There are more productivity apps than there are people who want to be productive. I spent a considerable amount of time this year to juggle through various such personal productivity apps. From To-Do lists, Kanban boards, calendars, habit trackers, and whatnot. Like most of the people, I wasted (read invested) more time in trying a range of things instead of working on them in a more practical sense. I also delved real deep into GTD and PARA and Zettelkasten processes and which process or combination could achieve the best results. I tried multiple ways to find out which app could do the most justice to it. Some apps can do one thing better, others can do another thing better. And as more the number of applications grows, the more the anxiety which grows with it. My search finally ended on one app: Notion. This is a Notion appreciation post. #NotPaidBlogpost
When I was growing up, one of the programs I would watch every Sunday morning (apart from Sunday Morning Cartoons on Doordarshan) was the Bournvita Quiz Contest hosted by Derek O’Brien on Zee TV. For kids interested in quizzing, O’Brien was like a Role Model. My school was seldom invited to participate in BQC so all I could feel about it was to get envy. A few years later I did get a chance to see him Live in Birla Auditorium in Jaipur when Discovery Channel organized a quiz. I, along with a school-mate, almost reached the City Finals of the quiz but couldn’t clear the last hurdle and missed a chance to meet him in person. But I always wondered how would it be to be quizzed by one of the most prominent Quizmasters in India.
Don’t you sometimes inflict pain on to yourself just to see how much would it hurt or do you still have it in you? Like touching a hot pan to see what temperature can you handle, or trying to lift 10 KG bag of Aata to see if your backbone is still in solid-state or watch News on TV just to see how many decibels your ears can tolerate? I could dip my hand in boiling milk and I could lift heavy bags but I usually give up after checking the sheer loudness of the TV News for more than 5 minutes. And I live almost next to an airport so I know what loudness is.
I wonder how these news people sleep at night? Maybe everything they do is in ALL CAPS. GOOD MORNING? MORNING I SAID. DON’T YOU THINK THE MORNING IS GOOD? HOW DARE YOU SAY GOOD MORNING AFTER 12? What if they get a little extra salt in their food? What if someone overtakes them from the wrong side? How do they react with their Kids when they show them their report cards? Even the graphics on these news channels are so glaring that if you feel cold any day, keep a TV with News On instead of spending money to make a fireplace.
I have tried a lot but News is becoming more and more unbearable. I am not saying that it is not relevant. I am just saying that I have now become nihilistic enough to ignore it and still live normally. I have even tried the silent news channels. They are so depressing and dull about everything around that one feels that it would need some electric shocks to come back to reality which is normally just fine if not 100%.
The day is not too far when the TV would come with coolants and radiators. And if they get too hot due to the sheer loudness, you might have to take them not to a TV Repair shop but with you to some hill station so that they can take a vacation.
Pushpavalli means a Creeper. The one which can grow and reach places you might not want it to go to. But soon it would make its presence felt and can sweep you off your feet by the extent it has grown. The show created by Comedian Sumukhi Suresh suits its name. It was first available on Prime Video in December 2017 and the second season came in March 2020. There could be more seasons in the future. I am generally reluctant to give my opinions before the show concludes but sometimes I cannot stop myself.
The TV show which I was most reluctant to watch had always been ‘Friends’. I was unnecessarily living under a rock for many years and thought that since everyone is watching it, I must rather stay away. Unnecessary egoistic struggle. I eventually caved in and watched it a few years ago because the pop-culture references to it never stopped going away. I have started rewatching it now with my wife as the need for humor has never been higher in recent times and I believe that ‘Friends’ is something you can always trust to bring a chuckle to you.
Each Graph Theory class would mention the Königsberg problem once. The problem is simple but the solution isn’t. Basically, there was a city in Prussia (old Germany) called Königsberg (now known as Kaliningrad and it is now in Russia) with 7 bridges over a river. The problem statement was to find a path that could cross each bridge just once in such a way that one could return back to the point where one started.
