To Do or Not to Do

Because this always happens to me, no matter how I try . . .

Hopefully this holiday will be more productive than usual.

British vs. American

I was reading a friend's blog post http://quillonparchment.blogspot.in/2013/03/load-of-cra-i-mean-tosh.html and typing out a lengthy comment when I realized
1) I don't want to rant too much on someone else's post
2) Even if I do, making a post of it is a better idea. I get to write as much as I want and be credited with getting off my lazy ass (no wait, I'm still sitting) and writing another post.
3) "I always think of a third thing when I'm listing stuff."

For those of you who didn't bother reading that post, it was about... eh, if you didn't bother, I won't bother. And if you're smart, you'll figure it out. Here's what I have to say:

1. Coffee is awesome!
If you're not a coffee drinker and are complaining about it, you don't know what you're talking about. If you are, you know that no matter what grouses you may claim to have with coffee, you'll go running back to it sooner or later (probably sooner). If you're a snob like me, you'll probably look down upon the lesser coffees, but you will never hesitate to appreciate the wonderful impacts of the drink and thank the plants and the goats and everyone associated with making coffee what it is today.

As for the popularity of the drink, coffee has been a staple drink in most of the south for many years while tea has been (and still is) prevalent in the north and north-east.
Secondly, from what I've noticed, good tea is a lot more expensive than good coffee, making it available to fewer people.
Lastly, coffee gives you a better caffeine kick than tea and has a stronger taste, so I suppose lots of people feel like they're getting more.
All this assuming you don't pollute your tea or coffee with milk and sugar and other such nonsense.

However, I haven't seen too many tea chains open up. Bloody Coffee Day (happy, Sanjana?) is taking over our cities. Being someone who also enjoys good tea, I agree, poor chai.

2. I've never actually heard people use "period" instead of "full stop". I've only seen it in jokes. Or when people use an extra word to make a point. *cue laughter* Also, Brit shows and movies today seem way more liberal in their use of "that god awful word that rhymes with 'duck'" than American ones of similar genres.

3. Isn't "maths" much harder to pronounce than "math"?

4. Come on, James Bond has been played by several people. If you don't like a couple of them, it doesn't matter that much because you like the others, so Bond's reputation hasn't suffered too badly. But if you don't like Robert Downey Jr., all he can do is put on his Iron Man suit and hope it makes you like him. Besides, Sean Connery, who was arguably the best Bond ever, has his distinctive Scottish accent (which IS technically Brit, but I think British implied English in that post).

Now I'm not trying to say all things Brit are better than all things American, but here are my problems with the Americans taking over.

1. BBC Entertainment cancelled! On television across the entire country!! Lack of demand, apparently. What a pitiful state of affairs! That channel had the most beautiful wildlife documentaries I've ever seen on television. And Doctor Who. And this:

How cruel one must be to deny people the right to experiencing the sheer brilliance and awesomeness that is Sherlock! How DARE they!

2. Quick, how many British music artists can you name? (I'm talking about pop/rock kind of artists, so if you thought of a bunch of classical musicians, I'm afraid I probably wouldn't know who you were talking about. But you could tell me so that I would know.)
Unless you actually make the effort (or were introduced to them by some happy accident), you probably don't know much about anyone besides Madonna, Adele, The Wanted, and One Direction.
I'm not saying it's your fault; I'm saying we don't get to hear as much of/about them as, say, Taylor Swift. Or any of the dozens of American artists I'm sure you can think of in the next few seconds. Which is wrong.

3. Spelling. Don't get me started.

4. Lonely Planet sold to Americans by Brits! It's Lonely Planet, so it should still be awesome, but I don't find this reassuring at all. The Brits there are probably kicking themselves and singing an awful Akon song right now.

Resurrection

Hello!

All my fellow bloggers dear
Have written something new this year,
So I suppose
It's time I chose
To try and put up something here.

Because rhyming lines to form a limerick, even one that's in no way remarkable, makes it seem like I put in more effort than I actually did.
Also, not ALL my blogger friends have posted; just most of them.

On new year's eve, I considered writing a line and posting it so I could complete it later and pretend I'd taken the trouble to finish the year off with a proper post. That was before I realized that it would probably make all my future posts a couple of lines long (and not in an awesome way like http://www.dullestblog.com/) and that I'd rather be partying with my friends than writing a half-hearted post.
This paragraph has the word "post" too many times. Post.

If you're wondering about the silent months before new year's eve, here's a list of the exciting events in my life that prevented me from blogging:

1. Nothing.
>
>
>
>
(Wait for it . . .)
>
>
(I actually find this symbol annoying when it's used as a spacemaker.)
*
*
*Post. Also my favourite cereal brand ever.*
*
*
2. Hold on, I'm sure there's . . . oh, sorry. Still nothing.
*
*
*
*
3. I always think of a third thing when I'm listing stuff. (Thank you, Liz Lemon.)

Now, because I haven't blogged in ages (Wow, I really didn't think it had been THAT long!) and because I feel like I should add pictures whenever possible, I've made a visual representation of the resurrection of my blog.

There. Make of it what you will.

By the way, if I were a dead fish, this is how I would want to be treated:

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ramsay rocks!!!!

Stages of Reception

Since the new telly has been one of the major hindrances to my blogging recently, I felt the need to change that by making it the topic of a decent sized post.

Stage 0: Basically the background to make everyone understand what a big deal this is to me.
For over 21 years of my life, I’ve had just two TV channels: DD (Doordarshan) National, which had (and still has) vague shows and never bothered trying to look the least bit appealing, and DD Metro, which I used to watch for the daily half hour (or 1 to 1 ½ hours, at some stage) of cartoons. That was fine, because I had other things to do and one cartoon a day was enough to keep me happy.

Then DD Metro was suddenly replaced by the redundant DD News which consistently seemed to give one news from the previous day. Suddenly, the quality of the weekend movies on the National channel dipped, and my frequency of viewing them increased since they were the most watchable things at that time. Every time I went to a friend’s house and the telly was on, I’d be glued to the screen, no matter what was showing.

Kind of like these guys:

When I got my laptop, I started watching shows and movies on it thanks to friends who downloaded regularly—I never download any of that stuff because I like letting other people do the dirty work—and sites that allow free streaming.

At this point, not having watchable channels on the telly was something of an advantage. I could watch new episodes of shows airing in other countries almost as soon as they came out, unlike everyone else who had to wait for them to be aired here (if they ever were aired here, that is).

Stage 1 
And then, a couple of weeks ago, after a few years of debate, we got a new TV set. The deal was that if we bought a new telly, we’d get all those channels to go with them. The dish connection came only about a week after the telly, so the first week was kind of like this:

Stage 2
I returned home after being away for the weekend, and found hundreds of channels to flip through (although I didn’t bother previewing most of them), accompanied by mixed feelings of joy (“Oh, so many channels! I don’t have to wait for stuff to stream online and watch off a small monitor any more”) and cynicism (“Now I can watch shows at specific times dictated by the TV. With ad breaks. After they’re at least a couple of seasons old”).

Stage 3 
Despite the cynicism, after not switching on your telly for months because you knew it was pointless, you’re more excited than anything else, and so you decide to see what the channels have to offer. Initially, everything is awesome. Even the advertisements are refreshing, simply because they’re more aesthetically pleasing than the ones on the DD channels. So you're kind of going back to part one of stage 0, where you’ll watch pretty much anything.

Stage 4
After the initial excitement wears off, you fall into a routine. There are certain shows you watch regularly, and others that you watch while waiting for the regular shows to begin or return after the ad break. Not so much magic any more, but it’s nice to have a couple of good shows to watch and not be obsessed with simply any colourful show on the telly.

PS - Looking at this post makes me realize that I really should get back to my real drawing materials.

Writer's Block

Five more hours on the clock

It still goes tick-tock tick-tock

But my hands are numb

And I feel so dumb

Because I have writer’s block.

I bet all of you could tell

Coz those five lines were bad as hell

But here are five more

Okay... make that four.

(Aha, that worked pretty well.)

It plagued many a lord and lady,

And right from Shakespeare to Slim Shady,

People said “Aw fish!

I really do wish

That I could be more like Wayne Brady.”

So instead of getting all sore,

I'll get back in my bed and pour

Hot coffee for me

(For it’s cold, you see.)

And then I shall just sleep some more.

If you're going to be a smart-ass and say they didn't write during the Stone Age, I say to you: EXACTLY!

Sunday Evening Blues

Today I don't feel like doing anything...
Oh dear me, I'm actually quoting Bruno Mars. And not just ANY song of his, but the most annoying one ever. Or at least the most annoying one I've heard.

It's not like I didn't have something worthwhile planned for today's post. I swear I did. But it'll have to wait. You know how on some days you get lots of blog views without doing anything? Today is one of those days. It makes one think, "Eh, people are reading anyway, so do I really have to bother putting up something new?" I suppose I don't, but you know, Sunday = new post. So I always end up writing sometimes write junk like this. Does that make me a junkie? Okay, never mind. Please forget that I said that. Erase from memory. Say, I really like this Strikethrough option. Convenient. Yes, very. It makes me look like I've at least tried to write. If I just removed sentences, people would think I was just being lazy. Lazier than usual, I mean.

Okay, now I'm running out of random things to say. So move along. Do whatever you were doing, even if it was nothing.
Oh, or go here: http://www.roalddahl.com/. Because you just can't not love Roald Dahl.

Happy Sunday, everyone! Or what's left of it. Thank you for reading.

Random introspection

Ever since I've started blogging here, I've hit "Next Blog>>" several times to see what's out there. Most of the blogs I see usually happen to be in another language, and I often have to click the button several times before seeing one that's interesting enough to read. Sometimes I just get frustrated with the lack of quality and give up, but there have been times when I've found some pretty remarkable stuff.


One thing I've noticed on blogs by random people as well as friends is that most people seem to have a post coming out every two weeks at the most. It makes me wonder if I write a little too often. I sometimes wonder why I feel so compelled to put up at least two posts every week. 


Maybe it's the excitement that comes with the beginning of a new blog. Maybe it's my current joblessness. Maybe it's to make myself feel like I'm doing something slightly constructive. Maybe it's to make it worthwhile for the people who've been so good as to follow my blog. Maybe it's the parents who ask me almost every other day if I've posted something new.


Or maybe I just enjoy putting up random stuff like this. 

My Very Ambitious Plan Gone *POOF*

Even that title sounds not quite right. Just another example to show that today is not my best day for new blog posting. But it's Sunday. Something has to be up, right?


Darn my whole Sunday-is-the-day-I-have-to-put-up-an-above-average-post policy! That is the reason why I don't have a good post today. Ironic, huh? (Well, at least I managed to use "ironic" in a fitting context, unlike many people I know.


Basically, I had a great idea, but I need more time to work on it. I did try, though. I started off all psyched about it and got things in (some) order.

If you can see what I've written, good for you (maybe). If you can't, good for me, I suppose. 

Then I did some more organizing:

I swear I flipped it before inserting. This is just how much my blog posts hate me today.

All of that took longer than I expected, but it was after that that things started going really wrong. Discovered I had about 40 pictures to draw even without including the less important stuff. Still annoyingly optimistic, I started making a rough plan for what would go into each picture. 


It got boring after the first eight scribbles.


Change in plan: draw a few pictures at a time, then do the outline for the next few, then draw those, and so on.

My very first drawing went horribly wonky

Stupid doors and angles and perspective and all that junk!

My second attempt at the same drawing

Slightly more progress with that one, but it also led to decreasing enthusiasm and a heightened level of frustration.

And so I ditched it (my attempt at finishing and posting something remotely remarkable by today). However, I've spent too much time thinking about it to give up completely. I'll try again later. It will be up some time next week, even if I have to do it in parts.

Okay, I'm done whining now.
Hey, save me a couple of Easter eggs, someone?