There is a difference between Blogging & Plagiarizing!

I have a lot of friends on twitter. I haven't met most of them in real life, but I chat with them quite often. One such 'friend' was @AnkitBathija. I did consider him a friend.

He describes himself as a 'Interactive Marketing Practitioner, digital media whatever' among other things. Recently he tweeted a link to one of his blog posts on his 'social media blog' so I went to check it out & comment because, hey! I'm a blogger & I like commenting on fellow blogger's posts.

The post in question was named 'WHY TWITTER IS LIKE A ONE NIGHT STAND'.

(Here is a screenshot of the post, in case the blogger decides to take it down after he reads this:

I liked the posts. It was incredibly well written. I have conversed with the said blogger, so I knew this was too well written to have been written by him. So I copied a few lines from the post (as-is) & googled. And I came across the original article. Why Twitter is like a one night stand by Andrew Hunt.

The article is plagiarized almost word for word. It annoyed me, so I asked Ankit Bathija whether he wrote the post himself. He said Yes, taking the credit for the well written post. I told him I know the origin of the post. He quickly deleted the comments. This was a couple of days ago. Today I woke to find some mean comments on my previous blog post. In that comment, a commenter called 'anatha' with only an email id & no blog has accused me of plagiarizing posts. Not only that, he claims I have plagiarized more than 30 posts. Now that's a laugh. Anyway, in over 2 years of blogging, I got my first ever flaming comment. Is it a co-incidence that I get a comment falsely accusing me of being a plagiarizer after I caught a real one?

That's not all, actually. I looked around a little more on Ankit's blog. Check out the screenshot below.

The bottom right of this picture above has him claiming that he has 1300+ feed subscribers.  I got suspicious for two reasons.

a)He does not use a feedburner chicklet that I have in my sidebar. You can't fake a chicklet. I have 276 feed subscribers as of now. 276 real subscribers (thank you readers!). On the other hand, it's super easy to just fake a number.

b) A pathetic blog that plagiarizes whole articles & doesn't have a single comment on most posts has 1300 subscribers? That's a joke.

So I did a little tech detective work. The link to his feed is here. I googled & found a legit way to find someone's real feed subscribers when they aren't showing it. Legit, non hacking. Just key in a url. Using that method, I found his true feed subscribers- See for yourself.

He has 32 subscribers. And he claims that he has 1300. Here's the link to see it for yourself.

Usually I would ignore such misguided humans. But I felt this needed to be told.

I don't know why such pathetic creatures even call themselves bloggers. They should call themselves 'copy-pasters' or just plagiarizers. I haven't bothered to check the other posts on his blog but I'm pretty certain they are obtained the same way.

These people give real bloggers a bad name! *sigh*

Let me know what you think? Have you ever come across plagiarizing bloggers? Or got nasty comments from anonymous cowards? Let me know!

UPDATE: The said 'blogger' has put up a post on his blog defending himself.

He has cooly edited the post now citing Andrew as the author & claims that he had Andrew Hunt credited in the author box all along. Does he think I'm stupid? Copying from other blogs is unethical but I wouldn't have said a thing if he had credited the right author. But he didn't. He cited himself as the author & when I asked him whether he wrote it he said yes. He obviously deleted those comments so I don't have any proof. But I was smart enough to take lots of screenshots before writing this post. So check this screenshot:

Go ahead, magnify the screenshot. It is the same article I have talked about & it clearly shows that he cited himself as the author. Don't believe me? Go checkout this cached screenshot from google of the said post on 19th April. Again, you can see for yourself that he cited himself as the author. How pathetic.

Waiting to see how many more lies he tells to try & cover his tracks. Sorry Ankit, your lies aren't going to fool me!

xo,

My Week in Pictures #5

Here I am with another my week in pictures post.

On Monday...
Went to the fish market with mom. Saw some cute cats!  >^..^<

It was kinda late & dimly lit so my iPod photos were all quite noisy. But I think this one looks cute in an artistic way. Also, that place is always crawling with cats. They're everywhere! I counted 14 or 15 last time.
We got some kesar kulfi on the way home.

I really did want to crop the obese lady out of the picture but mom convinced me that it wouldn't be a photo anymore if I selectively cropped people out.
Later on we had Tuna Salad for dinner.

Cats? Tuna? I sense a feline theme here.

On Tuesday...
Mom & me roamed around Bandra. That's always fun! ^_^
We saw one of my favorite colonial bungalows. (The ones with really sharp memory will remember this from my project 365 blog.

This time I played around in photoshop a bit & made it look like an old photo. What do you think?
We came across this horribly warped pine tree that has grown to about five or six storeys high. Not manipulated, I promise!

Also, I got new shoes!

I got the perfect pair of suede oxfords. Completely flat, just how I like them!
I took this photo in a real hurry so please overlook the fact that I didn't remove the stuffing paper. Also, I actually placed them on a table! They're new... still. Mom's gonna kill me.

On Wednesday...
I met my college friends after a few weeks & spent some quality time with them. No photos, though.

On Thursday...
Mom bought me some 35mm film in anticipation (and just in time!)...

Film brings back lovely memories.

On Saturday...
I got my Lomography ActionSampler

AND AND AND MY DOC MARTENS. I am in love with these shoes. So fricking awesome.

These 1B99 steel toed 14 eyed boots are my most expensive shoes yet. But so worth it.

On Sunday...
(Belated) Happy Easter!

I hope you had an awesome week!

love,

Lomography Actionsampler

I have loved the concept of toy photography for years now, ever since I actually started shooting digital. I shot a little on 35mm as a kid, but I didn't shoot whole rolls, didn't load the camera myself, etc. I saw my parents shooting analogue, but soon my Dad bought his Leica & loads of other digital cameras followed. We rejoiced! Shooting on digital was oh-so-easy. Sure, the cameras were expensive, but the fact that we were free from photo-studios (for processing) & could easily upload stuff became so easy. I have my dslr for a year & a half now. In this time, I have learned a lot about photography (through trial & error, mostly. I hate photography classes & books. I read up online but only if I have to). I have taken over two thousand photos, something I would have never been able to do had digital not been around.
When I first heard of the Diana Camera four years ago I was instantaneously drawn to it. I have heard a lot of pro photographers criticize lomography but something about analogue photography with happy accidents, blurring & light leaks appealed to me. A lot.
Finally when I took up my first job last year I managed to but a SuperHeadz GoldenHalf. It's not a lomography camera but it a nifty Japanese toy cam nonetheless. I loaded the film the night I got it. I sadly haven't finished the first film yet.
I'm not sure what held me back, really. Lack of opportunities, the fact that I haven't found a place that will process & scan my film & of course the cost too (I have no clue why that bothers me, considering the amount I spend. Maybe I can't justify spending huge amounts of toy photography just yet).
Anyway, I decided it was time to take the plunge & ordered a Lomography Actionsampler on the 9th of April (my 19th birthday! ^_^)
It arrived two days ago. And the reason I haven't blogged all this while is that I have been too damn excited. Delirious, almost.
Anyway, the ActionSampler is available in two versions- Chrome & Clear. Chrome has this shiny metal tin-like look. Clear has a transparent plastic casing where you can see some of the inner components. Guess which one I got?

Um, clear, yeah. How many of you guessed right?

So as I said, it arrived on Saturday. Safe, in a waterproof mailer, wrapped in layers of bubble wrap.

I was so excited! I never clicked a photo of it while it was in the super-fun pack.

The beautiful camera with half the viewfinder up.


The booklet that camera along with some sample images.

The USP of this camera? Similar to many other Sampler Analogue Cameras out there. You click the shutter button once, a quick spring is set in motion. The four plastic lenses whir in quick susccession. (with a gap of 0.22 seconds) & within a second all four lenses have clicked. And you will get photos like this:

Note: the three images above aren't mine, they are taken from the lomography community website. Click them for image credit!

I am incredibly excited about this camera & I can't wait to finish my first roll & get it processed. And I'm looking to buy another Lomo Camera too if I can meet some personal finance targets (read: save more!) soon.

love,

My Week in Pictures #4

I'm back with another my week in pictures post. Can't believe it's my fourth one already! Didn't do too much this week, it was a rather restful one.

On Monday...

 

I fished out this rather expensive dress I purchased from Forever New in winter & tried to figure out how to get it to fit me. I loved it so much & it was sold out in my size so I went one size up. I just tried it on, pinned it, tried it on again, adjusted the pins & it's just lying there with the pins in. I need to get my mommy to use the sewing machine on it.

On Thursday...

I was gifted this exquisite silver & mother of pearl brooch by a close family friends (for my birthday!) No photograph can do it justice.
It's a peacock so it's quite ethnic & the blue & purple mother of pearl is a great way to depict the peacock feathers. I am in love! Thanks, aunty J! xo

On Friday...

Near Andheri Station. Just a regular day on the streets of Mumbai!

I also met Prateek aka Snow Leopard in Bandra -

we chatted over Cheesecake...

and hot chocolate. We then met Prateek's school friend Kriti who turned out to be so much fun! And then we ended up going to Carter Road & later Red Box Cafe for dinner. I had to run away after the starters because it was getting a bit late. By the time I returned home it was a little past 11PM which is the latest I have ever reached home alone. (Mom & me have been out past 2AM)
I realize now that I seem very tame. And I have no intention to change that anytime soon.

On Saturday...
The Shenanigans of last night (mainly waiting around & then roaming some) made me felt like I had spent a day at the gym! :( I even had to cancel a meeting because I felt so fatigued. So nothing happened.

On Sunday...

We received a bun in honor of Palm Sunday. A hot cross bun, if you wish to call it that.

Mom made this delicious prawn curry with coconut milk. It was divine. heavenly. delicious.

That's all I did this week. How was your week?

love,

Brahma Books

A few days ago I wrote a general information post about BrahmaBooks, today I will let you know about my experience with them.
Arjuna kindly sent me these three book:

On the outside they resemble Moleskines.
They are:

Writers Line - 5.5 x 3.5 Inches
What added to the beautiful, whimsy factor for me was the uses mentioned on the label. This one said: Writing Book | Journal | Travel Log | Dream Log



Economy Line - 6 x 6 inches
This is the book from the economy line. The cost is the most economical (hence the name) & it lacks some of the features of the other lines like the elastic to keep the book together, the little envelop/pocket in the inside of the back cover. It is also soft cover. And the only line to not feature acid free paper. However I do love all the brighter colors in this line.

Amateur Line - 5.25 x 8.25 Inches
The amateur line. The label states: Sketch Book | Journal | Travel Log | Dream Log


As you can see they are all incredibly beautiful & classy. I can definitely see myself holding with one of these sitting in an outdoor cafe in Paris contemplating the nature of life & jotting stuff down for a blog post (for the record, I never take notes or plan blog posts. But I sure wish I did).

When I was a kid I had a habit of opening everything at once & later my mom would find different things strewn in forgotten corners.

So I decided to take it slow with these lovely books & use them one at a time. The first book I wanted to try was the Amateur one. You see, I used to sketch in the past (when I was in school) & the last time I remember sketching was the summer vacations after appearing for my 10th board exams. That's three years ago. I haven't sketched since. So I wanted to try again & I knew that getting a BrahmaBook would inspire me to sketch again. So I got to it at once.

I looked around for inspiration & it came in the form of a beautiful pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses my mom bought me a few months ago. They are by far my favorite.

Front & back labels.

This book belong to me! =)

Tailor made to catch inspiration!

The cute screen printed card info card that comes on the inside every Brahma Book.
Another really nifty feature is the envelop on the inside of the back cover (that I forgot to photograph). Infinitely useful because I have the habit of storing little chits of paper within the pages of my book & sometimes they fall off! 

The Ray-Bans I sketched. I was a bit upset that the shape of the frame isn't completely right. But considering that this is the first sketch I've done in three years (& I didn't practice anywhere!!) it isn't so bad, no? I hope to sketch a lot my beautiful things in this book, especially during my upcoming vacation.

And now, some notes on the paper. I know that the book says fine grade acid free paper but those are just words, right? I didn't really know what to expect. But the paper is just exquisite. It is thick & smooth & definitely unlike any paper I have ever written or drawn on before. I am so glad that I decided to choose BrahmaBooks over Italian Moleskines. I decided to make a little list about why they were a better choice:

• The quality (especially the binding) is much better.
• They are not leather bound so there is no cruelty to animal.
• An Indian brand, so you are supporting an Indian business plus you don't have to pay high customs duties.
• Other than BrahmaBooks being superior in quality to Moleskines, they actually are cheaper! Total win!

All in all I am extremely satisfied with the overall quality of the books!
You can contact Brahma Books by email & check out their facebook page in the mean time.
And you can come back later this month for a chance to win your very own BrahmaBook!

much love,

The Search for the Indian Moleskine

To do justice to this story, I have to start at the beginning.
Almost two months ago I came across Moleskine. For those of you who don't what Moleskines are, they are a 'legendary' brand of notebooks, planners, diaries, sketchbooks and albums manufactured by an Italian company. Among artists who used similar black notebooks were Oscar Wilde, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Henri Matisse. (though Moleskine like to claim these great personalities used Moleskines, they just used similar notebooks).

So anyway, Moleskines can be lined or unlined, are made of very good paper & are leather bound (As classy as a leather binding sounds I try to avoid using any leather). I used to like sketching earlier & was pretty good at it too but I have't picked up a pencil to sketch in over three years. So I decided then & there that I wanted a Moleskine. The cost for the Pocket Mokeskine is approximately € 9,00  (US$ 10.80) & € 12,00 (US $14.50) for the large one. They are available all over the world but cost significantly more everywhere, due to VAT, import duties etc.
So that is what annoyed me- I would mind even paying the Italian price for premium quality notebooks, but I am sick of making governments rich with so many taxes & duties for books that are assembled in China. So I started searching for good quality Indian alternatives. That is when I first came BrahmaBooks. Brahma Books can be called India's answer to Moleskines.

Want to know something interesting about the books? They were founded by Arjuna, an artist & overall creative person. He was tired of having to import Moleskines for abroad all the time for his use. So he didn't just sit there & rant about it (like I would have). He created BrahmaBooks.

They have four line & those are:

Some books from the range.
Image: BrahmaBooks flickr.

1. The Amateur line (acid free paper)
2. The Professional line (canson paper)
3. The Writers Line (acid free)
4. The Economy line

The Amateur line is eco-friendly. 2.5 trees are planted for every tree cut down to make it. It has 100 acid free pages unlined ideal for both writing and drawing (but mostly for drawing). It is great for casual sketches that you wish to keep.

The Professional line is the most expensive series. It uses cotton based paper (most other paper is made of wood pulp). The professional line is ideal for those who want to do drawings, art, or any fair work that they would like to keep (for a very long time!). The paper is thick acid free and is said to be the highest quality paper in the world. It is designed for the professional, artist/writer or anyone who wants really high quality paper.

The Writers line has 200 acid free pages (Double the number of the Amateur line). The pages are lined and a bit thinner than the Amateur line. These are your draft writers books types. Ideal for a dream log, travel log or story ideas.

The Math line has 200 squared, acid free pages. This book is obviously for mathematical calculations & is great for architects, accountants, those drawing in grids and anyone doing calculations of any sort. The distinctive part of this line is that all the books here have a white cover.

The Economy line comes in bright primary colors has 200 pages or 400 pages. It is meant for rough work, the paper is not acid free and is thin. The economy line provides a rough book & is the cheapest of the series.

Something that I really liked about BrahmaBooks is that they are not leather bound, so there is no cruelty to animals (& they look just as classy!)

You can read about my experience with BrahmaBooks too. Also I have something very exciting in store for my readers (you!) in the coming days so stay online. (blog equivalent of stay tuned).

Also, you can contact Brahma Books by email & check out their facebook page in the mean time.

love,

My Week in Pictures #3

Third week of the 'my week in pictures' segment... (gosh I sound like a tv announcer!)

Monday was a lazy day... tee hee.

On Tuesday...

Delicious little snack at Theobroma. Pure Awesomeness.


Bought some cute wallets. A monogrammed teddy & a Vogue magazine print (big fat style blogger cliché, though I don't read fashion magazines.)



On Wednesday...

Bought this pair of Levi's. It was so awesome to get one that fit me perfectly, no alternations needed! Also, this completes my Spring Denims collection...

Spring Denims! Wetseal, Mudd & Levi's

On Friday...
Met up with my best friend for the first time since exams ended.

We sipped Virgin Mojitos (@ KFC), gossiped, window shopped (a lot!) & I actually bought some stuff too...

Is it weird that I bought winter stuff even though summer has started (& no, they were not on sale!)
I miss winter already. Though I was yearning for summer when winter was on.

On Saturday...

* I turned 19! *

I stayed up late, only to be awoken by the postman-

he brought with him my long awaited Sold Denim Lab Bell Bottom Jeggings (For the uninitiated, jeggings= jeans+leggings. They are a little of both). Yes, bell bottoms are back! *fun*


Mom got me this delicious chocolate cake. It full of shavings of chocolate & the 'happy birthday' is actually made of white chocolate! So delicious (but it melts real quick now that's it's summer!)
And now for the Birthday Dinner.

Went with my parents to Brun Cafe in Juhu. I love love love the decor there, very hard rock cafe like (I've never been to HRC but I have heard enough about it & seen pics to know what it looks like.) Beautiful antique clocks, pool tables, comfy sofas & walls covered vinyl records with canvas prints of musicians. My fave wall is the one which has huge canvas prints of artistes in concert. Beautiful.
Here are some photos (be warned, The place is dimly lit & I only carried my point & shoot so the photos are beyond crappy, really. But it was still a great way to remember the day.)

The pool tables & the aforementioned fancy walls :)

Fish Fingers.

Grilled Chicken Salad.

Chicken Burger
To sum up the place: love the decor, chilled out atmosphere & decent food (that takes forever to come!)

On Sunday...
We went shopping. And other than tubs of Ice Cream (which I really wanted to photograph, but didn't because I was scared they would melt in this terrible heat), I also got...

Susie's Sun Signs by Susie Cox- I do not believe in horoscopes or astrological predictions, but I do believe that our zodiac can tell us a lot about our personality, motivations, strengths & weaknesses & help us better understand ourselves & others. (that's why I have included stuff about my zodiac sign, Aries, on my about me page. I also have the symbol for aries tattooed above my ankle.) I just browsed through this book in the bookstore & knew I had to get it! And it's really good... (& the cover is cute too!)

I found the most freakin' amazing spectacle frame ever. Tortoise. Cateye-ish. I've always wanted specs like this. I remind myself of Penelope Garcia. Thinking of ditching my lenses forever, they're just too annoying. I am still so ecstatic about finding these (the optician complimented me on my alternative, quirky choice). Pure awesomeness. I want to start a collection of quirky glasses!

And when we got back, there were flowers waiting for me. Birthday flowers. A day late. *hmph*


Also, I am getting bored of carnation arrangements. If you're reading this, different flowers next year, okay? Kthxbai.
Oh yeah, & before I forget, thanks a ton for all your sweet birthday wishes on facebook. They mean the world to me! ♥

That's all for this week... what was your week like?

love,