Friday 28 February 2014

All I Want Is Something New...


Know those times when you feel like you're just drifting through life trying to find some purpose? I've found it helps a little to try and learn something new, even something seemingly minor, as often as possible. Here are a few new things I learnt recently that helped me not die of boredom.

Ginger Rogers often used to lead while dancing. Backwards. In heels. *Respect*

Train berths have these little flaps where you can tuck your sheet in. Now I know how to keep the sheets from hanging over people sleeping on berths below mine.

The Sherlock fandom exploded online after S3E3, causing Tumblr to shut down temporarily. Seriously.

There's always an off switch. And if you can't find it and are too close to the bomb to get away to safety in time, you could always try yanking out all the wires together like Richard Castle did.

Gold worn below the waist is supposedly inauspicious. No one's given me a logical reason behind it, but that certainly explains the presence of those fugly gold belts. Then again, I suppose they could make useful weapons.

Baths work just as well to keep you awake as they do to ensure peaceful sleep. As does coffee, if you're weird like that.

Indonesia has been invaded by the Japanese and the Dutch in the past. It's prone to just about every natural disaster you can think of and currently has at least nine active volcanoes. It's adorable how my Indonesian friends say things like "my volcano erupted last year" and "what's the current situation with your volcano like?"

In some countries in the Middle East, if you compliment someone on something, apparently their culture dictates that they should give that particular thing to you! Say, sheikh, I absolutely love your house. *smirk*

You can never have too much cheese on/in a pizza. Assuming it's good cheese.

Football can be a scary game. But it's also totally awesome.

Never buy the first guitar you see. Not without checking out a few others, at least.

Learning to play a guitar can hurt not just your fingertips but also your wrist, arms, shoulders, and back. However, it's totally worth it.

You can play plenty of songs with just a few chords.

Leonardo DiCaprio's presence doesn't make a bad movie good. It does make it better than it would otherwise have been, but that's not quite the same.

Lemon juice without sugar can taste much better than lemon juice with sugar. Unless you don't like lemons, in which case it sucks to be you.

Neil Simon, who was also called the King of Broadway, is said to have premiered many of his plays on off-Broadway stages because the latter was just that popular.

A slightly different way of tying shoelaces.

How to move a bike.

Always watch like a hawk to make sure the person serving you an egg puff doesn't heat it in a microwave oven.

What "proclivity" means.

People can make anything taste like... well, just about anything else.

Keep a safe distance from people who hardly need an excuse to set off bombs. By bombs I mean the firecracker type. But yes, you must most definitely stay away from people who set off actual bombs. Didn't mention that before because, well, it goes without saying, doesn't it? Unless you're hanging around to get them to tell you where the off switch is. If they know. Which they should. And if there's a chance that they'll actually tell you. Although... right, this is a highly problematic situation, so let's move on, because if you're in such a mess, your best chance might be to simply trust your instinct rather than try and recall what this blog suggested.

The word "thrice" has become archaic and isn't in use any more, I heard. Which probably means I'm going to use it more than ever before just to overcompensate.

It's possible that washing your hair with just water (without shampoo or any other cleanser) can leave it feeling dirtier after the wash.

The slogan "Make love, not war" originated during the Vietnam war.

Double ka meetha is called what it's called because bread is called "double roti" in Hindi. That's something I learnt soon after posting this, so of course I had to update the post to include it here.