draliman on life

Here is my post for Melanie’s Share Your World.

Name two books that have influenced you and share how.
The first book has to be “Off to Play”, by ground-breaking author Mabel O’Donnell. It’s  basically a minimalist treatise on the surface simplicity of life in 1950/60s England, but the dark undertones quickly become obvious. Here’s an extract from the beginning of the book:

“This is Janet. This is John. This is Mother. This is Father. See Janet, Mother. See Janet play. This is Father. See John and Father.”

See how it’s already polarised along gender-specific lines? I mean, blimey. Deep or what?

The second book is “Geometric Multiplication of Vectors: An Introduction to Geometric Algebra in Physics (Compact Textbooks in Mathematics)” by Miroslav Josipovic. I don’t understand any of the words but it has lots of cool pictures of shapes and stuff.

In your opinion, where is the line between art and not art? 
That line is in an individual’s head. Everyone likes something different. For example, take one of the most famous works of art in the world, the Mona Lisa. But why? Countless people go to see it every year and stare at it in awe. They see it as art, I see it as some old painting. I don’t get the “brilliance” of it.

Trivia for Halloween: What item is banned only during Halloween from 12am October 31st to 12pm November 1st in Hollywood California? (I know the answer, but I do not have any idea WHY)… c’mon… hazard a guess!
What could it be? What could it be?

Film cameras. Car chases. Stunt doubles. Socks. Kitchen utensils. Small dogs in handbags. Okay, I’ll look it up.

It’s aerosol string (usually sold as brand “Silly String”). After a reported US$200,000 clean-up operation one Halloween, the stuff got itself banned 🙂

What is something that really annoys you but doesn’t bother most people?
Teaspoons thrown carelessly onto the draining board at work. The people – animals – responsible will be hunted down like dogs, dragged in chains back to the kitchen and forced to clean, dry and put them away properly like what they’re supposed to.