I don’t want to state the obvious

Search the thesaurus for the similar words of “busy”.

Say at least 10 of them.

That’s the state I’m in now.

Bear with trivial and unimportant entries for a while. Just a bit more.

Anyway, I’m setting up a new blog in SylvGee.Wordpress.Com for my assignment in class COMM215 : Digital Media Across Asia. Do come there and drop a comment or two, ok? I’ll be delighted to see you there!

If the Day is Done..

I’m currently singing this song for choir. The arrangement was composed and arranged by Vystautas Miskinis. (I apologize if I spelt that wrongly. Someone help me please).

The song was based on Rabindranath Tagore’s poem from “Gitanjali”.

The poem is very beautiful so I thought I would share this little literary gem to brighten up your day.
(translated poem found in School of Wisdom. Find more poems in “Gitanjali” in that link.)

If the day is done,

if birds sing no more,

if the wind has flagged tired,

then draw the veil of darkness thick upon me,

even as thou hast wrapt the earth with the coverlet of sleep

and tenderly closed the petals of the drooping lotus at dusk.

From the traveler,

whose sack of provisions is empty before the voyage is ended,

whose garment is torn and dust-laden,

whose strength is exhausted,

remove shame and poverty,

and renew his life like a flower under the cover of thy kindly night.

I hope my choir will learn this fast and I’ll be able to share our performance with you. It’s a very beautiful song

on the way to become a popular blogger

This post is to clarify that my previous post, Dear Bloggers, is not a response to a highly popular blogpost by Cowboy Caleb “How to be an irritating Singaporean blogger“.

Probably it’s the timing that makes it inevitable that people think it is, and I have to admit that in some way or other the post has triggered me to write “Dear Bloggers”. In any case you still think I’m lying or sort, I actually wrote about my concern of writing something “meaningful” and “valuable” almost 2 years ago in The Burden to Write.

My intended message in “Dear Bloggers” was actually this : Don’t be afraid to blog, don’t stop blogging.

Blogging is good, and it’s not discouraged to start young. Sure, your writing won’t be too good, but at least you try. Ever heard the cliche “You’ll never know until you try”? There’s a reason why it became a cliche : it’s true.

Doing writing constantly and practicing to express your thoughts will only do you good. Nothing bad will come out of that, really. If you don’t believe me, you can just browse my archives from years ago and compare it to now. You might see that my writing has improved.

And I think that I missed a point in Dear Bloggers. Being a blogger is one thing, but being a likable/popular blogger is another thing. “Blog what you want, blog responsibly” is just the basic of being a blogger.

So, you want to be a popular blogger? Or at least recognizable blogger? Well make your blog interesting, and take care of your readers. The first thing of all is to know your readers. Position yourself as the reader, and ask yourself, what do I want to see? What will interest me? If you’re not planning to make a niche blog to attract certain groups, the least you can do is to add some flair in every posts and always remember to give sincere effort to each of them.

My friend Isaiah just posted a comprehensive summary about how to be an interesting blogger (or at least be a person who has an interesting blog). Do read up, since it’s one opinion from a reader (hell yes there are bloggers who are not blog readers. Selfish.). Alternatively, I urge you to read up Problogger. This is THE ultimate resource of how to make your blog interesting. Visit there, and read the archives. No need to swallow it all in one day. Blogging in an interesting way takes time, as it’s a habit. Habit takes time to form.

So all in all, my message is simple, really. Don’t stop blogging. Don’t be afraid to blog. And remember the two things each time you’re going to update your blog : Blog what you want, but blog responsibly.

Cheers.

Dear Bloggers

Remember what defines you as a blogger.

If you have a blog and you update it regularly voluntarily (under no pressure of other people or rather money pressure), you’re a blogger.

This is my personal opinion, but after muddling around the blogosphere for years, this is the best term that I think defines a blogger.

And you better believe me rather than those people blogging since 2007 or later.

A blog is your space. Your personal space. Your proof of claim of that tiny space in the cyber world. It is yours. It’s read by everybody, but it’s yours. Your content is yours. Your words are yours.

And whenever you want to update your blog, there are only two rules:

1. Blog what you want.
2. Blog responsibly.

Yes, blog what you want. Blog about how you tried to trim your dog’s nails but it refused so it scratched your arm. Blog about your chance encounter with some hot guy in the fitness center. Blog about your grandma who told you her old stories from the war time. Blog about your hot night out with some friends.

No, blogging about technology stuff and gadgets doesn’t make you instantly cool. Blogging about social media doesn’t get you into the “top bloggers” list instantly. Trying to teach people about how to make money doesn’t make you compelling. Talking about the latest update in politics doesn’t make you smart all of a sudden.

Only blog about stuff because you WANT to. Sure, blog about that new gadget that catches your fancy because it has the cool feature you’ve been longing for. Blog about social media because you’re so excited that it can help your business’ next marketing project. Blog about making money scam you’ve encountered (oh come on, there’s a lot). Blog about politics because you study political science and you think what you studied doesn’t really apply in the real politic world.
(note that the reasons are not exhaustive, in case there are some real ahem… less intelligent people who think so)

Don’t ever feel forced. Don’t fall into peer pressure. You know what happens to the teenagers who took drugs because their friends took it too.

And secondly, blog responsibly. Now that you can blog whatever you want, be responsible. This mainly concerns your readers. Let’s just assume your blog has readers, unless it’s somewhere out there locked by password that only you know (now that, I don’t know if it’s still a blog). As I mentioned before, your blog is yours but your readers are not. And your readers’ perceptions are not yours either. And since the words are yours, they will always be attributed to yours and you can’t deny them.

Sure you had a boring day in office and your boss scolded you for not finishing your work. Well we all have our bad days don’t we? But saying “Working in ABandC Company sucks! Don’t work here” won’t be a responsible thing to say, no? Sure you met an annoying person in the bus this morning. But talking about the race of that person and labelling that race as inferior is not a wise move, right? Sure you had a big fight with your parents today but flaming them behind their back and letting out family secrets are not in any way good, are they?

You might eventually apologize and take down the post but in some readers’ memory (or in Google cache, or in screenshots), it will stay and you’ll still be labelled as irresponsible blogger.

Don’t defend your stand because of “It’s my blog and who the heck cares!”. In whatever you do, not only blogging, think about the impact of your actions. In either online world or offline world you don’t live alone, and stop pretending that you are.

There’s no gauge for good or bad blogger. There are only popular bloggers and they all have many different things that made them popular (sadly, preference to flame people and showcasing unnecessary skin included but no, you don’t have to do that, really)

I’m a blogger. You’re a blogger. Together we make the blogosphere. Not only 1 or 2 or 3 popular bloggers. We’re included too.

We are the blogosphere.