The three great fallacies of communication

Communication is an interesting area to be working in and one that almost everyone claims expertise in. In Bangladesh, more so than perhaps in other countries, communication is often mistaken as the correct sequencing of individual words to convey an approximate sentiment.

Given that a good sentence is so often misconstrued as good communication, there are bound to be experts everywhere; add in a few choice “buzz words” or pepper on some high thought jargon, and you have the icing on the cake. It’s really that easy… or is it?

Cruel to be kind

Looking up to the sky as the clouds overcast

Like a winter blanket;

But cooling rather than warming those caught underneath.

No rhyme nor rhythm yet translucent in intent.

A dark and foreboding omen of relief and revenge,

Yet disarming those below with a welcomed cold breeze;

As if laying bare like an open book,

Lamenting that it is only cruel to be kind.

… or is it being kind to be cruel

The truth lies in the immediate aftermath.

Memories from this life lived

Memories drive nostalgic sepia scorched warm feelings

What ‘was,’ ne’er remembered to completion;

What ‘can,’ succumbs to love and tempered tones

Of events that hone on euphoria for sake of misunderstanding.

When was what was…

Is subdued in the smoky haze of battered experience,

Can hurt be felt across the horizons

Of far gotten conclusions that were wisps at best?

Money matters most foul

Case in point is my relation with my superior better half (as opposed to just my better half) who is much more particular about things financial against my 'throw money at it' brand of problem solving. 

Now, one thing that must be said is my creative accounting style allows me to maul timeframes and payment cycles in my head much more easily than people who are more systematic in their approach to balancing the chequebook – logic takes time to comprehend in that it requires a clear minded approach and a clear line of sight to chronology. Creative accounting and quick assessment, on the other hand, have an almost wicked means of solving itself.

The case I mention about my wife is that she is very particular with paying the bills from her own funds with the expressed expectation that the funds will be replenished by me as quickly as it exited her own account. Given my affinity to dilly and dally, coupled with my innate nature to willy-wally, my chequebook is slow in coming out. This is not so much as a reflex to not pay my dues as much as it is an indication of my, often, nonchalant and relaxed temperament (to say nothing about my sincere, but lax, intent that my debts are as good as paid... eventually).

When is it okay to like zombies?

Life sets up interesting challenges when you have a child. Life is a bit more interesting for me because I have two... one of each flavour, so there are no lessons learnt earlier to fall back on since they like different things.

I got a call from my son this afternoon asking that he wanted to make a book with some photos he looked up on the internet. He said it was book of monsters (obviously he would since he just turned nine), he told me that he had all the pages ready and all I had to do was print the images for him on separate pages and staple them together.

I promised him I would when I got home.

It was when I got home that he presented me with my first glimpse of images. The first was a ghost... a really silly black & white mirror trick image circa early 19-somethings (fine), the second was of a werewolf (kind of gory, very gothic and an artist's rendition... fine). The third was of a sexy vixenish teen vampire with a come-hither look, sharp incisors and blood lust mouth, circa Twilight vamp (a deep breath but fine, boys will be boys, right?).

Then it got a bit more interesting and a tad bit disturbing...

Managing the time to time manage

Given enough time, I have seen that I can make the hours stretch into nothingness and successfully, to my utter dismay, have absolutely nothing to show for it (or is that just the point?). When I look at my last blog post, I am shocked that my last entry was in October last year and not in March this year as I would have myself believe.

I mean what sort of blogger am I that days pass through into weeks and into literally months! All I can say is while my one true fan hasn't complained I have probably lost a couple more 'regulars' thanks to my lethargy(?). I imagine I shouldn't label it 'lethargy' as the months have been anything but. Perhaps the word to coin in this instance is 'selected lethargy' or more like it 'selethargy.'

Which makes me to wonder, how is it that so many people manage to get so much done in the span of the same 24 hours that I get? Or am I imagining things? Simple problems have simple solutions usually and the answer could be that more gets done mainly because while the same number of projects may be initiated, much fewer were being concluded in my case. But that's not right either, considering the number of tasks that are concurrently run and completed. I would venture to guess that the real reason is that or I have a more varied area of operations.