staying.cool

i’ve jumped.

from half to full.

i’m not talking about cups. or bandwagons. or jacks. or pogo-sticks. or any other random association you might make.

the fact that you’re reading this sentence in your reader, should give you a clue.

i’ve read more than a few posts, such as this, and this, this, this, this, this, this [i assume you get the idea now]; all of which play devils advocate on the topic of partial RSS vs full RSS feeds. you have those who prefer to have a summary so they can decide, those who believe some kind of freedom is being affected, talk about the possibility of spamming, and those who talk of advertising advantages. now, i personally don’t mind clicking through on a partial feed (especially given a fx extension that lets me do it in reader direct), and more than a few spammy pings convinced me a few years ago to switch into partial feeds as well. recently, i have even started putting in custom summaries [see how much i love you guys?].

i do mind having my content stolen by spammers [eg: right here].. even if only a few people read it in the first place but, i’m going to suck it up, and no, this is not because i read a lot of posts about how people don’t read partial feeds as much. at all.

i have currently enabled full feeds for everything in this blog, if you do a ‘refresh’ in reader for my feed, you should see it take effect. this is not a momentous occasion, though i’m trying my best to make it feel like one

man, do i make a big hoo-ha about the most random of things..

update: “random of things”?! and not one of you said a thing? damn, damn, damn, damn..

once upon a time, long long ago, in blogland… a misguided soul was misguided enough (obviously) to appreciate other souls who, well.., blogged.

because this is what is done in blogland. you blog.

now the misguidance of our aforementioned soul was true misguidance. it wasn’t guidance under a false name, false address and fake social security number. this is was real, hardcore, full-blown misguidance. (note: that most of those adjectives have ulterior meaning has not escaped my attention. the reason will follow soon.)

and so, as is to be expected, the bloglanders (not bloggers, you poor misguided unfortunate souls)… well one of them anyway was jerk enough to ignore the appreciation. and ignore the ensuing sacrilegious booing that followed. he was a jerk. such people do not deserve awards, or even appreciation.

even when it comes as a result of misguidance.

however, people can change. even in blogland. this bloglander was shown the error of his ways. suffice to say it did not involve unspeakable things to do with transformers, electronics, and other… toys. it did not involve cream and jell-o and other… items. there was some beating around the bush (figuratively, not literally), some turning of the tables (again, figuratively) and some possibly undoable actions involving… blogging.

*shudder* (note whether in pain or in pleasure is left out due to a discerning audience)

the error has been seen. the light has shone down, and angels have sung.

i shall officially accept galadriel’s brilliante weblog premio award (awarded to me roughly a month ago). i understand that acceptance construes bestowing it ahead on another 7 of my ilk.*

this is not easy. i am not sure that 7 people exist who (a) follow this blog regularly, and (b) have not previously received it (y’see, it would be nice to have others see the light), and (c) it involves some amount of my appreciating others. i have seen the light, yes… but this step actually involves coming into the light.

the actual award(ing) function shall hence happen in a second post. it means i get to drag this out a bit more; clearly, a month is too short a timespan. and of course, if there are people who believe they should receive it (you and you don’t count.. not because you haven’t received it, but because i am still a little bit of a jerk), by all means, leave a comment. it means i will get another comment for my blog posts. score.

*and since it is galadriel, the usage of the above adjectives can be understood. if not, see here. and here. and here. and… you get the idea now, right? no? how dumb are you? i refuse to have anything more to do with you. go on, get off my blog. click the close button on top. dum dum, navigate away from here now! i can’t be seen with you on my page. go away.**
**no, actually, wait. please wait. please please. you are actually reading my blog. don’t go. please. i will give you an award. right now. a BWPA. its awesome. you get to post about it and everything. its brilliante. its an award. you’re not dumb. you’re brilliante. me, i’m just a jerk. what do i know? don’t listen to me. leave a comment. have an award. don’t leave. please?

oh, and before i forget, thank you, galadriel. very much. see ? i’ve improved even more.

Everyone seems to have an ‘About Me’, or and ‘About this blog’ page. While I’ve always found them interesting; I’ve never bothered to write one. I hate those kinda questions: “Write 5 lines about yourself”. In a virtual sense, its crap. I could be Superman’s real alter ego, not that ultra-geek Clark; and you’d not know the difference. Which reminds me, when you look like Clark, why wouldn’t girls fall over you ? And would everyone not know you were Superman ?

As obvious as the hint may sound above, I’m not gay. I’m not interested in knowing how to inflate organs to superhuman sizes either; I think they would eventually get to be a bit of an embarrassment. This fact is lost on spammers however.

The person behind this blog is someone I’m still discovering. To the world, I’m Satish Easwar Viswanath, or SEV. Professionally, engineer, medical physicist and student. Wannabe traveller - I’ve lived in the UAE, India, the UK and (currently) the US. I’m currently confused about how best to describe myself, so I’ll randomly point out some likes/dislikes and crap that you might like to know about me. I believe that’s the point of this page anyway.

I have been an Anglophile from the time I learnt the meaning of the word (around the age of 6). Towards this end, I have cultivated a near maniacal obsession with English grammar, and a rather underused ability to write. Other interests include music in any form, movies of any kind in any language, books (once again, something I stopped counting at age 6). Books can be extended to include “anything that can be read”, and I’ve been known to spend time reading ‘Rules and Regulations of sitting in the bus’, when I’ve had nothing else. Comics are developing into a passion.
Techstuff (esp related to computers) is one of the focal points in passing my time, and trivia of any kind is another. As an example, I have actually watched the 35 hours advertised on the Matrix 10 DVD box set. It’s actually 36 hours and 10 minutes, not including bathroom breaks. I have next to watch the LOTR extended “making”, having sat through the 12-odd hours of the three movies.

In other news, I’m a cusp of Aquarius and Capricorn (or should that be Capri and Aquarius ?); which is another way of saying I’m one amongst the 23 types of people in this world ? Photography would be a passion if I let it be, but my major character trait of faineance has precluded many such activities. I also love complicating my sentences. I have been known be acidly caustic on extended occasion, and hate mornings, the common cold, stupidity and spam.

This blog was fashioned due to a few too many free afternoons in a lab, boredom in doing some assignments, and a questioning nature that reared its head once I left home. There used to be a philosophical/introspective streak which you might find in the older posts; but somehow, this ground for thoughts is all that remains. I have moved over various platforms from Blogger, to MyBlogSite, and now plan to stick to Wordpress. This domain is a collaboration with Ubertechnophile, and that happened due to a discussion in the UK about how Google is taking over the Internet.

The following is supposed to identify me to members of a elite community of geeks. I doubt it exists, because geeks are antisocial. I nearly am, but anyway :

—–BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK—–
Version: 3.1
GCS/E/IT/L/MU d-(+)@ s+:- a– C++$ ULC(+++) P+(++) L+(++) !E W++$ N+ o? K w+ !O M+ !V PS>+ !PE !Y PGP->+ t>+ 5>+ X R tv– b+++(++++) DI++++ D++ G++>+++ e+++>++++$ h+ r–>+++ y-
——END GEEK CODE BLOCK——

[Decode]

My bloginality, when I last checked, is INFJ (Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging).
We used to have a photo domain, but now you would find pictorial matter on my Picasa Web.

I try to keep up-to-date with all the blogs listed here, and then some. Please, contact me if you think you should be on this list; or if you want a reciprocal linky.

This is a pretty dynamic page, so don’t be surprised the next time you happen to come here..

i had no idea this happened, but greatbong kinda summarizes anything  i have to say on the topic.

just for comparison, an observation by suyog.

its simple really. sometimes, we indians just suck.

and now, trine is jumping off the blog-cliff.

is it just me, or are the signs pointing the wrong way ?

damn, i’m going to miss these people.

ever since i read marie’s post, i keep going back to why i’m doing this. why am i blogging ? to be absolutely straight about it, this space is nowhere close to what it started out to be.

that it was started due to a few too many free evenings in college; and some inclination towards understanding the basics of web-design might be taken into consideration.

if this was free, then the decision is simple. if it was dirt-cheap; figuring the problem wouldn’t reallly be that much of a problem. its not. neither of the two apply.

can i really analyze this here ? why the hell not ?

i shifted to paid hosting because i wanted my own domain. i wanted to go the next step in webspace evolution. tomorrow will mark one year in the life of this domain. from the looks of it; i’m here for another year. this debate is essentially moot. over the last one year; i’ve seen the advantage of having webspace. its cool. its useful. its happening.

so, i keep the webspace.

now; what do i do with it ?

this blog is nothing like what i started it out like. neither am i.
amazing, wonderful, unique concepts would come to me (lets call them so for the sake of argument)… and i would extoll explanations that made sense to me. i figured out things that had been bothering me for years. then i made it more blog-like. a journal of sorts; but not the type that you regularly write in.

but i keep writing. i like writing. and some of it still makes sense. but i get the feeling my creative streak has been killed.

neither am i cataloguing my life in a way that others are able to. being really honest and all that. inherent character flaw prevents me from doing that. so i’m maintaining a blog, that is as expected, nothing like other blogs. as a blog cannot have definition.

its been good to me though. made friends i couldn’t have otherwise. met some really smart people; some really caring people; and renewed other friendships. discovered a voice inside me that i couldn’t have easily done in such public scrutiny. figured some principles of web development. found some amazing writers who still inspire me.

i don’t always have the inclination to write. i assume that people read what i write; and i try not to make  that the primary consideration. all good.

final point ? there really isn’t any. i’m finding it increasingly difficult to find things to talk about here. x365 does not count; but incidentally, that too is not easy. a noticeable lack of promptness in them might be noticed by people who notice such things.

can i still find things for staying.cool ?
good question.