Excursions

Never listen to the person in you who has just woken up in the morning. He gives the worst advice. The only one he does give for that matter is, “Go back to sleep buddy”.

Just close your ears and run out of your bed.

When cleaning the home is not a chore but a family activity. There’s loads of shopping. Sizzling in the kitchen throughout the day. A sense of excitement, of inexplicable urgency. Diwali vibes are here!

Since I moved microblogging to my blog, I have always focused on getting the look of the short posts right. I didn’t want them to be lost amidst the prominent titled posts. Nor did I like it the other way around. That meant I never had either looking how I wanted them. Well, that’s not the case anymore.

After a long time, I am finally happy with how my long-form articles and short-form notes sit distinctly together. The setup took time and some crazy personalization, but I had to shake a few things just for the sake of it. I had started taking my blogging too seriously, and I didn’t like that. I work better when it’s fun.

The only downside is that it is an entirely custom and personalized theme. And for now, I am okay with that. Plus, it’s still a work in progress.

I am writing regularly and following a routine of early mornings without fail. I log on to my system every morning and read & write. I am also writing quick short posts around an idea.

When a shade of green is glitzed up by the shadows. Just another game the light, or the lack thereof, plays.

Every service wants to be everyone’s favourite. But what the makers are working towards is being favoured. Or popular. There is a minute but significant distinction between those two.

It is easy to market something subjective, which is what the latter is. “Best…”. “Most liked…”. “Hottest…”. How often do we hear those words in advertisements? The former, on the other hand, is binary. Objective. You are either someone’s favourite, or you are not. More often than not, people won’t know what their favourite something is. Ask someone for their favourite movie or a book, and she can’t put her finger on one.

Being a favourite is also singular. What point is being just one person’s favourite? You can’t market that. Of course, as long as the someone in question is not famous.

I wonder if seeking to be someone’s favourite is more satisfying than trying to be popular to everyone.

Seth Godin made this observation in one of his latest posts. Well, it’s not about satisfaction but the ease of selling.

I have never had the dark mode turned off since the option was made available on my devices. I did today. After an initial bout of pain, things don’t look too bad. Instead, they look cleaner. The whole experience - the platform, the apps, the websites - is so very different.

One thing is pretty apparent - all the interfaces look better in the light mode. As if the apps are designed for the light mode first. The setting, the interface elements, and the colour palette look ingrained. With the dark mode, all apps look the same – white text on limited shades of dark background. Maybe that is the reason many people prefer this mode. Irrespective of the app, it looks the same.

I don’t mind a diverse collection of interfaces. So against the wishes of the techie in me, I will extend this experiment for a bit longer on my smartphone. I will use it with the dark mode turned off. It can’t be too bad, right?

I love the Remarkable tablet, from what I read – pity that it isn’t available in India. With Amazon being more open towards the Indian market, I am excited about Scribe. But chances are high that it would be locked into the Amazon ecosystem.

Choices are abundant these days - more variety of cuisines, more brands of clothes, more range of devices, more solutions. More of the same, yet different in imperceivable ways. More is good, right?

Not when the dread of choosing paralyses me. Making a selection demands brain cycles, both while and after choosing. It needs time from you. If there is real money involved, the process is even more demanding. Fear of regret kicks in then.

Is the other one better? Cheaper? Would I hate this later? Will my family hate me for choosing this? Will this improve my life? Each question is more complex than the previous one.

In the false hope of “saving” time and money, I postpone choosing. My unmade decisions pile up, and so does the burden on me. It is a vicious cycle – I delay choosing because I feel vague pressure, a choice that only adds to my burden.

Not choosing is a choice too. Make it your default, and it will only make you weaker.

I’ve pushed an upgrade v1.0.1 for Anatole theme today – it fixes a few minor issues with the categories on the archive page & images on smaller screens. The theme now also supports mastodon profile in the social links list. The upgrade is available in the plugins directory now.