What I am Listening to Now

Btw I thought maybe I should quickly write what I have been listening to in the past couple of weeks.
First off, Pink Martini have their new album called Hey Eugene! You can listen to the actual song Hey Eugene! here. Pretty funny. Not as good an effort as their previous work, but still pretty fun. There is one song called Dosvedanya Mio Bombino which gets me going - pretty cool. I love Russian names! Hmm I loved the concert of this group, they were so cool!! Here is another song - damn she is HOT!! :-P

Ok the next album is Bjork's new one called Volta. It is similar to her other ones, very weird and interesting. Not sure if it is easy listening, but is is definitely her voice and her rhythm and then there is the one song about suicide bombers!
Finally I am listening to the new Michael Buble album, Call Me Irresistible. This was after Chris mentioned him in relation to the song Sway. Btw I finally found the Dean Martin version of Sway which is pretty damn good. I can upload that if you want. Love It! :-)
alright that's about it. I can't wait till I listen to the new Aussie compilation that Chris is making for me :-) Oh and I am also listening to the new Shajarian cd, called Saaze Khamoosh, meaning Silent Instrument. Now that I think about what I have listed above, it is so diverse!! No wonder i never finish anything, I am all over the place!!!

Girls Girls Girls!!

I was talking to two good friends today at lunch, lets call them B and S. They are both smart and very nice girls and very good friends. We started talking about the difference between girls and guys, specifically with respect to their PhD studies. B was saying how after talking to a lot of people, it seems that it is generally girls that never feel they are ready to graduate or propose (PhD proposals), that they know enough. They feel that they are imposters, somehow having tricked everyone and there is always the fear that they will be revealed. Why is it we feel that way? B mentioned maybe it is to do with the fact that we talk and analyze things too much. I wonder if that is why. Does this insecurity have any good affects? Maybe it does and maybe it does too much damage.

It is funny, a lot of what she described are exactly my feelings. My confidence level with regards to my studies is very low. Maybe that is because I haven't had the best graduate studies experience (actually it is definitely related) but I also think that the lack of confidence is a girl thing. It is especially worst, when you think about the fact that I am in a male dominated field and it is generally these males that have over sized egos and inflated confidences.

I do other dumb girl things: the other night I said something at the dance class, where I was joking. Later on I kept thinking about it and thinking what if no one realized that i was joking? Oh they must think i am such a bad person. You wouldn't believe, this went on for literally half the night. I couldn't stop myself from thinking of this and I was so worried and by 3am and I was still awake, I knew I had to stop. Is it just me or do other people worry about dumb things as well. You analyze everything you say and then reanalyze.

Today

I feel like it has been a long time since I wrote anything meaningful in my blog. And there has been a lot of different things going on. Well, maybe not a lot, but enough.

First of all, I am pretty disappointed that I will have to miss two of my high school friends wedding - they're getting married to each other and we have been waiting such a long time for these two to finally decide the timing is right. I don't know, for me the timing was right a long time ago!! Wouldn't you say so Chris? :-) My friends J and D are so well suited to each other it is crazy - one of those couples that you see and think ok this is the way it should be. Unfortunately (fortunately??!) i have to go to a conference in England at that time and well the distance from Aus to England is too much for the one day between the wedding and the conference start date. Isn't that funny? well not funny ha ha, but crazy that the distance is still too far. And then salt on my wounds, I find out that a bunch of our other friends from Smithy will be there as well, and I would have loved to catch up with them... As time passes, the more I want to hang on to the threads of my past. The more I value them.

Have to run - the other things will be said later alligator!

Meaning of Gadfly

I found something very interesting - why I didn't know about it before, I don't know. And it makes so much more sense esp with respect to my favorite book: The Gadfly by E.L.Voynich. Anyway Wiki defines Gadfly as:

"Gadfly" is a term for people who upset the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or attempt to stimulate innovation by proving an irritant.

The term "gadfly" was used by Plato to describe Socrates' relationship of uncomfortable goad to the Athenian politician scene, which he compared to a slow and dimwitted horse. It was used earlier by the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 46 of his book. The term has been used to describe many politicians and social commentators.

During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the tiny (relative to the size of a horse) gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me," because his role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth."

I think it is also a very appropriate name for a blog. Damn I surprise myself!! :-P

Styx post

Check out an interesting blog post by sticky-pie Styx about the new laptops from the One Laptop Per Child foundation.

Misc.

I read a weird article about this new type of by called "Modesty Buses" in Israel. Men and women are segregated with men sitting at the front and women sitting at the back. The sad thing is that this is what is actually happening right now in Iran. Men claim it is actually for the women's sake but come on - the moment you enforce these rules and remove freedom of choice you discard the option of claiming something is for the good of a group.
Like the hejab in Iran - women should cover themselves up... why? if you believe it, you should do it and if you don't...? I read the following quote in an article from Playboy the other day: In Iran, before the revolution, people used to pray in private and party in public. Now it is the other way around.
Somehow I think the more you try to enforce something, the more it backfires in the long run.
Btw the Playboy article is here and i haven't finished reading it but it seems interesting. You can download the pdf.
[Note: Unfortunately, there are no dirty pictures on this site! :-) ]

I am going to finish up with the following picture which I thought was really funny!! Essentially, be nice to the US!

Check out this goal by Messi

Gol de Messi al Getafe 18/04/07

Very Pretty!