karachi students.

Imagine..

Imagine a 10 year old girl with two pony-tails, with lots of oil on her hair, a lolly pop in her mouth goes jumping, hopping along a street carrying a megaphone and calling out the table of 2, 3 & 4 in a loop, at 6 pm.

Unconventional uses of Sack

Sack (known as "bori" in Urdu) is one of the most commonly used containers for multiple things, at least in Pakistan. It's commonly used for grains, coal, wood, metal utensils, etc. It can also be used to cover slippery floors and is also used in sack racing where a team of two people put their legs in it and run towards the finish line, a sport usually for kids. A sack full of sand is somewhat bullet proof, so it can be used in that way as well e.g at smaller posts.

But, there can be other unconventional ways to utilize it as well, some of which can be:

• You can cut a sack into pieces and use instead of tissue papers in case you catch cold
• You can make an umbrella out of it, which won’t last long though
• Since there’s an increase of population of pick-pockets, you can create internal pockets out of a sack; at least it’s difficult to cut
• A mobile pouch
• A hat or a bed sheet or a rug, which can be useful in winters
• Can be used for cleaning glass
• Clothes for yourself or your pets or for a scare crow
• You can punish your kid by keeping him into it for an hour or so, do make sure that there are enough holes to breathe though
• Car cover, seat cover, or any other cover
• One can try constructing a bridge all made with sacks

It’s upto your own imagination what other uses of a sack you come up with.

Business business

I've always wanted to be a businessman and have tried a few things on a pretty small scale, and have been extremely successful. After a few months on job right after graduation, I've been thinking hard to setup my own business in parallel, but haven't tried at all.

This urge is getting to the point where I think I'll just start something on a very small scale (this time the time-scale won't be small). According to my analysis and imagination on an initial level, I have arrived on a few tips for a person to start a new business, specifically speaking of those who are on a paycheck and don't have much finances to invest. I am the rookie of rookies in business, so it's pre-mature to list down the points now, but here I go, hoping to get some comments:

• You have to have a very vague starter vision
• Try a smooth transition from job to business. Setup the business in parallel to your job, don't quit your current job to start it
• Try to cover finances with knowledge & talent, try starting from something which doesn't need much financing
• Consider starting something from a very small scale, but which can be scaled lower or higher as the need arises e.g. service provider business
• Find references among your family, relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. who can guide you towards anything, ranging from advice to clientele to suppliers

Plus, you need to have the following positives to start something:

• Motivation
• Time Management
• You should have a thing about numbers
• Effective Communication Skills
• Thinking in terms of customers & finances
• Long term planning skills, yet having short term planning skills for bonus seasons/events

Have a look at Life without a paycheck, I've read it, so I assume anyone can read it :)

Is everything Balanced?

How many times have you experienced that you don't do anything wrong and still something wrong happens with you? Now imagine how many times have good happened to you, even if you don't deserve it? If consequences were dependent on actions, then logic implies 180 degrees from what happens, sometimes.

This leads to a question: Whether everything that happens is the consequence of what you do or it's just discovery of what's already been decided and written down as your fate?

Too complex, but hints are everywhere. Relating to my post Luck vs. Details, is it just the lack of detail that we call it or we put it into the category of luck? As I move ahead in the dimension of time, this fate thing is making more sense to me and it feels like the action/consequence thing is just there acting as a decoy. But it might be the state of mind which also comes into play e.g. a batsman might be in some good form one year and in a really bad form in the next year.

In any case, what I have conceptualized since 10 or so years back and still believe is that everything is balanced instantly or some time later. A small example is that I cheated in one of the exams during my studies and I got away with it. Some time later, I was caught by an invigilator for something I didn't do, and I was speechless. At that time, I thought something wrong which I did earlier, was balanced.

Time after time things happen, opportunities come and are availed, bad times come and pass by e.g. you might be having conflicts with your family, but you might have a good reputation at work. You might be physically weak, but mentally tough. You might be financially poor, but religiously rich, etc.

Summary is that if you sum up all of your negatives & compare with the sum of your positives (after assigning weightages), everything might just come out to be balanced!

Words and inside..

So, long time no post. I finally got some time out from work and got some motivation as well. It's been over a month since I have been managing this new simulation project, handling a team of around 14 people including programmers, graphics designers, testers, etc. The team is very good, mashaAllah, alhamdulillah. It's gonna take some intelligent hard work for 3 more months or so. Here's another piece of abstract theory which I would like to share related to comprehending and understanding what other people say to you..

At times, you are being fooled by someone and you regret it after you have been manipulated. Instead of finding out afterwards, you can be proactive. There's something you can do about it and that is to judge whether what's said to you is the truth or a lie. For that you need to know the driver behind the person's words.

Whatever you comprehend about something that other person says, depends on how you interpret and process the information. If it doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense to the person saying it. This means that you are missing something which that other person is thinking about.

So, you have to find a reason as to why that other person can think or not think about something. You might want to use your own head as well along with the other person's words, because it can be true and it can be false or it can be somewhere in between. Why he might lie is something which you have to think about e.g. he might lie because he might have superiority or inferiority complex or he might be a status conscious person or simply a psycho. Psychos are abnormal about something, but otherwise normal, so you can't really tell. But, it's not necessary that a negative reason is behind it, always.

Suppose a person is over conscious about his intelligence. He would always try to prove himself to others and hence sometimes he might lie about something. You can't simply go on believing what he says, you have to process the information correctly. Why he does that? Because he wants other people to recognize him as an intelligent person.

The question now comes that whether this judging matters for you or not. When you want to judge the other person and when you simply ignore whatever he says? I suppose you'll know when to do it and when not.

You might not be able to fully understand the rationale behind this post, and I don't expect it either. You might find it helpful when the need actually arises.

Busy bee..

Not been able to write anything for the past few weeks, have been pretty busy at office. Working on this new gaming project, which will be built upon C++/OpenGL, seems like a dream coming true, inshaAllah. Might be the team lead for this project which is right now in its initial phases such as requirements analysis, resource hiring, technical research, etc. While hunting for resources I have found that it's pretty hard to get "all-in-one" resources, but fortunately we've found a few bright people matching almost the criteria set by us. Let's see how things work out.

Also went to Karachi last week, enjoyed every bit of it and stayed for 3 days, again seeing how time flies. Have been playing snooker and table tennis and that's all the activity after office apart from sleeping and relaxing.

A friend recommended this link http://del.icio.us Have a look.

I am aiming to write a lot of technical stuff on the technical blog, but still finding hard to get some time out. As far as general posts are concerned, I am looking forward to write the next part about Spiders plus something about dealing with people.