The gratitude list.

So today morning, I set out on a mini-mission. Just out of the blue, I thought I'll take a walk around my neighborhood and try to get an approximate idea of the number of people who are smiling/seem happy. The results were not-so-happy.

If I were to draw a pie chart, this is what it would probably look like-

Now isn't that sad? Disregarding the made-up numbers and my attempt to seem mathematical in a seemingly math-lacking blog, it can be said without doubt that the majority of the people maintain a sad/neutral expression, suggesting that the general happiness level is low. Well there is this whole debate about having a neutral expression vs. making a smile your neutral expression, but that is not something I can get into at the moment (though I do feel that's an interesting debate and will definitely bring it up sometime later). 

If you're at a place where the general happiness seems low, how do you turn that around? By being happy yourself, you can spread happiness and be the angel of the area! If you're at a place where everyone is already smiling, well that is great! Let's try to maintain that.

I believe that one of the major reasons why the general happiness level of a particular place might seem low is because people are not grateful. If you are grateful, you feel happy, and maybe start by grateful of the little things in life.

So here are some little things I am grateful for/happy about (hopefully this will inspire you to create a list of your own!) -

1) Getting a new notebook- I spent the whole of the previous semester + half of the new semester using one notebook, and now that I have finally finished inking/pencil-ling all the pages, I can finally start using a new notebook! This notebook has uncrumpled pages, an ecstatic cover devoid of inkstains, spiral binding, and just the right amount of centimeters between the lines. Not to mention the smell of fresh paper!

2) Having an already-filled water bottle in my room- How annoying it is to go all the way to the water dispenser, stand there tapping toes, ensure the bottle is filled, and walk all the way back to my chair! I don't have to do that for another 2 days now! (jk, I meant 2 hours because I'm so wonderful and ever hydrated :)

3) Over my period- Need I elaborate on this, ladies? There are so many advantages of being off the monthly strife and rising amongst the altitude of normalcy. I won't have to deal with embarrassing sounds from my digestive system and pretend to have x10 terrifying cramps to gain sympathy and loads of chocolates from people who usually don't give a crap but are generally terrified of bleeding women. Also, I can totally re-engage in shameless carnal activities and/or pretend to say so to sound cool.

4)  My phone is still functioning- Oh, where would we be without our phones? Earlier today, I thought my phone died because the screen just suddenly went blank, but now it's back and working again. So glad to continue by nightly routine of stalking lives and gaining gossip via snapchat.

5) I will get 4 hours of sleep today, instead of the usual 3- Okay, maybe I did sleep for 8 hours for the past week, and today I'll just sleep for 4 it seems, but that is totally fine! Isn't it. Human beings are capable of surviving on 4 hours of sleep. Let me be optimistic. Dark circles are a sign of hardwork and a mysterious kind of beauty, and if it wasn't till now, I can totally change convention by pulling off this look. I'm sure there are more great things about my sleep timings.

6) I got my contact lenses on today on the first try- Usually, it takes me around 20 minutes because of my below average skills of wearing cosmetic equipment. When I can see properly, I can see all the happiness, and when I can see properly in less than 20 minutes, my vision captures even more happiness! Heh.

7) I'm still healthy- At the end of the day, even if a thousand things happen, isn't it great to still be healthy and intact? Okay, I did have a packet of chips just an hour ago. And a burger two hours ago. But at least I don't have narcolepsy or some other chronic illness! Man, so many things to be grateful for.

So that is it! My short list of things I'm grateful for. There are so many other little things to put here, things that we always take for granted but do matter a heck lot! So I'd recommend that you, too compile a list of gratefulness, and doing so everyday can keep you smiling every single day. Or every alternate day at least!

I promise to post more entries soon!
With affections and formalities (just to sound a little business-like in this informal domain),

The Comeback Entry- Explanations and lies.

Dear esteemed readers,

I have shamelessly abandoned my blog for an accurate 3 months with no useful entry whatsoever and for that, I'm sorry. This entry is yet another one of my useless entries (unfortunately for you), in which I'll attempt to explain my lack of blog activity, which would mostly consist of lies.

So here is a list of the possible reasons for why I haven't been blogging. You may or may not believe them all.

• Getting used to college- I have been drowning in work. If one assignment is finished 30 seconds before the deadline, another one has to be started (and completed) within the next fifteen hours. This could of course be blamed on my slacking nature, but it also has to do with the work we have and how busy I have been.

• Writing for other purposes- It is possible that my guilt for not blogging has been lessened due to my employing of similar skills in other fields. For instance, I have been writing for my university's blog. I have been writing for professors. I have been writing for competitions, etc. So it is possible that I must have been filling this void of not blogging by replacing it with other related activities. I know, I'm a terrible person, nothing can replace you blog!

• Short term language-memory loss- Due to an unfortunate accident (I ate too much paneer one night), I may have a glitch in my neurological functions which ceased any language or etymology to be remembered and propelled out of my vocal chords. As a result, I lost my ability to write or speak. I have been in the ICU for four days now. Today I'm feeling a little better so I asked one of the doctors to become my speakwrite and type this out for me.

• Herpes diagnosis- The initial excitement of college life led me to experiment with various reckless activities. One of those activities has resulted in my diagnosis with herpes, for which I am currently undergoing treatment. The disease freaked me out and caused sores in necessary areas, and therefore I have refrained from blogging.

• Writer's block- The past few months in college has forced me to confine my writing to academic and creative essays for which I require my textbooks and various other research methodologies. As a result, I have forgotten the simple task of blogging due to its informal and personal nature, and I can't think of much to say other than about Shakespeare's plagiarism, domestic sexuality, existentialist theorists, and a million other things that I can never kick out of my brain because they have been deemed unavoidable.

• Laziness- When I do get some free time from my busy schedule, I spend it doing reckless activities (refer to Herpes diagnosis point) or catching up on sleep. Sometimes I sleep for so long that I feel tired even after waking up, thus restricting my day's activities to eating, brushing my teeth, and sleeping again. The thought of doing something this productive is just suppressed beneath all this lethargy.

• Lack of access to internet- I have been travelling a lot in honor of my new profession as a photojournalist, which occurred soon as I discovered my unwarranted talent of taking pictures and my decision to stop attending college because I am a pro at what I do. Since my new profession and lifestyle requires a lot of travelling, I have to carry extra sanitary napkins and tampons, and survive without internet. 

• Avoiding on purpose- My abandoning of the blog is part of a furtive mission that shall only be revealed the second I figure out what it is. The mission demands 3 exact months of blogging inactivity so that's why I have been trying to achieve the same.

So yes, these are some of the reasons for my blogging inactivity. This is pathetic, I know. What has life come to. Nevertheless, I just want to let you know that I have been checking out my statistics and visiting this page every now and then, and I am thoroughly impressed that I still get an insane amount of page views everyday, despite my blog being generally crappy. So thank you for sticking around, loyal readers!

As I fake-promise in pretty much every entry, I'm going to fake-promise once again that I will try to blog as regularly as possible. However, I can not predict how much time I'll get so please, please remain hopeful of a new entry in case I do become inactive once again, and believe me, my ideas are at their prime, I do have a bunch of stuff planned but I just hope I'll get time to execute them in the best way possible in order to do justice to this brilliant blogging platform and my brilliant readers.

PS- How many/which of these explanations do you believe are true? Is it fairly obvious? Comment below 'cause I want to know! 

Much gratitude (and excitement for blogging again!),

How To: Procrastinate (like me).

Before I begin this entry, I'm super excited to share with you how a friend of mine (who takes pride in calling himself Zinghai) reacted to my previous blog entry by creating this lovely artwork.

This picture perfectly summarizes my blog, about how weird I am. It is totally relevant and has to do with something I had typed in that previous entry. Extra points for those who successfully decipher the relevance. 

So my sincere apologies for slacking and ditching my blog entirely for like. a month. I am aware that this is unacceptable, and I feel really quite miserable for not being able to find time. College is amazing. And by that I mean that though some aspects of college (like student life) is genuinely amazing, the workload is a-maze-ing. So amazing that I'm stuck inside a maze with a rapidly decreasing supply of maize. <-- Isn't my wordplay amazing? Or are you saying "ah-may-be"?

Crap, I'm addicted.

Anyhoooo, I think the whole purpose of this blog entry is to show you how weird I am and how I've just been procrastinating amazingly. Though I wonder who Zing Lee is. Ah-maybe he's Zinghai's cousin. OMG WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME

I think I'm having trouble focusing. I'm supposed to be typing this entry, but I'm thinking about various Oriental names now. Also, I'm thinking about shoeboxes.

^Ladies and gentlemen, that's how you procrastinate.
I'll post a better entry asap, I promise. I should probably get back to my amazing college workload and get something done.

Here's a link to my previous How To series post, which is also amazing btw.

MUCH LOVE, (Because if you still follow my blog, despite me posting only like once a century, you are seriously amazing and that word, buddy, has no pun intended, and only pure meaning filling it to the brim.)