Month: September 2005

Parineeta…

Parineeta, now that was a wonderful movie.

“But Adnan, Parineeta is a love story! I thought you liked mystery and mind-bending movies??”, you might think just as others have.

Yes Parineeta is a love story. But the director and the cast were able to turn the story into a very good movie. Infact, Parineeta demonstrates that there are great movies that come from Indian Cinema.

It’s a fabulous movie. Watch it!

TV Commercials

Between the time I got laid off and the time school starts I’ve been watching a lot of television. I haven’t really watched TV for a very long time. Months.

What annoys me a lot about television are all the commercials. Some are clever, and funny. Most are just boring. Not to mention the sheer number of times they’re played over and over. It is annoying.

Beer commercials seem to be of the best of the lot. This person will one moment be rock climbing, and once he gets to the top the scene will cut to a shot of a beer bottle. Funny, I could have sworn it was a harness commercial. Does the word ‘drink’ have a bad connotation? Perhaps that’s why it’s “Enjoy responsibly” now. Geico of course wins in that department. The commercial has absolutely nothing to do with car insurance, but it’s funny.

The Kia advert, the one where the guy nervously drives to and enters his house, only to have 5 or 6 arrows hit the door as soon as he closes it. I can’t get enough of that one. Kia cars might be crap, but they have one hell of a commercial.

The juicy fruit commercials are awful. Mountain Dew commercials are in the same club. Sometimes these adverts work against you I suppose. If the product is bad and the commercial sucks, then I won’t eat it, drink it, or put it in my dryer. Unless of course it’s free, or stolen.

Repitition is annoying. I think I’ve already stated that. What companies need to do is make variations of the commercial and play each variation in each commercial break. That way they increase their chances of me taking note of the commercial. Cheers to Geico on this one as well.

I often just change the channel, but risk losing part of the TV show that I was watching. How annoying.

Another pet peeve are the shaving blade commercials. Dude’s alone in the washroom, applying this shaving cream, and then proceeds to scrape his cheeks with the multi-layered and cushioned blades. He washes this face and when he’s done he turns around and there’s always a stunningly good looking female there to feel his cheeks with the back of her hand. Lucky him. I recall a commercial where the guy was in some sort of zero gravity machine, or in outer space, and still there was a woman there to feel up his cheeks. Lucky him. I don’t shave with a blade now, but when I did there was no one there. It’s a lie. All a plot to make us buy shaving cream and blades. I’m just bitter, very bitter.

The point of this entry is that good commercials are good, and bad ones are bad. We need more good ones.

Who am I talking to?

So I call fido’s *46 number to refill my pay-as-you-go plan.

As what normally happens I expected to press 2 to refill my account and press whatever combination of numbers to pay via credit card etc etc.

However this time I’m greeted by someone who identifies herself as ‘Andrea’. Okay.
I just wanted in to punch in the numbers and get my account re-filled. Instead I have Andrea ask me if I want to refill my account.

So I did the natural thing and said “What’s your name again?”.
“Umm, I didn’t get that. Please say yes or no.”, was the response I got. Dandy.

I liked the touchtone number punched automated customer service machines. Voice activated customer service machines make me feel stupid. I’m saying “yes” or “no” to a machine here. Over my cell phone.

But atleast now I have someone who will always talk to me when I feel lonely. Even if she doesn’t get what I’m saying.