To think or to feel?

or

As you grow older, at each stage of your life the onus is on you to make the decisions. What should I work in? Whom should I marry? Where should I live? How much money do I wan't? How do you decide? Do you think through it or do you feel it?
The reason I am bringing up this topic is a discussion I had with Rob. I was telling him about the system in India, where your parents pick out a girl for you. I personally think that it isn't a bad idea, as long as I know the girl for a while before marriage. But, he was aghast, he couldn't imagine getting married to someone suggested by his parents. I was aghast he was aghast. I could go on like this but back to the topic.
Getting married is probably one of the biggest decisions that you will make in your life. It has the potential to make the difference between a life of fulfillment and a life of resentment. In the beginning of any relationship it's almost impossible to predict how thing's are going to go. So how do you decide ?
Do you go by the way you feel? I feel really connected to her and I feel she is the one. I really don't care about anything else, and all that matters is that I love her. I am going to do what it takes to make it work. In this approach, I might ignore a couple of crucial points that could introduce tension later on, age, race, attitudes etc.
Do you attempt to look at it from a logical perspective? Well, she is a decent looking girl with a nice personality. She wants to do a Ph. D. so the she is reasonably intellectual. Since, I am doing a Ph. D. as well, it would make it easy for us to be together. That's good.
Let's assume she is American:
Hmm...it would be tough to convince my parents about marrying her. If I wanted to get back to India, it would be tough to work out too. And, these people have such a high rate of divorce, what if later after things cool down, no, why do you think of such things, but still.
In this approach, you have the tendency to over-analyze, and with sufficient analysis you can make anyone look bad. You just need to get paranoid and neurotic about their short comings.
So how do you decide? Do you go by the way you feel or by what you think are the 'facts'? I think you need a combination of both. Your feelings and the facts need to align.

Travel Guide- NYC

New York. Songs have been dedicated to it, movies have been made around it- comedies, thrillers, dramas that revolve around it's subways, gangs, financial district....but, all this is no substitute for experiencing it.
What I like about NYC-
1) The atmosphere- lively and animated. Go to Times Square to see what I mean. Most of the theatres are situated around it so you can catch a show while you are there.
2) Restaurants and bars- It's a city that is famed for the number of restaurants that it has and rightly so. You get restaurants that fit every wallet and every palate. Go to Greenich Village/Soho for the bars and nice restaurants. 9th Avenue has a lot of restaurants too.
Things you should do in NYC-
1) Go up the Empire State Building. I actually made the mistake of taking the Chrysler Building to be ESB. Well, it's a lot more distinctive. You should go up the ESB for an amazing view of NY. You can see right from Wall Street to beyond Central Park. You can hear the sounds of the city as the buildings pump them up into the sky. It's great.
2) Take a cruise around Manhattan- For 30$ you can take a 3 hour boat ride around the island of Manhattan. You can see the different parts of the city, Brooklyn, the Bronx, the Statue of Liberty, the UN etc. etc. The list goes on. The boat director gives a very good account of the history and growth of the city. It gives, you a feel for the city, and beats trudging around grumpily in the sweltering heat.

Philosophical Ramblings

Follow your dreams, you may not be for the better once your dreams come through, but the joy is in the means . If it doesn't work out, just let it go.

Songs & Movies

A list of random songs that are good to listen to for a sound night's sleep:
Ode to Joy by Beethoven
Anything Dire Straits
Anything Beatles
Anything Clapton
Things U2 that aren't too fast.
A few movies that I watched lately:
Annie Hall by Woody Allen - Great comedy! Cereberal, sophisticated and extremely funny!
Mr and Mrs Smith - One of the best movies I have seen in recent times. It's amazing how the have perfectly interleaved a marital dispute into an action flick. It's hilarious! It rocks!
Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick- An insightful satire on the Vietnam war.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Hilarious British comedy!
Monty Python and the Life of Brain - Hilarious British comedy!
A few movies that I plan to watch soon:
Dr Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick
The Graduate - It's a movie starring Dustin Hoffman. It's supposed to be based in the University of Pennsylvania. The fact that I am interning in Phili and actually stayed there for a week makes me want to see it more.

Quotes and Random Jokes

Half the world's problems are caused by women, the other half by men.

Half the world's problems are caused by women, the other half by grad students who want to get out of grad school

Ring ring...
Hello. You have just come to heaven. God is busy right now, so you could leave a message so that he can get back to you or you can just go to hell!
-Moi

I like to read and collecting and making up quotes and random humor so here are a few I came across today. Well, if you are my friend, and you decide to read this I challenge you to play this game- a conversion just using quotations. Next time we chat, we can try it out. Of course, you
can use any source of quotations. Duh! You don't need to know anything by heart!
E.g.
I am feeling down today =>

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,

Shakespeare(Antonio in the Merchant of Venice)

Some other random quotes.

Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.
Mario Puzo (The Godfather)
And then kill them presumably :D.

Careful what you wish
Careful what you say
Careful what you wish
You may regret it
Careful what you wish
You just might get it
Metallica (Song 'King Nothing')

Forgiveness:
There is no revenge as complete as forgiveness.
Josh Billings

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Mahatma Gandhi

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
Hunter S. Thompson

How time flies..

I was just caught up in a moment of nostalgia.
How time has flown- 4 joyful years in IIT went by in a flash.
I can't believe I have been in the US for almost a year now. Seems like I arrived yesterday!
Another interesting comment I came across (by a friend in my CS class newsgroups, not too tough to guess actually):
Your life is like a Karnaugh Map. The greater the number of don't cares, the better your final expression. Or put otherwise, choose what you wish to remember, and choose what you wish to worry about.