What do you want to be when u grow up?!

How many of us were not bugged by the question when we were kids?!! One thing that particularly interests me is the answers: Doctor, Engineer, Actor, Singer, Writer etc. etc…

Isn’t that too early to decide.. How can you want to be an Engineer at the age when you don’t really understand what is it all about… and no, being a Doctor doesn’t really mean prescribing medicines to sick people.

Even if we know what all it takes to be what we want to, shouldn’t we consider our Interests and Acumen while making a career decision?! Just because most of our classmates are opting for a course can we do the same… and if one thinks that a particular profession is more rewarding than another, it doesn’t hold true. But how do we get to know what are we good at? well, thats a tricky question!!

Why don’t we just let the kids grow up without thinking about what they want to become after a decade!! Why don’t we let them discover things themselves, use their imagination… They’ll come up with some creative answers for sure..

I like what Leo has to say about it. [see the video below]

What School Never Taught ME

Just another guy distressed by the schooling system; wondering why don’t they teach things that apply to the real world!!

Before you continue, have a look HERE because thats what I did before writing the post..

Since the day I left school, I always wondered why can’t I apply the learning in the real world; After a lot of research I discovered they don’t teach anything worth it… Real world applications require no formal schooling or the big theorems which I learnt after taking so much of troubles..

Now I better understand what Mark Twain meant when he said:

“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Hail Indiblogger

How do we measure the success of an event?? by the number of people attending it?? by the enthusiasm they carry!! By the smile they wear while leaving…

The Hyderabad Blogger Meet was no exception… When I read “1 minutes of fame” in the agenda, I thought it would be something akin to “30 seconds of fame” as in AXN!! Well, to my dismay, (and to my happiness too) it turned out to be the ice-breaking session wherein everyone had to fame their blogs (and themselves)!

It’s good to notice how everyone of us, despite being so different from each other, have a common platform to share.. Some sophisticated ppl named it blogging!!

The auditorium was full of people ranging from studens to business men to recruiters.. it had enthusiasm of the juvenile as well as the experience of the mature… A great combination of ppl from all walks of life with varied interests… From geeks to adoholics, from psychologists to mosquito enthusiasts, everyone had their unique (read interesting) reasons to join the world of blogging .

The comment reading session, wherein they had selected some comments from various blogs and the person owning the blog had to do the IndiBlogger Jig, showed great efforts on their part.. How can we forget Microsoft, for they hosted the meet.. I got to see the huge Microsoft campus and enjoy the ambiance there [as a by-product].

Then there was a session about the Windows Live Writer , a great blogging tool from Microsoft, meant for Windows users (sorry Linux and Mac ppl). Though it seems to be a great piece of software, I still prefer to use the WordPress interface..[Its like giving a flying kiss to your beloved when you can actually do it ]

As the session concluded, everyone had a great experience, which was pretty evident from their faces!! Great work by the team Indiblogger…

p.s. You can see the pics of the event here.

Few hours in the BarCamp

I got this chance to attend the BarCamp 5 by fluke.. One of the students from IIIT, Hyd was supposed to give a demo on “Mobile phone as Universal Remote Control.” I just thought to join him and I am happy I did..

It’s good to be there at the Google campus. Initially I thought it would be very technical stuff but to my surprise, topics like blogging and startup companies were also there. I enjoyed some of the talks and demos (and the food too )

Even the walls there yelled “It’s the Google office!!” I’ve had chances to visit offices of some more companies here, but none matched the elegance!

Coming back to the demo (They showed a prototype in which all the electronic gadgets, from electric bulb to DVD player, were controlled using cell phone through bluetooth), it got good response and many ppl came to talk to us about it.

I enjoyed the session on rich internet applications where the guy showed a mind blowing movie trailer demo, with high definition sound effects, in browser and the user interface for the travel website which was awesome!!

We got BarCamp t-shirts too!!

Life in Fast Forward

Life is not going the way it should (read, the way you want it).. Can I skip it and switch to something better(if only life were a TV channel ) déjà vu!!

Suppose if we could fast forward our lives, would you skip the time you don’t enjoy or would you rather enjoy life the way it is? I personally believe there is lots to learn from each moment the life offers, but given an option I’d rather skip some things. Life seems better after a year; what about the things I miss in the 1 yr: 1 spring, 1 B’day, few cricket matches..is that all??!!

It’s not the b’day thats the big deal, it’s the moment of happiness we enjoy together with friends or family; it’s not about few cricket matches, it’s about the excitment it brings that remains in our sub-conscious for ever.

Imagine if Mr Edison would have skipped his tough time of creating light bulb, the world wouldn’t have been the same!! There is wisdom in the words:

“I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.”

One can still cherish those moments, after all it’s the attitude that matters!! It’s like the glass being half full or half empty… did someone say: “The glass is not half full or half empty, its just double the size it should be!!”

WordPress Features

Apart from its simplicity and ease of use, I like the Changes in WordPress. It constantly keeps on changing for better!!

Little earlier was “Theme Preview”, “Charts”; “Posting Source code” earlier this month, and today I could make out Tags, which can be listed (separated by commas) in a text box below the post.

Its gud because I need not create a separate catagory to tag my posts anymore, which I used to do earlier, (the ganesha, firefox and other similer posts), to describe posts in more specific terms. It makes the posts structured, prevent catagories being messed up and avoid confusion!!

As they say: “Move With The Cheese!!”

Hail WordPress!! You Rock!!!