Archive for the 'Not even a Terminal Junkie' Category

Apr 29 2008

I suppose it was bound to happen…

Published by Melody under Not even a Terminal Junkie

I mean seriously, this is me - Melody, who gets bored with things after a while. How long could I stand the jarring red??!

Well, it was good great for the longest time, but I just looked at ze old blog today & was like OMG, seriously: there’s *waaaay too much color* there.

Remem?

And so, we go colorless-ish. Barring the header, which, yes indeed, is:
(a) sepia &
(b) me (not a photoshopped image, I really did get all dressed up for those pics, long story).

Have no idea for how long we’ll keep it this way. Till we get bored again probably.

Anyway, for all those who’re new fans (yes, we do care about you), here’s what the TVIMH used to look like, early in the day:

Before

Before before

(yes, then it had a different name too, brilliant of you to catch on).

Meanwhile, I haven’t added / edited tons of stuff: tags, links, all the other pages etc. ‘pose will do so eventually. But you know what, I just had to change. And I love the fact the whole exercise took me only a few minutes. Wordpress is brilliantly easy to use & maybe I’ve finally made it upto ‘terminal junkie’ level!

19 responses so far

Apr 17 2008

It’s a BLOGATHON!!

Published by Melody under Not even a Terminal Junkie

(yeah exactly, a marathon of blogging)


(click on image for official site)

These are the topics:

Infrastructure: Sunday, 20th April 2008
How can we improve the traffic condition in our city?

Politics: Monday, 21st April 2008

How do we change the focus of politics from caste/religion to grassroot issues?

Entertainment: Tuesday, 22nd April 2008
Does Bollywood overshadow regional cinema in India?

Media: Wednesday, 23rd April 2008
Why are Indian news broadcast channels not as mature as their International counterparts?

Gender: Thursday, 24th April 2008
What are the challenges that society faces in accepting the concept of alternate sexuality? How can we address them?

Sport: Friday, 25th April 2008
Are ‘media’ and ‘commercial interests’ in cricket the only reason that are killing other sports in India?

All you have to do is decide which topic/s you’re going to blog about, do it on that day & then add these technorati tags to your post blogathonindia, blogathonindia1

I’d also appreciate if the bloggers from Mumbai who’re participating - and there ought to be *LOTS* of us - leave me a comment here with links to your posts.

I’ll be blogging for the Blogathon too & so will cya there! (well, it’s on cyberspace, but you know what I mean ;))

===========

Edit: So, I did not blog for the Blogathon. I was down with Bronchitis for the last week, and well, there’s always next year.

3 responses so far

Feb 20 2008

Losing your life, one post at a time…

My archive section will tell you that this is my oldest post here.

The truth is though, it wasn’t my first blog post ever. One of the early ones on the Indian blogosphere, I started blogging in May of 2002 at Blog-City.com, my url - melody.blog-city.com

Don’t bother going there, because all you’ll find is this:

This is what happened - I was living away from home in those days in a place with no internet access. I used to write all my blog posts in a word document with the correct dates & then copy paste them whenever I got home in my blog on the corresponding dates.

My “system” was really working for me, until one day, I reached home & omg, my blog - and all my blog posts - completely deleted. To my utter dismay I checked my email and found 3 “notices” that had been sent to me in the past month to update, or lose the blog. Since I hadn’t been home in over a month, I, by default, “lost” my blog - and along with it, over two years worth of entries.

Blog-city turned a pay site and lots of others who were regulars, are no longer around. Added negative: I also lost lots of “friends” - like Leah, a young teacher from the UK, who wrote one of the best blogs I read in those days - Ducksecho.blog-city.com. Why “Duck’s echo” ? Yeah, that was the question I first asked her too, before we became online friends who read each other’s blogs. I do hope she’s out there somewhere still blogging, she really is a fabulously funny writer.

As any serious blogger, who’s ever lost any post for whatever reason will tell you, losing a blog post is like losing a part of you. And losing years worth of posts, is like losing a bit of your life. Most of us, I’m guessing, do not go into our archives and read our old posts. But there’s a certain security in just knowing that they’re there, if ever we do feel like reminiscing. Or if we want to double check a date or a fact or to link to something that we felt/went through a long time ago that has some relevance currently.

Saket Vaidya knows what I’m talking about - he lost three and a half years worth of posts. His controversial posts (any of you remember his preference for North Indian women over their South Indian counterparts?!) that wrecked havoc on the Indian blogosphere, his funny posts (like his preference for small breasts! Viva Kate Moss!) and so much more, all gone. To quote him:

“that psychopath is yours truly, and is deeply pained”

Hardik Shah, a new friend, was telling me just yesteday of his similar woes he faced pre 2004. All he could do, was keep shaking his head and say: “Tcshay”.

Sadly, I’m sure there are many others, perhaps many of you reading this now, who have lost blog posts. I empathize, it is indeed like losing part of our lives.

Then again, it may not be the big deal that I’m making it out to be.

7 responses so far

Feb 14 2008

The first Mumbai Blog Meet of 2008!

Published by Melody under Not even a Terminal Junkie

I’ve been bombarded with mails from tons of you asking me when the next blog meet was happening ~ and here it is; the very first Mumbai Blog Meet of 2008:

(click on pic to enlarge)

It’s this Saturday night, Feb 16th, (and it’s free!) so confirm asap with Gaurav here or here.

PS: Have closed comments here, if you have a question, pls check with G (link above).

Comments Off

Feb 02 2008

Chasing Technology in a Little Black Dress

Was listening to the new 104.8 “women’s only channel” and there was this RJ woman going on (I actually heard this same question being repeated over a period of days while flicking radio channels);

“So, who do you think is better, a man or a woman?”

And I’m thinking - what?, is there some random man we’re to pick out from the universe and compare him to some equally random woman from somewhere else?

Of course, one gets used to hearing English being used in all wrong ways here in Bombay. What’s fair to assume, is that the RJ meant to say is “Who are better; men or women?”

Which leads me to say:

WTHey??

What kind of ridiculous question is that??? What, are we still in the 14th Century here???

Which brings me to the point of this post (yeah, you may have thought there wasn’t one, but I’m not one of those we-write-posts-just-for-the-heck-of-it bloggers, so there) :

Stereotyping bugs me crap out of me.

More specifically, I’m talking about the way people assume that people who spend lots of time online are geeks. Which really, would put me in super-geek status.

Which I’m not.

What I am then? Hmmmm… that’s a toughie.

I think I’m a (peroxide) blonde geek. Yeah, if you had to stereotype me, I think that would be the category I’d fit best in. Though really, that’s not who I am always either.

I have been spending lots of time online though. Last month I started Facebooking - and what a joy that was! In the month that I’ve been on, I’ve connected with 300 people - many of whom are school & college friends I’ve not spoken/connected with for 10 - 15 years!! Ah, what fun!


(yeah, you can see my ny resolution to not photoshop is being kept brilliantly!)

And then two days ago, I started Twittering. Yeah, the king of Indian twitter finally convinced me to take the plunge.

Though I must say, the timing couldn’t have been worse, what with the internet being super slow around the world etcetera etcetera, all I kept getting the first few hours after joining was this page of aliens:

Mercifully, what issues twitter (& the rest of the www) was having seem to be resolved. Have been able to get into the hang of things. Though, truth be told, am not so sold to twittering yet. But it’s been a few hours really since I joined, let me give it a little time.

What I can say with even more conviction than before - is that I love blogging!! Really, maybe you wouldn’t tell it by seeing the rather scarce number of posts on thevoiceinmyhead recently, but it’s true. Social networking, connecting (in any form) does not bring me as much joy as blogging does. The ability to come here and be able to write & connect with people through my writing, that brings me the most joy of all.

But for the record, I’m not giving away my little black dresses. While I may spend a lot of time online, my social life off it is still full as usual. In fact, (weirdly) I’ve also noticed, there are a lot of geeks (& I mean real geeks, the type who should only party online) at the Blue Frog. Seriously, we need to have bouncers like they have in clubs in LA who only let pretty people in.

Fine, so that was so not the correct thing to say. I take it back. Even the geeks ought to be welcomed at cool places in Bbay.

But for heck’s sake - stop stereotyping people.

——
A final word before I part:
I am so sure some more brilliant ones who read this post are gonna comment:
(01) She says other people’s English leaves things lacking - but look at x, y, and z in that post!!
(02) She says “don’t stereotype” but calls people geeks a few paras down!
and other similar nasty stuff.

To you lot I say, write a post about how hypocritical I am - and make sure you link to me, my technorati rank is slipping.

4 responses so far

Dec 01 2007

Simple Thoughts on how to Live Life Fabulously!

It’s a new month, before a new year & I thought I’d share with you all, my latest, brand new blog - “Simple Thoughts on how to Live Life Fabulously!”

As the About Page there says (yes, I actually wrote an About Page on time there!) the thoughts and inspirations there are not my own. Most of the thoughts have been around a long time. Also since I’m a believing Christian, some of these thoughts & inspirations are Bible based. So the new blog is basically a place where I collect these thoughts - the ones I subscribe to, the ones that inspire me and add my take on them.

All that & more, through my ‘Sunshine Girl‘ eyes :)

I hope the blog is a blessing to all who read it! (click on image below to go to there!)

Edit: Have booked a new domain after all :) It’s Melodylaila.com/thoughts ! Do blogroll, add to your feeds etc etc ;)

Incidentally, am really happy, within a week, I have 15 feeds for the new blog, plus two mails telling me how the blog has helped! Am glad it’s helping anyone in anyway, makes it all feel so worthwhile!

6 responses so far

Nov 24 2007

Snippets!

Published by Melody under Not even a Terminal Junkie

If you’ve read the blog over the last two days, you’ve probably noticed the little “Snippets” box top right with my Yahoo! Avatar on it.

It’s up by special request from a friend of mine who works for Yahoo! developing the avatars in Pune Bangalore.

My “Snippets” box will feature actual bits & pieces of my day in it and my avatar dressed up as close to what I’ve been wearing. And I’ll also be updating the box often, sometimes more than once a day (at least, this is the plan!).

Hopefully I’ll help Yahoo! make better avatars for all of us in the future :)

6 responses so far

Nov 20 2007

And our Blogger’s Brunch made the news!

The latest Blog Meet - the Blog Brunch in Hindustan Times, 19th November, 2007

(Click to enlarge & read entire article)

One thought & one correction though -

-> 1148 registered blogs in Mumbai? Where-huh? Wha-huh?? No one told me I had to register? ;)

-> Bloggers in Mumbai have been meeting offline for a while now (long before the two years mentioned in the article). I attended my first meet two years ago (in Jan of 2006) and if I remember right, Amit told me there was about 8 meets in 2005 itself!

8 responses so far

Nov 19 2007

The Blog Brunch in Pics!

First, a toast, to Sakshi Juneja, my “Online Better Half” - Together we’re “The Online Ram-Lakhan” (she’ll quickly point out that she’s Lakhan, the younger one), “The Mumbai Blog Mafia” (hahah!), “The BuHu girls” (BuHu, being copyrighted to the King) [anything else you wanna call us people??!]

If the blog brunch was a success (& going by the feedback we got, it’s fair to say it was!), it’s largely due to her. So then, “to you Saks, I raise my (e)glass! Cheers for being the rockstar that you are!”

Also, a special thanks going out to the (very very) nice people at who came through for Saks & me by helping us clear out our brunch debts. A lot of the people who had confirmed just did not show up, most without even informing us in any way (how rude!) and we had to pay for the numbers confirmed. If Saks & I do decide to plan another blog meet, we might have to start taking money in advance.

Now to the brunch! Since Saks was busy doing most of the important things, I enjoyed myself at the Blog Brunch meeting a new set of interesting people!

Continue Reading »

17 responses so far

Nov 06 2007

Blog Brunch! Sunday, November 18th - Spread the Word!

Published by Melody under Not even a Terminal Junkie

Click on the image to enlarge for more details!
Please, please confirm in advance!
(confirm by commenting here or dropping us a mail)

And yes, in case you didn’t read the title, SPREAD THE WORD!!

For details on past blog meets, see Mumbai Blog Meets.

25 responses so far

Next »