Aditya’s Blog

I am Thinking...

Using FB to create awareness

So today was a field day for anyone and everyone on Facebook! What with someone starting a meme about creating awareness for breast cancer.

I personally do not have any problem with this. It was quite a lot of fun while it lasted. But, I do not know how much this helped create awareness amongst the educated females between the age of 15 and 40 who usually use facebook regularly who are already supposed to know. I just hope it helped the cause more than it helped the guys. Not a bad idea for sure.

In fact, I would like to take this idea further and create awareness of a more serious problem. This might not kill a lot of people, but it can sure cause a lot of pain in the ass - quite literally. I am talking about digestive problems. So, all guys will now post the last thing that they ate or are currently eating as their FB status.

I know you would be saying that I am trying to make a joke out of a serious effort to create some awareness for a serious illness. But, am I not also creating awareness by making fun of it. If awareness is all that needs to be created, then this surely could have been executed in a better way! Instead of just telling people about the color of your undergarment, why not also post a link to a site which talks about breast cancer? I mean, it takes a lot of effort to post the color of your undergarment to your 300 odd friends. It is a personal thing of course. But now that people have done it, why be so discreet about the whole thing? I think everyone should have posted nothing but 'Breast Cancer' with a link! It is much less fun, but it surely will work better!

Ohh and finally, here is my effort to create awareness. Visit this link to know more about this serious illness. You don't need to disclose anything to me.

Loading mentions Retweet

Filed under  //   Rantings   Social Media  
Posted January 8, 2010
// 1 Comment

Indian sports broadcasters need a lesson in strategy perhaps?

When I was 14 years old, I had a pretty tough time dealing with academics. One of the subjects I was a little better at was Math and even in that I pretty much sucked at most of the chapters. So, I decided to practice like hell what I knew best and hope that most of the questions in the exam were from those chapters. This was when my teacher told me, don't put all your eggs in one basket!

I don't think the smart alecs at ESPN-Star Sports (ESS) had a teacher like that. 'Why?' you ask. Because they decided that if they have xxx million dollars, the best thing to do, is to put all of these xxx million in one stupid little wicker basket called cricket. Oh! I forgot they have one of their xxx eggs in the EPL!

The point is, in the fight against SET, Ten/Zee and Neo, they are trying their best to get the biggest television rights away from the others. So they bid a whopping $975 million for a ten year broadcast rights deal for the Airtle Champions League (ACL). What happened? It Bombed! Advertisers are asking their money back, agencies are saying they will not advertise in the ACL again and all of them want some compensation or the other! This is fine I guess in the short term for a giant like ESS. One might say that they have the next ten years to earn this money back. But what if it flops again? The IPL is with SET, cricket in India is with Neo and most of the other places locked up by Ten. ESS does have the ICC events till the next world cup but is that enough? Maybe they bit off more than they can chew.

The best thing they could have done in this case was move to other sports apart from cricket. Football comes to mind and one might say that they do have the costliest league - EPL. But again, is one event enough? They could have wrapped up the relatively cheaper La Liga as well, but they let it go off their hands. All they had to invest in was the broadcast rights and Sky gives them the rest (presenters, commentary and all). They have the sheer cheek to call them the home of football and start a campaign called 'I Love this Game'! They say all that with one league? Neo has more football on TV than ESS! Ten even shows Barca TV and ManU TV apart from the UEFA Champions League!

The problem is, none of the sports broadcasters in India are focussed on what THEY want to do. They think they have figured out the Indian consumer better than HUL and everything they dish out is what we want to see! Well, as if we have a choice!

I think the Indian audience is mature enough for a 'Complete' sports broadcasting channel. And the sorry part is, as of today, even if ALL of these channels are combined, we still don't have most of the quality sports from around the world.

Loading mentions Retweet

Filed under  //   Cricket   Football   Rantings  
Posted October 25, 2009
// 1 Comment

About okies, lolzz and more

All of us have chatted online. And all of us are familiar with the common chat lingo.

Me however, find some of the words in the lingo quite weird.

Let us start with okies. At first I though this is what people say when they want to say OK to multiple things. Like the plural form of OK. After all, OKs will sound like okies when u say it. BUT, that is not what it is meant for. All it means is OK! Yes, okies and OK are the same! I mean, COME ON! It makes sense if you shorten a particular word so that you make lesser keystrokes, but how does it make ANY sense to ADD three letters to two letter word! I often use 'k' instead of OK. But is it not this that the chat lingo is all about.

The next word in my hit list is lolzzz. WTH! What am I supposed to think when someone says lolzzzzzzzzz? Does it mean you were laughing out loud and then fell asleep? Did what I say make you laugh out of pity? If you want to say that you are laughing out louder, then you might as well say lmao or rofl or lmfao. But no, you use ONLY lolzzz. You will never, just for the sake of variety, use lol to show that you are maybe just giggling. And anyways, how many people are actually laughing out aloud when they say lol? If I actually laugh out loud everytime I say lol, my folks would think I have gone bonkers. Yes, I do say a lot of lol  and hehe and haha, but never lolzzzzz.

What is the deal with some people using '.....' after every thing they say? I can understand it if you say this when you mean to continue your point, but why would anyone say gnite.... and cya.... and tc.... and ..... after every freaking thing they type? It just does not make sense!

The really excited people type '!' everytime before they press enter. Here is an illustration:
abc: watsup!
me: nm...wassup?
abc: nm! u temme!
me: i just told you
abc: ohh! lolzzzz!
me: so wat you doing?
abc: tp!
me: done with your project?
abc: no! i m bored!
me: hmmm
abc: you done?!
me: almost...but ll take more time
abc: cool!
do we have anything else to do?!?!
me: i dnt think so
abc: nice! i m reallly bored ya!!!

Now please do not tell me all of those statements are supposed to have an ! at the end.

Then there are the obsessive smiley users. They know all the smileys ever programmed into any chat client and they are not afraid to use it. They have a smiley for every mood and every reply that they send. All this is fine as it helps you gauge the expression of the other person, but they are not always the right smileys! How obsessed can you get?

There are many more but I would rather leave them for you to comment on. Please add on to this list by weird chatters, it can be you as well!

Loading mentions Retweet

Filed under  //   Random   Rantings  
Posted August 14, 2009
// 4 Comments