Should have been the first article in this space, but then again life is not perfect anyway…
Here’s what Wikipedia says about a weblog/blog:
“A blog (….web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. …Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of the many blogs.”
Yes, it is now 2.48am in the morning – so I guess it is either the case of ‘old habits die hard’ or perhaps I am only good (in terms of writing or composing) at this kind of hour. I can clearly remember the younger days (not that I feel old now) I used to prepare my paper works, proposals and the like at this kind of hour in the night – I somehow find it easier – the thoughts flow better during this wee hours of the morning. Anyhow, being back in corporate employment, I have to be honest in term of time spend during ‘working hours’ and not to spend so much of it doing personal things, ain’t it?
Well, not that I’m such a rule abider myself…, in fact I see myself more of a ‘maverick’ (there you go, the first clue of who I am), or in consulting we term it as ‘contrarian thinking’ – in terms of work, I believe that the results delivered is more important than the actual hours spent ‘being at work’ – and that is how I manage my team in office. And thanks to a colleague at work who pointed me to a Brazilian guy by the name of Ricardo Semler, that concept has been further entrenched in me (Ricardo Semler is the author of ‘Maverick’ and ‘Seven Day Weekend’ and owner of Semco company in Brazil, that since at least more than 2 decades ago, has experienced tremendous sustainable and profitable growth – those of you in management positions or especially business owners are highly recommended to read the books, but that will be a separate topic of its own – which I believe I will also be writing on).
Talking about books – man, do I love reading. I can read, and read, and read…, and during the good few years period of my life (twice, mind you) where I found myself out of work (more of out of income, as there was plenty of work to do actually) – I relish the freedom of time that I have, that I spent on reading, researching, and preparing concept papers, proposals, and white papers etc. – not that I have any paying client, but I guess for the love of it. Now that I have ‘money’ – to live relatively comfortably that is, not yet financially free of which I hope to attain one day – I really miss the time, the freedom of being ‘out of work’ (for those who have the thought of trying the same phase of life – I say don’t, having no money is very painful, especially if you have children – it’s a very heart-breaking experience when you find yourself not being able to see your children in the eyes, and having to explain to them the situation you have put your family into – perhaps I’ll share some of those experiences as well in this blog, later).
Well, back to the topic at hand. Why blog? What is my blog about? Another diversion first - my first involvement with blogging (as a reader, observer and a few times as ‘commenter’) was with Jeff Ooi’s blog ‘speaking out, speaking loud’ (hey, the guy is now an MP – guess I should have been a blogger much earlier hehehe) which I stumbled upon through Malaysiakini. My current favourite for a few years now is of course Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today (a spin off of his Free Anwar Campaign Website – what a change from the days of my Virago biking, when I first met him in person, and his cycling column in The Star). Blogging has of course ‘exploded’ since then with the most favourite being political blog (what else, being in Malaysia where free and fair press still a dream, and does not look like changing much soon, until…) to the extend that blogs have been credited as one of the main cause of the recent 080308 tsunami. And in the process, noticing that a friend of mind, a fellow ANSARAian had launched a blog under the name of bigdogdotcom, a guy who used to be one of those behind Kelab Maya UMNO – his blog from my view is more of Mukhriz Mahathir’s fan club website than a real behind the scene political blog (hey, we can always agree to disagree and live happily ever after).
Since then we have seen UMNO politicians taking to the blog with the likes of Khir Toyo (big traffic despite having no real content) and the ex-CM of Melaka, Ali Rustam (I remember, how myself and a group of Usahawan Wanita Melaka were kept waiting for almost an hour in his huge room, so that he can browse his newspaper – and then to have him suggesting the entrepreneur group to create a chain or franchise of assam fish outlets, despite our white paper for a comprehensive entrepreneur development program and day clinic facilities – wow, such creativity?). The most recent pinnacle in the blogging world is perhaps the new ruling by UMNO that says politicians who aspire for any positions in UMNO must have a blog-site – another example of ‘coffee-shop thinking’ – whatever first come to mind must be the solution to the problem at hand? (This term should now go together with another one coined by me earlier – ‘tom-yam syndrom’ – which I said then to be the biggest problem with bumiputra business thinking, which refers to having business with absolutely no differentiation whatsoever but just because other people seem to be successful at it – more about this in other writings).
So, naturally I guess my interest in blogging has always been there (I did have a website with some friends focusing on personal and professional development much earlier in the mid 1990’s but have long since abandoned it due to some problems then). Of course the focus of getting my life back into track superceded my other social activities, coupled with the fact that living in an area officially addressed by the Post Office as ‘Kawasan Perumahan Mewah, Lembah Beringin’ means living in irony as we hardly has any real internet connection, let alone broadband services.
The next issue was then, the theme of the blog. Frankly, I didn’t really know when I launched the blog last week, I just had to do it – one thing I learn is that, ‘any time is a good time’ – so I just went ahead and do it, ….and think later (contrary to my normal behaviour of thinking and planning first). Thus the reason why for those who visited my blog earlier found that I didn’t even fill up the profile section – I guess the earlier visitors are my known friends anyway, so I really hope they can be a bit patient with my shortcomings – it’s already up, guys! That however prompted a web developer friend to suggest a few tips on having a good website/blog, with the suggestion that I should introduce myself as if I’m having teh tarik with a bunch of friends. Great, good suggestion – and since I have such many and diverse interests anyway – I visualize that this blog will be my personal Café where I’ll have my coffee and keropok or nasi kerabu or nasi berlauk or whatever and chat away various issues that interest me, and hope that there will be people out there who will be interested and share some of my interests as well. Ehm, sounds quite alright – plus my better half has always dream of having her own specialty Café one day anyway.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about a weblog/blog:
“A blog (….web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. …Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of the many blogs.”
Yes, it is now 2.48am in the morning – so I guess it is either the case of ‘old habits die hard’ or perhaps I am only good (in terms of writing or composing) at this kind of hour. I can clearly remember the younger days (not that I feel old now) I used to prepare my paper works, proposals and the like at this kind of hour in the night – I somehow find it easier – the thoughts flow better during this wee hours of the morning. Anyhow, being back in corporate employment, I have to be honest in term of time spend during ‘working hours’ and not to spend so much of it doing personal things, ain’t it?
Well, not that I’m such a rule abider myself…, in fact I see myself more of a ‘maverick’ (there you go, the first clue of who I am), or in consulting we term it as ‘contrarian thinking’ – in terms of work, I believe that the results delivered is more important than the actual hours spent ‘being at work’ – and that is how I manage my team in office. And thanks to a colleague at work who pointed me to a Brazilian guy by the name of Ricardo Semler, that concept has been further entrenched in me (Ricardo Semler is the author of ‘Maverick’ and ‘Seven Day Weekend’ and owner of Semco company in Brazil, that since at least more than 2 decades ago, has experienced tremendous sustainable and profitable growth – those of you in management positions or especially business owners are highly recommended to read the books, but that will be a separate topic of its own – which I believe I will also be writing on).
Talking about books – man, do I love reading. I can read, and read, and read…, and during the good few years period of my life (twice, mind you) where I found myself out of work (more of out of income, as there was plenty of work to do actually) – I relish the freedom of time that I have, that I spent on reading, researching, and preparing concept papers, proposals, and white papers etc. – not that I have any paying client, but I guess for the love of it. Now that I have ‘money’ – to live relatively comfortably that is, not yet financially free of which I hope to attain one day – I really miss the time, the freedom of being ‘out of work’ (for those who have the thought of trying the same phase of life – I say don’t, having no money is very painful, especially if you have children – it’s a very heart-breaking experience when you find yourself not being able to see your children in the eyes, and having to explain to them the situation you have put your family into – perhaps I’ll share some of those experiences as well in this blog, later).
Well, back to the topic at hand. Why blog? What is my blog about? Another diversion first - my first involvement with blogging (as a reader, observer and a few times as ‘commenter’) was with Jeff Ooi’s blog ‘speaking out, speaking loud’ (hey, the guy is now an MP – guess I should have been a blogger much earlier hehehe) which I stumbled upon through Malaysiakini. My current favourite for a few years now is of course Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today (a spin off of his Free Anwar Campaign Website – what a change from the days of my Virago biking, when I first met him in person, and his cycling column in The Star). Blogging has of course ‘exploded’ since then with the most favourite being political blog (what else, being in Malaysia where free and fair press still a dream, and does not look like changing much soon, until…) to the extend that blogs have been credited as one of the main cause of the recent 080308 tsunami. And in the process, noticing that a friend of mind, a fellow ANSARAian had launched a blog under the name of bigdogdotcom, a guy who used to be one of those behind Kelab Maya UMNO – his blog from my view is more of Mukhriz Mahathir’s fan club website than a real behind the scene political blog (hey, we can always agree to disagree and live happily ever after).
Since then we have seen UMNO politicians taking to the blog with the likes of Khir Toyo (big traffic despite having no real content) and the ex-CM of Melaka, Ali Rustam (I remember, how myself and a group of Usahawan Wanita Melaka were kept waiting for almost an hour in his huge room, so that he can browse his newspaper – and then to have him suggesting the entrepreneur group to create a chain or franchise of assam fish outlets, despite our white paper for a comprehensive entrepreneur development program and day clinic facilities – wow, such creativity?). The most recent pinnacle in the blogging world is perhaps the new ruling by UMNO that says politicians who aspire for any positions in UMNO must have a blog-site – another example of ‘coffee-shop thinking’ – whatever first come to mind must be the solution to the problem at hand? (This term should now go together with another one coined by me earlier – ‘tom-yam syndrom’ – which I said then to be the biggest problem with bumiputra business thinking, which refers to having business with absolutely no differentiation whatsoever but just because other people seem to be successful at it – more about this in other writings).
So, naturally I guess my interest in blogging has always been there (I did have a website with some friends focusing on personal and professional development much earlier in the mid 1990’s but have long since abandoned it due to some problems then). Of course the focus of getting my life back into track superceded my other social activities, coupled with the fact that living in an area officially addressed by the Post Office as ‘Kawasan Perumahan Mewah, Lembah Beringin’ means living in irony as we hardly has any real internet connection, let alone broadband services.
The next issue was then, the theme of the blog. Frankly, I didn’t really know when I launched the blog last week, I just had to do it – one thing I learn is that, ‘any time is a good time’ – so I just went ahead and do it, ….and think later (contrary to my normal behaviour of thinking and planning first). Thus the reason why for those who visited my blog earlier found that I didn’t even fill up the profile section – I guess the earlier visitors are my known friends anyway, so I really hope they can be a bit patient with my shortcomings – it’s already up, guys! That however prompted a web developer friend to suggest a few tips on having a good website/blog, with the suggestion that I should introduce myself as if I’m having teh tarik with a bunch of friends. Great, good suggestion – and since I have such many and diverse interests anyway – I visualize that this blog will be my personal Café where I’ll have my coffee and keropok or nasi kerabu or nasi berlauk or whatever and chat away various issues that interest me, and hope that there will be people out there who will be interested and share some of my interests as well. Ehm, sounds quite alright – plus my better half has always dream of having her own specialty Café one day anyway.
(to be continued, tomorrow....)
2 comments:
NICE Blog :)
Thank you gizmo,
Hope to have you visiting again. Cheers....
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