A New Direction

If i need to take this blog in a new direction, all the old jazz will have to go. I've tweaked the template of this blog to hell and back all the while trying to make it look minimal and just like i wanted it.

But I do not want it like that anymore. I think we're set for a complete overhaul of this baby so that we can start writing some good stuff on here. I don't think I want to go for some fancy-shmancy template this time and I don't even want to tweak it a lot. So it's probably going to be some kind of basic template that doesn't have too many bells and whistles.

There are some things I've done to this blog that I absolutely love. There is a link at the end of every post that takes you to a random post, the header text A Story A Day is centered unlike many other blogs, there are several under the hood tweaks that let me bring the focus only and only on what's written on the page, there are sharing options, but i think I'll let them go because, well, if anyone wants to share, they'll most probably cut past the link in their twitter or facebook or google+.

Comments will be back, because now that I am off twitter (I should do a post on that too), there should be some kind of way for people to get a word to me in case someone needs me or someone in the know needs my special set of skills.

I had a bit of a thought of changing the blog's title, but no. Because we can get back to writing stories any day, right? :D

Oh yeah, anything else that you, constant readers want to see here? Please feel free to chime in through the comments.

Are there even any readers left of this blog? I think most of the people are busy in their social media vortex of twitter facebook and what not. It's a time sink and it really takes tiny bits and pieces of life away from us.

You only realize this when you're out of it.

You have to trust me on this.

I don't understand.

Can someone explain this to me? 

I had a vision

I think I'm a very negative person in some areas while in other areas I can be extremely hopeful and positive. That all had put me in the place I am in my life right now and it's a comfortable place.

But as we know from past experiences that comfortable places aka comfort zones are not nice places to be in long term.

So I'm out to find some discomfort. And the most uncomfortable thing to do is to change yourself. As a rule human beings dates change. And in comfort zones nothing changes.

It's all connected, you see.

Yeah so I'll try n change myself and try to be a positive person on an overall basis. So, only positive posts and nice, motivational blogs from now on. This place shall become a dedication to funding all the good points in life, helping others and bringing about a change that can have a positive impact on life of as many people as possible.

From now on, I'll be writing about things that can help you improve in your life or your art or your relationships. How you can upgrade yourself and be a better version of who you were yesterday. After all, life is about self improvement isn't it?

I can take off all the rants and negative posts from this blog but I'll let them stay because this is as much my journey as it will be yours.

I hope you're with me and you'll be reading.

Love and light.

So Dropbox is killing carousel and mailbox

Wow.

This is one of the major problems in the economy of app/service buying and selling.

What you bank upon today could be bought up and shut down tomorrow by anyone with big enough bank.

It's not the first time we're seeing such a thing happen. It happened with Posterous, when twitter bought it. It happened with tweetdeck app that was acquired by twitter. It happened with google reader.

Twitter very idiotically introduced token limits for app developers which effectively nipped many good apps in the bud. They might be there right now but they're not popular.

Remember the twitter app Carbon? Or Gravity? Hell, twitter bought the tweetie app which is the basic for the present twitter app, which, right now, is a frankestenian monster of wishes, whims and desires of the powers that be in twitter headquarters.

Google is famous for killing off apps or services that don't get much use. Which is pretty okay. At least they're doing everything in house and no one else gets to suffer the brunt of their actions.

Except the sparrow mail app, if I remember correctly Google bought it, killed the app development and integrated the team into Inbox development team.

But hey, what can you do? It's the Internet age man, services come and go, live and die, get bought up and shut down, circle of life and all that jazz.

Right?

_Wrong!_

It really shits the bed for the users who took coupons and waited in virtual lines to be let in to a certain app's domain so they can in some cases even pay up and be a user. People have built their workflows around apps and services and then the parent company just decides to shut them down. Cuz hey, fuck the users! They'll forget in a year or two.

No man. Fuck that. I remember Posterous. It was fucking great. It was fucking revolutionary and Twitter brutally took it behind the shed and put a bullet in its brain and slit it's throat for good measure too. Fuck. That. Shit.

I used mailbox for a while. And used carousel too. Both apps are fucking great but they didn't work for me because neither do I click too many pics nor do I get too many emails. But there are many others who do. People have put their money and effort and time and emotions in these apps.

The only silver lining here might be that when carousel finally shuts down, the data will still be safe in Dropbox. But a neat, fun app will bite the dust. But mailbox was a powerhouse of an app. The only alternatives to mailbox that I see right now is the Outlook app. But it still leaves tons of users in shitty waters.

And it makes me wonder what will go next? Will blogger be the next service to bite the bullet? Or tumblr? Or Flickr? Who the fuck knows. Who the fuck ever knows.

We live in interesting times, man. Interesting times.

Comic Con Delhi 2015

I am going to say some shit in this post, you don't have to like or agree with that shit. You don't even have to read this shit, you can go and write on your own blog that I wrote shit on this blog.

Are we cool? I hope we are, cuz I am pissed off and there will be words.

Now, let's see what's comic con. Annual event, held all over India from time to time, invites artists, trade people, celebs from all over, has cos-players, and merchandise, and lot of people, peppy volunteers, etc etc etc.

I went to comic con for the first time in 2014 feb and next time today. That's a lot of gap between two comic cons. But fuck that, I don't really care about that. If they never held another comic con in delhi or anywhere in India, I'd be pretty much fine with it. 

Because, come on, let's be honest with each other here. This event sucks donkey balls. If I start counting off the reasons I'll be writing here all night but I've got better shit to do like sleep, so here are some reasons off the top of my head.

They called Hodor as the main guest of the event. Organizers, are you fucking even being serious here? Are you fucking kidding the kids? Fucking Hodor? Fuck you. 

And fuck you for having the gall to charge kids 800 bucks for a picture with Hodor. The guy is not even a strong celeb, he is a fucking DJ for fuck's sake. He is not even going to DJ at the event. (DJs suck too, but that's another post.) 

And you make kids stand in lines and then pay money to get pics clicked and autographs signed with Hodor of all people. It's like the organizers sat together and thought up the weakest celeb to call to Comic Con, then they thought hey, fuck it, call Hodor! 

Why? Cuz fuck-all indian crowd will lap up anything that vaguely makes them feel closer to western media. I could barely keep myself from puking all over the place when I saw the big hoarding of Hodor. Oh merciful god, why?

And they had Cyrus Barocha speaking at the event, which had speakers placed at the most stupid imaginable places. I almost got my ear drum blown off when cyrus was shrieking into the microphone. I am not at a metal fucking concert, I don't need that shit in my ear. Jesus fucking christ, it was loud. 

I have a headache now and I am angry cuz everywhere I went in that ground, i could hear cyrus' goatfucking voice in my ears. I almost went to the stage to beat him to death with the microphone but I got distracted. 

Yes, there were things there worse than even cyrus broacha and his shitfuck jokes. Look, at the core of it cosplaying is about showing your own take on something that's not been done to death at least at every comic con. 

Why do I have to look at ten people dressed as the shittiest joker, why are there 6 fucking spider-man costumed fucks hanging around, why the fuck would you not at least shave your fucking legs if you're cosplaying as a fairy and wearing shorts? Why won't you put at least some effort in your cosplay and not dress as mr fucking beans every time? That has to be the laziest cosplay ever. Anything lazier than mr beans and you might as well not get out of the house. What the fuck, you just put on a brown coat and pants and boom, mr beans. Fuck that guy who dresses as mr beans every time. 

But even worse than mr beans are the merchandise sellers at comic con. I shit you not, I saw a pikachu soft toy not bigger than my fist that had a handwritten price of 4000₹ on it. Are you trying to fuckachu me out of my cash? If you wanna fuck me just ask me to bend over politely, no? You have the indecency of putting a fucking handwritten price tag on a piece of shit soft toy and then you've to gall of trying to sell that to people? Fuck you. Just fuck you. There are other stalls that are just there without any idea of how to sell shit to people, there are one or two confused looking teenagers there with plastic smiles on their faces. They don't want to be there but maybe the pocket money is good, so why the fuck not. 

Fuck this. Writing this has pissed me off so much I don't want to even touch on the fact that comic con is a human disaster waiting to happen they've just been fucking lucky so far. God, and why can't I get a 3G connection in that fucking place. At least provide wifi tokens or something. Fucking wankers. 

/end of rant.