tAg cLoUD foR blOGGer :)

For a few days now, I was searching for some widget / utility for tag clouds. I somehow don't like the label list which is present, by default, in blogger. When I googled for it, I came across one such utility. I then made some changes in the template's html code, and voila!!! I have a tag cloud of my own in my blog!!! Great!!! It took me some time to change the colors etc according to my original template, but that was a mere 5 minutes work...

Its a piece of cake to make the changes. Just follow the instructions mentioned in the webpage. Click here to see the instructions :)

Durga Puja Celebrations in Pune

Durga puja is one thing, every Bengali looks forward to... And I am no exception to that... This year, I had a chance to visit some of the "pujos" in Pune, and believe me, they were wonderful. Here are a couple of pics I had taken last night ("navami").

This photo was taken at Durgotsav celebrations at Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC). I remember this puja from the days I was in school way back in 90s. Combined with cultural events organized by AFMC's own students and teachers, it makes you feel at home.

After AFMC, I visited Koregaon Park. Completely covered in white, the goddess looked radiant. This pujo reminded me of the decorations in Kolkata's pujo pandals....

My trip to Goa earlier this year

This April, I had visited Goa, and had the opportunity to capture its beauty with my camera... These photos are some of those that were taken on the second day of my stay there.

Dona Paula near Panaji. I had last visited it when I was 5 years old, but the place still looks the same. I loved the way the colors of the leaves showed up in the photo.

View from the top at Dona Paula

This is where we had our lunch. The place is called "Sea Pebbles". Lovely sea food.

A view from "Sea Pebbles": Can you see my friend Lijo sitting there???

A yatch on our way to Panaji

Aguada Fort

Lighthouse at Aguada Fort

View from Aguada Fort

Orkut or Facebook?

I have been using Orkut for more than year, and came in touch with loads of friends - infact orkut was the first social-networking site I joined and enjoyed. Simple interface, nothing complicated - you add friends, view his/her profile, scrap/ message them, become their fans, write a testimonial etc etc - I mean how difficult can that be? Now, the limitation on the number of the photographs has also been removed, allowing people to share loads of photographs to the whole Orkut community. There have been loads of improvements every now and then, but the essence of Orkut has remained the same - keep in touch with friends.

Last month, after loads of invitations from loads of my friends to join Facebook, I finally signed-up (I hate those bulk invitations which many sites have - you just need to enter our email and password, and voila!!! It will then automatically send invitations to all your contacts). I was initially a bit skeptical about joining another social-networking site - I already have most of my friends in Orkut, so why join another one??? But, I was curious, why are so many people sending so many invitations to join Facebook??? I agree, it is too popular in US, but not that much here in India - I don't think it is possible to beat the popularity of Orkut in India. Whatever, I finally joined. Its not exactly like Orkut, or to that matter Hi5 or other social networking site. Its different. Ok, you have the usual make friends stuff, but there is something else too -Facebook apps. The great thing about these application is that you can add any number of applications in your profile page, and share them with your friends. There are games, just for fun applications etc etc already available in Facebook. Then, you can even change the position of all these apps in the page, and loads of other stuffs to keep you busy!!! There was one more thing which I liked - here, you can share your albums your friends only - public sharing is also available as an option.

So, what do you prefer, Orkut or Facebook? Frankly speaking, Facebook is different, provides you loads of things to pass your time with, and having many new and interesting features. But again, most of the groups/ networks are US oriented, so its not easy to find an Indian network that easily. Also, most people in Facebook (those I have in my friends list ) already are a part of the Orkut community, which is growing every day. And, somehow, I like the simple way of scrapping people in Orkut (it has become such a familiar interface by now). And. Orkut has been such a helpful tool to keep in touch with old schoolmates. So, I still love Orkut (even though I hate it when it says there is no donut available for me).

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Now playing: James - Alvida - Reprise

Back to the dots

I was getting bored of the plain old blogger template which I was using for the past year... As I was browsing through the existing templates, I came across "dots".

Then I remembered that I had used this when I had created this blog.... So here I am again, back to dots.....

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Now playing: Linkin Park - Leave Out All The Rest

In search for a song.....

Recently, I was listening to only 1 song in a continuous loop (lets say, for 1 whole day)...

I had mentioned somewhere in my earlier post about how enthu I was for watching "Frank Miller's 300". This was mainly because of the breathtaking trailer I happened to watch last year. Apart from the great cinematography, the other great thing was the soundtrack. Didn't know the name of the song that time, but I kept watching the trailer, as the combination of the video and the soundtrack was intoxicating!!! 300 turned out to be "bloody" great movie (apart from some of the "bloody" violent scenes when I kept my eyes shut)... Then, some days back, I got hold of the soundtrack from the movie. I started playing all the songs to search for the particular song I wanted. Unfortunately, I didn't find any thing even faintly resembling the one I wanted. Disappointed (the soundtrack distributor had tricked me into getting an album I wasn't going to listen - the songs were not that great when you just listen to them, it sounds better as a movie background)... Whatever, I was disappointed... But, then I searched for "300 soundtrack" in wikipedia (the great!!!), and this time, I wasn't disappointed. Turns out, the music in the trailer was never included in the OST, as it was composed by a group called "Nine Inch Nails" about 10 years back. But nevertheless, I got the name of the song, did a bit of googling, and was able to download it (god bless the person who had uploaded it to some file sharing site :) ).

BTW, the name of the song is "Just Like You Imagined", and it felt great to listen to it in a loop... Its hard rock, with some great piano in the background.... And this time, even without the video/trailer, it was good....