Shabby Sketches #34: What I Have Learned in 2016

The beginning of the new year is a time for everyone to reflect on the past and take forward our learnings. Of course, some mistakes can’t be undone (Tr… vial or bigger ones ;))  but we remember so that we can cherish the good and learn from the bad:

1. Weight is very difficult to lose and too easy to gain – All the weight I had proudly lost in 2015 was gained back in 2016. So I am back to square one in the New Year and my first dinner of the year on 1st Jan was at the Cheesecake Factory. Two hours and two cheesecakes later, I can see the difficult road that lies ahead.

2. Most good things eventually come to an end – certain friendships, the carefree days of your youth, your favourite book/movie/manga/anime, a never-long-enough holiday, a plate of your favourite dish and many more things. But don’t worry too much because there is always something new around the corner. And you can always order a second Cheesecake when that first one is devoured.

Life is like a sushi conveyor belt – there’s always something new on the way!

3. You’ll always be to able to make a friend, no matter how improbable you think it is – I just started a new job a few months ago and I was convinced that I was too weird to have any friends in the office. But now, I do get along with everybody and I do have some amazing colleagues and friends that put up with me and my weirdness. For example, yesterday I was telling them about how the temperature outside an egg can determine the gender of the hatchling in the cases of alligators and certain other reptiles. My colleagues simply laughed at the fact. Or maybe they were laughing at me. 

You might think you are weird but you willll always be like somebody else. So you are nothing special but you will always have friends.

4. You can be surprised by what you are good at – I majored in Economics in college and now I am a Social Media Executive in an ad agency. I had no idea about media planning or paid advertising on social media up until a couple of months ago. But now I handle 15 brands and their social media and I think I do a pretty darn good job if you ask me. It is ironic though because I am extremely inactive on social myself and I recently just deactivated my Facebook account. The job also made me realize I have a sadisitic side – I secretly am delighted to troll people for a living through sponsored ads.

5. Parents have an amazing degree of patience – I have moved back in with them and the first couple of months were rough and difficult to adjust to but now, things are great again and I am extremely grateful to them. I am also extremely grateful for all the money I am saving on rent and utilities.

6. I also learnt that commitment is very hard… And I couldn’t keep up with blogging the last couple of months. But I am still going to try to post more regularly in 2017 and blog more than before! So Happy New Year everybody! 👏🎊🎉

Shabby Sketches #33: Half-Assed Mandala

So this is what happens when your parents watch a movie in the native language they never taught you and there are no subtitles:

It is half-assed but this is all I could do in 120 mins. I had a lot of fun and I am definitely inspired to do another later on!

Letting Go of Dreams

Today I let go of a dream.

I threw away a game that I bought many years ago. It is a really simple dominos game. Like many old board and card games I have possibly outgrown, I simply kept it. Let it collect dust in my cupboard and its components turn yellow.

Looking at the rotting thing and its other aging companions in my cupboard, I wondered last night why I ever kept them. I don’t think I was holding on to them. I was holding on to some dreams, hopes and wishes they represented.

I was holding to the dream that my mom and I could have a fun and playful relationship well into my 20s. I was holding onto the hope that one day my brother would play opposite me, battling out typical sibling rivalry through board games.

It took years to realize some dreams aren’t meant to come true. And

Shabby Sketches #32: The Metro Ones

I think my metro ride to office every morning is something special. Yes, it is the same old scenery (or lack of it if you live in an urban jungle like Dubai). But the people in it are the real special ones. It is the little things that really brighten your mood and set yourself for a good day. The blushing couple, the laughing baby, it is the little things. I didn’t have the guts to literally take sneaky pics of actual people in the metro so I used stock photos instead. And here are some really random little things I want to share right here:

1. The guy who looks like human Shrek from Shrek 2. He’s a regular and I see him at least twice a week and every time I am thrown back by how Shrek-like he is. That being said, he’s a great piece of handsome like human Shrek and he always wear gym clothes showing off his great fit body.

A Cursed Love

I should be used to the arguments and insults exchanged

But each time you leave me more devastated than the last.

The fight comes to an end but the pain remains unchanged

As we are both doomed to these vile reiterations of the past.
Maybe the problem in this relationship is you or maybe me

Or that this whole relationship is a complete cosmic mistake.

But I am bound to you by the blood in each vein and artery

And burdened by an unconditional love I can no longer take.
—–

There are times I really wish I could switch off my emotion and cut ties with everyone. I don’t want love, family, friends or anything else. I just want to be alone. I would rather be lonely than depressed from arguing with a loved one. I will be fine after some time because you forgive and forget but then history is bound to repeat itself and it is the future repeat of this I dread more than the present sorrow. This one post will hopefully be the only sad one, this is a humour blog I am proud of and I want to keep it that way. Sometimes, you just want to be raw, real and honest and this was one of those times.

Gifs!

Hello everyone, happy hump day! Have a wonderful day guys, the weekend’s right around the corner but until then, here are some gifs I made to entertain y’all till then:

1. Why reality hits you… literally!

2. When you see the news about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie getting divorced.

Shabby Sketches #31: Carnivorous Dolphins

I just realized today that dolphins are actually carnivorous! They eat other smaller fish! I know it is unfair and irrational but I don’t think I like them so much anymore. Their cute ki-ki-ki is actually evil laughter ke ke ke (in South Korean comics or manhwa, that is how evil laughter sounds like).

.

.

.

Just Kindergarten Things

I have been having a really tough time lately so I was looking through some of my older things like cards and pictures to cheer myself up. I came across a folder containing things from my kindergarten days. For those unfamiliar with the term kindergarten, it is the one or two years of schooling some countries have before 1st grade and I was around 3-4 years old when I joined. After brushing off the dust, here’s a list of my archaeological findings (after all it has been a while since I was in kindergarten):

1. My colouring books were quite inappropriate:

The Perfect Comeback to Jerks

To all my fellow ladies out there, have you ever dealt with a douchebag? A tool? A perfect MCP? I am not sure what that one means but my Mum told me it was one of her first impressions of my Dad so I can easily assume it’s not nice. Don’t worry, they are still happily married, they just happily argue some times.

But I think I have the perfect comeback to those jerks and I think it’s really simple. 

Shabby Sketches #30: How to draw a camel!

It’s hump day today and I needed to procrastinate important work so I decided to draw a camel in honour of this lovely weekday. The only problem is I haven’t drawn anything since 2008 and I mostly got C’s in Art class in school. I really think the way art class is graded needs to be changed. You should be graded on effort rather than the final product. So what if my self-portrait looks like something from Beavis and Butthead? At least it looks human-ish and I deserve an A for that! But regardless, there’s a hack to producing somewhat decent drawings and that involves a ton of geometric shapes and lines as I will show below:

First, find a picture you want to replicate as closely as possible. Then identify and draw the most prominent geometric shape you can see from the picture. This is the picture I used:

The most evident shape is the circle in the camel’s torso.

From then on, just keep extending your drawing with more lines and shapes. It doesn’t have to be exact or symmetrical. I used a roll of tape to draw the circle but free handed all the lines and squares.

Drawing lines across the drawing help with placement, shape and size of features. In this case, I used the lines to determine placement and shape of my camel’s legs.

Then I added the camel’s neck and face. Here’s a warning – I am absolutely TERRIBLE at smaller features and details like faces, fingers, shadows, etc. So feel free to laugh at what follows.