A Selfie World

After more than two years I was travelling home around a festival time. And the new trend that caught my attention was that many people were taking selfies’ and perhaps capturing their moment. Although I have no clue what that moment would be as in a selfie you rarely manage to capture anything outside your face.

I have nothing personal against it. It’s just that sometimes I find it amusing.

Some of the people on this flight were perhaps a bit over-enthusiastic and actually trying to capture all their moments; like a gentleman went on clicking pictures when his son and the wife coming from the toilet. Which sort of led me to think if I should ask the gentleman, if he was trying to capture the family’s ease of pressure or was it how they walk from loo to the seat on an airplane? But then I thought my inquisitiveness could be taken as rudeness, since I am most of the time inept in handling social conversations.

Anyways, selfie is a relatively new word in the English language. In the oxford online dictionary, selfie has been described as an informal word describing a ‘photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.’ Though my observation is that not all selfie find their way to social media, some just are shared within family members or as display pictures for the messaging applications.

Apparently now there are also selfie competitions that are held and awards distributed like here. 

Among the various famous selfies that I managed to see in the process, the following are the best:

Most dangerous selfie ever. That happened.

Fan Thrilling. Smart move for upping popularity.

Example 1 - Beyonce

Example 2 - Pope

It is interesting to know that although selfie as word has come about and entered the usage only since 2002. Though Wikipedia says, that the first ever selfie was perhaps taken by Robert Cornelius in 1839!!! 

A haphazard plan

Hah!!! Happy Birthday to me! I think being a narcissist for a day is absolutely fine.

My observation is that people are either excited, in celebratory mood – the party makers, and then there are those who do their best to avoid the lime-light – the party evaders.  I am to some extent a party evader too.

So what do party evaders look out for? I have no clue.  The few that I know, who are also party evaders tend to introspect. They try and make sense of what are the good things that they did over the last one year. And how many mistakes they made in the year gone by. And there is some amount of planning on what to expect or plan to achieve in the next year.

This seems like a good idea. Good enough to try. Despite that I think I will not remember what all I have done nor that I will have a single clear goal for the next year. Since, my belief is that no plan ever goes according to plan, therefore, its best that we keep more than one plan and few backups as well along the way.

Last year I had made plans to read some books. To be exact I wanted to read more than 14 books during the year. At the same time I also wanted to do some courses from Coursera and one complete a course in risk management, something I had been pursuing on the side-lines. Did manage to complete parts of it here. On the office front I changed jobs and managed to write some interesting stories in the new job. 

So how should I set goals for the next year one year? This seems difficult.

Well I think reading about 12 or more books is necessary. And this time will review or write summaries of each book as well. That should make it interesting.

For quite a few years I have been wanting to learn calligraphy and voice modulation. Although at this point it looks highly unlikely but at least will do my best to cover some ground in finding out on how to learn.

Also during the year, I will do my best to read about a new subject. Maybe learn something from some friend as well or about a new industry. This should be fun.

On a serious note, I would like to get more clarity on where I should take admission for a Masters’ program. 

Completing some more additional subjects from Coursera will obviously be part of the goal. Which subjects? That is a difficult to state at this point. Although most of the courses are very flexible on a weekly basis. But I have come to realise I need to do courses where the option is to watch the videos is such that I am able to finish it in about 3 hours a week followed by a weekly or fortnightly quiz in multiple choice question format. It’s easier for me to complete and fulfil the program.

An intensive program which also requires peer valuation is difficult for me. It takes more time, although I agree it is a better way to learn. Therefore for a working professional I find it difficult.

Now let’s see if next year on the same day, how much am I able to achieve. And what are the things that I had not made plans for but did complete. 

A poor excuse!

It has been only 3 days when I made the plan of writing every day, and I have already missed one day. Although I had only set the limit of not having an excuse. The good part of being all -- jury, judge and executioner -- is that you can make the rules in way that pleases you. So I was making an excuse. Hence to compensate I am writing more about my experience. 

Shifting is a tantalizing work. Even though I had to shift merely 5 km and being bachelors we have kept things to bare minimum. Despite this it seemed like a herculean task. While we had movers and packers so they just came, packed everything and dropped it as instructed to the new location. The challenge is upon reaching. 

Since the layout of no two house is same so either you have extra-stuff or you have empty spaces in the house. In either scenario you can be innovative or completely predictable, selling or giving out stuff if you don’t have any use for it, or buying stuff based on the requirement.

The question is how do you be creative in this situation? Well I don’t have an answer to that one, since I fall in the latter category of being predictable most of the time. 

Anyways, when shifting cities always make sure to get an insurance for everything that you are transporting through couriers. 

Also make sure to change the communication address for all the financial and nonfinancial documentations which you will be receiving regularly. Prior to applying for changes you will require proof of new address. Updating address with bank is important as it may affect your credit score. Credit score is important as your credibility for bank loans are affected by this score. 

Many people tend to neglect but if you have changed location then it should also be updated on your passport as well. Another thing to remember would be to always check the electricity meter upon shifting. These are some of the primary items that I learned about to check upon shifting within the city. 

Developing a habit that I don't want!!

I am sure we all want some good skills to inculcate like thinking clearly. Being flawless in our writing. Even I would want those two. After reading and thinking through for sometime now, I have realised there is only one way to develop those two skills for someone like myself. 

Write everyday!!! A better idea would be to aim to write about 500 words. No excuse, maybe give yourself a break on Sunday but that's about it. It also requires building some sense of routine for few years at least so that it becomes second nature. 

While its easy to talk about, there would inevitably be some challenges as well. The perception of challenge will change from person to person. I think, there would be two challenges that I will have to grapple with: the effort of typing everyday and pushing it to 500 words and the second would be of ideas. 

My solution would be that I will write before leaving for office early in the morning either after I wake up or just before I go to sleep in  the night. Although sometimes I may not write 500 words, but I guess that is ok to start with, as long as I do put up the effort to write something everyday. For the second challenge there are two or three possible solutions. First I also write my opinion of what ever has been there in the media. The second solution would be to write what happened the previous day or that day, this will depend upon the activity level or third write on some topic based on suggestion of my friends, and other acquaintances. In fact if you are reading this and dont know me yet, then even you can ask me to write on some particular subject or facet of life. Feel free to leave your comment.

Well now that I have stated the aim and the challenge in it as well, let's see how far this goes. Today being the first day, I plan to use this as my first piece as part of the plan.