Beantown Ho!

To those who visited these pages during my four month long hiatus from blogging - many apologies and many thanks for your interest. The beginning of the new year brought many changes to life. Between graduating (read: being kicked out) from grad. school and looking for a job, time was not to be found for blogging and wandering.

The most recent stop on my journey has been Beantown - home of the Boston Brahmins and the Red Sox. In the past few months of gainful employment I have realized the true value of the lazy days gone by. As another friend who recently graduated (as in REALLY graduated... degree and all) and joined a job put it, "...days of not brushing till 11 in the morning are over".

As I have done so in the past... I do promise to resume regular blogging henceforth.

Here's to new wanderings!

P.S: What do you think of the photo above? I have never loyally followed any sports but I find the Red Sox fandom here in Beantown amusing and interesting. Last weekend on Michael Feldman's Whad'ya Know (broadcast live from PennState), a communications professor from Penn State was talking about how the sports stadiums are the new "cathedrals" of the 21^st century. He has also written a book about it. If stadiums are the cathedrals then sports is the new religion. In this town, loyalty to the beloved Red Sox is akin to the holy covenant. I will try to blog more about this and other fascinating facets of Boston.

P.S2: The title of this post was inspired by the Calvin and Hobbes book Yukon Ho! The Yukon Song from that book is one of my favorite poems.

New Blogger...

Recently (I mean in mid-August actually...) Blogger introduced a "beta" version in which you could connect your Blogger account to your Google account. I was in fact a little late to try out this transition, which was probably good since I avoided all the initial bugs and glitches which early transitioners faced. The new beta version has some features that I had wished for in a previous post on this blog.

In the beta version I can now attach "category" tags to all my posts. This was one of the features I (and I am sure many other Blogger users) had wished for. Most other blog hosting websites have had this feature for a long time. Curiously, Blogger calls these tags "Labels" instead of "Categories", probably to distinguish itself from other sites, but it essentially does the same job. So you may notice "Labels" I have attached to the post at the bottom of the post (along with Technorati tags). Clicking on a label will take you to all the posts that are categorized under that label. For example click on the "Elephants" Label to see all my posts in that category. The Technorati tags are actually similar to labels, except that clicking on them takes you to all the posts tagged by that... well.. "tag" on Technorati.

The beta version also has a better template management interface through which you can make changes to your blog template. This has a user friendly interface to change fonts and colors and to add page elements such as blogroll, linkroll etc. It also includes a better way of adding and updating blogrolls and linkrolls. This is another thing I had wished for. Using this interface I can also display all the categories and number of posts filed under each in the sidebar. There are only a limited number of templates that are available with the new interface though.

I have upgraded my other blog "Oorjaa" with these new features. It was much easier on Oorjaa because there were only a few posts to take care of. There are a couple of new posts on Oorjaa too... so please take a look at them. I will be upgrading this blog using the new interface pretty soon... once I decide if I should change the look of the blog or not. If you have an opinion on whether "Transmogrified" can use a bit of transmogrification in terms of the looks itself, please leave a comment to that effect. I also need to update the blogroll and linkroll.

There are still some bugs and glitches in the new version though. I noticed some while writing the posts on oorjaa after I upgraded it. For example, when I try to insert an image into the post it gets inserted at the top of the post by default instead of being inserted at the present cursor location. The spell checker (always a good thing to do before posting) is horrible. It highlighted stuff in my post in all the weird places, sometimes highlighting half of one word and half of the next, for no apparent reason. Also it messed up all my links. So finally I had to use Word to do the task. Hopefully Blogger will get to resolving these soon.

Another feature I have been using for some time now for both of my blogs is "Google Analytics" to track the traffic. It is much much better that other traffic monitoring sites that I used previously. It give me much more relevant information regarding the traffic. Here is a snapshot of the geo-location of visitors for the month of November for example (click on it for a larger image). A bow of gratitude to each one of you who helped to put a tiny dot on the map! Keep coming back.


Technorati Tags: Blogging, Blogger Beta, Google Analytics

Blogging Evolving

I was just going through some of the first posts on my own blog. So much has changed about this blog since I started blogging in February this year. Observing the process of evolution of my own blog and also observing myself change as a blogger is fascinating.

A lot of things have changed in the technical sense. I played with different templates and finally settled on this one (mainly because it has a lot of room for future change). I started tagging my posts with technorati tags. I can now monitor the traffic and see what people are reading on my blog. Speaking of technical stuff, there are some things I wish blogger should have. So here is my wish list:

• Categories: Blogger should definitely introduce categories. It helps organize posts much better. I checked out a couple of hacks which say it can be done. But I didn't like the round about way of doing it.
• Comment posting: I like blog conversations. I like to respond to comments by posting a comment myself. But I wish there was a way to do this without having to visit my own posts. I wish I could post comments (as replies to comments by others) the way I post... posts! If Blogger introduces something like that it would be cool. I know that there is a comment moderation thing now but that's no good (at least for me!).
• Feed: Blogger should definitely update the default atom feed. I have started using feedburner but the feed validator says the original feed is an older version. Not that it is causing a great problem, but since this is a 'wish' list...
• A blogroll: Currently I am using blogrolling, but it would be great if blogger has an inbuilt blogroll and link roll.

Many things have changed in subtle ways too. I feel my style of writing is slowly changing and evolving too. I want to use my blog as a tool to organize my thoughts. When I get interested in an issue I go out and read about it and learn more about it. This generates a lot of ideas in my head. I want to use my blog as a meeting place for my ideas.

I am going to try and experiment with this. I am going to pick issues that interest me and write posts on them. I already go and read about things that interest me. Writing about them will add another layer to this process. It will help me connect things into a coherent picture.

Well... just a quick look back and now going forward again.

Technorati Tags: Blogging

Blog Quake Day: Shake the Blogosphere

Desipundit has announced a new blogosphere initiative to help raise funds for the victims of recent earthquake in Pakistan and India. There are many organizations which are providing relief to the victims. You can find a list on this post on Desipundit. PLEASE spread the word by posting about this effort on your blog, on your emails lists and donate to one of these organizations.

Here is a partial list of links:

• IFRC(International Federation of Red Cross and Red crescent Societies)
• Sewa International USA
• Association for India's Development [A.I.D]

I work as a volunteer with A.I.D (Association for India's Development). AID-India is also actively involved in earthquake relief efforts. AID-Delhi chapter is participating in the relief work by teaming up with local organizations and NGOs such as Goonj, Sadbhavana Trust, Asha Ashram to send relief supplies, tents, medicines etc. to J&K. AID has already sent $ 15000 for immediate relief supplies.

We are also raising funds for long term relief and rehabilitation efforts. AID-India has substantial experience in disaster relief and has supported many relief and rehabilitation projects in Gujarat after the Bhuj earthquake and after the Tsunami.

Do visit AID website to learn more about our relief efforts.

Technorati Tags: Kashmir, Earthquake, India, Pakistan, Association for India's development, AID

Bloggers or Journalists?

India Together has an article today by Darryl D'Monte about the role of bloggers. "Are bloggers parked, or driving media in new directions?", asks Mr. D'Monte. Blogs are popular in the west but in India their popularity is limited. A very small percentage of population has regular access to the internet and only few of those write or read blogs regularly. Among those who have simply heard about blogs, there is a perception that blogs are simply an online "journal" or a "diary" where people talk about mundane stuff and occasional "dear diary" moments. The reporters and journalists are slightly more aware and some of them are bloggers themselves.

In India too however, bloggers are doing things which mainstream media[MSM] generally doesn't. Mr. D'Monte in his article talks about Dina Mehta (blog), a blogger from Mumbai, who through a blog she helped create, was able to help the victims of Tsunami in Asia and more recently the victims of hurricane Katrina. She used her blog to help put those who wanted to provide aid, in touch with those who needed it. Outlining the importance of the blogs in the article, Mehta says:

"It's technology with a heart. We don't actually give help - we provide information and communication. We're not even an NGO, in that sense. We offer Communication, Coordination, Collaboration and Community."

Mr. D'Monte acknowledges the growing importance of the blogs in his article. He say:

"...it is true that with the mainstream media dumbing down with a vengeance and looking to their bottom line rather than people who live at the bottom, bloggers are very much in business. They are telling it like it is, rather than what media barons decide is politically or commercially more convenient."

He also talks about the recent IIPM incident and the blog war that followed to highlight the growing importance of blogs. It is true that bloggers are doing things that investigative journalists are supposed to do. During the IIPM incident bloggers unearthed important facts about IIPM's international claims, its sister concerns(1, 2) and about the background of its founder. Why didn't the journalists do it? I have a theory about it. Here goes...

My newly acquired (and half baked) understanding of economics says "incentives matter". A journalist has to weigh the costs of doing a story (time and efforts invested) against the returns (increased readership). The cost of doing a full fledged investigation is large and so are the returns. However the journalist can keep turning out stories which do not require as much investment of time and efforts as a full fledge investigation and still get a reasonable readership. That way the journalist can also cover a lot more stories (because each story takes less time and effort). Full fledge investigation may also carry hidden costs like defending yourself against claims of slander and possible threats to burn down stuff. The returns on a full fledge investigation may be high but maybe not so high as to provide a good incentive to the journalist to pursue it.

Bloggers on the other hand are not journalists (i.e. we have day jobs to pay for food etc.) But once in a while they can and do act like journalists and go out and hunt down facts. They have a big incentive to do the investigative stuff. It increases the traffic to their blogs manyfold. Also bloggers do investigative things when they believe in a story and are motivated to support a cause.

At least in India the mainstream media has a chance to use this in their favor. Their greatest advantage is their reach. TV, Radio and newspapers reach far more people than blogs do in India. So keeping track of the blogosphere and picking up stories like the recent IIPM story can work to MSM's advantage. The media till now however has not realized this I guess. The reporting of the IIPM story was just plain bland in Indian media. They tried to play it safe I guess and didn't go and actually check the claims made by IIPM in their ads. Some did not even mention the article by JAM, which was the cause of the whole thing.

I don't think MSM is going to go away because of blogs. It is definitely going to change a lot, in many ways which I can't even imagine. So to answer your question Mr. D'Monte:

Bloggers aren't parked. I don't think each individual blogger is blogging to drive anything anywhere, but collectively we are surely going to drive a lot of things (?)... including driving many people nuts.

BTW, this just in through Gawker's post today: Here's what InstaPundit and DNAIndia have to say about this stuff. Also check out The Hoot's take on it.

Technorati Tags: Blogs, Bloggers, Journalists, Indian media, Media, IIPM

All Shades of Green

A random walk through the green blogosphere.

It would be a shame if your aren't familiar with the term blogger by now! The term Green needs a bit of an explanation here. I have no special attraction to that color (or any other color for that matter). I am in no way affiliated to political parties named after this color or religious groups symbolized by the color. It just so happens that vegetation (meaning trees, shrubs, bushes and such) which is (and hopefully will be) widely prevalent on this here earth, comes mainly in motley shades of green. It turns out that such vegetation is a VERY important link in the web maintaining all the other life forms.

Therefore Green is the epithet applied to all things (even remotely) associated with the protection/preservation of the natural environment. Ergo the following hodge podge definition:

Green blogger (noun adjective combo!) Homo sapien privileged enough to access the world wide web, using their spare time to write about environmental issues, sustainability, green lifestyle, environmental activism, sustainable energy etc.

Not surprisingly, I found out that the crop of bloggers writing about all things related to the natural environment also come in all shades of green.

I am just starting out as a blogger and wanted to find out other blogs related to topics of interest to me. In my search for green bloggers, I first came across GreenThinkers [GT]. I liked their idea that their blog is a place or forum to think is discuss "all things green". Next I came across Sustainablog, by Jeff. It is a nice blog that has links to many other green bloggers. While posts on GT tend to be small interesting bits pointing out to green events happening around the world or in the green blogosphere, Jeff's post on Sustainablog are more involved and detailed. Jeff posts on many aspects of the environmental movement. For a while I was just following the posts on these two blogs.

Then one day, I came across a post on Sustainablog about the Starbucks challenge, presented jointly by greenLA girl[GLG] and city hippy. So I visited these blogs to find out more. GLG's blog is mostly about fair trade & organic movement and ethical consumerism. City Hippy describes his blog as "The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life." I found these blogs to be really interesting. Inspired by them I took the Starbucks challenge myself. I found that collaborative efforts like the challenge, promoted through blogs to be really effective. The Starbucks challenge generated a substantial response from bloggers all over. Eventually Starbucks also took notice of it. You can read the details on GLG's blog post.

Ethical consumerism is a new term that I encountered on these blogs. Some blogs post regularly on "ethical consumerism" basically about 'how you can make choices as a consumer which will be consistent with the objective of preserving the natural environment'. City Hippy's posts are many times related to this. Another blog TreeHugger that I now follow fairly regularly also posts on this. LazyEnvironmentalist is a blog that is dedicated solely to ethical consumerism.

There are many more green blogs out there focused specifically on specific issues. Like the alternative energy blog or the Greenpeace blog (which has really amazing posts from their ongoing campaigns). I plan to follow some of them (depending on how much time I can spend).

But overall, I think my first foray in the green blogosphere has been really productive. I have learned a lot and found out that the world "live" web has a lot more to offer than simply hot air from a bunch of people working their keyboards.

Technorati Tags: Green, Sustainable, Environment, Starbucks Challenge, Green blogs, Green bloggers

Blog Finds

Recently NYTimes stopped free access to a lot of good things on their website. If you want to read the columns online you need to subscribe to TimesSelect. Since this stopped my access to the daily dose of opinion on their website... I was forced to look at other places. There is an opinion that too much "opinion" stanchs free thinking. I don't really agree with that. Isn't pretty much everything we read somebody else's opinion? So I set out to find other places where I could have a healthy and nutritious "schmeal". I hadn't warmed up to the idea of regularly following blogs till now. The blog search engines were not (and in my opinion still aren't) as good as they should be in my opinion. But I decided to give blogs a try anyway. So I went around searching for some good reads. I have to say that the so called "blogosphere" is really a tangled mess, a jungle if you will. The probability of finding good blogs (or blogs you may like) is equal or less than that of finding really crappy ones. Inspite of this I came across some really cool finds. Here's a sprinkling... GreenThinkers I think is a cool blog... a bunch of people posting things about green technologies i.e anything that would help you lead a more sustainable lifestyle (from composting toilets to hybrid cars). Some posts are really interesting... e.g the one today about the problem of "pee bombs" on US highways. Fun stuff and educational too. I was trying to find blogs about India or blogs by other desis (an Indian term for another Indian here in the US) like me. I first came across India Uncut by Amit Varma... which I thought was good. On Amit's blog I found this link to Arzan's blog. Arzan, it turns out, has figured out a solution to those nasty "smashits" and "bollywoodnow" popups which neither IE nor Firefox can block on their own. Thanks Arzan! You need to use an extension called Adblock (which works really well) inspite of having an inbuilt popup blocker in Firefox. You can read Arzan's post on how to do it. Thanks to Amit Varma... I found some more cool blogs like this one by Megha and few more like Sepia Mutiny and The Acorn, which I would like to keep track of henceforth. Atanu Dey's blog on Deeshaa is great. I really liked his posts. Do check out a couple of his posts on Tom Friedman's book "The World is Flat" (about outsourcing etc.). I also liked Atanu's essay on India's education system. It makes a lot of sense. I guess it applealed so much because I am a product of that system. The biggest catch of the day was this story by Jean Giorno posted on Atanu's blog... awesome! I realized that I might have just touched the tip of the iceberg. I can't imagine how many more good blogs may be out there. I think I might have finally found an inexhaustible source of "hot air" for my daily consumption and its FREE! Take that! NYT... even if I can afford to cough up 50 bucks a year... I don't think I will ever subscribe to TimeSelect. Technorati Tags: Indian blogs

मराठीतून ब्लॉग (Blogging in Marathi)

॥ श्री योगेश्वरोविजयतेतराम॥

नमस्कार. मराठीतून ब्लॉग लिहीण्याचा हा पहीलाच प्रयत्न आहे माझा. बघू किती टिकतो ते.

Update (10/06/05): For those who cannot make the head or tail of the stuff above: This is Devanagari script and Marathi language. It is the same script (with small variations) used for writing in Hindi and Sanskrit. Thanks to Unicode compatible fonts I can now post in my mother tongue.

I use Itranslator2003 software (available free) to transliterate Itrans encoded text.

Technorati Tags: Marathi, Devanagari, Marathi blog

Pleasures of Blogging

Thanks for visiting my blog. I feel that even though it is public....the blog is mostly for oneself. It is not a private journal....but it is also not like newspaper articles....or research papers. It need not have fixed format...or style... or order. It can be anything you want it to be....because its space for your expression.

Expression (either through writing or thru speech or any other form)...is an art. It has to be honed through practice. I see the blog as a space for expressing myself through writing. It need not be perfect...I doubt if we can even define perfection in this case. But I am sure that the quality of expression with improve if I keep writing. It doesn't even have to be written such that it is addressed to someone.

I would like to look at blogs as a gallery of personal expressions... a form of art gallery which is open 24 hours. Anyone can come in (or log in I should say) from any part of the world and read and appreciate the stories of personal expression. They can keep coming back if they like it....else they can just move on to another blog.

I guess a blog also need not be about something profound. Simplicity can create great beauty. I have a suspicion that people like simple things. May be if you portray simple things in a different light they might appreciate it more. I also feel that the most profound things are also the most simple ones.

So why not make a start....start writing... for yourself.

Technorati Tags: Blogging