Google Eats Blogger, But Allows Me A Portion

No one dusts off a 9 year old blog, just to post a thank you message to a big multinational organization.

Well, I just did. Thanks Google!

Now that I have control over my own blog again, I can go back to doing whatever I was doing - reading it from various computers on Earth, boosting my page views up, and pretending that it somehow makes me an important guy.

Seven years since my last blog post? We live in a very different world today. I am different. My world is different. The world is different.

We've seen the iPhone make a huge mark. The entire smartphone revolution, plus associated technologies brought upon us along with it (think WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Maps and the like), has fundamentally changed the way we do things. There's also the point that we probably wouldn't be enjoying all this without a telecom revolution and internet revolution that was happening alongside. Demography has changed. Technology has changed.

The Universe went ahead and got much bigger, too. 

But have we changed?

Are we really that different today than we were eight years ago? Four years ago? Last New years'?

What were we chasing down eight years ago? Did we capture it? Did it change us? Do we feel like someone else by virtue of completing that chase? Did we simply replace one chase with another? Or does the goal seem farther than ever, and are we still chasing it down? 

Once again, it's the questions that matter, not the answers. Not yet, anyway.

I'd normally say "the answers are out there" - but spiritual insight leads me to confidently say that "the answers are in here" as much as they are "out there" - so in a way, I have changed. And in a way, I am the same too.

The Universe did get bigger, so it is different. But everything that existed earlier exists now too (arguably, in different forms in some cases - this is a discussion that could flame into a raging debate. Don't we all love those!) - so in that sense the Universe is same too. Rather, it has a sameness about it, along with the new. So it is same. And yet different.

If Earl Nightingale's words are anything to go by - if the answers are out there, they are within us too, and if they are within us, they are out there, too. How many times does it feel like someone made a business out of that amazing idea you had? How many times do you notice someone using the exact same words you held within your mind just that morning? How many times do we come across someone that is totally new, but we feel like they look familiar or that we must've known them for years?

Posting on a blog after all these years doesn't feel out of fashion. It feels like pursuing a passion. Google might have eaten Blogger - but the fundamentals of blogging still remain the same. I love the freedom that we enjoy on this medium. It's the freedom we were born with, and the grace of everyone around us who helped us survive our initial years until we became self-sufficient and self-reliant.

I have big plans with blogging - but this post, meandering as it may be, is the first step to getting back on track.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Vikas

One Year Later...

...I realise I never posted anything on my dusty blog, all 2006! Talk about tardiness.

Since the year is almost over, why not post some garbage. Yeah, that's good enough to keep the account alive!

Even spambots shy away from here now. I was offered a grand total of only one college diploma all of 2006. That's pretty dismal.

I like my email better. Not only do I get multiple college offers; there's also the free credit repair, jewellery, enlargement potions (I'd like to use those on some old passport-size family photographs), treatment for diseases I don't have, bazookas that fire eggs, lucrative advance-fee schemes that will make me a millionaire...no, billionaire. (You got me. I just watched Superman Returns yesterday!)

One year later, I'm still not a billionaire, and still haven't received delivery of the cheap meds for the diseases I don't have. (But that's probably because I paid for it with the card I never got.)

Life goes on.

My random serious thought for the year... I officially endorse deep-breathing as a seriously effective method of achieving better overall general health. Air is life. Deep breathing works. Period.

I'd say here "comments are welcome" but I know better now. So I'll just say... spambots, do your thing!

BMWFilms

Calling all movie addicts!!! You gotta check this linky out:

http://www.bmwfilms.com

Downloadable short movies that rule! These really appealed to me. I'm an action movie buff (I usually turn my brain off even while watching character dramas), and these short movies rocked socks. It helps if you know the backstory to all the episodes (I didn't go through them, but I enjoyed the shorts anyway.) If you have an unlimited, broadband connection, they're worth downloading and keeping! Each movie is about 7-8 mins long, and averaging about 70-80mb for the downloadable PC version. There are 8 episodes at present, five from Season 1 and three from Season 2. There's a smaller download available too (5mb or so, for the pocket PC). If I could fit my PC into my pocket, I'd have gotten those instead.

You might have to give them your email address before you get to the download section, but that's ok. I just unchecked the "I'm interested" thingie, and I've never got any spam from them or any unknown affiliates.

Each episode has a different feel to it since the director that worked on each episode is different. John Woo, Ang Lee, Tony Scott etc have worked on these shorts, and in my humble opinion, their feature-length movies rule. It's interesting to see how they adapt their trademark styles to these short films. As the driver, Clive Owen's pretty cool too.

It also helps if you can forget the fact that these are really tongue-in-cheek advertisements for BMW ;-)

I liked the car in Season 2 better.

Comments are welcome! Don't expect anyone to read them though!!!!!!

Spam is uncool

Everyone hates it.

So do I.

That's why, I'm going to delete all comments on my blog that look suspiciously like spam work.

Including my own.

My previous post has 5 comments as of now, all crappy advertisements for online poker, shady financial groups or some other pointless scam. It's time they get uprooted and thrown out the damn window. I hope these spam messages die of shame or cancer on their way down before they hit the ground, and if they don't I want them to rip open and dissolve into the air when they do.

Kittridge you've never seen me... very upset.


Edited post: Removed references to blood and other gory details.

I think I need to name my next post "Toning down sucks" ;-)

Google AdSense, and other things that may or may not make sense

Just noticed the tempting Google AdSense offer. Would you like to turn your site into a source of revenue?

-Yes, please.
-Yes.
-Ok.

Let me think. In approximately 3 months, I've had my blog visited about 12 times (mostly by myself, I shamelessly admit), and have one comment (from my good buddy MaddyManoj).

Revenue? You mean I get to keep BOTH cents? Whoooooooooa.

Hey wait... I live a poor life right? Maybe I could put my kids through college with that money.


Talking of the web, I saw a spider weave a real web on my mirror. They're pretty meticulous. I have no clue what species this spider was [I've seen forums where people with exact knowledge of spiders post; they know which spiders weave a symmetric web and which just do random like me], maybe daddylonglegs. The moment a little mosquito larva got stuck in the web, the spider moved faster than anything I've ever seen. That was pretty cool. Spiders and lizards tend to control other insect populations, so I bear with them. Only, lizard shit is toxic because of the uric acid, so I'd prefer chasing them out and keeping the spiders instead.

Stop reading. Don't waste your time.

Vikas

A Very Happy New Year!

Here's wishing everyone a very happy new year 2005!!! May all your dreams come true.

Which brings me to the "New Year Resolutions" thing... how many of you have a habit of making new year resolutions?

More importantly, do you follow them throughout the year? (Or throughout your life?)

Personally, I feel resolutions are the perfect complement to a motivated spirit. Making a resolution implies that you're already motivated enough to follow it through. But "New Year" resolutions are somewhat different, since not everyone that makes new year resolutions have the will and motivation to back them up. Some do it just out of peer pressure, some do it just so that they have some crap to talk about at a cocktail party, or with their fellow clubbers or anyone else who won't bother too much about whether you follow them or forget them within 5 mins. And then there are others (like me), who just make new year resolutions for fun!

I've not made many of those, to be frank. There's only one resolution that I remember making, that I've followed sincerely and have never broken once. I'd decided one January 1st (I think this was 1995), that the moment I come home from school, I'd change into house clothes. Prior to that, I used to stay in the uniform even at home, 'coz I was insouciant and just too lazy to change. It used to irritate my mom to no end... eventually I felt her annoyance, and decided to make this small change for her sake.

Enough banter. Catch you another day!

Vikas

Am I crazy?

Another post? I must be crazy.

Actually it's been several hours since I slept. I'm feeling a little mad, to be honest.

No one really knows why we need sleep. In a Physiology class, we learnt about sleep one fine day (one of the very few classes I actually stayed awake in, ironically). [Well, I don't know about "learnt" or not, but we were "taught" anyway.]

When we're awake, our brain has a certain electrical pattern. How about when we're asleep? Specifically, when we dream? It's the same pattern.

So does that mean, when *we're* asleep our brain is still awake? Yes.

Why? Who knows.

Well then if our brain is still awake when we're asleep, why do we need sleep? I have no idea. But I know first hand, if I stay awake more than 48 hrs, I go nuts.

Some things, we never find out, probably because we're not meant to. Maybe the exact electrical relevance of sleep is *supposed* to be a mystery. But I'm sure glad I enjoy my sleep!

Vikas