Sunday, May 29, 2011

Some future posts

Very often when I am in the bus or when I am at work (to be noted, whenever I cannot access my blog pfft) that IDEAS fuse in my head.

But the moment I come back home, after a long day of work, as if every ideas have vanished and as much as I would try to remember: nothing!!!!

So this post is rather a kind of reminder for me.  I will jot down a few ideas that are coming to my mind right now (or even later ) and I will do my best to write something about these during the coming month. Aha...a real challenge huh?  Actually, during week days am dead tired and during week ends....am dead tired as well.  More and more am lacking inspiration but yet I want to develop my writings.

Ok, I admit that the previous craps written by me was in situation of extreme fatigue.  I was almost drooping to sleep...

Oh yes, coming back to my points:


  • Oggy - a tribute to my late oggy
  • Am addicted to.... - food, tv shows, etc
  • My inspirations - people who inspire me
(So far that's all that is coming to my mind.  As and when I get ideas, I will jot them here and once they are done, I will change the font colour)

So for the time being, I'll sign off...unless before going to bed I get some more ideas

Love 

Mina~


Friendship, a myth or reality?

Today I received a surprise visit from a blogger and then I found out that LBS was organising a tea party. (more details on: http://www.theladybloggers.com/).  So to make it short, you have to visit 2 blogs, comment on their recent posts and then come back to LBS and tell why you chose them etc.

So while going through the list of bloggers I came across the blog of one nice lady.  She posted a picture of her and her friends.  That was so cute.  I even commented on her post.  While doing so, I was thinking that I am so unfortunate not to have what is commonly called Best friends!

It's not that I am a loner.  I love to make friends.  Since childhood I have been very shy.  It's always been like that.  Even now I am like this and cannot make long conversations be it with guys or girls.  (Oww...).  So, when I went to uni, I was indeed very shy but got along with 3 other girls.  In the end the group split and with time I discovered how people could be hypocrites.

However at uni, there were a few people whom I could call friends.  There were a bunch of them and the fingers on my one hand are more than enough to count them, hehe.  Unfortunately, once uni was over, everyone got busy in their respective lives.  One got married and is now a happy mom of 2 cute bambinos and the other one...well we used to call him the DODO...he actually disappeared like the DODO.  Only after quite some time we met again on FB.  By the way, the DODO for those who are not aware was a bird found in Mauritius long long long ago.  When the Dutch arrived on the island, the dodo was so good to eat that the Dutch forgot to leave a few specimen alive for future generations.  Yeah it's extinct now and one of our national symbol if I can say so.

Yeah so coming to friendship.  So afterwards I did not meet my friends and have been in contact with some via Facebook or the phone.  From there on, I have met a lot of people, became friends and then lost contact.  Would that be considered to be friendship?  Isn't it supposed to be that friends should be in contact?

I won't say it's their fault.  Nor will I say it's my fault.  Some as I mentioned earlier, got busy in their lives, they moved on, found their life partner, met new people and started to build new circle.  On my side, I too moved on, met new people but could never build a new circle of friends.  At some point in time, I was going through a very bad phase of my life where I closed myself up.  At that time, I could not ask my friends for help and back then I doubted there would be anyone who would say hold on Mina, am here.

When I think of all this, I wonder if friendship is a reality or a myth?  Ok, maybe am exaggerating.  I know many people who have very good friends, who keep in touch very often and even hang out together from time to time.  But unfortunately I do not have such a chance.

Circumstances brought me to a point where I wonder if ever I will have a real best friend?

Mina

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Turning 30

Born in 1981, on the 12th May 2011 at exactly 2.50 pm I turned 30. (Duh!!!!)

Since the beginning of this year, I was depressed every time someone would tell me how old will you be this year or one of my relatives would tell me: Mina it's high time you get married, you are turning 30!!!

On each birthday, when I would complain about my age, mom would tell me that I should be happy that I lived so long.  Huh...in one way she's right.  Nowadays the number of young people dying in road accidents, from diseases etc...it's scary indeed!

So what's special in turning 30??  Frankly?  I don't know!

At times when I think about it, I have a feeling that I am moving up to another era of one's life.  Sounds funny?  Uhhh simply am trying to make it sound more poetic!  Ok ok...Am growing old...still single...still looking for the soul mate and still coming across jerks!

But coming to the depression - yeah!  When I was younger (that was long long long ago) I used to tell my mom that I will live up to 30 years.  After that you are old and life is over.  I even told mum that I will commit suicide since I do not want to live beyond 30.  Yeah you read well - I said commit suicide.  That day, if mum did not contain her anger towards me, indeed I would not be writing these lines here... Actually, mom was looking at me with one of those dagger killer eyes and a knife in her hand!

But I would lie if I say that I didn't think about my stupid idea as the so dreaded 30 was approaching!  

Then slowly as I was moving towards my 30 years I got a revelation!  From who?  uhhh myself!  

I realised that indeed I should be happy to have lived so long.  Life continues....whether there are ups or downs, it's worth living.  Who knows that this so called 30 years may prove to by lucky to me in my personal as well as professional life?  Time will tell.

Yeah, I grew up some more!  Even if am now 30, am still feeling younger in my head!  I guess this helps to be more jovial and see life from a positive  insight.  As I have mentioned in one of my posts here, I feel that it's now that I am waking up from a scary nightmare. 

I simply want to:
- put all my failures behind and move in life and live my life.  There will be lots of joy - I pray! - and also   lots of failures, but I want to take everything positively and make the most of the precious beings I have in my life.

- be thankful to the almighty for giving me each and every day I am living...even if it was a shit one!

Oh yeah!  30 seems to be something that I can enjoy and I think I must make the most of it as everyone knows: the past will never come again and the future is unknown.  What we have is today so better live it as if it's your last one!  

So live your lives and make the most of it.  I would like to end my post with a quote:

Yesterday is history...tomorrow is mystery...but today is a gift...that is why it's called PRESENT

- Master Oogway (the turtle from Kung Fu Panda)
So enjoy your Gift

Love

Mina :)




Planning Fallacy


The below is an interesting article that was forwarded to us at work....enjoy :)
 
The famous Sydney Opera House was originally estimated to be completed in 1963, but it wasn’t completed until 1973. That’s ten long years later than was originally planned. This is an exaggerated example of a tendency that we all have: we underestimate how long it will take us to complete a task or project. This variation of poor time management is called The Planning Fallacy. (Incidentally, the original cost for the Sydney Opera House was $7 million; it ended up costing $102 million.)
 
The Planning Fallacy is a cognitive bias–or a distortion in the human mind–which refers to people’s tendency to underestimate how long they will need to complete a task. As social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D., states:

    “[H]uman beings are generally pretty lousy when it comes to estimating the time they will need to complete a task.”(Source.)

And this is why we create To Do lists that are a mile long, fully expect to get everything on the list done, and feel defeated when we invariably fail to do so.
The Planning Fallacy applies to everything:

    * Writing a paper, or studying for a test, if you’re a student.
    * Going grocery shopping and preparing a three-course meal, if you’re a homemaker.
    * Preparing a presentation for your boss, if you hold a corporate job.
    * Getting ready for an evening out, if you’re going out on a date.

This article will explain The Planning Fallacy in greater detail, and it will give you tips and tools to overcome it (or at least improve your ability to predict how long different tasks should take).
Three Reasons for The Planning Fallacy
 
The Planning Fallacy can be attributed to three basic biases we have when estimating how long it will take to do just about anything:

    * We fail to consider past experiences.
    * We consider the best possible outcome.
    * We focus on the overall task, not on subcomponents.

Each of these is explained below.
 
We Fail to Consider Past Experiences
 
First, we fail to consider our past experiences when planning. When planning, people perceive the specific task or activity that they need to complete as unique. That is, they tend to disregard the time that was needed to complete the same, or similar tasks or activities, in the past.
Suppose that it’s Saturday morning and you’re talking to a friend on the phone. You decide to invite them over for coffee that afternoon, and they accept. There are several things that you want to get done before they arrive, including straightening up the living room.
Even though it usually takes you about an hour to vacuum the living room, dust the table surfaces, and so on, when planning the afternoon with your friend you’re very likely to tell yourself something like the following:

    “I can get the living room straightened up in about fifteen minutes.”

Therefore, you leave the task of putting the living room in order until there’s less than half an hour left before your friend arrives. When they do arrive, you’re only halfway through the task, and you have to go through the embarrasment of apologizing for the mess.
If you hold a job, think of how many times you’ve taken tons of work home over the weekend, fully intending to get it all done, and then you didn’t have enough time to complete even half of the work. And then what happens?

    * Instead of learning from this experience and taking home less work the next weekend, you do the same thing all over again.
    * The week after that you do the same thing once more.
    * Weekend after weekend you lug home tons of work which you should know from past experience that you’re not going to be able to get through.

We Consider the Best Possible Outcome
 
Second, our future plans tend to be “best-case scenarios.” We ignore all of the things that could go wrong. That is, we underrate the likelihood of unexpected, but plausible, complications and obstacles.
 
In the example of your friend coming over on Saturday afternoon, what if the vacuum cleaner breaks down and you have to run out to the store and get a new one? What if you drop a vase while dusting and you have to pick up all of those tiny pieces of broken glass? When you plan cleaning the living room before your friend arrives, it’s very likely that you’ll have a vision of yourself gliding through the task effortlessly, with everything magically falling into place.
 
We Focus on the Overall Task, Not On Subcomponents
 
Third, and last, we don’t think about all the steps or subcomponents that make up the task. Instead, we tend to look at the overall task. “Straighten up the living room” sounds simple enough, but once you take into account each individual task that goes into straightening up the living room, it’s a different story. That is, by looking at the task or project as a whole, we tend to disregard some of the key steps that need to be completed.

How to Overcome the Planning Fallacy
 
When you’re making a plan and estimating how long it will take, do the following:
 
1) Ask yourself how long this task, or a similar task, has taken you in the past. If you catch yourself coming up with all sorts of reasons why this time it’s going to be different, and why you’ll be able to complete the task much faster, stop yourself. The amount of time a task has taken you in the past is the best predictor of how long it’s going to take you in the future. Just accept it.
2) Identify the ways in which things might not go as planned. Specifically, come up with three obstacles that could impede your progress. This exercise will help pull you away from a fantasy world in which everything goes as planned, and back into the real world, in which it’s almost certain that not everything will go exactly as you want it to. Beware of unwarranted optimism, and leave some slack time in your schedule to cover any unexpected “incidents”.
 
3) Write out all the steps you will need to get the task done. Once you see a task broken down into all of its components, you’ll be better able to determine how long the overall task should take. This is a process that Josh Kaufman of The Personal MBA calls, mental simulation.
 
Conclusion
 
Another way to understand the Planning Fallacy is to adopt Hofstadter’s Law, which is the following: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” Take out your to do list and, based on all of the above, re-think how long it’s going to take you to complete each item on the list. Then, start crossing off items.
Now that you know that this cognitive bias exists, you need to start taking it into account when you plan your day, your week, your year, and so on.
Which of the following do you feel best describes you:

    * I usually underestimate how long it will take me to complete a project or task.
    * I’m very good at estimating how long a project will take.
    * I usually get things done faster than I planned for.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Memorable moments...part 1

Hi all...

The other day while heading to work and sitting idle in the bus, I was thinking about what to post next on my blog.  Then an Idea came to me, why not share some sweet memories...but since I like to bla bla a lot, so it's going to come in different parts or episodes...


Ok, so here it goes:

The Birth of my DEVILISH ANGEL :)


The birth of my nephew was indeed THE best day of my life.  Since the moment I learned that my sister was pregnant, I was very impatient for her to give birth to my nephew.  Yeah, my nephew!  I was hundred percent sure that it was going to be a baby boy and around the 4th month of her pregnancy, it was confirmed.

During the ever lasting 9 months, I used to wonder how my nephew would look like...whether he would love his aunt = me?  I remember when my sister would visit us or I would stay at her place, in the mornings, I would hold her belly and call my nephew and ask him to wake up and guess what????  I could feel him giving me lazy kicks....(even then he used to tease me)

Coming now to the day he was born:  It was a beautiful Tuesday and already a special day for me since it was my birthday as well.  The moment my sis was brought to the ward, mom was informed and we waited a few mins before going in to see both of them (umm my mom is a retired charge nurse, so we could get in before visiting hours).  I couldn't contain my joy and wanted to see my darling nephew the moment we were informed they were back from the operating theater.  I remember mom scolding me since I was so impatient.

As we entered the ward, mom's ex colleague led us to where some new borns were kept while their mom were still sedated after CS.  The moment I looked into the cradle, I instantly recognise my nephew since he was wrapped in the towel I packed in my sis' bag.  God, I still cannot describe how I felt when I saw him.  It was great to finally look at him.  He looked so small and fragile and so precious.  I wanted to cry with joy but it was as if everything was stuck in my throat and am sure I must had a big smile on my face.

Those 9 months seemed soooooo long to me.  And the moment I held him in my arms...GOD!  It's been 2 years now but it seems as if it was yesterday that I first held him in my arms.  I can't imagine my life without him anymore.  I still remember those nights they were at home, when I would wake up hearing him cry, prepare his milk and giving him his bottle (his mom was suffering a lot after the CS).  At times I would take him to his grandma's room, who would wake up, hold him tight and feed him.  Both mom and son spent the first 12 days spent with us and then they went back to their house (not really what we would call a home). I remember inventing any kind of excuses just to visit him.

Unfortunately an unexpected situation happened where he came to live with us along with his mom.  I am grateful to god that I have the privilege to see him grow in front of my eyes, but at the same time my heart hurts for him.

Anyway...that's a bit about that wonderful 12th May 2009.  I am thankful to GOD and to my sister for having bestowed me with such a precious gift.

I have a special prayer to GOD:

"Oh God, please bless him always and my his life be filled with loads of love, happiness and success. Also, please help me to find the means to always guide him in his life, give him a good education and help him lead a decent and happy life."
Me and my Darling angel

Thanks for reading this and allowing me to share that one very special moment of my life

Love

Mina





Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Routine

Well well well...here I am...tired after a long day's work but yet willing to write something down.

Well, the day was simply one out of the normal routine ones: wake up, get ready, catch the bus, go to work work work work and then get into the van and get back home, bathe, eat, watch TV and/or surf on the net and go to bed!!!!  Wow...so interesting!!!  Yeah!

These days all I want is to get away for a few days...take a few days' holiday and relax somewhere on a beach....by a pool or somewhere in quiet and soothing nature.  Even if we get into a routine cycle, life is so hectic.  At times you do not realise how fast time went by...and what we missed at the same time.

It happens often to me that I am so engrossed in my work and when I decide to come out of it, I realise that hey we are already Friday.  I would repeat what I said here in another post: Time flies so quickly!!!  It feels like we are automated during week days and on Fridays we get freed of this automation.

When comes friday, I look forward to a relaxing week end.  BUT....yeah but!  The week end also flies away....quicker that you can imagine!!!!  Uhh I hardly woke up on Saturday...had tons to do and gee why is it that on Monday morning am soooooo tired????

Again, this may sound a bit repetitive (uhhh for those who read my posts obvisouly and that seems to be very close to NULL if not = ZERO) but I really wish I could stop time!  If I has a superpower (question that a colleague of mine asked me once) it would be the ability to stop time.  Back then I said something like reading on the mind of ppl and dunno what more.  But now I wish something else... GOD give me the superpower to stop time!!!

Life's so short and so precious and guess what?  I don't really get the time to enjoy...

Anyway, enough bla bla from me!  Black Eyed peas on tv!!!  Gotcha watch em!

Take care

Love

Mina

Sunday, May 15, 2011

What's on my mind at past 11pm - duh

Here I am at 11:15 pm...feeling sleepy but yet wanting to write something... ok...am out of inspiration but will try to adopt one thing I read in a mail sent to us at work by a colleague.

The main point I grasped was that it explained a method to empty your mind completely and hence try to get some peace of mind.  All that you have to do is to write down whatever comes to your mind.  Does it work?  I guess yeah as I used to do something similar...except that I would not write it down but talk it loud (uhhh only when nobody was at home of course)...

So, let's start with something very simple and since we are a Sunday...well let's talk about Sundays.  I've always loved and hated Sundays....yeah!!!!  Why?  Well, let's look at the negative side of Sundays:  TIME FLIES TOO QUICKLY!!!  I don't know if it's only me who feels it or other people do as well.  It's like, you hardly woke up and the next moment you find yourself already on bed...grunchy and complaining that GOD it's late and I have to wake up early tomorrow!!!  That's why I hate Sundays.

But on the other Side, one good side of Sundays is that we often get to go out with family: the beach or simply driving to nowhere as long as the want for the long drive is there.  Also, long long long ago, we used to go swimming on Sunday mornings: A pure bliss!!!  WE do not really get the time to do so now.

Better change the subject now, else instead of finding some peace I'll be even more sad!

What else can I say now???  Nothing on my mind... lol  My blog's name is what comes out of the mind and am out of stock for the time being.  At times when am at work, I get loads of ideas that fuse from dunno where on my mind.  The moment am home, am so tired that I really forget about it.  Guess it is better like this than to write pieces of crap that mean nothing.

Speaking of crap...I wonder how I would qualify this one?  When I read it some other day maybe I will be in a better position to judge my masterpiece of 11pm :)

I wish I could write more often and produce some quality posts.  But am scared to say things that were not meant to be said - I mean some family matters.  I should say that when I came back after almost 3 years, I was wondering if my blog still existed.  I was happy to find that I can still have access and was wondering how to proceed from there.  I have a few examples of blogs here in Mauritius and they are very good for that matter.  I didn't know if I should also go the way they do or keep it as a window to my soul and a window to me?  


Today I received a comment on my blog...YEAH a comment finally :D...and what the person told me really gave me a boost.  I want my blog to reflect my personality, my thoughts and who I really am.  From there on, I may also get inspired by some leading local blogs that often talk about the mauritian realities.  I believe if I am really inspired then such contents will be found on my blog too.

To begin with, I think that I would like to keep it simple and share what I really want to share as I've been doing so far.  Comments are welcome and these are very important for improvement :)

I think that was a good attempt tonight despite that tomorrow I may find it to be a crap.  But am quite happy about my posts...

Anyway, it's 11:40 pm, time to go to bed.  Shucks...am gonna be grunchy and complain about being late to bed again.

Well...with my best wishes for a nice week ahead,

Love

Mina R

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What comes out of the mind...  is a personal blog and represents opinions and views expressed solely by me.  No one is liable for anything that is written here.  Whatever is expressed in this blog represents snapshots of what is going on my mind.


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Saturday, May 14, 2011

12th May....a day to remember

What is so special on the 12th of May???  Well, 30 years ago a special being was born on that day and taddddaaaaaaaaaa thats ME!!! LOL


Ok, maybe not so special being or special to my dear ones only(huh??).  But yeah, as some call me :A "minante" was born on that day.  

But wait, that's not all!!!!  

12th May became even more important to me since 28 years after I was born, a little angel was born on the same day!!!!  And that little angel is my darling nephew.  I should say thanks to my sister for giving me such a great gift but shhhhh I won't let her know how thankful I am about it :D

So this year, my angel turned 2.  So a few weeks...umm no, make that 1 week before his birthday we were like mads looking for a good pastry shop to make his birthday cake.  Finally a friend of mine advised me "Chez Christian".  So on the Sunday preceding our birthday, we went to Christian to look at cake designs (oh I forgot to mention that my devilish angel has a fixation on BOUBA these days).  My dad nearly had a heart attack when he heard the price of the cake.  But since our angel is soooooooo lucky, god only knows how we got convinced to get him the cake.  OK, it's not really bouba(for those who still remember bouba) but it was near bouba. ps: not that they didn't have bouba design, but it didn't look nice on the catalog.  So we opted for a yellow little bear.  And it was a real pleasure to look at our angel's face when he saw his cake....




Both cakes tasted yummy and I had to cut the poor bebear with great pain in my heart...sniff sniff


Anyway....we simply had a gr8 12th May and I wish many more to come where my devilish angel and I can celebrate together. 

Speed limits in Mauritius

Some weeks back I was driving to a village in the north.  My mom was sitting in front with me and she always warns me about the speed limits.  At one point in time, I decided to really respect the speed limits.

Can you imagine driving at 40km/hr or 30km/hr???  Gosh, despite I was driving and as a responsible driver I must be concentrated on the road, I could do some sight seeing.... I agree that speed limits are very important for security reasons. In a place where there are inhabitants...and pets for that matter, I agree to drive slowly than usual but imagine a road with sugar cane fields as far as you can see and you have to drive at 40 or 50? 

One question that comes to my mind: should the authorities review the speed limits in some regions?

Ummm....

What comes out of the mind...: Be Thankful...

What comes out of the mind...: Be Thankful...