Sunday, July 29, 2007

the cellphone blogging experience

after a few months of blogging, and many attempts at blogging from my cellphone (not all successful, unfortunately), i guess it's about time i put down my thoughts for posterity.

i'm not going to discuss the how part, because it differs from phone to phone, and it also differs from blog service to service. let's just say that the most reliable 'mobile blog' technique i've found is to type and save my posts on my cell, and then send it to my pc and upload it. not very high tech, but it definitely works all the time :D

so here goes:

advantages/nice things about mobile blogging as compared to blogging from your pc:

  • note down your thoughts as you think them...because thoughts usually fade away as quickly as they come

  • a mobile blog lends itself to the whole 'stream of conciousness' concept much better than a pc does, because there's less means to scroll back and edit, and more emphasis on getting your thoughts down

  • mobile blogs tend to be more intense and less 'edited'

  • mobile blogs tend to be shorter and more to the point

  • they encourage you to blog more often, by making it something you can do using your idle time rather than setting aside quality time for blogging

  • blogging at a pc sometimes gets the feel of forced creativity, where you first decide you want to write something, and then think about what to write. with mobile blogs, you write only when you're inspired

and now for the flip side:

  • mobile blogs tend to be unstructured, thus lending themselves more towards certain types of blogs than others. for example, a post like this one would have been a nightmare to type on a cellphone

  • the poster loses sense of size/space, as a relatively small amount of the post fits on the screen at a time, and there's no way to get a macro view of the post

  • it's easier to wander off topic on a long mobile blog post, as you can only see the last few lines you've typed

  • no true wysiwyg previews

  • no spell check (but i've noticed i'm more accurate on the cell than on my pc, and predictive text usually makes typos noticeable)

  • it's much slower to type on a cellphone than on a pc, even for an experienced texter vs an average pc user

  • can cause pretty bad cases of texter's thumb and worn out keypads :D

oh and i'd love to hear if you've had any different experiences from mine :)

Thursday, July 26, 2007

my foot tastes funny...

...at least, it did the last time it got into my mouth :P

the other day i was having a chat with my mom. somehow or the other (i don't remember how), the conversation turned to people puking. (yeah yeah, i know...gross topic...but it happened :D)

so i told my mom that people puke when they drink waaay too much. understandably, my mom had never seen such a thing happen, so she had absolutely no reason to believe my statement. so her next question was: "how do you know that people puke when they drink too much?"

hmmmm...nice question. lotsa answers. answers that i can tell my mom: none.

i obviously couldn't tell her i learned that from personal experience, because that would be...well...stupid to say the least ;)

it wouldn't be nice to drag another friend's name into this, since it would spoil that friend's reputation with my mom for no fault of his/hers. right now, my mom assumes that when i go out to drink i have a couple of beers with my pals. i don't want to break that carefully built assumption with such a statement :D

i finally mumbled my way out of it saying i heard about it somewhere from someone. i just hope i never *ever* puke at home :D

i am so predictable!

wonder how many of my friends have noticed it, but there are a few things in common with almost every informal email/message i send out. you'll probably notice a few of these things in my blog too.

here's a quick list...feel free to add more in the comments section :)

  • everything other than the last line of the email is entirely in lowercase

  • every message starts with:

    • "heyyy...wassup!!!" (to a girl or guy)

    • "heyyy...hi!!!" (to a girl or guy)

    • "hmmm..." (to a girl or guy)

    • "sup man..." (to a guy)

    • "dude..." (to a guy)

    • "duuude..." (to a guy)

    • "sup dude..." (to a guy)


  • liberal use of "..." :P and :D in place of all other punctuation

  • liberal use of 3 smileys: :) :P :D

  • every paragraph except the first and last start with either:

    • "btw"

    • "anyway..."

    • "oh and"

    • "as for"

    • "hmmm..."


  • when chatting, alternate lines will begin with either of:

    • "hehe..."

    • "haha..."

    • "hmmm..."


  • when chatting, alternate lines will end with either of:

    • :P

    • :D


  • last but not the least, every message must end with: (note the uppercase k)
    Kris

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

i dream of blogging

i have reached new heights of insomnia. It's pretty obvious insomnia is nothing new to me, as i've been suffering from it (yeah, 'suffering' is the word) on and off for as long as i can remember...i probably wrote about it as far back as my first diary (that's right, 1999!), and as recently as a few blog posts ago. The causes for it have also been as varied as they could possibly be...all the way from exam tension to bombay's heat :D

One interesting feature of insomnia is that you always end up thinking of something or the other while you're tossing and turning in bed, waiting to fall asleep. Certain insomnia inducing factors come with their own set of thoughts (eg. relationship troubles, etc. but notably not exam fever :P). Quite a few others like the weather, mosquitoes, power cuts, my owl-like sleep timings (i woke up at 3pm yesterday :D) give me the freedom to think of whatever i want to while sleep eludes me.

Typically these thoughts are about recent events in my life, and how i expect/want their outcomes to turn out. Not anymore. I now "night-dream" of blogging. That's right. It's 4am right now and i've already dreamed of 3 posts, and this is the 4th one.

btw each of the 3 posts before this one were simply discarded as soon as the next one popped into my head. This lucky post survived because i decided enough is enough, and that i shall not let any more of tonight's inspiration go waste, even if i get texter's thumb or a crick in my neck or a completely blank keypad (that's right, this entire post has been typed on my trusty n-gage, while i'm still lying in bed waiting to fall asleep :P)

interestingly, i've already thought of two more blog topics while i was scrolling back through this post. Make that 3. Oh wait, i forgot one already. Hmmm. Must note down surviving two topics, and see if they still make sense when i wake up this afternoon.

Good night :)

ps: another topic strikes 2 minutes later. Damn! Is something wrong with me???

Sunday, July 22, 2007

my technicolour dream

i had some really vivid and funny dreams last night. i've had happy dreams, sad dreams, scary dreams, depressing dreams, outrageous dreams, but i don't ever remember ever getting the same vibes from my dreams as i did last night.

when i woke up, i could only vaguely remember what the dream was, but i remember thinking to myself: "that was such a cool dream! i gotta blog it!" of course, i then promptly went back to sleep and forgot everything. anyway, true to my word, this post is here - except that i can't remember a word of what i wanted to put into it.

the only possible logical explanation for that dream is the vodka i had last night. i hope i don't ever manage to prove the connection between smirnoff and cool dreams. if i do, i might just end up an alcoholic :P

still, smirnoff -> cool dream is an interesting connection. i wonder if i'm on my way back to the traditions of priests/chiefs of various tribes who used to smoke up/drink interesting stuff in order to have 'dreams' about the future or gods will. scary.

this post simply does not make sense. i can't even blame it on the vodka.

Friday, July 20, 2007

let's make potter president!

let's make potter president...or maybe even god!!!

pottermania seems to have reached the peak of its frenzy these days. however, i've noticed something that now strikes me as alarming instead of funny: a few people think of potter as something other than what he really is - a fictional character in a children's storybook.

i guess there are always people who idolize fictional characters (especially when it comes to kids and kids' literature), and there are always people who delve deeply into their favourite works of fiction (lord of the rings et al). nothing new about that. but when people stop thinking of a fictional character as such, and talk about him like a real person, i get alarmed.

couple of days ago a local newspaper published an article about "what people say harry potter would do if he came to bombay". another similar contest was held yesterday. people really thought a lot about their answers. someone won the contest.

i smell something wrong here. people are mixing rowling's fictional magical world with our reality. and these people are not kids, but adults, albeit young ones - students, people working in call centers, whatever. they are voting citizens of india, who feel that it's somehow potter's job to clean the city, remove potholes, eliminate terrorism, demolish slums (and many more things i'm feeling too lazy to type).

wake up everyone! harry potter is a figment of rowling's imagination! he isn't gonna fix our problems. hell, he doesn't even exist!!! stop praying to him, because he isn't god!!! get a life, you retards!!!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

my inability to smile in a photo

today i was searching for a good photo to put into my railway i-card (it expired about a year ago). after looking through almost 10 passport sized photos i came to the conclusion that i just can't smile for the camera. the only photos that i found of myself smiling were when i was high or...hmmm...high :P (and they weren't passport sized photos either...so whatever). and that's really funny because i'm always smiling in real life. i can't even wipe that stupid grin off my face when i'm looking at myself in the mirror. oh wait. i *do* look funny in the mirror (mental note: must start exercising someday)

forget it. i'm gonna frown in my railway i-card. it's how i'm gonna look when the tc pulls me aside anyway :D

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

the drying up of ceative juices

recently, i've been invited to co-author a blog. i readily agreed, thinking it wouldn't be that big a deal. apparently it was a big deal. i've suddenly drawn a blank when it comes to stuff to write about in my own, as well as the co-authored blog.

so now i'm wondering, what could possibly be the cause of this? is it because my imagination doesn't work when i want it to do, or does the responsibility of co-authoring a blog put some kind of subconscious pressure on me? i wonder.

anyway, i'm gonna tackle this problem somehow. be prepared for a case of bloghorrea. as it is, i'm at home all day, and pretty much bored. how bad could senseless writing possibly be? i think we'll find out soon. :D

Thursday, July 12, 2007

my first job

after 6 months at symantec, it's almost time for me to leave. i thought i'd never actually feel any parting pangs for a job, but well...i guess i thought wrong.

i guess my first job was something really special. i've had friends complain about their office, the work, the management, the computers, firewalls that block half the sites, everything. somehow i never really had anything to complain about. and the work was first class, awesome, challenging stuff, but minus all the pressure that usually goes with something as cutting edge.

so there it is. i'm saying goodbye to the almost-perfect job. from here, it looks like the next job will be perfect, but i guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

i'm gonna miss this place. farewell fellows and fellas!!! thanks for an awesome 6 months spent at work with you!!!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

intelligent gambling

gambling is something i always treat with a bit of care...i'm not against gambling in principle, but at face value, losing money for the sake of winning more at questionable odds is something that doesn't quite fit my list of entertaining or profitable things to do :D

i made an exception today. i gambled a bit. i'm still not sure if i won or not. or if it was even counted as gambling.

it was like this: vsnl (i'm a lifetime customer of their ISP service, except that i don't use dialup anymore :P) sent me a mail offering to check my iq. out of curiosity i clicked the link. turns out there was some prize money involved for the highest scorer of the week. 999 bucks. even better. i clicked next. turns out i have to pay 99 bucks to take the test. damn!

so i can win 900 bucks or lose 99 bucks. it all depends on how intelligent (or dumb) everyone else who takes the test is. i'm betting on my intelligence to win money. thankfully for me, i have quite a competitive iq score (shall be modest. shall not elaborate.) so i decided to place my bet. my bet gets called on friday.

suddenly realization gave me a friendly whack to the back of my head. i've been gambling on my intelligence all my life. sometimes for money, sometimes to pass my exams, sometimes to get away scot free from mischef or laziness (in this case, sometimes = all the time :D).

everything in life, however trivial, involves a potential loss, a potential gain, and a probability for attaining the gain.

"life is a gamble"
-Kris

Monday, July 02, 2007

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