Waamax

I got this as an forwarded mail but the content is worth a read. You don’t need that much of a mention to feel the love for your country.  Just keep being positive.
An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the World.  So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to China.
On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he Noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read “$10,000 per call”.  The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what The telephone was used for.
The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God. The American thanked the priest and went along his way.
Next stop was in Japan . There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the Same golden telephone with the same sign under it.He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in China and He asked a nearby nun what its purpose was.She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 He Could talk to God.
“O.K., thank you,” said the American.
He then traveled to Pakistan , Srilanka , Russia , Germany and France .In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same “$10,000 Per call” sign under it.
The American, upon leaving Vermont decided to travel to up to Nepal to See if Nepalese had the same phone.
He arrived in Nepal , and again, in the first church he entered, there Was the same golden telephone, but this s time the sign under it read “One Rupee per call.”
The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. “Father, I’ve traveled all over World and I’ve seen this same golden Telephone in many churches. I’m told that it is a direct line to Heaven, But in rest of the world price was $10,000 per call.
Why is it so cheap here?”
The priest smiled and answered, “You’re in Nepal now, Son – it’s a Local Call “.
This is the only heaven on the Earth.

Pay-Per-Click campaign is a fabulous way for online Internet marketing. But running ads on Google adwords and being successful can be very complicated and time consuming process. These methods are very error prone and can cost your dearly if not done properly.

Common Adwords mistake could be:

1. Having only single adgroup in your campaign:
Google doesn’t favor the lack of differentiation. Infact the primary thing Google loves is to give its users the best online search experience. This means the ads should be much targeted along with its keywords.

Single ad group means, all the keywords direct to the same ad-copy. This signifies that the keywords in the ad group are not strongly related. So the way to beat this is by placing highly relevant keywords in an ad group and ad copy that perfectly matches the ad group.

2. Keywords not optimized:
keywords that produce sales/conversions need to be regularly optimized and expanded. The maximum cpc (cost-per-click) bids needs to be revised so that your keywords are always competitive. Continuous monitoring of the keywords and the results should also be marked with the change in the ad copy too. Split testing could help you to achieve both. Aim for more targeted keyword and the ad copy which would results in the better quality score, low cpc and higher sales.

3. Google analytics not set up or set up poorly:
In order to get the best results out of your Ad words campaigns and your website, you really should be using Google’s Analytics tool. It is free and probably the best way to manage your online marketing as it provides a detailed and clear picture of what your website visitors are actually doing while visiting your website.

There are many things you can do with Analytics to improve results, but generally speaking what Analytics does is it allows you to see the factors that directly result in enquiries and sales. This means you know what works so you can replicate, and what doesn’t work so you can eliminate it.

4. Website not optimized:
After all the hard work in optimizing and managing the keywords, ad group and ad copy it would be fruitless if you lack the better landing page or website. All these efforts should be back up with an excellent website that gets those sales.

Your landing page should be very relevant to your keywords and your ad copy for the prospects to convert into sales. Highly targeted and relevant landing page is rewarded by Google quality score which in turn works in favor or your successful PPC (pay-per-click) campaign.

Of course, doing all this can be very tiring, complicated and time consuming. But so does the rest of the things if you want to be the best.

Happy Cranking!

I found this text as an email signature of one of the professors who replied to me. Well the response was not as I expected, however, this text was worth noting.

The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether his working or playing. To him he is always doing both” – Zen Buddhist

This one is one of my personal favorites. But the song meaning is once again, ambiguous and differs on the interpreter. We have various versions on the meaning of the same song.

Here it goes:

This is about a man who no longer recognizes himself and feels awful about it.

Some lyrical analysis: “We passed upon the stair” is a figurative representation of a crossroads in Bowie’s life, where Ziggy Stardust catches a glimpse of his former self, (being David Bowie) which he thought had died a long time ago. Then he (the old David Bowie) says: “Oh no, not me. I never lost control.” This indicates that Bowie never really lost sight of who he was, but he Sold The World (made them believe) that he had become Ziggy, and he thought it was funny (I laughed and shook his hand). He goes on to state, “For years and years I roamed,” which could refer to touring. “Gaze a gazely stare at all the millions here” are the fans at concerts.

i never lost control…and he was right , he control us until today, kurt cobain and his great cover of this great song , lyrics full of mesterious meaning but in the same it s about this man who is a special one , man with a special vision of this world , man who know the truth about it , it s why he sold it and he got away from it , to his own world , i really loved this song and i think that kurt is the bets one who sang this title with his feeling , and he did it , he sold our world in 1994 , and we miss him .

I see this song as the dialogue between the image we create in public and for which we believe is the true ourself (in the song denoted as He) and real, internal ourself created probably in our childhood (in song denoted as I) . That He, usually thinks is the same as I (that is why the lyrics “We never lost control,Youre face to face,With the man who sold the world” in the second verse).That is of course an illusion (that is why the internal, real us says “He said I was his friend, which came as a surprise”). Real us is of course looking for a form to show up in the public image throughout our lives(the whole third verse is just about that). And the difference between Bowie and Curt comes in the fourth verse. In Bowie version is after all We that never lost control (I assume he thinks that one can at least try to be as close to true ourself as one can be, shifting forms, but never being exactly that). On contrary Curt says it is an I that never lost the control, sounding like we can never be in our everyday lives what we really are (we forever betray our true nature). And for me, I am closer to Curts opinion. Sorry if I complicated things, but it is the way I feel this song, which is for me one of the best ever written in the popular music.

Actually I think the song is about religion and how it relates to independent thinking and how that is controlled by religion. In the first verse “the man” means any religious icon, whether it be Christ, Mohammed, Budda, etc ect… They are all men who “sold” the world on their ideas. Then at the last verse Bowie states that there are “millions” of religious icons, meaning everyone, but how we see someone as a religious icon all depends on control of that thought. This song is brilliant, and why this song is constantly attributed to Kurt Cobain is beyond me. Kurt Cobain never got even close to writing this good.

The Man who sold the world could actually be Judas Iscariot , Cane , the Devil or a wandering lost soul. We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when – Judas & Jesus meet sometime in the future and discussed about the past and what happened. (They were friends once. remember?) Although I wasn’t there, he said I was his friend – although Judas was not up there in heaven(upstairs) he was surprised that Jesus still considers him as His friend. Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes:”I thought you died alone, a long long time ago” – Judas thought Jesus died alone in the past. Oh no, not me I never lost control You’re face to face With the man who sold the world – not sure who spoke this. I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home – Judas goes back home to sheol/hell/limbo?. (not exactly sure why he laughed. maybe sarcastic or just let out a devilish laugh.) I searched for form and land, for years and years I roamed – Judas was probably cursed to wander aimlessly in another dimension or in limbo looking for form and land (similar to cane’s curse if u read the Bible). I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here We must have died along, a long long time ago – Judas looks at millions of tormented souls in hell or limbo and told them they are already dead along with him ( they must have thought theyre alive all along ) Who knows? not me We never lost control You’re face to face With the man who sold the world – Judas talking to the multitude and admitted he’s the man who sold the world. Listen closely at bowie’s version at the end of the song theres a kind of eerie back vocals. spooky. but it rocks. you can download it using winmx. but its hard to find. goodluck.

I honestly think this song is about drugs, drugs abuse and what it does to your life. He walked along a stairs to meet up with his former self, although his former self is no longer around. And he’s surprised how much he liked his former self but he is gone (dead a long time ago) And no I didn’t lose control would be a kind of denial that they never did to much or wasn’t an addict etc. The second verse could be about all the fun druggie trips he took. He laughed at the idea of hallucinating seeing himself, then he gazed a gazely stair would be him being stone….. then realizing that his old self died a long time ago but his old self and currents self didn’t lose control they were only using recreationally or whatever you want to call it. And the man who sold the world could be code for drugs and the euphoric feels it gives you. Maybe I’m way off my rocker but that’s how I see it.

Interesting interpritations here. To me, the song is about a guy living the typical 9 to 5 life and meeting up with an old man/bum that hung around in the neighborhood and eventualy disapeared. He suddenly reappears and after exchanging sentiments he realised that the old man was content, while he was not. His “Searching” was for that same contentment. He then realizes that he was dead to the world becuase of his material pusuits. IE; Dying alone. The idea of “The Man who Sold the World” is one that gave up all things material and found bliss.

I believe this is about one person and appears to be about a suicide. One line reads, “Oh no, not me, I never lost control.” At the end, it reads, “Oh no, not me, WE never lost control. You’re face to face With the Man who Sold the World.” In other words, the man who sold the world is himself. I’ll guess that “we passed along the stair” is about the stairway to heaven or hell. This appears to be about a man remembering himself in the past (the man he passes is himself) and believing that he did not kill himself, was heading up to heaven. He is so convinced that he did not die from suicide, he splits himself into two people and is “surprised” that the man on the stair was his “friend.” However, he does know that the man on the stair, a man that he is surprised to find out was his friend, DIED a long, long time ago. How would he know that if he doesn’t know the man? In other words, “Hey, I thought you died but hey, I’m not you; I’m not that man.” He laughs at the phrase, “You’re face to face with the Man who sold the world,” and continues on to heaven. Notice how it reads, “I searched for form and land.” There is nothing around him except air and he’s walking in nothingness. Ultimately, after many years he finds all the people who have committed suicide (in hell, I guess) and realizes that there are millions who died alone, just like him. But even to the end, when he realizes that the man on the stair was himself, he tries to convince himself that WE never lost control, even though he gave up everything.

In my opinion, this song is about a man who doesn’t want to be famous or popular anymore and he’s sick and tired of the people who admire and adore him and he wants to go away and start a new life. So he runs away, and sets up a scene as though he committed suicide and years and years later…one of his best friends finds him and is completely surprised because his friend thougt that “he died a long long time ago”. And then he says, “Oh no, not me, I never lost control.” He sold the entire world to a complete lie…a setup of a suicide/murder. That’s why i think that it’s possible that kurt cobain is still alive hiding somewhere.

Well it’s upto you to agree on any of the versions. If you have your own, let’s hear it.

song facts from (songfacts)

Well it’s been about 2 years now not being a full time student (I hadn’t been part time too apart from reading random books and articles). This is the longest break from my study as far as I can remember. It seemed that I have been a student my entire life.

Actually I have planned for my mba studies this fall but why not try doing the job I do the best – being a student. So the other day I was infact a student at the British council for my public speaking course. It’s a good feel being at my desk, facing the white board and obeying my teacher’s instructions. Great. I love to be disciplined sometimes.

The most interesting part of this class is its actors (the students) and the tutor. The first class was just a casual introduction and a warm up speaking exercise but the professionalism composition of my class mates was impressive to say the least.

We have software engineers, a program manager, a lawyer, an advocate, a doctor, an UNMIN official, a model, a business man, a film maker and a couple of students. What a variety?

During the initial experience sharing session I can see each one of us have experiences as diverse as colors in a rainbow.

So I am really looking forward to the rest of the course with this unique blend of classmates. Btw, the tutor is a sweet lady, a motor bike fanatic who has worked and seen the world. Interesting.

Can it get any better?

Today on my way to office I saw a dry rose on the road. It must have been put in between the book pages or similar things. Although a bit dry, it still looked good and all the petals intact. It was a Yellow Rose.

I can clearly see some text written all over the dry rose. Examining closely, I could see the text. There were quite a few “love”, “you” words and on the other side I could even see a name too.

Wow.

Someone has tried to immortalized love in a rose.

Google shows the ads based on the ad rank and quality score does has a bigger influence in the equation. Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian explains on how the Google quality score is based on 3 chief factors. The contributors to quality are:

1. CTR (click-Thru-Rate): This is the biggest contributors to the quality factor contributing about 60% to the score. CTR usually explains the user feedback to the ads and the ad copy.

2. Relevancy: Google place importance on relevancy contributing about 30%. Google checks the relevancy of the search query to the ads and the keywords. Google make sure that only useful ads are shown on the context of search query, ad copy and the products for the good quality score.

3. Landing page: The landing page does matter to the quality score contributing about 10% to the quality score. For good quality score, the landing page should have relevant original content, quick load time, no or very few pop-ups, and transparency about the nature of business and should be easily navigable.

Make sure you have it all, what Google values for a good “quality score”.

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Phew. this was most probably the wildest holi ever. if you think holi is all about colors, think again. Its getting more wet each year.

some highlights (quick and dirty)
had fun at my place with the kids and strangers in the road. No matter who you are ballons are your frens. Everybody gets it from any direction and in any place. oops i just got one at my back.

Gathered at fren’s house. colors all over. try our best to discolorize everyone. Took our bikes. holi wanderers.

landed at other fren’s house and from then on it was no more colors. all water(not everytime, liquid would be more resonable). had a balloon fight with the kids. had the altitude disadvantage of one floor. did our best. food and drinks. danced and bit, laughed a lot. cleaned up the mess, hit the road.

Landed at yet another fren’s house. more water. more mixed chemicals. surf, savlon, ujala whitening and whatever (missed harpic fortunately). everyone lost their colors in turn. more drinks. more laughter.

@ home. too tired. cleaned the skin till it bleed. one good sleep. Happy Holi.