Television and Why You Need To Watch Less Of That Shit.

Ok, it looks like I just discovered my second enemy stopping me from working on my new side project. Its not the biggest enemy but its close. TELEVISION.

There is always something interesting on Television and that is a REAL PROBLEM. Its not like what is on television is usually an as inspiring as a movie like the Pirates of Silicon Valley or anywhere close to being as entertaining as regular porn movies. Nah! Its just utterly old fashioned stupid way of wasting your time and getting absolutely nothing back in return. Not even entertainment.  If this project is going to succeed Television has to stop. Completely.

Of course, I can't stop the rest of the world from watching television because I just woke up one day and saw the light. I cannot be expecting every human being in my life to change just because I woke up today and felt like changing. But things have to change for me. How much television do I watch on any given day? Not even an hour I guess. Why is television such a big threat then? Because it eats into my weekends and keeps me from working on this project during the weekends.

I don't have a plan on how I am going to stop watching television on the weekend. I am not even saying that I am going to stop watching television completely. All I am saying is, I know it is an enemy and I need to be very careful of it.

How hard is quitting something? I have quit a lot of things in my life. Quit as in, stopped trying to get something. Stopped craving for whatever it is that I was trying to quit and just quit it. Stopped even thinking about it. Quitting something is easy once you get used to the idea of quitting things you do not really need. Television, falls in that category of things.

You know all those guys who make a big deal about quitting their habits, I don't think they want to quit because if  you REALLY want to  and you have the support of your "bestest" of friends, quitting becomes really easy. I hope I can say that about the television. All I am trying to do is quit watching television during the weekends. Actually, I am not even trying to do that. I am just trying to keep an active tab how how much Television I watch during the weekend and if that crosses minutes and turns into something more than an hour, apply a circuit breaker and snap out of it. How hard can that be?

Television as of now seems to be the one thing that is standing between me and the completion of this project. Television has to stop. Decided. Locked. Done.

So, the fear of starting... television... what's next?

Starting Anything Is Really Hard.

Anyone watched pretty woman? You know the part where there is this conversation between Julia Roberts and Richard Gere where the talk reaches a point where this is said: "You and I are such similar creatures, Vivian. We both screw people for money". After about 10 years of working for organizations, "growing" and changing stuff, when you turn around to look at the value you created, and you see nothing, you feel like... well, I don't know what I feel like anymore, but one thing is for sure. Some of this has to change.

I am not talking about quitting here. I don't have the balls to do that. It's not the quitting that is difficult. It's actually doing something after you quit that is really difficult. It's the classic Hamlet, To Be Or Not To Be scenario. Its the To Do or Not To Do Scenario.  Besides, I love my job and I am going to continue with it. But then, something else has to happen. An entirely different type of a problem that I solve. Something where I can take decisions without taking permission from a committee of people. Something where I can test my own limits and hopefully break them just a little bit every day. Something that can eventually let me connect to the hundred people I said I would connect to when I started out this blog.

I've started working on this thing for a few days now and I can tell you that it's difficult. Building software in the night when you are working for your organization twelve hours a day, is fucking HARD. At times my head is going round and round in circles. At times, you just want to sit there watching the stupid television show  or browsing through a stupid porn video website. The hardest part about working during the nights where you have worked your ass the entire day, is not the work itself. It's opening your IDE and starting.

Once I start, things usually get better. Within hours I forget the issues, the pain, the confusion, the stupidity and the professionalism that surrounds me. I am slowly getting used to the idea of opening my IDE and starting. If I can only keep doing that for a few more days, I might have something that I can gift to two of the "bestest" of my friends.

I think I am slowly starting to understand why most people cannot start their own products or their own companies. Its because they like moping and crying. That, and they are scared of starting. I feel that fear almost every fucking night now when I force myself to open my IDE and write code. The idea is that if we keep repeating something, we get used to it and we don't feel scared of it anymore. That's EXCACTLY what I am hoping will happen with this "working during the night" thing.

I am slowly getting the hang of it. I am going to continue writing my experiences of building this product here. Not the product itself, but what goes through my head. My thoughts, my inspirations, my confusions, my progress and above all, my fears because this is what I am trying to overcome here.

Stay tuned nice people (and you too, stalkers!). I hope you learn something from these experiences, successes and setbacks as I write them down for my own sake and yours. If you have something to say, well, say it DAMIT because things are awfully quite in here.

If you don't have anything to say but you liked this post, shut up, keep reading and keep stalking this blog like a lurker that you are!

(Stupid Grin again.)

I Don't Need You To Tell Me I'm An Asshole.

What's worse than having someone get into a heated fight with you?

Seeing three of your friends (connected to each other through you) fight with each other like they hate each other.

Its painful.

How did I stop the fight? By chiming in. By turning into a devil. Yeah. All three of them most probably hate me now. But the argument ended. They are on good terms with each other. It's awfully quite.

Yeah, I am such an asshole.

I know. I don't need YOU to tell me that.

Friendship. Some day I'll figure out it out.

(Stupid Grin).

Yoda Gets Depressed Too On A Saturday Evening (4th December 2010).

Robert Scoble I remember had a cardinal rule of blogging. You do not blog when you are depressed or feeling low. The reason was that when you are depressed or feeling low you tend to produce shit. I tend to produce strange gibberish or dark humor.

Now if you are a normal human being (like all others who have an immense capacity to hurt and enjoy other people's suffering), you are probably going to ask me now why I am depressed, but you know what, I know that you know that I know that you do not care so I am going to save you the trouble and not answer that question. Instead I am going to bitch about an acquaintance from my college days who has been getting on my nerve. How is that for a blog post?

Nah! That makes absolutely no sense, primarily because I am not going to be able to name him (because I don't have the fucking balls to do that online) and even if I did name him and bitched about him, what does that make me? A Bitch? I guess.

So, change of plan. I'm not going to do that. I dropped the idea. I think I need to learn how the shut the fuck up when it comes to dealing with human beings outside of my direct family (they are nice enough to understand) because clearly my big mouth seems to be getting me into more trouble than anything else.  Oh and now do you see what happens when you try to write when you are depressed and feeling low? Bullshit like this flows effortlessly through your backside.

So learning how to shut up...

That' important. Really (as in Really, Really, Really) important. Actually you know what, shutting up in front of other human beings and venting it out on a blog post like this can actually pretty helpful. Because most of the time, the bitches who are getting on your nerves aren't exactly looking for your help or service to help them change or become better human beings.

I learnt this the really hard way. Actually, I learned this by getting punched in my belly, kicked in my balls and but face getting slapped really hard. I have learnt that the only response you can give someone who is telling you what a pathetic looser you have been your enter life is through you actions.

I have learnt that action usually takes a lot of time to materialize and by the time you are proven right you have lost the desire to be proven right. Most of the times it is not like "The Social Network" movie where you go about printing "I'm CEO... Bitch."  on your business cards.

You know what, that is exactly what I want to do right now to a lot of different people. Actually, I want to do it really bad. But here is the fucking tragic part, I'm not the CEO bitch (and by writing more of this I am running the risk of becoming the bitch) so I am going to shut the fuck up and end the post. And if  (this is just a fucking possibility) things work out in the future, I am sure, I will not feel like printing business cards like that. Or who knows, I actually might. Actually you know what, who cares!

I've been typing for the past few minutes. Before I started typing I was nearing the point where I would have thought of crying, but this is good. You know, what I did here was that I came online, I farted, I pooped, I produced some raw shit that you are reading right now. But you know what? I actually feel better. So much fucking better.

Back  to work now. 

Oh, and Thanks for reading my shit.

Why The Social Network Is A Stupid Movie.

So I finally got around seeing The Social Network a couple of days ago and I have no idea why, but I feel compelled to say something about the movie so I am just going to blabber a bit about it. A couple of things that are upbeat about the movie:

For a change it is good to know that even people like Mark Zuckerberg who are capable of starting something as amazing as Facebook also have mere mortal problems like breakups in their lives. The way Mark is shown reacting to his breakup is inspirational (except of course, the bitching about his girl friend in public part). The idea of channeling your energy towards building something, specially when you are depressed is an idea that has always fascinated me.

The characterization of Mark was brilliant if you ask me. I am not sure if mark is just as obnoxious, loud and restless in the real world, but the depiction of his character was fascinating to say the least.

The downsides of Social Network are many though. To begin with I am sick and tired of overnight success stories when someone sits through an entire night, slams his fingers on the keyboard and produces something which earns millions of dollars and makes him rich. The idea works on fairy tales but in the real world I think the idea is sick because it just fools ordinary people into believing that is how life works. That some people are just geniuses who can produce products which produce millions of dollars by just slamming the keyboard throughout the night.

BULLSHIT!

The idea of facebook, as the movie depicts was clearly stolen. But then ideas are a dime a dozen and the very fact that Mark had the talent to shape the idea into reality makes it seem just that he should be the one making the big bucks with facebook. The point here however, is that was it really just one FaceSmash that got mark the negative popularity and made him capable of building something as fun filled as facebook? Bullshit! It probably took years for that level of competence to come about. The movie begins at the breakup and quietly ignores the period where the competence was getting formed.

The other thing that is really stupid about the movie is the amount of time given to the "Actual building of Facebook". Mark is shown working for a few minutes (which depict days) and then bham! Facebook comes into existence. STUPID! The dedication, the hard work and the effort that went into building facebook does not even show through in the movie.

The movie ends up depicting Mark as a weirdo, a jerk and an asshole. Someone who is just an amazing programmer and a passive observer to everything else. I don't know if that is truly the case. It is hard to believe though.

All in all, when you are building a movie on something like facebook and you are going to put in the research, you are better of telling the story of facebook rather than Mark Zuckerberg because human beings are basically capable of doing some fairly stupid things. Show us what Mark did right, focus on that and let us learn from those things rather than showing us stupid parties, lesbians kissing and how the CEO of napster liked having crack with a bunch of interns.

I am sure there were greater minds at work on Facebook that brought it where it is right now. Why not showcase those minds? Show us how they worked, their marketing strategy, the decisions that they took and how things worked out. Yes I know all of that is probably not as interesting as lesbians kissing in wild parties and the CFO of facebook humping an Asian girl in a toilet, but I would be much more interested in knowing how facebook evolved than seeing the shitty acts every mere mortal is capable of indulging in. Is that just me? Huh? Huh? Huh?

Yahoo Chat Rooms Or Online Brothels? May The Force Be With You!

Okay, I told myself that I was going to write something here frequently and now that the first blog post is over and I do not have something funny to say, I am just going to keep Pooping here and hope something funny comes out. Let's talk about... Yahoo Chat Rooms.  Yeah. That's something interesting to talk about right there.

You know there was a time when internet chat was a pretty cool thing. As students we used to login with our real names and make real friends in chat rooms. Then something strange happened and chat rooms phased out of our lives. We grew up. In the mean time we (the we that encompasses the entire human race, or at least the subset of the human race who call themselves programmers) were busy building more and more websites like Twitter, Facebook and Orkut (and minting a shitload of money building these websites) while the rest of us were busy yelling "Hey this is FUCKING COOL! That's SOCIAL MEDIA!".

While ALL this was happening the chat rooms were turning into shit holes for bots and people looking for Sex Chat. Now I have nothing against bots per say (except the fact that they are hugely irritating and I do not understand why anyone in their right mind would waste time building them). As far as sex chat is concerned methinks there are some stats out there which say that Cyber Sex is actually brining crime levels down in some countries. Besides it is safer than the real thing and utterly amusing if you have ever stumbled into a Yahoo Chat Room and have seen messages of a 29/m/LA look for a Lonely Wild Girl, so I am not complaining. Every man (and woman) has a right to pick the kind of conversations they want to have with perfect strangers and if they want a little bit of textual entertainment, I am perfectly fine with that.

But then, these two breeds of chatters, the bots and horny young (and old) guys wanting cyber sex, slowly turned Yahoo Chat Rooms into a place where you weren't comfortable giving out your real name or for that matter strike even a perfectly sane, normal conversations with perfectly sane and interesting human beings.

The rooms do not seem to have a lot of discussions or conversations going on these days. Every conversation that happens usually happens between a "M" and a "F" in private messages, even if it's a perfectly sane, funny, witty, normal conversation. I've started looking at Yahoo Chat Rooms as a means to get to know a hundred random strangers and I can tell  you it seems FUCKING DIFFICULT.

It's tragic and funny, because while we were busy yelling "SOCIAL MEDIA! TWITTER! FACEBOOK!" we took a perfectly working form of direct one on one conversations (chat rooms) and turned it into an online brothel for cybersex.

Anyhow,  I have been frequently visiting these online brothels for the last couple of days and there is some hope left. In the last couple of weeks I have been able to bump into at least two really interesting people who I am having meaningful conversations with. It is a sign that perfectly intelligent, smart and even witty individuals still care to have direct text based meaningful and completely meaningless conversations with each other.  So, The Jedi Race isn't wiped out yet. Now all we need is a Luke Skywalker to find Yoda and learn the ways of the force and Chat Rooms can be fun again. May The Force Be With You.

A Hundred Random Strangers

There is a me in me that loves the idea of walking up to perfect strangers, saying "Hi" and having a normal intellectual, stupid, funny, loud, hilarious conversation with them. That me has been dormant for so long that I do not even know if that me exists anymore. This blog is my attempt to find if that me ever existed in the first place. This ID, this blog, the twitter account is my attempt at trying to meet a hundred perfect strangers online and trying to have perfectly sane, meaningful conversations with them.

So here is the deal. By the end of next year, I am going to use this blog to get to know 100 complete strangers that I did not know before. And by know I do not mean, you follow me on twitter, I follow you back, kind of knowing. By knowing I mean connecting. Listening. Helping. Understanding. Exchanging Ideas. You know the stuff that you do in "Real Life" and not the Web 2.0 Social Networks.

How I plan on stumbling upon this 100 people to have online conversations with is a completely different challenge. I realize that I am going to have to frequent twitter. I realize that I am going to have to stalk follow you on Twitter.  I am going to have to be friends with you on Facebook. So the next time you are in a Yahoo Chat Rooms having a discussion on something and a random stranger chimes in, says Hi and starts expressing his opinions, you know its me, and you are one of those hundred interesting people I planned on meeting in this journey.

The Journey has begun. The first mile stone, a hundred really interesting people.

Are you one of them?

Hi! Make yourself comfortable. More content will show up here soon and then you can decide if our interests coincide enough for us to have a meaningful conversation.