Goodbye 2011

Last day of another year. My 7.5 year old informs me that by the time we (as in Earth) has completed one revolution around the Sun, Jupiter has already done several! Arjyo's quips, his stories, his little facts strung together, sometimes with slight inaccuracies and innocence, makes even some of those days-on-the-edge, appear a little less edgy. A lot less actually!

Arjyo has recently discovered Zombies (thanks to Cooper "Coop" Burtonburger in the Canadian animated series Kid vs Kat) and is fast making his transition to the world of space travel, planets and aliens - and our New Year message on Fb is dedicated to "Ladies and gentelmen, boys and girls, monsters, zombies and aliens"... Little Mr A is thrilled and so am I. Littel Mr A figures top on the list of things that makes me happy today, on a bleak day that it is. Both metaphorically and also literally - Cyclone Thane is passing by, bringing clouds, thunder and steady drizzle. Metaphorically? Well thats a long long long story...

Apart from that theres Pintrest - and the world of typographically interpreted (some more successfully than others) quotes are amongst the other two (or more) that makes me happy on this bleak day, some reproduced here.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Sunday rides, racquets and runaway Bananas

1. The Sunday bike ride was anything but a leisurely rambling. I didn't start early as I had planned to - but when I did finally start I didn't come back early either. On the route I encountered my usual canine neighbours of all sizes, energy levels and colour variations. It was amusing watching a little black speckled pup decide to take on a foraging crow that was a bit bigger than himself. The ride through the tree covered back roads of my neighbourhood gives you a feel (or a decent slice) of some serious off-roading. Imagine it is Tanzania or foothills of the Himalays and you are there - complete with local flora and fauna - which mostly comprises of canine companions and birds of all sorts. Actually there is one bird call that you could easily mistake for a squek in your wheels. Needless to say, the MTB is a good choice for Indian roads (or the lack thereof).

2. The evening weekend badminton is becoming a bit of a welcome habit (and a useful antidote ot the big fat Sunday Indian lunches). Esha reckons we are playing after a decade - my memory is anyway a bit hazy beyond 2004 so I can't tell. But we did well - staying on course for 35 mins and managing to engage in some decent exchanges via fiery racquet shakes and attempted backhand strokes.

3. The Sunday Times had dug up this story: Banana Attacks Gorilla, Then Splits - and to my utter surprise they had reproduced it in verbatim from wptv.com without a shred of credit!

I wonder if readers wondered wether it was worth a column space in a Sunday newspaper (and uncredited at that) or even noticed this. But I for one am sure that it had its place amongst pages and pages of words written over corrupt politicians and a nation threatening to go down the drain! A story of a fruit that went a bit bad - worth a minutes' read...

99x1, food installations and speed of light

1. This intriguing image is from a fascinating Netherland based organization - The House of Origins, that creates exceptionally styled dinners, thrilling tart tables and food installations. Talk of differentiation!

2. Art Director Fernardo Alcazar is on a personal quest to create 99 logos or distinctive representations of a single entity or idea - unicerebral. Here are some of my favourites from his yet unfinished 99x1

See the full gallery on Posterous

3. Enough said -

Disliking Like, weasels and the culture of done!

1. (Note, it isn't +1) Neil Strauss' article on WSJ was a complete contradiction: I 'super-liked' it and it was all bout the self-non-affirmation propagated by the likes of "like" and "+1".

Strauss notes that the "Like" culture is antithetical to the concept of self-esteem, which a healthy individual should be developing from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Instead, we are shaped by our stats"

Neil has seen "rock stars agonize over the fact that another artist has far more Facebook "likes" and Twitter followers than they do" so nothing really needs to be said about the agony of those mere mortals who crave their 15 minutes of likeability or trending - aka fame in the virtual world. Recommended read...

2. Dilbert's (or rather Scott Adam's) the Way of the Weasel was a birthday present from a birthday past (I have had so many now, I can't remember which) - but a worthy companion to the stresses of corporate life that rears its head every few days (or hours in some cases). I sometimes pick out a random page - today's page: an ode to the corporate culture of cheap giveaways. And heres the accompanying strip -

3. Lastly, another of today's likeable favourites that stands out amongst the usual manifestoeses (those that proclaim: "do what you love and love what you do" - oh yeah!) - is the cult of the Done manifesto. Claimed to be written in 20 mins - its refreshing and has collection of a gems like the No 10: Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.

Origins, game theory & more

The three things that made me happy today:
1. My lunch-time moment of serendipity on Vimeo. A brush with 129 seconds of a wonderful animated short called Origins, designed and created by Rob Showalter at The Ringling School of Design. Short, yes, but sometimes you wonder how long 2 mins and 9 seconds can stay with you. Recommended...

origins from Robert Showalter on Vimeo.

2} Few things compare to moments of pure happiness than watching your son (or daughter) creating and directing his own variation of a game. In this case - musical chairs involving a pack of bird cards, a keyboard and well a chair or two. The rule of the game: the pack of cards changes hands as long as the music (a repetitive pattern that little man chooses) and when it (or he) stops - the person who is left holding the cards gets the top card. Meticulously and un-ashamedly rigged, little Mr A lands up, unsurprisingly, with a collection of cards featuring his fave birds - the Macau, Cardinal or Canary :-)

3} Saying no to a tall iced coffee at the end of a few brisk rounds at the big neighbourhood park. EM was game (though she is on organic green tea) but happy that I could turn away! The Buddhists believe there is no such thing as sacrifice - its about growing up and not needing those things that you needed when you were younger - like tricycles or rainbow colour coated chocs or even tall iced coffee.