Day 7 ~ Technology

I am grateful for technology - mostly the internet and all that it brings. I am grateful that it forces us to practice moderation.

I am grateful for all the tools of convenience in the kitchen, to aid in housework and to communicate. That I am just a text or a call away from my friends and family. That I can be in touch with friends and share what I ate for dinner or what clothes I am trying on or just tell them I am pissed off at something with the click of a button.

For being able to know whats happening around the world in real time, for improving my world view, for the inspiration via the internet. For the thousands of food related blogs, websites, photo albums etc that help me in my work, allow me to fantasize and live vicariously.

Grateful that I get to work and advertise my work without having to move my behind out of my chair. For movies and TV programming and cameras and all the other gizmos that keep me entertained.

For technology that helps monitor health conditions, repair and recover I am truly truly grateful. 

31 may

yesterday i wrote about how irritated i was that i didnt find the stuff i needed... that ended well and thanks Swaps for the hug... it helped, trust me.... i sorted a tonne of paper rubbish and trashed most of it... i sorted out stuff in my wardrobe...and felt instantly better. in the evening i picked up the duplicate invoice for the computer, ran into my boss at the store, and drove to pick K up so we both could make it to the service centre. 

The Acer service centre in vengal rao nagar in hyderabad is a dump of a place with very unfriendly staff who instantly told me i was late and had to come back the next day. when i told her, i'd already called and asked if i could come because i was a few minutes past their official working hours, and the gentleman asked me to come "no problem" she siad ok and took my complaint. Telling me after a few minutes that the adaptor wasnt in stock and would take 4-5 working days to be replaced since the parts come from bangalore. when asked, she replied that they dont stock these parts... i mean come on.. its a battery adaptor.... possibly the first thing that gets screwed. i asked if i can be given a spare adaptor to use in the meantime... they said no, they dont have that "policy" anyways, with no other option but to login a complaint and wait for them to have mercy, i did just that. 

i just got off the phone with a moron at the acer call centre. i asked him 2 things, would it be possible for me to check with another service centre in hyderabad if they had the stock so i could shift my case to them for a speedier solution. and secondly, was there an email id or phone number where i could express my displeasure at the whole process they have set up. firstly, having worked in a call centre, i know how important it is for the executive at the other end to really comprehend what the caller is saying and then reply. this guy was answering me before i finished asking my question. when i asked him to stop talking and please listen, he said "sorry ma'am i cant do that" :) then he said that they dont have any number or email id where i can write in and express my displeasure with the process (not the same thing as saying i want my adaptor to be replaced in 24 hrs). so they have it on record and it may prompt them towards working to better turn around times.... he said... no they dont have any such thing. i then asked if he was saying, once you bought a product, there was no access to customer service? he asked to put me on hold, and checked and got back saying his senior will call back in 12 hrs. 12 hrs for a call back with an email id!! you Acer, must be joking!

so this is what he asked me to do, gave me the numbers of the other service centre, asked me to call and find out if they had the part ready and then call the call centre back so that he would redirect my complaint. (i called this SC, same response 4-5 days they dont stock parts)

and hopefully someone will call back and give me a freaking email id i can write to. 

how irritating is it to get standard responses from a call centre, the customer just bangs the phone down in frustration. I didnt tho, i politely thanked him for his (lack of) help and hung up.

liar liar

with all the social networking and updates on multiple sites....with networks of friends, acquaintances, colleagues and everyone else spilling into every sphere of your life... is is getting difficult to filter information??
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as an aside, i am watching pati patni aur woh on tv right now .... its time for the teenagers...and for once, the teenagers are more ridiculous than the "celebrities"..... oh and btw,....that babe juhi parmar is giving a whole new take to obnoxious......

blogging this and that

i purged this blog of ridiculous labels.... i tried to the best that i could to put all that i have written here in the last two years into less innane categories.....

i am troubled that i do not know html any better cos i seem to believe that is the answer to my drab blog woes.... i wonder if the only way to add elements on the right and left of my blog is to write a new one.... cos the template page isnt helping me..... or maybe more correctly, i havent figured it out yet!!

i wonder if i should continue to write this blog...because i seem to have no idea what i want to do with it.... yes it does help me with ranting.... which was the whole point.... but it seems to be pretty aimless after all this time....

i am...at this point, as confused as i was when i began typing this...

updated to add: i think i figured out how to add a few elements to the page....i feel rather silly that it took this long!!

I lost all my headings

I am technically challenged…the whole world and its cousin knows this….i cant understand html coding and so many more things that keep this blog alive….i didn't exercise much thought while choosing where to publish my thoughts…I just did a google search and (naturally) landed up at blogger….. I cant seem to understand why I cant have headings to my posts…I can do it only when I type in word and publish as a blog post….but this means I don't get to tag the post (which I can do from blogger)…so today when I tried editing and adding the taglines….i lost the headings!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh …… I've seen many other blogger blogs which seem to do just fine…then I thought maybe I'd change my template, but the thought of having to redo everything just tired me out!! So here I am stuck either without a heading or with no key words…..sad….

Its past 2 and I am dead beat….have had a really long day…infact the last 4 days have been crazy busy for me….i need to sleep….i need my eye drops before that……so g'nite all!!

updates on life in general

I just can’t figure out how to activate a header on this site...I don’t know if i have missed something very obvious or what...it irritates me that the entire first sentence gets picked up as a header.... if someone can help me on this, please do so.....

I had my midweek chocolate making class at a friend’s place in secbad.....partly because I couldn’t get out of commitments made to people who'd called and enquired....(there was a misprint in the Advt about the location) and more cos I thought this was possibly the only way I would honor a long standing invite to lunch at this friend’s place….we had a great time….she has a lovely home….her taste and eye for detailing shows in everything…. I’d also told her that almost everything had a story to tell…from the vases to the knick knacks….fabulous food, girlie talk and a round of shopping to complete your day…what more can a girl ask for…. Btw every time I go to general bazaar to shop, I end up buying what looks like half of the street….i am surprised that a goods carrier didn’t stop by when we called out for an auto!!

The first day of the last month of 2007 has come and gone and I did something very significant personally that I am very proud of……….at the start of this year, there were many things that I wanted to do and achieve, I am quite a sucker for resolutions (of course I never keep them…. Kind of explains how “lose weight” has been on the list forever)…..but its my way of keeping things on my mind and reminding me that I have “miles to go before I sleep”………mostly, by the time we finish half a year, my conscience begins to prick me and I usually succeed in stifling and drowning the irritating thing…this year, very importantly I needed to venture into an activity that would give me something to do that I enjoyed, bring in some cash so I didn’t have a helplessly financially dependent look on my face all the time….drive a car ( you hardly call driving on traffic free roads driving………….), get a driver’s license and get a passport (!! Yes I still don’t have one!!)

Of these, the first one I have conquered to some extent…. I finally ran out of excuses and started my chocolate making class……….. its kept me busy, given me some earnings and most importantly helped me get over my abnormal fear of failure and rejection…..i now have had a fabulous second half of the year, and have some ideas for more stuff that I want to do………..on the last day of nov, I finally enrolled myself in a driving school…its just been 2 days but I am doing well…..before the end of the year I will hopefully be able to drive on my own and get a license as well…………as for the passport, I have yet to apply…………….

something that wasnt on my 'to-do' list, but what i did anyways to great personal satisfaction, has been the writing of my cooking blog....... i began this one last year, but the cooking blog i began around the same time as my classes....its done pretty well for itself... it gives me better motivation to do lots of innovative things and i have had the opportunity to find similarly minded people...........

It makes me happy and I am glad that for once I am not berating or flagellating myself….. I feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence…I am not as crabby as I used to be…. I love my life this year…..

Losing weight…I shall leave for next year!!

Weekend update................

While I am very happy with the way blogosphere has enriched my life, so many people, so many facets of their personality, so much camaraderie and the sheer joy of realizing that it can be fun to be a voyeur….. I am also pretty confused with the way its taking the joy out of the act in the first place….hit counters, stat analysis, visitor maps, blogrolls, unique visitors……… yesterday I got caught up in this maze….. on one of my daily trawlings yesterday I chanced upon some tool that could be added to the html code to track and trace the number of hits and give you a ranking….intrigued and interested I went to the site, registered, explored and then couldn’t add the code…..spent more time trying to figure out how to do it….. I am technologically challenged and need the most user friendly stuff available….this didn’t work for me….then I wondered why I was bothered at all…..this is my personal blog and if people chanced upon and read it great, if not it still serves the purpose I began this for…..so I logged out and rested well!!

It has been a fabulous week for me…..i came back from Bangalore, began my chocolate making classes in Secunderabad as well, it was a good start. Ended up spending 3 days at D’s place. I was a little selfish I must admit…….the lure of free food, that too cooked by someone else waiting on you hand and foot is simply irresistible…..for the most part, K and I live a good life, our home, our work, our passions and the lovely times we spend together….every once in a while I wonder if we are cutting ourselves out of the social world…..we like spending time with each other…this I am thankful for….approaching 4 yrs of married life we still haven’t felt the need to murder each other is a reason to celebrate…..but I love going out and meeting friends……given that Hyderabad traffic is a nightmare, we don’t brave it very often and have friends over at our place to compensate…..but like Thursday, when I went over to D’s for my class and they insisted on us staying back, we indulged and gave in….. 3 days of someone else being bothered about what to serve for breakfast, lunch and dinner and me lolling around!! I made use of the time to finish stocking upon supplies for my class. Got to know from the shop guy that Ms. Czarina of chocolate making is as insecure as hell and actually enquired into my shopping list to gauge how Culinary Escapades was doing!! Insecure little daughter of a you know who!! Picked up some fabulous books from the new branch of Odyssey that’s opened at Vikrampuri….. 3 Sexy books on baking and one author signed copy of Almost Single by Advaita Kala which despite the smirks from K I picked up…..shopped for a barbeque which ended up in the microwave – griller in D’s place and had a fabulous time till 3.00 A.M. the next morning, made a batch of chocolates exclusively for D while giving his wife R a special class. Finally got home in the evening. Yesterday went to Church, during which K to amuse himself stopped at a bookshop and picked up a leather bound collectors copy of the complete works of James Joyce. Stopped over at S and R’s for drinks, dinner and a huge dose of Gulzar’s Ijazzat. Fabulous week by far, I think I can adjust to something quiet this week to compensate the giddy spell.