42 Quirks

I did something stupid last night: I deleted this blog.

Yes. I DELETED it.

Last night, I was cleaning out my various test installs on my cPanel – you know, phpBB, BuddyPress, bbPress & a few of my own pathetic attempts at LAMP coding. While trying to delete one of those DBs, I accidentally deleted the MySQL DB that handles THIS blog. The worst part is I didn’t realize what I’d done until this morning when the blog showed a “500 Internal Server Error”.

My heart sank.

And then I remembered that I had installed the WP-DB-Backup plugin. I was taking daily backups & emailing it to myself! FTW! The rest of the process was pretty simple:

1. Create a new database with the same name as in your wp-config.php file.
2. Download the latest backup file from your email inbox.
3. Go to phpMyAdmin & import the latest backup file that you just downloaded.

That’s it. The blog is now ‘back up’ online! :)

In hindsight, it probably doesn’t seem like a big deal – but it would have been a HUGE deal had I not activated the WP-DB-Backup plugin in the first place. What would have happened if I hadn’t activated the plugin & didn’t have daily backups?

*shudder*

(Image: The Lonely Dustbin by Rajiv Ashrafi on Flickr.)

How many times have you had an idea that you were sure would shake the very foundation of an existing belief? And the, suddenly, something comes along that prompts you to say, “F**K! That was MY idea!”

Well, finders keepers, they say.

When I saw Chris Nolan‘s Inception, I cursed myself for being lazy enough to NOT post “Window” (part one, two & three) earlier. I’d chalked up the story, plotted the basics but never actually got around to writing it. And that’s how I lost the plot – literally & figuratively.

And that prompted me to work on another idea I’ve had for a while – the d.ustb.in.

What is the d.ustb.in? It’s an online short-fiction magazine where your short-stories will be featured for the world to read. However, unlike other magazines, we don’t ask for exclusive publishing rights. We want your story to be read by people far & wide – that means you can submit it to the others, come back & submit it to us, too! :)

The downside? We don’t charge, hence, we don’t pay. :(

The d.ustb.in is intended to be a platform for short-story lovers everywhere. The initial plan is to feature an anthology of short-fiction every week. Soon enough, we intend to publish it as a fortnightly or monthly magazine, featuring an anthology of submitted stories. Heck, we even hope to be able to pay our authors someday, soon! :)

Go ahead, submit your story, spread the word – feed the d.ustb.in! :)

“O-k-a-a-a-a-y, Hotel Sea Princess, eh? Right!”

Well, honestly, I had absolutely no idea where Hotel Sea Princess was. But I knew I had to be at #IndiMum.

I know, I know, all the jokes about it being a congregation of hot Indian mothers have been taken, and thanks to my previous job no one can fathom me going to a silence convention. Thus, there’s no option left but to explain #IndiMum right away – which, if you notice, I didn’t do. Sorry.

So anyway, #IndiMum was the twitter hashtag for the Indiblogger meet that happened at Hotel Sea Princess, Juhu on the 15th of August. Call it the Bloggers version of an AA meet if you will – at least that’s what it felt like when the introductions happened.

Wait, I’ve done that thing again, where I jump the gun, leaving you guys confused. And when I say you guys, I mean you – Shrikant, and the reading glasses – the only two things that are actually reading this. But since you are me, let me start from the beginning.
» Read the rest of this entry «

While surfing the net a few days back, I accidentally stumbled onto this piece of treasure called “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Aldous Huxley v/s George Orwell”

Having read a few works by the two authors, enough to be acquainted with their work, I decided to read further. I am glad I did, because I was thoroughly impressed by the comparison that Stuart MacMillen made in his comic.

Wikipedia has a good primer about Aldous Huxley & George Orwell; but if you’re feeling lazy, here’s the gist of it: George Orwell was the one who wrote the classics like “1984” & “Animal Farm” which gave birth to the classic quote, “Big Brother is watching you.” Aldous Huxley, on the other hand was the man behind “Brave New World” – a book I haven’t entirely finished reading.

I hadn’t given either of the books a second thought until I found this comic – it put them in an entirely new perspective for me!

The image I have uploaded is the final strip of Stuart’s comic – but not a spoiler in any sense. The entire image is too large to display here, and I wouldn’t want to take away any credit (& traffic, too!) from Stuart.

Check out the entire article, “Amusing Ourselves to Death” at Stuart’s website Recombinant Records.

(Image created using Wordle.net)

I’ve been tagged. Again.

A dear friend of mine tagged me with this meme a while back. For lack of interesting content & imagination to post a story, I’ll try & enthusiastically (?) answer the questions, hoping my answers will entertain you.

Here we go. Again.
——–
RULES:

• You can only answer yes or no.
• You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you and asks.

Ready, Set, Go!

I break rules — Yes
Been arrested? — NO!
Kissed someone you didn’t like? — No
Slept in until 5 PM? — Yes
Ran a red light? — Yes
Been suspended from school? — NO
Experienced love at first sight? — YES
Totaled your car in an accident? — NO
Been fired from a job? — NO
Fired somebody? — NO
Sang karaoke? — NO!
Pointed a gun at someone? — No
Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t? — Yes.
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? — NO
Kissed in the rain? — No (?)
Had a close brush with death (your own)? — YES.
Seen someone die? — No.
Played spin-the-bottle? — No.
Smoked a cigar? — Yes.
Sat on a rooftop? — Yes.
Smuggled something into another country? — No.
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? — No.
Broken a bone? — Yes
Skipped school? — No.
Eaten a bug? — No!
Sleepwalked? — No.
Walked a moonlit beach? — Yes…
Dumped someone? — Yes. No.
Lied to avoid a ticket? — Yes.
Ridden in a helicopter? — No.
Shaved your head? No.
Made your girlfriend cry? — Yes
Eaten snake? — No.
Marched/Protested? — No.
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? — No.
Puked on amusement ride? — No.
Seriously & intentionally boycotted something? — No.
Been in a band? — No.
Been on TV? — Yes.
Shot a gun? — No.
Skinny-dipped? — No.
Gave someone stitches? — No.
Ridden a surfboard? — no.
Drank straight from a liquor bottle? — Yes.
Had surgery? — Erm, yes.
Streaked? — No.
Taken by ambulance to hospital? — No.
Passed out when not drinking? — No.
Peed on a bush? — YES!
Donated Blood? — No.
Grabbed electric fence? — No.
Eaten alligator meat? — No.
Killed an animal when not hunting? — No
Peed your pants in public? — No.
Snuck into a movie without paying? — No.
Written graffiti? — No.
Still love someone you shouldn’t? — No.
Been involved in/witnessed a natural disaster? — No.
Met a celebrity? — Yes.
Been in handcuffs? — No.
Believe in love? — Y.E.S. :)
——–
I’m also supposed to tag 15 friends. But I won’t. Reasons?

I’m too lazy.
I’m scared I’ll be killed for passing on such silly time-pass.
I don’t know 15 people.
There aren’t 15 people who’ll read this post.

The last one is true. Honest. :P

Yeah, I know – so I’ll skip directly to the good news.

42 Quirks will now be a magazine-style blog.

After the declaration, come the details.

42 Quirks has been my home on the web for a long time now. The blog has seen a lot of changes since it began – most of them mirroring my life… However, in these last few months, I realized something very unique: I would not feel like writing a post unless I had a story to tell.

That kinda limits my options.

But then, 42 Quirks wasn’t meant to be a story-blog per se, was it?

I decided to do a li’l make-over, move stuff here n there, add some stuff, take out some stuff – you know…

And after a while I settled for this look: the Isotherm theme for WordPress.

This look is not yet final – I am still in search of that ‘perfect’ look; something I know, but can’t translate into reality (or is it virtuality?) thanks to my appallingly meager knowledge of coding…

The spirit of the blog has been finalized.

42 Quirks will now serve the purpose it was built for: eccentric ramblings about my random sojourns of the life, the universe & the inter-webs. So there’s a high likelihood that you’ll find a few tech topics sharing post-space with film-reviews, jostling for attention-space with short-stories & excerpts from books I’m reading currently…

I hope you’ll stick around for the ride – like you’ve always done in the past. :)

(Pic Credit: “I dream of liberty” by snickwas@Flickr)
—–
Can a Hindi Film win an Oscar?

No. I am not talking about the Foreign Language category. I am talking about the Best Film category – the category in which Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar Award this year.

How? Read on till the end.

The Eligibility criteria for a film to be nominated for the Oscars are clearly laid out on this page. A first glance at the page reveals something very interesting.

Nowhere does it mention that the film has to be in the English language!

In fact, Paragraph 8 clearly states:
“Motion pictures from all countries shall be eligible for the annual awards listed in Rule One Paragraph 3, as long as they satisfy the requirements of the other applicable rules, and contain English-language subtitles if released in a foreign language.”

That’s not all! There’s more!

Paragraph 2 of Rule 2 might cause a few problems actually. Condensed down to the basics it means:

“A film, that runs for more than 40 minutes, is eligible for an entry to the Oscar Nominations as long as it runs in a commercial theater in the Los Angeles county for at least seven days and is properly advertised before-hand.”

So what’s stopping us?

Rule 3, more or less. :)

The essence of Rule 3 is that, the Los Angeles run must happen between the 1st of January to the 31st of December in a specific year and no other theatrical runs are allowed – competitive or otherwise. And this is where it gets kinda complicated. Here’s Paragraph 3 of Rule 3, verbatim:

A picture first theatrically exhibited outside the U.S. prior to the Los Angeles qualifying run shall be eligible for submission provided the prior exhibition takes place in a commercial motion picture theater after January 1, 2007, with the following further conditions:

Kinda confusing, isn’t it? But, this is what I make of it in the Indian context. Correct me if I am wrong:

If a full-length Indian feature film, (properly subtitled) were to theatrically release in India this year, and next year, release exclusively in the Los Angeles County (after proper advertisement and marketing) on a commercial theater run for a period of at least 7 days and no other theatrical engagement for the total period of 90 days, then the film qualifies for an entry to the Oscars!

So, technically, if an Indian film made in 2009 – say Dev.D – were to release exclusively in the Los Angeles county this year – ensuring that no other theatrical runs happen anywhere else during that exhibition period – Dev.D could, might, possibly, maybe, qualify to win an Oscar!

With big bucks like Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, etc entering the Indian market, has the American Dream suddenly become achievable? ;)