I have really weird dreams. I know that all dreams are weird to some extent, but I feel like lately my subconscious is developing sure signs of insanity. And it’s not much longer till it manifests on my conscious self. Just a polite warning to those who actually have to deal with me on a daily basis.

Ok, so amongst my many bizarre dream experiences, I am about to share with you a couple. Actually, maybe just one. No need to advertise the insanity too much.

Scene 1: Here I am, in my parents’ bedroom, while they’re watching TV. I tell my mom, that I have a worm inside my brain that is incurable (which was scary in itself.) So of course my mom does what every loving mother would do in such a situation. She picks up a gun and shoots me in the head. Good, now I’m lying on the bed telling my parents that I’m still alive, and they need to take me to a hospital! So, they help me up, and I walk out of the room.

Scene 2: My father is driving me to the hospital, on a snowy, icy, wintry day. In a big, rednec.. uh, I mean, red pick-up truck. He leaves me at the hospital door because “he can’t find parking anywhere” and I have to walk across the ice with a worm and a bullet stuffed in my head.

In the hospital, to treat my condition (the bullet wound) they cut off my head. Oooff course.

Scene 3: I run away from the hospital. And now I’m running away from a woman who wants to steal some "family secrets" from me. On a very brown, very sandy landscape with dunes or hills or something. Did I mention I’m a boy at this point? Yes, try and keep up. [Now that I think about it, it was probably because I didn’t have a brain anymore. Haha BUuuuurrrnn!!]

I do remember wondering (in my dream) that if I’ve been decapitated, how in the world is my vision still working!?

Needless to say, I woke up all sweaty and with my heart pounding. But I recovered soon enough and called my parents to tell them about the atrocities they committed. What did they have to say about it?

“Hahahaha”

Earth Hour - March 27, 2010

Lights were switched off, candles were lit and the windows were left open, so that the cool air could come and go as it pleased. For a while I felt like I was home, in India, when a power outage would strike without any notice and we would sit in the balcony, with candles lit and doors and windows left open to invite the cool breeze in. It would be quiet, except for the trucks on the road. It was the kind of silence I grew up with, the kind I like. The view from my balcony was breathtaking at night. What was unremarkable in the light – just roads and stones and apartments – would transform in the dark to a pretty pattern of lights and sounds that would just somehow match. It helped that our apartment is on the sixth floor, and the highway is just the right distance for the sound of passing cars to be pleasing instead of making you want to throw bricks at them.

But, I digress. Earth hour. It was more like two and a half earth hours. And that was because it was spent in the company of nice smelling candles, good friends and good conversations. I will just leave it at that. Candles, friends, conversations and conservation. ;)

You're not the boss of me!!

Diamond is a tiny little brown dog. She’s very feisty and spunky, like a small brown dog should be. I know this because I and three other adults, which included a police officer, ran around the main roads of town trying to catch her.

We strategized, and she slipped right through our fingers. We coaxed, and she saw right through our pretenses. We lunged, and she lunged further away from us. We slowed traffic so that she wouldn't get run over. We asked strangers sitting on the side of the road if they had any food and they looked at us like we were in cahoots with the crazy guy at the end of the street.

And all the time, the game was just getting more and more challenging for her. So, first it was just Mr Dogsitter. Then two, then three then four people! All trying to catch me, huh? Well, I’ll show them, she thought. I’ll show them who runs things around here. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll take them out of the apartment complex first, then on to the highway. Then when they get really scared, I’ll take them to the parking lot where there’s lots of places for me to hide. Then let’s see what they come up with.

But what she didn’t take into account was that four people determined to catch a little dog will outrun her. By the end, all of us were panting and wheezing but we had her surrounded. She looked at all of us in turn, sizing us up. Then, like no big deal, she crawls into Mr Dogsitter’s arms. She was a naughty little runaway dog. But what fun she had that day!

I wonder if the dogsitter ever told the owner about Diamond’s little adventure.

The day it flooded in A-mess.

The day began when I got a call from a friend at 6.30 am in the morning. Any call at 6.30 am is either bad news or drunk dial. When she said there is water around her apartment, I never thought it would be 5 to 6 feet of water. Once they got on dry land (via rescue boat), and we walked around our neighbourhood trying to assess the levels of the water and the severity of the flood, it was clear we were pretty much stranded on an island and campus was completely inaccessible. So, I promptly got into panic gear, went to Hyvee and bought emergency supplies – 6 bars of snickers, two tins of canned fruit and some fresh fruit, and a bag of chips. I am reanalyzing my emergency-coping abilities. (Fortunately, a part of my brain was working the night before and I had parked my car away from the low lying parking spaces that got inundated with flood water).

Once we got home, we had nothing to do – we had no internet, nowhere to go. So I set about doing the one thing I had been putting off for a while – cleaning! I cleaned and sprayed and scrubbed for two hours. I even cleaned the dustbins. Who cleans the dustbins, I’d like to know and shake hands gloves with.

After that, boredom set in. While the others were catching up on sleep, I studied, I cleaned up my computer, discovered my iPod isn’t working and then went out for a walk to… Hyvee! After I got back and started cooking dinner, I learned that the water in Ames is “contaminated” (they were very ambiguous about this part), and that we aren’t supposed to flush the toilets or use the shower, and that there has been a boil alert since the morning that I knew nothing of. I set about boiling water in all the pots and pans I owned. After we had dinner two hours later than my tummy had planned, we went back to.. guess where? Hyvee! And bought gallons of drinking water.

Last thing at night, I did after all receive a drunk dial, and the day felt complete. It was all in a day’s work for me, but my heart goes out to the people who have lost their homes, their cars and their belongings, and in one case, their loved one, in the flood.

P.S. The pictures aren’t mine. The first was captured by university photographer Bob Elbert, and the second is from a weather lab. I will put up pictures from my camera either when the internet at home starts working, or when I develop enough presence of mind to bring my camera and its cord to campus.

The Shrink is In

Well. Of all the rubbish that's on YouTube, you would've thought someone would've put the video that actually teaches you some life lessons.
If you've heard of the television series "That 70's Show", you might know of Hyde and Jackie. And then you might've seen the one episode where Hyde, in his infinite wisdom teaches Jackie the power of being Zen -.-

It doesn't matter if you use it on that one really annoying person in your life, or on the nicer people who PMS sometimes (yes, even guys PMS.) or with people who are being absolutely chipper. (God knows that can be annoying.) It will faze the unfazed and unfaze the perfectly fazed. That is the power of Zen. -.-

I'm not much of a fan, but I did learn some things from that show. Now, I pass on the wisdom to you. The next time you feel the blood rising, or you're just bored with life, say these words to the person in front of you: "It's cool." and when they ask you what that means, you may move on to "Whatever". Even if they are not in front of you, but you're just plain mad, say it. You must not underestimate the power of Zen -.- The words will soothe and apathize. Excuse me, what? You say there's no such word as "apathize"? Whatever.

Use these words at your discretion, but use them wisely, little grasshoppers. And remember, "You can't teach someone to be Zen, Jackie, you can only learn to be Zen." And don't let your opponent underestimate you either, for "where Zen ends, ass-kicking begins!"

This post is dedicated to Aparajita, aka Aplu, who introduced me to the world of Zen. (You can find her and her amazing talent here - http://aparajita-r.blogspot.com/ )