Something about this tugged at my heart strings:

Bury this verse
for it torments me
Whisper it to the wind
it doesn’t care.

Came across this at the site Burying a tormented verse

The more things I have to get done, the more my mind wanders - that leads to more ideas I have, which feeds into my list of things to get done - I am not sure whether I should call this a virtuous or a vicious cycle. Either way, there have been a hundred half baked ideas floating around in my head, all of them screaming for a little thought and time. Where were you, I ask, when I had time on my hands. But how do you ask a newborn child why he wasn’t born earlier? All you can do is embrace him and take care of him. So, today on my way to work, while I should have been flipping through the pages of the Coffee trader, I wondered instead, why I couldn’t combine what I really like to do - writing, that is - and use it for some good cause. Hell, I am not really benefiting from it. Why shouldn’t someone else?

While trying to figure out the chaos that was happening outside the tram thanks to a car that had banged into it, my brain told me that I could somehow combine blogging and a good cause. I have met very few bloggers, yet I feel like I know a lot of them. I could be wrong here, but something tells me that someone who writes for the joy of writing (for very few of us make any money out of this), wouldn’t hesitate to do some of it for public good. My time just doesn’t permit me from taking a holiday to Cambodia to build houses, or to sacrifice my preciously short vacations in India to teach the young, or to fight for AIDS relief in Africa. With my limited time and resources, what I could offer is the ability to write, and a willingness to do so, even if I come back home at midnight dogtired. Now, I may not be the best of writers, but I know a few who could qualify for that title, and if nothing, powers of persuasion and organisation have never failed me - I should be able to convince people to write and put them together into something that makes money, enough to make a difference to someone out there.

People pay to read good articles or stories or poems. People are paid to write good articles or stories or poems. Now, if the people who will write will be willing to write for free, and if you subtract out the publishing and distribution costs, there must be something left behind to dedicate a decent amount to those who need it. Simple logic. I couldn’t be missing something, could I?

I know I know, I am missing a whole lot of details. Sadly, my tram ride ended. And I am at work. The details will have to wait till tonight. But in the meantime, if you have any thoughts on this - please do put them into the comments. Whether you think this whole idea is ridiculous or if you know of some organisation that has done this successfully ( I am aware of some bloggers’ projects which have raised money before, but I am not aware of any that does so in a regular manner and which involves more than a few bloggers or non-bloggers), or if you would like to express your enthusiasm and willingness to help out as and when the time comes - whatever it is, I am all ears.

Update: After trying to explain some of the ideas I had in the comments, I realised how hard it is do that in the comments box rather than in a post of its own. So, if you would like to let me know of some fantastic idea, you can either write about it on your blog, and I will link from here or you can send it to me and I will publish it with due credit. Not that I mind long comments, so feel free to write in a notepad and paste it into my comment box..Cheers!

I wish all readers of Dutch Diary a wonderful 2006! May you have loads of fun, success and happiness!

After a day of subtracting an hour every time I looked at the clock to know the time, I got off my lazy arse and climbed on the only chair in my apartment that seemed like it wont topple over and adjusted all the clocks to revert back from the daylight savings. Its in times like these when one is reminded that having a specimen of the male species in the house wouldn’t really be that bad an idea. That, and when I need to open those impossible-to-open jam bottles.

Anyways, while I was adjusting the clocks, I was reminded of this question someone asked me sometime back,

At what time between 3 and 4 o’clock will the hands of a clock be in a straight line?

Well, you dont get the exact answer by moving the hands of the clock around, like i tried. But theres an answer, I assure you. Try it out!

I got my first phishing attack today! Now I know thats nothing to be happy about and it wasn’t even a mail asking for any of my bank information, just eBay account details. But every time someone talks about phishing or I have to attend a presentation on it, I had always felt left out because everyone around me seemed to have some story or the other to relate. And I had never even got one phishing attempt!

So, finally! I have one of my very own too! But a pretty lame attack, actually. Considering the fact that I dont have an eBay account and that the link provided (on the email it shows as signin.ebay.com) translates to some weird domain name, someone has to be really naive to fall for this one. But I have to admit that the rest of the mail looks pretty genuine.

Now that I have one, I just hope that its not the start of a lot more to come. I would rather have no stories to tell than have to scan every email ever so carefully.

Dutch Diary will be on a not-so-well-deserved break for a week, as I go gallivanting in the Austrian Alps..See ya next week!