I would like it green

Experience vs. Skills

2008-12-15T02:40:00.000-08:00

How does one judge if a writer is good or not. I guess judging this in writing is much easier than in any other field.

I am new to the field of technical writing, relatively new. I would be wrong if I say that I am extremely good at writing. I have a cumulative experience of 2 years working as a Technical writer. How does a country produce good writers, isn’t it by encouraging the seasoned writers to give these writers a chance?

I read the opportunity for the TWIN e-book on one of baby forums. I was excited just to see and understand the lifecycle of this opportunity. I noticed the project on the 8th of December, and I think I was late in replying by the 10th. I am a part of the TWIN-India portal since 1 year but did not receive the mail and could not be a part of this beautiful project. I was disappointed not to be a part of this but excited that the aim of the project was to help combine a humongous collection of articles.

The project posted and the team was to produce this. The team has put in great efforts to get this product out in the open. It is a great read and nicely done. I really appreciate the patience and efforts put in by the team.

My disappointments though remain that not many young writers were involved in this project. This could have benefited many writers had they got an opportunity to participate. This would be a learning opportunity for many, meeting many experienced writers. Being among people like Guru, Anindita, Swaminathan Moorthy, and many more. They could have learned many writing tricks and tips.

I wish the team would have made this oppurtnity more visible and approachable. The only thing writers like me can expect is another golden opportunity like this where assistance is desired. I look forward to being part of the TWIN team in the future.

My sources of Motivation

2008-12-15T01:49:00.000-08:00

As a human, I do have times when I feel extremely down. You might have felt sometimes that nothing is working in my favor. It might happen that you get a bashing from your boss and your father on the same day. And to top it all, you might fall ill the next day. It happens to me at least once every month that I start cursing myself and the steps I have taken in life. I curse the choices I have made and rather than contemplating, I start accusing and blaming people and my surroundings for the kind of person I am

I am in no way a “NO” person but of course every YES person has a no day. There are days when I consider my self really lucky. I am lucky to have a good boyfriend, good parents, a great career, and many more such not so worldly reasons. But what do I do when I am extremely depressed?

I open my browser, turn to Google for help and type “I am depressed what should I do?” No kidding that is what I do. Of all the people, I only trust Google in helping me fight back. And yes, Google does.

Here are a few Web sites that I resort to when I want to feel motivated, get a jumpstart, or just feel good about myself.

Motivation 1 -

This site by Leo is a complete boost of action items. It has various help yourself posts that you can apply in your life and achieve more. I like to read his financial posts and health posts. I really get a high out of the health ideas and simple exercise routines that he throws at us.

Motivation 2 -

This great site not only has articles to read and be inspired but it also has loads of indexes that can keep you glued. It might be a motivational overdose but it’s worth it. I enjoy the motivational articles and the positive thinking index.

Motivation 3 -

Sometimes a one liner can lift your spirits as quickly as a one page article. This is one of the sites where a single quote speaks volumes.

Motivation 4 -

This has a collection of Web sites offering different options to choose from. Though this site is not on the top of my list, I do visit it when all my options are exhausted.

I do sometimes tend to take motivation from people around me. Then there are less fortunate ones who would be much happier than I am, had they been in my situation. But alas, contentment is not a human quality.

Tale of two (Intelligent?) girls (Anmol and Shambhavi)

2008-12-14T23:36:00.000-08:00

I am a regular viewer of MTV. As an everyday activity, I was flicking through channels and I landed on MTV when Roadies was playing. I like Raghu because of the sheer spontaneity that he has. I think that is the sole strength, which takes him one step ahead of every person he interviews. It is his aura and his confidence-exuding eyes that stun everyone to silence.

After the praises for Raghu, I was still watching him on MTV, seeing him rip every participant apart with his wit. The Bangalore roadies selection episode ended. Since by the end of this show, my expectations from MTV were highly raised, I thought of giving the show GTALK a chance.

Okay, so we have Anmol and Shambhavi (ex-roadies) doing a show. Pretty faces and skimpy clothes, fair enough, I like seeing beautiful faces. After that part of the TRP game is over, I was looking for the content and the script of the show. I just wanted to know that do you guys have a script for this show, or is it the normal talks that these girls really have.

At one point on the show, they are glorifying the fact that exercising and having healthy food is just a fashion excuse and that you should NOT be doing these. Another time, Anmol mentions how actresses’ don’t actually do that but they do get surgeries done. The only response she actually gets from Shambavi is “Exactly”. After saying all this, the girls feel kids should be waxing at the age of 11. That is brilliant content.

I might not be an expert at this subject of why did MTV ever think of having this show. If fashion gossips and how to be popular is what is intended out of this show, why not bring up people who are more accessible and not made up. I am an average Indian girl and when I see Raghu I feel I can be like him (as in the traits and confidence). But when I see these girls, it just makes me feel all the more bad that this is not the MTV we always had.

The day of Shenaz (MTV most wanted), Rahul (MTV select), Maria Goretti, Nikhil (who is a special appearance only on MTV now) are all gone and the replacements are not quite great. I understand that getting good people is difficult, but please replace not good people with flash animations. It’s definitely more interesting.

I appreciate all the spunk with Raghu brings and will always be a loyal roadie fan. Thank you, if you have read till the end and not scraped itJ.

Mouse surprise

2008-12-10T22:54:00.000-08:00

Necessity is the father of invention. This saying is absolutely true and who knows might be the reason that the world of computer mouse is becoming extinct. I still remember when my first computer was bought home. It was quite a celebration with all the pooja and all to welcome the new member of our family.

But the only thing that intrigued me was this small handy thing with just 3 buttons. Much to my amazement, it made me wonder how the whole world of a keyboard could be shattered and controlled. I loved it the moment I set my eyes on it. To cut this nostalgia short, today’s world has replaced the much adored gadget with touch screens.

I am not quite a fan of the touch pad on laptops and still bank on my mouse for navigation ease. I thought of strolling to the gadget store for a USB mouse, and was surprised to such limited options. I could see a large variety in Web cameras but the mouse was still black, still huge, and still boring.

That is when I though i need to research if there are really any good looking mice for this cat ( hmmm..dnt take the other meaning). The research found the following results -

1) Piggy mouse

Who wants a piggy surprise to click away to glory? This weird looking thing can work great -

2) Heart mouse

Well what more can an ailing heart ask for -

3) Insect embedded surprise

Do you want a kinky surprise every time you click ?

There are many such weird computer mouse that you can find here. See them and I wonder, when will I get one of those.

Using twitter as a marketing tool

2008-12-10T22:49:00.000-08:00

Social networking has changed the way the world communicates. I have been a regular orkut user and so have many other social people. In my quest of being a social animal, I can only rate twitter as the most convenient form of networking. A maximum of 140 words is what twitter gives you to express yourself. It is mind boggling to look and search in your vocabulary for the perfect word to replace “you know I am doing absolutely nothing today".

The first time I logged into twitter, the first person I followed was Tom Johnson. It’s quite weird that how every time someone followed me, it was like an achievement. I would be overwhelmed to see someone tweet back at me. I wont use too much of the lingo since that would only mean less viewership .

It is only through digging deeper that I found that twitter can very well be used, and in fact is being used by many, as a marketing tool. Since my organization is not into the league of small and medium scale businesses that use this as a medium to advertise their work, it can be a potentially untapped marketing tool to reach a larger mass.

Even though the kind of clientele that my organization caters to is much a miss of a small tool like twitter, our marketing researchers can better understand how to utilize this tool to the maximum. After saying all this, my main aim on twitter still remains having maximum tweeple follows me. Stupid as it may seem, that is all I can think about even when I am typing this post.

If this small thing called twitter too intrigues you, you may find this post quite useful and informative.