Category: Blog

–Ryaan O’ Connell
https://thoughtcatalog.com/author/ryanoconnell/ 

It’s hard to tell if dating was ever easy, if people ever courted and loved each other differently than they do now. After all, how am I to ever really know? I was only born once in one generation. That being said, I have to believe that things were better back then. I look at the photographs of my mother from the ’70s and she just looks’¦happier. I swear, it’s because she didn’t have the internet, didn’t have something around 24/7 to make her feel anxious and weird.

When we were flirting with people in middle school under the bleachers, we had no idea how much things were going to change, did we? We had no concept of Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter. We just liked three-way-calling and Xanga. Ah, the simple pleasures. Perhaps if we had known, we would’ve been like, ‘Can I just go back into my mom’s vagina and come back out when the internet has been blown up and/or people start getting less weird?’

We have so many rules now, so many games we have to play, that it’s easy to just get exhausted before we even begin. At 24, I thought I would be driving around in some boy’s car and going to the movies and showing up at his front doorstep when I wanted to hang. The internet would be there but it wouldn’t be such an invasive third party. Unfortunately, that’s not what ended up happening with my generation. Now, it often feels like I’m dating the internet more than an actual boy. It doesn’t help that I’m a blogger either obviously. It’s my job to be up the internet’s ass 24/7.

So here’s how people date in 2011. You meet someone on the internet or maybe in real life. It doesn’t really matter because a big chunk of your correspondence is going to take place online anyway. Either before your first date or after, you’re going to experience the internet equivalent of a handjob, which is G-chatting. G-chatting with your crush will be fast and furious. You’ll message each other at work and send videos back and forth. ‘OMG, have you heard this song yet? You gotta!’ Emoticons will be used and virtual boners will occur. All of this tension will lead up to an IRL date, in which all of those virtual erections will result into an actual boner.

Or maybe not. Maybe the lead up has taken too long and seeing each other in real life now feels strange and unnatural. The very thing that built the flirtation up is also the one to tear it down. This is why if I really like someone, I try to minimize our internet contact and texting because I don’t want us to get stuck in a flirty online K-hole. I make the transition quickly to let the other person know that I want this to feel real, that I want to be with them and touch them and build actual memories or whatever. Otherwise, it will just get lost.

And boy, do relationships get lost when they exist online. You spend three weeks texting and G-chatting and video chatting constantly with someone and then it just stops. The person falls off of the earth or maybe you do because things have just become too belabored. You wonder what the point of all this correspondence is and decide to sign offline for good.

All of these forms of communication have made us have no responsibility or ties to anyone. We can come in and out of someone’s life as we please because we’re not actively involved in it. We don’t see them in their apartment cooking dinner or socializing with friends or reading a book. We just see their name pop up on Facebook chat. We owe them nothing. Furthermore, they owe us nothing. In the back of our minds, we know all of this. After all, it takes two to tango. But we find ourselves in these weird dating situations all of the time. We want something ‘real’ so we go somewhere ‘fake’ to get it.

The internet has also done wonderful things for romance. That goes without saying. What I’m talking about here though is how social media has effected how people relate to each other. The more we know about someone via their internet presence, the less of a chance we seem to build a connection with them in real life. And I wish I could offer some kind of solution to all of this, but I don’t really have one. I will say this though. Use the internet to meet people and start relationships. But also know when to get off of it, know when to tell someone ‘BYE!’ on Gmail and meet them in a park. Don’t get stuck in the 2011 dating K-hole.

— Anil Ghimire
www.aakarpost.com

Do you wish that you could have a successful blog but you think that you are too young to start your own? If you have heard about blogs before and you are wishing to have your own blog, then you should start at once. Or even more, it is possible that you are already a blogger but you are missing something in your blog.

If you are familiar with term ‘blog’ then you must have an idea that a blog is a type of website which is maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as pictures and videos. Here are my some ideas on blogs that I’ve learned during my blogging career.

Requirement
If you are planning to start your own blog, then you must have some basic idea of using the computer and Internet. A blog is like maintaining your personal dairy online. If you have basic idea of navigating the Internet, then you can start your blog within five minutes. It would be great if you’ve internet access at your place, so that any time you can post your thoughts and ideas on your blog.

No Money Needed
Most people have a misconception that you need money to start blogging. But if you are really passionate about blogging, then you can set up your blog within minutes. There are dozens of sites such as Blogger, WordPress, Tumbler, and Posterous which offers blogging space for free. You just need to sign up to use those free blogging services with your email id. But if you are thinking to have your own domain, then it costs you some bucks. Otherwise, use a free service to create your blog.

Define your Blog
Your blog can be personal or professional. But you need to decide what type of content you are going to post in your blog since there are different types of audiences for different kinds of blogs. You may blog about technology, you may blog about literature, and you may blog about politics, or sports or videos or photos or anything else. The choice is yours; you can even cover many topics in your single blog. If you are going to cover many different fields in your single blog, then don’t forget to give particular tags and categories.

Be Regular
I’ve seen many blogs that are dying after 2-3 posts. But if you think you can blog and you are a blogger then post regularly – at least post one blog in a week. Generally, bloggers give up their blog when, they feel no-one is reading them. There are various ways to attract a readership but to start just try to become consistent with your blogging. No matter what type of blogger you are, regularity is a must.

Add value
There are millions of blogs in this world and billions of words being posted every day. Thus it’s important to write those things which people will value. Write what you know, be thought-provoking, provide worthwhile information and a fresh perspective.

Be Polite
It can be easy for people to use the anonymity of a screen and keyboard as an excuse to be prickly and come off as offensive. It’s important not to fall into that trap, especially when disagreeing with others’ opinions. You need to be polite, and do not use slang words or hate words on your blog. If you are tossing up whether to post something or not, then spend a minute trying to figure out what is bothering you and fix it. If it can’t be fixed, maybe it shouldn’t be posted. Most people think, it’s my personal blog and I can write whatever I want, but it’s not the case. You need to be polite and you need to be responsible for whatever you write on your blog. Respect for the privacy of your audience is also important.

Give Credit
If you’re referencing other material, then give clear citations and links. Please note that, do not copy and paste it into your blog without giving a proper link back to the source.

Getting and Engaging an Audience
This is the most difficult task for bloggers. You are writing blogs but no one is reading you or let’s say you are not reaching out to anyone. Then after some days, it will lead you to frustration, a lack of motivation and probably your blog may die. So, I suggest you comment on your fellow blogger’s blog. Don’t just write yourself, read others as well. When you leave comment on other blogs, then there is a chance that someone will read your blog. And if your blog is interesting and updated regularly, then those other bloggers might read you regularly.

You can also email your blog link to your friends. If they found it interesting they will share it with their networks as well. But sending an email to your friends may seem a bit old fashioned. These days, you can just share your blog on social networking site such as Facebook and Twitter. When you post your blog link on Facebook, there is maximum chance that your friends will read your blog. If your friends find it interesting, then he/she will for sure share your blog. But many of the new bloggers make the mistake of publishing a blog as a ‘Note’ on Facebook and keep complaining, that no one is reading his/her blog.

It’s true that you can tag your friends on Facebook ‘notes’ but seriously it will not help to grow your blog. Thus, my suggestion is that, just post links to your blog on your Facebook. Simultaneously, you can use twitter to promote your blog as well. Tweet your blog on Twitter, if people found your tweet interesting, they will recommend your blog to others.

Just don’t post on Facebook or on Twitter, but you need to engage with your audience as well. If someone asks you something on Twitter or Facebook or even on your blog, then try to reply him/her. If you really want to promote your blog and you are passionate about blogging, then you must join Twitter and Facebook, if you are not already using these sites.

Am I the same girl with thick geeky specks who recalls listening to stories of her great grandmother worshipping sun as God because it was the only visible and powerful thing was venerated? Am I the same little daddy’s girl who understood when he explained that ‘the sun gives us heat and light and helps us to remove darkness and brings light all around the world’? Am I the same girl with a clasped ponytail and Pinocchio nose who would run from her mothers lap just to peep through the window every morning to see the birds welcome the sun with a lovely chirping song? Am I the same girl who, at age five, would sit beneath the sun for an hour just because her aunt told her that sun provides vitamin D which is essential for your skin?  And finally am I the same girl who when she saw the sun fully rise would yell to her little brother excitedly ‘it’s a new day, it’s a new day’?

Caught up in the vortex of my hectic professional life, I don’t know if I realize the importance of the sun and summers anymore. But I still memorize the times that I did. So pacing through the wheels of my past, I remember back in school where I learnt two facts aboutsummer:

One: summer is usually the warmest season of the year, occurring between spring and autumn. In the Northern Hemisphere that is June, July, and August. Or, as calculated astronomically, summer is the period extending from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox. The second fact was we were guaranteed a two month vacation.

And then in a gazebo amidst lime green lemonade, golden hued tans, Clinique- SPF 40, and lots of giggles came college. Here my knowledge extended a little more and I started thinking of summer as this seasonal delight when it was perfectly acceptable to ogle shirtless guys like it was a sport, wear your bikini, strapless, bandeau or halter neck day and night, and play even harder than you work.

As if a spell, my innocence in school and kinkiness in college passed away like an open bottle of scotch. Presently I am almost dehydrated wrestling with a crafted couch in my small dingy room without an A. C, literally roaring at the sun like I never loved it earlier. Still frustrated with the partially functional cooler and my perplexed nutty brain that was trying to convince me that summer wasn’t that bad, I switched on the idiot box to catch a glimpse of my favorite fashion TV. Of course they were simply showing the scents and style of summer.

Now that I don’t watch anything apart from fashion TV, I started irritably gazing at the crème de la crème of the fashion industry dressed up in hues of rich red, gorgeous green, beautiful blue, pretty purply pinks, yummy yellow posing and pouting in front of multihued striped walls and dreamy shelled beaches.

I presume my brain deciphered my instant liking for summers and only when the scorching heat passed away with a watermelon cocktail. I was reminded ‘don’t let the dull dead summers take on you woman! Summer is red, white and blue. It’s flags and fireworks, hot dogs and mustard, cold watermelon and sweet corn and its much more that you are failing to see.’

I realized at once that the innocence of school and kinkiness of college wasn’t lost after all. Fashion TV and my wit managed to remind me of the tinges and vogues of summer. But, still, don’t the roasted rays of summer really get to you sometimes? So what do you do? Perhaps sit idle indoors or maybe surf the net. Ultimately, though, summer is bound to come around every year so the best solution is just to embrace it.

Splendid ways to thrash the summer heat

Come summer and its time to think of ways to beat the heat. While having fun in the sun, we may actually throw caution to the wind! Dr. G S Rao, Managing Director of Yashoda Hospitals, says that heat-related ailments can really be injurious if not immediately addressed.

According to Dr. Rao, some of the most ordinary ailments we face in such high temperatures include dehydration, heat exhaustion, heat cramp, skin diseases, heat (or sun) strokes and water-borne diseases like diarrhea. In order to prevent dehydration, make sure you drink lots of water. ‘Symptoms of dehydration include thirst, light-headedness, dry skin, fatigue, less-frequent urination, dizziness, muscle cramping and dry mouth,’ says Dr Rao.

People also have a tendency to suffer heat strokes during this season. These can be fatal as well resulting in death. Heat stroke symptoms include headache, dizziness, high body temperature, dry, flushed and hot skin without sweat, confusion or disorientation, fatigue or sluggishness, rapid heartbeat, seizure and hallucinations. ‘If someone is stricken with heat stroke, move the person indoors, remove clothes, apply ice packs to groin and armpits, apply cool water and fan to stimulate sweat and call for medical assistance immediately,’ advises Dr.Rao.

Another ailment that crops up in high temperatures is diarrhea. ‘Diarrhea generally occurs due to food poisoning, a health hazard faced due to consumption of contaminated food. Summer is characterized by high heat as well as humidity that are considered as main factors for high contamination of food with bacteria, since bacteria thrive in these conditions,’ explains Dr Rao.

[blockquote]

Tips to beat the heat:

– Wear light-coloured, cottons

– Protect yourself from the heat with sunscreen lotion, caps, umbrellas

– Drink plenty of fluids to keep the body hydrated

– Don’t eat raw food from street stalls/street vendors

– Ensure all vegetables are cleaned well before being consumed

– Don’t venture out between 1 pm and 4 pm

– Electrolyte balance is a must so drink fresh fruit juices, coconut water    and the like

[/blockquote]

 

— Nashiu Zahir

There’s an old tale from neighbouring India that goes like this: a king summoned his advisor, Beerbal, who was immensely clever but very unorthodox, to court to ask him this question: what is the one thing that can make a man most content?

But before Beerbal could answer, several others responded with cries of ‘money’, ‘an obedient wife’, ‘healthy offspring’ and ‘devotion to the gods’.

‘And what do you think, Beerbal?’ his majesty asked.

‘If you will forgive my honesty sire, a good bowel movement when one truly needs to go.’

Maybe only the weak and uninitiated would ponder such trifles as the state of toilets en-route to Langtang Valley but I admit: toilets figured prominently in my mind when I hiked up those foothills the first day. Nevertheless it stands to reason, that the last thing you would want after a hard day’s walk is a crap toilet.

 

[quote_right]Hygiene: 4
Smell: 3
Comfort: 2
Accessibility: 5
Toilet Tao: 3.5
[/quote_right]

At our first stop in Thulo Syabru, four hours from Dunche, the toilet took me by surprise; it was highly accessible ‘“  just a few steps from my room and a squatter, but spotless.  There were also several hooks for clothes (as it had a shower). The flush pail wasn’t grimy and the little jug inside was not coated with slime. And the moment I stood up I was graced with a view of a sloping, pine-studded hillside beyond in which Lirung stood, surrounded by a host of other snow-clad peaks, crimson in the early morning light. It would have been an exceptional sight anywhere, though the feeling was only intensified by my awareness of where I was.

 

[quote_right]Hygiene: 4
Smell: 5
Comfort: 2
Accessibility: 5
Toilet Tao: 4
[/quote_right]

My initial misgivings had been dispelled somewhat, and I had certain expectations for our next stop, Lama Hotel. Lama Guest House had two out-houses which I overlooked, but the toilet upstairs was decent. It was closet sized and the toilet and bucket were both blue, which contrasted with the wood of the walls. The cracks in the wood allowed a draft and kept the place well ventilated. And the disposal bin was a hand woven basket; definitely the best of its kind as far as this trail is concerned.

 

[quote_right]Hygiene: 5
Smell: 4
Comfort: 5
Accessibility: 5
Toilet Tao: 4.5
[/quote_right]

Perhaps the strangest thing found at high altitudes in a country as desperately poor as Nepal is a ‘western style’ toilet. And it’s even stranger when I struggle to find one thousands of feet below. But in Langtang Valley, 3475 metres up at Village View Guest House, the toilet was a wonderful, white, non-squatting affair with plenty of paper and a bin within easy reach. Sure, the flush tank took a while to fill up, but it did not have the smell that many toilets have which made waiting easier. And it was indoors so you were spared from having to brave the elements every time you needed to go.

 

[quote_right]Hygiene: 2
Smell: 1
Comfort: 2
Accessibility: 3
Toilet Tao: 2.5
[/quote_right]

But five hours from the Valley, in beautiful Kyenjen Gompa, the toilet at Yala Peak Guest House was dark and smelled like the privates of a sadhu. And it was a squatter. But no skid marks. And no space to hang one’s pants either. It was part of the main building but in an open corridor, so a confrontation with the elements was necessary, if only for a moment. The flush pail was grubby and the disposal bin overflowed. Contact with any surface required an extra dollop of hand sanitizer, just to be safe. It was a funny coincidence, however, that the highest point on our trek was accompanied by the lowest toilet tao.

All in all, however, Langtang toilets are well maintained thus facilitating sound bodily functions. It does not take a lot to imagine Beerbal himself enjoying his early morning dump on the Langtang trail.