The tale of Scrootie Mcboogerballs.

Ok. So I have decided to write a post on every new South Park episode. The more I watch it, my passion just grows for it.

So, have you ever come across a book which is so revolting that you have felt like throwing up (metaphorically or literally) and yet read it fully and enjoyed it? Alternatively have you ever read a banned book and thought , why in the name of Lord was this banned? If either of the answer is yes, then you need to watch the latest episode of southpark - The tale of scrootie Mcboogerballs. Yeah, funny name. Thats what the kids come up with for a most vulgar novel - and instead of getting banned, it gets to be one of the best sellers! Unfortunately the kids cant take credit for it because they have already framed the vulgarity on Butters, before the book becomes a hit. The prime reason why the kids come up with a vulgar book is because they are disappointed by reading a banned book which has no vulgarity in it. They feel cheated by their school and decide to get back at everyone by writing a book so vulgar that readers vomit their guts while reading it.

It seems that many times a book takes on a meaning of its own. It is the reader's interpretation rather than the author's that is important in making a book a hit or a failure. And when the collective interpretation of readers converge, it reflects the mentality of that culture and generation. In that sense, books are nothing but monsters unleashed on us by well meaning authors. Once published, they no longer remain under the control of the author. Why books, this applies equally well to all art forms which are under public scrutiny.

Rishi.

Law of diminishing marginal DIS-utility

Law of diminishing marginal utility : " A law of economics stating that as a person increases consumption of a product - while keeping consumption of other products constant - there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product "( http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lawofdiminishingutility.asp)

The same law can apply to dis-utility. The definition of utility is important but we will come to that in a moment. Say you have to take a bitter medicine syrup. The first spoon is always the worst. You almost throw up. The next dose is also bad, but you have adapted slightly and is not as bad as the first. The third day, you are getting used to it and don't feel like throwing up. If we define "taste" as utility, then the first spoon provides maximum dis-utility. On the other hand, if we define "medicinal action" as utility, then the first spoon provides maximum utility i.e the body is most receptive to the medicine. The dis-utility of taste keeps decreasing leading to a point where you may not enjoy the medicine but are not at least repulsed by it. Similarly, regular doses of the medicine start making the body immune whereby additional doses do not have the required effect.

My point is, just as anything enjoyable loses its utility over a period of time, anything despicable also loses its dis-utility over a period of time. Maybe that is what is adaptation. Or that is what they call "Getting used to it"

Turd in a punchbowl.

Southpark did it again..and expectedly so. Season 14 premiers with an episode on sexual healing with tiger woods, bush, letterman et al in tow. Sweet.

Check it out online at http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/267106

The episode draws on the American ( and in general, human ) tendency to blame their own faults on others. In this case, it turns out that sexual addiction amongst rich americans is due to an alien wizard who has cast a spell. Poor chap has only 2 minutes of fame where he is brutally shot to death by Butters and Kyle. Kyle and one more guest character ( who is part of the president's SWAT team) try to convince others that the fault lies with themselves. But they get brushed aside as the proverbial "Turd in the punchbowl".

Ultimately American society (of Rich Americans) is freed of this addiction and Tiger Woods returns to professional golf. Nice.

The flip side is that the new XBox game on tiger woods gets boring as he and his wife stop fighting in the game and tiger woods starts playing real golf. Golf gets boring again. Stan and Eric discard the game to go play outside.

SouthPark rocks. Its a great sarcasm on reality.

Google is smart.

I drafted a mail in which I wrote " I am attaching below as requested". What I meant was to not attach a file but give a description of the required item. When I clicked on send, google gave me an alert saying " You have written I am attaching a file but there are no attachments in this mail, send anyways?" .Now thats smart. I guess thats why google rocks so much. Wish this functionality would have been there in MS Outlook. It would have saved me a few embarrassments of sending mails without attachments.

But there is room for improvement. I sent out a test email with the body "I am attaching an excel file" but attached a power point file. Gmail did not catch it :-)

Cheers
Rishi.

The lines are blurring....

..between advertisements and television soaps. A strong disclaimer before I begin. I AM NOT AN AVID WATCHER OF HINDI TELEVISION SOAPS. HOWEVER IT GETS PLASTERED ALL ACROSS MY CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN THE TV IS BLARING IN THE BACKGROUND AS I TRY TO DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE.

So there is this Soap on colors which goes by the name "Balika Vadhu". Some episodes back they had a scene where the father calls his children together and explains to them a life insurance policy. No, not just any generic life insurance policy. It was a blatant advertisement of Bajaj life insurance. Not only that, he explained in great length about the features and benefits of that policy! As if it wasn't reel life but real life. As if he was about to buy that policy for his reel life kids. WoW!

Then now, about 10 minutes back, in an advertisement break for the same soap, the female actors of that soap were shown advertising for a Pregnancy test kit. They were playing the same roles and wearing the same attire as they do in the serial. WoW !

The time is not far when you will not be able to tell if you are watching a story or an advertisement. The next innovation in advertisement has arrived at our doorstep.

The lines are blurring ...better switchoff the idiot box and go out to play (but hopefully something other than cricket for GODs sake. Maybe Golf?)

Cheers
Rishi.