Twitter + TV = Magic

Why aren't TV shows in India using Twitter to engage users during commercial breaks?

Just thought of this concept for TV shows. In any case there is no stopping the dearth of reality shows in India.
How about if users could tweet what a reality show contestant should do next?
I have always imagined television to be a static medium and thought that there are ways to make it interactive. Imagine the possibilities!
I would love to script the show from my living room. Not only will it be the ultimate in crowdsourcing, but it will be exciting to see how creative and crazy the Indian audience is.

I am already imagining a stream of 140 characters as a ticker that decides the fate of the script. Of course, it will work in reality shows in a real-time format, but a weekly engagement exercise on social platforms could change the way we look at things on television completely.

Walking By

That thing called love
which makes your heart go
boom boom
bing bing
baam baam
blush blush beep beep
baa baa
bo bo
b...b...
..........
That thing?
Yes that
It just walked past me


(Image credit : http://pinterest.com/pin/23573598018994738/)


(I love Pinterest! After Tumblr, its my next favourite thing in the virtual world)

A world without Ads

When I installed Evernote's Clearly extension for my Chrome browser, I whooped with joy (if you haven't done it yet, please go ahead and install it)

It just made me wonder about simplicity in design and minimalism in general. I recently got done with John Maeda's book 'Laws of Simplicity' where he talks about his ten laws for great design. From what I absorbed, I understood that reduction, classification and simplicity is more beautiful than clutter. Somewhere we already know this, but don't have the 'time'/'energy'/'motivation' to bring about change in our lives.

Then, like an 'aha' moment, I thought that somewhere in the future there could be a market for a world without ads. Just like we head to a spa to de-stress ourselves, we would probably pay for an ad-free life. It's a no-brainer really that for a specific target group advertising holds no trigger for conversion.

What if we could live in a world where at the touch of a button we could have a 'clearly' vision?

Would you pay for such a life? Would it reduce the number of conversations we have?

BodySurfing by Anita Shreve

A long walk in the evening and I came across a board that screamed 'crazy discount' at a local bookstore. My squeals turned into a quiet sigh when I inquired and found that the book store was shutting down. Regular patrons weren't returning books and the deposit amounts weren't enough for the owners to continue the setup. Enter the 'saviour' of 'orphaned' books. (Really now, you can't blame me for picking up books at 40 bucks a piece!)

One of the lovelies that I picked up was 'Body Surfing' by Anita Shreve. It had a gorgeous cover and contrary to the popular cliche I lust after well-designed covers.

(The new baby. The green post-it reads ' Rayzyn Public Library')

The book revolves around Sydney, the protagonist, who is tutoring Julie at a fabulous beach house in Portsmouth. She is content and confused about her singlehood. While she tries to come to terms with her previous marriages falling apart, Julie's two brothers - Ben and Jeff arrive at the house to stay with the family. What follows is a series of wooing attempts, a fake kidnap call and lots of melodrama fit for a soap opera.

The novel is a series of descriptions revolving around family dinners, relationships, egos,wooing and the usual status related drama. I particularly liked some paragraphs - especially the one below-  but I felt that the overall storyline is weak. There are elements of beautiful writing but hardly anything to keep me engrossed. I kept finding reasons to avoid the book.

It's as though the author has relied on descriptive writing to take us through a plot which is predictable. One thing that left me puzzled is the numerous breaks in paragraphs throughout the book. You start a day with the family and expect it to continue to the end when a new angle is inserted in a very abrupt way. A conversation between two people is spread across two paragraphs. I didn't find any particular reason for a disconnect. Maybe it's because I haven't read fiction of this kind. Have you guys come across anything like this before?

Body Surfing on Flipkart/Amazon