Blogs

Apr 3 2013

Lady Banana Hits 300 Comments

For those of you who frequent the blog you’d know that I have a regular reader & commenter named Lady Banana. She’s an English lady from London and she is awesome. She blogs at Lady Banana and has been a long time blog, email & twitter friend of mine. She’s always been there for me ever since I’ve known her; whenever I feel down if I reach out to her, I know she will make me feel so good about myself. Not surprising as she is also a longtime nurse, a profession that I have a lot of respect for.

That Diana has stuck with being my friend for this long is something I consider to be cherished. I just love her so much. She is my cheerleader and she is so kind and sweet.

She has two cats Mabel & Freddy and has a daughter and a son and a grandson. Check out her blog when you do get the time.

Q1. State your name, location and what you do for a living?

Name – Diana – better known as Lady Banana

Q2. Do you remember how you came to know about Awake & Dreaming?

I really don’t remember, I seem to have known Roshan forever, in the nicest possible way

Q3. How often do you visit my blog?

I visit 2/3 times a week, sometimes just in my feed reader.. Often I’m too tired, lazy or at work – don’t tell the boss, lol, so I can’t always comment as much as I could/should.

Q4. What is it that you like so much about Awake & Dreaming that you visit frequently and post a lot of comments?

I like the mix of posts, sometimes personal about yourself, some about sport and movies and books.

Q5. What are the kind of posts that you like the most in my blog?

I like your personal posts the best, the ones that help me get to know the real you, your likes and dislikes

Q6. Is there any topic that you would want me to blog about (that I haven’t yet)?

Just keep on doing what you’re doing, you do it so well

Choose the following

Q7. Admit it: you have a big crush on Roshan and that is why you are here a lot : Choices (true/very true/absolutely true/damn right it’s true/hell yeah and I’m proud of it! ) ).

Q8. This is for you; say anything you like and I’ll post it here (cause you deserve it)

Your’s is the blog that makes me happy when I open my reader and see you have posted!

You are a good friend, far far away but I know that if I ever need a natter, a cheer up then Roshan is there for me. Long may it last {kiss kiss kiss}

Hope the answers are ok, and here’s to the next 300 comments.. (They are more than ok Diana, they are excellent)

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By Roshan • Blogs, Friends, Women • 1

Feb 13 2013

ROSHAN’S ELEVEN : Odd Questions

Q. Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

A. Shawarma sandwiches and khuboos & hummus

Q. If you could become any type of animal, what type of animal would you choose to become? Why?

A. Hmmm, maybe a wolf cause they look so cool. Or a hawk so I could soar across the skies.

Q. If you could learn to play a musical instrument, which would you choose? Why?

A. First choice the guitar, second the drums.

Q. Describe your ideal job — where would you work? What would you do?

A. Provided money wasn’t the issue, I’d like to work in the music industry and work closely with musicians and bands.

Q. If you could have one superpower, what superpower would you choose? Why?

A. The power of invincibility

Q. If you could travel to any planet in our solar system, which planet would you choose and why?

A. Mars is where all the action is. But I also want to visit Pluto and console it for losing it’s planet classification.

Q. Would payment in the form of money sway you into doing something you wouldn’t normally do?

A. I must be honest and say absolutely!

Q . Sea or sky? Why?

A. I love the sea and would love to see the fish and animals that live under the waters but…the sky is my eternal love!

Q. Do you shower in the morning or at night before bed?

A. Usually in the morning. If I am not going out, I might only shower in the late afternoons, 5 or 5:30 pm. If it is a terribly hot day and I have traveled and am sweating like a pig, then I’d shower in the night as well.

Q. If you could travel through time, what period would you visit?

A. The time periods during which the great pyramids of Egypt were being built. 2560 BCE and before. I’m curious to see how the built them and if aliens were involved!

Q. What’s at the end of a rainbow?

A. One end of a rainbow. You travel to the other end you will find the other end of the same rainbow!

By Roshan • Blogs, Roshan's Eleven • 0

Feb 1 2013

Website Server Space Locked For Another Year

My URL having been paid & locked up for one year in November, it was now time for the server space that I use to store the files of this blog. The payment due date being today, I was sent the invoice a few days ago.

Well I just made the payment via credit card for $44 USD which secures my web server space for the next 365 days. That comes to around Rs. 2330. Not bad for a year. I was thinking about paying for a couple of years in a row but I think I might want to change the package I have with them and expand a bit in a year. We’ll see, I have some plans for this website – the blog will stay the same but I might do a few more things along with it. And I will need more webspace for the same.

Anyway rest assured regular readers, the blog will go on as usual. You can expect me to blog on a daily basis for the next year atleast, provided I don’t die or something equally horrendous happens to me.

By Roshan • Blogs, Net Stuff, Personal, Tech Stuff • 3

Feb 1 2013

The Why Of It All

Why do you write? What keeps you motivated?

I dunno, I guess I’ve always wanted to keep a journal and maintain it for as long as I possibly could. I remember hoping when I was 14-15 that I would write poems or song lyrics and did some once in a while. At the age of 15 I kept a diary in which I would enter a few lines about the day and my thoughts about certain things on a daily basis and even back then I had a song for the day section at the end of each entry. I soon started writing about my feelings and opening up my heart about certain stuff that was going on in my life. When I went on a 3 day school trip to Kodaikannal, it was a way of recording the things that happened there on that fun trip. I stopped writing in my diary the next year – although I should have continued as so many things happened to me during the ages of 16-19.

During my 1 month rest post operation at the age of 21, being mostly restricted indoors and mostly staying in my room, I started writing a bit again but it didn’t last beyond those 30 days. Mostly I wrote in a book about the albums & songs I listened to each day (and I listened to a lot). I also managed to create a scrap book of the 1998 World Cup in France and wrote stuff about the matches that I would see. In 2002 I moved to Calicut and mostly to keep a record of things there, I started a blog after having started reading a few during the past few months. I created a blogger account and the blog is still there but I lost track of why I kept it once I moved back to Cochin and around 2004 it became a hockey & football oriented blog with the occasional blog post. Then in 2005 September I started a new one in blogger – also called Awake & Dreaming – and it became the kind of style that you see today. And in 2007 Jan 1st onwards – I started this blog you see here.

Why do I write? It’s mostly for myself and for the handful of regular readers – all 6 of you – who like what I write about and keep coming. It’s a place to vent my frustrations, air my views, share my thoughts, write reviews of movies, books & music and pen down eventful happenings. I love blogging and I love writing. I will always keep an online journal even if no one read it. And that’s the biggest reason you should write – for yourself first & foremost!

By Roshan • Blogs • 0

Jan 1 2013

Rated R Superstar Blogger

Created by OnePlusYou – Free Online Dating

Hahahaha. They are basing it on the last few posts that have these words

murder (7x)
corpse (3x)
bomb (2x)
missionary (1x)

Sheesh, will isn’t that quite simple enough. So kids stay away from uncle Roshan’s blog or bring an adult with ya!

By Roshan • Blogs, Net Stuff • 3

Nov 19 2012

What Other Blogs Would You Maintain?

If things were different I’d want to have a separate blog on pure photography – if I had a really nice camera and some skills to go along with it and ofcourse if I went to interesting places. I just don’t go to interesting places. So interesting places and interesting people and I’d want to have the photos to go along with it. So a really good photo blog is something I wish I could maintain.

If I lived in a country that had these awesome craft beers – like Canada for example – then I’d want to have a beer review blog where after I drink various beers, I’d review and rate them and post pics of the ones that I drink. That would be so awesome; maybe some video reviews too.

If I could see all my favourite rock bands live then I’d have a blog dedicated to just music concert reviews with lots of pics. Here’s where the photo taking skills could also come in handy. That would so awesome since rock music is my biggest love and passion. And also if I could arrange interviews with some musicians then I’d post the podcast and/or the video of the interviews.

If I could play guitar then I’d post videos of me playing and singing covers of my favourite songs and even compose my own music and post them on the blog. Then I’d be discovered and signed and I’d sell millions of records, play sold out arenas all over the world and become a rock star. And groupies – oh the groupies!!

By Roshan • Blogs, Ramblings • 2

Nov 12 2012

This Post’s For You

Dear infrequent readers & one time readers of my blog,

Hi how are ya? Yes you, don’t look around or think that I’m meaning someone else. It’s you that this blog post is all about and addressed to. Yes – look in the mirror or any surfaces that gives off your reflection – I mean you and you itself! I know who my regular readers and commenters are and even a few who used to comment or raise their asses from the dead to come and read and comment once in a blue moon. I know them well enough and I appreciate them a lot. I also would like to appreciate and get to know you better but you just won’t give me the chance.

I know you do come to my blog and read it once in a while. I can see the places highlighted in the visitors widget that I have embedded in the sidebar. Oh you didn’t notice it did you? It’s that’s handy little thing that reads ‘Live Traffic Feed’ and it’s from Feedjit. It’s rather nice. It lets me know that someone from a particular place (it could be the server of their ISP) has been visiting quite often. Now a big city or town I can understand but when the same smaller places keep popping up, I know that it’s you. I also get an idea that it’s the same person due to the kind of blog posts or categories that you visit – yes even that pops up in Feedjit. So quit hiding and come over to the comment section and say hi. I even know some of the people who do read my blog regularly but I don’t know why they don’t comment. Can’t be bothered, have nothing to say, do not want to reveal themselves or cannot find the comment link – take your pic.

Please delurk and do drop me a line in the comment section and say hi. And keep visiting. And hopefully keep commenting.

Sincerely yours

Roshan aka Count Roshculla

By Roshan • Blogs • 1

Nov 10 2012

URL Registered For 2013

I have some hopes for my blog, humble as it is. I’ve been blogging since 2002, althought it was sporadic till early 2005. Mainly due to the fact that I didn’t own a computer and internet connection at home. So I would go to an internet cafe 3 times a week and spend a few hours each time in blogging and reading blogs and surfing the net. I created an account with bloggers and got a blogspot blog up and running while living in Calicut. At the time it was mainly to keep a record of my life in Calicut and as such I focussed a bit more on that but soon it became a general life blog. But it became a huge mess and in October of 2005, I stopped using that blog and moved to a new blogspot account in countroshculla.blogspot.in.

With the new blog I was not only more frequent but I developed my style and content to make it more about not just stuff that happened to me, movies/tv/music reviews but also about my thoughts, feelings and ideas – which was missing in the old blog. Dare I say that I had a purpose in blogging now, expressing myself in the best way that I know how to. This continued on in 2006 until the 1st of January, 2011 when I setup this website & blog. And you can go through the archives to see how it has gone on since that time.I had booked my URL from Canoetech and for my webserver space, I chose Total Choice Hosting – both recommended to me by my cousin. The first is run by his college friend and the second was a client of his then employers and now he works for them directly.

So, as for the URL, November 14 is the last date to renew it as I had registered it in November of 2006. At Rs.500 for a year I should be renewing it for a few years at a stretch but I purposely do it only for a year – just to keep in touch with the owner and see if I get some offers once in a while. Anyways, today I renewed the URL for another year – besides it would be prudent to see if the world ends on December 21 of this year or not.

By Roshan • Blogs, Net Stuff • 4

Oct 14 2012

Bye, Plinky!

What the fuck? No. Why? Why is this happening? Where will I get my prompts now?

After 384 answers on Plinky, it looks like I’m losing the blogging prompt service that started in November of 2008. This is terrible news. I’ve relied on Plinky to set my brain cells working and get some blog posts running on my website. A simple question that will get me thinking and bring forth a life experience, an event, a viewpoint or something I had even forgotten from my childhood – Plinky was a simple awesome little thing that helped me maintain my nearly daily posts on this blog from 2009 onwards.

I just loved this website and often visited it unless I already had a post idea or two brewing in my mind or wanted to post about something that happened that day. I’m gonna miss them.

Update : Apparently, it was just a question or a blog prompt submitted by one of the regular contributors. So they are not going away. Yay!

By Roshan • Blogs, Net Stuff • 3

Sep 21 2012

New Wordle – Sept 2012

By Roshan • Blogs, Images • 2

Jun 29 2012

Was It A Malware?

Had a close scare this evening. Around 6pm I was sitting at my laptop just chatting away and for no reason in particular I wanted to check on some old WordPress themes that I had installed. Now I have no intention of straying away from this particular theme unless I find another one with similar settings. I really like this one but was just checking on some old themes for fun. I tried the previews of a couple and then saw one called ‘Varg’ which I didn’t recognize as having installed it earlier. Instead of clicking on ‘preview theme’ I clicked on ‘activate’ by mistake and when I refreshed my blog, it showed just blank – some error! Oops, I went back to the admin page for Themes in WordPress and deleted that particular theme. That should have sorted things out.

But it didn’t. Some kind of malware I guess; Varg took all my WordPress theme, including the default ones that comes bundled with WordPress! WTF? I panicked a bit and logged off from my admin page and then logged back in. Still the same and I’m unable to access the blog. Oh boy! I used my FTP software and deleted whatever files were there in the themes section of my WordPress. Post that I transferred a couple of themes, including this current one that I have been using for 8 months now. And things were working once again. I contacted the technical help of my website server space provider and asked them to check and see if there was a Malware still remaining. A quick check later he reported that it was clean and to keep my passwords fresh and update all my software in the website.

Yes I shall do that. Then I went about re-activating all the widgets that you see on the sidebar since they got deactivated when the theme got cancelled. But I could get them back in a few minutes. Whew! Close one!

By Roshan • Blogs, Net Stuff, Tech Stuff • 1

Apr 7 2012

WordPress For BlackBerry

For a long time I A little while ago I downloaded the WordPress app for BlackBerry from the BlackBerry app world store. Its a free download and its pretty simple to use. Although it won’t replace blogging from my laptop for me, it is still great to be able to blog from your phone. I hadn’t installed this app on my Curve 8320 and so this app, in use for 2 years (need confirmation here people) is still brand new for me.

I hate having to lug the laptop around and also there is only one place where I can currently get free wifi. All other places will require to carry a USB internet device which I am not going to spend money on again, unless I really needed to. I also downloaded a photo app and will be playing with it soon. Also got three themes for the phone.

By Roshan • BlackBerry, Blogs • 0

Jan 12 2012

Delurking Day 2012

According to this fine woman, who got it from this post by this person’s blog & who in turn got it from this lady’s post, today is Delurking day for 2012!

Delurking is a slang for coming out of the online “lurking” mode and this day is designed to invite people who visit but never comment to do so. This is a way of saying hi to some reader who seem to visit often (you know who you are) but don’t comment due to various reasons.

So if you are one such lurker of me & my blog, please delurk or unlurk yourself and send me a nice long comment about yourself and what brings you around. Have a cup of tea or coffee and spend 10 minutes for ole Roshan, will you please?

By Roshan • Blogs, Net Stuff • 4

Jan 1 2012

Happy 5th Blogaversary To Me

Happy 5th birthday to my blog Awake & Dreaming & a happy 5th Blogaversary to me!

It’s been 5 years to the exact date since I started this blog, all the way back in 2007. I had setup this blog in a day with the help of my cousin (over the phone), who guided me through the process and by night I had the thing setup. Then I installed WordPress and started blogging.

This isn’t my first blog; I first started blogging in 2002, through blogger.com, when I lived in Calicut and continued with it when I moved back to Cochin. I was an inconsistent blogger, nothing having an internet connection at home & from 2003 till 2006, not having a computer at home. By 2005 I started getting more & more into blogging and I created a new one in blogger.com and called it Awake & Dreaming. I started spending more time in internet cafes and hence could blog a lot more consistently. But I always wanted my very own website & domain and I wanted to install wordpress.

Finally in September of 2006 I bought a new computer, a desktop model and in November I registered the domain name and on January 1t 2007 this blog was born. This blog became my daily journal and my refuge. I love blogging as I find it’s an alternative way of letting yourself write and be creative and expressing yourself. I’m thankful of the friends that I have made through the world of blogging (take a bow ladies & gentlemen) and hope to make even more.

Thank you for visiting Awake & Dreaming and I hope you come often. Bring your friends.

By Roshan • Blogs, Personal • 6

Dec 7 2011

New Wordle – December 2011

By Roshan • Blogs, Images • 1

Oct 10 2011

50 Things To Do In Cochin – Via Priya

Priya, a fellow blogger from my hometown of Cochin, has posted about the 50 things to do if you are ever in this town. While I haven’t done all 50 I do agree with her list. Read her post, while I click off some of the things that I have done. My comments will be in italics.

1.   Check the view of the ocean from the rainbow bridge at Marine Drive / Been there many times. I even had my name carved on one of the pillers when I was 17.
3.   Absorb the market chatter on the Broadway (parallel road to Marine Drive) / terrible place to drive to. Just park your car elsewhere and walk.
5.   Cover the Mattanchery, Jews Street and Fort Kochi area on foot / This is ‘tharavadu area’ where my mum’s family is from and I’ve been there many times.
6.   Take a walk around the fish market along the sea in Fort Kochi area / best fried fish you can get in India. They cook fresh catch for you on the spot.
12.   Go for a stride along the waterfront at Willingdon Island, next to Taj Malabar – Vivanta. My last visit to the island was with few friends, on a bike which we rented in Ernakulam / Been there few times.
13.   Have beer at Taj Malabar – Vivanta, by the waterfront – and watch the sunset. Bliss! / Been there for a couple of parties. Good food & drink.
14.   Visit the Synagogue at Jew Street run by the last Jew family left in the city. Do ensure you are wearing full pants and sleeved shirt/t-shirt else you will be denied entry! / It’s a landmark for the city. Visited it twice when I was younger.
15.   Visit the Dutch Palace. Interestingly it was built by the Portuguese and only renovated by the Dutch. Soak in the history of Cochin / Kochi here. Check out the mural paintings albeit in poor condition. / It’s a landmark for the city. Visited it twice when I was younger.
17.   Learn more about Kerala through a light and sound show at the Kerala history museum, Edapally. / Went there for the full tour on a school trip, grade 9 I think.
20.   Visit Durbar Hall Art Gallery on DH Road. Once the official durbar hall of the Kochi Maharajas is now a gallery exhibiting oil paintings, old coins, sculptures,…etc.There is a studio gallery within the complex that promotes works of various artists. Entry is free. / Visited it many times. Quite nice collections.
30.   Beautiful traditional Kerala saris can be picked up from Kasavukada, near Fine Arts Hall or Karalkada opposite Pai Brothers on MG Road / members of my family often buy stuff from there and I have been with them on many occasions.
31.   Kerala women are popular for their gold, which explains the array of gold shops n MG Road – Bhima, JOSCO, Joy Alukkas, Kirtilal, Alappatt, Francis Allukkas, Tanisq, Geeripai, TribhuvandasZaveri,…etc are all present on this 5km stretch. / total women’s domain. Me & my male cousins remember our childhood passing us by while the ladies discuss, argue & dissect gold ornaments at these shops.

Most of the others are of good food & drinking places of which I have my own tastes and preferences (she does mention a couple of my favs here though). So you know what to do if you are ever in town. And oh yeah, if you are a hot babe, call me!

By Roshan • Blogs, Cochin, India • 2

Oct 5 2011

Selma – The Wonder From Down Under

This is Selma.

She blogs at Selma In The City. She is a wonderful writer.

She really does have a way with words; her short stories are so good you can get mental images of the people, places and events she is writing about.

She lives in Sydney, Australia. My first Aussie friend.

But she was born & lived in Scotland for many years.

She has a wonderful husband and a wonderful son.

I don’t know when she first stared visiting my blog. I think I visited hers and started commenting on some of her blog posts and then she started doing the same on mine. I think it must have started in late 2007 , December of that year. It was on a post about my fav Neil Young songs that Selma first entered my life. And she has been a very loyal friend who means a lot to me. Just as much as my friends over here.

She is a soul who I have never met but has come to mean so much to me. Along with a couple of others, I refer to Selma as one of my cheerleaders! Cause that’s what she does, she cheers me on and encourages me and makes me feel that I am something better than what I am. She likes my writing, thinks I am funny and laughs at my weird sense of humour. She is always supportive and has a good thing to say about me. Can you blame me for liking her a lot? As far as friends go, Selma is someone I consider to be among the closest that I have ever had. Even if I haven’t met and probably never will.

She recently hit 300 comments in my blog. That is something I celebrate and feel proud of. This is a big deal for me. So this blog post is for you Selma. Thank you for being my friend, thank you for being there for me. Some days when I am down and I log into my blog and see that you have comment on something recently, it brightens things up for me considerably and makes me smile. I love you. Thank you buddy!

By Roshan • Blogs, Friends • 3

Aug 24 2011

New Tumble Blog

Star Trek as you know is one of my biggest passions in life. I am a fanatic. Everyone who reads this blog will know that. Not enough to blog once in a while about all things Star Trek, I have now created a new Tumblr blog wholly dedicated to what mankind should aspire to be like.

Star Trek : Images & Words is this boy’s humble little dedication to the wonderful world of Star Trek. It will feature images from the 5 live action tv series & 11 movies (and counting) and even other stuff connected to the great franchise. Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek as a vision of what he thought mankind should & could become. This tumble blog will be just a fansite to that dream. I love Star Trek. If there is one word that defines me let it be Trekkie.