A Letter From "The Alter Ego"

Dear Reader,

How do you do? First & foremost, I'd like to thank you for visiting my blog.

So, before we move on, do I have the liberty to ask you what you do for a living? Are you a journalist? Or is it that you're a doctor? Or probably an architect slogging your ass off for a multi national firm. Uhh...kindly pardon me if I've already started to bore you. You know, today, I've decided I'll keep a clear mind and write a letter to you asking about your health, your life and your feelings about this beloved blogpage of mine. I've been blogging for over 3 years now and yet, all I happen to manage is a meagre 22 subscribers and around 40 visitors to my page. I am not too sure exactly what is it that makes me crazy about blogging but here I am, trying to post something or the other, at every opportunity I can conjure up. Of course, I can blame the non-popularity of my page to my irregularity which in turn is because of the lack of a personal computer and an active internet connection in my college, where I live most of the time.

Okay, I'm sorry. This letter is not exactly about my problems and complaints in life. It's more about a decision that I need to take, a decision that needs to be sorted out soon. And for this, I shall desperately need your help. It is you who has been visiting and reading this page for a while now and it is you who can tell me if I'm good enough to be able to take it up as a career option. I know, I can always join up some company and then carry out blogging simultaenously, just like so many of the rest out there. But here comes the problem. I just don't think I'm the kind of material who would be happy and content working for some one else. I need my own decision making and creative independence. It's not that I've never tried a 9-5 job. I'd been with M/s Crompton Greaves for 2 months and I realized that it's just not for me. Yes, I'm good in programming and I love it too. Yet, I still find it weird to be coding for someone else. As for blogging, it's not just trying to earn by running adsense on my page. I have a much grander plan. Unfortunately, I shall need to be a little discreet about it out here. But yeah, if you think you shall be able to advise me on this, kindly leave your email address in the comments section and I shall be more than happy to get back to you. And well, it just so happens that I've been doing a few things in my life that I hardly loved. This apathy ended up with dire consequences and here I am, trying to figure out what I want outta my life.

I know I can write decent enough, I know I have enough interest in this field and I also know that I have good enough entrepreunal skills. What more, I am even eager to learn new things. And yes, I shall need to regiment my life and be regular. What else does a man need to be successful in his life? Do I really need outstanding academic records to be able to feed myself and raise a family happily? Or is it that I'm day-dreaming?

I shall sincerely hope that you've realized the kind of indecisiveness I'm struggling with and am very grateful that you felt this letter's worth the time you've sacrificed to read it. Thanks again.

Yours Truly,
The Alter Ego.

Highlights of 2007 on the Labyrinth!

The year 2007 has almost gone by and yet, loads of stuffs happening around the world even at the very last moment, what with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, 16 year old Jamie Lynn Spears getting pregnant, West Virginia sueing former football coach Rodriguez over buyout, Mischa Burton getting arrested for drug possession, Sri Lankan army driving Tamil rebels from bases in Northwest, Amazon to sell Warner Music, Google's privacy faux pas with Reader and Russia launching satellite for its own GPS. It's been quite a lovely year for Shayon's Labyrinth as well. It's been 2 and a half years to this blog's existence and still strong enough to survive a few more years, in the minimum. On this note, I decided to pick out my favorite 15 best posts of the year and gather them all in one place.

• We, The People - Had to mention this one at the very first because it was this post that got Shayon's Labyrinth a huge review on the Telegraph. Sakshi had managed to write a wonderful piece reflecting the mentality of modern India.
  
• What's Becoming of our Democracy? - Another lovely post from Sakshi questioning the current political and social situations of India. The main point of this post is to question the right of the Government in moral policing the country's citizen. I must say, anyone who'd read this post will definitely believe that she's gonna be an awesome lawyer one day.
  
• 100 Facts About Me - Talking of Sakshi, even Shayon's contribution needs to be noted in building up this page's rep in the blogging cosmos. In this post, all Shayon did was list out a few facts about himself. However, what astounded me the most is that this post has been visited by people every single day since August '07. I just fail to understand how could someone be so interested in this good-for-nothing guy :-P.
  
• Configuring Google Reader - Do you have a good enough concept in RSS and syndication? Do you happen to visit news sites and follow loads of blogs? Then this post is a must read for you.
  
• Why Do You Blog? - So, are you a blogger? What made you a blogger? What is it about blogging that gets your adrenaline running? Tell us your reasons and lets compare notes.
  
• Blog Tagging - Do you know what a meme tag is? If not then load up this post to find out.
• Bloggers' Union - "It seems us bloggers are finally getting recognised. Blogging is finally coming of age. I'm sure you must have heard a lot about bloggers earning simply by posting on their or others' pages or by advertising extensively. What more? Bloggers are also proposing to form unions for themselves! Yes, you read that right."
  
• RSS Feeds: Should You? Shouldn't You? - What do you think? Are feeds an important part of your webpage? Do you provide partial or full feeds? The debate goes on...
  
• Does You Email Provider Give You Automatic Email Forwarding? - Do you think automatic forwarding is an essential feature or just another of the pizzazz? Did you ever get your email account hacked or shut out of it for hours? Check out the post for more dope.
  
• Sorting Out My GMail Inbox - Talking about emails, GMail has been one of the frontrunners for years now. Thankfully, it'd suddenly dawned on to Shayon how important it becomes to keep your mailbox sorted out. Here's a post helping you travel his wonderful journey.
  
• A Eye-Opener - Well...although it's a shamelessly copied post, I still decided to put it up here 'coz it a sad post about the rampant discrimination in our country and their consequences. A must read!
  
• Firefox Plugins (Fasterfox, StumbleUpon, AdBlock Plus & Google Browser Sync) - If you still haven't started using FireFox, it's high time you did. Anyways, Shayon had reviewed 4 best outta thousands of plugins available for FireFox.
  
• FavIcon For Blogs - This one is just a tutorial on how to add a favicon to your blog.
  
• 2007 Honda Small Hybrid Sports Concept - Now here's a concept car from Honda that you'd love to get into.
  
• Benazir Bhutto Killed By Gunmen And Suicide Bomber - It's a shame to see this charismatic Pakistani leader wither away while doing what she wanted to do with all her heart, serving her countrymen. May Lord impart peace to her soul!