My List Of “Top Ten Books”

That was the question before me.  Where do I begin?  That pestering question was around me  like a monsoon mosquito buzzing around. Why a mosquito you ask?  Why not a fly?  Fly does not bite though it could kill you.  When did it begin?  On 29th of August, some time around noon I think. We all affectionately call him TRS and apart from other things he is a voracious reader and he tagged me.  Where you say?  Facebook.  That’s where.  For the ”top ten books”.

There were others too.  But I am not mentioning here because here I am going talk about only the English books.

It is a great advantage to be born into a family of letters.  That is until someone comes and asks you for a list, like TRS does here, to list the “Top Ten”

Here is my first one in the series.

Physics for Entertainment.

Yep.  A non-fiction book.  Actually a set of two books.

 Yakov Perelman - Physics for Entertainment
Physics for Entertainment was published by Raduga from the former USSR.

This is the book that kindled in me a certain scientific temperament.  It helped me understand things better and equipped me with the right tools to understand life as it unravelled its secrets to me.

I tore off a page from one of my used rough note book, made a container out of it, and with the lighted candle, boiled water in that paper container!  That was just fantastic don’t you think?

Then I understood how this little bird you see in this picture constantly keeps dipping its head into the glass of water?! Like a perpetually thirsty bird!  I think a whole generation was inspired by this book.

Yakov Isidorovich Perelman was the author of this book.  It is unfortunate that this author died of starvation during the seize of Stalingard, by the Germans.

Yakov Perelmen - Physics for Entertainment
Author of many scientific books and editor of magazines including Nature

This book was translated into many Indian languages.  One of them was in Telugu నిత్యజీవితంలో భౌతికశాస్త్రం.  (nityajiivitaMlO bhautikasastram).

So there you are TRSthis is the first book in my “top ten list“.  I’ll try to post them as and when I find the time.

3 Simple Tips To Win Paying Jobs on oDESK

As a professional freelance writer who is interested in building an online freelance writing career, there were times when I used to quite often visit oDesk.  The frequent visits were to check for openings and apply for almost all the potential jobs.  And then I used to get messages like this:

“Hello Anil,

You have not been selected for the job opening ‘ Ghost Writer‘.
* Reason candidacy was ended: Job Opening Expired
from oDesk.(Emphasis mine).

The undeniable underlining hope was that it would take me closer to a successful freelance writing career.  I was yet to learn the tricks of the freelancing trade.  I did not know then that I was wasting my time and effort applying for some of those ‘freelance content writing openings’ that were very clearly saying ‘DO NOT APPLY’.  Surprised?  Don’t be.

The signs were all there.  The thing was I did not know how to read all those signs then.  I do not claim to be any wiser now.  But then I think I am better off from where I began working on oDesk, having spent more than 50 productive oDesk hours (you can check my oDesk history) and made some pretty decent money with freelance writing.  It included, website content writing, product descriptions (more about it in future), press release news, ghost writing for employment related blogs, some Internet research apart from other jobs.

Those little known ways that helped me, didn’t they?  So I would like to share them with you so you too can save some time.  You can invest that time in improving your chances of quickly finding ‘paying jobs’ and make some more money.

The First Tip
I subscribed to “Job alerts” a feature that you will find under your ‘My Profile” tab.  Half the clutter is out.

I get my job alerts into my inbox.  The jobs of my choice walk into my ‘inbox’.

The Second Tip
When I visit the job posting on oDesk, the first thing even before I read the job posting is, check to see if the ‘buyer‘ is ‘oDesk Verified” for ‘Payment’

If the buyer is not ‘verified’ then you need to think twice before applying.  Is this buyer really serious about the job?  IMHO, I do not think this buyer is either professional or serious.  Out goes this from the list.

The Third Tip
I check the ‘Buyer Facts’.  If this buyer became a member and posted this job the same day, this buyer too is ‘out‘.

The reason?  Well, I think this buyer doesn’t need my attention because, this buyer is not willing to tell me how she is going to pay me and when she is going to pay me, if at all she is going to pay me.

So, there you have a buyer, who is not “oDesk payment verified” and the ‘oDesk Buyer Facts’ has nothing to tell you, so what would you do?

You love the gig and want to ‘do’ it.  Go ahead.  Be my guest. You can always give this gig a try and may be you will be introducing a great buyer to all of us here at oDesk.

Bonus:
The bonus is you can avoid all those “Candidacy Ended“, “project was canceled“, “Project expired” messages and unnecessary disappointments that keep crawling into your in box.

* With thanks to Brian Clark, the Copyblogger.