Church Bells

Since the day I started getting up early, there have been church bells. Every morning, without fail β€” 6am in Mumbai, 5am in Goa β€” never missed a day. Until, they did.

For a week or so I heard nothing. I’d even go out to the balcony hoping to catch a faint note. I never gave them a second thought while humming along, but when they were gone I wondered where they came from and who sounded them. Though I still don’t know their origin, at least I know I won’t lose them again.

churchbells

When googling and playing every sheet I could find didn’t work, I tried to play them on the keyboard from memory. After a few attempts I had something and by sheer luck it was even in the right key.

I have never had to pursue the identity of sound like this. Not knowing the lyrics, the genre, or even a time period, I feared it might only live as a thought in my head. I sought this one out, but so many songs that I pass by in restaurants, on the streets, at carnivals and in people, will sadly be lost.
Searching for the piece by key was fruitful, I found sheets with improvisations and a video of someone playing those sheets.

Wikis don't lie

prtksxna: The wiki wasn’t lying when it said that this channel was friendly πŸ™‚
KartikPrabhu: prtksxna: people here write the wiki πŸ˜›
prtksxna: πŸ™‚
prtksxna: Note to self: People lie, wikis dont πŸ˜›
KartikPrabhu: haha
prtksxna: Wikis can’t, rather.
KartikPrabhu: “wikis don’t lie” new Shakira hit single
prtksxna: /o\

(with KartikPrabhu at #indiewebcamp)

dichotomy

/dīˈkΓ€dΙ™mΔ“/

  • a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.
  • division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups.

— A rigid dichotomy between science and mysticism.

Pragmatic Thinking & Learning

by Andy Hunt

book cover pragmatic thinking and learning

This is probably the fastest I have ever read a book. In just a day it gave me a lot to try and think about.

Reinforcing some of my own thoughts, it gave me validation to try out techniques I would otherwise feel uncomfortable with. I can foresee it helping with some of the programming concepts that I have been struggling with.

Feed Me

I haven’t posted on Facebook or Twitter in a while. I see my feed sometimes and use Facebook chat (over BitlBee) regularly. The recent scare about privacy probably triggered this, but I must confess that I don’t understand it fully. Not understanding is scary.

In my time away, I realized that I wasn’t missing anything. I no longer had to decide whether the person I met once at that cafΓ© was a friend, no longer had to see what my 2nd grade classmate ate for lunch, and no longer scrolled past everyΒ Β update my favorite game studio made to their new release.

I was still following blogs using Feedly, so I knew what my sister was eating, what Yuvi was hacking on, and what Super Pietpiet was drawing. I could see that effort was taken to create this content and I felt better consuming it. No one was limited to 140 characters and Facebook didn’t forcefully crop their pictures into a square.

There was one thing that I continued liking about these sites though β€” they had a feed of my life.

This feed wasn’t complete or accurate, and though limited by the time I was active on these sites, it was a good record. I posted links that I wouldn’t be interested in now, photos that’d embarrass me, and status updates that could have altogether been avoided, but, those things were truly what I was doing and thinking then. Only after a grueling conversation with Arun, and later Rhea, did I become comfortable with this annoying past self. Arun even convinced me that the worst that could happen by continuing this is that I’d have something to laugh about later. That didn’t sound too bad.

And so I continue to embarrass the future me β€” by maintaining this blog, on my server, rather than elsewhere. I made this theme so that I am not limited to full text posts. With Sid’s help, _s, and ACF, I was able to setup multiple post types. I can post check-ins, photos, quotes, statuses and albums like most social networks. I have complete control over how they look, right down to the tiles I want to use in the map. I like to call this theme Feed Me β€” it gives me the flexibility to add even more post types and the freedom to make them look the way I want.

Oh, and most importantly, in a dire situation I can delete everything on my server and all the embarrassment along with it.

Show Your Work

austin kleon show your work

by Austin Kleon

This book is one of the reasons my blog exists. It encourages the reader to share their work and their process. Though it convinced me that sharing is good I still have my insecurities about writing.

While my hesitation to write in English is being aided by On Writing Well and The Elements of Style, doubts about who I am and who would want to read me will take more than books. Starting the blog was easy, but writing takes more courage than I thought it would.

Afterlife IRC

prtksxna: yuvipanda: sleep!
yuvipanda: but… but… gdb
prtksxna: yuvipanda: SLEEP
prtksxna hits yuvipanda’s head with a bat
prtksxna dumps yuvipanda’s body in the Mandovi
yuvipanda: it’s ok
yuvipanda: the code works now
yuvipanda: and I understand most of it
yuvipanda: I can go to sleep
yuvipanda: in
yuvipanda: peace
yuvipanda: now
prtksxna: yuvipanda: You are dead
prtksxna: yuvipanda: And in a river now
prtksxna: yuvipanda: None of that matters
prtksxna: yuvipanda: This is afterlife IRC, not the real one
Fordrefect: prtksxna: you mean it’s not irl irc?