zigzackly

Monday, December 27, 2004

Tsunami help

Please pass this URL around:

http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

You can use it to post any info you have on:

where to send money,
what kind of help is needed,
aid organisations,
helplines,
infolines,
email addresses,
phone numbers
news updates
etc

You can post it in the comments section, or post yourself. Mail me at zigzackly@gmail.com and i'll send you an invitation.

Blogged for thee by @ 6:22 PM | 0 Comments | Post a Comment | Link Love? |

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Plus ça change...

A year ago, when i had just started blogging regularly, i said:

If you're dropping by today, you need a life.
[...]
A very happy Christmas to all of you. And may the spirit of the season last all year through.
Hm. The fact that i'm posting today - what does that say about me?

So this is an appropriate time to figure out out whether this thing is more than just a thief of time. And it's also year end, when everyone's doing this, so indulge me, please.

i haven't blogged with any degree of regularity in the recent past. Because i've been busy, yes, but also because i've been [shudder] introspecting.

When i started, i was pretty sure i wanted to do a filter blog, not a Dear Diary - after all, the workings of my mind are not of interest to the world at large, unlike a certain multidimensional artist and author, or this talented young writer i know. When it came to specialist blogs, i knew i couldn't hold a candle to Hurree's hugely well-informed and entertaining lit-blogging, or Dina's well-researched and comprehensive views on networking and social issues, to name just two.

So Zigzackly became a generalist blog, one of many, many, many. The numbers haven't been that interesting - a little short of 4k vistors since i installed a counter in March. Zz hasn't become a must-read to thousands (which may not be a bad thing - the pressure!), or got me a book deal (again not a bad thing, because i honestly don't have a book in me), and i haven't acquired a life that's different in any major way (this i wouldn't mind).

The positives.

My belief in blogs grew, and along the way, i also archived some of my press work in another blog and started a secret blog in which i unleashed my poetry on an unsuspecting world.

In August, i midwifed a CollaBlog that has grown, both in readership and participation, beyond anything i expected. And there's another community blog that is also showing signs of going places that Zig would never be able to get to alone. And i'm also into a collaboration which has helped me produce some verse i'm actually happy with.

i also discovered blogrolls, and RSS readers (and now subscribe to more blogs than i have time to read) and got involved with a group of writers via Ryze, and started a site that i hope will soon grow into something big...

And here's what i've been asking myself. Is this blog any more than a personal set of bookmarks that's easily accessed as long as i'm near a net connection?

And, Faithful Reader, i guess i'm asking you that question too. If you visit regularly, or subscribe to this feed or this one, what do you like about this blog? What do you want to see?

i shall have to think about this a bit longer, i think. Meanwhile, i'd love to hear what you have to say.

Won't be blogging much for the nonce. Next week, i go North, to maybe scout around for some rich clients and gullible editors and suchlike in our nation's capital, but mainly to laze around and eat the Babu and Partner out of two houses and homes for a bit, and perhaps meet for the first time MarginAlien and Putu, and maybe Jabberwock and all my other Delhi buddies.

Hope you're having a great Christmas season, love to you and yours, and in case i forget to post, may 2005 be wonderful for you.

Blogged for thee by @ 1:58 AM | 3 Comments | Post a Comment | Link Love? |

Monday, December 06, 2004

RSS feed

Nope, not the kind that we have so kindly provided for you on the left so you can use a reader to get updates from this blog.

We're referring to them gents in the starched, ballooning khaki shorts. Aside from their efforts to rewrite history, they're now revolutionising science, with their tests on, er, bovine excreta. Some excerpts from Manu Joseph's article in Wired News:

Bhanwarlal Kothari, a senior member of the RSS, said, "Our tests have shown that distemper made out of cow dung and spread over walls and roofs can block nuclear radiation."
...
Sunil Mansinghka runs Go-vigyan Anusandhan Kendra, an outfit "devoted to R&D on the role of cows." At four every morning, VHP workers stand with bottles beside their cows, waiting for them to urinate voluntarily so that the workers can collect the waste for future research.
...
"We believe that cows' urine can cure cancer, renal failure, arthritis and a lot of other ailments," Mansinghka said. "We are working hard to test and prove these claims."
He summoned one of his researchers, an Ayurvedic physician named Bharat Chouragade, to explain the benefits of cow urine. "I don't think cows' urine can cure cancer," Chouragade said. "What it can do is enhance the effects of the modern cures for cancer." That disappointed Mansinghka, who later said of his Ayurvedic physician, "some people are misled by too much learning."
...
Mansinghka also spoke with great adoration about "the stunning work of professor Madan Mohan Bajaj, who has clearly proved how important cows are."
Professor Bajaj is from the Delhi University's department of physics and astrophysics. He has spent 14 years investigating the effects of animal slaughter on earthquakes, air crashes and other disasters. "The killing of animals causes natural and manmade disasters," Bajaj said. "But, since the cow is so useful to human beings, its slaughter causes exceptional seismic activity. The cries of the animals go down to the earth through Einsteinian pain waves."

[Via Sepia Mutiny]

We would like to draw to your attention our restraint in not using the obvious headline for this post.

Blogged for thee by @ 7:46 AM | 2 Comments | Post a Comment | Link Love? |

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Defenestrate this

And while the entire blog world is throwing its collective hat into the air over the fact that "blog" was Merriam-Webster Online's Word of the Year (why the merriment, i'm not exactly sure - that citation simply means that more people didn't know what the hell that word meant than any other), we were thrilled to see "defenestrate" creep in at number ten on the list. (You: "So, like, you're dumping on bloggers getting whooped up about people being confused enough about their raison d'etre to go look it up, but you're happy that an obscure word that you actually remember the meaning of - having looked it up dozens of times, thereby probably single-handedly pushing it into the top ten - also confused people, but less?" Zig: "Erm, uh, well, yeah.")

Blogged for thee by @ 8:30 PM | 0 Comments | Post a Comment | Link Love? |

Friday, December 03, 2004

Remembering Bhopal

Greenpeace activists in fifteen countries, and seven Indian cities, including Bhopal, will hold candlelight vigils and form human chains. In Switzerland, they will deliver an exact replica of the memorial statue in Bhopal to the DOW European headquarters in Zurich. Photo exhibitions showing people impacted by the poisoned gas and the contamination of the site are being held in Belgium, France, Australia, India, Slovakia and China, among others.

Here's the India schedule for today:

Bangalore:
Join the dharna on Dec 3rd morning 11 am to 2 pm at the same venue as above.
Paint the Solidarity Canvas on Dec 3rd morning, 11.00 am to 2.00pm at the same venue as above.
Sign the petition in support of the International campaign for Justice for Bhopal.

Chennai:
11am to 1 pm
Human Chain from Gandhi statue to Light house
2pm to 5pm
Bhopal Show at Diocese Pastoral Centre, New # 25, Rosary Church Rd (Kutcherry Road) towards Santhome End. Mylapore, Chennai-4.

Delhi:
Candle light vigil at Amar Jawan Jyoti, 'C' Park India Gate

Pune:
Candle light vigil, at Balgandharva Rang Mandir.

Chandigarh:
Non-violent protest & candle light vigil at Sector 17 Plaza.

Mumbai:
Candle light vigil in front of the Gateway of India.

Bhopal:
Take part in 4 day activities - we will have a booth to showcase GP work on Bhopal on one day

Kanpur:
Raghu Rai Photo exhibition at IIT Kanpur at the International Conference on the 20th Anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy "Bhopal and its Effects on Process Safety."

For more info, contact:
Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace India campaigner in Bhopal, + 91 98 45535418
Zeina Al-Hajj, Greenpeace International campaigner, + 31 6 531 28904
Cecilia Goin, Greenpeace International media officer, +31 6 212 96908
For photos, Laura Lombardi: +31 6 46 16 20 09;
for video, Hester van Meurs: + 31 6 29 00 11 35

We will be at Gateway, influenza permitting. See you there?

Blogged for thee by @ 1:46 PM | 0 Comments | Post a Comment | Link Love? |

Thursday, December 02, 2004

@$#%ing good link

How do i love thee. Let me tell you in 165 languages. Let's start with "Matae ka sana sa pantalon mo." You'll find that in the Tagalog (or Pilipino) page.

Blogged for thee by @ 7:28 AM | 0 Comments | Post a Comment | Link Love? |


zigzackly's omnium-gatherum *
Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Like you haven't had enough of us already.. Blogger profile, older photographs, Flickr album, Picassa album, Facebook profile, Ryze page, Orkut page, LinkedIn page, published articles. Guest bloggers: Hurree and Annie Reactions, suggestions, any kind of feedback is always welcome. CollaBlogs infested: Jugalbandi; Caferati's blog; blogolepsy; indi³; We, the Media; Son of CSF. Now and then, when Hurree needs a holiday, i pinch-hit at Kitabkhana. And of course, the wonderful World Wide Help group blogs, which include: The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog and TsunamiHelp Wiki \| MumbaiHelp \| Cloudburst Mumbai \| KatrinaHelp Blog and Wiki \| RitaHelp \| South Asia Quake Help \| Site feed: Atom or Feedburner. We endorse, approve of, and throughly adore: The Babu Annie Megha Calvin and Hobbes Frazz The funniest page on the web Luciferous Logolepsy Wired Google News Books at the Guardian Wikipedia Hobson-Jobson A.Word.A.Day List of Bests Word Spy Literary Encyclopedia Other Thieves of our Time [!] = updated in the last 24 hours Blogroll me? Recent Posts I'm a Bhopali So we should all stop linking to Newscorp stuff? The (Twitter) Gospel according to St Peter Celebrate Bandra Festival Souvenir - Call for Subm... Godawful Poetry Fortnight - 4 Godawful Poetry Fortnight - 3 Godawful Poetry Fortnight - 2 Godawful Poetry Fortnight - Guest Post 1 Godawful Poetry Fortnight - 1 Son of Godawful Poetry Fortnight - 19th - 31st Aug... D Mervin Ffingir writes, and having writ, moves on: September 2003 \| December 2003 \| January 2004 \| February 2004 \| March 2004 \| April 2004 \| May 2004 \| June 2004 \| July 2004 \| August 2004 \| September 2004 \| October 2004 \| November 2004 \| December 2004 \| January 2005 \| February 2005 \| March 2005 \| April 2005 \| May 2005 \| June 2005 \| July 2005 \| August 2005 \| September 2005 \| October 2005 \| November 2005 \| December 2005 \| January 2006 \| February 2006 \| March 2006 \| April 2006 \| May 2006 \| June 2006 \| July 2006 \| August 2006 \| September 2006 \| October 2006 \| November 2006 \| December 2006 \| January 2007 \| February 2007 \| March 2007 \| April 2007 \| May 2007 \| June 2007 \| July 2007 \| August 2007 \| September 2007 \| October 2007 \| November 2007 \| December 2007 \| January 2008 \| February 2008 \| March 2008 \| April 2008 \| May 2008 \| June 2008 \| July 2008 \| August 2008 \| November 2008 \| December 2008 \| January 2009 \| March 2009 \| April 2009 \| May 2009 \| June 2009 \| July 2009 \| August 2009 \| September 2009 \| November 2009 \| December 2009 \|	Monday, December 27, 2004 Tsunami help Please pass this URL around: http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/ You can use it to post any info you have on: where to send money, what kind of help is needed, aid organisations, helplines, infolines, email addresses, phone numbers news updates etc You can post it in the comments section, or post yourself. Mail me at zigzackly@gmail.com and i'll send you an invitation. Blogged for thee by @ 6:22 PM \| 0 Comments \| Post a Comment \| Link Love? \| Sunday, December 26, 2004 Plus ça change... A year ago, when i had just started blogging regularly, i said: If you're dropping by today, you need a life. [...] A very happy Christmas to all of you. And may the spirit of the season last all year through. Hm. The fact that i'm posting today - what does that say about me? So this is an appropriate time to figure out out whether this thing is more than just a thief of time. And it's also year end, when everyone's doing this, so indulge me, please. i haven't blogged with any degree of regularity in the recent past. Because i've been busy, yes, but also because i've been [shudder] introspecting. When i started, i was pretty sure i wanted to do a filter blog, not a Dear Diary - after all, the workings of my mind are not of interest to the world at large, unlike a certain multidimensional artist and author, or this talented young writer i know. When it came to specialist blogs, i knew i couldn't hold a candle to Hurree's hugely well-informed and entertaining lit-blogging, or Dina's well-researched and comprehensive views on networking and social issues, to name just two. So Zigzackly became a generalist blog, one of many, many, many. The numbers haven't been that interesting - a little short of 4k vistors since i installed a counter in March. Zz hasn't become a must-read to thousands (which may not be a bad thing - the pressure!), or got me a book deal (again not a bad thing, because i honestly don't have a book in me), and i haven't acquired a life that's different in any major way (this i wouldn't mind). The positives. My belief in blogs grew, and along the way, i also archived some of my press work in another blog and started a secret blog in which i unleashed my poetry on an unsuspecting world. In August, i midwifed a CollaBlog that has grown, both in readership and participation, beyond anything i expected. And there's another community blog that is also showing signs of going places that Zig would never be able to get to alone. And i'm also into a collaboration which has helped me produce some verse i'm actually happy with. i also discovered blogrolls, and RSS readers (and now subscribe to more blogs than i have time to read) and got involved with a group of writers via Ryze, and started a site that i hope will soon grow into something big... And here's what i've been asking myself. Is this blog any more than a personal set of bookmarks that's easily accessed as long as i'm near a net connection? And, Faithful Reader, i guess i'm asking you that question too. If you visit regularly, or subscribe to this feed or this one, what do you like about this blog? What do you want to see? i shall have to think about this a bit longer, i think. Meanwhile, i'd love to hear what you have to say. Won't be blogging much for the nonce. Next week, i go North, to maybe scout around for some rich clients and gullible editors and suchlike in our nation's capital, but mainly to laze around and eat the Babu and Partner out of two houses and homes for a bit, and perhaps meet for the first time MarginAlien and Putu, and maybe Jabberwock and all my other Delhi buddies. Hope you're having a great Christmas season, love to you and yours, and in case i forget to post, may 2005 be wonderful for you. Blogged for thee by @ 1:58 AM \| 3 Comments \| Post a Comment \| Link Love? \| Monday, December 06, 2004 RSS feed Nope, not the kind that we have so kindly provided for you on the left so you can use a reader to get updates from this blog. We're referring to them gents in the starched, ballooning khaki shorts. Aside from their efforts to rewrite history, they're now revolutionising science, with their tests on, er, bovine excreta. Some excerpts from Manu Joseph's article in Wired News: Bhanwarlal Kothari, a senior member of the RSS, said, "Our tests have shown that distemper made out of cow dung and spread over walls and roofs can block nuclear radiation." ... Sunil Mansinghka runs Go-vigyan Anusandhan Kendra, an outfit "devoted to R&D on the role of cows." At four every morning, VHP workers stand with bottles beside their cows, waiting for them to urinate voluntarily so that the workers can collect the waste for future research. ... "We believe that cows' urine can cure cancer, renal failure, arthritis and a lot of other ailments," Mansinghka said. "We are working hard to test and prove these claims." He summoned one of his researchers, an Ayurvedic physician named Bharat Chouragade, to explain the benefits of cow urine. "I don't think cows' urine can cure cancer," Chouragade said. "What it can do is enhance the effects of the modern cures for cancer." That disappointed Mansinghka, who later said of his Ayurvedic physician, "some people are misled by too much learning." ... Mansinghka also spoke with great adoration about "the stunning work of professor Madan Mohan Bajaj, who has clearly proved how important cows are." Professor Bajaj is from the Delhi University's department of physics and astrophysics. He has spent 14 years investigating the effects of animal slaughter on earthquakes, air crashes and other disasters. "The killing of animals causes natural and manmade disasters," Bajaj said. "But, since the cow is so useful to human beings, its slaughter causes exceptional seismic activity. The cries of the animals go down to the earth through Einsteinian pain waves." [Via Sepia Mutiny] We would like to draw to your attention our restraint in not using the obvious headline for this post. Blogged for thee by @ 7:46 AM \| 2 Comments \| Post a Comment \| Link Love? \| Sunday, December 05, 2004 Defenestrate this And while the entire blog world is throwing its collective hat into the air over the fact that "blog" was Merriam-Webster Online's Word of the Year (why the merriment, i'm not exactly sure - that citation simply means that more people didn't know what the hell that word meant than any other), we were thrilled to see "defenestrate" creep in at number ten on the list. (You: "So, like, you're dumping on bloggers getting whooped up about people being confused enough about their raison d'etre to go look it up, but you're happy that an obscure word that you actually remember the meaning of - having looked it up dozens of times, thereby probably single-handedly pushing it into the top ten - also confused people, but less?" Zig: "Erm, uh, well, yeah.") Blogged for thee by @ 8:30 PM \| 0 Comments \| Post a Comment \| Link Love? \| Friday, December 03, 2004 Remembering Bhopal Greenpeace activists in fifteen countries, and seven Indian cities, including Bhopal, will hold candlelight vigils and form human chains. In Switzerland, they will deliver an exact replica of the memorial statue in Bhopal to the DOW European headquarters in Zurich. Photo exhibitions showing people impacted by the poisoned gas and the contamination of the site are being held in Belgium, France, Australia, India, Slovakia and China, among others. Here's the India schedule for today: Bangalore: Join the dharna on Dec 3rd morning 11 am to 2 pm at the same venue as above. Paint the Solidarity Canvas on Dec 3rd morning, 11.00 am to 2.00pm at the same venue as above. Sign the petition in support of the International campaign for Justice for Bhopal. Chennai: 11am to 1 pm Human Chain from Gandhi statue to Light house 2pm to 5pm Bhopal Show at Diocese Pastoral Centre, New # 25, Rosary Church Rd (Kutcherry Road) towards Santhome End. Mylapore, Chennai-4. Delhi: Candle light vigil at Amar Jawan Jyoti, 'C' Park India Gate Pune: Candle light vigil, at Balgandharva Rang Mandir. Chandigarh: Non-violent protest & candle light vigil at Sector 17 Plaza. Mumbai: Candle light vigil in front of the Gateway of India. Bhopal: Take part in 4 day activities - we will have a booth to showcase GP work on Bhopal on one day Kanpur: Raghu Rai Photo exhibition at IIT Kanpur at the International Conference on the 20th Anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy "Bhopal and its Effects on Process Safety." For more info, contact: Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace India campaigner in Bhopal, + 91 98 45535418 Zeina Al-Hajj, Greenpeace International campaigner, + 31 6 531 28904 Cecilia Goin, Greenpeace International media officer, +31 6 212 96908 For photos, Laura Lombardi: +31 6 46 16 20 09; for video, Hester van Meurs: + 31 6 29 00 11 35 We will be at Gateway, influenza permitting. See you there? Blogged for thee by @ 1:46 PM \| 0 Comments \| Post a Comment \| Link Love? \| Thursday, December 02, 2004 @$#%ing good link How do i love thee. Let me tell you in 165 languages. Let's start with "Matae ka sana sa pantalon mo." You'll find that in the Tagalog (or Pilipino) page. Blogged for thee by @ 7:28 AM \| 0 Comments \| Post a Comment \| Link Love? \|	Note: [*] = The site linked to requires registration. Zig's on Twitter Follow, all ye who must know more. Words We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually produce a masterpiece. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. ~ Eyler Coates to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting ~ e e cummings In three words i can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on. ~ Robert Frost Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything; That's how the light gets in. ~ Leonard Cohen May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. ~ Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989) I fell in love – that is the only expression I can think of – at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behavior very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy. ~ Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet, short-story writer, and playwright, "Poetic Manifesto" in the Texas Quarterly, Winter 1961 A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. ~Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955) The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger. ~ W. Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965) In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. ~ Al Rogers Assumptions are the termites of relationships. ~ Henry Winkler, actor (1945- ) Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. ~ George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880) Either you think - or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind. ~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, author (1689-1762) Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching. ~ Satchel Paige Fake it till you make it. ~ (Heard on West Wing) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Follow this blog