Writers Block

I am facing a writer's block since my last post, well since my post 'black and white' . I have no blog-worthy idea in mind. Even if i have some idea, i am too engrossed in other things so i forget about it in an instant. Moreover, for some reason, my English is going from bad to worse. I think its the American effect. The spoken English (day-to-day) is so bad (read grammatically inaccurate) here, that my english is getting affected. And i think that is adding to my block.

I am writing this blog as a solution for writers block. Shilpa told me this once... When you are suffering from writers block, just write anything that comes to your mind. So i am doing exactly that.

For the past few days, i have been wondering whether doing a PhD is ever going to earn me money. I see my friends here, mostly doing MS, getting jobs already and earning twice as much. Now i am not saying that what i earn is not enough. It is enough, it is enough for me to pay my rent and live comfortably. But its not exactly big bucks. So i am reconsidering PhD, but i know that this reconsideration is shallow. Inside, i know that i want to do a PhD. So there is no question about that.

Recently, I found out that i can listen to radio on iTunes. I found out that there are thousands of radio channels i can listen to. There are 3 hindi channels ! I can listen to all kinds of music on the radio. Its a great thing and i am thoroughly enjoying that.

I am also planning to buy a bike, not a motorcycle, but a regular bicycle. My roommates bike was stolen from campus, so we dont have a bike to use. This is a prob only on weekends, where i used to take the bike to the lab. Now i have to walk :(

I am also growing concerned about my lack of excersize. I am hardly doing any physical excersize nowadays. And that is showing its effects. I should start excersizing regularly.


So.. after this post meant to be a cure on the writer's block, my resolutions are:

Complete the PhD
Listen to radio
Buy a bike
Start excersizing.


Its sunday morning at 845 am, and this is Alok Joglekar. If you are reading this, you are the reader. The block is taking over us and i am your only hope. We will find a way to fight the block and we will survive. This is Alok Joglekar, signing off from the blog.



p.s. I watched T4-salvation a couple of days back.

A short note on a scam

I was looking for an apartment in L.A. a couple of days back. For starters, i looked up a few offers on craigslist Los Angeles. I found this unbelievably great deal on one of the links. It was a 2b/2bth house for $1100 / month. (The usual is around $1600 / month in here). I did not believe the deal and scoffed at it as someone being either incredibly stupid / trying to rob people's money.

But, just to see what happens, i emailed the guy about the house. I get a reply from an address ending in *.fr (someone who is registered as a french guy). The emails says (in short)

'I am Richard McNeish, a voluntary missionary, who has transfered to west africa and my wife has transfered to UK. We want to give our place to someone trustworthy and who will treat the house as their own.. etc etc ... blah blah blah. Unfortunately we can not show you the house. So we will send you keys by DHL once we get the deposit of $500 and first month's rent of $1100. etc etc'

First of all, it sounds so fishy, that the first thing i did was a google search on 'richard mcneish'. The first hit i got was someone's blog entry and a comment on it. The comment says

'I want to know if anyone out there in Ilasamaja, Nigeria knows a man by the name of Richard McNeish, aka Pastor Mark Buckner aka Rev Daniel Tamayo. If you do, please its very imperative that you contact me at xxxxxxx@yahoo.com. This man, unfortunately, is a scam artist that likes to rob people's hard-earned money who serve the Lord. Please donot hesitate to leave me any information on this person who will be sought and prosecuted.'


Just an amazing experience which highlights
- How sneaky and kniving bastards people can be. Thieving people under the name of god.
- Amazimg power of internet and google.
- Also, amazing potential of internet to be used as a frauding tool.


Anyway. In short, that was the experience.