Top ten typos that you need to stop making

Spelling right isn't just for Grammar Nazis. It's for anyone who doesn't want to look like an annoying little prick.
Because you know what's more annoying than people correcting your spellings all the time?
That's right, your spellings themselves.

If you're not new to the English language, then I don't see why it's just so hard to spell words right. Some intentionally shorten words for convenience (not very convenient to the person reading it), and at other times, the typos are mere accidents; for which we have a backspace key. Use it.

I've seen enough typos to even compile my own top ten list.
Every time someone makes a typo that's on this list, my dictionary grabs a match and sets itself on fire.

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Presenting to you : My own top ten list of words that you need to stop misspelling.

10. Lose and Loose

Lose: Opposite of win
There's no way that I'm gonna lose the grand prize.

Loose: Not tight.
Turns out that the prize was a pair of loose pants.

9. Weird and Wierd

Weird: the 'i' comes after the 'e'.
This word is an exception to the I before E except after C rule.

Wierd: Every time you spell it this way, a dolphin gets run over by a jet ski.

8. Then and Than

Then: used for time
First I got high, then I tried to solve the Rubik's cube while eating an apple.
('then' indicates that one action happened before another. It separates events based on when they occurred)   

Than: used for comparison.
I am much better at eating an apple than eating a Rubik's cube.
(than compares my ability to eat an apple to my ability to eat a Rubik's cube) 

7. A lot and Alot.

A lot: Remember to leave a space there.
Don't forget that there's a lot of space in outer space.

Alot: is not a word.
You don't write alittle, abunch, akangaroo or adouchebag.
So don't write alot.

6. Weather and Whether

Weather: Snow, rain, sunshine, typhoons. All that crap.

Whether: Used this way :
Your correct usage of this word will determine whether or not I kick you in the balls.

5. Advice and Advise

Advice: is used as a noun.
Take my advice. I don't use it anyway.

Advise: is used as a verb.
If Arvind advises you on spelling, you must suck really bad.

4. Definitely

There is no "A" in "definitely".

If you put an A in "definitely", then you're definitely an A-hole.

3. It's and Its

It's: Contraction for "it is" or "it has".

Its: Indicating possession.

It's not fine to tell your dictionary that its the most unused object in the house.

2. Your and You're

Your: indicates that something belongs to you.

You're: Contraction of "you are".

You're really pathetic if your spellings suck.

1. Their, They're and There

This one is every Grammar Nazi's worst nightmare. 3 words that are spelled differently, but sound just the same.

Their: Their cow keeps eating the leftover casserole.
They're: They're gonna get a shovel to the face unless they keep that cow under control.
There: Look over there! The cow turned into an alien.

You can always use Google if you're not sure how to spell a word.
Bad spellings can also make a lot of what you write look very unprofessional, so maintaining a good spelling habit is a good idea is general.
It's even fine otherwise - You know, if the keys on your keyboard are floating around and switching places, you need not worry. Dyslexia is treatable.
Cheers.

(There were no blog posts during September because I had exams + I had way too many distractions to do anything even close to productive)

Source(s) : Personal experience, The Oatmeal.

How to write good blog posts

Being a blogger can be hard sometimes.

Yes it can, and if you're a blogger yourself, chances are that you have to deal with some problem or the other about your blogging habit. Posting regularly, maintaining good content and keeping your audience interested can take a lot of hard work. Friends and enemies will click on your blog every now and then, but not everyone will keep reading till the end. That's where we need to work on.

In this post, I'll try to walk you through some pretty basic tips on making your blog posts captivating enough to last your readers through to the end of your post.

1. Give your post a good title

When people find your blog articles through facebook, twitter or any other social media, the only thing they will get to look at from outside is your post title.
This is why it is extremely important to come up with a good and interesting title for your blog's post. Even if you are blogging on a very boring topic, if you can come up with an eye catching title, you might get those extra viewers. On the other hand, even if your topic is fascinating enough, a lame title can ward of any potential readers as well.
Be creative. A good title ensures that people atleast check your post out. Making them read till the end is the next issue.

2. Use simple English and readable grammar.

Although I am not much of a Grammar Nazi (my friends however would disagree), I put great emphasis on this point. Your audience is going to consist of people from all walks of life. Make sure that they all find your language intelligible. Although I would generally advise unrestrained use of your vocabulary, complicated or hard words should be used only rarely.
Your grammar must be perfect (Unless the context demands otherwise). Even a simple typo or a slip in your grammar can make your post look very unprofessional.
Make your sentences as short as possible. It helps the reader grasp your points quickly without having to drag through a marathon of different perspectives. If you find that you have typed a long sentence, try to rephrase it again to the best of your ability.

3. Stay on topic

When a reader clicks on your post, he expects to read about the topic presented by the title. It is up to you to make your post live up to that expectation. Avoid straying away from the confines of your topic. See to it that everything you type has at least a clear direct or indirect connection to the topic.
If you find it absolutely necessary to convey something that is not strictly relevant, separate out the irrelevant content onto another webpage, and briefly mention about it as a hyperlink on your post.

For example : To see an irrelevant meme, click here.

4. Do your research

Make yourself familiar with the topic that you are going to write on. It helps not only by avoiding factual errors, but also in giving you additional material to write upon. Any fact or detail outlined in your post must be as accurate as possible. Moreover, facts should be presented in such a manner that they can be easily looked up and verified by the reader.
However, if your post is about your own thoughts, about an event that you witnessed, your personal views on a subject or recounting a memory, you do not need to research. Just be sure that you know what you are typing.

5. Throw in some colors and images

A person can read black text on white for only so long. This isn't your 3 hour college lecture. Make your post more bright by separating sections, using different colors, making titles/subtitles bold, etc.
Apart from formatting text, add in a few images as well. It really helps.

Never leave a cat alone with a toiler paper roll.

Remember, it is your job to keep your viewers entertained.

6. Invite public opinion

User interaction does not end with your blog post. Continue the discussion by asking your readers to comment on your post if they have any questions or want to add to your post. This makes your audience feel like they have the opportunity to be part of your blog. Allow them to contribute to your thoughts.
You must make sure however, that your blog application supports comments and has them enabled. They are integrated with most blog applications by default so you need not worry. Blogspot has a neat feature where it combines blog comments with your Google Plus post. If you want additional features like that, you may have to tweak through some settings.
There isn't much need to respond to every comment that your post receives. You will find that a lot of bloggers don't respond to comments at all. You should however answer any question that you think is important, or address any other issue from someone's comment to make things clear.

7. Index your posts and use a good range of words

On the long run, most of your views are going to come from search engines. These search engines like Google and Bing will search your post and show up on search results only if your post contains words or indexes that match the search string.
It is extremely beneficial to use a wide range of words in your posts to expand your chances of showing up on search results. Using synonyms and framing sentences in different ways can help you cast a larger net to attract viewers. To make your job easier, a lot of blog applications allow you to place labels, indexes, or tags on your post for that reason.
You never know when a person out there needs exactly what you've written.

8. Post regularly while exploring new content and different styles

Don't give up if your blog does not take off at first. It's all about practice and being creative. Even if you're not a very good writer, blogging regularly can increase the quality of your posts over time. It doesn't really matter how often you post, as long you are regular. Whether you post once a week or once a month is up to your personal preference.
Try different styles every time you post. That way, you can avoid your regular viewers from finding your posts monotonous. Experimenting with different styles of writing can also help you become a better writer. You can write from first person perspective in one post, then switch to a descriptive narration in the next, and maybe also try writing your posts in the form of a tutorial and so forth.
Post about various different subjects to keep your blogging habit going. Maintaining different content in your posts can teach you how to appropriately handle various contexts.
Don't forget to review your posts once in a while and edit those parts that you think you can make better.

9. Minimize the distracting atmosphere around your posts

Your blog's interface has several things in it. Apart from the post itself, you will usually have a blog header, a followers section, a view counter, a small section for sharing to social networks, your blog archive, a comments section, etc.
All these must be efficiently positioned so that your viewers do not get distracted.
Your blog's background image can be interesting, but not very flashy. Placing ads in your blog is fine if you require it, but try to not dominate your page with them. The smaller and lesser the ads, the better.
If you are familiar enough with HTML and CSS, you can even try to position your blog's elements manually by yourself. If not, you can always use your blog applications's interface editor (if available).

That is all that I have for now.

Although I've gathered these points from experience and different sources, I admit that I do not follow several of them. *feels guilty*

I am sure that there several more ways in which one can be a better blogger. So if you think that I have missed anything, feel free to leave a comment below. Questions and criticism are also appreciated.

Thanks again for reading my post!

"I've made mistakes. And thanks to those mistakes, I've learned" ~Enrique Iglesias.

Over A Thousand

This post was supposed to have been out over a month ago. But then I had my board exams again , so meh.

So yeah , my blog just reached a thousand views.
You can hopefully see the views on the counter to your right. ( Probably somewhere in 1200 by now )

Aaaaaand yup. It's a great deal for me.
It's a great deal that a stupid old blog that I put up less than a year ago with writing less than one blog post each month was viewed over a thousand different times.

And if you're reading this right now , then you've added to this number as well , and so I must say :

Thanks for making my blog an awesome place , no matter how shitty it still is.

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A thousand views gives us a fair number of people to study this blog's general characteristics.
Let's take a look at some of these details.

First off , the number of views each month seems to be consistent. Never falling below thirty but never rising above two hundred. Although the blog is only ten months old , the largest number of views came during April  2012 with a count of 177. And lowest during May 2012 with just 32 views.

Then , if we shall look into each of my posts individually , it seems that Influence got the highest number of individual views - 73. Although it's hard to measure individual views because apparently a lot of viewers don't actually click at specific blog links but rather just view them directly from the homepage. This won't count as an individual view though.

Among the websites which referred to my blog , the one which attracted the maximum number of viewers is Facebook. I got over 200 views from there. Next is my own website (http://enkrypt.in) giving me another 150 views and also there's Google Plus , helping with a close 100 views. Google Search as well seems to have hit my blog up by contributing around 110 direct viewers. Twitter and other social networks seems do have done negligible work along with some other blogs and posts which referred to my blog.

Let's go to countries. The majority of my viewers were from from the United States of America. That's 458 views. Next is India - 390. More than 100 viewers were also Russian , with Ukraine, China and France giving me more than 50 each. Italy, Romania, Australia and Germany managed to contribute viewers in the double digit as well.

Google Chrome was used by 35% of my viewers. Internet Explorer by 30% and Firefox by 27%. Opera, Safari, Maxthon and browsers with weird names consisted less than 2% each of my viewers.

Windows was the Operating System of choice for 85% of my viewers. Macintosh and Linux was used by 5% each. Android, iPhone, iPad, Nokia and others being used less than 3% of the time each.

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Yup that's it. I have a fairly interesting set of viewers here. It would include you of course , don't forget.
And most importantly , thank you for being awesome again.


Hopefully , you guys will take my blog a long way.
Cheers.

Are you sure that's rape you're protesting against?

So what's the biggest buzz in India right now about?
All the protests , of course.
The protests which started after a physiotherapy intern was gang raped on a moving bus in India's very own capital just before New Years.

A physiotherapy intern?
Yes.
On a moving bus?
Yes as well.

But how?
What do you mean "but how"? More than 70 people are raped every day in India. You'd think that by now we'd have a fair range of rape locations. On streets , in public toilets , in stationary buses. And it would be no surprise if people were raped on moving buses before as well. In fact , the actual number of people raped in India on a daily basis would be above 700. The massive number of rapes in the underdeveloped parts of the country not only go unnoticed , but also unreported. We should feel incredibly lucky that this one actually made it to the news.

But how could this particular one have not gotten reported anyway? It's got everything media hungry dicks ever wanted. Crime , peculiarity , national shame and a moving bus.

But what would happen if the rapist was a single person? Or performed in a typical "rape" warehouse instead of a moving bus? Or didn't end up with a dead victim? What happens in this country if this rape was like every other 70 rapes happening this very day?

That's right. No one. 

Well..... some people do , but the number is too small to start national protests with.

Wait....you just mentioned that over 70 people get raped every day in your country. Isn't that over 20 thousand people a year?

Well exactly of course! And this is the point that I want to address my viewers with. 

Our government and society are both pretty messed up today. It has been decades since we've got used to reading that small section in the city column about someone or the other getting raped. Yet all the god damn protests are starting just now.

No , no. Don't get me wrong. It's absolutely great that people are protesting. This will finally give us the hope of improving laws and increasing security of individuals against such incidents. But...

Don't you think that the protests are just a bit too fucking late?

I believe that we Indians are neither so innocent and nor so ignorant. All of us are aware of the bazillion rapes taking place all the time but nothing has been done about it until now. Where were all the full fledged protests when other major incidents made it to the front page? Everyone just kept quite and criticized the nation and its laws. And that is precisely what makes me angry.
The protests are a great news , but I wanted to see those protests a long time ago. And for that very reason , these protests will have to bear mine and any other such people who share my views' criticism for being too damn late.

Well the protests are happening anyway. What does it matter if it's late or not? Shouldn't you be happy about the new changes that are going to come up?
Haha , well many people seem to think so. But in my opinion , they fail to see the much bigger picture.
You see , if the country had reacted appropriately before , then we could have had reforms against rape since a long time ago. And all these rapes taking place in the past few years could have been stopped , and possibly , the Delhi incident as well. It pains me that due to the country's lack of response earlier , we haven't been able to save around 10% of rape victims whom we could have otherwise saved.
Thus my criticism speaks , not only for my continued efforts against rape before the Delhi incident , but also on behalf of all those who could have been saved if only the country reacted a bit earlier.
I am indeed immensely happy that the new changes will finally be put into action , but it does matter that it is a bit late to say that there was no harm done.

What's so peculiar about this incident? What about the Delhi rape was so special that it caused all the uproar and protests that you would rather have had earlier?
Yes , this incident displayed certain peculiarity that finally made us think that we are in a sad country indeed.
First of all , how many rapes take place every year in a well developed city like Bangalore?
Quite less compared to the rural areas. The fact that a person was gang raped right in the very capital city of India startled quite a few. We can see this as one of the factors.
The next factor would be that she was not just raped... She was gang raped.
She was overpowered not by one man , but many. This shows us that we are past the stage where we can stay away from certain individuals with ill motives. We now have to stay wary of full groups of people who are in on such crimes.
Next we have the fact that she wasn't a gullible village girl who happened to walk into a trap.
She was an educated girl who came from an educated family. She was a physiological intern and held a certain social status that was reputable among her peers. The country was shocked when they witnessed such barbarianism even among the civilized classes.
Next factor would be the fact that she died later in the hospital. She was grievously injured during her rape attempt and after a few days she was declared dead. Even Google came up with a lamp on their homepage to mourn our loss. This final death of the rape victim stirred rage among a  lot of individuals.
The last factor is one that startled even the laziest of citizens in this country.
She was raped in a moving bus.
This is the immediate cause that started all the protests.
Everyone was startled at the limits that these people went to rape a person. What would happen next? People raped on public buses? People raped in schools? Colleges? The country could not possibly let this crime go unanswered. The moving bus factor initiated this all.

So , what if she was raped somewhere else instead?
Then this rape would most likely go unnoticed just like every other rape happening in the country.
I first heard of the incident while I was working in my school's computer lab. A student working in a computer nearby shouted out that it had come up on the news that a person was just raped on a moving bus. The ensuing whispers were not hard to interpret.
"On a moving bus? Seriously? Wtf?"
"Man , that's insane. What's wrong with our country?"
"Doing that on a moving bus sounds crazy."
No one seemed to care much about any other detail. Everyone seemed intrigued by the idea of something such happening on a moving bus. I am assuming that this same response was reflecting throughout the country.

What is your final conclusion on this whole matter?
I simply think that if the country was appalled only because the victim did not have the luxury of being raped while still , then we are running on poor moral standards.
The protesters cannot honestly say that it is rape that they are protesting against since this is not the first time such an incident has occurred. Unless they had been protesting before all such events occurred , I would aptly give them the title of hypocrites.

Are they sure that they are protesting against rape?
Or are they protesting against the incident in Delhi to be particular?

I have one last question. Who is asking all these questions in italics?
No one really. I simply thought of using a "questionnaire" style of blogging for this post to make it a bit more interesting. It is quite easy to make sure people click on your blog posts. But not as much as making sure that they read it through to the end.

So this is it. This is my entire take on the incident on Delhi. I am sure that many people would think that I am totally wrong in my opinions and would love to disagree. I would simply ask them to address their issue in the comments below. I welcome any form of criticism.

A Philosopher's Tale

This post is part of the "First Few Old Blog Posts" archive.
You could expect a certain lack of coherency/maturity from these posts.

Forgive me for being blatantly outright at the beginning but I must tell you that I believe I have endured more pain in my past than I would have thought possible. Pain that would leave scars which delude time ; memories that jump out of the blue to haunt what is left ; scrabbling to devour the last scraps of sanity left to feed the pain.
And what must one do then to go on?
Going on is a simple matter , don't mistake me. But what reply could you possibly have when you ask yourself "Why the fuck should you?"
Every action has a cause , every crime has a motive and at the end of the day , so does every life.

I wake up everyday not to the fresh morning air , but to the stark burden of reality. How many times I have found myself walking outside and realizing that it's really happening. I'm out there among everyone else. That this isn't some vivid dream or a thought turned into an image. Almost every step taken reminds me of a memory that I've long wanted to forget. But memories never do that , do they? At one point this crescendo of assaulting flashbacks traumatizes you so much that you push yourself to go sleep. Sleep ; where none of these evils can touch you. And then finally you realize that you've slept for almost the entire day. And every principle that you've built to utilize time productively has been thrown out of the window.

The key to my will propelling me forward is Philosophy. When you take away philosophy from me , is when I will find no difficulty in tying the noose again. But why philosophy? Because it is the only thing that adds a little meaning to a person's existence on earth. We buy coffee powder to make coffee. And that is the sole reason why coffee is powdered. If some power above is reserving us for a brew , I think we deserve the right to know whether it is tea or coffee.

What is the purpose of our existence?

I don't know. And that is why I cannot stop yet. I see my life as a race between this goal and death. The day someone cracks this final piece in the topology of understanding ourselves is when I will let myself guide my feet , instead of this desire. If I die before this happens then I will only find it sorry that my existence has come to an end without my knowledge consisting of why I ever existed in the first place. Why the universe bothered to instill life only to take it back without granting it this small gratification.

When you are such a philosopher , the meaning of every action changes. You don't see people walking in front of you anymore. What you see is countless unanswered questions instead. You question every event and every action until finally , you strip all meaning from the object itself and and you shrug , knowing that that cannot be correct , and so you start again , hoping to accommodate a better answer next time. And every theory thus formed gives you satisfaction as you inch one step further to reaching that last goal. The thought process of such a person is pitiful indeed. His sole motive being comprehension , he ends up questioning questions , theorizing on theories and searching to search. And even then , when he gets back up , you can clearly see the frustration on his face at having come nowhere close to the final piece.

He knows that he has been given life and whether he likes it or not , he must utilize this to the maximum by doing every act of good and standing by it. Take off your coat and give it someone in the cold. Is it so hard? Is it really so hard to oppose wrong and stand by it though it may compromise your position? He sees it as a duty , as a right when he was brought to life. But to what extent does his sense of judging what is right extend to? He knows this judgement is limited and so tries to expand it in every way possible by Philosophy. Do right , but first know what is right.

So what is Philosophy after all? What is this stupid thing that makes me live?
As Wikipedia says it , Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Problems approached by philosophy are done logically by applying reason , facts and evidence. Contrary to the stereotype that there can be infinite philosophies that can go against one and still appear rational , when two philosophies go against each other , one (or both) is usually wrong. Wordplay does not mask reason. By carefully approaching both philosophies , one (or both) can be ruled out. If not , then one (or both) is usually a fake philosophy

Fake philosophies are those which do not involve any form of logic , critical thinking , reason or some sort of relevant evidence in it's construction. I have the found the most reliable source of fake philosophies commonly as captions in Facebook profile pictures (those yolo swag fag types). You can't simply throw in some fancy words and expect your statement to be philosophically accurate. Again , a philosopher will always accept being proven wrong. He will be more interested in correcting his faulty statement rather than sadly brood over being wrong.

A problem that I face as a philosopher is that it is extremely hard to convert experiences into words. This problem is very common since most philosophies originate from certain experiences. We deliberately walk in the dark , trying to figure out why people are afraid of it. And then if we finally do strike upon some sort of meaning , we find it hard to convey this feeling of elation into words. Trying to see everything in a different light , that is our curse. You take a walk in the streets. Humans turn into storehouses of information. Buses turn into means for these piles of information to save energy and money. Money turn into  pieces of paper that has this strange power to get you what you need.

I envy those who do not need to understand more to move along in life. They say "who cares?" to every small question. It only fascinates me how they do so. I am not saying that such people are wrong , or ignorant or stupid. They are a different type of human. A type that will probably lead a more satisfied life. I call such people realists. They do not explore the intimidating limit of imagination. They don't like to guess as much as they like to prove. If only I had their mindset to console me , it would save me from this eternal frustration of trying to find answers all around.

It is indeed a trying state when you form theories about life every night before you sleep: hoping that life is an experiment in which some scientists threw you into a small virtual world with artificial robots all around pretending to be humans. Hoping that someday , a person will finally come up to you and say what enduring those days and nights finally meant.

I hope this post doesn't appear to be funny , strange or exaggerated because it wasn't written in such a mindset.

Quote : "Fuck you world , I'm alive"

EDIT : I was sorta depressed when I wrote this post. Do not judge me too harshly.
Also , thanks to Adithya for clearing out all the bazillion mistakes in my post. He's awesome.