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Excursions

I am not yet sure how can I live without the quick draft. I need this option so bad. When I have a thought, I want to put it out.

Let's Dwell in Writing History

“Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.” – Bob Dylan

Such a simple thought, yet so apt for the creative people all over. There are times when we get stuck and look for inspiration. There are times when we wish that finding help was simpler. With this newsletter, I intend to lend exactly that to the writers, a helping hand of sorts.

With every update, I will publish a curated list of the articles and tools that I believe every writer would find interesting and helpful. I will also feature one writer that inspires me to write more, along with some of their writing.

So, here’s the first update that dwells into a bit of writing history.

The Evolution of Writing →

The evolution of writing from tokens to pictography, syllabary and alphabet illustrates the development of information processing to deal with larger amounts of data in ever greater abstraction.

A Brief History of Writing →

Fascinating to learn about the evolution of the writing instruments, of the ways we share our thoughts through writing words. From Pictographs to Alphabets.

How and When Pencils, Markers, Gel Pens, and Erasers Were Invented →

Did you know Pencils got their name from the English word meaning ‘brush’, breadcrumbs were first used as erasers and early highlighters were just “a glass bottle that held ink and a wool-felt wick”?

When I was actively writing fiction at Medium, I had read a few short stories from Lizella, and I’ve been a big fan of her imagination since then. In Lizella’s own words, her writing is “mostly free fiction, mostly female protagonists, and twisty endings”. And she absolutely nails it every single time. As a short excerpt of her thoughts, here’s how she describes humour.

Humor means different things to different people. For some, it’s a hearty belly laugh. For others, it’s slowly understanding that things are not what they seem in a way that makes you smile.

A Swiss-knife of a word processor. Google Docs has all the writing and organization features that any word editor, especially Microsoft Word, would have. But it excels at being an extremely well thought of online word processor. Save it in your Google Drive, have it accessible on every device. Find meanings of the words or even explore their usage right where you write. Finally, there is the unmatched collaboration functionality - shared drafts, get feedback.

One Final Inspiration…

I am about to start an exciting project. I plan to publish a newsletter for writers — a writing toolkit, of sorts. With each short update, I will post a set of helpful/interesting links and tools to get you inspired to write more. I would love to get some feedback on what works and what doesn’t.

“Do one thing every day that scares you,” said Mary Schmich. I am shit-scared of getting myself into another side project. But the concept of this newsletter excites me and I want to take a go at it. So, do let me know if you would be ok to help me with your early and frank opinion.

The first issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard is ready and scheduled for delivery!

Another test post, from the WordPress editor. Things look absolutely fine from here. They aren't wrong.

Why does it matter how they look on the inside? Will I ever want to look there? Possibly not. Then why does it matter? Why can't I use this as my editor of choice?

Every Pixar Movie Ranked *

Pixar Animation Studios

Vox Media has an updating list of all the Pixar movies, ranked by their Culture team from worst to best. They have been doing this since last year. So it is interesting to see the list updated with every Pixar release.

Since the release of its very first feature film, Toy Story, in 1995, Pixar has become one of Hollywood’s most celebrated animation studios. Ranging from superhero adventures to tales of a lonely robot on a post-apocalyptic Earth, the studio’s 22 movies to date have earned plaudits for being artistically adventurous and telling stories ostensibly aimed at kids that have just as many adult fans. 

Yep, absolutely. I whole-heartedly agree. I and my family had recently watched Onward and had thoroughly enjoyed it. So when Vox says lets ” take a look back at the high highs and low-ish lows of the acclaimed animation studio”, even I want to attempt that. I do not agree with Vox Culture team’s ranking. So I want to put my own rankings out there.

* Nope, not gonna do that. I can’t rank all of them. There are 22 — how can you ever say if The Bug’s Life is worse than Cars 2. So, I will just give out my top ten; this is not a commentary in any sense. I am not a film critic. I can’t explain why one is artistically better than the other. What I can say is why I like, nah, love each movie in here.

10. Cars (2006)

As far as I can recall, this was one of the early movies I saw from the Pixar studio and I was left completely mesmerized. It was also the first time I realized how emotional an animated movie can leave you. The story was wonderful, made me emotional at many moments. And it wove the same magic for my daughter. So this remains a special movie, to this day; doesn’t matter if it is actually a good movie or not.

9. Onward (2020)

We watched the one the most recently as we were stuck at home for more than 3 months. And the fun we had as a family throughout was completely unforgettable. It made us laugh, made us cry and at times even terrified. It made us forget about all the terrible news that was spread through the world outside — makes it a very special movie for me.

8. Monsters Inc. (2001)

Again, another of the early movies from Pixar. I wasn’t a parent then, but it made me aware for the first time what parenting would be. As I watched Sulley and Mike struggle to keep Boo safe, at the same time growing closer to her, it made me worried and equally excited for the parent that I was one day going to be. I fell in love with Boo as she expressed myriad of expressions through her toddler face.

7. Inside Out (2015)

This has to be one of the smartest and most creative animated movies ever made. Such a creative story stitched into a brilliant movie. The colours, the characters, their journeys alone and together. How they drove the central human character was fascinating. This was again a movie that made me realize what I need not do around my daughter as she reaches adolescence one day. The story was clever, the execution was top-notch and the emotional attachment was to the point.

6. Wall-E (2008)

Another clever movie from Pixar. The first half without any spoken words was absolutely brilliant. I still can’t fathom how the studio made us fall in love with a squarish droid. He doesn’t speak, he doesn’t have any human features. But he expressed so many emotions that many of the well-paid actors fail to do. Wall-E’s struggle to express his love for Eve had me root for this lovely droid throughout the movie. Wish humans didn’t arrive later in the movie to spoil what could have been the finest movie of all times.

5. Toy Story (1995)

Another movie that I watched way back in my teens when I had started to believe I had become too grown up to watch animated movies any more. Pixar prove me wrong — boy what a masterpiece this one is. A movie with a brilliant story that also teaches you so much. Still being so much fun at the same time. Toy Story completely defined the roadmap for future animated films — they had to cater to the kids and the adults with a kid within at the same time. This movie did it so perfectly.

4. Coco (2017)

I love music. And I love getting emotional while watching a movie. Especially if it weaves stories around families. So Coco fit just the right spots for me. Boy, oh boy. Such a wonderful ride it was. Those mesmerizing colours. The peppy, moving music. The story that has you gripped throughout. Coco was an experience of a kind. Again, such a meaningful movie that teaches you the importance of a family. I had a tear rolling down my cheek during the final reunion song.

3. Finding Nemo (2003)

Another film that touched my yet-to-be-a-parent’s heart. I was rooting for the worried, clown-fish dad throughout his transformation. And I can’t recall how many more times have I rooted for this guy since then. I watch this movie every now and then with my daughter. She loves it; she asks me many questions about what plays out in the movie. I pull her close to me into a hug and answer her to the best of my abilities. Knowing very well, that soon she too would want to explore more and I would have to stop being overprotective and let her do that. Anyway, see that’s what even thinking about this movie does to me.

2. Toy Story 3 (2010)

There’s just so much to love about this movie. The friendship, the bond that we’ve seen grow over the 3 movies, comes so close to a culmination here. Full of laughter. Full of life-lessons. Full of heartbreaks. This is one hell of a movie - not just an animated one. Period. As Woody looks at Andy walking away while sitting close to Bonny towards the end, am sobbing away with joy. There are so many plots here and each one betters the last. This one is a string of masterclass at film making, one after another.

1. Up (2009)

Just with that masterful opening montage, this one enters my top ten list any day. I had a lump in my throat right at the beginning. The movie follows it up with weaving such a beautiful story about Carl and his relation with Russel and the many friends he makes over their journey to Paradise Falls. I loved each character in this movie. Russel. Kevin. Dug. Even Muntz for that matter. The movie had me empathize with this antagonist too before he goes all bat-shit crazy, that is. And of course, finally Carl. I loved Carl so much that I had one character based on him in my fictional short story series. Up will always remain a very special movie for me.

Best Moments from other movies

There are of course many other movies from Pixar that didn’t make the list but have some brilliant scenes. When She Loved Me song from Toy Story 2. All the action sequence from The Incredibles. Speech on criticism and creativity in the finale from Ratatouille. These movies could very well have made the list, just for these scenes. But, for me, the others on the list are just very close. So these remain the honourable mentions.

I am surprised there aren’t more television sets that support Bluetooth to pair the headsets. Why do I have to decide if I want the larger screen or immersive sound? There are times when I want to watch a movie on the larger screen, but alone without disturbing others.

At times I wonder..

Why do I make things complicated for myself? Why can’t I keep it very simple? There is no need to spend too much time on fighting or working on something that’s not perfect or not exactly the way you want it to be. But it is manageable. Why is manageable not ok for me?

Being satisfied with manageable saves so much time, so much energy. Why do I then waste the time unnecessarily working on finding a solution which anyway won’t be perfect? Sure, may be it would good enough for me. Is that what I want? Manageable, but on my terms? Yep. Absolutely.

I have decided I will learn to live with manageable. At least, attempt to. Somethings are just not worthy enough to spend too much energy to get them perfectly to your liking.

Only a child’s mind can dream up a multiplayer game of Marble Run by stitching Jenga and playing cards together. The family had an evening full of some brilliantly close races!

The only way for you to Indiewebify your WordPress blog is to subscribe to a business plan? That can’t be right because that plan’s not cheap. #indieweb

Can I reset my resolutions that I started the year 2020 with? I didn’t get my full quota of 12 months to royally mess them up like I do every year.