Happy Diwali !

Wishing you all a very happy Diwali.



Let the festival of lights

light up your world and

bring happiness and

banish ignorance !



Lets burst some crackers !



I miss being home right now L


Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:51 UTC
Message-id: 394805031S132

So many things...

There are so many things I have to say.

So many things I have to write.

But right now there's no time,

no energy and most importantly

no drive.

I hope I get out of this rut soon,

And start doing what I love to do

Again.


Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:10 UTC
Message-id: 394211501S126

Honorable man

Although we were originally going towards shanghai and chiba, on a later
date the charterers decided that the ship will generate more profits if it
discharges in Tabangao.

So , in 3 more days , we'll in be in Tabangao, Phillipines.It's my second
time in Philippines. The first time was in a sleepy place called Mariveles.

The pinoy kabayan agree here "That place no good. Batangas much better"
they say .



Of course now that we are going to Batangas, they are ecstatic.

Nilo is the happiest one. Nilo is short for Leonilo Balita Espiritu.Come to
think of it , that's the shortest Filipino name I've come across. All the
other names are so long that they accommodate everything of your address ,
except possibly the pin code !

Come to think of it , these guys have multiple names. The real name(one
that's on the passport),pinoy nickname (e.g. pogi ), and Most Preferred
Name(or MPN)

For example , Bims (MPN) is actually Bimbonito (real name) also known as
pogi among his kabayan. I can understand why he wants his name shortened to
Bims(MPN). No one wants to be a Bimbo on a ship filled with sailors !

Oh yeah, Nilo is the happiest one because he actually lives in Batangas,
close to the jetty where we are scheduled to berth. He is understandably the
man of the hour, our savior, our guide ! Certain discreet arrangements have
been made and we will be treated well when we go ashore, Nilo has promised !

Of course ,while Nilo is going home , others have made their own
arrangements. Art (MPN) plans to talk on his cell phone all day , as it is a
local call for him.

Clint has negotiated a lengthy deal with his girlfriend's mom and finally
his Princesskatara is allowed to come onboard to visit him.(certain
conditions apply, certain promises were extracted, you know the deal).

He tells me that once his princess is on board, the biggest challenge is to
keep her away from other men. Especially his kabayan !

He also tells me that he wants to introduce her to me.



To put him at ease I tell him that I'm an honorable man with honorable
intentions.

This is where I cross my fingers and tell him about my 4 non-existent
girlfriends and a cozy love nest that we share back at home. His eyes become
saucers. He tells me how lucky I am. He asks me about my future plans. He
reiterates my unusual luckiness. With fingers still crossed I assure him
that juggling 4 girlfriends is very challenging. So I assure that his
princess is safe in my vicinity.

Poor Clint.

He has no Idea.

(Hmm.Should I insert an evil maniacal 'I-WILL-TAKE -OVER-THE-WORLD" laughter
here for added effect ?)




Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:54 UTC
Message-id: 391709745S384

Number Game

All my life I've been a 5.

I thought that that was my age , but then I found out that I was only four
years old.

So much for that theory.

Now look at 6.

He's been a 6 for almost twenty years. He came up all the way from being a
tiny 11.

Now look how big a 6 he has become now. His mama must be so proud of him.



But I wouldn't want to be 6 .It's not that I don't like being a 6 or
anything , but...well , actually its the company .

Have you heard about 7 ? Well , I never thought that in this day and age
people could do such a thing...that , you know , that cannibalism existed,
but from what I hear ,

7 8 9 !

Yup , heard that one from a reliable source.

Ever since that incident 10s are refusing to become 9s anymore !

Such a sad situation.

With the dire shortage of 9s in the market , 3s are finding a hard time
squaring off (or multiplying with oneself , if you must call it.)

Yes numbers indulge in squaring off from time to time.

What's the harm anyways ?

Now ever since it has been proven scientifically that squaring off
(multiplying with oneself, if you must call it) does not lead to blindness,
hair loss or acne as previously thought, I don't think you people should
frown at the act anymore.

After all it is with someone you love.



Also , I wanted to get something off my chest today.(apart from my chest
hair)

Fractions and decimals may not be like you and me , but they are numbers too
!

I strongly believe that they must be treated equally and with respect and
dignity that they deserve.

Sure decimals are a bit slow (on being less than whole) and fractions look
weird with number appendages hanging off them, but they are differently
abled, and we must have empathy for their situation.

Say No to numberism ! Say Yes to numeric equality !



What do I think of Imaginary numbers?

Of course , I don't believe in Imaginary numbers as such ,being an educated
number I would say that it is preposterous and scientifically invalidated
but I have met a few that claim to have seen them.(Yeah right , you have
seen the square root of negative one !)



Yeah , you must be wondering , what do I think of negatives ...Well ,
negatives are negatives .

Let them be.

If you understand their rules , then go ahead interact with them.

But remember , once you go negative, there's no going back !(unless you find
another negative who's willing to change you...but why would they ?)

So always keep some protection at hand.

Play safe !



But why am I rambling about my life here...

Well it's because I've been promoted !

I'm a 4 now !

Its an uphill task now that I'm a 4 now.

You're the new kid in town. People look at you differently. They have
different expectations.

A curvy 8 bombshell even winked at me and gave me her number(which was
8).Hoo boy !I think I'll enjoy being a 4.I'm gonna paint the whole town red
!

Of course being a 4 is not easy. There is a steep learning curve that has to
be mastered quickly. But ever since I was a 5 , I've been secretly learning
the ropes from 4 Sr., my mentor. He's a 3 now. I'm not sure he likes being
a prime odd number , but someone had to fill the spot as 2 passed away
prematurely.(2 was hell bent on proving that he is not the only even prime
number , and this obsession eventually drove him to suicide).



I'm sure the shortage of 9s is going to end soon and 3 will find some time
to relax and square off.



I once got a chance to meet 1.



He's very enlightened, you know.



I told him that my ultimate goal in life is to become 1, just like him...



...They say that one should aim for the stars , so that one (not 1) can at
least reach the moon, but I'm aiming to become number 1 all the way.

It's just that I don't know whether I'll live long enough to see the day
I'll become number 1 , because 1 has been there for so long , and 2 is very
young (as she became a 2 recently ) and then there is my mentor 3 , who I
swear my loyalty to...Come to think of it, I wouldn't want to be 2 for long.
Other numbers used to laugh at 2's back because he smelled funny all the
time. It wasn't his fault though. He smelled bad because of all the
unpleasant things associated with No.2.I'd be a 3 as soon as 3 became 2 and
then one day...



1 laughed at my immature ramblings. He told me that I reminded
him of his younger days. The days when he was brash, cocky and headstrong.
He told me that he was overambitious to a fault. All he wanted to be was a
1.(which he became directly from a 3 after overthrowing the old 1 in a
bloodless coup in the year of _.Refer to your high school history textbooks)







1 told me that the ultimate goal in everyone's life is to become a 0 , or
the nullification of self. It is an existence that is neither positive , nor
negative, and has the power to destroy any number or increase its value by
any factor. He says that being a 0 is existing and not existing at the same
time, being everything and nothing at the same time. It is a purely
metaphysical state of existence, in a higher state of energy, one that does
not suffer from any wants or needs or pains or suffering.





1 talked to me about the process of nullification of self.

Well I may not have understood him fully, but I thought eventually all
numbers became 0.That eventual nullification of self (or death as you call
it) is inevitable.

But 1 told me that that kind of nullification is not the end. It is just
one phase of a very long and endless iteration. He also told me about
eventuality and causality of all things in life.

The goal , he told me is to stop the endless iteration of 0 to infinity and
infinity to 0.





He told me that the secret is in knowing the difference between knowing the
path and walking the path. There was a critical gap between knowing and
being, according to him, and finding it out was all that mattered. He told
me sadly that although he knew all about 0, he did not how to be one or how
to achieve the state of nullification of self.





At this point , I started drifting away.1 is a great guy. He's a bit old,
and a bit preoccupied ,but I couldn't stop smiling as I saw the sultry 8
winking at me. She has a reputation of being a man-eater (like 7),but I'm
taking my chances on her. We are going to make a very beautiful 32 together
, I hope.

Things are going to be pretty interesting from now.

And Of course , one day I'm gonna be 1.

The 1.

Only 1.




Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:56 UTC
Message-id: 391011911S179

Note To Self

Learning "how to become what you are" [in Nietzsche's

phrase] takes a lifetime, but it still seems the best game in town.

Patience.

If Its Easy

If its easy to be impressed by someone, then don't be.

Dig deeper.


Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:54 UTC
Message-id: 389940777S372

Time is Fluid

Have you ever noticed

the antinomy

in the dichotomy

That as days drag on,

weeks fly past ?



Time is fluid,

see it flow.



Have you noticed that

Months trudge ahead

as years flit away ?



Time is fluid

see it flow.

Sometimes quick,

sometimes slow.



Time is fluid, realize this.



And when we say

that times have changed,

is it we

who have changed the most ?





"Time is fluid here"

Many out at sea will attest to this fact. Time doesn't
work the same at sea like ashore. Every day seems longer than twenty four
hours but before you know it

, weeks have passed away !

Really...out at sea , under the endless skies and the
stars (a phrase I seem to overuse !),when you have all the time in the
world and don't know what to

do...that is when you realize...that Time , like any other unit of
measurement is only a perception and being so , is easily manipulated by
the observer. Most of us do it

unconsciously. We are not aware that we are stretching time, or shortening
it or sometimes bending it to suit our map of reality.



As a famous man with pointy hair once said "Time is relative"



I always wished I had a good comeback ready for that.



I didn't believe in living in the present. As a kid , I thought it was
something literally impossible to do.



I used to argue

"Living in the present is such a fallacy !"



"You want to live in the present ?"



"Here's a moment on its way...wait for it...wait for
it...wait for it...oops ! There it goes !"

"Let's try that again..."

"Here's a moment once again...wait for it...wait for
it...wait for it...oops ! There it goes again..."

"Did you see it ?"

"Let's try that again...I'm kidding !"



Let's face it. The present moment is so brief and fleetingly infinitesimal
that it slips away before one can grasp at it.

It is one of the most profound and perplexing conundrums the consciousness
can face. (caution: Excessive Alliteration ahead !)



We are trapped between memories of the past and anticipation of the future.

Both nonexistent, both intangible !



As the cliche goes "Now is all you have"

(Quick !Here's another cliche :"Love is all you need")



It wasn't until I experienced being in the present that I realized that
Being in the Present was possible.

It was at a carnatic music concert hosted by Flautist Extraordinaire Praveen
Godkindi. When they began , the music was so powerful, so overwhelmingly
beautiful , that I simply lost myself. The music was simply too delicious
for me to relive my past or invent my future. I was there , at the then.
Then and there came together and it was a profound moment of realization of
the loss of ego and being totally in the present.



You can do it too.

Eckhart Tolle , author of 'Power Of Now' suggests that this is the key:


'End the delusion of time. Time and mind are inseparable. Remove time from
the mind and it stops - unless you choose to use it. To be identified with
your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost
exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless
preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and
acknowledge the resent moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises
because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of
salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions'



For the uninitiated, living in the present can be excruciating. On
the ship we go through long intervals of time, where one has to notice
everything around him and every minute has to be accounted for. Especially
during tricky river passages or potentially dangerous ship to ship
transfers.

For people who are not used to it, this forced awareness of each and every
passing moment causes extreme mental distress and unbearable physical
fatigue.

This is where one has to have a single minded laser like
concentration. But there is a caveat against this single minded
concentration though. One cannot develop tunnel vision syndrome and filter
out other important information during these critical times. Especially in
transit through the busy Singapore straits or while traversing through the
foggy river of shanghai , one should aim for a scattered concentration, a
geometrical expanding volume-like thinking ,instead of the standard linear
thinking we are taught

elsewhere. It is an exhausting and draining Zen experience which we sailors
shake off by taking power naps.



Come to think of it , the whole essence of Zen consists in walking
along the razor's edge of Now - to be so utterly, so completely present that
no problem, no

suffering, nothing that is not who you are in your essence, can survive in
you. In the Now, in the absence of time, all your problems dissolve.
Suffering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now.



As the cliche goes...Now is all you have.



So if history repeats and a famous man with pointy hair says once again that
"Time is relative"...

Then I'd say "So is my mother-in-law, but what can I do about it
?"



(you can applaud now !)



Word of the day:

Antinomy(n) - A contradiction between two statements that seem equally
reasonable.



Dichotomy(n) - Being twofold; a classification into two opposed parts or
subclasses.


Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:49 UTC
Message-id: 389757137S317

?

Is this on your iPod ?

Title:Violet Hill
Artist:Coldplay
Album:Viva la Vida or Death and all his Friends.

Second question.
" If you love me , won't you let me know ?"

Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:46 UTC
Message-id: 389756886S317

Prison Diary (Part Deux)

I'm not saying that sailors are dumb but my cadet still
believes in the old twenty four dimensional model of the superstring theory
of the universe over the new one only with square root of minus one
dimensions.



For a copy of this new theory , feel free to
contact me , as I'm the co-author of the new book, 'Uses of Superstring
Theory in Saltwater Taffy Production ' which I proudly co-wrote with my
imaginary friend Bob. Bob's full nickname is Bob Bob because his real name
is Robert Robert.



Bob Bob is a professional fear monger by day, and a backyard
armchair theoretical physicist at night. Occasionally he likes to wear his
boxers outside his pants and pretend to be superman.



Bob's favorite joke was 'An atom is just an e less than a
body .No one thought that this joke of his would cause his untimely demise.
He said this to his dentist , who in a fit of laughter overdosed him with
nitrous oxide.



At least he died with a smile on his face !The generous
dentist then gave him a root canal on the house. We need more of such
dentists.



The other day I overheard two helmsmen talk about the is-ness and isn't-ness
of time.



One of them was Socratic in his argument.

He said

"Here is a clock that shows time."

"There is another clock that shows time."

"Time has been verified by two independent sources."

"Therefore time exists."



His argument was quickly dismantled by the other when he removed the
batteries out of both the clocks.



The other went into the realm of metaphysical and superhuman. He said that
either time existed or the Captain of the ship was actually superman.

He said that the Captain had the power to alter time and space and bend
reality itself to his whims with his symbol of individuality. When asked to
explain , he said that he saw the captain making false entries in the log
book and then signing it ergo he altered time-space and reality itself.

But then his doubts were cleared when he found the captain flying across the
forecastle deck wearing a red cape and tights.



And today I saw pigs flying in a kitchen sink across a blue moon. I think I
have nothing left to see in life.



We are facing a crisis that is testing the physical, mental
limits of every man. We are facing the Great Cigarette Shortage. No crisis
ever so tragic has been documented in the short history of this ship, apart
from the Great water shortage circa May 2008.



Hungry people have experimented with alternatives that
included carrots and pencils. The alternatives have proved to be very
unsatisfying as carrots don't catch fire that easily and burning eraser tips
are found to have an odor that is far worse than that of burning tobacco.
Even non-smokers like me are facing withdrawal symptoms. I've begun
hallucinating, I think, because I can hear my lungs thanking me daily for
not exposing them to huge amounts of second hand smoke.



Experiments with new alternatives for cigarettes have begun
amongst desperate smokers and most of them believe that burning candles are
the next best alternative. Attempts at stuffing candles with dried lettuce
is underway.

Will keep you updated with the latest news.



Cigarettes are used for as currency against favors
here in shipping. The pilot demands 10 cartons of Marlboro Whites for a
speedy transit, while the customs officer demands three each for his
cronies, and the immigration officer won't issue shore leave passes until
he gets his share (which depends entirely on his wife's mood swings).

All these remind me of the good old prison days. I feel so at home.




Received: from C6XB2 at Globe Wireless; Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:06 UTC
Message-id: 389233554S191