Archive for January 2009
My first rock climbing experience
Rock Climbing Basics
“See this piece jutting out at the top? Its called the ‘jug’, that one where you have to hold below the rock is called undercut” explained Ravi, our group’s instructor as the sun blazed down on the rocks at Turahalli, a forest reserve, just 10 kilometres from namma Bengaluru. The group had collected at Adigas on Kanakapura Road for a steaming but surprisingly not-so-good breakfast of Idlis. The instructors, Narasimha & Ravi, freelancers who practise rock climbing at Turahalli every weekend, arrived at the right time. They work with ‘Wanderers’, an adventure and outdoor events group for rock climbing programs.
Slow and steady
(courtesy www.flickr.com)
With idle time on hand and some online web searches later, I came to know that there are blogs like that of Chris Brogan who types out 3 – 4 posts per day, apart from the twitter updates. In the blog that I frequent regularly, India Uncut, Amit Verma churns out 2-3 posts every day. I’ve also heard of people who post more than ten posts a day! Consequently their blog readership is also very high. Well, they are professional bloggers. While they write to improve readership, I write to improve my writing… and also share some thoughts.
Another blogger, Will, in his blog series on ’11 things to consider before you start blogging’ introduces the term ‘publishing frequency’. At the end of the analysis, this is what he says –
“Overall deciding what publishing frequency to post articles on your blog is totally up to you and no one else. Although you can look at competition and your chosen subject for inspiration or ideas it comes down to the amount of time you have spare and how much of that time you are willing to dedicate to writing articles each day.”
His publishing frequency is 5 posts per week. Another blogger who shares similar thoughts is Keith Burtis, who aims at one post per day.
I maintain three blogs and churn out three different posts every week. My aim for this blog is 2-3 posts a week, which is slightly lower than average; but I don’t mind because, as Will says, ‘it’s totally up to me’
Stay for a day
Oktatabyebye has launched an interesting travel program – ‘Myself Ashish’. Ashish will explore India and stay in homes where he is invited for a day. You could invite him too. And in return you have a friend, an experienced traveller sharing his travel experiences with you and also get to know your city through his eyes. Reminds me of another traveller who had come up with such an idea on an international scale – Ramon Stoppelenburg of Netherlands. Check out his website. At the end of his journey, he says he grew bitter and just wanted to quit as the global media was relentless in his exploits. I hope Ashish journey doesn’t end that way. Still, I would love to read/hear to his experiences.
