I've just launched a new theme for the blog section of my website. The name Evelyn, meaning "little bird," is derived from the French name "Aveline" of the same meaning. Additionally, it can be traced back to the Germanic Ava (possibly meaning "desired") and the Latin avis ("bird").

Evelyn is my niece. Angeline's daughter. She is the sweet little face you see as the wallpaper in the cellphone. I got her a little tweety doll last week and it is so sweet to see her running around the apartment with it saying that she is flying.

Here is a little bird theme for our little tweet tweet. The theme is not available for download, sorry! Its been a very busy day. I'm really tired. Let me know what you think.

Or have your say here

I'm sitting beside my window sill,
Watching smoke swirl against my will.

Golden rays flooding in through a half-open window,
I can't believe my life is just too slow.

Dreams and ashes falling between my fingers like snow flakes,
Cold and numb, dwelling on old crushes and heart aches.

I don't wanna die young, even thoughts tastes sour,
How the hell did I wind up like this? I don't even want to hear her sing once more.

I'll get around breaking the habit, but for now the story is played out like this,
Someday I will, but not right now. Why weren't I able to see the chances I miss?

I'm gonna make it all right, someway, somehow,
I wan't to rewrite everything I've messed up; but not right now.

Each time I lite one more, Does all my life turn to a joke?,
I swear to do it never again, each day as I watch my life go up in smoke.

Thanks for reading :)

.....................................& If you are leaving comments, please do it on the site because 360 is going up in smokes and I'm not moving blogs and comments. Click here to go there.

So, it has finally happened, didn't it? Didn't I tell you that Yahoo! 360 is one of the worst attempts at social networking (if you purposefully neglect myspace, hi5 and facebox)? I knew they will pull this beta before they even get around reading the abuse/bug/feature reports. Hell, they don't even read the comments in their official blog! I'm so glad I thought ahead.

At least I don't have to worry about my blogs and comments getting booted. The valuable ones have been moved onto my site's blog and my wordpress emails me my database backup each week.

I'm thinking about moving the REALLY OLD blogs in this 360 to some archive on the site, so that I'll be able to carry all your words & thoughts with me. Then again, that is just the comments and blogs that I was able to recover after yahoo deleted my previous account. I hate this system more each time i think of that day. Yahoo! have wound herself with so many TOS and loops that even she has to refer law books before doing something.

I'm sorry I haven't been around. I've been busy with my first internals in college. I have a blog entry on the website (typing that now) summing up all that.

Check it out ☺ http://rubenbabu.com/blog

Any information on multiply & mash is welcome. Do leave it in the comments, I hardly have time to research on my own. Then again, I'm not promising I'll add a multiply page to my collection of pretty profiles all over the web.

=]

"Can I blog that" was my problem when I had ample time in my hands, back home in Bahrain & Cochin. Unfortunately for me, it never really changed; "When Can I blog that?" is my new worry.

Ever since I left for bangalore, I've never been able to write down the million things that I could have blogged. You have no idea how it feels like to have that "writer mood" and not being able to do it. Its something a blogger must go through once in his life. Some, can take it and come back and be themselves again. But for some, it can cause serious problems. In my case however, I got new friends and new relationships to take my mind of it. (Who says I can't blblogbout it?) ; it never goes away. A blogger is always a blogger no matter what all roles you take in life, you will never feel at home more than when you are infrontof your WYSIWYG editor.

As you can see in the graph above, the traffic on my website was at tremendous levels during the end of august and bbegining of september when I posted the **Seven Things to hate about Stumbleupon. You remeberr a time when my website went down due to traffic? Well, these high levels of traffic are TEN TIMES that value, but my server can now take it!

Other posts like, **Christians dont understand atheist quortes are the only things that lure readers these days.

It started to drop immediately after my first day of college and it looks like iincommingtake some serious efforts to being my SEO & Technorati ratings back up.

Anyhow, my site isn't always dead, there is at least 4 people reading it every hour.

I gotta go finish my assignments for Electronics & Electrical Department. See ya later. Peace out.

-Ru

**most popular & most linked posts.

Maxed out!

The good news: I was stumbled, but the bad news: my site was completely down last night for couple hours and I notice now that its out like a candle. If you were on my site last night, you probably had experienced the downtime. This is similar to the Digg effect. Stumble Effect is the term given to the phenomenon of a popular website linking to a smaller site (and redirecting traffic), causing the smaller site to slow down or even temporarily close due to the increased traffic.

Some one put my website on StumbleUpon (a bookmarking site) My visitor count was so high yesterday that HostGator maxed out! We are not talking about Bandwidth, we are talking about CPU usage. Getting stumbled is good because it brings you traffic and exposure.

I had like 1200+ visitors (this is unique visitors) yesterday and each visitor had about 10-20 page views and I woke up to find that HostGator (My server) has dropped

I'm working on the back up system right now, and we will be back online in a minute.

-Ruben

PS: I'm really excited about all this traffic, but it also had side effects.

UPDATE: We will be back online in 10 minutes.

UPDATE: I have switched servers, however, the blog is disabled to maintain load. Please wait a few minutes for the information to be processed.

UPDATE: The Website is back online. If it does not load, please refresh your browser cache.

I'm having a moment here folks.

Remember all the time I kept you waiting for the Website's Launch? Remember a time when I was so busy I never had time for any of you? Remember how I pushed myself to the limit to meet the DeadLine?



A recent comment in the previous blog entry where I described the features of the website, made me think about the actual DeadLine. The minute you either attain glory or complete failure. When time comes to a stop and you let fate decide the rest.

Does everything gets over at "the end" ? Do we pick up after the "Wow! I did that moment?"

I think I have an answer. Art never ends & I'll never stop till I have enough of it.


*I've just launched a Forum (Discussion board) where anyone can discuss anything. One thing I've noted on 360 is that we do not have a place to talk in public and to make ourselves heard. We confide ourselves to single P2P chats & single comments in a blog entry or a page heavily moderated by the unjust "Blahew!".

I've something else to offer, a discussion board where you can say anything you want. As you all know, I support freespeech & here is the best place for you to speak your mind. Let it be religion or any other cit chats. I'm lax on the rules. (I hardly have any, lol)

The forum. It's all talk in here.
Register yourself if you would like to add to the conversation. Its a place for friends. Why don't you go check it out?


*Wait, there 's more!

This is the chat room. I'll post chat times and stuff eventually. Meanwhile, you can keep it open in another browser window and it will alert you when one of your friends come online or IM you. Its a public chat room but you can move to private if you want. Go here to find it.

Well, thats it for now, see you later. I'll be around the site.

-Ruben!

Hiiii!!

Lets give you a crash *gulp* course on the website. I think this can be called a Users Manual, since most of you called it User friendly. Here are a few features you might have noticed, or not.

But first, thank you for all the responses at the opening blog entry. I have responded to most of them, remember to check it out. The website is still in its initial stages & I'd love to add more features as time pass by, but still keep it clean, sleek & simple without adding what I like to call "MySpace glitter".

Like my friend FaithBeyondMeasure (Toni) said "I like to do something like this and stare at it and have a "Wow, I did that moment" "

I was in Wow last night. I couldn't believe I finished everything and it all just works. (bite me, i used quotations inside quotations.)

The traffic went up the instant I put it on my blast, I never knew we had this many people on 360 at that time of the day. (July 31st Midnight for me anyway)
The Blog.


This is what the blog looks like on my end, on a firefox2 browser.

As you can see, you can move the modules in the sidebar, collapse it, expand it and arrange it for your needs simply by clicking & dragging. And your browser will remember your preferences. (CTRL + F5 to reset)



It helps you stay in control of what you see and you would like to see. But this is totally against the ethics of a webdesigner. A true web designer is supposed to stop you from getting what you want and give you what he wants you to see.

As you can see, I ain't too good with rules. It gives you the feeling of using an operating system & I'm deeply in love with Mac OSx The Apple operating system, as you might have noticed.

I have a dock bar for the website too, but its currently disabled to give focus to the content.


Gallery.
One of the other features I like about the site is that you can load images on the same page, like going thru an album on your computer and not reloading the entire page like on HTML albums or Waiting for a flash album to load itself.

This is a totally different thing. Its called LightBox effect teamed with NextGen Gallery.When you click on a link or image that is related to the gallery, your entire page goes semi-black and the image slides open. This is the lightbox effect.

#In order to close it, simply press ESC button on your keyboard (or click anywhere other than the photo.)

#In order to navigate to the the next or previous image in an ALBUM, use the arrow keys on your keyboard. (This is apart from the optional navigation methods that appears when you move your mouse across the image while viewing an album.)




Comment.
And someone just told me He can't comment. Here is how you comment.

Click on the "Comment" link right next to the blog title.

Then in the form that appears, simply fill in with these details.

Name: Your Name (Required)
Email: Your Email address (Required)
Website: It can be your 360 web address or your site link. (Not necessary, but will be cool if you do)
Comment: Type your stuff. (Of course this is required!! lol)

Click Submit.


Chat.

I think I don't have to explain this one . Its found on the right sidebar and its fairly simple. Its called a Mebo thingy or something, I'm not sure =] . There is NO registration or any steps what so ever. Just type your name and message, hit enter.

There is nothing to it really, but Internet explorer users need to click it ONCE to activate and use this control. It works perfectly one new browsers & older ones cant recognize the advanced OOP.

Your messages are private and seen only by me. First, type in your name and hit me with a message. I'll be on the other end. No, its not the same way you see it. For me, its more like a webpage filled with IM windows from many users.

Most of you have me on Yahoo! Messenger, googletalk, skype and MSN. that will do just fine =]




Subscribe:
I haven't posted or uploaded anything today. No need to check it. But I'll instantly email you when something is posted. Simply subscribe to the Lifeblog. Thanks to those who already did.


Feed.
I'm pretty sure most of you know what the big blue button on top right quarter (or where you moved it to) is for and I'm pretty confident in my readers and believe you know how to feed it.


Browsers.
A browser is like a person, it reads the HTML, CSS & PHP then explains it to you in the form of Images & Text. Personally, I think Firefox is the most educated one of it all (excuse the expression). I'm happy to note that over 60% of my visitors are FireFox users (you rock!). & I know you guys are able to enjoy all the features. The rest accounts for 35% Internet Explorer users & 5% Safari (and other browsers). I love Firefox (Apple Pie ) & Safari (The Apple browser).

Click the pretty button to get your copy and take control of the internet. My pages load a 10o times faster and images are perfectly loaded with Alpha blending in PNGs, unlike lower versions of IE, netscape and all that junk. Too afraid to upgrade? Why ? The reason to upgrade are plenty. For me the answer is simple, The best things in life are free. Just two clicks and its like your tail caught on fire. LOL. My users manual turned out to be a promotion for browsers.


I'd love to hear your take on the site's design (thanks to those who have told me already). & I would love some hardcore critiques about new features, and bugs. Is something not working? So that I can improve it more & tell me what you dont like or what appears to take away the beauty. You can either leave it here in the opening entry or send me a private message. or Even in this blog entry. I'm feeling like customer relations lately.
THANK YOU!!!!!! & this is the holy Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The Ultimate Yahoo! MAIL Extension changing bypass.

- Do you want to change the boring extension & get yourself a DOT com ? This is the only way to do it & I'm the only one who has ever tried it.

As you all know, I deleted my previous yahoo email address "rubenbabu@yahoo.co.in" since it's Yahoo! 360 was suspended by Yahoo! & I've always wanted that same address without the "co.in". But we all know that it can never be changed once its chosen. I have, however, found a way to counter this.


Before you do this, back up your entire contacts, messenger list and tell your friends that you are changing email address. Don't give them your "to be" .com email address. Give them another email address, like a Gmail address. Because it will take 90 days for this process to complete.

1) RECHECK your secondary email address given in My Account Settings, Make sure that it is not the Yahoo! address you want to change. If there is nothing there, Type in an active email address. & for god sakes, write it down somewhere!

2) Get yourself an account in http:///videos.yahoo.com , with the yahoo email address you want to change & upload a video - Anything! let be your dog playing or another clip you have found online. (I'll tell you why you are doing this.)

3) Delete your Yahoo! Account. Thats right, you want to change its extension? you must delete it. Go to the Accounts deletion page and delete it. [& read this topic before doing so because this process is not reversible.]

4) Ok, your Yahoo ID and everything related to it has been deleted. You will be automatically signed out.

5) Sign up for a new Yahoo! Email address with a .com extension. (Remember to select your location as USA) - You cant use your old ID as the username because you just deleted it and yahoo prevents users from getting it.

In most cases your account will be deactivated and then deleted from our user registration database in approximately 90 days. This delay is necessary to discourage users from engaging in fraudulent activity ^^

6) Wait for like, 90 days. - set an alarm somewhere and go do something else.

7) Use the Yahoo ID you created in Step 5 & Log into this page & Click "Get started" at the bottom of the screen.

You will be taken to a page similar to a sign up page. Type in your OLD yahoo ID (the one you deleted) as the required address. You will receive an email announcing that YourOldId@yahoo.com is now active.

8) Goto This Page & Click "Set as Default" on your new email address.

Now that you're all set up, here are a few things you can do:

• Send messages from yourOLDid@yahoo.com or yourNEWid@yahoo.com -- just pick one using the pull-down menu beside From:
• Receive messages sent to both addresses in your existing account
• Tell the world you have this new address -- just click http://mrd.mail.yahoo.com/ym/announceaddress
• Log in anywhere on the Yahoo! network (Mail, Photos, Messenger with Voice, 360° -- the list goes on and on...)

Have fun!


: Why did I upload a video into Yahoo! Videos ?

A: Because if your Old Yahoo! ID has not been removed from yahoo records within 90days, the video will still be available in Yahoo! videos. You can write to Yahoo! and tell them you require your personal videos/or photos in yahoophotos/ to be deleted immediately. This is just an optional precaution, your old records are handled automatically and often not even seen by another human being. So, they will remove the entire yahoo videos account and your yahoo id will be wiped clean.

: Why did I change settings for secondary email in Step 1 for my OLD ID ?

A: Inorder for Yahoo! to believe that the old account was yours, while requesting a deletion stating the fact that you want your Media (Photo, blog, or Video you uploaded), You have to send them an email using this secondary email address

: Stumbled here & thinking "Like 4 people use Yahoo! Anyway, I dont care."?

A: You are right there. The best option would be to register a new domain and use their email hosting or signing up for Google Aps. But there are some people who still need to use a Yahoo! Id to get things moving. :)


So here I am, with my brand new ID rubenbabu [AT] yahoo.com - Shoot me a message if you need more help. & OH! Google Mail is the best email service available online

Ruben Babu
http://rubenbabu.com

In the above picture, you can see me working & waiting for Flash to boot while ignoring my friends sending me IMs. I'm sorry, I cant help it. I'm not avoiding you. As most of you know, I'm pretty occupied for the rest of the month. I hardly have any time on my hands to reply to messages. You can look at the [changelog]for progress.

Losing connections in a well connected world
....this blog title was coined by ~Sabiha.

It set me thinking about alot of things. I keep watching my system tray displaying messages when one of the 100+ people on my messenger list keep signing in and out. I watch you login every morning and I see you leave in the evening for lunch, and at night. I keep working even while you are sleeping. And the very next morning, when dark shadows appear below my eyes, I keep seeing you people come back. I have, however, grown used to sleeping every 48 hours. instead of 24.

I keep dismissing the people who appear on screen expecting to talk. Apart from a few lines of chat I do on forums about webdesigning, I have had very silent month. Too silent that my room has the feeling of a graveyard. But I think there is more to this alone, almost-dead feeling. Its not just my room thats like a graveyard. My friendlist too. I have people in favorites, since they removed me from their friendlist. I don't know why, but that number keeps increasing even though I haven't even talked to them to cause any misunderstanding.

Yesterday, I kept staring at the friendlist on 360. Some people can call a webpage full of weird, sometimes funny images aligned against fake names, as friends or even family. I have lost my faith in online friends. There are exceptions of course. Who is a friend? How do you know when to trust? Are there people just here to toy with others? Do they really care about the other person? Are they just adding you get more comments thats not even worth a cent ? and when you are not reading them or saying fake wishes and greetings, drop you ? or for a religion you choose not to be in?

Here is the change log for my website. Advanced critiques encouraged.

There has been EXTENSIVE work going on inside my website. Countless sleepless days & hours and hours of coding and designing. This list is ordered in descending manner, but with few errors. only a week left till release. More updated & recent change log will be released soon.

Recent...

• 24 july 2007 - Installed Multiuser WordPress platform as root on Apache server [finally!]
  
• 24 july 2007 - Multiuser installation failed thrice [Selected subdomains instead of subdirectory: Fixed]
  
• 24 july 2007 - Multiuser installation failed [Database tables incorrect: Fixed]
• 24 july 2007 - Deleted Single user wordpress and ENTIRE TABLES & FILES [I felt like starting over when only 7 days was left till release]
• Backed up previous works onto Harddisk. Especially the theme!
  
• 24 july 2007 - Found an excellent gallery for photos
• 24 july 2007 - Lightbox installed. And god saw that all was well.
  

• 23 july 2007 - Everything was fine. I had my blog done. all themes work. all plugins work. and god saw that all was well. [Next gen Lighbox Gallery] #minor bugs fixed on single user blog site.
• 23 july - Feedburner integrated.
  
• 23 july 2007 - Completely customized Itheme from N-design Studio #bugs fixed
• 23 july 2007 - Web 2.0 -ized entire website with styles and icons
• 22 july 2007 - Installed Ultimate contact form. Resolved Blacklisted email domain error.
• 22 july 2007 - Worked on itheme + dock

July...

• Email Address & MX issues resolved on personal domain. [Migrated using google apps]
  
• Changed Servers. Moved to Apache Linux Debian Server. Hosted along side http://thejesusmyth.com & http://theaaupc.org - My website finally found a home.
• 110mb.com downtime!!!!!! My website was out like a candle. Finally ditched my Server at 110mb.com
• Web 2.0-zed blog icons & buttons.
• Thinking, writing, messing around.

June...

• 110mb server doesnt allow MX controls. Hopes of an email @ domain lost.
• 110mb server wordpress upgraded from 2.0 to 2.2
• Feeble attempts at regaining MX controls using Godaddy self hosted service. [Godaddy is my registrar]. didnt work.
• Frantic search for theme. used default styles from itheme, Built my own CSS now with Dynamic sidebars & alot more plugins supported.
  
• Installed single user wordpress. [this idea & WORK was deleted later]
• Decided to run website on PHP & blog under wordpress. [this idea & WORK was deleted later]
  
  
• I dont remember. but it was alot of work.

To do within 24 hours:

• Fix lightbox gallery on Multi user wordpress. [source code not available online!!!]
  
• Integrate Contact from. [Multiuser doesnt support Contact form!!! AAA!!!]
  
• Make pages. start all over again. [Type, Typo & Type]
  
• run around in circles. [seems to be the only thing that works recently.]
  

In laymen terms, I had decided upon 4 things as time passed by to make my website as (PHP, single user site, Flash website, PHP+singleuser-wordpress as blog) which involved a great deal of work. but deleted one by one. and now finalized to have a single platform (Multi user wordpress) on the website. Changed hosting TWICE!. More work follows.

Any other ideas/suggestion/what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about/comments are welcome.

Ruben The AnswerMan over and out.

Good news peeps,

I just brought Mom home, from the hospital & she is gonna be just fine. I wasn't allowed to stay at the hospital yesterday, in case I get sick too. I was up & working on my website's publishing platform till 3, or 4 in the morning. Slept for 3 hours and had to drive back to the hospital at 7am today. I hate monsoon, its raining like hell here, And the water in Mom's river in the backyard is getting dangerously high. This is what it used to look like...


Mom is back to her annoying, complaining, shouting, arguing self again (I'm such an idiot to have hoped that she will change). And its music to my ears ...

Ruben Out!
PS: I'm reading Harry Potter 7!! The book isn't out yet, I know. Don't even think about asking me how I got it, I wont tell. All you peeps wait 24 hours for the official release. =)

dear folks of 360,

Mom 's sick. I've been taking care of her for two days now since there isn't anybody else who can or will.

She lived alone and I was thinking this a week ago "Isn't it time I did some of my duties before I go away?" because I'm planning a trip in the near future, a pretty long one. And what are the chances?! Mom got sick! She has a heavy fever & she is on IV right now. Thankfully, she is getting better. I had to admit her in the hospital 2 days ago and I just got home to pick up a few things. House looks creepy. I think of the days I used to run around this place as a child, every time i walk in that door but now I hate this place more than anything else....

Its 10 am July 19th, a Thursday and I have an hour left before I have to head back to the hospital. It amazes me so much that there were times when my mom and I never looked eye to eye. Do read this blog to understand my relationships with my peers (scroll down to the middle part, until you see the picture of "the two faces"). We never had a good relationship, there is alot of mistrust, and "religion" between us.

When you look at it from her point of view, I'm the son that broke all expectations. I was never straight A's like my elder brother & sister at school or high school. I was never the one who stayed at home and listen to them. I was the one who had a mind of his own. I was the spoiled rich kid. [you can probably guess what every other teen with a bike & a lot of cash is like]. I was the atheist whom my parents hated most. But where are her favorite kids now ? Only the brat is left. Here is a poem that comes o my mind, (Taking care of Mom)...

I realize you’re used to being a victim
You’ve been one your whole life
But could you just mature for a moment
In order to be a real mom
I shouldn’t have to censor everything
In order to protect your fragile feelings
And if I’m the child here
Why am I the one always comforting you
Mommy, can’t you see I’m tired
Of having to be the “stable” one
I hate seeing you upset
Yet taking care of you drains me
So what do I do, continue to pretend
Or maybe just turn and run from the problem
This would be easier, Mommy
If for once you were a mother and not a child
I really needed a mother, Mommy
But I got stuck with a grown up child

She used to look after me when I was sick & now, I get to return the favor. After all, she is my only mom no matter what kind of a person she was to me..

This pushes the deadline for unveiling my website & you can imagine, I hate work, I hate the pressure, I hate responsibilities. But I seem to be doing pretty good with all of it right now.... I just need to find where I left the keys for the bike & I'm off.....

Holy Shit!

I logged in today to find 31 unread messages & 4 invitations!! (My mailbox was empty till 00:00 am on July 17th). However, I was unable to find any new messages or invites in my mailbox, but it still said I have 31 unread messages. So, I clicked next and went to the second page of my older mails and there it was! My messages until July the 13th (The Friday) has mysteriously appeared out of thin air!

Here I was, thinking that none of my friends even cared about me. I didn't even have our usual spam & "reply-all" messages for the last two months! It was a yahoo glitch, guys! (I hope). There is no god damn way I'm going to sit down and reply to all those messages!

Sabiha, Avalanche, Shail, Vercetti, Gunning4jesus, sidd~, Arline, Feud, Teufelchen, rubberduck, and everyone else (wow thats a long list), thanks for the messages. But I'm sorry to say, I can only read it, I dont have time to respond. I'll get back to them in due time.

There is one more problem! I clicked "next" & I keep going back on the list, but the same messages seem to appear on all pages! its like going out a door, and finding yourself enter the same room thru another door & it keeps on going till i reach the last message! Yahoo! 360 Twilight Zone is seriously starting to freak me out! Some thing like this...........


After excluding the repeats, I have an exact number of 31 messages & the last one arrived on Friday the 13th.

Didnt understand? neither do I.

Have you ever tried stuffing the trunk of your car with more than it could ever hold ?

Well, Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix reminded me of that. They tried to fill in so much detail into the measly 2 hour movie. Needless to say, it was a disaster. You expected to see The Dementors, The Oclumency lessons, Dumbledor's Army & The Weasley's Flight, but no. They shrunk all that & many more critical events into a mere 20 minutes.

Was it too much to expect the final showdown between Dumbledor & Voldermot in full detail and in full visual effects & surround sound ? but nooo....!! They wrapped the whole thing up with a few exchanges of spells & hexes. Do you know how early I had to get up for the reservations ?

I had to ride in the rain and was stuck in traffic for almost an hour today morning in Cochin city to get to Sridhar Theater (opposite to the rainbow bridge). While I was waiting for my friend to show up, I had my breakfast at Sridhar Cafe (the image to your left).

It was a pretty good thing I knew the 5th book by heart, cover to cover. If you haven't even read the book atleast twice, don't even think about going to the theaters.

But the animations were beyond expectations! but they wouldn't compare to Spiderman3 tho. The Ministry of Magic & Sirius Black's death was exactly how I had pictured it in my mind. The Magical creatures were awesome. Hogwarts was looking Magical as ever. Cho was not the Enchanted bombshell I had in mind :( But it turns out that Luna & Hermione (the goon & the geek), were the hottest... I think Goblet of Fire is a better movie than Phoenix.


Oh well, there is always Transformers Autobots & Deceptacons to raise my movie spirits.

I'm just hoping that the 7th & final book of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows, wont bring grave news *gulp*. I just cant wait for it to come out. July 21'st !!! I have reserved mine. Have you ?

Come to think of it, the last two months seemed to last forever. We were out watching movies, going to places, partying, riding and just hanging out, every single day!!!!! We even had something of High school reunion in June!! I'll be blogging about it later on this month...



Let me tell you, the last two months were insane! which was the main reason I was never really online. Then again, I had lost my love for yahoo a while back & the "internet - social - thing" started to look a little odd. I'll get back to this later on in this entry....





My friends would bunk classes & We were killin' time, we were young and restless once again even though most of my friends were in college and the old school days were a distant memory. You see, I never went to college after my High school graduation (which actually took more time than the rest of my classmates ) - I'll join college soon and then its bye bye to the Internets.... :(



Anyway, I went back to Bahrain by October of 2006 till Feb-March of 2007. Ahh..... I remember those awesome days. Here is a list of some selected few blogs from Bahrain.



November06 - Slideshow - Bahrain Museum of National History

November06 - Slideshow - Out my Window - Part 2

December06 - Slideshow - Bahrain - Saudi Causeway

December06 - How I became an Atheist - Atheist Christmas - Part 3



Second reason.



I think its time I explained the reason that runs deep in my sudden departure from Blogging. I was never really away from the internet. At night (if I have strength left in me to stay awake), I would often login to my Stumbleupon Account and have rational discussions with similar, as well as different minded people.



Yahoo! 360 is your internet version of The Sopranos for Best Drama Awards. Some People of Yahoo 360 is attached to it, they feed on the somewhat reduced social thing they have online and their days are filled with stalkers, haters, fights and drama. But when I realized that I was slowly falling into the vicious circle, I really wanted to get away and work on my real life. And then something wonderful happened, the biggest fight I have ever seen on 360! and I was at the center of it. I was pretty stung when my first 360 blog was suspended. That knocked sense into my head and I was finally able to say "fuck em all" and walk away....



Third reason.







I was coding & designing CSS, PHP, HTML & graphix for two Atheist Websites on one go. Which took *alot* of my time every day.



I coded for the http://aaupc.org which was launched recently and http://thejesusmyth.com had been running for sometime. And for that reason, the launching of my personal website, http://rubenbabu.com had to be delayed. Thats it and I better get back to work on my website.



Ruben out.

Is yahoo digging their own grave?

I just came across an article, Yahoo Censoring Open Source. I recommend this story to all my readers.

WOW! Lets think of what they have done in the past.

# Atheists were banned for posting non-religious or anti-Christian blogs.
# Pagan Friends were also banned on yahoo answers for similar reasons.
# Recommending websites like Torrentspy, Demonoid and so on will make sure you are out of the family before you say, "oops"

If you say OpenSource is good, you get banned? That is one of the stupidest policies I have ever heard in my life (other than US Laws stating that "no atheists shall hold a public office") Thank god we don't have that in India. It is time Yahoo users started asking questions. What does that say about Yahoo's ability to deliver accurate search results? Are they going to start censoring the entire Web, removing any negative references to Microsoft or Windows, and any positive references to Linux or Open Source?

There are two kinds of people in the world you do not want to make angry, Atheists and Linux Users.

I'm both and this is strike Two.

Missed me ? Sorry peeps,

AnswerMan is Offline for an uncertain period of time. & I'll wrap this up real quick.

No Messages.
No Emails.
No IM.
No Stumbles.
No Forums.
No Nothing.

I had no idea I would get this busy when I was happily chatting with a friend in Canada on last sunday evening. I was so busy that I cant even remember the last 3 days.

I drove hundreds of kilometers across many districts of Kerala on many pursuits. I cant explain where or aht I'm doing, but just know that its all good.

I don't have time to sit in front of a computer and finish my promised works. I'm sorry I had made promises that I have to delay. 'tis not just blogging that I had to leave behind. Alot of my projects, My website, Stuff for friends and the list goes on.....

MY WEBSITE, I had finally made one a couple of weeks ago but I never got a chance to finish what I have started. I hope I'll finish it up some day. I'll link all of you when its done.

Projects. Um, I'm really sorry here mates, I'll get around making those CSS, PHP and all that flash for your sites this month, I hope.

I just might get some time this weekend. Either way, dont get your hopes up. You can send me emails, messages or offlines and I'll attend to them once things losen up a bit.

Shail, Maggy, Feud, BAT, and all those who are mad at me for not mentioning there names, how are you all ?

Ruben out!

ps: (*sigh* really wanted to finish the 1000 miles blog series.)

"The difference between men and boys are the lessons that they learn. The world was my school, The people within, my classmates. I learn from them, I play with them but at dawn, I bid goodbye. - Ru"

There is only one thing worse than death, and it is to live your life locked away.. As a person who doesn't live in fantasies of a transparent weightless place up above, I know this is the only life I've got. I take my shot, right here, right now.


My life underwent profound changes in the past year. I learned more than what I wanted to. Life was never supposed to be a child’s fantasy. But it’s the greatest lesson, The greatest gift we have. It was the busiest year of my life, traveling from places to places and never staying still, fighting for respect, making friends, facing challenges and a mental struggle to be myself. You will no longer find blogs filled with depression, loneliness or hatred. Even if I'm shot down, forgotten or left for dead, my spirits will never die. You know how I know? Because I'm holding The World in my arms, feeling it's warmth, feeling it's pulse, smelling it's smell, feeling it's love, hearing it's voice, feeling it's anger, feeling it's affection, feeling it's grip, feeling it's gentle touch, seeing into the distance in twilight in skies that aren't its eyes.

I had left religion behind [click-to-view-image-1] a long time ago and its one of the things that I'm proud the most. I used to feel a sense of pride by just reading the word "Atheist". It provides me strength, it makes me proud, it breathes life into my lungs, it makes me free, it makes me 18 again.

I left home days ago, I rolled out without knowing what the day has in store for me.

As minutes pass by, 1 I forget 2 who I am. 3 I forget why 4 I am here 5. As the world turns black, don't be afraid. It's only our world of shadows, And in this darkness we are not alone. And when the engines roar, when the world around you turns blur, you scream with every bit of energy you have. And at a certain point, the speed makes me 18 again.

RELIGION is rarely as important as LOVE between real FRIENDS. We don't give a $@%# to what people think, we love each other. We are no longer christians, hindus or atheists. When we ride, we are friends. We feel like Mad Teenagers screaming, Catch Me iF You caN!

As some of you have already discovered, I haven't been online for the last couple of days. First, I want to apologize for my sudden departure without a warning. Now that it is done, lets get back to my blog....

Have I ever told you about my friends? No? None? Ok, sorry about that too. Here are a couple of thrill seekers,.. AJ, Asheak, Rosh, Jose and Alex. We've been out burning some rubber.

I've spent so much time at my computer that I never knew the freedom that I could achieve. All I needed was the tiniest bit of drive to get me moving. And three days ago, my phone rang and I answered it in from my bed at 5 in the morning. Seeing Asheak's number,..

"Hello"
"Hey Man, Wanna go for a ride?" (that was in another language of course)
"Where to?"
"You in or no?"
"Um, yeah-sure, I guess"

My heart got locked away, One black and desperate night long ago, My days turned to night and my nights were no longer long enough. I was nocturnal in every sense for a very long time. But now, When the stars fell like rain, Feelings kept inside for years, Dead and lifeless like a crumbling flower, Locked up so tight in the box, So rusty and dark and cold were finally let loose.

The bright and sunny day has finally come when the light penetrated into my dark life and the rust had finally started to crumble away. I rolled her out, I felt My Angel Purr, such immense power at the tips of your fingers. The vibrations raising your spirits every step of the way. I hit the road and took flight at full speed. With friends keeping pace on both sides, emotions running high and the sense of power makes you feel like you are god.

Signs of life became apparent inside. Just like a blooming flower trying to escape the darkness. Or maybe like a lock that fell away as the creature held inside took its final shot at life. Lid flew open wide and my feelings escaped, I was free, racing like there is no tomorrow, going faster and faster and faster.......

The world around us turned to a blur, all we could see was each others face on our mirrors. All we could hear was one voice, "Faster, GO Faster". As time passed us by, our spirits still kept rising. Day turned to night, we raised towards blinding headlights, zig zagging between trucks and oncoming traffic. Almost like a miracle, we never hit anything, we feel like a spirit, a ghost, as if you are going so fast that you can pass through metal.

I just got here and I'm so tired that I can barely type anymore. I'm hitting bed and I'll keep you posted.What? Why? Where? Photos?, AnswerMan will tell you everything in the next post. & In the mean time, go read another biker's blog, --XH--