Let’s admit it. Mail (or snail mail as the urban dictionary would say) has certainly taken a backseat and e-mail is the preferred mode of communication today. Thus said, how do we like people to address us? Say, singletomingle@gmail.com , or the oft-quoted example, hotmale@hotmail.com. While your name is widely known all over, you are the bloke with qualities made obvious in your email address when the sender writes to you. So, what are the ‘amusing’ email addresses in aid of?
Studofblr@yahoo.com. Yes, it takes a few moments to decipher it before we realize that we are addressing the stud of Bangalore! Quite likely that the owner of the address is indeed so, but forever? Wouldn’t it be amusing to visualize a very successful advocate with an email identity as legaleagle?. Or a psychiatrist with shrink2011, and a college student with slimshadydude?
There is indeed a fun element in email addresses that sound cool, but it’s a fact that they end up confusing people, especially when distributed en masse. First off, though they know it is you they are writing to, there’s every chance that they would go back to the address, just to make sure. Secondly, you have the problem of identity. If it is Kumar, a kumar in the email address would be easier to relate to, than a kumisindian or a 666_beast. If the intention is to publish our affiliations, there are scores of social media that would serve just the purpose. Finally, we don’t want to paint a picture of ourselves contrary to how we appear.
It is indeed a smarter option to just have our name as it is, for our email address. With over a billion users the world over, names are bound to be in use already, but we could certainly do with permutations and combinations. Say, a Jack could have his email identity as Jack1 or Jack_321, and still be the same guy everyone knows! Don’t these plain names give a sense of purpose in all communication?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
You’re telling me stories!
“There’s an electric thing about movies!” said Oliver Stone, the man who gave us the insightful Wall Street and the Academy Award winning Platoon. Indeed. For nothing has told us stories better than how films have.
By the way, don’t we all like to tell stories, fiction or not? Presumably we do. So how do you like to tell one?
You can tell a story, by having your gang of buddies over at your place for a drink. If you are of the kind who would start and finish the narrative in a single tone and strain, chances are that more than half of the crowd would either wait for the end of it, or feign concentration or still pathetically, drift off. Well then, you can tell a story by simply writing one. Well, I read so I’d risk reading yours too. How about the bloke next to you who clenches his fists when you open your mouth, let alone read what you’ve written! Is he not missing something?
Simply, make a movie.
“Who, me of all the people?"
Yeah, why not? Did you ever want to be a film maker?
“Well, I don’t know. Nothing like I never got the idea.”
Then you have the worm inside you. Get it out or get going.
Technology is out there to be used. All you need is a good story to tell. A narrative on film is experiential and has the potential to arrest the imagination of the audience for the while you choose to. Effectiveness is the key word here. What speeches couldn’t achieve alone, OHP slides did. PowerPoint presentations overcame the shortcomings of the transparent sheets, with images and sound. And now, videos are increasingly doing the talking at meetings and conferences.
I tried telling a story above, maybe it didn’t quite hold you. Let’s try it this way. If you ever wanted to be a pilot but couldn’t make one, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a movie. No, not on how to be a pilot, unless you choose to, silly! On the big screen, on the TV or on your camcorder, the medium is your choice. Make a movie and take me on your flight. I’m surrendering my imagination to yours. If you’re selling a product, I’ll buy the idea and maybe the product too, if I get taken in. If you’re taking my trip, I’m ready, only that I need to fly. And if you are simply telling me a story, I’m all eyes and ears!
Shoot, not with an automatic but an auto-focus. Shoot pictures, which move. You have shot and captured scenes for eternity. The time, the location, the light, the sound and the motion are all framed for everyone to see. All at the press of a button. The power of shooting is enormous, which you’d agree.
Did I tell my story yet? If I did, I’m still good at my craft. If not, no worries. I’m off to get my HandyCam and some folks like me to get in front of the lens. It’s an electrifying feeling.
I want my story to be told, at any cost! Well, almost any!
-Met
By the way, don’t we all like to tell stories, fiction or not? Presumably we do. So how do you like to tell one?
You can tell a story, by having your gang of buddies over at your place for a drink. If you are of the kind who would start and finish the narrative in a single tone and strain, chances are that more than half of the crowd would either wait for the end of it, or feign concentration or still pathetically, drift off. Well then, you can tell a story by simply writing one. Well, I read so I’d risk reading yours too. How about the bloke next to you who clenches his fists when you open your mouth, let alone read what you’ve written! Is he not missing something?
Simply, make a movie.
“Who, me of all the people?"
Yeah, why not? Did you ever want to be a film maker?
“Well, I don’t know. Nothing like I never got the idea.”
Then you have the worm inside you. Get it out or get going.
Technology is out there to be used. All you need is a good story to tell. A narrative on film is experiential and has the potential to arrest the imagination of the audience for the while you choose to. Effectiveness is the key word here. What speeches couldn’t achieve alone, OHP slides did. PowerPoint presentations overcame the shortcomings of the transparent sheets, with images and sound. And now, videos are increasingly doing the talking at meetings and conferences.
I tried telling a story above, maybe it didn’t quite hold you. Let’s try it this way. If you ever wanted to be a pilot but couldn’t make one, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a movie. No, not on how to be a pilot, unless you choose to, silly! On the big screen, on the TV or on your camcorder, the medium is your choice. Make a movie and take me on your flight. I’m surrendering my imagination to yours. If you’re selling a product, I’ll buy the idea and maybe the product too, if I get taken in. If you’re taking my trip, I’m ready, only that I need to fly. And if you are simply telling me a story, I’m all eyes and ears!
Shoot, not with an automatic but an auto-focus. Shoot pictures, which move. You have shot and captured scenes for eternity. The time, the location, the light, the sound and the motion are all framed for everyone to see. All at the press of a button. The power of shooting is enormous, which you’d agree.
Did I tell my story yet? If I did, I’m still good at my craft. If not, no worries. I’m off to get my HandyCam and some folks like me to get in front of the lens. It’s an electrifying feeling.
I want my story to be told, at any cost! Well, almost any!
-Met
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Jabberish
With loquacious folk, it would be unsurprising if you even found them talking to themselves on a fine afternoon. Better still, if there was someone who listens to and engages in active conversation with them, it would be a gab fest every day apparently. It is no unfair classification of Roy the Stud, in this group of verbal heroes.
Roy’s mother is his confidante and alter ego. And when it comes to his ways and means, she can be his nemesis. Ray is her name and her mind is one hell of an X-Ray. When she’s in search mode, nothing escapes the scanner. She is smug when she claims that she’s seen the world through its population and most of them have submitted a sample of their psyche to her. And our friend but adds to her belief in more than generous measure. While it is nice to share thoughts with people, the idea of blurting out everything may not be most appealing to everyone. Roy just about manages that, yes.
Sample this.
Roy: Mom; Mom: Yes; R: Planning to buy a Jeep; M: Yeah? What on earth for? R: To drive around, mom; M: Why not the car we already have? R: Jeep is good for taking off on cross country trips; M: When did you last do your cc trip? R: Last year; M: Very recently, I must say! And you did that in the one rented from the cottage you stayed in; R: But that’s because I don’t have a Jeep to go around in, mom. M: Who typically goes with you? R: Mmm, well, not anyone that I can think of; M: So you want to drive alone? R: You and dad can always give me company; M: High hopes! Get married and buy a truck if you please; R:Huh? M: Yeah! Grow up, kid!
This, as anyone would agree, is a conversation totally uncalled for. For one, he wouldn’t get a Jeep for himself in the near future even if his desire to do so burns bright. This is quite simply for the fact that there’s no space for a second vehicle in the patio of his house. Secondly, Jeep is not a family car and his family does not fancy a rattle-ride around the city, when they already have a comfortable little hatchback. Of course this small talk only helped his mom to fire the last salvo, serving to reinforce her assumptions about her son.
Roy works for a huge multinational, more in name than in character. His weekday evenings at home are spent chatting about office and his weekends, about books movies and women. So who’s his audience? There are no prizes for guessing. If Ms. Ray were to do some trend analysis, she would only have done fair to arrive at some conclusions. Some of her frequently heard statements as a result:
“The time you are using to read ‘Lonely Planet’, could perhaps have been used to brush up SAS”
“You see, it takes people like SV Rao to make an organization tick. If you can’t beat them, join them”
“So why don’t you talk to the girl who you said stares at you? That’ll save me the trouble of looking for a match! Did you say she’s a Brahmin?”
“Get talking to your VP in the US, and tell him you’d love to be invited to dinner at his place!”
“C’mon we only watch SaReGaMa, when you’re not watching Rajini flicks. You need to be fair!”
“Can you run our family next month onward?”
The other day I happened to meet Roy when he was busy typing out fiercely on his notebook. I asked him if it was a document of national importance he was creating, and he corrected me with ‘Global’. Was I being too curious to know what it was all about? He said not at all, as it was a brief statement that would go on his blog. The post is out now and reads as follows:
‘If you really are of the type who can’t keep their thoughts to themselves, key them in, like I did just now. It helps! Verbal transparency can leave you exposed top down!’
-Met
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Stars and Stripes
America! America!!
Whence came the love of this land?
Chances aplenty they say;
Prod ‘em long and they’d say
Chances aplenty but they take.
Greenbacks have turned us green
The trend can’t be turned by any hand.
If your folks are in America seen,
simply know if they are at the Bay
and ask if they’d ever come back to Motherland!
Whence came the love of this land?
Chances aplenty they say;
Prod ‘em long and they’d say
Chances aplenty but they take.
Greenbacks have turned us green
The trend can’t be turned by any hand.
If your folks are in America seen,
simply know if they are at the Bay
and ask if they’d ever come back to Motherland!
For the Ball
‘Twas a weekend the world couldn’t wait for;
‘twas a game none could miss for
‘twas against a side the most pined for;
History were the Albicelestes made of
The Deutschen, as steady as a rock and full of
determination were. The latter hammered one
after the other. Four to zero and they’d sure won.
Upsets marked 2010. The quarters said them all.
Game after game, the titans were but made to fall.
The finale next Sun is something we simply are waiting for.
-Metafore
‘twas a game none could miss for
‘twas against a side the most pined for;
History were the Albicelestes made of
The Deutschen, as steady as a rock and full of
determination were. The latter hammered one
after the other. Four to zero and they’d sure won.
Upsets marked 2010. The quarters said them all.
Game after game, the titans were but made to fall.
The finale next Sun is something we simply are waiting for.
-Metafore
Monday, June 7, 2010
Fancying Punches
“I know you’re a daddy now. If the project doesn’t get completed at the earliest, you’ll soon be a Mummy!”
Forceful dialogue is something all of us fancy and rightfully so. It may however border on the amusing, if people make a conscious effort to make grand statements all the time. Like the chap who said in staccato fashion -‘When you gotta shoot, just shoot. Don’t talk’ - the legendary line from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. He apparently was only egging his buddy on to finish up the work in double time. But even for the mildest cynic, he was probably trying to show off his taste for classics or simply his reverence for quotes. If the author were to be in our friend’s place, he might have taken a meaner route to see that no time was wasted in work and later perhaps had a nice little chat on Sergio Leone and his brand of films, of how Clint Eastwood suited the role and why the lines from the film became history.
What have people achieved by often spewing big lines, famous and otherwise? Once a person becomes predictable in his/her style of talking, it wouldn’t be hard for others to smirk and nod their heads to all he or she utters. The author had asked of an acquaintance, who he had wrongly assumed was a good friend as to why she didn’t bother to stay in touch. Her reply came pat “I’m hermit-like and prefer to remain a recluse! When people need my help, I’m there for them.” Intentions were perhaps true and honest, but the way the words came out simply smacked of pomp. Such lines would probably serve to offend the other person at the least, if he/she were to be slightly more discerning. There’s every chance that people firing punch lines are looked on as having stock ideas in mind and center their conversations on those ideas. Typically they’d visualize the world as revolving around them. Narcissists if you please. The author uses the word, as inflated ego is a very essential ingredient of Narcissism. Their views are generally contrary to reality and tend to be exaggerated.
Using quotes per se is not a mean thing at all, lest the reader begins to assume what he’s reading is a tirade against one liners and quotes. They do act as garnishing to a conversation and help make it spicy. A line referred to as a line has always found favor with audiences. A dialogue which warrants quotes is bound to be an extremely interesting one. There was this gentleman who was talking about how we take ourselves too seriously and that we look at life like we are on battlefield. His talk was agreeable in parts no doubt. What impressed some of us was the way he signed off, quoting Sir Charles Chaplin. “In the end, everything is a gag!” On the contrary, sample this. A bloke who generally felt the world around him was divided in every way was always caught making statements that begin with, “You see there are two kinds of people in this world…” While it cannot be denied that two-kinds-of-people lines are hugely popular, excessive usage of those lines in normal conversations may strip variety off the dialogue.
Without more ado, lets just suffice to say that variety is the spice of language as much as it is of life. Preserve variety and get rid of stereotypes!
-Met
Forceful dialogue is something all of us fancy and rightfully so. It may however border on the amusing, if people make a conscious effort to make grand statements all the time. Like the chap who said in staccato fashion -‘When you gotta shoot, just shoot. Don’t talk’ - the legendary line from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. He apparently was only egging his buddy on to finish up the work in double time. But even for the mildest cynic, he was probably trying to show off his taste for classics or simply his reverence for quotes. If the author were to be in our friend’s place, he might have taken a meaner route to see that no time was wasted in work and later perhaps had a nice little chat on Sergio Leone and his brand of films, of how Clint Eastwood suited the role and why the lines from the film became history.
What have people achieved by often spewing big lines, famous and otherwise? Once a person becomes predictable in his/her style of talking, it wouldn’t be hard for others to smirk and nod their heads to all he or she utters. The author had asked of an acquaintance, who he had wrongly assumed was a good friend as to why she didn’t bother to stay in touch. Her reply came pat “I’m hermit-like and prefer to remain a recluse! When people need my help, I’m there for them.” Intentions were perhaps true and honest, but the way the words came out simply smacked of pomp. Such lines would probably serve to offend the other person at the least, if he/she were to be slightly more discerning. There’s every chance that people firing punch lines are looked on as having stock ideas in mind and center their conversations on those ideas. Typically they’d visualize the world as revolving around them. Narcissists if you please. The author uses the word, as inflated ego is a very essential ingredient of Narcissism. Their views are generally contrary to reality and tend to be exaggerated.
Using quotes per se is not a mean thing at all, lest the reader begins to assume what he’s reading is a tirade against one liners and quotes. They do act as garnishing to a conversation and help make it spicy. A line referred to as a line has always found favor with audiences. A dialogue which warrants quotes is bound to be an extremely interesting one. There was this gentleman who was talking about how we take ourselves too seriously and that we look at life like we are on battlefield. His talk was agreeable in parts no doubt. What impressed some of us was the way he signed off, quoting Sir Charles Chaplin. “In the end, everything is a gag!” On the contrary, sample this. A bloke who generally felt the world around him was divided in every way was always caught making statements that begin with, “You see there are two kinds of people in this world…” While it cannot be denied that two-kinds-of-people lines are hugely popular, excessive usage of those lines in normal conversations may strip variety off the dialogue.
Without more ado, lets just suffice to say that variety is the spice of language as much as it is of life. Preserve variety and get rid of stereotypes!
-Met
Sunday, February 7, 2010
A Weak Two Weeks
The day of the delivery of the big project was two weeks away. The client was nervous, given that the whole business worked on the offshore model, and sending critical and highly visible work to the East was apparently a gamble for them.
The run up to the D-day was not extremely hectic and there was plenty of time to plan the execution out. Things had gone without a hitch so far. And that’s perhaps why the nerves of the blessed soul working on the project were all bundled up. The calm before the storm is generally eerie and this was no exception. Roy, working solely for the client, was ever mindful of Monday the 10th. He had only himself to parley with, for that alone seemed to work well to iron out uncertainties.
“Heck, I shouldn’t let these people down, but there’s so much of data that there’s bound to be a miss somewhere!” said Roy. “But what makes you think you’re going to miss something?” This was the collective voice of his nerves, which were actually putting up a brave act of composure. “Well, the tone of the clients is very alarmist and panicky.” His nervous system dropped guard for a moment, but came back with a reassuring, “You know that’s the way they are. It’s not them you’re worried about, but the output at the end. Just think the data is most critical to you.” Our friend thought he felt better and resumed his work. Before long, it was weekend and Roy watched films and birds. It was now Monday and there was still a week to go. The emails were all harmless, save for one, which really didn’t mean harm. “Hi Roy, you know we have a week to go and I hope everything is on course?” This time, Roy’s nerves broke the silence. “Man, you’re sure you’ve got everything covered?” He was now at his irresolute best. He revisited all the files and put automated quality checks in place, but wasn’t at peace anyway. Roy felt his nervous system had only served to make his days terrible.
It was consequential that he resolved to wreck his nerves, obviously in sub consciousness. It’s the next weekend already now and time to rebuild all of it, if only for dear life that would be at stake come Monday.
-Met
The run up to the D-day was not extremely hectic and there was plenty of time to plan the execution out. Things had gone without a hitch so far. And that’s perhaps why the nerves of the blessed soul working on the project were all bundled up. The calm before the storm is generally eerie and this was no exception. Roy, working solely for the client, was ever mindful of Monday the 10th. He had only himself to parley with, for that alone seemed to work well to iron out uncertainties.
“Heck, I shouldn’t let these people down, but there’s so much of data that there’s bound to be a miss somewhere!” said Roy. “But what makes you think you’re going to miss something?” This was the collective voice of his nerves, which were actually putting up a brave act of composure. “Well, the tone of the clients is very alarmist and panicky.” His nervous system dropped guard for a moment, but came back with a reassuring, “You know that’s the way they are. It’s not them you’re worried about, but the output at the end. Just think the data is most critical to you.” Our friend thought he felt better and resumed his work. Before long, it was weekend and Roy watched films and birds. It was now Monday and there was still a week to go. The emails were all harmless, save for one, which really didn’t mean harm. “Hi Roy, you know we have a week to go and I hope everything is on course?” This time, Roy’s nerves broke the silence. “Man, you’re sure you’ve got everything covered?” He was now at his irresolute best. He revisited all the files and put automated quality checks in place, but wasn’t at peace anyway. Roy felt his nervous system had only served to make his days terrible.
It was consequential that he resolved to wreck his nerves, obviously in sub consciousness. It’s the next weekend already now and time to rebuild all of it, if only for dear life that would be at stake come Monday.
-Met
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