| Thursday, March 31, 2005 |
| Other Blogs: A First Impression |
I have been visiting a lot of blogs lately and I tell you there are a lot of blogs out there. You can find blogs on anything and I really mean it - anything. I found blogs devoted to Indian history, Sachin, and also a blog devoted to voicing opinions about the arrest of kanchi. Even companies have started blogs where employees can post a blog. I think that nowadays instead of creating an egroup people just create a group blog. Most of my visits have been to desi blogs. The few non desi ones I visited I did not pay much attention to it and some of them had offensive language which gave me even more reason to ignore them.
I just thought of posting my findings:
- Most common blog space is blogspot.com. The next is blogdrive.com
- The Coolest Add On I found till now is guest map from bravenet.com. This allows people visiting your blog to mark where they are viewing the page from.
- The Next Best Add On is the clocks from clocklink.
- The Most Common Add On are links to Other Blogs and Currently Reading links.
- The Most number of Comments I found for a particular blog was around 75. That is just insane!!. May be you have seen more comments posted but to me that is ...wow!!!
- Most common templates are the Minima series ( white,black, blue) followed by Harbor ( these are blogspot templates).
- Most bloggers use the standard templates available. It is very rare that I have seen custom made templates.
- The start dates of blogs date back to atleast a year before (around beginning of 2004). I, however, have not found anything started earlier than 2004.
- Some bloggers sign off every blog using the same phrase or statement. I thought this was kind of cool.
- Posting pictures is also very common. This is something I also wanted to do and may be will do it soon. Also, I saw one blog where every blog had a picture.
- Something I found very interesting is that people become poets in blogs. I have noticed that if people have been writing for a while then they would have attempted to write atleast one poem.
- Another interesting finding is the difference between guy blogs and girl blogs. From what I have seen so far the topics covered by the blogs maintained by guys ranges from as mundane as talking about every day stuff to talking about world events, discussing books, discussing history, friends etc. But peculiarly or may be obviously the topics covered by women usually pertains to sentiments, random thoughts and feelings or love.
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posted by BUS @ 9:44 PM  |
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| Monday, March 28, 2005 |
| How Talented Are We? |
Over the weekend I heard my friends tell me that they had no talent. I asked them why they felt that way. One of them said "I saw some of my other friends sing and play instruments and I cant do any of that". My other friend said "I was watching a stand up comedy by my friend and I dont have such kinda talent". I realized that I also do not possess any of the above characteristics.
So, are my friends not talented? Am I not talented? I pondered over this and concluded that this is not true. We all have our own set of talents. May be we are not widely acclaimed by others for the talents we possess but that does not mean we are not talented. According to me any skill is a talent:
Programming is a talent.
Managing a committee/group is a talent.
Writing a blog is a talent.
Even being a housewife is a talent.
There are so many talents out there, some noticeable some not, that we sometimes fail to see the talents we possess. Also, the home sapien is never satisfied. He always feels being inferior to his fellow beings. Eg: I cant play the piano and I feel I have no talent. Ask the pianist and he would say "I cant make people laugh and so I have no talent."
The grass on the other side always looks greener. We only look on the other side and fret over our lack of skills. We keep trying to reach the other side and when we do we are still unhappy because we realize that what we have achieved is only a drop in the ocean.
Some may argue that any of the above skills that I mentioned ( a programmer, manager, blogger, housewife etc) anybody could develop/possess. But that is true for any ability you pick. I cannot name one single talent that is possessed by one and only one individual, be it singing, dancing, painting or even being able to walk the moon.
I think all of us should try to look within overselves and understand the innate talents we possess. Does this mean that we just live with the talents we possess and not thrive to acquire new skills. No. I am not saying that but we should feel happy for the abilities we possess because I am sure they are unique in their own special way and somebody out there understands your potential.
To conclude:
Use what talent you possess - the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke
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| posted by BUS @ 11:17 AM |
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| Friday, March 25, 2005 |
| Lunch Talk |
I came up with several titles for this post:
"Technology: Before and After"
"The World we live in"
"The World we live in : Before and After"
"Generations: Previous and Next"
I was not convinced with any of them and was tired of thinking. So for lack of a better name I decided to name this post "Lunch Talk"
Over lunch the topic of how the world is changing came up and my colleague said that over the past 50 years there has been a tremendous change. There was the invention of radio, TV, music systems, cds, dvds, computers, internet, ipods and most of the luxury items that are common today.
Our previous generation like our dads and grand dads have lived through all this. When my grand father was young there were no radios ...so I ask myself what did he do? May be he just read and played all day. When my father was young ...there was no TV? So what did he do? My father says he used to listen to the radio. So when our next generation like our kids, grandkids reach our age they will ponder over the question: When my father was young there was no internet ...what did he do? I might say ... I watched TV and listened to the radio. It is amazing to see how things have changed in a small timespan.
My colleague says that currently we are seeing a new revolution of the information age. Computers and internet have become house old names. Everybody is now trying to improve the user experience. We are now more worried about:
1. how to make the coolest and best possible game that gives the user a real playing experience.
2. how to make gadgets as small as possible ( egs 1" laptops, nanotechnology products, MAC mini, iShuffle) . Geeks are saying "Small is Big" ... is it?
3. how to merge the media that is spread all over ( on ur laptop, iPod, CDs, cassettes etc) into one singe entity. Imagine your media centre is one stop shop for anything u wld need both online and off. And also that u cld take ur data with u or it just is available everywhere u go.
4. how to make the coolest robots that can act and be like humans.
I can keep going but I think you get the picture.
I agree with my colleague that all the ideas are not really far fetched and we have already seen some of these dreams realized. We have seen the iPod and Apple mania. iPods revolutionized the way people think of music. It is estimated that an average of 40 iPods are sold per minute (see link). We are seeing concepts like BitTorrent, Myth TV and Tivo taking control. Block buster, Net flix and other rental stores are fighting a losing battle. Evidence of this is the new schemes that BB comes up with every month to save their skin. Also, next generation tech products are trying to bring technology closer to the user. We already have palm pilots, music on phones, portable PSP etc. I am sure there is more on the assembly line. For eg: Next generation iPod products like vPod , wireless iPods, iPods in the car, iPhones etc. ( check above link).
So I ask myself will we move into a world of "Minority Report", or "I, Robot" where computers and technology are ubiquitous. What will it be like living in that world? Also, will we experience the same level of paradigm shift that our previous generations experienced? My colleague thinks we will see a similar or greater shift. I, however, beg to differ. I feel that though there will be a change it will not be as huge as the one our previous generation experienced. My reasoning is that our previous generation were in the phase of laying the foundation for a whole new world but our generation and the next is just building upon this foundation. I think the latter is far easier than the former. But I may be wrong; only time will tell. But I am definitely excited and looking forward to this new world. |
| posted by BUS @ 1:24 PM |
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| Thursday, March 24, 2005 |
| Mahabharata: Fact or Fiction? |
I recently started reading Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari. In the first chapter the author says that Sage Vyasa decided to write this grand epic called the Mahabharata and so he went in search of someone who could pen his thoughts. For this task Sage Vyasa eventually found Lord Ganesh.
According to the author, Mahabharata was a story of fiction that was narrated by Sage Vyasa to Lord Ganesh. The purpose of the story was to spread the philosophy of dharma, karma and other good things a human should do and also show that evil deeds do not go unpunished.
I always had believed in a different version of this story. I am not able to recollect from where I heard this. May be this was one of the bedtime stories narrated to me when I was a child. But I thought Mahabharata was a real historical occurrence and Sage Vyasa was given the responsibility by Him to narrate this great heroic and historic epic so that the people of generations to come could know about it and also learn from it the various values of the human race. I thought Vyasa was given divine vision by Him after the war to see the epic through his own eyes and narrate it. ( or was that Valmeeki and Ramayana?)
I thought about it for a while as to what could be an ideal explaination. If Mahabharata was really fiction then was the Bhagavad Gita, told by Lord Krishna to Arjuna, actually a work by Vyasa and altered by future scholars and sages? I find that hard to believe. If the Bhagavad Gita recital was true then I am unable to think of Mahabharata as unreal.
This confusion led me to do some searching online and I found that indeed my dilemma has been discussed in various websites and that there is an ongoing debate as to whether Mahabharata is history or fiction. Check this link out if you are keen about some details.
Although I could not find any concrete evidence whether the whole epic was a myth or not, I did find a lot of convincing argument in favor of the latter. Based on what I have heard and read, I personally believe that it is not a myth but a reality. Whatever be the case, I think that both epics Ramayana and Mahabharata are a rich part of our history and teach us a lot of moral values. |
| posted by BUS @ 11:46 AM |
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| Tuesday, March 22, 2005 |
| The World Day Craze |
Today I read that it is World Water Day. What the hell is that!!! Is it a day to celebrate the fact that we still have water and so we drink lotsa water today? or is it a day to realize that there is not enuf water left on this planet and so we take a pledge not to have water today so that we can conserve it? What is this fascination for celebrating every day of the year as some day or the other.
World Water Day
World AIDS day
World Day of Peace
World Youth Day
Mother's day
Father's Day
Sister's Day
Brother's Day
My Day
Ur Day
Why do we need to assign one day of the year to each of these events and what do we do if we run out of days...there are only 365 remember!!!. Do we then just club two events on the same day...today is World Water Day and also World Fire Day!!! May be there is some reservation system that I dont know of. If there is I think I shld jump on the bandwagon for a spot in the limelight.
Btw...who gets to decides all this anyway. Thro Googling, I found that this day was decided to be celebrated as World Water Day by the UN. But what abt the other days...who decides them. Is it some random guy who just wakes up one day and decides "hmm...what am I in the mood for today...yes ... yes .... pancakes ... pancakes sound real good ... ok thatz it then ... from this year on ... today will be celebrated as World Pancake Day!!! "
If it is really to send a message to the people ( as in the case of Water, AIDS, Peace day) then how is one day going to be enough. Also seriously how many people do really know about this day other than the ones who are in a NGO or other community that are involved in this particular activity.
In the case of these other Father, Mother days etc, what are they for. Is it a day reserved for us to tell that beloved person we love them. What abt the other days : do we just take it easy and not care and then on just that one day say "I love U".
May be I am just overreacting. But I think what I want to say is that what might have started as a simple and novel thing to do has now escalated beyond proportions and has turned into nothing more than a commerical and advertising gimmick. |
| posted by BUS @ 1:51 PM |
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| Sunday, March 20, 2005 |
| My New Found Passion |
Books!!! That is my new found passion. Yeah ! Yeah ! You heard it right. I did say books. B - O - O - K - S. I know some of you who do not yet know this new me are going : "You got to be kidding right!!!". Well , all I have to say is "Sorry friends , but it is true! :- ) ".
Of late I have become hooked on to books, novels, magazines and in general reading. I was not like this. I remember a time when I used to be nonchalant at the mention of books. At the same time I felt that I was missing out on something important. These guilt pangs used to be more when I was surrounded by people who were bookoholics and according to me had read every book on planet earth and I seemed like an alien in this group.
But now I think I am shedding some of this alienness and starting to feel the bliss that wraps a person when he is reading. I am not really sure how all this started but I think it had something to do with my long lasting desire to start a good habit (atleast according to me -- it is better than watching TV) coupled with the fact that I had nothing to do. I have no regrets. But it is a scary and a whole new world: "The world of Books". It is like a black hole from which there is a point of no return.
When I first went to a bookstore to pick up a book to read I was baffled at the sheer range of choices that I had and I was immediately confused as to where to begin. I realized, there are so many books, millions and millions of them, in all sizes and shapes and on virtually any topic you can think of and I have hardly read .00001 % of them. To make matters worse, by the time I am done with one book I find out that there are several new books on the same category that have come out. I immediately sensed that I have a serious back log and a lot of catching up to do. An uncanny feeling lurched deep within that I am trying to crawl out of this complex labyrinth ( of books ) that seems to grow exponentially with every step you take. After spending many days trying to figure out how to solve this puzzle, I have now made peace with myself that this is impossible. But atleast I am happy that I have become a part of this experience. As they say "It is better late than never". |
| posted by BUS @ 7:50 PM |
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| Friday, March 18, 2005 |
| A peek at "My Sister's Keeper" By Jodi Picoult |
I just finished reading the book "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. I liked it and thought I will write about it. This is not so much of a review of the book as much as it is an expression of what I like/dislike about the book.
The book is about the ethical issues that involve stem cell research and portrays the experiences of a couple (Brian and Sara) who are fighting to keep their one daughter (Kate) alive by using the help of their other daughter (Anna), who was conceived for the very purpose of saving her sister. The characters try to resolve the issue of what should be given more importance: (as is mentioned in the novel) is it "The sanctity of life" or is it "The quality of life". In an attempt to answer this question, the author vividly portrays the turmoil that is going on in the minds of the characters of the novel as to what is the right thing to do.
Things I liked/disliked:
1. This is the first time I am reading a book where the chapters are organized based on the characters and is a first person narration of what he/she is thinking. May be this is an idea used before but this is my first encounter of it and I think it was really different and good. It really helped the author to shape the characters and give them their unique identity.
2. I liked the section of the book where Kate starts dating her fellow hospital mate and the interactions that follow thereafter. How both of them talk about their illness and death as if it is an everyday joke that they are used to. How the nurses and other technicians of the hospital organize a prom for all patients. I was amazed that these people seem to take things in stride and it brought to the forefront the fact that, no matter how sick you are, you want to enjoy life to the fullest.
3. Near the end of the novel, when it is D - day or Judgement day, every character gets up and sees that it is raining cats and dogs outside. They immediately think of the most memorable thing they can associate to the downpour. For example: Brian thinks: "It was raining when Anna was born", Sara thinks: "Rain is not such a good sign". It reminded me of the fact that all of us associate certain events with everyday happenings and that all of us think differently.
4. The ending. I did not really expect it and I was a bit agitated and heart broken. But after reading through the author's explaination for this and also pondering over it a bit I thought that the way the book ended was probably the best thing to do and I began to appreciate it.
The book made me think about the dilemma that the family faces and what I would have done in their shoes. It is a really hard question to address and I sincerely hope and wish that neither I nor anyone else is ever in such a situation.
Life is full of choices. Sometimes, as the author says in the book, "No matter what choice we make: We lose". But we do have to make these choices and hope that our decision is right and pray for the best. Life goes on no matter what and we should treasure the small pleasures we get every day and not worry about what we have lost but cherish what we have. |
| posted by BUS @ 10:07 AM |
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| Wednesday, March 16, 2005 |
| Cricket |
i am a typical desi guy...cricket is the only sport I care about. Though it is only one sport , it comes in various flavors. There is of course the international and ranji trophy cricket but i am not talking about that. I am talking about the cricket indians play for fun all around the world.
1. There is the cricket i now play in AZ every weekend...with a tennis ball and wooden plank for a stump (or wickets if u dont know what stumps mean).
2. There is also the QT cricket that I used to play in BITS.
3. There is cricket that is played on the indian roads incurring the wraths of people living nearby for the fear that we might shatter their windows with a six or a stupid throw.
4. There is cricket that u can see being played any time u walk onto Marina beach with so many different groups playing all at once that not only the spectators but also the people playing get confused as to who else is in their game.
5. Then there is underarms cricket. ( my favorite)
Then there is the different flavors of the rules...i assure you no two groups will have exactly the same rules.
1. only offside /leg side has runs.
2. no back runs
3. if it crosses that line over there then u can take only 1 run but if it crosses the other line way over there then u can run as many runs as u want... go figure!!!
I can just keep going but I think you get the hang of it. And it is even possible that during the course of a game the above rules cld be effective for a brief period of time. : ) ...aint that sthg huh!!!
The rules also keep changing on a need basis. If there are more people playing then more the rules try to conform with international standards ( becoz the thinking is more ppl we have the more we r now of international standard so more compliant we have to be of those standards).
Then there is the different kinds of cricket balls u can use...there is of course the real cricket ball but who can afford to get hurt by it or afford it...so we have to resort to other types. The most common types are tennis balls and rubber balls ( not common in US tho). But you guessed it right there are variations in this too. You could manufacture a taped tennis ball. Typically this is tape wrapped around a tennis ball.
Then how can I forget the umpires ( the most hated and scary job on the planet). Games are won and lost by umpires. Who is talking abt international umpires ...those guys have all sorts of help action replays, leg umpires, third umpires etc etc. I am as usual talking abt the umpires who "try" to officiate for the game we r playing. More often than not the umpire is someone from the batting side and there begins the trouble. "Ideally" this guy has to be neutral. Yeah right!!! I can be really neutral when I umpire and have to give a decision where is an element of doubt in favor of the fielding side!!! No way man!!! Itz cricket - you have to win!!!
Typically if u play for a couple of hours the two teams are bound to get into atleast one brawl becoz of an umpiring decision. Then the umpire is questioned abt how neutral he is blah blah blah and then the umpire is changed to a "more " neutral guy until the next debate.
Well...i got to finish now...i guess some of u r confused and others who already play cricket are going "yes u r right, i know what u mean!!"... but at the end of the day there is nthg like a game of cricket. |
| posted by BUS @ 11:11 AM |
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