We had amazing interaction during the time when we played the How many game (you can go back and check it out, and maybe rekindle the fire there).

Yipee! It's game time again. And this one is suggested by Amit Kulkarni, a keen Metamorfer.

It's called the Twist 3.

How to play? Well, the player before you throws 3 words at you, and you use them in a sentence. Paste the sentence in the comments, and add your own three words for the next commenter.

Let's start with 3 words.

important, photos, mean

Knowing what you want is important

In the recent past, I have found many people who didn't know where they wanted to go. Also, there were others who exactly knew where they wanted to reach—they had well defined objectives.

At times, only defining the objectives and working towards them is not sufficient. It may also occur to one later, that all the efforts were in vain if things were not well orchestrated.

Reasons for Failure

The two main reasons that are the cause of failure in realizing one's objectives are:

Incorrect Direction

Insufficient Magnitude

When you know where you want to reach, say 'A cyber law expert in the next 4 years', then a wrong direction, like the devoted study of Chemistry is of no use.

If you know the correct direction, but if you are putting in very less effort to achieve your goals, they may not be realized. Not studying hard enough for a "cyber law" examination which will aid you to be an expert in 4 years time (which in actuality turns out to be a six year affair) is unacceptable.

Okay, here we go.

Define Fuzzy goals.

Fuzzy Goals are abstract long term goals. These could be like "I want to make a motion picture in the future" or "I want to be able to communicate with extra-terrestrials".

Be practical in what you intend to do. It depends on an individual's understanding of resources and effort required to realize the fuzzy goals, and what he considers to be practicable. For somebody, making a motion picture may sound viable, but communicating with extra-terrestrials a big no-no.

UnFuzz your Goals one step at a time.

The intention now is to make the Fuzzy Goal much more tangible. You will have to add more detail to what you want to achieve.

Let us UnFuzz the Fuzzy Goal "I want to make a Motion Picture in the future".

Adding details one attribute a time, we have the following list:

a. When: by the end of 2010

b. What: A Musical/Drama/Science Fiction

c. Language: English

d. Budget: Less than INR 100000 (Recorded on MiniDV format, and roping in friends to act.)

e. Target audience: Film festivals for parallel cinema

Setting Intermediate Goals.

Now that you know how your goal for 2010 looks, you know that you will have to be upbeat so as to meet your goal for 2010. For the same, you need to set what we call "Intermediate Goals" or "Rungs". These involve a lot of backtracking from your UnFuzzed Objective. Rungs or Intermediate Goals help you in understanding what you need to do in the period from now to your UnFuzzed Goal.

As an example, between now and 2010, you need to zero-in on a music composer, a script, screen play, a MiniDV Camera, actors, props, sets and much more. Now a music composer will only come into picture when I have a camera, and at least a scene already shot. But before that I need a script.

So, the rungs look like these (be careful to go in the right direction and with enough magnitude):

Script: Mid 2007

Screen Play: Jan 2008

Chart out locations and Investment: from mid 2007, with inputs from Script and Screen Play, but before Dec 2008

Rope in friends as actors: Dec 2008

Buy Camera and begin experimenting: Dec 2008

Begin shooting: Jan 2009

Music Composer: before Jun 2009

Post-production and titling: Dec 2009

Worldwide premiere: Jan 2010

Planning ahead.

Keep a tab on what's happening today and how it can influence your future goals. The influence could be positive or negative. For example, if you are contemplating going to music classes, you already know that it aligns to one of your future goals.

You can save some money by composing your own music for your project. Also, at the music class you may also find somebody keen on jamming with you for your movie as well, as it may mean a good break for him.

Another example would be keeping track of locations for the movie project—some waterfalls dry up in summer, so it may mean scheduling the scene well in advance or have contingency plans (like having 5-10 people pouring water from buckets to recreate the waterfall, or a huge pipe emptying a water tanker).

This should set you up for success, and help you in achieving your goals.

Good Luck!!!

She rode on the horse of her memories to seep into the horizon. Far, far away, she saw a speck that never grew in size. She yearned to see the smile on the speck's face. She imagined the sweat trickling from his brow and evaporating before it could hit the ground. She wanted to cull all the drops in the cusp of her fragile hands, her fingers outstretched and meshing with the truth. The truth that was dark, stark and permanent. He was not. He was gone. She was not. She remained.

---

A new introduction to Metamorf, this is an Express Post. An Express Post is one that would include breaking news, some literati, some great website in some corner of the web, some amazing recipe, or anything that is worthy of a mention or a post.

The Express Post usually would deviate from the regular posting styles at Metamorf. It's like a "quickie". The difference it'd have from regular posts is that it's a smaller post sans images (but has the Express Post header ), but some quick, perky (maybe even semi-daily) content that doesn't fit elsewhere. This is a move to keep Metamorf fresher, and a fast-track way to involve you in the choicest ponderings.

Okay, Many of you have a Gmail account by now. Gmail is almost on the verge to become a verb like Google. I have myself used "Gmail it to me!" many a times.

When Gmail started out, they gave out a GB of space that we all almost used up, and then they started out with giving us a mailbox that was ever-increasing in size.

Okay, Here's the question:

How much of your Gmail Mailbox have you already consumed?

Tip: Log on to gmail. Scroll Down to the end of the page. There you'll know how much space you're using. Add a comment to this post.

There are times when you just can't be yourself. There was this guy who wanted to be sad yesterday. He just wanted to be. He had many a reasons to tell himself:

"Hey! You can't pretend you are not a normal guy. You too have problems. Many, for that matter! Look at yourself. Now, is that not a fake smile? Now, pull that mask away, will you?"

And he exactly wanted to do the way he had planned. He didn't want to have dinner, but had to give some good company to somebody. "Hell No! Why should I give you good company? I am sick of it! Now, make way! Lemme outta here!"

But he couldn't say all that. And what a lovely host he was. That clenched jaw drew more lines on his face than the permanent laugh lines that he had.

"I am Bad. I hurt people. I will stare at you till every bone in your body rattles with fear." He was thinking.

"Excuse me, Sir. Did Something happen today?" The waiter appeared inquisitive, "You don't have that smile today?"

"Yeah. I am in a not-so-good mood today. Thank you for asking." He snapped, and boy, how polite a snap it was!

Finishing early, his gaze almost bore a hole through the plate and palate of his guest.

"Any problems?" his guest asked.

"Ah, well! What's life without any of them?" He grinned, "Nothing much, was thinking of the match!"

Yeah, A match. It can burn. Cause a fire. And leave ruins behind.

"Thank you, Sir!", the waiter appeared yet again at the exit. "Please come back tomorrow with your smile, sir!"

"Uh, Yeah..." The stoneface didn't even change.

"Promise?" The innocent question in those eyes almost made him cry. "Sir?"

"Yeah..." He stammered. "Promise."

"The world doesn't like you this way." The guest said.

"I just can't..." He looked at the long road ahead "I just can't be myself."

There are more than one ways to wake up early in the morning. Some people hack their sleep, and some people manipulate their metabolism.

As a kid, when I had to wake up to study for exams, I made sure I drank enough water before going to sleep. Soon, in a weeks time, one can decide how much water will ring the bell at what time. Don't try this if you have wet-morning history.

Just before going to sleep, one of my friends used to talk to himself, and say "4 O' Clock! 4 O' Clock!". I don't know if self hypnotism works for all, but this guy used to wake up.

Nowadays, owing to late working hours, I use what I like to call the triple-alarm-hack. Suppose I want to wake up at 5:30 am. I set an alarm at 5:20, then 5:25 and a third one at 5:30. So when the alarm goes off at 5:20 (and My inner self talks to me and says, "Hey, you need some sleep, you went to bed pretty late yesterday."), and then irritates me a couple of times again, I am pretty well up and ready-to-go!

Well, well... What hacks do you folks use to wake up early?