Wish You A Safe Friday The 13^th

Unlucky number thirteen plus a Friday…. While Friday brings with itself, hopes of a fun filled weekend, and a break from our exhaustive schedules, the addition of the number 13 to its attributes kind of makes the day creepy, if not scary, right??? The fear of the day when the two combine is widely known as ‘PARASKEVIDEKTRIAPHOBIA’

Don’t ask me how is it pronounced, I had to copy- paste the entire word myself. So, is this fear just a blasphemous trend being passed from generation to generation, or is there even a tinge of reality behind the world’s most infamous belief which grips nearly 20million citizens of the U.S alone, not to forget the approximate loss of $800 million to business every time the duo combine, which is largely in stock markets ;since people tend to be ultra safe in transactions on such days

Myth or reality, all Fridays, the 13^th have been marked with black ink ever since Jesus Christ was crucified on a similar day, a FRIDAY ,Yes it was the 13^th, and yes that was, after he was betrayed by his disciple, Judas during the Last Supper. Interestingly, Judas was the 13^th man at the Last Supper, the others being -11 apostles and Jesus himself!!! Another reason for the day not having a particularly favourable image in the eyes of most of us is the supposed brutal crucification of the order of The Knight Templar, a reference of which has been made in Dan Brown’s much hyped -not to forget, controversial- novel, DaVinci  Code. So when did the crucification take place, any guesses??? October,1307, FRIDAY THE 13^TH  !!!!

Regardless of how rationale the space between your ears is, the day, sure sends a slight shiver down your spine. Beyond doubt, the day has a certain, unavoidable mystique, associated with itself.

A little knowledge about mythology shows us how the number 13 isn’t exactly a lucky charm anyways. The magical number 12 signifies completeness, as is perceivable, going by the 12 months of a year, the twelve zodiac signs, the 12 hours in a clock, the 12 apostles of Jesus or the 12 Gods of Olympus. Now adding a single integer to it sucks out all the perceivable stability of the number and forms an equally incomplete, unstable and dangerous number 13, one that only disturbs the delicate balance of completeness and stability. Not convinced yet?? Here is a timeline to chew upon---

FRIDAY THE 13^th

• 1915-Eatrthquake in Arizzano, Italy kills 29,800 innocents.
• 1939-Black Friday Bush fire burns 20000 sq. km area in Australia, along with 71 humans, not to forget the infinite wildlife that perished.
• 1943-Hitler declares ‘TOTAL WAR’, the repurcussions of which are visible till date.
• 2001-Earthquake measuring 7.6 on the richter scale hits El  Salvador, again killing thousands of people.

Still not sufficient?? Read on then…

Pissed about all the hype this day was getting, a group of like-minded people decided to start a new club, “The 13^th club”. So these guys were supposed to meet on every Friday the 13^th, I say supposed to, since one Friday, the 13^th was all that they could outlive since this novel idea struck their heads. 3 days since the first meeting was held, the whole bunch leaves for their heavenly abode, all thanks to a most bizarre accident. Want more?? You got it..

Most high rise buildings avoid numbering any floor 13^th, as is the case with streets and apartments. However, when one Gregon Johnson, does decide to number the 13^th floor of his building as ‘13’, the building collapses-3 days into its completion- and that too, till the 13^th floor. Since then, it has been structurally sound…

So, guys I am not asking you not to venture out of your house on such days, nor am I asking you to link everything bad that happens on such a day to it being a FRIDAY the 13^th. All that I am saying is that you can’t deny the legitimacy of the fear and awe that the day commands among so many people. With that note, to all the believers and non-believers, I wish u a very safe Friday the 13^th. Tudoooo.

6 Features of Gmail You Didn't Know About

GMAIL- one of the craziest and sought after advertising supported webmail, POP3 and IMAP service provided by Google. Available to the public since 7th February, 2007, has undergone innumerable changes in the features which a regular user might notice. A few of them yet go un-noticed as the best features are either hidden away under layers or aren’t turned on by default, making them worth exploring.

Being a regular user of Gmail and a big fan of it, I always thought that there can be possibly nothing about Gmail that I do not know, but, actually, there are loads.

Here are a few of them that you may not know about and be surprised that these are also options provided by one of the best webmail services.

The Gmail Labs is one of the outstanding features provided. The concept was introduced in June 5, 2008 to allow users to test on the new nifty little features Gmail has provided. It has 60 features that can be turned on or off at your own disposal but it is constantly shuttling between a few new and a few old ones. My favourites would be

A sweet cracker buster feature would be the “UNDO SEND” option that Gmail provides. It must be innumerable times that you accidentally click onto the send button or you just happened to miss out a correction in the mail you are forwarding. Not to worry any more, friends. Gmail provides you with an option to undo your accidents within a time span of 30 seconds. This is as all the mails are sent via the same server, so it might just happen that yours isn’t sent immediately and might be queued up for the process. So if you realise your mistake in this short period of time then you can stop a large percentage of your mistakes.

Another amazing feature would be the CANNED RESPONSES that lets you create a template of the most frequently used replies or text. Now you do not need to make the effort to re-type the same old, boring stuff again and again and save your time. You can simply use the template to start a new message. Oh! How it reminds me of stored procedures in Database Management Systems.

The SEARCH AUTOCOMPLETE which automatically suggests the various linked terms, keywords, names and label, when you start typing in the Gmail search box. This saves you the pain of typing the entire word and allows you to select it with a swift movement of the hand.

ATTACHMENT DETECTOR which will notify you if you have forgotten to attach a file after mentioning that you would do so. This feature is such a sweetheart. I love it as it reminds me all the time of my carelessness.

Another incredulous feature which caught my attention would be the MOUSE GESTURES. Now you can use your mouse to shuttle between your old and new mails withy gestures. Sounds fun nay..?? All you need to is to enable the MOUSE GESTURES from your Gmail labs. Then, to start using it, hold the right cluck button of your mouse (or that of your keypad) and move the mouse to the left to go to the previous mail and the right to go to the next mail. Also, to go to the inbox view, all you need to do is press the same right key and gesture the mouse to move upwards. Just a small reminder, this feature is known to work best on windows platform.

Every Gmail account comes with an infinite capacity of individual addresses that you can use. Literally, infinite. All you need to do is to add a “+” symbol after your username and create whatever new address, funky or professional, for what so ever purpose. It also helps you filter your incoming emails that save you from missing out your important mails among a bunch of dullard ones. Not to forget the devilish headaches and the precious time.

So, people, go ahead and explore your gmail account some more and discover the vast superbly exciting features it has to offer and keep me informed. Till then, cia..