Le Me of the Meme

OK I was disappointed in myself for not having written anything in over 3 months, so.. well I had to write something.. but nothing really interesting is coming to my head, anyway so this is a small post, its about the million memes that have been doing rounds.. there doesnt exist a topic, public event or a celebrity who or who's actions havent been made into a meme.. people make memes of their friends, colleagues or even themselves .. here's one of the few that I made at work..

ok that wasnt my best, dont judge me yet.. it was a colleague at work, she wore a lot of rings thats all :D

Now, whats this post about, its about the me and normal people saga of the memes.

here's an example:

hilarious right? here's another

you see a pattern here?
No? ok here's one more.. this till with 1 comment.

You spot it yet? the comment reads "same here"
thats exactly the reaction I had and sometimes even made such comments on the "normal people and me" saga memes.

Theres some more memes like that.. heres a frisky one

I know perv thought.. but come on.. every guy thinks like that once hes hit high school.. or even less nowadays I guess..

OK one last one.. and this had the most "me too" comments

So what I'm trying to say is every damn person is "me" or Derp(the meme guy).. and no one really is the "normal people" So... everyones Derp and think the others are normal (lame and boring basically) so we can say being Derp is the normal thing to be.. every Derp is normal..

here's my meme..

Let It Count

Ever since I read Freakanomics, I've been up in arms with whatever is happening around me. I'm just so hell bent on finding reasons behind why anyones doing what they are doing. I mostly think of bringing down politicians or celebs, but in general I’ve been thinking a lot, trying so hard to find patterns and answers to all kinds of questions. Actually there are not many questions, I’m just conspiring things to frame my own questions. After all, it’s good to question right?

That’s what my dad kept saying… sadly for him it only sounded good until I started asking questions. 

Anyway.. So the deal with this post is my obsession with Freakanomics. Freakanomics generally means finding patterns or signs to explain economic, social or political decisions and happenings. I’m just posting a problem that I found while watching TV. I’ve cracked my head and come up with scenarios, but I still can’t find a solution.

Heres the problem:

Problem Statement: The latest trend in TV channels has been the addition of the timer. It started with movie channels and now can be found in all channels including news and music channels. The timer starts counting down from 2 mins with a board about it that says "show will be back in" or "movie continues in" or "more news is" etc.. the objective of implementing the timer is to hold the audience. If there is a timer then you will know that the show will be back in just 2 mins and will not change the channel.. therefore watching more advertisements.

But theres another angle...  if you know that the show will resume in 2 mins, then you will change the channel knowing that the show won’t start for atleast 2 mins.

Also, not all add breaks are 2 mins long, they are 5 or say 8 mins long and so.. the timer won’t show up till the first 6 mins are past. In that case, I will switch to another channel and just keep checking if the timer has appeared. So the channel is losing viewership in the first 6 mins. But will they have views in the count down period.

But as seen earlier, once the timer comes up, the viewer will switch to other channel because he knows that the show won’t return for atleast 2 mins

So, is this idea of having the timer good or bad for the channel? If you were the customer would you want your product to be advertised in the 2 min window or before that? Or is the idea itself retrogressive and will reduce the viewer ship during breaks in the long run? Think!

That was the problem which I couldn’t solve as I’m thinking too much from customer, channel and the viewer’s POV. So I thought I might get some help if I posted this on the blog. Not to mention.. some comments :P :D 

Keep digging!! You could just be right!  

 

Made in India, Banned in China

I woke up early to wish my sister on her birthday. The day also brought about one of those days when I’m early to office. Well, on time actually. The Wednesday started early, and there were few mails that caught my interest; except the one from a colleague from the China office.  The Chinese Had visited India a few days ago and I had actually managed to get close enough to be able to ask them to open my blog after they got back to China. I had always wanted page views from China. Ever since the rise of India and China cliché, I had my eyes set on China and well, getting Chinese eyes on my blog was also important.

Hi H,

Bad news for you, your blog is also banned in China. :(

Regards,

SY

  The first reaction was fear. Have I don’t something wrong? Have I written something bad? Am I in trouble? I was scared. But I hadn’t written anything about China at all. In the Anty Life post, I remember saying “But isn’t China doing good?” and that was the only time I had ever used the word! Why would you ban me? I recently wrote a post onPakistan, but that was also promoting Peace. Maybe the Chinese don’t want India and Pakistan to be in peace :P Thinking more, I remembered the Rich andResponsible Posts, where I had again mentioned China, but it was a post against America, or rather against Obama, did the Chinese like Obama? Everyone knows China has a lot of Forex and export business with USA, so maybe they don’t want their people to see me talk bad about USA. 

 

After the first few minutes of fear passed, I felt happy and even started to feel a little proud. I had caught the eyes of the Chinese after all. My posts got to China! Wow that sounds so awesome! I’m actually a banned author! People would use proxy servers! search for me on Google and Twitter! And wait for me to make posts on other underground sites and blogs! I’m a banned author! So exhilarating! 

Then I suddenly remembered there was no twitter in China! SY and AC had told us a little about China, there was no facebook, no twitter, no self-owned homes and no one cared if your house came in between a road widening project. It goes down! It takes a hundred years to take down a stray temple in the center of the road in India, leave alone houses! Why temple? even a cud chewing cow is stronger than a honking Million Rupee SUV!

‘Do you have strikes in China?’ I asked AC over some tea on their last day in India. 

He said, ‘oh no no!’

‘There are never strikes in China. You can do Strike if you want, but you will be thrown in prison, maybe forever.’

The four of us had a hearty laugh, but fell silent. All of us thinking why we laughed. 

This memory of banning, censoring and silencing came back when I was told I was banned in China. So like any other smart person, I Googled:

Why is my blog banned in China?

There were many results and a link to Wikipedia read, list of sites blocked in China. I hit it and saw some really good sites, facebook, twitter, youtube, Pikasa were all blocked in China! The number 13 on the list shot down my snout and showed me why my Blog is banned. It’s not me… it’s the whole of Blogspot!

Anty Life

There is never a hot day in Bangalore, yet there is always hot water from the solar heater. The November of 2009 began with the vengeance of the retreating monsoons. Chennai was under water. Rain god showed all that meant violent love. Flooding roads, crashing trees and lots of tv coverage. 

300 kilometres away on a green patch of higher ground, there was thick cloud cover with an occasional falling drop. Children loved it and others loved for it. It was paradise revisited for Bangaloreans.   

I woke up with a few good text messages from close friends and a nice good morning message from a closer... Yeah alright I had the hots for her...  A hot cup of mom made coffee and exchanging text messages with the girl you have the hots for on a chilly morning with a slight drizzle. (Except for that idling garbage truck) mornings can’t get better.

Owing to the lovely weather and ample time, I ran against my natural instinct and decided to take a bath. Who knows, I might get lucky on a lazy cupid day.  The solar heater was on its off day, so we had to turn to the electric one. I felt a slight chill run down me as I stripped and turned on the taps. My mom told me when I was kid that you must first fill your buckets and then take off your cloths so that you won’t feel cold. I guess after all these years I’m still too eager to get naked. Well, maybe the reasons and places have changed a bit...  but let’s not get into that now. So I was getting ready to bathe and as the solar heater was busted due to the cloud cover, we had to use the electric heater.

I turned on the tap and was greeted with the familiar spurts of hot water as the tap filled my bucket. Just after a minute or so, I saw a few ants come around the tap. I thought they were just some random scout ants looking for food.  

 Huh! Lame ants, what will you find under a bathroom tap?

The bucket was full and I was getting high on the scent of the Mysore sandal soap. Just after I had enough, I placed the soap back on the shelf and turned to wash myself. That’s when it happened! I saw a swarm! There was a huge swarm of black common house ants moving all over the tiles and taps! There were thousands! Or maybe more! Guess what! The seldom used hot water tap had been their nest!  And those poor ants might’ve got too hot under the tap and were swarming out in panic.

The first thing I did was turn off the tap. Then I observed what was happening. A huge mass of slow moving ants were moving in the opposite direction of the heat. A few ants had taken off and were running around looking panicked. That’s when I realised the ants I first saw were indeed scout ants. They had been sent out at the first sight of danger to look out for a new safe place to nest. Only now there were more, maybe a hundred scouts. 

They seemed to enter under other taps, imperfections and holes in the wall. But maybe they were not fit or already occupied.  By then the swarm had moved quite a distance from the hot tap. I noticed that there were three big clusters or three places where ants had formed multiple layers, ant over ant and many layers like that. On closer inspection I saw that two of those clusters had bigger ants in the middle. 1 big ant covered and protected by a thousand others. Those must be the queens I thought. The 3^rd cluster looked slightly coloured, yellow white or off-white. Those were the eggs! So the million ants had formed three hard and impenetrable (or so they might’ve thought) clusters. Two protecting their queens and one protecting their eggs. 

The scout ants were still making their rounds and after a while the swarm slowly started moving, the clusters were dissolved; the queens and eggs were safely moved back to the nest. The scout ants might’ve thought the tap was back to normal. 

I wanted to let hot water out again and see if they do the same drill all over again. But then again, a man’s got to have a heart, plus one can’t spend the whole day in the bathroom right? Just then I realised how I must look, a nude man bent over looking at a slow moving ant swarm.  Hmm... Quite a view.

I did step out of the bath and lived on happily ever after. Until today that is.

It wasn’t until late yester night that I was reminded of this ant experience. I had just finished with a rather communist book and was at a loss of words. The book itself stood by the side of justice and humanity. It might seem clichéd or even retroprogressive to some, but the book dealt with over exploitation of work force by rich capitalists. I’ve always been intrigued by communism. And I just feel common ownership could be really motivating.  

Now communism might seem, as I said, retroprogressive. But isn’t china doing good? Isn’t kerala doing great?? It’s got the best HDI in the country! and not to mention 100% literacy. Why? It’s simply because everyone is given a fair chance. An authority stands up and commands its brothers to do what is right. And goodness prevails. Of course, the authority needs to be on the side of good. Which!! Is the challenge!  

I’m too small and know very less about the complexities of politics; the pits of communism and socialism, the highs of the “free world” and capitalism are also a little blur to me. And my dad would really be worried if I call myself a red, but isn’t keeping it simple the best? 

All I know believe right now is that an ant can move the world. How many times have we been given the ant’s example? Work force? Discipline? Hard work? Always look for alternatives? Always keep your chances open? Never give up?

Well Here’s another, Communism. 

Sadly for your guys, this write has been less about communism and more about what I do in the bathroom, so I’ve thought about reading more about communism vs liberalism or capitalism and maybe... If I find something interesting or at least am able to strike up a good conversation, I would surly put it out here. Thanks for reading... bye