Excursions

Sometimes, all that matters is to hit that publish button. Do not worry about whether the subject makes sense. Or whether the way it is written does.

Whether there are too many adverbs. Or whether there is too little to say.

When words not published burden my mind, it is worthwhile to make way for them. To make them public. To not let them sit idle as a draft. I won’t return to them anyway. After all, writer’s block boldens itself in the drafts section.

So to unshackle my mind, I pick some draft and publish it in its form. What’s the worse that can happen? It would just be another terrible post in the ocean of terrible posts on the internet.

The good? It would be one post that I publish on the internet. For at least myself to read.

I have slowly grown to like Letterboxd - now at least I know what movies I have watched. What’s a similar service for TV shows? I tried TV Time - but it’s such a frustrating effort to add shows.

Am I writing enough? Am I writing too much? I cared a lot about these two questions in my early blogging days some 15 years ago. At that time, blog pundits filled the internet with suggestions on the posting schedule or the posts’ length. With Twitter and Facebook dominating soon, all those suggestions became futile.

As online presence became a popularity contest, a burst of short meaningless quips became the norm.

Throw more at the wall, and something will stick.

I could never play the social media game. It needed the zeal to always stay connected. I instead felt burdened by the pressure of participating non-stop. No surprise, then, that I kept writing on my blog. A lot less frequently, but I did.

With Twitter and Facebook dropping in popularity, I expect blogging to attract a few new users as an outlet for their voice. And I also expect the pundits to pollute the internet again with their suggestions on the best ways to blog.

Let me spill the beans. There isn’t one.

Write anything. Write anytime. Write anywhere.

Don’t worry about followers. Don’t worry about likes and reposts. There aren’t any. Some see this as a limitation – I find it liberating.

I need not fight to make my words stand out because only I write on my blog. Everything I write is always visible.

Say I download the Wavelength Messenger app. And I also provide it with my mobile number. What next? Who will use this? Who do I connect with?

I was pretty excited to watch A Man Called Otto since I saw the trailer. Having loved the original character Ove, I was looking forward to watching Tom Hanks play the lead. And as expected, he made Ove his own.

When spectacle and larger-than-life characters are ruling the movie screens and box offices, such a heartwrenching yet endearing story shouldn’t be missed. If you have read the book, watch it for Hanks’s portrayal of Ove. If you haven’t, you must watch it for everything.

A day that dawned with many promises ended with a list of letdowns. I wasn’t allowed to work on the tasks that I wanted to work on. Other’s priorities polluting my calendar - the usual stuff.

To make matters worse, a few people carry an attitude which only mars the team’s morale and, eventually, their productivity.

It is one thing to believe you are smart. It is another to assume the others are dumb. The former shows confidence, later callousness.

The only saving grace is that it’s the start of the weekend.

Photography is a visual art, and as with most art forms, there are no rigid rules or formulas that guarantee a captivating image. However, there are certain key elements that often contribute to an image’s impact and appeal.

Source - 7 Essential Elements to a Good Photo →

What do I call the entries that I write here? Notes? Posts? Thoughts? Or does that even matter? This is my blog, a space, as I noted earlier, for the “quick posts journaling whatever is at the top of my mind”.

I don’t call them quick posts because they are less formal. Instead, they are less formal because I want them to be. Because I write them as short, quick posts. They need not be correct. They need not be corrected.

Manu wrote recently about how he dislikes editing old blog content.

[A] personal blog can and should be a representation of who you are at different points in time. We change, we grow and our thoughts and ideas grow and change with us. And it’s important to have testament of that.

I, too, am firmly in Manu’s camp. If I were to improve my old posts, I would never write anything new. The ideas are shitty, and the way I wrote them is shittier. Nevertheless, I still stand by all of those posts. Sure, I may not endorse any of those views today. But they are the views of my younger self.

The world around me has changed over the years. So has the world within me. It is only natural then that how I look at and understand the world has evolved too.

I recently observed my writing may have gained correctness at the cost of courage. Colin had an interesting thought responding to the post.

I’m not sure about it being a lack of courage, rather an increased reticence stemming from a low-level, underlying fear that now pervades the web.

Is it the fear of being wrong that has made me change what and how I write? Sure, that too. Whatever the reason, I am not the same self I was a few years ago. Why, then, should I ever correct what he thought and wrote? It helps neither the reader nor me.

Get to the point. I remember those words every time I write anything.

Another way to look at it is to focus on how I begin my posts. Matthew Dicks reminded me about the importance of this today.

Focus on the first thing you write, say, or sing. Spend time making the absolute best decision about those first few things you are going to express. Never forget their importance to everything that will come after.

I was (and still am) bad at this aspect for years. I circle what I want to say before I say what I want to say. Over years of writing, I got better at this. I come to the point quicker now.

I feel frustrated when I see some of the most personal stuff with an interesting premise get lost in need of setting context. Many writings need context setting. Research papers need context. Thesis. How-to Manuals. And on and on.

But a personal blog does not. Sure, some stories need a build-up; take the reader along the ride. But most don’t.

On the other hand, does there even need for an “effective way” of writing anything personal? It’s personal, after all. Individual. There’s no correct way of doing it. It’s a matter of style.

But what counts is not to lose the reader before I arrive at the point. So begin strong.

I watched Kuttey yesterday – what a terrible letdown. Given the list of artists as part of the cast and crew, I had such high expectations. But the skill of being a competent storyteller cannot be faked. It tried too hard to be cool, “new age”. Every frame screamed that it was inspired by the style of Guy Ritchie or Tarantino. Or even Bharadwaj’s own Kaminey.

What the Jr. forgot is it isn’t the style that made these directors what they are.

Everybody was trying too hard – even the seasoned actors looked uncomfortable playing the part. A short run-time of 90 minutes felt too long, even though the screenplay was fast-paced. I kept moving ahead scene after scene because I knew exactly how it would play out.

Barring the last 15 minutes, hardly any part catches your attention. Sigh! Such sheer waste of talent.