You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2006.
My best friend at work, Rocky! I made many screenshots of his actions and put them together! 
Kishore has tagged me and I am doing his bidding without kicking up a storm. People seem to hate tags.. I dont hate them so much.. They are not so bad..
I am thinking about… all the work that is piled up here and the Damocles’ Sword called deadline.
I said…”Fish!” That’s when I developed bipolar disorder..
I want to… look beautiful on October 16th. A very special day is coming up people! 
I wish… I could eat roasted cashewnuts, Lays, Panneer and Cheese without gaining all those extra calories.
I hear… his voice in my head.
I wonder… Ah! This blog is called Wond’ring Aloud.
I regret… I never regret.
I am .. therefore I don’t think.
I dance… to Iron Maiden with my 3-year old niece. We bring the roof down. Of course audience not allowed. 
I sing… when it rains.
I cry… almost everyday. I am easily moved.
I am not always… conscientious. I can be found doing odd stuff in odd places at odd hours with odd people.
I make with my hands… Blogs. Phonecalls. Orgasms.
I write… as a rebel’s statement. Words and words are all I have..
I confuse… names and faces.
I need… javascript widgets.
And finally… I tag…Philramble, Shravan, Ganesh, Venkat.
I thought I will put down a few points I learned from different places and from my own experience, on how to keep a good blog.
Language:
1. Please use language which sounds and looks like the language you originally intended to write in. It is cooler to have more traffic than have more slang.
For example, read this: “dis mornin i wz gonna do sum gr8 lotta shoppin” Now
imagine a whole blog that goes like this. It is a strain to the
reader’s eye and mind.
Now read this: “This morning I was going to do a great lot of shopping.” Easy and straightforward.
2. Try avoiding slang, short forms and jargon which only you might understand.
3. Expand acronyms and abbreviations when you use them for the first time. It will help readers relate better to your topic.
4. Avoid using passive voice. It can make your post redundant and complex.
5. Address your readers directly. A little bit of personal touch will work wonders.
6. Keep sentences short. The reader is not going to stay on your blog all day.
7. Avoid using big words that may intimidate readers. You are trying to communicate an idea. There is no point in burying it under heavy words.
8. Run spell checker. A single word can change your density.. oops.. destiny!
9. Use proper punctuation. Avoid too many exclamatory marks or nested parantheses.
10. Avoid long-winding sentences with too many clauses.
11. Avoid using profanities, words that insult a certain gender, culture or race.
12. Avoid idioms and phrases relevant to a particular culture, which cannot be understood by readers from another culture.
13. Try to remember that people from both genders read your posts. So use the word “one” as the pronoun, instead of “he” or “she”.
For example, read this: Nowadays, man suffers a lot. He has to manage several aspects of his life at once without much support from other men.
Now read this: Nowadays, people suffer a lot. One has to manage several aspects of one’s life at once without much support from other people.
14. Take care of your grammar. If you start a post in a particular tense, finish it in the same tense, unless you want to switch between tenses deliberately.
15. Develop your own style of writing over time. People will come back to your blog if you establish a good style.
Content:
Of course this is the crux of your entire blog.
1. Take up a subject on which you have adequate knowledge. What is it that you want to give to the readers? Is there something extra you want to tell them apart from what they already know? These are questions you should ask yourself.
2. Do not exhibit your ignorance on your blog. It will do permanent damage to your readership. Do not take up topics for which you cannot answer questions in the comments area.
3. Organize the content. Do not mention something in the first paragraph and explain it in the last paragraph.
4. Maintain a sequence and arrange your thoughts accordingly. Prioritize information. Edit unwanted content ruthlessly.
5. Imagine the reader’s perspective and write accordingly. It is always good to write like you’re writing for a child. Nobody will hate it.
6. Specialize in the subject you are writing about. Do proper research before you write.
7. Give quotations wherever possible with appropriate acknowledgments.
8. Give links to topics which you cannot elaborate in the blog. Your readers will follow them through.
9. Provide links to other bloggers or writers who inspired your blog post. You can also provide links to related content.
10. Use graphics to emphasize ideas or to provide a clearer picture. Do not litter your pages with images. Graphically-heavy pages take a longer time to load.
Template:
1. Use a template that is easy to navigate through.
2. Do not use bright colours that hurt the eye.
3. Use big fonts that will help readers with vision problems.
4. Highlight important information by using a bold font or by using a different colour.
5. Avoid distracting images, animations, flash files, advertisements and such around the main content. The reader will be on another site before you know it.
6. Place accessible links to other areas of your blog where your reader might find more information.
Eg: Archives, Categories, Trackbacks, Comments
7. Place syndication and subscription information at accessible places and not in some unnoticed corner of your blog.
8. Avoid graphic rich templates.
9. Update all images from time to time.
10. Check for dead links.
Interaction:
1. Place tagboards and shoutboxes to interact with your reader.
2. Reply to every comment.
3. Provide contact information if you want your bloggers to communicate with you.
Happy blogging!
Technorati Tags: blogging, how to blog, weblog
|
You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy) |
 You’re a great thinker and a true philosopher. You’d make a talented professor or writer. |
Thirteen centuries ago
In queer lactic moonlight
Sprayed with sultry raindrops
Your countenance shone
Sprawled on lush pink foliage
Rose in psychedelic dream
Sailing in grey ominousness
Through rotten wood foraged by
Wild red and hungry termites
It hovered
Yellow leaves pricked by needles
Floated down marshy puddles
Between a gaze and a blink
Bubbles frothed and died
Quivering boughs brought down
Bleak shivering tears
Turbulence blew as moist breeze
Misty with stillness and silence
Warmth buried under
Weighty tombstones of apathy
Suffocated muffled whispers
Dawn slept heavily blanketed
By chilling wheezes of wind
Grass succumbed to despair
Bowed by its own lightness
Petals clung to flowery areolas
By a thread of mishapen life
Wintry darkness kissed
Their trance-like death attainment
Birds perched like prophets
Plumage dripping with dew
Distant sunshine spread its light
Like mild caresses on clouds
With every kiss came the threat
Of nineteen nights in hell
Of unmoving eyes
Pain that crept through the insides
Like the hands of a molester
Every smile had the backdrop
Of grinding wheels and axles
Three hundred gallons of repression
Eighty eight pieces of the heart
Stuck in awkward angles
Every word smelled of iron
The axe that hacked out truth
Leaving fragments of teetering lies
Drunk in their own falsity.
Days rolled themselves out on the floor
Painted masks of frowns and smiles
Permanently adorn faces
Normalcy accosts originality
Yet comfortably courts her fools
Cynical laughter
Attempts to confer meaning
Upon the meaninglessness
Damp walls breathe their coldness
Into Solitary Dreamer’s sleep
Love grips the liar red-handed
In midnight’s slippery hour.
I took this funny quiz.
I answered as honestly as I can.
Yet it looks like I have a long life ahead.
Let’s see!
Jhalak dikhla ja.. I am sure all of us have heard this song. Some of us, including me, laugh our heads off.
It seems in a certain village this song is not played because it causes some ghosts to appear around the area and these ghosts possess the listeners. I have heard of donkeys being attracted to sonorous songs like the one in question.. Ghosts?! Well.. Nobody can save India! 
Hilarious!
Read the full story here:
Jhalak dikhla ja… and so appears the ‘bhoot’
Me and my friend Jai, went to Idunkaatukoattai near SriPerumpudur to watch bike racing. Our friends Solomon a.k.a Solo and Naren were participating. Solo was riding in the Bullet-500 category and Naren was in the RD-350 category. Both of them stood third in their own categories. Superb riding.
Me and Jai started at 8.30 in the morning on his bullet. Our helmets kept knocking into one another and that was very irritating.
We reached the tracks at around 10 o clock. It was a 35+ kilometres ride. Bullets are not designed for pillion riders. So by the time we reached there, various parts of my body were not working. However, it was nowhere comparable to my earlier ride to Tada with the whole gang. Every part of my body had fallen off on the road, at that time. Lol..
I met Naren and his parents at the tracks. We put our helmets and bags into Naren’s car and checked out his bike. It looked cool. Guys had been working on it for days. There was a lot at stake.
The first race was really silly. There were fieros and yamahas in it. Most of the riders seemed to be amateurs and the ones riding really slow were so slow like they were riding on Mount Road. Yet their vehicles were brand new and so it is understandable.
The next race was for Royal Enfield bullets and we suddenly noticed Solo had not turned up yet. They were calling out to the Bullets to come to the paddock to put in their entries. Our man was nowhere to be seen..So we called him up and he informed us he was near the tracks. Then we found him and hurriedly got him readied up for the race. So he raced and my what a race it was. One hell of a race.
There were a few races after this. One with pulsars and all. Then another one for RD 110-150 cc. We were tired of standing. Suddenly they came and asked us all to clear off. This was because some monkeys were jumping onto the tracks and others running up and down. So me and Naren’s mother went to the high tower just before Naren’s race started. It was one hell of a race again. Naren was in the second place at one point but his breaks got too tight and he eventually came third. It was awesome.
I seemed to know a helluva lot of people at the tracks. I myself was surprised. There was Solo (of course) and Anbu (I had met her before), Siva (one hilarious guy), Naren, Surya, Ranga, Ajit, Dosai, Sachin etc. I have met almost all of them before. Of course one of them pretended like he did not know me… who caresanyways! I also got to meet Freya. We had met on Orkut earlier. She is one cool rider. I also met David who I knew from his blog and through Orkut.
So the races went on and on till 2 o clock or so. Then these guys went to get lunch. The vegetarian section had been licked clean and there I was, left without a crumb. Then Jai brought 4 samosas for me. I ate them and had two bananas and drank a lot of water. So that was my lunch.
After this we sat around joking and pulling each others’ legs. Solo and his drowned Segam phone being one of “the topics” It was hilarious. Solo went off to sleep around this time. Then they suddenly called out for the Bullet racers again. He had his second race now. So he was rudely woken from sleep. He wore his jacket and shoes and went off half-sleeping. One guy who rode behind him had an accident and both his knees got dislocated. Solomon came fifth in this race. Hehehe… despite all that sleeping..
Naren’s second race was some kind of an anti-climax. He was almost leading when his bike’s barrel stopped responding. So he had to pull out of the race. 
Meantime I got into the backseat of the car and slept for a few minutes in the company of what I thought were a hundred bags, jackets, cans, bottles, helmets, crocodiles, bananas etc. Then we kept whiling time away and the noisy 2-stroke bike race began. Our tympanums split into a symmetrical two halves. Lol.. they were so loud. The 2-stroke racers were daredevils. It was awesome.
There was a lady rider in one of the races and she got an awful lot of support and cheering. Superb rider.
Finally, they gave trophies to all the participants. There was a rainbow around that time and it got cloudy. It became breezy and most of the noises had died down. All of us were in good cheer. We shot a lot of photographs and rode back home. Me and Jai went to a coffee shop and I stuffed myself with cheese toast (there goes all the slogging on the cross-trainer) I washed it down with two glasses of lime mint cooler and went home.
I forgot to mention something. I missed “him” all through the day. Yeah, yeah I can hear you all banging your foreheads.. hahah!
Technorati Tags: bikes, racing, bike racing
Dont know why I want to shamelessly advertise myself. I asked my grandmother what she thinks about me and these are things she said. I have the world’s best grandmother.
Love you paati! :-*
My grandma says “Mathangi leads a simple life. She says ‘we must be contented with what we have’. She does not desire for anything. She is quiet and doing her business. She never says she is hungry and eats whatever I give. We have to find out if she is hungry and then feed her. We must take pity on her and give her some food. Because she has no mother only I should take care of her. She will never serve herself at the table. She will starve instead. She can live for days on end if you provide her with enough popcorn. She trusts everyone. She once gave all her money to some guy on the road because he was hungry. She should be more careful. Sometimes she is troublesome and never calls up to inform me when she goes outside. She likes her sister’s baby very much. For her birthday she got her an elephant bommai (doll). She is not materialistic. She does not aspire for things like car or jewels. But she likes going out and being outdoors. She is a great granddaughter. She studies well grasping what is taught in the class. She is intelligent just like I am”
My dear old grandma..what would I do without you!
I am a very quiet person in real life.I interact only if necessary. My room is always silent and even at work I hardly speak. When I meet friends I discuss the food or something. My voice does not rise beyond a certain limit. I find it very hard to shout. When Shashi was here I had some philosophical discussions with him and I took thirty seconds to think up every sentence and deliver it. Even with Ganesh I had some discussions on Karma and I could see I was looking somewhere into the distance with every idea and I was wanting to think to myself than say it to him. With my sister, because I know her better, I can speak a bit faster. Only at home I whine or display affection. Outside places I am so forgetful and distracted but still can do my own stuff quite neatly. I am a slow thinker and speaker. I think twice before saying anything. I smile a lot and laugh a lot. You will hardly hear me say as many sentences as in this post. I myself know that my online life is hundred percent more active than my real life. It is amusing sometimes.
Even on the phone I am comfortable because I dont get to see the other person. It is more like thinking out loud… but even there I am slow. I am actually a boring person in real life.There is nothing colourful,childlike or fun about me. I keep to myself most of the times and silence governs my life.
My daily routine in real life:
1.Wake up
2. Check mail
3. Talk to someone on the phone
4. Have a bath
5. Dress up
6. Eat
7. Go to work
8. Check mail, browse, work, chat etc.
9. Have lunch (alone)
9. Go to the gym
10. Work out
11. Go home
12. Have a bath
13. Eat
14. Check mail, chat, orkut etc
15. Talk to someone on the phone
16. Sleep
Now tell me, where I collect so many problems in my life from. From my online life of course. Hahaha!
