Adopting a ‘James Dean approach’ to life

/ riainthecity / 20 Comments

“I don’t want to be just good, I want to be great” – James Dean

Let me start off by saying, James Dean was HOT! Ok moving on, the question is how far can we get in life if we adopted, what I like to call a James Dean approach towards life. Well you don’t really have to label it a James Dean approach to life, it is just a ‘living your life on your own terms and striving for excellence’ approach to life.

For me it means only applying for jobs that I like, travelling the world, writing and regularly trying to help out those in need. It could mean an entirely different thing to you. Whatever the case I think it is a mighty fine approach towards life. You only get to live once, might as well live happy and satisfied* [I suggest you read the fine print at the bottom of this post now!]

Now that you have read the fine print I know what you are going to say. ‘…but, but, but what if my life doesn’t allow me to live life according to my own terms?’ To which I will say, ‘PLEASE!’ Life isn’t a bed of roses, no one said it would be. Living on your own terms in today’s world means, making the best out of what you have and trying your hardest to get what you want! You may not totally achieve what you set out to get and life does get in the way but trust me you will be much happier knowing that you tried! If your dream is to become a Princess then modify that dream a little and become an actress (a disney princess that is!). No money? No problem! Take an odd job and make enough money and enroll yourself in an acting school, it could just be part time but it is something. No talent? er… then find something better to do with your life or if you are really passionate about it then find a way to make yourself better.

Bottomline is, DO NOT GIVE UP!

*Read the fine print: Live on your own terms as long as it doesn’t harm others in any way and do try to fulfill your responsibilities.

I have added a new book to the list of books that tickle my fancy!

The Versatile Blogger Award

/ riainthecity / 16 Comments

OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! I finally got nominated for The Versatile Blogger award. Ok I know it has not been that long since I started this blog but still!

Thank you BrookeandMcKenzie for nominating me. You guys are awesome! Basically, late last night after yet another round of job applications I was going to go to bed but decided to log on to twitter to check trending topics (Yup! I do that a lot!) and chanced upon one of BrookeAndMcKenzie’s tweets. It read, something along the lines of, see who we nominated for the versatile blogger award and I thought to myself, “When will someone nominate me for that?”.

Now, I love these award posts because I have found great blogs through such posts. Hence, I decided to check up on their list and lo and behold my name was there! I guess this is going to be one of my flashbulb memories! (I sound uber excited because I am!)

The rules for accepting this award are:

1) Thank the blogger who nominated you (Thank you BrookeandMcKenzie!)

2) Nominate and inform 15 fellow bloggers

3) Share 7 random things about yourself

4) Include the Versatile Blogger award picture in your post

It looks like I am already done with 1 and 4 so I will do number 3 now .

7 random things about me

1. I have a thing for even numbers. I don’t know why it is but it just is. Odd numbers make me cringe!

2. I love visiting places with a historical significance. I guess that’s why I chose Cambodia for my graduate trip!

3. I don’t understand why some people treat everything like a popularity contest.

4. My front tooth is chipped and I never got it fixed because I like it like that!

5. I am a sucker for colors but I do not have any artistic tendencies. In fact I can hardly draw, as is obvious from my drawings…[awkward silence] alrighty then moving right along…

6. I am really bad at receiving compliments and I fidget whenever someone compliments me.

7. I own the sword of Gryffindor (Ok not really… but I would like to!)

On to number 2 then… 

I don’t really know that many people on here since I am new to this but I am going to try! If not, I will do a The Versatile Blogger Award part 2.

Angry Pear

As long as I am singing

Belle Of the Carnival

Bree

Diary Of a Wimpy Mom 

Jeff Goins

Peas and Cougars

Snoring Dog Studio

The Middlest Sister (Her blog has to be seen to be believed!)

Year Struck

I know that some of you already have the award but what can I do? I like reading your blogs! 😉

Also, I know that the list doesn’t contain 15 bloggers but the ones I want to nominate already have it. Hmmm… Can I nominate BrookeandMcKenzie again? 😉

Butterscotch & chocolate chip biscuits made easy

/ riainthecity / 12 Comments

One of the greatest joys of winter, for me, is to be able to sit down with my favorite book in hand and a warm cup of coffee with some biscuits.

Here is a simple recipe for biscuits that I tried at home and that turned out surprisingly well. I am not really a ‘kitchen person’ so I usually refrain from venturing into complex cooking or baking endeavours but this is simple enough for even people like me!

Ingredients

All purpose flour – 1 cup

Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp

Salt – 1/4 tsp  (I omitted this ingredient)

Baking soda – 1/2 tsp (not baking powder!)

Caster sugar – 1/2 cup

Brown sugar – 1/2 cup

Butter – 1/4 cup

Egg – 1

Butterscotch chips – 2 tbsp  (I used Hershey, you could use any brand that you like)

Semi sweet chocolate chips – 1 tbsp

Note: If you are using self raising flour you don’t have to use baking soda and salt.

Baking Process

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2) Mix all the dry ingredients together (salt, flour, baking soda, cocoa powder).

3) In a bowl put butter and sugar and whisk them using an electric mixer or a manual egg beater until a creamy texture is obtained. Put the egg into this mixture and mix again.

4) Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the bowl with the butter, sugar and egg and mix (Don’t add at once or it will create a thick mush).

5) Once the mixture is ready (it will be like soft dough), put the butterscotch and semi sweet chocolate chips (mix lightly).

6) Place a sheet of butter paper on a baking tray and use a small sized ice cream scooper to scoop the mixture and place it on the baking tray. Flatten out the biscuit dough using the back of a spoon or a glass.

[I used a medium sized baking tray and put 12 scoops each time]

7) Place the baking tray in the pre heated oven for about 10-12 minutes and viola! your cookies are ready!

Place the biscuits on a cooling rack until they cool down and serve them with milk, coffee or tea.

Cost of Ingredients

$3

Quantity

20-25

Happy holidays!

Technolo-geez!

/ riainthecity / 13 Comments

Konichiwa!

Cyber M-O-N-D-A-Y! what did you get?

I didn’t get much except a very very awesome deal from tofugu to learn Japanese. It’s called textfugu and if you want to learn Japanese I suggest that you should check it out. Of course I am using some other sources to learn Japanese too and if you need help just let me know!

Tofugu offers some free lessons as well. Over the next few weeks I will do some reviews to help others. However, I think it’s going to be positive and no Tofugu isn’t paying me to do this.

There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to buy but I didn’t need it and hence I decided against it. One of my goals for this month and next year is to do my bit to reduce the crazy consumerism. While modern life has provided us with a lot of comforts (God bless the people who came up with the dishwasher and the laundry machine!) we need to minimize if not curb unnecessary consumerism.

Also, I got a call regarding a job interview today and yes I was delighted but before calling me the HR manager dropped me an email so that I could get in touch with her. However, when I tried to call her, the call kept getting transferred to the voicemail. The HR manager had explicitly stated in her email that if I don’t call her by today, then they won’t reschedule the interview (it was a telephonic interview). Since, I was unable to get through to her I dropped her an email asking her about what I should do in such a situation. She replied immediately and wrote a 2 page long email regarding the importance of leaving voice messages (which for the record i did). Hmmm did she really think that I didn’t know how to leave a message?

Not only that, she called me after an hour or so and lectured me on the importance of voice mail. GOD! I knew better than to argue but it was annoying!

Has this ever happened to you?

And if you are learning Japanese do get in touch with me, I am currently trying to find people I can learn with. Moreover, would you like me to start another sub section to help people learn Japanese? Let me know!

Oh and here is a list of things that put the geez in technology!

What inspires you?

/ riainthecity / 20 Comments

I keep coming across blogs and books advertising that they will give you ideas for your blog and teach you how to come up with new ideas. BULLSH*T! I’ve read a few of such books, which I shall not mention here, but they have little or nothing to teach you.

For starters it’s your blog, you don’t need to read a book to get ideas. Just look around you and your life is filled with ideas. You just need to find a source of inspiration. However, if you really need ideas then just read the gazillions of blog articles available for free!

Another thing about these blogs is that they seem to harbor the notion that any successful blogger just needs to keep on creating. That’s so not true! Not creating is better than creating just for the sake of creating!

You must have something that you want to talk about, a point you want to get across or a message you want to deliver to your readers. Inspiration could come from anywhere; books, magazines, travel trips, daily life or even dreams.

Personally, my two favorite sources of inspirations are daily life and dreams. I love reading blogs and books that are true to normal life because that is something that you can relate to. Real life doesn’t have to be dull and drab, there are plenty of interesting things that happen in everyone’s life, you just have to take the time to notice them.

Dreams inspire me because my dreams are my goals. They give me an indication of what i want to achieve in real life. This may sound ridiculous but I keep a notebook under my pillow so that if I wake up in the middle of the night I could just scribble my idea in it. Seems to work just fine for me. Bet no book gave you that idea, did they? 😉

Happy blogging and writing, remember to Keep It Real! Don’t Just create for the sake of creating.

So, what inspires you?

Are we all actors?

/ riainthecity / 8 Comments

“The uniqueness of self cannot be pigeonholed! The self is always changing, always in transit and it’s preposterous to think it can be nailed down by a definition. Only small minds would think so.” Moranna from An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark.

The character of Moranna echoes my sentiments. Yet, the concept of self is one of the most fundamental concepts of sociology. Goffman aptly described the concept of self as a sense of who one is. He didn’t directly state whether self is always changing or not,  instead, he described how we have an on and off stage persona. Does that mean we are always acting when people are watching? Are we always giving a performance? Are we all actors in our own right? (oh how wonderfully dramatic!)

While everyone has varying viewpoints about this concept, I don’t believe that all of us are always acting in front of others. Instead, I believe that we choose to hide some of the aspects of our personality to portray a more favorable image of ourselves. Is that called acting?

Sure, there are people who portray a completely different image from what they are but we don’t call them normal people we call them reality stars;)

What do you think?

Sigh… HELP!

/ riainthecity / 2 Comments

Apart from the fact that I love Peanuts, the word sigh aptly summarizes a lot of emotions that I am currently experiencing.

For starters, as most of you will know, we are now in the last week of NaNoWriMo and I am still trying to hit 40000. When will I ever reach 50000? How many of you have reached 50000? What are your plans for the last week of NaNoWriMo? Do you think you will be able to finish it? Questions, questions, questions… Sigh.

Secondly, I downloaded korean actor Jang Keun Suk‘s official app and guess what? it’s mainly in Korean! horaaay! whoopdef***ingdo! Don’t you think this warrants another sigh? No? Oh and the app isn’t free:) Sigh.

Moreover, I honestly have no idea what I want in life at the moment and I am afraid that I won’t be able to accomplish all that I want. Action plans are fine and dandy but are of little value in real life (or at the moment for me at least).

Normal blog posts will resume shortly. Meanwhile let me know about your NaNoWriMo progress and tell me how do you guys deal with the ‘sigh’ moments in your life.

Getting over a heart break 101

/ riainthecity / 8 Comments

A heartbreak isn’t always necessarily caused by your better half. Sadly friends, family or anyone who is close to you or who you give a crap about can easily do it. Ah! life. But you need to be able to get over it. Here’s what happened…

A few days back I spoke to a friend whom I have not spoken to in a few months because well we fought. I know it seems childish and immature but people can be really immature and dealing with it is a part of life. A couple of months back this friend of mine was giving me sh*t and when I asked why, she told me that I should try to understand her because she was having a bad day. However she had been giving me sh*t for quite some time then and I believe I said something along the lines of, “Well you must be having a really bad life then because you are always throwing your crap around!” OUCH! I know, it isn’t one of my proudest moments and I feel bad but I have already apologized countless times and if she can’t forgive me then there is only so much that I can do! However, I am not one to give up easily and I will keep trying as long as I can! That conversation was followed by her blocking me from facebook, skype and such.

This happened about 3 months ago and a few days back I finally mustered up the courage to ask her if she is feeling alright now and the response I got was, “I am ok”. So i told myself see that wasn’t so bad and  maybe I can ask her if she has forgiven me because it has been 3 months. Sadly the response I got was, “I know and i don’t care!”. Another OUCH moment! I am a very emotional person and obviously I felt bad and heart broken. Hence i took out my recipe book and looked up the recipe to deal with a heart break and here I am sharing it with you now. Hope this helps 😉 

Amazingly swearing has a really therapeutic effect! Throw talking a good friend into the mix and you are good to go. However, the ‘talking to a friend’ ingredient should be added depending on the seriousness of the situation.

Follow this recipe as and when required and I can promise you it will yield results and will get you from…

to

How do you get over a situation like this?

P.S: Don’t overdo the ice cream bit in the recipe! Watch that waistline 😉

My two cents worth on gaining a readership in the blogosphere

/ riainthecity / 11 Comments

Ever since I started blogging in 2004 I have read numerous blogs and here is what I think about the topic of gaining a readership for your blog.

[Assumption: Your content is relevant and interesting ;)]

Keep it short

Long winded blog entries bore people. So, unless you can keep the interest up, try to keep your posts short and sweet.

This doesn’t apply to all genres. If you run a political blog then long blogs are more helpful.

Illustrate/ Use pictures

A picture really does speak a thousand words and if the pictures you use interest people, they are more likely to carry on reading your blog.

Use a visible background

We get it black is a cool color but more often than not dark backgrounds cause eye strain. So use a lighter background. A light background is soothing to the eyes and makes things more visible.

This is what i feel like everytime i visit a blog with a dark background.

Keep it neat and tidy 

By tidy I don’t mean you can’t use ad sense. By all means advertise but keep it categorized. Don’t use too many tabs or an ‘ all over the place’  kind of design. Background pictures are nice but don’t let them overwhelm your content. There are blogs that I frequent which have amazing content but have fewer followers than they deserve and I can’t help but think this is due to the layout they have used.

If you want people to visit your blog…

…then visit theirs and leave comments, like posts or follow their blog. It’s a basic reciprocity principle.

Use a funky gravatar

I have noticed that people with funky gravatars are more likely to have their profiles clicked on than people using more mundane ones.

Use catchy headlines not misleading ones

I titled a post ‘Justin Bieber is the father of Mariah Yeater’s child‘ and within half an hour of posting it on twitter i received hundreds of visits. However this was just done as a little marketing experiment and you should refrain from doing this because it’s funny once but do it twice and you will thoroughly piss people off.

Keep it simple

Remember you are writing for human beings not dictionaries and while it’s great to read blogs with good vocabulary, cut down on the usage of bombastic words.

Keep it relevant

I would like to hear your opinion about this too! So leave me a comment letting me know 🙂 Have an awesome weekend!