Odds&Ends | Alas!

There used to be this amazing piece of grafitti art on the wall of one of the buildings in my hometown. But, it has since been replaced by a boring slab of white paint. Scouring around, I found this. Though a far cry from aforementioned grafitti, aesthetics-wise, the one above was the best I could find during my short stay back home.

Alas; it's such a queer word to use to suggest dismay. Coupled it with an exclamation mark, it seems to announce triumph more than anything else. Likewise, it seems weird to use the word to announce my not winning any Photobloggies awards.

Just so that you know, I'm totally OK with losing. I'm not going to get traumatised like I was by my near fatal experience involving a pack of wolves. I'm glad to be one of the finalists; it's really an honour to be listed alongside great photobloggers. The uptick in traffic is pretty encouraging too. For that, I have you, my readers, to thank. And to the winners, congratulations!

While going through RSS feeds from Wired a couple of days ago, I came across Grafedia. Grafedia is grafitti with a tech twist. Here's the official site's about spiel:

Grafedia is hyperlinked text, written by hand onto physical surfaces and linking to rich media content - images, video, sound files, and so forth. It can be written anywhere - on walls, in the streets, or on sidewalks. Grafedia can also be written in letters or postcards, on the body as tattoos, or anywhere you feel like putting it. Viewers "click" on these grafedia hyperlinks with their cell phones by sending a message addressed to the word + "@grafedia.net" to get the content behind the link.

It sounded like a fun thing to do so I gave it a try. To view my first grafedia, roll over the photo above. Send an email to "TheWordInThePhoto@grafedia.net". You'll receive the embedded media content in a sec. Now, if you like the concept, make your very own grafedia and post the address in the comment box!