Welcome back
A big welcome back to good ol’ me 
. Last post was almost 3 months ago (just a day before my birthday) and it took “the blogger formerly known as sansmerci” to make me realize its been a long time since i posted anything here.
It’s been an amazing 3 months of sorts. One of my dreams came true (finally). I quit my job and started my own company. Since then it’s been a wonderful time – learning a lot, finding out a lot and most of all, free to do what i want to do.
While it had been that for me personally, there was this pressure from work and trying to please people who just did not understand how things worked. Not to blame them, but then that’s something i cannot stand. Forcing me to do things against my principles and getting blamed for someone’s else mistake was a bit too much to take for me. The last company i was working for, well, less said the better about them. I learnt how not to run a company there. Driven by greed for money, every action and every little thing was for money and money only.
Tried to hold as far as possible, eventually we both just couldn’t co-exist. With people bitching about one another, constantly trying to bring the other person down, all it took was a short meeting to decide my priorities and i was out on April 6th.
And i glad to be out of it. I have been doing a lot of things, meeting a lot of great people, writing new poems and ofcourse enjoying life since then.
But sadly, i also came face to face with a reality i cannot ignore… I am getting old 
More in the next post in a couple of days 
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
It’s been a long time since i wrote here something proper and meaningful.
Except for the occasional “i am alive” kind of messages, i have’nt actually written anything worthwhile in the last six months.
Without delving into the reasons for the low level of activity, what is now important is the way forward.
The future holds a lot of promise and definitely has a lot in store for me – both personally and professionally. Things that I thought were going to happen have not. Things that I did not think would happen have.
A nice article on design and hosting
The Internet is a good place if you want to look at some beautiful design. There are thousands of websites that have managed to create something beautiful out of nothing. And then there are those sites that have managed to do the exact opposite.
With this in mind we thought that it was about time that we published an article with common mistakes as well as tips on the best ways to design a great website. However, before we get into any details do have to mention that web design and hosting go hand in hand. You simply will not be able to create a stabile website without supreme hosting so make sure that you only get the best web hosting services.
Common Mistakes
Overusing bandwidth
If you have partnered up with a solid web host you probably will not have any issues with the bandwidth but it still causes problems for some sites that have heavy graphics. Important to remember is that will not only have to think about your bandwidth – heavy graphics can be troubling for people with poor Internet connection.
Complex graphics
Avoid complex graphics, such as Flash. It may happen that your site will not get indexed by search engine spiders if you do and we can promise you that your visitors will not like the idea of having to download a plugin to be able to see your site.
Poor navigation
Remember that less is more on the web. If a website is too cluttered, with links and images, you can count on your visitors not knowing what to do and hence clicking out instead.
Tips on what to do
Create pages
One of the best ways to increase the authority of your website is in increasing the number of pages. More pages will get indexed by search engines and it will also increase the chances of inbound links. Remember though what we said above – keep it user-friendly and easily navigated.
Remember internal linking
When designing a website is, as you probably understand by now, not only important to design the site with the search engines in mind – the visitors are just as important. Link within your content so that your visitors easily can navigate back and forth.
It’s Spring Time
Spring is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) being born. The term is also used more generally as a metaphor for the start of better times.
Well, that’s right. Only a couple of days before a dream becomes a reality. How i set to go about living in that dream is a different question but everything happens one at a time.
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
Coffee break – Search Camp
It’s that time when things are discussed, settled and finalized over a cuppa. Since Jan ‘09, the thought has been slowly creeping in my mind and in the last few days the same has been bolstered by the happenings at work and the ever growing frustration that seem to have attached itself to it.
I have been giving a serious thought to a whole lot of things and at the current scenario, it’s just a matter of weeks before the inevitable happens.
So, until such time my posts will be a lot more sporadic while i am officially on a coffee break!
Btw, i will be attending Search Camp – the biggest search marketing conference in india scheduled to take place on 28th February & 1st March 2009.
If you are going to be there, buzz me and we can catch up!
image courtesy: stock.xchng
What a start!
What an amazing start to 2009. Everything was going well, when out of the blue my sites stopped responding on Jan 3rd. What happened afterwards was utter chaos, madness and tension at the highest level. Traffic to my sites surged and my dedicated server was not prepared for such a surge. The host came up a lot of reasons, but after 9 days i had enough of them.
Yep, all my sites were down for over 9 days. Eventually i decided enough is enough, can’t have more downtime and risk losing everything i had built up over the last few months, so ditched them and moved to a better host and a better server.
I guess in more than one way, this signifies the start of something new. Stuff that i had been pushing away are slowly coming to the surface, with a little help from close friends. Things that should have happened much earlier are finally(hopefully) seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. While it is exciting to be on the verge of a new journey, it sure is confusing and weighs me down with a lot of a pressure, responsibilites and questions for which i have no answers.
But, only when i embark on that i will find the answers and this time i am more than prepared to face it and i am pretty confident it will work out perfectly fine!
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. – Lin Yutang
Happy Holidays
Wish you all a Happy and Joyous Christmas and New Year. Back in 09
35 ways to make lasting friends
Here is a list of 35 ways of creating and cultivating lasting friendships.
1.Know yourself. In order to make friends, we need to know who we are. You may want to check out this article and work out what is special about you. If you are not clear on what your life purpose is, these questions will help you.
2. Check whether you really want to have friends. If you’re secretly afraid of people, or don’t trust other, you will find it difficult to make friends.
3. Spend time around people. You can’t find friends in the cupboard.
4. Be kind. Look at what you can do for other to make their life easier.
5. Be steady and dependable. Be a friend one can count on.
6. Be genuine. Don’t try and be someone you’re not. Friendship is built on honesty.
7. Join groups and pursue activities that you enjoy. You are more likely to find friends who have common interests.
8. When travelling, talk to everyone you meet. This advice was given to me by my son Sebastian and I’ve made wonderful friendships following it.
9. Become a volunteer. You’ll find people who have a similar set of values which is a great basis for a friendship.
10. Talk to people. You’ll spend a lot of time in groups without making friends if you don’t talk with people.
11. Make eye contact and smile when you communicate people.
12. Be positive. If you only talk negatively about yourself, others, or life in general, people will not enjoy your company.
13. Remember names. If you find that difficult, ask the person again until you’ve really got it.
14. Initiate a get-together. If you meet someone you like, ask them out for a coffee or arrange another meeting. An easy way to do that is to say something like: A good way to extend yourself is to say: "Well, I’ve got to go, but if you ever want to talk over lunch or coffee or anything like that, let me give you my number/e-mail address."
15. Find common interests. Ask how he or she pursues their interest. Are they a member of a club or society? Express an interest in joining.
16. Tell your friend that you enjoy their company. Many friendships are lost because neither person finds the courage to express their interest.
17. Beware of sexual flings with friend. Many friendships don’t survive it.
18. Be glad for your friends successes. Be the only person they can tell how well they’re doing.
19. Don’t compromise your values. Keep you standards of morality and behaviour and don’t change them just to fit in with friend or a group.
20. Don’t gossip. If a new friend hears you revealing personal stories of others, he or she will be wary of your discretion.
21. Ask the other person open-ended questions about their life. Open-ended questions are ones that can’t be answered by saying ‘yes’, or ‘no’.
22. Share more deeply with a friend. Let them know what your life feels like. This is key difference between a friend and an acquaintance.
23. Keep the sharing equal. Don’t hog the time with your problems.
24. Have even roles in the relationship. If you notice that you are always the listener and she the star.
25. Switch roles regularly in your friendships. If there is one who always calls the shots, the friendship won’t last.
26. Listen to your friend. Listening is the number one glue of friendships.
27. Keep confidences. Nothing kills a budding friendship faster than spilled secrets.
28. Allow your friend to help you. Give and take has to be balanced in a friendship.
29. Share the bad times. Help your friend when things go bad. Allow your friends to help you when times are difficult.
30. Keep contact. Check in regularly with your friend. A short text message, email or phone call keeps a friendship alive.
31. Don’t crowd your friend. Make sure you don’t overwhelm — or even stalk — him or her.
32. Share bonding activities. Have some adventures together and play together. To foster long-lasting friendships, create common memories.
33. Keep talking through difficult times. Don’t let disagreements fester.
34. If there is a rift, apologize for the hurt you caused. It’s more important to keep your friendship going than to be ‘right’.
35. If a friendship is damaging your life or your family relationships, you may need to let it go. This can be a difficult decision. Weigh up how important this friendship is for you against the disturbance it brings into your life.
Source/Courtesy: posted by Mary Jaksch on ibnlive
Disaster, Mourning and Tired
Last couple of days has been really hectic and crazy. I just got stuck with a lot of crazy **** that by the end of the day, I was completely tired and exhausted.
I tried to sleep during the weekend, but one of my web site decided to go down because of a stupid upgrade issues. One whole day was spent on trying to fix it up only to see the custom design that I had done wouldn’t work after upgrade. I had to spend the whole of Saturday night fixing it up and making it proper.
On Sunday, a major disaster happened. The phone that I bought only 3 weeks ago was completely rendered useless due to a mix-up. Accidentally the phone went into a bucket full of water and only after 20-25 minute I realized the phone was not with me. By that time, it was too late. I could save only the SIM card and nothing else. According to the shop from where I bought it, they had ordered only one phone from the main dealer and I was the only one who bought it from them till yesterday. FYI, I had a Sony Ericsson W980 and it costed me almost 500 USD (Rs. 24,500).
Now, for the last two days I have been roaming around like a zombie wondering which phone I should buy next or whether to buy the same phone again. I do not like Nokia for reasons beyond reasoning. I have been using only Sony Ericsson for the last 4 years.
Because of this, I am completely zapped on what to write my poem on. I did have some ideas on Saturday, but after Sunday everything is blank right now
