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Indi Blog Review

Reviews & Interviews of Desi or not so Desi Blog(ger)s.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Nerve Endings Firing Away - A bloggerview

Blog URL: http://patrix.typepad.com/

Blog Name: Nerve Endings Firing Away

Contributors: Patrix. A couple of guest posts by his brother.

Type of Blog: As Patrix puts it Omnium – Gatherum: Eschew Obfuscation.

I would say miscellaneous collection on a lot of topics

Operational Since: June 15, 2003

Frequency of Update: On an Average 1 – 2 posts daily.

Comments Section: Enabled, Encouraged and Religiously responded to.

The Laurels:
4th Best Male Blogger on the Indi-Bloggers Awards in 2003

3rd spot in Best Asian India Blog Awards.

Also featured on the Asia Weblog awards.

Technorati shows that 93 sites link to the blog with a Technorati Rank: 15,487 (111 links from 93 sites)

It has 45 Bloglines Subscribers


The Review:

Once I decided to start the Indi Blog Review project, I was not sure whom to pick as the first among the “equals”. There are so many blogs that I like to read for a varied reasons and I was in a dilemma to pick “one” from them. But I decided to choose “Nerve Endings Firing Away” by Patrix.

Why?

It is always easy to write about a blog which can speak for itself in the first person. So I thought it better to have it from the horse’s mouth…

On a serious note, Patrix was the first to respond to my questionnaire and thus I do a “Shree Ganesha” of the series Indi Blog Review with Nerve Endings Firing Away (hereafter known as NEFA)

So why should you read NEFA?

NEFA is a neat blog with a collection of miscellaneous posts. It partly lives up to its tagline “Omnium - Gatherum”. I say partly because the tagline may not “Eschew Obfuscation” for some of us confused mortals.

The site has a clean and non cluttered ‘look and feel’; the posts are decently categorized making it easier to navigate. I really like the feature where lengthy posts are not completely displayed on the home page and you can continue to read further by clicking on a link if you want to. This makes the site easier to navigate and lets you choose what you want to read.

On the flip side though, I think the long list of links and the Flickred photos make it a tad slow to load. (It may be a lot slower on a dial up connection.) The About me section needs to be updated and I believe that the October 2003 archive is either empty or kaput.

This blog has a lovely mixture of all the categories that I like to read about. There is enough of every category and not too much of anything. The number of posts had gone down a bit in the recent past but that could be because Patrix was moving. The writing style is lucid, easy to read and the thoughts are penned down honestly.

The blog is opinionated and strong at places but it maintains the decency throughout, which is what I like about the blog. I read a lot of blogs, where the bloggers believe that using expletives and foul language is the only way to vent out the anger or prove a point.

This blog does not.

It ventures into the controversial topics and voices its opinion strongly but walks the thin line decently. This I think is one of the Best qualities of the blog and this is what keeps me hooked onto it. Let me cite a few examples of strongly opinionated posts to make my case

The posts on the National anthem and the National flag fit the description (read the comments too). Other examples: Dad, You are wrong, You like Hitler, Shoot the Tiger, Stupid Admission Fee and many more posts which put across a view firmly but without demeaning anyone.

Well there have been times when a particular post has been desperate and strongly worded, but then there are posts which apologize about it as well (parting lines here and in a different context here)

My favorite feature of the Blog is the Linking Parks which are a collection of interesting news items. Examples are here, here and here. These are like a tailor made “Interesting News” section where all the news snippets are not nonsensical, but “jara hat ke” (different) in some sense. It is a fun read and if not for anything else, you can always pay a visit to this blog to browse the Linking Parks. Thankfully they are all categorized under (Weekly Clutter) making them easier to locate.

The blog also has its share of the so called “PJs” a genre of jokes which I love. So if you completely detest the nonsensical humor in the “Phaltoo Jokes” do not read this, this or the parting lines of this. I totally loved this one “If Reshma joins the army, log kya kahenge (what will people say)? Reshma jawan ho gayee”

The blog has also experimented with product reviews, inspired movie themes and tried guest blogging. But for most parts these have been solitary attempts (
It may however surely inspire a “blog version” of the “You’ve got mail” type of a movie because this blog helped Patrix find the love of his life.

Summary:

Overall, I would say that I gladly read this blog because I like “Bhelpuri” and this blog gives my inquisitive mind an assortment of all the areas that interest me. Above all, Patrix has an interesting way of putting things and thus sometimes makes even mundane aspects of his life and thoughts interesting (sometimes not so mundane aspects as well). The regularity of the posts and its lucid presentation make it one of the “do not miss” bloglines subscriptions. Nerve Endings Firing Away deserves a few minutes of my blog surfing time.


The Bloggerview (An interview with Patrix – Blogger behind NEFA)

(This interview has been conducted over emails and is produced verbatim after some formatting and spelling changes)

Who are the contributors to your blog?

No one. I write all my posts. Occasionally I let my brother guest-post (twice so far) but he has his own blog now.

How would you categorize your blog? (Politics, Personal, Economy, General, Poetic, Literary, Blogsurf, etc etc)

A little bit of everything. I have often been told that the key to popularity is specialization in blog posts. But I have always considered my blog as a personal venting space where I can write on stuff that interests me in day to day life although politics and technology tend to feature often on my blog.

How long has your blog been operational?

I started blogging on 15th June, 2003 (don't worry, I won't mention the time although you can find that out from my first post). So it has been a bumpy 2 years and few odd months.

Did your blog receive any special recognition / awards / any special feat that you would like to mention?

I ranked a measly 4th (out of 5) in the Best Male Blogger on the Indi-Bloggers Awards in 2003 (or was it 2004?) (http://indibloggies.blogspot.com/) but surprisingly few of my readers spammed the Best Asian India Blog Awards to help me land the third spot (http://simonworld.mu.nu/archives/056986.php) . I also featured on the Asia Weblog awards (http://www.flyingchair.net/vote.php?categoryID=18).

Why do you blog? What keeps you blogging because this I hope is not your full time job?

Of course, it isn't my fulltime job or at least not yet. I blog to vent out all the thoughts that I seem to have in my little head regards the weird happenings in the world around me. Some personal, some political, and other rants. I blog to find an equally intellectual and mature audience who can relate to my ramblings.
Surprisingly, many of them do. I have found many friends some of whom I have met others whom I wish to. The continuous upheavals in the world around me including my personal life keep my blog alive and kicking.

How do you find the time from your non blogging life to blog? Any secrets?

Frankly no secrets here. There are others who have a longer blogroll and write more posts. I wish to discover their secrets. I guess, I am a fast reader and simply cannot resist reacting to news around me.

What do you think is the purpose of your blog? And do you think you have achieved that?

Is there supposed to be a greater purpose to a blog? I don't think so.

Of course, citizen journalism, enhanced communication between people, and power to publish your thoughts to the world are keywords that are floating around. My little blog attracts not more than 300-350 visitors daily, nothing compared to different pundit blogs elsewhere.

But I am glad to have found a particular niche of people who enjoy reading my thoughts and I am greatly enriched by the feedback they leave in form of comments and email.

But if I think harder and extrapolate a bit, I found Ash, the love of my life via blogging.

What do you generally like to blog about? Which is your favorite category for blogging?

Like I mentioned earlier, I blog about anything under the sun (or even something shady).

I even post PJs that makes my readers roll their eyes.

But if I try to seperate the chaff from the grain, I would say I post a lot on politics, technology, and of course my personal life.

IF asked to choose what is your own favorite post?

Difficult to do that. At last count (thanks to Typepad, I had 861 posts). The posts that I consider good hardly attract any comments and the posts that I write in a hurry attract a ton. So if I consider blogging as an interactive communication activity between the blogger and his audience then choosing a favorite post become difficult.

Any anecdotes or interesting incidents related to blogging that you would not mind sharing?

I flew almost a thousand miles to Chicago on a whim to meet up with Alpha, Yogu, and Star on a cold Christmas day. The three days I spent with them were the best that year and I made three wonderful friends.

Ash and I flirted a lot on each other's blogs to break the ice after we had meet up.

Our blogs did help us understand each other better (words that you have written can't lie) and we have been going steady for about 9-10 months now. Looking for bloggers wherever I travel or move has been an exciting time to meet new people and actually doesn't make meeting people from the online world seem so desperate and geekish.

Also, there was a spontaneous series of posts from other bloggers (Alpha, Quizman, Steppenwolf, etc) when I had written about one of my crushes back in elementary school. The Patrix, Patrix Relegated, Patrix Revelations
(http://patrix.typepad.com/nerves/2003/12/trilogymore_to_.html) remain one of the best series of blog posts (on my expense) that I still enjoy reading.

Why did you chose this name for your blog?

Just on a lark. I remember Mel Gibson telling Joaquin Pheonix that before his wife died, she mumbled something about you swinging away; maybe that was her nerve endings firing away or something. The phrase just stuck in my head and I remembered that when I was writing my first blog post on Rediff.

Do you blogsurf? How Often?

Is the Pope Catholic? I guess the question should be, how often do I blogsurf during a day. I check my Blogline more than 2-3 times a day or rather whenever I am done checking my email.

How do you blogsurf? (RSS Feeds, Blog Roll, Bloglines, sites like Desipundit, Bloghopping etc)?

Bloglines rules! I found visiting an infrequently updated blog quite frustrating until I discovered Bloglines and life has been better organized since then.

Which are the blogs that you like to read? If the list is long, do mention the top 2 - 5 blogs, and if possible please explain why you like them as well?

I read and comment on lot of blogs so choosing favorites is dangerous.
Anyway, I love Amit Varma's India Uncut for his additional comments on day-to-day news in India. Nitin Pai's The Acorn for excellent analysis on India's foreign affairs, Alpha's humorous take on events in her past and current life, Rashmi Bansal's Youth Curry for writing relevant posts on youth issues, Rahul's Green Channel for poetic prose, Charu's Indsight for market research and analysis, Parmanu's Diary for direct-dil-se and simple descriptions of ordinary events, Gawker's sarcastic anti-Bush rhetoric...damn! I can't stop...see, I told you, don't ask me to choose.

How do you think new bloggers can increase their blog traffic? Any other advice to the new bloggers?

Honestly, by writing well and frequently. Pimping your own posts doesn't work. People are less likely to visit you if you ask them to.

Comment liberally but leave insightful comments ("nice post! visit my blog" doesn't count as a comment).

Reply back to your commenters or people who email you. It is all about reputation...takes time but once you have it, any shit you write will be considered gospel truth (good writers will never write shit though)

What do you think is the single most drawback of blogging in India? Or why do you think blogging has not caught on as it should in India

Internet access on slow dialup lines. Broadband access and computer usage beyond work would let people explore beyond email and porn.

Mature and intelligent people will always look for things that interests them and nothing works like opinionated blog posts. Of course, media coverage and impact of blogs on political or social/cultural events helps (as in the US)

What are your thoughts on advertising using your blog?

By all means, advertise. But remember, content is important. Don't act like TOI and irritate your readers otherwise people will stop visiting.

Do you think blogging per se requires any regulation from the Government or other authorities?

Heck, no. Let us be. Reading and writing blogs is totally personal and left to free will. If accrediting bloggers means more control, we don't need accreditation. We are fine the way we are.


Comments:
Jeeesh! this is flattering. You surely have done your homework and have browsed through my archives. I bet this took time. Thanks, man!
 
Leena - I hope this can spread the love and increase the blog network.... I sincerely want to do that ..

Patrix - Your blog is one of my favorites... it took some time but I think it was worth it... keep blogging away
 
Good Review of a good blog
 
I love the interview part the most -- gives a good insight into the blogger
 
Nice Template and I like the EYE ... the review on Nerve Endings is bulls eye too
 
Lending method to the madness that is blogging eh?
 
Annon - Thanks

Kool_cust - That is the idea ... hope we get honest answers and it is possible...

Krishna - The templage is from Blogger Templates ... he has nice templates ...

Twilight Fairy - Method to madness is actually a way of life
 
Hi @mit
This is an excellent review of an excellent blog. Patrix's blog has been one of my favorites. And I love Desipundit as well.

This is a nice project you are doing and it will be interesting to read the other reviews.
 
No one deserves this more than Patrix. Good going @mit!

Patty, those were the real good days. *sigh* Now I have to get appointment to get your attention...or maybe start a site like this and showcase you. You forgot the TINDA?
 
oh btw, Patrix, thanks for mentioning me. I would have killed you otherwise.
 
Cool review @mit. I like the format. Welcome back from your vacation :-)

I read NEFA regularly. Very interesting blog. I see a lot of effort has gone into capturing the essence of the blog.

Way to go!
 
@mit: Nice idea this. :) As one of Patrix's silent readers, i gotta say you have been thorough. I got more reading material :D

Patrix: Keep writing! And ya, Desipundit rocks too :)
 
Wow @mit, you've been very very thorough!!! This is amazing. How did you find the time for all this, and I can't believe you're going to do this for many others too!! Phew! Hats off!!
 
Hey Amit,
I'm a regular reader of Patrix's blog and I could safely say that I am addicted to it.
So that's where I found this link. I am amazed at the research you have done on his posts and this is so well written :)
Looking forward to more reviews here.
 
Michael,alpha, aparna, aNTi, Aekta, Seema

Thanks for all your support...hope I can sustain it and hope it helps
 
A very good review indeed. I especially liked the interview.
 
Thanks Aditya - People from
Pune rule after all :-)
 
So many blogs and only 10 numbers to rate them. I'll have to give you a 7 because you have good content but lack of quality posts.

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The problem with blogs is that they get spammed by people wanting to sell mortgage leads. It's too bad, really.
 
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