Dazed Reflections of A Diva: February 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Valentines Luck …

… and we’re talking REALLY lucky ;)

I’ve never had anything against Valentines Day … I’ve always enjoyed it. Sometimes I’ve been single and others times as a part of a couple. Regardless of my relationship status – it’s always been something interesting going on over V-Day. Here’s what I’ve been up to in Mumbai the past V-Days’ as a sassy single chica ..

2007 … One of my extended cousins got engaged. There were quite a bit of family from all over the globe attending – put a group of Punjabis in a room with music and alcohol .. and voila the recipe for some wild dancing.

2008 … I don’t have any visual proof as I normally would about what happened; but couldn’t have been as exciting as the Shaken Not Stirred party I attended :) I ended up being the first female to dive into the pool and won a weekend stay at the Raheja Exotica Resort. I managed to find a You Tube video of the party. Check out the property ! Isn’t it gorgeous :) and yes that’s the pool I dove into.

2009 … I started V-Day eve busy with wedding preparations for another one of my cousins’. After the reception was over; I crossed over a distance of barely 10 kms (but think of it as 1.5 hour worth of traffic) so as to wish a dear friend Happy Birthday before the stroke of midnight.

2010 … A week or so prior to Valentines, I got totally inspired to write a few posts all thanks to Nandoism’s Valentines Erotica Submission post .. If I say so myself, damn I was on a roll and how ! I then went on to work up the nerve to take part in the content held by Empire Labs; only to realize I belonged to the wrong country. Around this time I started focusing on the calling of my blogger voice; and eventually got to submitting a small piece of erotica to the competition.

On V-Day itself – I landed up going to the Elle Derby that took place in Mumbai which was pretty cool :) Lots of free alcohol; great vibes with a good group of friends (and the guys were quite easy on the eye too). After winning the only bet I placed on the races - I got approached by this married acquaintance who asked me where my boyfriend was …. Great way to remind me that I do not have a boyfriend .. but anyway – the conversation went as follows …

Married Acquaintance: So where’s’ your boyfriend today ?

Dazediva : What boyfriend ? I don’t have one .. haven’t had one in a while now

MA: No ! How’s that possible ? Surely you’re here with a date – it’s Valentines !

DD: I don’t know – I ask myself the same thing. And nope – I’m here on my own chilling with a few friends. No Valentines for me =(

MA: That’s not right ! Give me 4.5 minutes. (and literally starts running away from me)

DD: 4.5 minutes ? Errm okay then. I’ll see you in a bit then …

……… 5 minutes later

MA : Sorry it took me 30 seconds longer than I said I would be … give me your hand

DD : Errrm okaaay … but what’s the deal ?

MA : …. Here you go …

How sweet is that ???? I got my ONLY V-day card at the races (I’ll ignore the fact that the person who gave me the card is unavailable but still … I got a hand made card !!!!) The cute part was that the sheet of paper that MA used had ‘ass emoticons’ on it which were quite hilarious !

To top that off – the following morning – I came to know that I had WON the Nandoism and Empire Labs competition !!! How cool is that !!! I’ll be receiving a big box of goodies from the lovely peeps over at Empire Labs … but since they’re going to be shipping to India … and technically ‘toys’ aren’t really allowed … I’ll be receiving a box of sample molding kits hahahha

It really has been a pretty perfect Valentines for me … looks like I am going to be one happy puppy for the rest of the year !!!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

p.s I Love You

I think this picture says it all … Lots of love and warm wishes going out to all of you out in Bloggersville and in cyber space !

Doesn’t matter if you are single, or in a relationship .. Just remember that if you want others to love you; then you must learn to love yourself first.

Hope you have a great Valentines =)

xoxoxo

p.s. don’t forget to check out CardboardLove – there are some great love notes on there :)

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Your Voice. Your Blog. Your Blogger Voice.

Whilst on this journey of discovering my Blogger Voice in the past few days – I’ve come to realize a few things. In the last few months, quite a few people I know in my regular social circle have told me that they read my blog !

Considering the fact that I don’t really tell my friends about it – except for perhaps a select few – it was quite flattering to know that there are others out there who read and lurk on my blog =) These friends are lurkers – they don’t comment – but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that they’ve taken the time to drop by .. even if its every few weeks; and not regularly.

Even more flattering was when a few of my favourite neighbours like Simone Grant, the Fabulous Bitch, SingleCityGuy all messaged to check on my MIA status. It just felt good to know that somebody out there was thinking about me. And these guys have never met me.

As I mentioned in my last post – I reckon I’ve always had my Blogger Voice – and of course I have adjusted and adapted my style of writing as I got more and more regular. However it was only recently; perhaps in the last few months that I started making a conscious effort on how to make my blog more appealing.

Here are 10 tips that you can use (and you probably do this anyway) to find your inner Blogger Voice :

Be Yourself. Nothing you can say is wrong because it’s Your perspective. Some people will agree with you; others will not; some may start a heated debate. But there’s nothing wrong with that. We are all entitled to our opinions.
Blog the way you think. Your thoughts are original to you; sure – others may think the same thought – but they process it differently to you. I took my neighbours behind the scenes and gave them something to think about for the first time in March ‘09. I haven’t done something like that until my last post ‘To Blog .. and How ??!!’ I hope to be doing more of that this year.
Mind Your P’s & Q’s. Every writing tool (MS Word, Live Writer, down to web browsers) have got spell checks installed. They are there for a reason. Use them ! It shows a sign of respect to your readers. The same way – make sure your grammar is correct. Use capitalization and correct forms of punctuation when forming sentences.. It gives your reader a better experience.
Commit To Writing. The more you write – the stronger your voice gets. In 2009, I averaged 10.8 posts per month. My highest blog count is 19 posts last May. I don’t keep a schedule for writing – I write when I feel like; but I’ve told myself that I need to have at least 4 posts a month no matter how busy I get. If you’ve got an idea – write it down – check out my thought process that resulted in this post.
Be Transparent. Bloggers earn their readers trust. Be honest with them. Don’t be somebody you are not. When I first started writing, I used to often wonder ‘how do people get blog awards' … and then sometime ago, I got my first blog award. It didn’t stop there – I ended up with a dazed blur of awards.. It doesn’t mean I’m a super blogger – I was given those because somebody believed in what I was doing. Nubby has written a great post on The Importance of Transparency in Blogging which is a must read.
Avoid Censorship. Just because someone has a different opinion to yours, or negates your writing doesn’t mean you censor their comments. Unless the comments are spam; offensive and/or abusive – leave them up there. You never know who else might stand up for your thoughts.
Comment, Comment & Comment Some More. I discovered a new layer of thoughts by interacting on other bloggers posts. There are times I wish I could write posts like Simone or WSG – but I can’t (in time perhaps) but I let them know by commenting on their blogs. And it’s always nice to see other people keeping your comments in mind when responding. Besides, a lot of what you read and comment on can help inspire your next blog masterpiece !
Ask for Feedback. Let go of your ego and fears and just ask someone for feedback; and take it with a pinch of salt. Bloggers are a friendly bunch – if you ask for help – they help. If you need motivation – they give you that little push to get your feet in motion.
Experiment With Content. If you’ve got a favourite author, give their writing style a shot. I’ve seen a lot of ‘Wordless Wednesday’ posts around cyber space – try one of those Mr Linky things. I started this blog with music, poetry and my random thoughts. I still write about those and quite a few other things too. Try a new template / blog design; a writing format; make a few lists; a book or movie review; or just a post linking to your favourite bloggers.
Contemplate & Reflect. What is the purpose of your post ? Why are you using certain photographs ? Is there a lesson to be learned ? Is there something you want to ask your readers ?

So here’s wishing you well on your journey to find Your Blogger Voice. For any of you veteran bloggers out there – please feel free to add to these tips. Is there something else that you guys recommend ?

I believe that our voices will keep changing as we experience all that life has to offer us. I’m glad you are a part of my journey – and I look forward to being a part of yours =)

Inspired By

Hello. This is your Blogger Voice Calling.

This post came about whilst I was lurking after my very sexy blogger friend Nando over in New York. His post titled Nandoism’s Valentines Erotica Submission and Exposing Yourself on Twitter caught my attention which resulted in my last post ‘To Blog .. and How ??!!’

Hello. This is Your Blogger Voice Calling.

I’ve been blogging for about 1.5 year now; 170 sporadic thoughts to be precise. And I don’t think they suck either. As I looked back at the posts I wrote when I first started blogging in 2008; there were only 28 posts in 6 months. In 2009, I had managed to pen down 130 very sporadic thoughts :)

I noticed that ever so often I would put up a few posts that could be considered ‘a bit out there’ or just not with the general flow of the writing or perhaps something not everyone reading could relate to. Some of my old favourites include ‘Chivalry : Dead, Alive or Abused’ and What the Hell is Dating ? Lately I’ve been reading up on quite a few dating / relationship bloggers – and it’s kinda cool that I’ve already sort of written about those topics. I’ve been thinking about it – but haven’t really put anything down.

I can safely say that none of my neighbours here in Bloggerville would classify or even categorize me as someone who refers to shattering news stories. That’s probably because I’ve stopped reading the papers and try to catch the ‘happier’ stories online. However in 2008, I found myself bang in the heart of the Mumbai Terror Attacks, and I have gone on to describe my close encounter in that chaotic crisis. At the time, I didn’t really get any response from my neighbours (I was – and still am – a newbie in cyber space) but got an overwhelming feedback in the form of comments on my FB notes.

Contrary to what Srinivas Rao says in his post How To Find Your Voice as a Blogger; I find that looking back at the early days of my blog – I somehow feel that I didn’t hold back on what I was thinking. During the course of growing as a writer – there is a quite a difference in the content – it’s still very much ‘me’ .. but it’s a bit ‘held back’ – I’m not being as blunt as I could be. Or maybe it’s just another side of me.

However I did find that the more ‘sporadic’ and non-conventional my thoughts were – the higher my neighbour engagement was in the form of comments. Sure I wondered ‘why am I publishing this’ every now and then – but then I realized I can’t let something public or private affect my writing; and that I shouldn’t just write for readers or for comments or just for the sake of it – that I should be writing because I want to and because I think whatever it is that I have to say is going to hold some sort of importance or relevance to somebody out there in Blogosphere.

I took my neighbours behind the scenes and gave them something to think about for the first time in March ‘09. I haven’t done something like that until my last post ‘To Blog .. and How ??!!’ I hope to be doing more of that this year.

My sporadic thoughts are just that – my past, present and future – a part of this thing called life - a small speck of ME in the overwhelming realm of the Universal Spectrum. And maybe I had always HAD my blogger voice =) I just didn’t realize it fully until now.

Have you found your blogger voice as yet ? Yes. No. Maybe. Somewhere in between perhaps ? Not that I’m an expert – but thought I’d put together a few words of wisdom to help you determine your status. After all – its Your Voice – Your Blog – Your Blogger Voice.

Inspired By

An Erotic Valentines !

I’ve mentioned it a few times already; but this morning I’m going to do it ! Opened my Tweetdeck this morning (it’s only 8:30 a.m) and I found 3 tweets to me – telling me (or really encouraging me) to ENTER ! So what if 3 isn’t really screaming that I should be doing this – it’s a start right there for me – and when the hunky Nando and team at Empire Labs push you for something .. I say take the bull by its horns and just do it !

The hot and hip Empire Labs has teamed up with Nandoism to bring you the best Valentine’s Day Contest ever. Why is it the best? You can win Empire Labs toys! You get exposure on the Empire Labs and the Nandoism.com networks! You get published on Empire Labs blog. You also get a box full of love toys that’ll make every day erotic and not just Valentines ! Need I say more ??

Nando’s v-log will explain it all ! Check it out below.

Submit your BEST erotica story (preferably TRUE, but not necessary) to: empirelabspromo@gmail.com with a 500 word MAX limit. The contest officially began on Monday 1st Feb and ends this coming Monday 8th Feb ….. so hurry up and start writing!

To officially enter follow @nandoism and @empirelabs on twitter and send them a tweet using #eroticvibe letting them know you’ve submitted your naughty little entry!

The Erotica Rules Are :

Title your email: Nandoism’s Valentine Erotica Submission
Entries must come from the Continental USA
Must be 18 years of age or older
Open to both male/female
Open to everyone regardless if in a relationship or single

So if you reckon you can write erotica that will get hearts beating faster; and the blood flow in the right direction .. Go for it ! Don’t even think (I spent a few days thinking about this!) just go and do it ! What have you got to lose ? Just make sure you get your friends, neighbours, FB friends, uncles & aunties (ok maybe not them) to go and vote for your story !

Empire Labs will put excerpts of your submission on their blog. Then you can gather your voting crew from the list above to vote for your entry by placing a comment on your specific blog entry posted on Empire Lab’s blog. The entry with the most blog comments/votes wins 1st place.

And a humble request … please vote for mine =) I’m gonna do this ! Even though I belong to the wrong country !

Friday, February 5, 2010

Wrong Country !! Duh !

OMG I cannot believe what a big fat boo-boo I have just made !

My last post ‘To Blog .. and How ??!!’ was inspired by Nandoism’s Valentines Erotica Submission … and I was just about to re-publish the competition details when I realised that …

Submit your BEST erotica story (preferably TRUE, but not necessary) to: empirelabspromo@gmail.com with a 500 word MAX limit. The contest officially begins NOW, Mon Feb 1 and ends Mon, Feb 8th--so hurry up and start writing!

To officially enter follow @nandoism and @empirelabs on twitter and send us a tweet using #eroticvibe letting us know you’ve submitted your naughty little entry!

*Title your email: Nandoism’s Valentine Erotica Submission
*Entries must come from the Continental USA
*Must be 18 years of age or older
*Open to both male/female
*Open to everyone regardless if in a relationship or single

Yeah I belong to the WRONG COUNTRY ! I’m not from the Continental USA .. I don’t even live close by to it :( I’m all the way on the other side of the world ! In fact I live 2 oceans away from the USA ! *sigh* maybe they’ll just let me enter and fizzle me out for not reading the rules …

Now that I’ve gone and divulged my secret literotica writer (albeit only two erotica works on hand) … I’m kinda embarrassed *Cringe*

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I suppose I’ll just have to get over it … it’s my inner Blogger Voice .. and I should learn to just listen to it and pen my thoughts the way I want to … no holds barred sorta thing. Worth a shot right ?

To Blog .. and How ??!!

This post came about as a way to formulate the multiple post ideas that came to after reading Nandoism’s Valentines Erotica Submission.

Why ? How ? Explain ?

I was thinking about re-publishing his post on my blog so that all of my neighbours out in Bloggerville are aware of the contest … and really also because I have previously written two pieces of literotica … which I’ve only shown a handful of people ..

As you can imagine .. I’m a bit nervous .. as must you be wondering ‘erm Erotica ? really’ or ‘Erotica ! No Way !’ or even ‘That’s it I’m outta here’ … so yeah, I am kind of nervous about how some of my neighbours might react. The competition requires people to vote on their favourite story … and even though I could submit it anonymously .. how would I get votes ?

But … I realized that this is all a part of my Blogger Voice. And where did that light bulb go on from .. A post (ironically) titled Exposing Yourself on Twitter ..Thanks Nando ! All this inspiration is thanks to you my sexy Mexican hunk !

So now with all these voices going around in cyber space – I came to realize that there really is a theory on 'Your Blogger Voice’ … I’d heard about the Twitter Voice from the above post and that got me thinking about how I am using Twitter and that resulted in the phrase ‘Blogger Voice’ .. which I had to look up and was quite happy to discover that I wasn’t making things up in my own head !

Considering all the voices that were now bouncing around my head – I was happy to note that I now have quite a few topics that I can blog about :) Here’s how I’ve managed to break it down !

Lately I’ve been feeling that all I’m doing is working and every time I get down to writing something – I end up spending more time reading and catching up with all the other blogs in the neighbourhood !

It has taken me 2 days to get this post up and running – but I have valid reasons for the delay … WORK ! and I’m a perfectionist – and I really wanted to be able to express my thought process to you all … I hope it’s worked or at least made sense !

Before I get on to writing the next few posts – would you be totally scandalized or offended or just be thinking WTF if I were to put up a few pieces of writing that were ‘outside’ of my current thoughts ? My blog is titled Sporadic Reflections for a reason .. I have way too many random thoughts and I want to be able to pen them down and get a good laugh out of it a decade or two from now. But most importantly – because it’s my thoughts.

Need some feedback please.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Gold For Thought …

I’m an Indian by origin (British by birth) and I’ve never quite understood why Indians love GOLD so much ! I’ve recently finished a client’s wedding and during the last 2 months of spending time with my client – gold – has often come up as a subject.

I used to laugh at my Mum every time she would buy a gold coin. I’d tell her that there was no point buying a ‘coin’ for ‘so much money’. And she would just brush me off and tell me that I would learn the value of those coins much later in life. Especially when it came down to getting married.

No I’m not getting married – but as a wedding planner in India – I’ve now come to realize the value of Gold. Being the curious cat that I am, I went about online searching for articles on gold investment and particularly gold coins.

Some of the Benefits of Investing in Gold include :

Gold is considered an equivalent for liquid cash. It can be easily sold and liquidated.
Gold is a good investment. The price of gold has consistently increased and considered to be more ‘risk-free’
Gold is a status symbol. Especially in India. My client mentioned to me that a bride wearing 24k gold on her wedding, brings luck & happiness throughout married life.

Some Forms of Buying Gold

Jewelry. It would be the obvious way for the majority of us. However it’s not the best form of investment unless you’re looking at it in terms of heirloom and ornamental value.
Bullion Bars These make for good modes of investment however the minimum investment is considerably higher than what the common man can afford
Bank Coins or World Gold Council Coins. Gold coins are safe and easy to store. Gold coins don’t devalue over time.
Gold Bullion Exchange Traded Funds (EFTs). These are like mutual funds that invest only in gold.

So now that you’ve learned something useful about gold – are you actually ready to start investing ? Have you ever thought about investing in gold ?

I’ve included a few articles that helped me get a better understanding of gold; the various forms of investment along with the pros and cons associated with them. If you’ve got any tips to share – please add them in the comments :)

Inspired By :