Youmint.com deletes my account finally

You signed up for youmint.com. Imported your contacts from gmail or Orkut and sent invites to your friends. Suddenly, your friends start screaming at you 'What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you sending the same youmint invite 10 times!' Shock laga?
I was stunned too when a few of my friends started mailing me inquiring why I was spamming them.

So I promptly wrote to all the mail ids listed in their 'contact us' page and asked them to delete my account; there is no option on youmint.com to delete your account. Somebody did call me from youmint and assured me that the spamming will stop. But it didn't. So I lost my patience and blogged about it. And, that post now comes up in the first results page on Google when you search for youmint.com or youmint.

:-) and their top boss one Mr. Ankush called and spoke to me. Today I received a mail from them saying that my a/c has been deleted. Ankush also promised to add to their FAQ list on 'how to delete my youmint account'

I'll have to admit that folks at youmint are quite serious about customer care but it'd have been better if only they had paid attention to design. That's another story.

P.S. youmint.com whois

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Five years of blogging

Feels like I ate a Bata shoe. But then again, this whole blogging thing has been good for me. I met a lot of interesting people. Made friends with quite a few of them. I am on the verge of getting published in the MSM. Hmmm. Sigh. It is not all that bad. Why do people like metaphors? I mean, if you are a girl, and I told you 'You look great' you'd probably say 'thanks' But if I told you 'You look as fresh as a dew drop' you will probably kiss me. Ever wondered why? Here is my take:

1) Your brain evolved to defeat camouflage and discover objects. Discovery is great fun for us.
2) So when I throw a metaphor at you, your brain is decoding the metaphor and discovering what it means to you. And when you discover that it is a compliment, it is like finding a pack of smokes while cleaning up your attic (as against walking up to the store and buying a pack.)
Read the first line of this post again. :-) V.S Ramachandra Vaazgha!

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Saket has a magic mirror

Read this and wondered why he did a Shilpa Shetty. Now I know. He has a magic mirror at home. No, no, 'does a Shilpa Shetty' does not mean he did her. Take a look at him; he himself wanks off blindfolded I think, leave alone someone sleeping with him. I can ask our apartment watchman if he is interested. He is almost blind. Gaurav, would you be interested?

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A little bit of madness

I wanted to know what it is to live without money in the city. So, I took bath at Central station, survived on prasadam at Kapaleshwarar temple at Mylapore and slept the night on the pavement of Whites Road at Royapettah. Wanted to do this for two days but gave up after the first day.[...more]

Wow. How boring this world will be if not for the mad ones?

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IndiBloggies

I am sure a software engineer from some institute like Mangaathha Institute of Technology is behind the scheme and design of this year's IndiBloggies. I hope it is someone I don't know.
I have a question for whoever designed it: dear designer, do you think users like me with the IQ of a physically handicapped, senile Cockroach, will go through your 5-step process and nominate a blog? If the answer is yes, then I am Brad Pitt and Sehwag is not fat.

It'd have made better sense if you had used a survey form.

To rub it in, they have a poll on 'Is this nomination process easy?' It is like saying 'excuse me' before thrusting a stick up my ass. I like the other awards but I don't want to win them. Thank you.

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Shobhan Saxena on Bloggers

Everyone has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege. There are a lot of people who are sick and tired of having to eke their way through life. A lot of people are sick of being nobody. A lot of people's lives have been reduced to inconsequential chatter with their inconsequential friends. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions and their lives a second-hand mimicry of others' life. Such people form groups, stick together and find comfort in each others' miseries.[Click for more comedy by Shobhan]

I agree. Every one has a right to be stupid.
In Telugu there is a saying that goes 'road lo poye paamuni guddalo doorchukovatam.' It means catching a snake and shoving it up your... you know? Yeah.

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NDTV Interviews Ravages

I don't know if it was my post or serendipity or providence but Alaphia chose to interview Ravages!

Most journalists seem to have a problem with the possessive noun and pronoun. Hm.

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BlogCamp Humour: BMK

On Sunday afternoon this dude started the session off with these immortal words:
"Can you imagine a Bollywood without the big B? Can you imagine a Kollywood without Mr. Shivaji Ganesan? Can you imagine a BlogCamp without Kiruba Shankar?"
sycophancy is cool in Tamilnadu. They built a temple for Khushbu a few years back, remember? So unfrown. But a blogger having such a fan following is amazing. I am sure the dude who uttered those immortal words has tattooed Kiruba's name on various locations in his body. No, I am positive. So, here is my suggestion to kribs: start a political party now. Strike the iron when it is hot and all that. I have a name for the party too. BMK. Blogger Munnetra Kazhagam. We'll call the volunteers of this party BJs. No not what you are thinking Chandru. Blog Jockeys!
What say?

Off-topic: Thanks Jace for those wonderful pictures!

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Blogcamp Humour: Interview with a blogger

We felt left out that NDTV and CNN-IBN refused to acknowledge our presence. We were hoping some channel would give some air time, our moment of glory, youknowwhatIamsaying? But nada. Nothing. Alaphia of NDTV interviewed Kribs. We tried capturing her attention by hovering around when the interview was going on but she ignored us. Alaphia, you look better in person or is it the new hairdo? See! We can be nice people! Please show us on TV next time.
The desperate among us used innovative attention-grabbing techniques. Ravages, tried this but couldn't wank an interview out of this effort. Better luck next time bro.

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BlogCamp Humour: Evil FothaMuckas @ Blogcamp

Nilu, Anand, Ravages and me.
And yeah, there's Neha too. I am not gonna say who is Nilu because I know quite a few of you will crop his face, print it out, and do unmentionable things to it. I have never seen so much compassion and love oozing out of a single guy as Nilu. Gosh! I wanna cry now.
On Saturday evening at the beachhouse, there was this particular fellow that was hitting on Ravages. And how? By asking Ravages 48 times within half hour, 'did you have dinner?' The dude was pissed drunk and displayed amazing grit in logging on to Ravages.

At the 49th time, Ravages lost it and told the guy 'WTF man? Go get a life.'

And a blanket of silence swooped in on us. We could hear the waves crash against the porous shore. Somewhere a Gull let out a shrill call. A matin call? The stalker shifted his feet and shook his head to clear the demons that alcohol had created in his head. I thought he was going to mount Ravages right there, but as always he said, 'Oh, er, okay that's fine did you eat but? And if you want to help me, you can also join me in asking people around if they ate? hic?'
And I fell on the floor laughing.
More such incidents will be recounted on this blog shortly. Ravages, manchiko maamey.

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Every blog has its day

Chenthil has passed the judgment. Kribs does not deserve to be a top blogger.
Senthil said "He does run marathons, he does organise blog meets, agreed. And he did organise a donation drive after the Tsunami. But that doesn't make him a great blogger." All right, so tell us dude, what makes a great blogger?
By trying to debunk the myth about Kribs you have actually made him more popular.

I am not a big fan of Kribs' writing. But, he has other enviable skills. He is a great PR man. He has tremendous energy. He runs marathons. He jumps at an opportunity to volunteer in times of disaster. He likes to learn up new stuff and pass it on. That's what probably made him popular. All right, he does goof up every once in a while with his facts etc. But Chenthil you don't pay to read him, so you don't have to get your knickers in a twist over Kribs being the top blogger. Yawn. You need to watch some funny stuff:
Balayya on YouTube. Relax my man. Every blog has its day.

That said- yaawnnn- you don't have to be a great writer to be a blogger. That's the whole point isn't it? It is about citizen participation. Blogging is not a literary or media movement. It is grassroots bro. It is personal. It allows me to write sh*t without too much hassle: click and boom, you are published. And, and, and it is free too!

If you don't like a blog, stop reading it. I don't read some blogs that biz school boys write! Me thinks they are a bunch of condescending pricks. So I don't read them.

So, who according to me is the best blogger? I think the Torpedos are a couple of bad a$$ bloggers. They write sh*t that'd make a saint go rape a puppy. They are fun. But then again, hey, that's just me.
We got my man the Madman. He is a deadly combination of stinging sarcasm and eye-opening intelligence. Yeah.
There is this dude who runs unganisha.org. I think he is an awesome story teller. I could list more but I am bored right now.
I'll leave you all with a quote from a Creative Director of HTA I met years back in Chennai. I met him because I wanted a junior writer's job. So, our man showed me his latest press campaign and asked me what I thought of the idea. I told him that it was ordinary. He told me "Opinions are like a$$ holes. Everyone has one. What comes out of it is shit."
And I told him 'Touch�!'



Of course I didn't get the job you #@#@%!

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Blogcamp 2006

What: This barcampish event will be INDIA�S BIGGEST & THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE blog event ever conducted. This event will aim to push the bar way up. There will be exclusive tracks for blogging, podcasting and videocasting.
The unconference will be a rich mixture of workshops, practical demos, presentations, interactive quizzes, lectures, iron-man challenges, debates, group discussions and games. This event will be global in nature as arrangements will be made for participants from around the world can participate via video conferencing. Not to mention live blogging, webcasting and podcasting of all the sessions.[learn more]

When: 9th and 10th September 2006
Where: Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai

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Hit your kid to punish your enemy

When I was in sixth class, a Chettiar family lived next door. Husband, wife, and a kid. He was a bright kid all right, but he was always nervous. The kid's mother fought with everyone: the ghee vendor, the newspaper guy, the neighbors, her husband, the ration shop clerk... and she always vented her anger by beating the sh*t out of her kid.
what aachi, where is the payment? It's been two months!' The ghee vendor would scream, standing outside her door.
She would storm into her house, a mighty frown creasing her turmeric laden face. The kid would be sleeping, as he would be tired after eight hours of school. She would drag the frail boy out. Make him take off his shirt and she would start slapping him (sometimes she used a cane too) all over his dark, hairy body. Yeah, the kid was hairy trust me. The ghee vendor would leave in exasperation.

That is exactly what our government is doing. Husbands are cheating on their wives? Ban the dance bars. Terrorist strike? Ban blogs. No sh*t.

Blogspot is still being blocked by many ISPs. I use BSNL at home and I could access blogspot sites. At work, however, I am not able to access blogspot. Probably we don't use BSNL. A Financial Express article claims that the Indian government ordered ISPs to block the following sites:

�? hinduunity.org
�? hinduhumanrights.org
�? princesskimberley.com
�? bloodspot.com
�? dalitstan.org
�? clickatell.com
�? blogspot.com
�? geocities.com
�? typepad.com

Some influential voices think that these kind of measures are required to nullify the schemes of terrorists. Who said we are a soft state? Look at what we did now. Ha. I think we need to shut down web mail too so that they can't e-mail each other. And, and, um shut down mobile phone networks (oh well, they ban themselves anyway during emergencies and call it 'high traffic')? Shut down all TV channels? Shut down radio? Stop all flight, train services? Rename our country to China? No, let's call ourselves Pakistan, what say? That will confuse the terrorists too. They will be confused between Pakistan and Pakistan. 'Um, which one is giving us the Lamb chops and the dough? Is it Pak or is it Pak?'

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Blogspot back on air

Phew! Thank god. Someone, somewhere must have realized they pulled the wrong plug. But look at what we did within a few hours!

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Question to cosmos

Is blogspot down?
(has it been compromised by a hacker? Or, has Google decided to kill its darlings? Or is it just me?)

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Dell Starts Blogging

http://one2one.dell.com/

Robert Scoble says: [quote]By the way, I agree with Andy Lark that we should be nicer to new companies that try the bloggy Web. At least give them a couple of weeks to get settled into their new homes before we start lobbing rocks through their front windows. Of course, I doubt anyone will listen to me because these companies came into the bloggy Web so late that the mob isn�t gonna automatically be nice the way they were to me three years ago.[unquote]

I disagree. Come on! We are not talking of blogging by a primary school teacher from a remote village. We are talking about a technology leader.

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