22 Rules To Phenomenal Storytelling, Pixar Way

Story telling is an art. Not everyone has it. But if you learn a bit, its not that hard to learn. Your grannies stories, your mom's stories, your favorite teachers stories, they had all one thing in common. They were engaging, memorable and always left you wanting more.

Pixar did the same with the movies they created. They were amazing form of story telling. Have a read through the slides created with minimum and yet precise words that throw light on the subtle art of story telling.

Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling from Gavin McMahon

Shokugeki No Soma - An Anime Made Me Fall In Love With Cooking

I am not a big foodie, but love to eat a good meal. I love the difference between home cooked food and the food served in a restaurant. Its as different as eating a five star mean and a udipi meal, or perhaps your mother's cooking and your friends mom's cooking.

Out of sheer lack of good shows to watch in Anime genre on Netflix, I took a leap of faith in watching a food related anime series. I was pleasantly surprised by what I got myself into.

Let me say this. If you appreciate good food, you will fall in love with this show.

The show emphasises the art of making a good dish or a meal. Let's you understand the story being every dish and how it evolved. The sensory assault or arousal that each bite evokes with taste, smell and visual appeal. At times outlandish, but then that is anime for those who have never gotten hooked to this genre of story telling. By the way, it's got a good story line and well written characters.

I will not elaborate the storyline. Go watch it if you love food related stuff. What's truly amazing is the fact that the artwork (most of the anime are hand drawn), is truly work of art. The visuals created are truly amazing, be it the glaze, transparency, viscosity, moisture, heat, dryness, crispness, gelatinous or any other 'ness' that one can associate with describing food.

Rich ramen, steaming hot

I slowly but surely got hooked on to this show and am about the close in on the last third season. I have started enjoying the process of cooking food my self. I may not be capable as a sou chef, but can definitely see myself as kitchen porter. heh!

If you love food related shows, go watch. You will always remember it like a good meal you had on a hot summer holiday at beach resort. Or something in those lines.  Bon appetit! 

Do It, Even If They Say It's Stupid

There are so many things that I have done in life which I might have second thoughts about. So many.

Perhaps I should not have done it. Perhaps there were other ways to handle it. Perhaps I should have listened to my premonitions and not be reckless. Perhaps.

All the regrets would add up to nothing but a pile of 'what if's'. Of course not very thing that i have done have been worth while. Sometimes a little objectivity and rationale should have been in place to stop me from making really really stupid mistakes. Mistakes like not having a plan B when failure would take away a sizable chunk of the gains made.

One of the biggest stupidity I did was to quit a comfortable engineering job seeking an unknown career. It took the next 10 years or so to give me the clarity through various jobs. But still, the journey was worth it. Having said that the other stupidity, in professional capacity, was to get emotionally attached to the job and not quitting when I should have. This cost me far more than anything. I do believe I wasted 5 years of my career in roles I overstayed on. That was so stupid of me.

It's not just in my profession, but also in life, relationships, actions and many more. I have stories that have stuck with me. Stories of making decisions and not making ones that cost me money, time, opportunities and relationships.

Biggest regret was not in taking a decision. The biggest ones were when I didn't take any decision and just let it pass. All because of my fears of failure or being afraid.

Or perhaps ... of the unknown. Baka!