Introducing PollMummy.com - The place to take web polls

PollMummy is a new website created just for taking web polls. There is a PollMummy Blog where all the latest polls would be uploaded. There is also a Poll Directory where you can choose to take polls based on the topics you like.

If you have ever wanted to put a poll on your website or blog and didn't know which tool to use and how to use a particular tool, check out the page on all the tools to create web polls. Last, but never the least, click here to subscribe to PollMummy Polls.

Technorati Tags: blog poll web poll polls create polls pollmummy

Out of the Past

I was tagged by MiddleZoneMusings to post on a new meme called "Ten of my Favourite Posts" started by William Tully Sounds like "Oprah's Favourite Things for Summer"! Anyway, the idea of this meme is to pick ten posts from the past, which will give an idea , to new readers , of what this site is about.

The title of my blog is "Thoughts of a Rambler". So, you can understand the difficulty in choosing posts to give a sample to readers. I write about "anything and everything under the Mediterranean sun" and occasionally under the other celestial objects which show up over other parts of the world.

So, here are the ten posts which i think might give you an idea of what to expect at srajaram.com(oldest to the newest). Btw, most of them are from the "humor" category, as i actually don't write about anything useful on this site!

• Bird Flu mania gripped the world, especially Asia in early 2006 and that was probably the best time to make the movie "One flew over the bird's nest".
• If you ever visit Cyprus as a tourist, one of the main tourist attractions on your itinerary should be a visit to a Cypriot Doctor (No, i don't wish you to be unwell, just go there as a tourist). If you want to be prepared in advance on what to expect, read "Quack Quack, Is the Doctor in?".
• Rules in Cyprus are different for locals than for outsiders. You should know the tricks of the trade if you want things to happen your way in Cyprus. Some theories just don't work in Cyprus - Failure of queuing Theory in Cyprus.
• Everyone, for whatever reason they may have, likes to make fun of American Politicians. So, why should i be different? God Bless America! and If America wants more oil
• How soon or late do you adapt to the modern technology surrounding you? Sometimes, even basic things like operating an ATM can become a nightmare. Read about The mystery of ATMs to find out.
• If you are from India or from the UK or from the US and have happened to attend any Indian party, you might be able to associate with my observations about Punjabi songs titles "What is it with Punjabi Songs".
• If you have had a conversation with an Indian and there was no mention of cricket for more than 5 minutes, consider yourself to be very very lucky. Why are Indians so crazy about cricket. Cricket is after-all a stupid game, a waste of time!
• The history of the Mallu Nairs. Don't read this if you are not from India, you wouldn't understand a thing!
• What i have learned from my wife. This was part of a Group Writing Project at Middle Zone Musings. Well, after Vidhya (my wife) read this post, i learnt many more lessons.
• My first ever music concert and it rocked! Photos from the Bryan Adams Concert here in Cyprus.

Enjoy reading!

Technorati Tags: Group Writing project Blog Meme

Fearful Friday the 13th Group Writing Project

Last week, i had initiated a Group Writing project about Friday the 13th. As is expected for the first group writing project for a blog, there weren't many entries. Thanks to the two bloggers (Ravi and Mercury) who participated in this project. Their entries and also my half-entry are listed below

• 13 sites on Friday the thirteenth by Mercury
• 13 ways to lose a guy in 13 days by Ravi - I wonder how many from his list are from personal experiences.
• Few facts about Friday the 13th - My half-entry.
• 10 Money Superstitions for Friday the 13th by Rich (This was not submitted to the Group writing project, but i found this link through random surfing and found it interesting enough to be added to this list)

Once again, thanks to Ravi and Mercury for participating. Until the next, Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Group Writing project Blog Friday the 13th

Surf's up - It's Wednesday - Edition 3

Again, missed the Wednesday. Maybe, i ought to change it to "Surf's Up - It's Thursday"!

• World's Brainiest - An Interesting site for quizzers and also those who want to soak up a daily dose of General Knowledge. They have loads of quizzes with the quickfire quiz of 5 questions just right for a break from work.
• Create you own Comic Strip - A very innovative site where you can create your own comic strip customising hundreds of options. If you ever want to insert jokes or punchlines in any of your web pages or newsletters, this site will help you a great deal "visualising" it. Based on an email-forward i received, i created a comic strip. Click on the pic for a better-resolution image.

• Bethann Frillman Photography: Bethann is a professional black-and-white children's photographer. She is the wife of a former Bitsian Subodh Karnik. I came across this link from the latest BITSAA (BITS Alumni Association) Summer 2007 edition of Sandpaper Magazine. The photos are amazing and i have saved many of them into my "inspire" folder hoping that, someday, i shall be able to take photographs like hers.

That's it for this week. Enjoy Surfing.

Technorati Tags: interesting links browsing surfing

Surf's up - It's Wednesday - Edition 2

Okay, its thursday this time. I started this post yesterday, but couldn't find time to complete and post it.

• Make Faces! Make a Flash Face by choosing various components of a face like head, hair, eyebrows, eyes, nose etc. Look below at the face i created. Not exactly a masterpiece, but a piece of work nevertheless! Have hours of fun making faces.

• Ok Tata Bye Bye: I love travelling and one way to vicariously enjoy the pleasure of travelling is by reading travelogues and this site has got loads of them. I particularly liked the travelogue of the 32 day solo ride through Ladakh called Freya's Diary.
• Smashing Magazine: This site is truly smashing, to say the least. This has to be the one-stop shop for any one involved with any aspect of website design or anything artistic on the web. Enjoy this site. There are hundreds of informative articles.

Some of the articles on this site which i found to be well-compiled:

1. 50 Beautiful web-designs
2. Freebies: Icons and Buttons
3. 21 Fresh and Usable Wordpress Themes

That's it for this Wedbesday's edition. Enjoy Surfing!

Technorati Tags: interesting links browsing surfing

Surf's up - It's Wednesday - Edition 1

Usually many bloggers do their weekly round-up of interesting links on a Sunday. It is difficult for me to do the same, as Sunday is probably one of the busiest days of the week for me, as i try to spend as much time as possible outside the house savouring the creations of nature. So, i have decided to share the interesting finds of the week on a Wednesday!

1. Point Blank by Vikram Nandwani. In Vikram's words, "I am doing custom caricatures to try & raise money for a Community Conservation Project in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra". His caricatures are funny and thought provoking. I have posted two of them below. Go over to his site for many more.


2. Photos of Kaipu(Poras Chaudhary). Digital Camera Magazine's Photographer of the year 2006 winner, Poras' photos are a cut above the rest. The richness of the colours in his compositions have to be seen to be believed.
3. California Coastline Photos. Aerial photographs of the entire coastline of California. If you are planning a trip/trek to any of the coastal beaches/areas, then the photos on this site will help you evaluate the place before you actually visit.

That's it for this Wednesday. Happy Surfing!

Technorati Tags: interesting links browsing surfing

Top 5 things to do with all the Top 5 Lists

If you have not heard about the Group Writing Project at Problogger, then there is a good chance that you started blogging yesterday :-). Everyone who's anyone is contributing to this project and since i am one of them, i too wanted to write a top 5 list. I thought about the top 5 list i could write on, for a while and then seeing the massive number of top 5 lists being created, i decided to write a top 5 list of things that could be done with all these top 5 lists. So, here goes...

• Link to all the lists. I have already done so by creating a list of all lists. This will not only help me keep a track of all the links i have been to, in a central place (my blog), but also provide loads of surfing opportunities to the readers of my blog. Also, nothing is lost in linking to others. "Linking" is the foundation upon which the blogging world exists and as it is often said "Always share the link love"!
• Read each and every Top 5 list. Yes, you must be thinking that i must be crazy to read through 500 such lists, but believe me, at the end of it, you will realise its worth. It doesn't matter whether you are a geek, a wanderlust, a music lover, a sports lover or whatever, there is a list for you in here. Read them, get to know the people who wrote them and who knows, you might make new friends in the blogosphere. There is a good chance that you have never visited many of the blogs in this list. You may like the writing styles of some of these bloggers and end up adding them to your regular feeds.
• Some of the lists might fascinate you to the extent that you could start a Blog Meme on the same topic on your blog. A Blog Meme is "an idea that is shared and passed from blog to blog, like a question posted in one blog and answered in many other blogs". For example, you might like the list "Top 5 reasons boys are better than girls" and decide to start a blog meme on the same topic on your blog and tag others. But be careful, you might end up being the one responsible for the online war of the sexes!
• Comment on the lists you like. Don't spam the blogs in the hope that they link back to you, but leave comments on the lists you felt a connection with or ones you felt you could contribute more to. For example, geeks (anyone who uses Mac must be a geek!) might want to contribute lot more items to the list "5 Mac Apps for Bloggers".
• Promote the lists on your blog. This doesn't end with just linking to the lists, but also providing your input on the ones you like and recommending them to you readers. Some of you out there might be high-profile bloggers and if you recommend any of the lists, it will result in that blogger getting more exposure. Surely, if their writing is good, they deserve that exposure, don't they?

So, if you haven't yet participated in this project, do go over to problogger and participate.

Technorati Tags: problogger top 5 list writing project Darren Rowse

AdesClrPicker Color Picker - Simplicity at its best

There are hundreds of websites offering thousands of tools for webmasters and photography/photoshop enthusiasts. I download most of them and give them a try, to the extent that it is almost an impossible task trying to find on my PC the installer for "that" tool which i used many years ago.

But, it is not often you come across a tool, a simple and small one which proves to be invaluable to you and one that you feel was the missing one in your work flow all this while. It is the AdesClrPicker Color Picker by Ades Design. I was doing my usual wandering around in the blogosphere and landed on AdesBlog, where i found a link to this tool. Looking at the features, it seemed to be very simple, yet very powerful and after installation, i found that it is exactly what it promises to be.

Just a few hours back, i implemented the mybloglog sidebar on all the pages. I wanted to have the same colours for the background and the title bar as the rest of my sidebars. For this, i had two options. One was to take a screenshot and then open it in Photoshop and get the exact colours. Others was to do a "View Source" of my page to have a look at the template and get the colour. I chose the latter, but this too took some time and effort. If i had had this tool then, all it would have taken was two clicks to get the colors i wanted.

If you have faced similar issues in choosing the right color for your page, then this tool is a must. Go check out the tool - AdesClrPicker.

Technorati Tags: AdesClrPicker Adesblog Ades Ades Design Color Picker