One Geek

Kya apt mooj-eh chumna karta chahi-eh?

I don’t like judging people based on their CV’s. I got a CV this morning in my Inbox and I had to give some recommendations. I wish the person had done a better CV. Oh well at least I am not in Lesley’s position. Also I am just a consultant so I don’t have to take any responsibility… Do I?

So I had a hidden backup file in a web accessiable directory, containing an old version of my blog. Now that backup file got expanded by google and included in code search(which was released this week), where my DB password was there for anyone to see. I don’t think that it was a particularly risky to have a known password but just in case I have changed it.

I found out about it due to some kind geeks leaving comments on my blog. Thanks people.

Actually he has had a blog for a while, but I’ve decided it’s time to give him a link.

He also has a code blog Variable “intelligence” is declared but never used. Which has a nice bit of Delphi and python code.

Has anyone else read about the Turkish hijackers?

I don’t quite understand what went on there, but it certainly intrigues me.

Anyway so we went out to the Big Chill with Rob and Nicole and an African guy from church called Ike. Wes left to go back home to work and the rest of us went to go and see a movie. Now yesterday was a public holiday and there were four of us travelling, so we had a hard time getting a rickshaw. They all wanted extra ruppies for taking four people. Anyway we squezed in one and went to Saket where the cinema is, however when we got there we found out that the film was sold out. We went to a coffee shop for a little while. Which reminds me on Sunday we went to United Coffee House and had this special coffee that is served like it was made in a science lab. It was in a bulb shaped lab glasswear held by a clamp. So I think it was heated by a bunsen burner, whatever they did it was good coffee.

Anyway so after that they came back to my house and hung out for a while. They watched Lantana and then Rob and Ike left. After that Wesley’s laptop died* so we (Nicole Wes and myself) decided to go to the movies. We went and saw Devil Wears Prada which was good fun. After that we all went to bed, Nicole had to leave at 4.30am for the airport. So anyway Nicole and I got up at 4.25am and went down to where the taxi was meant to be waiting but it wasn’t there yet, we walked around for a while and it came a few minutes later. We’d booked a guy I knew to drive so as to make Nicole feel safer, I saw it was actually that guy and we said goodbye. I presume she got her flight ok this time as I have heard nothing from her. I considered going to the airport with her but felt that was just being over-protective and causing me to lose more sleep.

Which brings me to a question I have for the women out there. When do guys trying to make you safer become guys being over-protective, patronising or disempowering? How much safer does having a male escort make you feel?

* I found out today the power wasn’t plugged in properly on his laptop.

Over the weekend I have been hanging out a bit with Nicole from Belrose and Rob. It has been quite fun, on Saturday Night we watched a Bollywood DVD at my house and ate ice-cream. She also brought her Israeli friend who was nice. Then on Sunday I meet up with Nicole and Rob and had lunch, coffee and dinner. After dinner Rob and I said goodbye and wished Nicole the best for her time in Hong Kong. At 8am Rob who was staying the night at my house got a call on his mobile from Nicole, it appears India was not ready to let her go. Perhaps it was the Indian cultural influence on her from her time travelling here but whatever the reason she missed her flight by 24hours. However as today is a public holiday life is being a little more difficult for Nicole, as she can’t contact the airline. Apparantly she has changed one of her flights, but still has her connecting one to change. So now she is going to call Ethiopia.

Anyway it’s all good fun. Later today were going out to the Big Chill and then maybe a movie.

whenever we exercise power we are attempting to influence the course of the world, of humanity and we are thereby playing God. Most parents, teachers, leaders - most of us who exercise power - have no cognizance of this. In the arrogance of exercising power without the total self-awareness demanded by love, we are blissfully but destructively ignorant of the fact that we are playing God. But those who truly love, and therefore work for the wisdom that love requires, know that to act is to play God. Yet they also know there is no alternative except inaction and impotence. Love compels us to play God with full consciousness of the enormity of the fact that this is just what we are doing. With this consciousness the loving person assumes the responsibility of attempting to be God and not carelessly play God, to fulfill God’s will without mistake. We arrive, then, at yet another paradox: only out of the humility of love can humans dare to be God.

From M. Scot Peck’s The Road Less Travelled.

I think that this passage from The Road Less Travelled if taken to heart could improve the way aid and development work is done a lot. I was going to say a lot about this, but I think the quote does a much better job then anything I could write. I will however share some of my thoughts. Changing the world is a big responsibility and the responsibility I hold for the small insignificant amount that I do as one person is certainly enough to humble me. I am comforted that I have the humility Peck talks about sometimes. Some of the most inspiring people I know have far more of this humility then me though. Which is good because it challenges me to improve.