Anonymity (Part II) & Voyeurs (Part I)

What is it about the internet that makes people divulge intimate details of their life to total strangers?

What is it about the internet that makes people want to read those obscure tidbits from someone else’s life?

Does everyone have a little voyeur inside them waiting to break free? Has the internet broken an invisible barrier?

Are we reveling because we can rummage through other people’s dirty laundry while still maintaining the capability to switch it off anytime or are we ecstatic that we can share our darkest deepest secrets without fear of social stigma or retribution?

Have we all become Anonymous Voyeurs?

Obsessed (Part VI) or (How Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged changed my life)

I woke up with Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged on my mind

For those who haven’t heard of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged was-indeed, one of the Universe's very small number of immortal beings. His life being infinitely prolonged and in dire need of a calling which would give some meaning and direction to his existence, he decided to insult everyone in the Universe in alphabetic order.*

I had to emulate Wowbagger. Make an alphabetic list of all the blogs, visit all the blogs, read one posting in each blog and leave a comment on each blog, maybe even an insulting one.

The Blog Herald as of October 2005 has estimated the total number of blogs to be over 100 million out of which only 55 % of all blogs are truly active blogs. Now that gives me 55 million (55,000,000) blogs. I would need 740.68 years to read one posting per active blog**. Unfortunately (or may fortunately) I am just finitely prolonged.

Maybe I should start looking for about 30 people, who love to read blogs 364x17, then maybe we have a shot at cracking it in about 25 years; or maybe I should try and spin this off as a research project; I better start looking for some government agency to fund this.

* More information about Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged can be found here, here and here.
** Assuming I read a posting in 5 minutes and I surf for about 17 hours daily for 364 days a year, and not taking into account any new blogs being created.

Nothing Tuesday

I still have “Nothing”, hence I am celebrating Tuesday as “Nothing Tuesday”. Going forward “Nothing Tuesday” will be a celebration of all the Nothingness.

Rules for “Nothing Tuesday” are simple –

1. First post every Tuesday must be about “Nothing”.


2. If you can define, categorize or name the post then it does not qualify as “Nothing”. (Except for posts defined, categorized or named as “Nothing Tuesday”)


3. All “Nothing Tuesday” posts should be named “Nothing Tuesday”.

Still Clueless (Part XIV)

Since I still had not progressed beyond “Nothing”, didn’t bother posting my “Nothing’s” the last couple of days.

Spent most of the weekend reading other peoples blogs. All this reading reinforced my view that anonymity is truly empowering. The phenomenon of HNT, illustrates it more than anything else. Incase someone is as clueless as I was when I started to encounter HNT; HNT is Half-Nekkid Thursday (aka Half Naked Thursday).

Search for something to celebrate the other days of the week resulted in finding the following –
Middle Finger Monday (MFM)
WHY Wednesday (WHTW)
WTF Friday (WTFF)

Maybe I should come up with something to celebrate “Nothing”. Are the Tuesday’s, Saturday’s & Sunday’s still free?

How about “Nothing Tuesday”?

Rules for “Nothing Tuesday” will be very simple –

1. First post every Tuesday must be about “Nothing”


2. If you can define, categorize or name the post then it does not qualify as “Nothing”


3. All “Nothing Tuesday” post’s should be named “Nothing Tuesday”

Still Clueless (Part XIII) & Slightly Obsessed (Part V)

Some folks were kind enough to leave comments on my blog. Comments ranged from - “Is this an experiment?” to “put something other than “Nothing””.

Easier said that done. Being challenged in more than one way, and if anyone bothers to check my previous posting (would not advice anyone to do so, I wouldn’t do it even if you paid me too), that is the problem!

I seem to be incapable of putting anything other than “Nothing” on my blog. If any one has any takes on how to remedy this, knock your self out, let me know, I am open to try nearly anything.

Between being obsessed with my blog and being unable to  generate anything other than “Nothings”, I have taken up reading other peoples blog with vigor, hoping I may be able to convert my “Nothing?” by sheer rub off effect. Have decided to post a generic comment “An elegant & precise expression of such a wonderful thought”, nothing personal about that but I believe this one is better then the “hmmm” & “wonderful”, just hoping that by reading a lots of blogs I might be able to remedy the “Nothing” situation quickly.

Still Clueless (Part XII)

Anonymity is very empowering.

Amazing how people open up on their blogs. I guess being able to put down words in a virtual medium where you are just a “profile” to the world is quite liberating.

Some of the content out there is awe inspiring, people pour out their hearts, spill their guts, sing like a canary, express political views and  expound on things that need expounding,  etc. etc.

Are these people, so expressive in real life? Makes you wonder is it anonymity?

Slightly Obsessed (Part IV)

Did not get a chance to blog in the morning, had to attend a meeting, tried to talk my way out of it, until someone very gently reminded me that I had called the meeting.

Underwent separation anxiety, kept smiling through the four hour ordeal, had one of those fixed fake smiles on my face and added in the occasional “is that so”, “we should” & “lets add that to takeaways” while my mind was going “How many hits? Hmmm, I am sure it will be 450 by the time I check it in the afternoon. I hope people leave some nice comments? I really need to get something other than this nothing”

Am I obsessed with my blog? Or is this normal for any new blogger?

Slightly Obsessed (Part III)

Need to increase visibility, need hundreds of people to visit my blog and go “Wow, really how did you manage to get all this “Nothing”?

The following is what I will be doing next –

1. Visit all the blogs I visited yesterday.


2. Visit some of the blogs recommended.


3. Actually read one posting, leave a comment, say “hmmm”.

Is being “Slightly Clueless” and generating “Nothing” better than being “Slightly Obsessed” about “Nothing”?

Slightly Obsessed (Part II)

I am sure I am getting obsessed with my blog.

Statcounter.com is quite neat; they offer some pretty nifty tools. Here is the geographical distribution of the folks who had visited until last night -

#     %          Country Name
49     73.13     United States
4     5.97          Canada
3     4.48          Australia
2     2.99          Bulgaria
1     1.49          France
1     1.49          Germany
1     1.49          Saudi Arabia
1     1.49          Japan
1     1.49          New Zealand
1     1.49          Indonesia
1     1.49          United Kingdom
1     1.49          Russian Federation
1     1.49          Hong Kong

Here is the distribution about an hour back –

#     %          Country Name
81     92.05     United States
3     3.41          Canada
1     1.14          Unknown
1     1.14          United Kingdom
1     1.14          India
1     1.14          Australia

Spent a couple of hours juggling with web traffic data categorized by Visitor Paths, Pages Visited, Visit Length … . Major information overload.

I am getting obsessed with this blogging jazz.

More importantly, I am getting obsessed with how many people visit my site, even though the substance on the blog is not even crap, it’s “Nothing”.

Still Clueless (Part XI) & Slightly Obsessed (Part I)

I think I am getting obsessed with my blog.

The following is what I will be doing next –

1. Visit all the blogs I visited yesterday.


2. Visit some of the blogs recommended.


3. Without reading anything, leave a comment, say “Wonderful” at each of the blogs.

Lets see how much visibility I can generate with “Nothing”?

Still Clueless (Part X)

Kept reading other’s blogs hoping it would improve the visibility of my blog.

I think people need to read my “Nothing’s”, it will help them realize that once they can endure my “Nothing’s”, everything else will seem awesome.

Anyway read the following blogs –

http://thinkerwoman.blogspot.com
http://abigaillauren.blogspot.com
http://fogandlawbooks.blogspot.com
http://wildindianfood.blogspot.com


People put so much stuff on their blogs. Me, I still got “Nothing”.

Still Clueless (Part IX)

Another piece of advice he gave, was to read other blogs and to pass superficially nice comments on them such a “nice”, “awesome”, “interesting” etc. etc.. This according to him might encourage them to visit my blog and hence increase the visibility of my blog.

Visibility of my blog! Why would want people to read my “Nothing’s”

Read the following blogs and did as advised -

http://atavistical.blogspot.com/
http://ruinsoftheday.blogspot.com/
http://nistologia.blogspot.com/
http://onceuponamilton.blogspot.com/
http://www.thismink.com/
http://candyfight.blogspot.com/
http://kix24.blogspot.com/
http://pedrosnyc.blogspot.com/
http://makeupaddicts.blogspot.com/
http://graceandrew.blogspot.com/

Two hours of reading. Amazed, that is at the fact that I still got “Nothing”.

Still Clueless (Part VIII)

This gentleman also advised me to add a “tracker” to my blog. His recommendation was http://www.statcounter.com .

Very confused, why would I need a “stat counter” on my blog. Why would I want to keep track of people visiting, if any, to read “Nothing”?

Still Clueless (Part VII)

Attempted to make headway by picking the brains of a colleague at work,  after hearing my story for about ½ minute he give me a 2 minute version of “how to blog?” and winded it up with a 20 minute spiel on “IPL and CCL“.

While he kept hammering in the importance of protecting once intellectual property rights and how someone he knew had these wonderful stories, anecdotes which were stolen by someone else who wrote a book/made a movie and has made a ton, I was wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to plagiarize stuff from my blog, since I have nothing by pot loads of “Nothing” on site yet!

Anyway visited http://creativecommons.org did the needful and my “Nothings” are now protected by CCL.

Still Clueless (Part VI)

Having been unable to get nothing other than “Nothing” on my blog, sought the advice of some friends who have integrated the art of blogging into their daily life.

Advice varied from “have lots to drink, that should drown your inhibitions … ” to  “Relax, sleep, chill out, meditate, do yoga etc. etc. ….”

The following chronicle my desperate attempts. Friday night had a lot to drink. Nothing. Saturday morning major hangover. Head’s hurting but continued drinking (Gatorade this time). Still nothing. Saturday night decided to take another shot at the drinking option. Went out and had tons to drink. Still nothing. Sunday chilled out, I mean really chilled out. Still nothing. In desperation decided to practice the precise art of having my head make contact with the wall and generate a “thump” sound in exact intervals of 5 seconds in hope that it would awaken some brain cells. Still nothing.

Monday morning. Still nothing.

Still Clueless (Part V)

Thump thump thump …….. (Sound of head making contact with wall, in a futile attempt to get brain cells stimulated)
Na, still nothing.

Still Clueless (Part IV)

Nothing Nothing Nothing ......

Still Clueless (Part III)

Tons of nothing.

Still Clueless (Part II)

Still more nothing

Still Clueless

Nothing yet.....

Clueless

Clueless . Whatever comes to mind seems either to be too trifle, redundant, puerile, etc. etc.