MyLifeIs?

A tweet I sent out a few days ago read: The MLIA server is down. FML.

I felt quite pleased with myself saying this; it was one of those rare oh-so-clever tweets that gave me a sense of accomplishment in life (Yes, I am this pathetic in person too). Had things gone according to plan, I would have continued feeling very snug in my pride for the rest of the day. But then I realised that not many of my fellow tweeters would have even understood the sentence, let alone appreciate it as proof of my wit and creativity. I'm not sure how many of my blog readers get it (I will love you forever if you do), but read on to figure it out.

For quite some time now, my online morning rituals (what have I come to?) have consisted of reading websites where people share snippets of their daily lives. Everyday, these stories inspire a gamut of emotions in me, ranging from uncontrollable roll-on-the-floor laughter to yuck-who-does-that disgust. I'm sure most of you already know some of these, but here's the list:

1. Fmylife (That's where the "FML" comes from!)
2. MylifeisG
3. Mylifeisaverage (More fondly referred to as MLIA -- this one's probably my favourite)

And to add a desi touch to the whole process, we have:

4. Mylifeisdesi.com
5. Thatsmydesilife.com

Yes, I know all this is a waste of time and I should actually be reading the news or doing something else equally constructive with my morning, but I can't help it! At the very outset, let me assure that I'm not the gossipy kinds. I don't care too much about what's happening in other people's lives, I can stomach a secret forever -- no, really, I can -- and more often than not, I don't remember enough of what someone told me to actually be able to repeat it.

Why then, do I care so much about reading random strangers' mini-journals, as one could call them? I thought about this a lot, and I'm sure some or the other communication theory I missed out on in the classroom can explain this addiction, but my reasons tend to be simpler.

1. They make me laugh - I would do most things for laughter. Best medicine or not, it feels awesome.

2. They make me feel like I'm not the only one - There are many-a-time in life when we need to know we're not alone. Be it the end of a relationship or a professional crisis, we'd like to know someone else emerged from it unscathed and stronger. And it's not something we need only in a negative situation. I'd like to know if all desi parents behave the same way and what have you here, this and this tell me that I'm not the most desi-ly brought up kid in the world!

3. They make me appreciate my life - As I said earlier, a lot of the stuff that people put up makes me feel disgusted with world. At the same time, it also makes me all that more thankful for the ostensibly small things in my world - the otherwise-great ex-bf, a normal family or the lack of weight problems. And of course, if you need to restore your faith in humanity on that odd-bleak day when you hate the world, just click here.

I don't know if any of these make sense, or if anyone else out there visits these websites for the same reasons. But I know I'm addicted. And very happily so. There's a story there for your every good, bad or average day. And I like thinking it could be mine.

They give, and they get by

Since I don't have much to do before school officially takes over my life, I decided to go visit places and do things around town. And did I luck out or what? I happened to chance upon a screening of Aron Gaudet's The Way We Get By, a documentary on three troop-greeters.

What's that, you ask? Well, not so far off from where I am is the Bangor International Airport in the state of Maine, and this happens to be the entry and exit point for U.S. troops going to and returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. These troop-greeters, as their name suggests, welcome the soldiers back into their country with big hugs, warm hand shakes, long conversations, cookies, free cellphones to call families and friends and well, basically anything else they can do to say thank you for their service. Seems nice and simple enough, doesn't it?

Well, it seems a lot nicer and not-so-simple when you realise that most of the troop-greeters are in their late 70s/early 80s. Bill Knight and Jerry Mundy, have served in the American armed forces themselves. Joan Gaudet, has grandchildren who have just returned -- safely, thank God -- from Iraq. All of them live alone and deal with issues that most of us are lucky enough to not have experienced -- debt, loneliness, failing health and well, watching your entire generation vanish before your eyes. Yet, they have welcomed more than 500,000 troops back to their country. Often, in the dead of night, and in the coldest weather imaginable. They don't have to do this, but the flights that they haven't greeted have been far and few in between over the past five-odd years.

Now, if that isn't admirable, I don't know is. Everyone should go watch this movie for the troop-greeters, if nothing else. They deserve to be recognized and appreciated, and we all have lessons we could learn from them. If you boil it down to its essence, the film is all about giving -- giving up your life to defend your country, giving your time and effort to appreciate someone, and giving someone the strength to face life's most difficult ordeals.

Really, you don't need to be a fan of America's foreign policy to appreciate this film. You don't need to agree with what they're doing in Iraq -- I don't. But that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the courage that it takes to leave behind your bed, your favourite local diner, your family, your TV, your dog, your books, your yet-unborn child -- everything you know and love -- all to go fight a war. I'm not quite sure how my country's soldiers, and soldiers all over the world do it, but they do. Year after year. War after war. Hats off to them.

Another reason to love Boston

So, my friend and I are driving back to my side of town when we see -- surprise, surprise -- this:

It helped that my friend is desi too - as we South Asians very proudly, and some not so proudly - refer to ourselves here. Our combined desiness, and the minor traffic jam we were stuck in, gave us a moment to let out loud, nostalgic sighs, exchange homesick glances, and look back at the sign like proud parents watching their kid's first stage performance.

Thank you, Boston for giving me another reason to love you :) You made me a little homesick, but that's okay.

Five reasons why I'm a bad blogger and one resolution that will hopefully make me better

I hate to admit it, but since honesty has always been one of my better-known virtues, I shall confess.

I am the worst blogger I know. It's true. It really is. My head is hanging in shame. It has taken me so long to face the truth, but I have finally garnered the strength to admit to my utterly shameful blogging performance.

Why, you ask? Well, if only I had one reason..

1. I post infrequently. A cursory look at the dates of my posts will tell you that I post once a month, twice if I'm being super-productive. For someone who is in love with the very concept of blogging, and is continuously researching and experimenting with it in a number of ways, that is an utterly shameful number. I am the lowest form of life on the blogosphere.

2. I obsess over content. I wait for things to happen before I react to them on the blog, which I'm not quite sure is a good thing for me to do. I have a lot to say, even without things happening -- just about stuff the way I see it. All of that deserves blogspace too.

So I'm not going to wait for Sarkozy to ban the burqa in his country before I log on and rip that pseudo-democrat apart. I will put up pictures, my favourite videos, quotations to share with those who visit this corner of the Web. That should make my blog a little less serious, a little less current-affairsy, a little more of a celebration, a little more like me. And it should take care of the infrequency.

3. I obsess over presentation. One of the reasons new media experts have attributed to blogging's success is its spontaneity. Me? I plan spontaneity. I, ladies and gentlemen, for no obvious reason, have taken it upon myself to change the rules of the game that is changing the way people and businesses communicate. Overambitious? Hardly. Perfectionist? Perhaps.

Whatever the reason might be, I will act anal about spelling, edit phrases till they are as clever as I want to them to be, ensure that no paragraph has strayed into another's territory and so on. Only when I have made countless pre- and post-publishing edits, do I let go. I am still in denial about my OCD, thank you for asking.

4. I've been blogging in other places. Shocked? Don't be. The more I blog, the more I wonder why I'm still on Blogger. I absolutely love my tumblelog, my microblog and I love what they're called. This is just a weblog. It's boring and it's passe, unless it's on Wordpress where everything is pretty and you don't need to be a computer scientist to make your blog look good.

5. My blog looks like something the cat dragged in. On second thought, this should probably be reason #1. But since we're being spontaneous and all, I'm not going to edit this.

I changed my background to white from black because reading white on black is harder than reading black on white. But will you look at how utterly boring it looks now!? Even my pretty little face on the upper right hand corner doesn't do anything. Neither do those many widgets I so lovingly adorned my blog with. Bah.

On that note, please check out Tumblr -- their themes are the most amazing ever. Thanks to them, it was love at first sight for me and Tumblah. I'm hoping this initial attraction translates into something more substantial, akin to my relationship with Twitter.

With the promise that this post will be published completely unedited (except for spellings/typos - come on, you have to give me that!), I do solemnly swear that I shall post every single day from now on. Even if it's just a picture I want to share. Even if it's a random comment about the weather. Even if it's Sarkozy being stupid again. Even if it's another self-analysis.

Simultaneously, it will be my constant endeavour to ensure that my blog doesn't degrade into the sort of general hogwash that is so pervasive on the blogosphere today. I hope it will still make some sense, I hope it will still be read and that more and more people will like it and visit it.

Amen.

Yay!

I got published in The Boston Globe. It's not everyday that something this exciting happens to me, so I thought I'd make a big deal out of it, and, as my friend said, blow my own horn.

I am doing so with all the modesty I can muster, might I add.