Merry Christmas

Christmas is that time of the year when I feel different - maybe its the winter or its the holiday season or the influence of an education in a christian school or its the general festive mood.

I recall an anecdote in relation to Christmas. Maybe a score and five years ago or more, I saw a lovely card - A Christmas cum New Year card - it had a lovely scene of a white winter. I bought that card wanting to send that card to the most special person in my life - and to this day that card hasn't been sent (I lost track of it a couple of years down the line). That doesn't mean that I haven't found that person yet. I dont know why I was reminded of that card today, maybe a reminder not to postpone things or whatever. Anyway here's wishing everyone a

Merry Christmas!

On the spur of the moment...

Posts that I want to share as and when I read them.
I've created a section in the side-bar On the spur of the moment, which will contain links that I felt I must share immediately.

Read Emily - here

Teens in the blogosphere

I'd wanted to do a post on blog mammas for some time - somehow haven't yet got down to it. Meanwhile, if the mammas are wondering what their little ones may be in saying their teens here's a sample selection. I hope you enjoy these:

The following are my own blog acquaintances:

Viva la Vi of Vibrant, Verbose, Voracious, a college fresher, asks herself 30 questions to be answered by her on her 30th birthday.

Harini in her A Babble of Emotions, touches us with her emotions, recounting an experience By the beach. A singer and music fanatic hosts her songs here.

Prachi of preity place says charity begins at home. (Link from Mama says so)

Cloudy Musings with Vague -in-vogue thoughts of mine!! does a tag from The not-so artful dodger

The following are mostly Cvians (students of Chinmaya Vidhyalaya, Chennai). I got these links from Vishesh and Tariq's blogs.

This is Vishesh. Vishesh is active on the commenting circuit, seems to be a philosophical guy. Read his poem on Mother India

Atul of Hitchhiking Across The Infinite crabs about EXAMS ! Imperative or Out-dated ??

Vishnu of With The Lights Out.....Its Less Dangerous.....Here We Are Now...Entertain Us writes about Some stuff i felt are twisted and evil.some serious.some just weird n funny..

Dman of Life is a jueey writes on being detached.

Priya says, N'fin much!!, but you can see her in action.

I seem to have left out Bharath, The Philanthropic Cynic, who warns Risk addiction if you enter his blog. A person particular about precise use of words, reviews a school play and records a Bionic ET attack.

Rusty Neurons Archives of Tariq; he seems to be a techie guy with quite a fancy site. Read his rant on school in Symbol logic. He too tracks The Brownie!

Vishal, The Green Monster talks about his blues.

Meet the Hrushita the blabberer at Junipers in the sun.

These are just some sample posts from their blogs. All of them are real cool blogs. You can navigate to other blogs (of their friends) from their blogrolls, which are equally fun. Have fun.
PS: Hey Kid, looks like not all schools are like Velammals.
PPS: This does not purport to be representative of all persons in this age group.

The Question Man again...

Mr Pregunto never ceases to amaze me! Here is his latest question:

If you were to create your own religion, what would it be like?

As usual some of us responded with lacklustre comments; that was all that Senor Pregunto needed, to go into analysing out thinking process (rather our imagination); the issue was no more about religion, but our capability to imagine. I am humbled, Sir, by your thinking. I will henceforth think, think and think, before I venture to answer your questions. Even if I give a shallow answer, I can be sure of getting some other aspect of your question in your response. I enjoy reading your discussions.

In a related post Paul F. gives his version or understanding of Christianity. Definitely worth a read.

Is it just a coincidence, or some invisible hand at play, that I should come across different posts all relating to the same topic?

Emily expresses her anguish relating to God.

Life on the Sea

This is for readers who know Tamizh. Mr. Kadal Ganesan (கடல் கணேசன்), a marine engineer, writes of his experiences in the merchant navy. This series (கற்றது கடலளவு), which has already appeared in Junior Vikatan, is being reproduced here again. Here are some snippets. If the snippets are anything to go by, I think the series is going to be very engrossing. I found the passages very touching. The first instalment of the series (published on Oct 3, 2006) appears here- Chapter 1.

If you have rendering problems for tamil with your browser, then you might have to change some settings of your browser. Go to

View -> Character Encoding -> select Unicode (UTF-8) (for Mozilla/Firefox browsers)
View -> Encoding -> select Unicode (UTF-8) (for Internet Explorer browsers)

Windows 98 does not support Unicode.

What Jungian type are you?

I like to know about myself; I presume that everyone else will also like to know about themselves. Atleast it is better than knowing about someone else :).
Thanks to The Kid and Archana Bahuguna, I came to know about this site that gives a description of you based on a test. I took the test and was labelled INFP (Introspective iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving) type. Here are 2 descriptions of the type given by Keirsey and Butt. They say some embarassingly nice things about me :)

If you want to know what type you are take the test here:
Human Metrics - Free test.
Myers and Briggs - Paid test.
Will you post your type after taking the test?
Do I (my blog persona) fit their description? (optional) ;)

PPS: An aside - a colleague of mine said that these tests do not reflect 'what/who you are', rather they reflect 'what you want to be seen as'. Hmmm.. that's a thought that needs some thinking.

Tag Again

Hip Hop Grandmom tagged me and here are the rules as received from G'ma:

I have been simultaneously tagged by Srijith Unni and Archana Bahuguna. While Srijith wants me to talk about 6 weird things in my nature, Archana wants me to say 9 things about myself weird or otherwise. Both want me to tag 6 more people by leaving a comment on their blog. I decided to combine both and give 9 aspects of my nature, some weird others not so weird. Those whom I tag may stick to the same rule.

State nine things (weird or otherwise) about yourself. Then tag 6 others, and also let them know that you've tagged them by leaving a comment on their blog.

I dont know if these are weird or not, but I can say that these traits are characteristic of me.

1. I am argumentative.
a. I cannot answer any question without asking a return question. I always ask for a clarification of a word, or the context for the question. For example, if somebody asked me "should I go in for higher studies", I'd ask "why do you want to go in for higher studies".
b. I tend to take an opposite stand of any opinion expressed (even if I believe in the opinion expressed). Example - If someone said, "The idlis were terrible today", I'd retort, "Dont say idlis were terrible, say that you didn't like the idlis".
The number of dirty looks that I've had on this count would be enough to wither a less sensitive being. This has been a cause of major trouble at home and work.

2. I like to generalise.
Whenever any specific issue is discussed, I like to make generalizations based on that issue. For example, if we were discussing something like, "when is one happy" etc. I might chip in saying "A happy man is always happy, a sad man is always sad or in other words a person will be as as happy/sad as (s)he has been till today for the rest of their lives - its all a question of perception". This trait has earned me the description of "the person who talks of vague things". I'm sure you wouldn't agree.

3. I love to sit and discuss anything and every thing.
This is obviously derivable from the above 2 points. I'd have been a top celebrity, if any career was to be made out of discussions. I ignore those who refer to these discussions as plain old gossip (vetti arattai). See point 4 before you jump to conclusions or give me advice.

4. I get very much involved in whatever I do.
The negative side of this is that I become an addict to that activity. Obviously, if I get involved in my work then that would be a good thing for my career. Unfortunately, I lose my addiction as soon as I take that activity as my job! Then I get addicted to something else. The kinds of career switches I've made in life! *shakes head*

5. I love my pet dog.
To say love is an understatement. The most important person? in my life is my pet. Fortunately, this feeling is shared by all of us in our family! Opinions on our pet is the only thing on which everyone in our family are unanimous. Of course, we've been ostracised by all our relatives (parents inclusive) for this.

6. I Like to be connected with people real/virtual.
In the days when snail-mail was dominant I always look forward to letters (and also writing them), then it was email, discussion forums and now it is blogs. A day without a comment totally dispirits me. I'm sure many out there suffer from this affliction - so it is not really a weird trait. Surprisingly I hate phones and speaking on the phone. Looks like I like the written form of communication.

7. I am a die hard escapist/dreamer.
I tend to look for delusory gratification, living in a dream world. My reading habits, addiction to soaps etc. are indicative of this trait. My other escape is listening to music. Generally I like to do things that lull one's senses or create an intense emotional experience.

8. I compare myself with others.
I constantly compare myself with others. So-and-so is better than me in this and this. :( I am better than XYZ in this :D . Of course I've never let out this aspect of myself to anyone. Shhh.

9. I want to achieve something in my life.
This is probably the weirdest part of me. Having all the above traits I still expect to achieve something in life. There's optimism for you. Anyway point no.7 helps me in cherishing this desire.


That wasn't that bad afterall! I did enjoy doing that.

Some additional frill points (kosuru):
I have starting trouble in any task.
I like to talk about myself.
I confide everything to my friends - I have no friends now :(
I feel guilty enjoying myself.
I want to win the Nobel prize.
Once I start talking, I dont stop..
I get high without alcohol.
All the above may not sound weird, but if you know that I'm a....Mmmmph, gurgle... sigh.

Having chloroform at hand is useful at such times... *The real me gets up after smothering the Visitor*

I tag Ranjit, Raman, Hip Prudester, Noble Savage, A.S, and Emily.
I request the above to do the tag, if they feel comfortable.

Back with more links :)

I am through black monday finally! Thanks to all your feedback - Visitor is back at the desk, typing away happily. :) To make up for the lost (wo)man-days today there are links to 4 blogs the I visited during my time in the wilderness, and found some solace.

White Forest
Have any of you read chess news reports that talk of "player X having time advantage over player Y"? I thought that it meant that X took less time to make certain number of moves compared to Y until I read this post by White Forest - Chess & Time at White Forest. Hey chess non-enthusiasts(?!) dont go away, there is something for you too in that post. Here's a heart warming post - Why me. A no-nonsense person, says we have no one else to blame for what we are, except ourselves.

Me Thinks
If you remember I'd mentioned my troubled times to you when I was travelling incognito in blog world. At that time I struck up an odd friendship with Lord Labak of Me thinks. To say that she writes well would be an understatement. Here is something about her - "That's me". Somehow her feeing for pets isn't the same as mine. :(

Emily's Post
Emily, as a mom has a dilemma, she writes about it in "Being Bothered". Emily's posts are ... well difficult to describe them... I feel nice reading her posts. The post that drew me to her blog - The House that Emily Built.

Terri's Turf
I discovered another dog blog - Terri's Turf through the post All Hail the VIP. Terri's mom has a dilemma, whether to go back to her first love or not - Bewafaa.

Have a nice day!

Identity Crisis

The past few days I've been having an identity crisis - all relating to my blog (persona). I seem to be getting too involved with the activity (addicted?). So I promised myself to not to post anything or even log into blogger for sometime.

I just thought that I'd just look at other people's blog; one thing led to another and before I knew what I was doing I was commenting away happily on other blogs but not as Visitor, but by other name(s) or as anonymous! Not only am I having an identity crisis, I am also hopelessly addicted.

When I created the Visitor persona for commenting on other's blogs, I had meant to keep myself anonymous for various reasons. I wanted to let persons have their own image of what I was, based on what they could have perceived of me from my comments. In some comments I have revealed more about myself, than what I'd have wanted.

Now this anonymity fetish that I seem to have is the source of all my worries. While I wanted to keep myself anonymous, everyone else with whom I've 'interacted' have been very frank and open about themselves. 'Knowing about the writer' has helped me put the writer's ideas in perspective and appreciate the post better. In fact, the blogs of those who have been very open have appealed to me a lot.

I feel guilty (about being anonymous) and a lot of uncomfortable questions keep popping up :

• Am I fair to the others (bloggers) by being anonymous?
  
• Should I reveal my real identity? I envy those (Madura, Raman, Premalatha) who make no bones revealing their true identity and about what others would think.
  
• Should I reveal only parts or the whole of the "real" me? (this real me is not necessarily my meatspace identity (nice phrase isn't it? lifted it ;) from the comment on another blog).
  
• In my past comments, is/are there anything that I would NOT say with my real identity? OMG- there are numerous things that I would never have uttered, if I knew X or Y knew this aspect of the real me.
  
• That does smack of hypocrisy - doesn't it? LOL
  
• Then have I been dishonest in my comments? No, I have always expressed my real feelings in my comments.
  
• Then am I dishonest in my real life? I dont know to answer that truthfully. Maybe I'm more non-commital (ambiguous) in my real life opinions.
  

There are so many more questions with conflicting answers. How much better it would be if one didn't have to grapple with such dilemmas.

Some options before me (suggestions I've made to myself)-

• Dont mix up issues - stick to your original Visitor idea - be objective, dont get 'involved'.
  
• Don't introspect too much - just do what you feel at a given moment.
  
• Reveal your identity , or atleast parts of it.
  
• End it all - I mean kill Visitor. That sounds rather dramatic and nice :) and I can go about feeling miserable and sorry for myself
  

The past couple of days I've been miserable trying to sort myself out. And I haven't got any answers yet. :(

Rahman's music

For those Rahman fans out there - here is a post by a composer, Kaushal Inamdar analysing Rahman's music in his post, Rahman, I, and the Sound of Music - A good read. Kaushal's blog has other posts that are likely to appeal to music lovers.
The Story Behind नको देवराया
Something for parents: Dilemma of the Better Son

A review of Jillendru oru Kadhal music.

Deepavali Charity contest update - The entries are comng in fast and thick, and some of the entires are really outstanding. Anonymous writers are also contributing stories, so maybe even you could attempt to compose your own story.

Feminism 101

The Blog world has become the new ground where issues are debated and opinions formed. Quite often the debators (on an issue) would be arguing with quite a different set of basic premises, and hence would be strongly defending their positions, which would be consistent to their own premises. Unless a common set of premises is used, no agreement can be reached in any debate.

Now feminism, as a movement and as a concept has evolved over time; being a sensitive issue there are a lot of discussions / heated debates over it. Understanding feminism better is useful to arrive at the "accepted" premises of debates on feminism. Even as a passive observer of debates, it would help one appreciate the different viewpoints put forth on the issue.

Thinking Girl is of the opinion that many people have major misconceptions regarding feminism, so she has offered to clear any doubts that you may have in this regard. If any of you have any questions on feminism visit Feminism 101 on TG's blog. She has also given a couple of other links, viz., Molly Saves the Day and Amanda at Pandagon which are similar in nature.

Remember the Deepavali charity contest?

For details see: Ready, Steady, Charity!

Science in India

I seem to be lucky to land on "gems" of posts. Browsing through G'ma's latest post on Navarathri, I chanced on the blog of Srijith Unni. His post, "The Indian Science Catastrophe", gives an outsider's perspective of the state of research institutions in India. I found that his post does touch on several problems in the Indian scientific community. I guess that some of the visitors to this blog are from the scientific community - their inputs on his post would cerrtainly give us a better understanding of science in India.

Language Localization

Raman in a recent post of his has raised the issue of Localization - how much to do. He briefly describes the issue and his own stand on it.
Language Localization, according to my perception, is the conversion of english user interfaces (of software) to the respective local language interfaces.

This is kind of semi-technical stuff, and may not directly interest many of us. But as denizens of the Internet world, I feel that all of us have a stake in voicing our opinions, so that the research community may know the general feeling about this. Of course to claim that readers of this blog would be representative of the public at large, would be presumptuous on my part :) I am sure that other experts (both language and software) would be also giving their inputs.

Short Story Sequel

Ammani needs no introduction to most readers of this blog, because many of them have Ammani on their blogroll. For the uninitiated - Ammani is known for her quicktales - short tales of about ~200 to 250 words.

She's not only a person of ideas, she is a doer as well.

She earlier had a letter writing contest, where the participants were invited to write letters to persons, living or dead, real or imaginary. This was quite a success and the letters are available at Lost in post.

In her latest post she has announced another activity - completing a story that she has begun; so far the response looks great, so if you are interested see A quick tale 158. She has also announced a Deepavali Charity Contest, the details of which are to be announced shortly.

She also hosts a food blog - Chai pani and a book blog - A good read.

Questions Galore!

I have previously mentioned Mr. Pregunto on this blog, as a person who asks interesting questions. A recent post (question) of his and the attendant discussion has prompted me to highlight this post now:

Is it possible to renounce some undesired aspect of your identity? Have you ever tried?

On the face of it, there didn't seem much to it, but on opening the comments, I could see that the question was much deeper than what I had assumed it to be. I hope you find it interesting. His profile About me makes for interesting reading too.

Fare thee well Gounder Brownie

The Brownie is leaving India next week to do her upper studies in an upper country. If I recall correctly, she is joining University of Sussex Sheffield, UK, to do post-graduation in Gender Studies (after an eventful 3-years at the Star of the Sea College). She bids Tata, bye bye, see you.

Wish you the same dear Brownie.

Vadukut's Padukoothu

Another blog that I've wanted to write about on this blog is Sidin's Domain Maximus. He comes out with some ticklers. Just sample a few (best done at home, or, when the boss is not around), and you'll automatically crave for more.
Balle Balle in Delhi
Sidin's guide to the greatest Indian cricketers of all time
You could just roam around in his blog when you are particularly down in the dumps for a non-alcoholic pick-me-up. He has also been published. Here is what he has to say about his choice of profession. Have a great weekend.

Invention Tag

Ranjit tagged me for an Invention tag - name 3 gadgets, not yet invented, that we would like to have. His dogs Ginga and Booboo have also done the tag - in my opinion, they've shown more originality than either Ranjit or I have. My imagination seems to have dried up - I've been sitting on this tag forthe past 2 days :(

Intelli-talk: This gadget would generate appropriate auto-replies according to the questions / conversations, to which I do not really listen to. Useful for situtions involving the spouse, the boss and any other situation where the job of cooking up a fast one is involved. This device should be placeable below the tongue.

I am just listening to a fast number - the mood of the music is getting to me and my body is automatically going into convulsions; some visitors are concerned that I'm having an epileptic fit, I can hear muffled grunts and smirks from my kids, meanwhile my spouse is assuring the visitors that I was just doing some new kind of aerobics. Enough is enough! I WANT The Jigger! Well this invisible inner wear, which when worn, would automatically gyrate your body parts in the most aesthetically pleasing manner acording to the music playing. Only one such Jigger should ever exist in the world!

Alai Payuthe Kanna is being rendered by KJ Yesudas, again caught up with the mood I start singing along - kanindha un vEnu gAnam kAtril varugudhEy Hmm..., I seem to be doing quite well! Maybe I should try for an audition with A R Rahman. Croak croak Crooooaak.... Hey! Who's making that awful noise, when I'm singing... Oops the power has failed and you know who was singing... *grins sheepishly*. Oh what wouldn't I do get a better musical voice. Ah Got it! The Music Capsule -just pop in one whenever you want to sing and you'd sing in the most mellifluous voice ever.
As I've already mentioned in a previous tag I'm the official Cacophonix amongst my many cousins. In this connection I remember mentioning, to colleague of mine, my desire to make it big on the music scene - and guess what he said? "Dont worry, you'll make it big, once you've been able to define a new genre of music". :(

I tag anyone else willing to take up the tag.

I've submitted HW-3 of my writing class

A Fairy Tale

I love fairy tales! ... and fairy tale endings!
Surya and Jyothika had a fairy tale romance that started with their first movie together. In these days of broken relationships, I am happy that their romance withstood the test of time; they have been courting each other for the past 5 years or so. They are to tie the nuptial knot today September 1110, 2006. I wish them both the very best in their future married life! Thanks, Surya and Jyothika, for making a fairy tale come alive.

The Assembly

In schools, first thing in the morning, the entire aschool assembles in the playground and the assembly is held, where there are prayers followed by a message, or inspiring story, or some such thing which the entire school shares. Reading Hiphop Grandma's daily posts is like coming back inspired from the assembly. The remarkable thing is that there is a message for different types/classes of people too. One can default open Hip Hop Grandma's blog in the morning and be rewarded with a good post there.

Most of you might be regular visitors to her blog, and whatever I say may be redundant. I just thought I should share some of her posts with those who have not already seen her blog:

Generation Gap - for the next generation family
United We Stand - for students
STRIKING ROOTS - Part I - first in a series of 3 posts - for young couples.
Was it fate? - for all
Mother Hen - on husbands and mother hens.
Where are we going friends - on carreers and choices.
Catch me if you can - a thriller
Justice prevails
Dare to be a Daniel - on Teacher's Day
To Care And Share. - on growing old together.

I really had difficulty in this post - I might as well have given just the link to her blog which is anyway there on my blogroll - as I really couldn't decide what to short list and what to leave out. Anyway it has ultimately become a random choice really.

Time pass

There are so many blogs I've visited since my last post - I wanted to have dedicated posts for several themes, but am just too lazy to draft an appropriate write-up. Meanwhile, to keep the work going on I am posting a link to an interesting music video:
A FatBoy Slim video, "That Old Pair Of Jeans" (size:14MB +)- a must SEE even for non-music lovers. I saw it on the Vh channel and fortunately found the same on the net too. Enjoy!

தென்பாண்டிச் சீமையிலே...

Listening to Ilayaraajaa...

Ilayaraja's voice w/o music
தென்பாண்டிச் சீமையிலே தேரோடும் வீதியிலே மான்போல வந்தவனே யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ	Thenpaandi cheemayiley Therodum veedhiyiley Maanpola vandhavaney yaaradichaaro Yaaradichaaro yaaradichaaro Yaaradichaaro yaaradichaaro
வளரும் பெறையே தேயாதே இனியும் அழுது தேம்பாதே அழுதா மனசு தாங்காதே அழுதா மனசு தாங்காதே	Valarum peraiye thaeyaadhey Iniyum azhudhu thaembaadhey Azhudhaa manasu thaangaadhey Azhudhaa manasu thaangaadhey
தென்பாண்டிச் சீமையிலே தேரோடும் வீதியிலே மான்போல வந்தவனே யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ யாரடிச்சாரோ	Thenpaandi cheemayiley Therodum veedhiyiley Maanpola vandhavaney yaaradichaaro Yaaradichaaro yaaradichaaro Yaaradichaaro yaaradichaaro
Kamal with music - normal and pathos
தென்பாண்டிச் சீமையிலே தேரோடும் வீதியிலே மான்போல வந்தவனே யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ	Thenpaandi cheemayiley Therodum veedhiyiley Maanpola vandhavaney yaaradithaaro Yaaradithaaro yaaradithaaro Yaaradithaaro yaaradithaaro
வளரும் பிறையே தேயாதே இனியும் அழுது தேம்பாதே அழுதா மனசு தாங்காதே அழுதா மனசு தாங்காதே	Valarum piraiye thaeyaadhey Iniyum azhudhu thaembaadhey Azhudhaa manasu thaangaadhey Azhudhaa manasu thaangaadhey
தென்பாண்டிச் சீமையிலே தேரோடும் வீதியிலே மான்போல வந்தவனே யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ யாரடித்தாரோ	Thenpaandi cheemayiley Therodum veedhiyiley Maanpola vandhavaney yaaradithaaro Yaaradithaaro yaaradithaaro Yaaradichaaro yaaradichaaro

The lyrics, music and Raajaa's voice transport me to another world.

I thought I'll indulge myself today, and relaxed the restraint I'd placed on myself, and took the liberty to post in tamil.

Links for the weekend

Honestly, I thought that I'd give posting a miss today/tommorrow, but while going through artnavy's blog I found some interesting links, of which one (Web Caricatures) was just simply rip-roaring (ROTFL and SMSL), that I had to post it today.
What/Who are you? - Mike Reed, has caricatured typical partcipants of flame wars at his site, Flame Warriors. You can find out who you are or you could find suitable names for your friends/foes. You can also use it to abuse your opponent in future flame wars. I seem to have MPD because several personalities matched my description. A must visit site for the weekend!
Thanks artnavy!
Hello - I've submitted my second homework

Blog Day ++

Today seems to be a day for posting links. This is the third update I'm doing today.
Did you all know that Pluto is no more a planet?
I can hear many of you saying, "Hey Visitor, don't feed us old stuff, tell us something new!" OK, OK it is old news, but does it really matter whether Pluto is a planet or not - apparently it does!
Shankar Vedantam gives a social perspective of what it means. For those of you who are in science, this article by Nick Anthis (Scientific Activist) might be more appealing.

---

Today being blogday I am proceeding according to their (blogday.org) instructions:

In one long moment In August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting

I selected 5 blogs that I liked. I have mentioned them previously on my blog, but perhaps have not given them enough space.
Another criterion i used was to select blogs quite different from my own culture (but probably not different from me in POV and attitude)
My selection is

• Fade to numb
• L Tart - I would have loved to include Mr. Pregunto, but he seems to have gone into hibernation.
• Thinking Girl
• Wonky Times
• Mixing Memories

2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending on them on BlogDay 2005 2006

I will not do this! Finally I ended up doing it :( Couldn't control myself.

3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs

Fade to numb - is a blog which talks about relationships between husband and wife, romancing etc. It gives a US male perspective to the subject and draws from the blogger's personal experiences. He is already on my blogroll.

The World of L Tart - I find it difficult to classify this blog, or give it a description that would fit. Maybe describing the blogger might help - The blogger goes by the name Lusty Tart (L Tart) and is probably in her fifties; she actively participates in many post-post discussions with gusto. Her name should be familiar to Frida, Thinking girl and Mr. Pregunto.

Thinking Girl - A feminist philosopher. She has an interesting feature Feminism Friday that discusses specific issues. I reproduce what she has to say about herself:

I’m Thinking Girl, a student and citizen of the world and a feminist philosopher, and this is my space, where I think out loud, share those thoughts, and invite debate. I write about a lot of things here, but primarily, this blog exists to promote dialogue and discussion of political and philosophical issues through a feminist framework. By writing here, I flex my arguing muscles while unloading mental clutter and gaining new persepctives, provided, of course, by you - my commentors. Don’t be shy - join the fun! The unexamined life is not worth living.

Wonky Times - For subversives and one-act-players - PeeJ, from UK, is the man behind Wonky Times. He is also my class-mate in Frida's classes classes for creative writing. He makes me jealous by submitting his homework even before the assignment is given, whereas I am always late by a week! He writes beautifully and you can get a glimpse of 'what creative writing is' from his blog.

Mixing Memories - This is a blog on Cognitive Psychology by Chris, a cognitive psychologist, hosted on Science Blogs. Dont ask me what is cognitive psychology ;). I stumbled on this blog when I was looking at blogs on patriotism and I liked the approach it had towards the issue. A word about Science Blogs - it is a site which hosts blogs of scientists from different areas of science; the scientists get to blog there by invitation only. There were other interesting blogs there, but I liked Mixing memories best. If I am not right then I presume that there are no scientists reading my blog. Could anyone make out what I was trying to say in the previous sentence? I couldn't figure out. Well whatever..

4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
Done

5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link: http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2006 and a link to BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org
Will not do. I did this too! (Courtesy- Mosilager)

Disclaimer: I have not looked into who is behind the concept of blogday. I dont know if there are any ulterior motives behind it. I also dont know the repercussions (of this act) if everyone does the same thing.
Well one thing did happen - blogday.org is totally clogged!

.

Have a good day!
BlogDay2006

Today is Blogday

Ranjit aka Mosilager gave me the link to blogday.org. I reproduce what the site says about blogday:

What is BlogDay

BlogDay was initiated with the belief that bloggers should have one day which will be dedicated to know other bloggers, from other countries or areas of interests. In that day Bloggers will recommend about them to their Blog visitors.

Today August 31, 2006 is Blogday. If it interests you see what you need to do.

Thanks for the link Ranjit.

Flaming Wars

One of my original objectives of starting this blog was to promote discussions etc. But I seem to have expressly failed in that objective. However this does not mean such discussions do not happen on blogs. Ever since my initiation into the blogosphere, I have learnt some of the jargon related to blogging. One such jargon, relevant to online discussions, is Flaming, which refers to "the act of posting messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting, usually in the social context of a discussion board on the Internet". Another definition for flame.See the consequence of flaming here.

In my early days here, I came across a fairly decent post on People watching, but the no of comments on that post was a whopping 103. I can now see that part of the reason was a flame war happening on that post.

More recently, I was going through the blog of another well tracked blogger, Megha aka the wannabe indian punkster. She is incidently a Flippery Fish in the TTLB Ecosystem! That is very high on the evolutionary chart, where I reckon that I'd just be an Insignificant microbe! One of her posts, And this one is for the bleach, had a phenomenal 228 comments! Despite being relatively jobless I could just browse through a fifth of all the comments! Warning: If you want to completely read all the comments, choose a day when you dont have any pressing work. :P

Have a great day! Cheers!

Latest updates!

Want to Tattoo?

Tattoo? - those weird designs which even more weird people have on their person? Or did you mean 'taboo' - a thing which is not accepted by society? If to tattoo is taboo then take it whichever way you want :)

Well I did have the notion that only weird persons tattooed. Many of you might be acquainted with Madura, who according to me was a 'normal' person. Today I learned that Madura had tattooed herself! This means that either 'Madura is weird', or 'tattooing is done by normal persons also'. If you've had a secret desire to have yourself tattooed, then here's Madura's first hand account of the process. Enjoy!

Role-models are not forever?

Many of us have ambitions and goals in life and have different strategies to reach our goals. Having role-models is often a good strategy for deriving inspiration to achieve the goals. Raman has an interesting POV on choosing role models in his post - Who's your source of inspiration?

My Secret Desire: It has been my desire to be able to write creatively, and to that end I registered for Frida's Creative Writing Classes. After a lot of fits and starts I submitted my first homework yesterday. Our teacher was all praises *blush* *blush* for what I had turned out. So I thought that I might give you all a peep at what I submitted, but only if you promise not to make fun. *deep blush*

Water Conservation

You have to be a Chennaiite aka Madrasi to know the importance of water conservation. Irrespective of whether you are a chennai-ite or not these Water Conservation Tips given by ITW are certainly worth taking a look at.

Gounder Brownie

Another great day has begun! Gounder Brownie has come out with a gem of piece - Reading 'Reading Lolita in Teheran' in India. The Brownie does a critique of the book 'Reading Lolita in Teheran' by Nafisi, and in the process talks about literature, feminism, 'totalitarian' attitudes etc. with references to the book as well as to It's (The Brownie does not have any gender) own personal experiences. The style is that of a literary critique and some words (solipsize) go zoop right over one's head; looking up dictionary.com was but a small effort to enjoy the writing. The Brownie, as usual, has floored me. I am off to first buy a copy of Lolita. Cheers.

The Brownie has a humorous style of writing with an underlying sarcasm. The topics include anecdotes in life with special reference to Stella Maris, feminism and poetry. Sample posts:

Gounder Brownie Speaks
The Idiot's Guide to Feminism
Imrana
A Cinderella Story
Poetry - A view on literary criticism and poetry.

At the cross-roads

I've been blogging for the past month or so and I went through different phases:
-the craze for reading blogs, commenting on them
-tentatively creating my own blog
-discovering/defining my blog persona
-interacting with other bloggers

My moods during these phases was mostly euphoric, exhilarating and the like. I was pumped up with adrenaline. My expectations of what I wanted to do in the blog world grew (out of proportion of what I could really do). My work did suffer because of my excessive fondness for the new addiction.

However the past couple of days there has been a cooling off of the feelings and I am getting to be more realistic. I know that there is only so much time that I can set aside for this activity. I am now bothered/worried whether I will ever be able to do justice to my blog? Will I continue to post? I certainly want to.

Dear veteran bloggers out there - can you predict the course of this disease?

Talking of veteran bloggers, today I got a comment from the Hiphop Grandma, (it made my day). I visit her blog and get different insights into life. I've wanted to write about her on my blog and today seems the right time to do so. Her tag will be a nice place to enter her blog, to know the kind of person she is. Cheers.

What is Patriotism?

I have been reading a number of posts on patriotism related themes, which raised several questions:
When someone accuses another of "not being patriotic" what does the person mean by patriotism? How does each person view patriotism? Is patriotism even required? And so on...

Have a peep at the diverse opinions on patriotism and add your own perspective to the debate. I for one dont have any definite view on patriotism.
What is patriotism
Why proud to be an Indian
My first brush with patriotism
Measure of Patriotism
Types of patriotism
Progressive patriotism
The virtue of patriotism
My view of Independance Day
Independance Day
Reviving patriotism in India
Edible patriotism? LOL
Celebrating Independence Day
Thoughts on Patriotism With Beer and A Pretty Girl
What Patriotism Means To Me
Quotes on Patriotism:

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched. Guy de Maupassant

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. George Bernard Shaw

Patriotism the last refuge of scoundrels - Samuel Johnson

Note: This is just a random selection of the different views on patriotism, and is not an exhaustive survey of the same.

My Post of the day.

My Blog is getting messy

Rather than update the same post each day, a better idea would be to create new posts each day and post links. Also tweaked the font, to differentiate this from other blogs using the same template. Does it look NEAT?

Mister P has an interesting blog - What good are questions? Here he poses several questions ("mainly inspired by other people's posts" says he). "A wonderful way to know things, to introspect", says I. He also gives links to the posts which inspired his questions.
Want to see a sample question? Here goes: How much self-discipline do any of us actually have? And where do we get it if we don't have enough? This actually brings me to another interesting blogger L.Tart (she signs herself as L>T - did she forget to release the shift key while signing? *smiles*) whose post triggered the above questions.
Acknowledgements to Thinking Girl, for I reached this (Mister P's) site from the comments on her blog - chronicles of a feminist philosopher.

Latest Updates


This post primarily lists blogs that I've visited recently and found to be interesting. The entries on this post are updated frequently with the latest additions appearing at the top.

My earlier attempt to keep all the updates is making the post too long and the updates are also hid below other later posts. So I had to resort to creating new posts to keep the latest contents on top.

Reinforcement I haven't really visited any new blogs today. One blog which I thought had not been earlier stressed upon earlier was that of FTN - his Fade to Numb, looks at husband-wife relationships and the like taking as example his own experiences. I've enjoyed reading the content as well as his style of writing; I recommend a one time visit to atleast see what is there.

New blogs on my radar
"Two women and a man - a love triangle?" - "not necessarily", says Itching to write blogs - wow, what a name!
ABCD is a theme that has been written about in books and captured in 'crossover' movies. Here I had a glimpse of the emotions, thoughts, values and conflicts of an Indian girl growing up in the US - introspective posts.

Homosexuality - should be kept under the wraps? A rather controversial topic still. What do some bloggers have to say on this issue? A random collection of links from My blogworld:

Caveat - some of the content may not appeal to all, and might hurt your sensibility

• Madura gives her impressions on Awareness of Homosexuality.
  
• Prash discusses the concept of civil-unions (PACS) in France. Also read the comments following this post - has a debate on this issue.


Prash's post lead me on a trail to other blogs that discuss homosexuality as well as feminism.

• Thinking Girl's blog is the most comprehensive site on feminism that I have seen. She seems to have a wide variety of interests - feminism, human rights and philosophy, to name a few. She has also hosted her stuff on blogspot.
  
• A.S., has written about his coming to terms with his sexuality on his blog Unrestrained Verbosity. A.S. is a geneticist by profession and has posts on Genetically Modified Organisms and the Reservation System in India.
  

In search of your destiny? Lost your way somewhere in between? Mikee has a motivational post on Talents, achievements and destiny. The comments that follow are probably in Filipino.

Want to know how little kids (1st graders) complete well-known proverbs? A sample:
Don't change horses..... until they stop running. Want to see more?

Frida's Classes on Creative Writing start today!

Independance day away from home! The feeling of being Indian is felt on days like the Independance day, but this sense is very much heightened in persons who live away from home. On Independance Day, 30in2005 gives a nostalgic account of what it feels like to be an Indian in a foreign land.

Appreciation of Art, music or poetry. How does one judge art, music, poetry or any such domain where the subjectivity of opinion is high? How do you say whether a work of art or poetry is great or terrible? I dont know, but I read a post followed by a set of comments on appreciation of poetry that was illuminating. Maybe you too could also add to the discussion by adding to the comments.

To be anonymous or not Raman has raised the issue of Anonymity in the Blog world. Do you have an opinion - you could express it - anonymous or other wise. LOL. Raman too is fast becoming a prolific blogger with one good post every day.

Have you been tagged? Well I was! I played along and later I tagged others; Shikha was one among them - and today finally she has done it. Looking at her responses, I'd like to hide my tag where no one can see it. :) She has taken time to respond but her answers are well worth the wait - see Shikha' Tag.

Chanced upon this blog today - contains many sketches - Though I quite liked them I am not able to make anything out of it - can you?

New blog I visited today was Sridhar's - appears to be techie blog - but his writing is of a general nature. If you want to know or want to say what the future of technology/business is likely to be - have a look.

Raman has made a good case as to Why people should blog. If there are any of you who are just passive readers see if you are convinced.


The_outsider, the reluctant blogger ;), is turning out to be a revelation - he has posted 3 posts between August 7 and today, and each of his posts is no mean effort. His posts explore relationships in a changing society, that makes the reader to introspect, and, raises several issues for debate.


Dog/pet lovers about? Well you ought to dedicate a site for their cause; take a leaf out of Mosilager aka Ranjit's Blog - BooBoo, Ginga, and the World of Dogs and make a site for your pet. I, rather I should say that we too (our entire family) are dog lovers. It has been our longtime wish to write a bedtime stories and fairy tales book for dogs. LOL

Have any of you heard of the phrase "licking one's chops"? If you are curious, see someone licking his chops here.

Have you been troubled by a sleeping fellow passenger? Peej recounts an incident, Falling asleep on the bus, with his characteristic style.

Meanwhile Rohini's Division of Labour, has become a runaway hit, with the comments pouring in from both quarters. Dont miss the comments! LOL.

Real Quickies Tamilgirl has a prolific output and produces real quickies. However her blog does not support comments. :( In this context I'd like to mention another blackhole blog [of inquisitive akka]; comments go in, but nothing comes out! It upsets me, even though I know it is not my right to expect responses. :(

Experience Capsules - Have you heard of it? I googled for the term and couldn't get any information on it. Raman in his latest post introduces a concept - The Experience Capsule - for bringing a person upto scratch in any given domain. Interesting idea.

Flash news!
I had earlier visited Ammani's blogs, but did not read in detail. Her cooking blog already features on this blog. She is a prolific writer and produces what she calls as Quick tales. I made a discovery on her blog - she has a novel feature My Dear, where you could write to anyone, real or imaginary, which she posts on Letters for All. I would love to post her message here, but first I should get her permission for it. Please definitely have a look at Ammani's blog for more details.

No new blogs visited today (August 10, 2006); but I explored Madura's blog; there are quite a few things that one can learn about sexual intercourse. She dispels quite a few misconceptions and myths, held by a conservative society, in her series on sex education. A must read for members of both sex. Being an ignoramus myself, I can't vouch for the accuracy of her statements, however, my personal opinion is that the posts 'ring true'.

A link in the tag connection, Pauline, writes her Thoughts in Verses.

Out_sider has outdone himself in this post on the Family Puzzle. Thought provoking and humorous.

My latest acquaintance is PeeJ. He writes well. He aspires to be a writer, if not already one. Correct me if I am wrong, PeeJ. Here is a quote from his blog:
Life is a one act play, no rehearsals, no encores. An audience of millions, but only one player, one lead. No prompts, and one solid review at the end so make it a good one.

On Comments and responses


I spend my time on the net, browsing blogs, reading people's view, contributing my own views where I think I can. During these excursions, It gives me immense pleasure, if any of my comments is responded to. This post is to acknowledge those repliers. :)
Shikha requires special mention for her lengthy replies. Then would be Rohini- who acknowledges info given and also replies. Brownie, Marginalien and 30in2005 do reply w/o fail to all the comments. All the others are one time repliers who make a token reply to acknowledge my visit. Of course, then there is Madura, who gives a single reply for all the individual comments, but this shortcoming is made up for by the length of the comments.
The thrillers are the comments on my own page by totally unknown persons! Peej is one such person.
Thanks to all you repliers! :)

Tagged

I've been tagged! By outsider! I now feel that I really belong to the blog-world. Thanks outsider!!

To be totally truthful - I didn't get down to responding at once. Kept putting it off... now its more than a day since I got tagged.

I am thinking about…
How I am going to answer. Do I want it to be deep, philosophical, well thought out etc or should I just jump into answering?
Finally decided to trust my instincts.

I want to…
never have to work, ever. Actually I always seem to love a job(from outside), until I start working on it, after which I start hating it. Confusing? To put it positively, I want to find a dream job, where I'll be happy ever after.

I wish…
- I was more disciplined in life
- I was more organised
- I was more assertive
- I was more ...

I hear…
nothing. (That was a tough one, couldn't think of anything.)

I wonder…
what happened to the once-upon-a-time me. I dont recognize myself now.

I regret…
what I am now and what I could have been :( My life is one big regret. On a second reading of this I feel that life couldn't be better!!


I am…
argumentative. I take the opposite view-point just for the sake of arguing, even if I don't endorse that view - much to the annoyance of my near and dear.

I dance…
under threat of death.
sometimes when I am alone

I sing…
to the annoyance of all my family members. Official Cacophonix amongst my cousins

I cry…
very often, for all reasons, happiness, gratitude, sorrow and any number of other reasons.


I am not always…
what I seem to be.


I make with my hands…
my bed

I write…
- compulsively, in a reactive mode, seldom in a proactive manner.

I confuse…
others with my ideas

I need…
a BREAK. I wanna get away from everything for a while and get my perspective of life right.


And finally…
its done! That was tough answering. And I couldn't come up with famous last words.

Finding people to tag - I could tag only those who visit my blog; so here goes
Whenever any of you drop in here consider yourself tagged!

30in2005
Marginalien
Srini
Frida
Shikha
Mama says so

Whew! I am not for this game again. LOL

This post primarily lists blogs that I've visited recently and found to be interesting. The entries on this post are updated frequently with the latest additions appearing at the top.

My latest acquaintance is PeeJ. He aspires to be a writer, I guess. Here is a quote from his blog:
Life is a one act play, no rehearsals, no encores. An audience of millions, but only one player, one lead. No prompts, and one solid review at the end so make it a good one.

The Tag connection It started with a tag by Rohini, who passed it on to Outsider, who in turn tagged me. I passed the tag on to Frida. Now the tag has passed to QuillDancer to Old Fart to Rob and finally to Holly. During its travel the tag has crossed several different interest groups and would probably reach back. Lets see what happens. :) Incidentally all the above blogs are good reads, so please visit them.

How frank can one get? Most self-descriptions in the blogger profiles are vague or are couched in philosophical tones. The blogger profile of Madura was direct and forthright; I liked it. It seemed to be in direct contrast to my own philosophy of anonymity and diplomacy. Madura turns out to be a good writer too, with flair for humor and irony. Here's a sample - Couple conversation. Men/Women in love dont miss it. :)
Hey since my first visit a few hours ago, I've explored Tamizhachchi's blog, and it lives up to its title Learning by Living!

News for Foodies! Visit Ammani's Chai pani. The name is misleading as it covers a wide variety of Indian (South indian) cooking with occassional continental modifications. And none of the fancy stuff mind you - all recipies are for food that you eat daily.

Relationship blogs This blog was a chance discovery: Fade to Numb. Describes itself as Marriage, kids, God, sex, life, liberty, and the pursuit of good pizza. Plus, first 100 readers win a free waffle maker!. By an american (US) male - explores the above topics from a first person perspective. Has a set of links on the same topics. Do you remember your first kiss? Well FTN recounts (a rollicking account) his first kiss here. A link from his site - I am a sexual being - an american woman's perspective. Worth having a look at. Hopping around from Fade to Numb's blog, I found a set of links which were loosely referred to as relationship blogs, they all discuss relationships, sex and marriage, from an american perspective. Caution: Some of these blogs are fairly explicit.

Have you raised a kid?
If yes, here's an opportunity to relive those days. If no, here's a sample of what to expect. Mama says so captures the trials and triumphs, travails and pleasures, and dilemmas and decisions of raising children in today's world.
Do you want to see the gory side of nursery rhymes? Leaves you wondering if nursery rhymes are suitable for consumption by children!

My blog network? It is rare that we meet persons who share a similar set of ideas across a variety of things. Surprise! Surprise!! Today (Aug 3) I met my kin or soulmate (The_Outsider) in the blogworld and it made my day!!! I was amazed that the attitudes and opinions expressed in that blog were so similar that, the blog could have been mine ghost-written by someone else (I am not that expressive) :)
And another pleasant experience was the reply of Shikha on her blog encouraging me to post.

Here is the latest tickler from Sidin.

I came across a blog by chance and there was a nice post on Fanatics, Followers and Seculars. Provided a different POV to the topic. His other posts also provided a different POV to several aspects of life. Interesting and worth a visit.

Recently I've frequented the blog of 30in2005. Interesting nick. Her post on Evolution of post makes for interesting reading. Incidentally, her site would be a favourite for a gourmand. See her mouth-watering recipe for Butter Chicken.

An interesting link at this point in time is Frida's Classes on Creative Writing, which is to start on August 16, 2006. Frida has included a number of useful links to resources on writing.

After the initial euphoria of having a blog, I entered into a lag phase, wherein nothing happened visibly. During this time, I was foraging through other blogs and enjoying myself. The visible effect of this was to be able to identify and provide links to some very interesting blogs (links are provided in the side-bar). This has also led me to interact with some of the bloggers through comments, which I find is a pleasurable duty.

For the moment I am content doing just this; I've decided to let the blog grow on its own, without me imposing any conditions as to how it should be.

Hi Folks,

I am a compulsive reader turned TV-Addict turned blog-manic. I have this yen for ingesting - visual, aural and literary (for want of a suitable word for writing that stimulates) stimuli. I created this blog primarily to be able to read AND comment on the blogs that I visit. This gives me a persona in cyber-space.

I love discussions - from simple gossip to more serious discussions. I hope that this blog space can be used for such chats by other bloggers, rather than clutter their blog-space on matters not directly connected with their original posts. On discussions... I've found that the discussion thread in the comments following give a lot of new ideas and are as much worth reading as the original post.

I also plan to make a directory of blogs that I visit and make a rudimentary classification.

Thanks for visiting - if you are a blogger please leave your url in the comments of the latest post, so that I may get to your blog.

Comments closed on this post - if you have any comments please add them to the latest post.