FAQ's.

(wherein we answer common questions asked about our blog through IM messages and emails. In short, everything you wanted to ask about the blog and me but haven't)

a) What is Flocci-whatever? Is it a real word? What does it mean? Why did you name your blog as 'flocci-'?

Like all cool things in life, the word "Floccinaucinihilipilification" has its roots in a school joke. Except that it later took a rather serious tone, and now finds itself in the OED.

For the other two sub-questions, scroll up and re-read the blog's adline.

b) So are you "MetaMutator" or The Cydonian (I saw a few other places calling you that) or "DesiTroll"?

All the above. But in general, I'm in the MetaMutator avatar these days on online fora, and will be for the forseeable future. Indeed, it now appears that I've thoroughly google-bombed the moniker, in that all Google hits for "metamutator" point towards my outpourings.

That, unfortunately, is not true for The Cydonian.

c) Are you really that jobless? I mean, I see stupid posts in obscure corners of the net!

It's called "final year project" and it is often done under the cover of the night. Mine finished last year.

d) So your real name is Regu..?

Yes.

e) That sounds... strange? What are you anyway?

Who are you, you mean. Ethnically, a Telugu-speaking Indian. Telugu tradition has it that you take your surname from the name of the village where your family "originally" hailed from, so my surname refers to a (now-extinct) village somewhere on the eastern coast of India. I've been told, and agree to the assertion, that it is lexically similar to the British surname 'Berryhill', since that's what it essentially means, a hill of berry trees.

Friends have called me Aks, ak-47, Mr X, aaku tokka ('leaf from a plant'; it's a stupid Telugu pun), and now... M&M. I find it all amusing and am open to ideas.

f) Thanks, that was informative. Now, about your promised posts? :-)

Yes, I have been updating my Telugu blog dididhdhiminakapootaraju less frequently than planned. I blame it on my company's sysad; dude refused to install Windows XP on my work terminal. I, therefore, can't post there during work hours.

The situation has, however, improved due to a very interesting development over the last weekend, the details of which will be posted shortly.

g) No, not about your gult-blog; wait, what the heck is with that... you write in boxes?

Oh that... you need to install Unicode on your comp. Will post a detailed how-to on that pretty soon. Meanwhile, you can always google for unicode telugu and pretend to know it all.

h) Never mind on that; I can hardly read Telugu, let alone install it. I'm talk ing your other posts.

Five words: the death of my laptop. Sniff. :'-(

i) No, I think you're just being lazy.

That too, of course. While we are at it, might as well admit it; I generally post between builds, which is why I often try to be terse and choosy with words. In reality, I love to be verbose, as those of you who have emailed me/met me in meatspace would readily agree.

As I've said earlier, there has been an interesting development over the last weekend which can possibly change the situation completely.

j) Ah, developments over the weekend... now we're talking. :-) So what did the girl do to you to merit this change of heart? ;-) And why the f--- do you refuse details to mere mortals? And, how did Alamandrax get those secretive survillience photos?

First of all, important to realise what Alamandrax's earlier nick was. It was "Shimbleshanks". Yes, that's right; Shimbleshanks as in the Railway Cat. Also note that he has links to Megatokyo and Spamletters on his blog. Now ask yourself: what sort of a person calls (or used to) himself Skimbleshanks and links to Megatokyo and Spamletters on his univ blog?

Second, read answers (h, i) to understand why I haven't posted in detail.

k) That is just stupid. I mean, if you could post a one-liner at 1:15PM SGT on a Sunday, surely you could have posted more?

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the million dollar question. :-) And since I can't answer, only guess, I'd have to end this in true Vikram-Betal-ian style.