42 Quirks

Did you know that the family name Joshi finds its roots in the Hindi word ‘Josh’ meaning enthusiasm? Certainly explains all the jumping around I am known to do, eh?
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…and so does everyone else, I’m sure. I just happen to think we don’t appreciate it enough – just like we don’t appreciate our loved ones enough in real life.

Take yesterday for instance. A dear friend called me from the US to tell me about his road trip for an overnight astronomy session. He wasn’t near a computer and I happened to be sitting in front of a PC. In a few moments, thanks to the awesomeness if the internet, I was able to tell him about the rest stops along his way, the weather at his destination and the forecast for the next for days and nights!

A few years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined it possible and yet, here I am, doing it like a boss, as if I’ve done it all my life!

Take another example. Eighteen months ago, when my brother left for the US, he wasn’t as unprepared as one would expect the case might be. No sir! Thanks to the power of online maps and Google’s Street-view offerings, he knew *exactly* where he was headed. Heck, he knew the roads around his University and the hangout places nearby even before he set foot on foreign soil!

How awesome is that?

These are but a few examples – I’m sure every one of us has a similar story to share. I just couldn’t help raise my voice a little louder…

PS: This post was drafted, proof-read and posted entirely from my smartphone!

I <3 TECHNOLOGY!

PayPal sent me their latest missive telling me I can’t keep/spend any of MY own, hard-earned money in my OWN PayPal account. Apparently, RBI guidelines indicate that I have to transfer that money to my bank account in India FIRST before I can spend it anywhere else.

WTF?!
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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! :)

Hey!

HEY, YOU! I am talking to you! Yes, YOU! Look around. Is there anyone else who’s reading this? No! So, do I have your ‘undivided attention,’ now? Sheesh, the things a poor advertisement has to do to get noticed these days!

Honestly, I already feel utterly neglected!
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“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.
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