…
Jerry : So we’re going to make the Post Office pay for my new stereo?
Kramer : It’s just a write off for them.
Jerry : How is it a write off?
Kramer : They just write it off.
Jerry : Write it off what?
Kramer : Jerry all these big companies they write off everything
Jerry : You don’t even know what a write off is.
Kramer : Do you?
Jerry : No. I don’t.
Kramer : But they do and they are the ones writing it off.
Jerry : I wish I just had the last twenty seconds of my life back.

… from the episode “The Package“.

Ah, the last day of the year! Always a good day for introspection. Fortunately for me, I’ve been introspecting for the past 1-2 months and though I am mostly satisfied with how things have been so far, I feel the need to do more in life. So the plan is to continue learning new things.

This means I’ll continue learning German (I recently completed German A1 level exam! Yay!), take up guitar lessons again, learn to swim, continue learning to cook and much more. Also, I had kinda loosened up on the fitness regime but no slacking from tomorrow. The fitness freak is back! The only new (and important) resolution for the new year is to spend as much money as necessary as opposed to spending as much as I can which is what I have been doing till now! 

Coming to the things I liked about the year, there were some movies that I really liked: Wall-E (of course!), Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Aamir and Dasvidaniya.

I didn’t find as much great music as I found last year but some of it was awesome. Few soundtracks (Wall-E, Juno) , some new (for me!) bands (Hellogoodbye, Goldspot) and some good Hindi movie songs (Aamir, Ada, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, all songs sung by Mohit Chauhan) worked for me.

Television took a backseat this year for me. I think my TV watching time was less than halved. Lost remained at the top of its game. Family Guy and 30 Rock continued to entertain. I discovered The IT Crowd and Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia and ensured that I watched each and every episode available.

Like I wrote in my birthday post, it was a mixed bag as far as my life is concerned, but the sum total of everything that happened is definitely positive. Also, I travelled much more this year than previous years and my first journey was on 1st January. Maybe its true what they say. What you do on the first day the year….

I look forward to 2009 and I hope it will bring the best of everything with it.

Wish you a very Happy New Year!

This being my last post of the year, I’ve decided to write a really long one.

• The end of the year also means that shows with the best/worst/top/bottom and everything are on TV. And I like such shows. I especially like the ones done by VH1. They’re almost always funny and entertaining.
• I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I like the US version of The Office. Oddly enough, I like it more than the original UK version. Speaking of which, I am now hooked to podcasts. Two podcasts that I like the most are Never Not Funny by Jimmy Pardo and The Ricky Gervais Show which stars Ricky Gervais who played the lead in the UK version of The Office. But most laughs on his podcast don’t come from him but from a really out-of-the-world funny guy, Karl Pilkington. He has apparently become a cult figure because of this podcast and I am left to wonder where I was when all of this was happening. Anyways, you all should give these two podcasts a try. You’ll like it.
• Another show that I watch religiously these days is Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother. Well, its a reality show and has people making fools of themselves all day long so of course, I like it. I used to hate Rakhi Sawant before the show but this show changed that and I consider that a big achievement for the show.
• Alright, enough about TV. Lets talk about something else. I don’t really make new year resolutions but I have decided to do few things differently in 2007. I have decided to eat healthier, start exercising regularly to stay fit and maybe even (finally!) join a gym. Lets see how much I actually do next year.
• 2007 would also bring lots of changes for the blog. If things go as planned, the blog would soon move to its new permanent home and its own domain. So wait for it.

Finally, I wish the blog and all my blog readers a very happy new year 2007. See you all next year.

Last Wednesday, after being confined to my home on the bandh day, I swore to myself that I would not stay at home the whole day ever. And I spent the whole of Thursday and Friday very much at home because I was down with viral fever. Oh, the irony of life! But those two days and two long nights were horrible. I constantly ran a fever of 103.5 degrees and hence couldn’t sleep. To make things worse, this was the first time I fell ill since I started living alone and so I had no medicines other than few homeopathic ones from my dad.

On Wednesday night, when the illness started, I employed my mp3 player to help me sleep and it worked for sometime. I was starting to feel really sad about the whole situation cos I was sick and all alone but Frou Frou helped me get over it by singing “There’s beauty in the breakdown” in my ear. And so at 3:15 am, I called up my landlady and asked for medicines.

I am much better now. The motivation for getting better, of course, is that I’m going to Lucknow tomorrow for Diwali. And its been a year since I went home. I last went on last Diwali. The difference this time would be that my parents now have broadband at home so I will keep posting and keep reading other blogs. In fact, I may be able to post more than I do now.

And even though I don’t write too many posts these days, its good to know once in a while that my blog can keep people occupied for hour(s) and even make them come back as is evident in screenshot 1, screenshot 2 and screenshot 3. (The third visit was longer than the screenshot). I think that’s enough reason to feel good about. What do you think?

Update: In a major offence, I forgot to tell you all about my new pictures from my trip to Nagarahole in which I saw crocodiles, elephants, dears, birds, a fox and a will boar. The pictures can be found on flickr, as always.

Update 2 This is a small clip from one of the funniest episodes of Family Guy. Take a look. It’s just too funny!! Watch it, please!

• I wanted a change in my life and given the limited control I actually have on things, I decided to make my life a little more fun by buying a brand new TV, a new DVD player and to top it all, I got digital cable. Basically, few things I wanted for a long time now. The result is that I can now watch Family Guy whenever I want to and I don’t have to worry about bad cable reception.
• I strongly believe that it should be illegal to talk on the cellphone while in the toilet. Seriously, do these people who talk on the phone while on the toilet tell the caller about where they are? And how do they explain the flush sound to the caller? And believe me, the other people in the bathroom don’t need to hear someone in the toilet stalls talking on the phone either. And unless there’s a law against it, people will continue doing it. So it must be made illegal. Now!
• I was a little surprised to see John Mayer’s new album, Continuum, in the new releases section at Planet M last Sunday. I didn’t expect it to be released in India so soon. Needless to say, I bought it. I can completely relate to the opening song, “Waiting on the World to Change”. Take a look at the lyrics. I think most of us would agree with the viewpoint of the song. Its a nice song. And the rest of the album is good too.
• I’ve seen quite a few movies recently but I think I will save my short reviews for the next post. The post frequency has been dropping rather drastically as it is.
• Oh, and this post has been written using Windows Live Writer. Its a great tool. A must for all bloggers.