Well whaddaya know! It’s almost 2009!
It’s time once again to step into another year with renewed enthusiasm, fresh hopes and new resolutions. But make sure to clean up all the broken promises, shattered dreams and other not-so-good things that might have happened to you in 2008. Always start a new year with a clean slate! That said, enjoy the festivities and have fun.
I’m off to stuff myself with some of the delicacies in the refrigerator. 
Happy New Year everyone!! 
You can’t see it coming. It just hits you when you least expect it to. It dominates everything that your mind comes up with, promptly labeling each idea as junk. It brings sleepless nights where you keep thinking of something to write about. But nothing ever seems to meet the seemingly high standards you’ve set for yourself.
Yes, it’s that niggling little thing that has cost many writers their sanity and a fistful of hair.The dreaded beast known as ‘Writer’s Block’.
As if me being a lazy sloth wasn’t enough, this annoying little thing keeps popping up every now and then, resulting in the awfully small number of posts I have on this blog. Since the past few days, I’ve had a few ideas, but none of them seemed to be up to scratch. So I finally decided that coming up with a post that seems to be totally absurd, useless and a waste of server space and bandwidth, is the way to overcome this situation.
Yes, it is a wacky idea and makes me look like a complete crackpot (the blog’s name is a dead giveaway). But heck, if it works I’ll be back in business in no time!
Whoa! I’m feeling better already! Now where’s that pencil? 
Wish you all a very happy Christmas. A special thanks to all those who cared to read this blog.
Merry Christmas!
The word ‘blog’ may not have been in Ye Olde English, but surely you’d expect at least WordPress’ spellchecker to recognize the word, wouldn’t you?
Ah, the irony of it all.
The amount of spam being generated all over the world shows no sign of going down. If I had access to the stats, I’d be able to tell you that [a very large number under 100] % of all mail is spam. Okay, so I do have access to the bloody stats but I’m too lazy. Now moving on, in times like these you’d think that one must follow some basic rules of the Internet. No, I’m not talking about clearing your browsing history after each session. The rule I’m talking about is – ‘You should not give out your e-mail address on public bulletin-boards, forums etc’. But do people listen? NO.
These days I’ve been wasting entirely too much time on Orkut and I must admit, if I were a spammer I’d be laughing all the way to the bank right now. On Orkut, there are babe-magnets (everyone likes to think he is one) and there are spam-magnets. Specimens of the latter can be found hiding in all sorts of places here. All you need is bait to make them come out and walk right into your trap.
The people on this particular social-networking site are not exactly the brightest bulbs on a Christmas tree. But how stupid can you get? I came across a thread in a community, saying -
‘Hey guys instead of wasting time using net why not we start earning for free using iinternet, if u are interested then scrap ur email ids i will send u the info which is needed’.
That’s the exact unedited text. And you think people will fall for that? Of course they will, silly. At the time of writing, this thread has already received 85+ replies. I’m no one to question the integrity of a person, and maybe there really is some money to be earned through this. But posting e-mail addresses in public is surely one of the dumbest things you can do on the Internet. And this is not an isolated case. There have been more. Another one was something like this -
‘I have yahoo password crack software. Reply your email here, i will send you’
This was also a booming success. What’s even funnier is, when someone with a sane mind tries to warn people not to reply with their e-mails, no one actually listens. After a couple of warnings, the wannabe saviour mutters a few choice expletives at the imbeciles and disappears.
So, if you’re a spammer and looking for an easy and no-risks-involved method for harvesting e-mail addresses, look no further than Orkut. Get an account, lure people with honey-coated promises of jobs, free stuff and what-not, then coax them into parting with their mail-IDs.
Easy as pie.
Many of you might have experienced the phenomenon that I’m about to mention. Case in point – a song or part of a song plays continuously inside your head and you have no control over it. I’m no stranger to this and as a matter of fact, I enjoy having a mental iPod albeit without any control mechanism. Since yesterday, there’s one line from a song that is on ‘Play->Rewind->Repeat’ inside my head. And no, it has no relation to my predicament. The teasing tune is ‘A Song For A Broken Heart’ by A Static Lullaby which goes like this:
Take this for what it’s worth,
This song, my smile,
Now take this for what it’s worth,
This song, my smile,
Smile!I write to you from hell my song,
Leaving my foot against the gas
And the wall that must have said your name
(I write to you from hell tonight)
Weaken me, for nothing you can say could could stop this now
Would a noose replace his lips?
(Would a noose replace?!)Can a song replace a broken heart?
Now can a song replace a broken love?On the beach, I remind myself
That holding hands is so powerless.
Tonight, I don’t even have the stars
To hold onto
(To Hold onto!)Paint!
Paint this red
Paint this red
Yeah, paint this red
Paint!
I’ll paint this red
I’ll paint this red
Paint this redHer picture will remain unbroken,
She cries tonight, I fall in love
(I fall in love)
Wipe each tear away with sand paper,
Tonight I’m not alone
And I just wanna get your f***ing voice out of my headFall within the break?
Won’t you fall within the break?
Won’t you fall?
Why won’t you fall?
On the break?On the beach, I remind myself
That holding hands is so powerless
Tonight, I don’t even have the stars
To hold onto
(To hold onto)Can a song replace broken love?
Now can a song replace broken heart?
No
No
No
No
Okay, so the lyrics don’t make too much sense. And neither do the looping lines:
On the beach, I remind myself
That holding hands is so powerless.
But still the pesky prose haunts me and if past experience is anything to go by, it will continue to do so for another couple of days. That is, if some other song doesn’t take its place by then. Damn. 
This is what I found when I logged into my Orkut account today:
The worldwide recession is taking its toll, coming soon to a worker near you.
The following lines are part of a full-blown rant against anything and everything. I can’t be held responsible if it hurts your sensibilities. Also, I can’t be held responsible if you waste 30 seconds of your life on this page. So here goes:
My last post was on the 18th of November. That makes it 12+16=28 days between that one and this post. A lot of water has flown under the bridge between then and now.
Most of the things that could have gone wrong, gladly obeyed Murphy’s law and did go wrong. Some things that could have stayed right, didn’t. The recession is still on, making it harder to earn a living, let alone keep the job that you already have. IT companies have hit the brakes on recruitment of freshers, so I’m still jobless with only an offer letter and a provisional degree to show for 4 years of engineering. BPOs are taking full advantage of the situation and recruiting truckloads of people. After all, even in the current climate, there’s no shortage of poor souls who need assistance in turning on that new vacuum cleaner they just purchased.
The political situation in this country shows no signs of improvement. Some people can so easily fool millions of people, all at the same time. And be revered for that. Nice. I must restrain myself from discussing this any further, as I sense a steady stream of expletives about to be unleashed. In short, I’m fed up of the political system in India. It needs a complete overhaul. But what can I do? Nothing. I should have guessed.
They say – ‘Nothing is permanent except change’. Nothing’s changed here since the past few months. It feels as if I’m running around in circles. Same old, same old. Wake up, survive, go to bed. It’s all come to a point where I seem to have lost interest in a lot of things, not the least this blog. I’ve got unfinished projects, objectives and games that are crying out for my attention. But there’s only so much you can do on your computer until you just want to turn it off. For good. The less said about television, the better.
When I began this rant of mine, my mind was overflowing with things that needed to be written but now it’s empty. Not because I’ve written them all down, but because I can’t seem to remember them now!! I think I’ve become a bit senile.
Damn.
So the rant is over, I guess. But I was wondering, how many others find themselves in the same situation? I’d love to know!