2008 & 2009

It's been a mixed year, like most others. Ups and downs, professional and personal. A year of very little interaction on LJ, though. I didn't post much, you guys didn't either. Blame it on Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and what have you. Blame it on laziness. Old age. Ennui.

Or perhaps blame it on the fact that society itself is moving towards instant gratification, capsule reviews, micro updates. No one wants to spend more than five minutes on anything anymore. And even if you do, why do you watch a movie? Because everyone's talking about it, because you won't be cool if you don't talk about it too. Why read a book? Because it's won the Booker and everyone's talking about it. Because the movie had millions of teenage girls queuing up, shrieking. Why have an opinion? You don't need to. Not when you can copy paste others viewpoints to your twitter.

I am getting old. 37 in a few months, for crying out loud! I never believed I would be this old, to be honest. Nor did I think I would lose this much hair.

And you guys have aged too. and , did you ever think you'd be a dad one day? , did you know you'd write for Rolling Stone magazine? , did you see yourself being rated India's #1 Twitter user?

What I'd like for 2009 though is to write more and read more. Read what you guys really think about these days. Put aside that damn Twitter or Facebook status update for a few minutes. Write about language, ! About Delhi, about Mumbai, . About comics, about music, . About technology, about the sheer magic of being a geek, . About life itself, all of you. Don't be comfortably numb. Please.

Happy New Year, everyone.

No more Mr Nice LJ

Great. For the first time, I'm unhappy with LJ. Not the site per se, but the management behind it. Take a look at this news post which sneaked in something totally under the radar. I had read it yesterday, dismissed it as another one of those crappy pat-ourselves-on-the-back announcements which don't mean anything much, but are harmless. Turns out a lot of LJers read it the same way, till this one comment. All hell broke loose after that, and I'm glad it did.

Check out 's view on this (thanks, ). was quick to respond to the user community with another post, making their position clear.

I have two problems with this. One is of course the fact that it is no longer possible for a new user to have a basic, ad-free account. The second is the sneaky, underhanded way this was announced to the LJ community:

Other changes you may have noticed are the logged-out homepage and registration process for new users. We streamlined and simplified things so that now it’s faster and easier than ever to create a LiveJournal account.

Right.

I had converted to a paid account a couple of months back. Not because I wanted the features offered, but I thought it was time I gave something back to LJ. This is my 7th year running on LiveJournal and I've benefited tremendously. Made some great friends, learnt a lot of interesting stuff, recruited some amazing people and frankly, had something to look forward to when I logged into my computer every day.

None of that changes, of course. But I'm no longer as big a fan of LJ as I was earlier. And I don't think LJ gives a damn.

Those-were-the-days dept

My first few entries on LJ. Nothing much has changed, really. It's still all about movies and beer.

What I've been upto

It took me only 5 years, but I've finally managed to get my recently watched, read and listened to lists up on my profile. I would ideally like to get them all on the sidebar of my journal, but I couldn't get the embed tag to work there. Oh, well.

Wherever I roam

I post.

Ha ha ha.

Feedback loop

Just curious: did any of you guys take up my movie suggestions? Did you like what I recommended?

Hypocrites, all

We are a nation of hypocrites. We leer at the scantily clad lasses on music videos but want our wives and girlfriends to be pristine and pure. We don't think twice before paying off the cop who flags us down on the road, but we are always indignant when we read about corrupt officials and politicians. We want our cricket team to be the best in the world but believe it's okay to have a physically and mentally unfit captain. We believe it's good to be honest but a little corrupt, devout but a little fanatic, chaste but get a little on the side.

We even have people who shut down their journals and then come back, all righteous and condescending. Some folks can't make up their mind.

Private Madhav - an LJ Drama presentation

I'm doing a . It's been almost 4 years on LJ and I've had a great time. I've met a lot of extremely cool people and made some great friends. None of that will change.

What will change however, are my posts. 95% of my entries are now private. I don't plan to change that, nor do I intend to write anything more - at least in the short term. Call it paranoia, call it a need to get back to the real life, but there it is.

I will always be available on IM/cell/email/LJ comments/meatspace. Have a great life!

Announcing a new release

and I have started a new community called , to discuss Malayalam movies. We figured there are enough people on LJ who might be interested enough to join and contribute. The idea is to talk about movies, music and gossip related to Malayalam cinema.

Interested? You know where to sign up.

LJ to be sold?

Read this on 's journal. Six Apart to buy LiveJournal!

Chip of the old block

Was reading 's famous cover story in the deadtree edition of Chip today during lunch, when I noticed a small li'l pic at the bottom of the article. This pic was taken during an LJ meet a couple of years ago, and it includes half my face.

I'm not sure whether I should be apprehensive or happy.

Nair's Top 7: What's Hot

1. Venus
2. Kannada in Bangalore
3. The stalker meme
4. Mumbai LJ meet
5. Posts from mobiles
6. Reviews of Yuva
7. Punctuation and grammar

Weekend achievements

Met quite a few LJ-ers on Saturday, had a good time at Landmark, Premier and Koshy's. Watched No Man's Land and started on Foucault's Pendulum.

Post #1

And so it begins

Post #400

And thus it ends.

Quizbusters is born !

I've created a community for quizzers: . Lets see how it works out. takes credit for the community name, btw.

I've listed out a set of rules over there, I'd welcome and greatly appreciate feedback. Thanks in advance !

Thanks for all the <a href="http://www.livejourna...

Thanks for all the wishes ! I'm having fun playing with userpics - one of the benefits of a paid account, heh heh.

Anniversary gift

I complete two years on LJ this month. I've been using this service extensively, its transformed into part of my daily routine. Have met some very interesting people and have learnt a lot - about technology, about Bangalore, books, movies, music, yahoo, chat and what have you. Thanks to all you folks for making these two years worthwhile.

I also owe a lot of thanks to the good people who run LiveJournal. So for the first time, I'm paying for something thats available free. I've moved to a pay account for a short period. I guess this is the least I can do. Thanks, LJ !

The Touchgraph livejournal browser

Shamelessly flicked from 's journal, here's a nifty tool for LJ.

Just came across <a href="http://www.livejournal....

Just came across this while jumping from lj friend to lj friend. Read the last comment.

Words fail me. This is incredibly sad and shocking.