Not like Diet Coke

Hello everyone!

New blog then. I've been wrestling with what theme or thing to talk about. Personal, social or political? Well don't be misled by the title, yet again my title is a red herring. It is the advert which was currently blazing it's subliminal (and liminal, I suppose) messages into my already wet, salubrious and silly brain. It's sly, is what it is. But not in this case -

I think the general message was that it would be cool to be a small but large-headed puppet with almost comically oversized features, and a spunky, feisty and silly personality. Who doesn't take life too seriously and although has a boss, this is irrelevant if I were to be a large headed puppet who likes drinking Diet Coke with my similarly designed colleagues.

So... I don't think I like diet coke. Or maybe I do. It doesn't seem like a bad world, the coke drinking world. Not particularly. Basically I'm unsure. That is, on the strength of the advertising. As far as memory tells, I don't generally drink coke anyway, though it's OK if I fancy it and best with whiskey.

When I say 'best', I mean worth drinking at all. Must be that sour note. Which seems odd on reflection, because historically I absolutely love sweet things. Just the other day I was standing in line at Tesco's imagining the conversation that would ensue if the cashier were to (rudely) question me on the items I was buying. I was going to say that the ice cream was for the girlfriend and the Coco Pops a nephew or other child relative who might be under my care. The Rennies, I would admit bravely, were for me.

So seeing as I am 28 with the sometime palette of a child, why not sweet, gooey flavoured drinks? I've just answered my own question there, I find them gooey and odd. A fan of water - good animal instinct, me. Strange child, it's all I drank for some time. I can't even really blame my dad for tricking me with a glass of lemonade (masquerading as the pure mountain stream or tappy type stuff) and subsequently enjoying with the family as I spat it out everywhere in shock, all over the dinner table, dinners, et al. The joke seemed on him in the end there, for the cheek, but as I say - can't say I blame him.

Whoops, turns out the title wasn't a red herring after all. It was a starting point. I wonder what I would like to produce if I thought about it first? This will be the next blog - a pre-planned thematic behemoth full of previously thought ideas and things. Definitely.

Um... so anyway. I was reading a 'better your blog' blog a few days ago, and it was talking about maximizing one's blogs worthiness, circulation, use and such... It said 'provide value'. Not sure what value you've got here. The advert analysis was pithy, right? But like shooting fish in a barrel perhaps. Everyone knows to be cynical about adverts.

But cynicism is boring. That's what I've learnt in life this far. Desperately boring. Toward the things, that advertisers try to insinuate, upon the sleeping side of our consciousness? No. Cynicism is an essential weapon, all the better to live life with.

But don't let it spill out all over the joy of life. This I'm learning too. It is terribly dull. Don't be a cynic!

So try new things, author, this is a note to you. Live a little.