Bloggy Howl, I have a Blog!

A sometimes serious, sometimes fun collection of my writings, readings and online activities...

Saturday, March 25, 2006

There's no "I" in "Team"

For years, I have been searching for an intelligent reply to this idiotic dogma and I think Tom Peters has it!

"Yes", he says, "but there is one in 'WIN'"

He goes on to say there is also one in "Victory".

Without a set of "I's" there'd be no team. We each bring to a team our own unique skill sets. Our individuality.

There isn't a single "I" in "Team", there's a whole bunch of "I's".

Teams are good, teams are necessary. Without the "I's" a team can't WIN.

Deepak

Mushy time!

I was, I think, about five. I know I hadn't started going to school yet. We lived in a little apartment on the first floor of a rather large building and I could look right down into a little temple that was in the middle of the street (lots of those on old streets in Pune).

One day I watched some ceremony taking place in the temple - a lot of singing and playing of indigenous instruments - and there was this guy clinking two tiny little cymbals together.

That was it. I wanted a ching-ching.

When dad came home from work that evening, I said, "dada, I want a ching-ching." He patiently sat and listened while I explained what a "ching-ching" was. Then he nodded gravely and went about his business.

A few days later, I woke up to a strange smell. It was a pungent smell, one I had never experienced before. I saw my dad at the kitchen table, working hard at something. Experience had taught me never to disturb him when he had that look of concentration on his face.

About an hour later (or whatever, heck, I was FIVE), my dada handed me a shiny pair of ching-chings, all attached to each other with thick cord and all.

It was only when I grew up that I realised my father had scoured the stalls in the second-hand market to find a pair of those cymbals, then had painstakingly sat and polished them with brasso (the reason for the smell) so he could give me my ching-ching. New brass cymbals would have been way out of his budget (he was supporting us, his mother and his younger brother then).

When I get time, I polish just about any brass object I can find in the house, including the venerable Godrej lock we use for our front door.

I do it so I can smell the brasso and thank my dad for my ching-ching.

Next month it will be ten years since he passed away.

Deepak

Friday, March 17, 2006

Okay, someone tell Yahoo!

... their new Flash animated ads are IRRITATING!

Yes, I use free services like yahoo and gmail because deepak@whateverorg.com doesn't last very long. So those free services offer continuity and help people stay in touch with me.

Now for the problem: Yahoo has started some new-fangled ad thingy that puts a humungous drop-down banner across my messages. So I can't click the message to read it, nor can I delete spam. I can't do anything until the darn ad runs its course.

And if yahoo thinks I'm going to be pro the company that interferes with my email, it hasn't really grasped internet marketing.

I've already begun migrating most of my email to gmail.

So, someone tell yahoo, please. They've stopped listening to me.

Deepak

Books, Books, Books!

Leo Janssen, an old online pal of mine, has started this cool site along with his wife, where you can put up old books for sale or buy books that others have placed. It's called Dogears Etc. and I think it's a great idea. As one who haunts used book stalls, I'm gonna be visiting that site pretty often, I can tell ya.

Deepak

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Connect - type - disconnect - connect

Okay, can someone tell me which wise man decreed that I connect to here, type a godawful lot of text and then find that I can't post it because my internet connection went dead as I typed?

And why does Reliance (talk about misnomers!) go dead for about an hour every 2 a.m.? Pleasant as it is to hear a female voice at that hour when I call customer suport, I'd rather not have to.

And why does Reliance go dead every five minutes or so?

I don't think even Aristotle would know the answer.

Deepak

Friday, March 03, 2006

Tags, mail forwards and Mind Viruses

Many people wonder why I get so irritated by tags and email forwards. After all, tags help people know more about the tagged, right? E-mail forwards are fun and funny and good "time-pass", right?

Ummm... wrong.

Tags and the more innocuous-appearing email forwards are, at the very least, "Mind Viruses". They give you an excuse to take your focus away from what you ought to be doing right now and post long lists of what you'd like to tell your audience instead.

Email forwards are the worst of the shebang. Read my report based on the investigation of "baby Alexandra", an email that's been doing the rounds:
http://deeplysimple.blogspot.com/2005/12/email-hoaxes-and-mind-viruses.html

And finally, for the sake of your sanity, read this report and analysis on Mind viruses:
http://www.memecentral.com/antidote.htm

Deepak

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

The Tag Stops Here

So Keefieboy decided to tag me. Big deal. Ole chap (well, he's older than me!) doesn't know I'm the quintessential rebel and tags don't make no difficuns ta me.

So I'll respond to his tag just 'coz, and I shall not re-tag others. The tag stops here. If you're desperate to be tagged, figure out how to contact me and I'll tag you but you gotta say "tag me please". What can I say? Tag - you're it! ? What a load of hooey.

So here's the tag (just 'coz I, as others, secretly enjoy revealing more about me but I, unlike others, am iconoclastic enuff to stop it at that.):

Four jobs I’ve had:

None.
I don't have jobs, never have, never will. Ask any boss who's ever tried to have me on the carpet.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

None.

I, and MOVIES? You have to be OUT OF YOUR MIND. Theatre rules!

Four places I’ve lived:

Not counting Pune, none. Dubai wasn't a place to live, it was a place to come in contact with goofs (gooves?) who tag you ten years down the line. Cyberspace has never counted anyway.

Four TV shows I like:

Eh? TV? Whazzat?

No, really... whazzat? itty-bitty people making itty-bitty jokes? Yes, I've watched Seinfeld, but "like"? Hardly!

Four places I’ve vacationed:

Goa. Yeah, that's where I've vacationed. Apart from that...um.... does Scout Camp count? So what if it does? Never been on one anyway.

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Liquid
2. Liquid
3. Liquid
4. Liquid

And damn you, Keefie, for dropping the flag and spelling it "favorite".

Four sites I visit daily:

I SHOULD be able to answer this.. okay, let's see, there's yahoo! Mail and gmail and Ryze. That's three. Just another one to go. Okay, I'm gone.

Four Books I’ve Read This Year:

None. This is FEBRUARY, for Chrissake! You expect me to read four books in two months?! Maybe you do, but I don't!

Four bloggers I’m going to tag with this:

1. None
2. None
3. None
4. None

Do you really think I know four bloggers?

Deepak

You Call This Reliance?

By the time I finish this post, I'll probably have to disconnect and reconnect wice.

Why? Coz I have a Reliance connection, which seems to take delight in dying mid-post.

So what do I rely on? The fact that every time I try to post on the internet, I'm going to be let down?

Disconnect and reconnect within four lines. Reliance indeed.

Deepak