Back Again

It’s time to write.

Yeah, so it didn’t quite work out like I expected.

It’s been four years since I moved my blog to a paid hosting service. In those four years, the number of posts per year didn’t reach double figures. In fact, my interaction with the blog was limited to changing the theme every few months and promising myself that I’d start writing more. I didn’t.

So this year, I finally threw in the towel and decided to come back to the place where it all started. At least now I don’t have to worry about my WordPress installation getting hacked or tinkering with themes and plugins to get them to work properly. Nope. No more excuses.

Time to get my hands dirty, conjure something interesting and bring back the five or so people who were regular visitors here. It all starts now (again). And this time it’s going to be different.

Stop laughing there, at the back.

We have moved!

Hi there! After a pleasant stay for about 6 months, I have decided to move the blog to my new website. I won’t be posting here anymore but all the content that I have posted till now will remain here for old times sake.

Be sure to take a look at the new site. Cheers everyone! 🙂

Life Update!

It’s been 10 days since my last post, so it’s about time I took notice and did the needful. Let me tell you, there’s a lot that I can moan about right now, but being the level-headed, calm and thoughtful person that I am (stop sniggering there at the back), I’ve decided to just write a simple post that would remind the world that this blog ain’t dead. Yet.

The year started on a good note but things have soured just a little bit in the past few days. I’ve been too busy sorting out my real life this year, so the blog hasn’t received attention at all. Not a happy new year for the blog so far, then. 😉

My career path has taken a whole lot of twists and turns before I’ve even stepped out of my house. But at least I’ve been able to narrow down my choices, willingly or otherwise. Life’s definitely not fair. But like uncle Billy G. said, ‘Get used to it’. 😦

Anyways, today is the big match between Manchester United and Chelsea, so at least that will keep my mind occupied. And so will the light-hearted (not always) banter that usually follows a game of such magnitude. I’ll expect a more mature discussion with rival fans than the one that took place last time, which turned into a full-blown name-calling session.

Like I said, I’ve got a lot of things to sort out and get back on track. So I guess this will have to do for now.

Cheers everyone! 🙂

Writer’s Block Strikes Again!

You can’t see it coming. It just hits you when you least expect it to. It dominates everything that your mind comes up with, promptly labeling each idea as junk. It brings sleepless nights where you keep thinking of something to write about. But nothing ever seems to meet the seemingly high standards you’ve set for yourself.

Yes, it’s that niggling little thing that has cost many writers their sanity and a fistful of hair.The dreaded beast known as ‘Writer’s Block’.

As if me being a lazy sloth wasn’t enough, this annoying little thing keeps popping up every now and then, resulting in the awfully small number of posts I have on this blog. Since the past few days, I’ve had a few ideas, but none of them seemed to be up to scratch. So I finally decided that coming up with a post that seems to be totally absurd, useless and a waste of server space and bandwidth, is the way to overcome this situation.

Yes, it is a wacky idea and makes me look like a complete crackpot (the blog’s name is a dead giveaway). But heck, if it works I’ll be back in business in no time!

Whoa! I’m feeling better already! Now where’s that pencil? 😛

A Rant Against Everything

The following lines are part of a full-blown rant against anything and everything. I can’t be held responsible if it hurts your sensibilities. Also, I can’t be held responsible if you waste 30 seconds of your life on this page. So here goes:

My last post was on the 18th of November. That makes it 12+16=28 days between that one and this post. A lot of water has flown under the bridge between then and now.

Most of the things that could have gone wrong, gladly obeyed Murphy’s law and did go wrong. Some things that could have stayed right, didn’t. The recession is still on, making it harder to earn a living, let alone keep the job that you already have. IT companies have hit the brakes on recruitment of freshers, so I’m still jobless with only an offer letter and a provisional degree to show for 4 years of engineering. BPOs are taking full advantage of the situation and recruiting truckloads of people. After all, even in the current climate, there’s no shortage of poor souls who need assistance in turning on that new vacuum cleaner they just purchased.

The political situation in this country shows no signs of improvement. Some people can so easily fool millions of people, all at the same time. And be revered for that. Nice. I must restrain myself from discussing this any further, as I sense a steady stream of expletives about to be unleashed. In short, I’m fed up of the political system in India. It needs a complete overhaul. But what can I do? Nothing. I should have guessed.

They say – ‘Nothing is permanent except change’. Nothing’s changed here since the past few months. It feels as if I’m running around in circles. Same old, same old. Wake up, survive, go to bed. It’s all come to a point where I seem to have lost interest in a lot of things, not the least this blog. I’ve got unfinished projects, objectives and games that are crying out for my attention. But there’s only so much you can do on your computer until you just want to turn it off. For good. The less said about television, the better.

When I began this rant of mine, my mind was overflowing with things that needed to be written but now it’s empty. Not because I’ve written them all down, but because I can’t seem to remember them now!! I think I’ve become a bit senile.

Damn.

So the rant is over, I guess. But I was wondering, how many others find themselves in the same situation? I’d love to know!

A New Direction

I’ve been on a holiday. Not the one involving the sun, sand and sardines but a holiday of a different kind. And during this time, the blog has been neglected… again.

You see, I’m not a born writer nor do I have a penchant for churning out paragraphs after paragraphs. The blog, as it stands, is as good as dead. Content is the key to online publishing and that is exactly what I can’t seem to come up with these days. Ideas that pop up in my mind are shelved for one reason or another. Some ideas are considered to be not good enough, some seem to be out-dated and some are plain daft.

Maybe I need to steer my mind into a completely different direction, change the entire structure of thinking, add new categories to write on. Let’s see what I can come up with. 😛

So, where were we?

It’s been a while. The blog stares at me with a disillusioned look in its eyes.

“You said you’re serious this time. You said you’d take good care of me. What happened to your promises?”

Without saying a word, I click on the ‘New Post’ button, as if overcome by a deep sense of guilt. Words usually don’t come easily, but this time it’s different…

A lot has happened since I last sat down to utter my frivolous thoughts on these pages. So what better way to reignite the flame, than by updating what’s happened in the past few weeks? Here we go, then:

• In the world of football, or more accurately the Barclays Premier League, Chelsea sit pretty at the top with Liverpool hanging onto their blue coat-tails, separated only by goal-difference. At third are Arsenal Manchester United Manchester City…. Hull City!! No, that is NOT a typo.
• The PC game FIFA 09 released in Europe with great fanfare, but was leaked onto the bit-torrent network at least 1 day before its official launch.
• My days as a bored, employed but not yet called up graduate should be coming to an end soon. Yes!!
• Speaking of bored, I learnt that the Internet is a great way to spend your time. Or rather, waste it.
• The international break is quite a pain in the neck. No football on the telly.
• My room has undergone a mini renovation of sorts.
• My computer still loves me and refuses to let me stay away from it for more than an hour.

And all is well with the world! 🙂

Another Chelsea wallpaper

Well, well, well! What a day it’s been. Not only did I post some of my old creations here, I also started and completed another wallpaper! Normally I take a long time to come up with an idea, and even longer to actually start working on it. But today everything fell into its place effortlessly and the result is here for all to see.

© Abhishek Pancholi

The photograph shows Frank Lampard celebrating his goal in the UEFA Champions League final in May 2008. Initially I had planned to write ‘Frank Lampard’ in the image, but forgot all about it during the actual Photoshopping.

So, what do you think? Not bad for a lazy sloth, eh? 😉

Found two more of my creations!

Yesterday I dug up an old sketch from my hard drive. Today I present to you, two wallpapers I created nearly a year ago using Photoshop. If you’re a Chelsea fan like me, you’ll love ’em!

The first one has been made using the pictures from Chelsea’s FA Cup victory over Manchester United in 2007.

© Abhishek Pancholi

The second one shows fans’ favourite, Joe Cole.

© Abhishek Pancholi

That’s it for now! You lot enjoy these and in the meantime I’ll see if I can find some other interesting stuff hidden away in some corner of my hard disk! 🙂

An old concept art

I’ve been an automobile afficionado since birth. All forms of 2-wheelers, 4-wheelers and more-wheelers fascinate me. I also used do a bit of sketching and mostly the things I drew were on hot wheels rather than high heels. Sadly, I haven’t bothered to wake up my artistic side in ages. Here’s a little blast from the past, something I made a long time ago. It’s been scanned and resized because the full-size image is just too heavy. Click the thumbnail below to see it in full.

©Abhishek Pancholi, 2007

Okay, now I can’t think of anything else to say about this. Just take a look, admire it or scoff at it. Either way, if you’re reading this, do spend a few seconds to comment on how good/bad you think it is.

Thanks! 🙂