Stuff During the Holidays

I'm on my end-of-academic-year break at the moment. It's three months long, and I'm planning to use it to learn a couple of new things. I've been back in Kuching for 3 weeks: my days have been filled with programming for my startup, and teaching debate, and running. Quiet, productive days.

What I haven't been doing lately, however, is writing. It's been a good 4 weeks since I last wrote anything of length, and I feel my writing muscles already fraying and rotting in my head. (Not that - you know - there are muscles in my head ... but yeah you do get what I'm talking about now, don't you?)

I've got a couple of things I want to talk about, and they're all in higgly-piggly rows in my head. Some of these topics interest me a lot, because I've been thinking about them for some time now, and while I'm not sure if the ideas are right, I suspect that the only way to find out is to hash them out, on paper. What I do know is that I need to get writing now, before the new semester begins. It's the only free time that I really have.

Things I'd like to do, before the holidays are over:

• Learn recursion (i.e.: work through The Little Schemer)
• Learn proper algorithm analysis
• Revise relations and set theory (I'll probably need this for database work, and soon)
• Learn Vim (mostly done)
• Learn Python and Django (covered basic syntax for Python, still at the learning curve for Django)
• Revise graphs and trees

Loosely coupled to that is a light reading-list that I'm nearly finished with, and probably a writing schedule that I'll need to adhere to.

This feels weird - writing again. I'll need to get used to it as soon as I can.

[Update]: Somebody commented on how foreign and odd-sounding my todo list reads, and so - an explanation:

Vim is a code editor packaged with most linux/unix systems, and programmers swear by it because it allows you to do code editing on a cramped keyboard, without using a mouse. (I've already used it while lying on a couch in my grandparent's place - it works, by gum, it works!

Python is a programming language. You know Google? Well, they run on Python. (I also like how it sounds like a snake. And that allows me to make up all sorts of pun-jokes, e.g.: Python is very pretty. As a programming language! Not, you know, as a snake. Though it is a pretty snake ...)

Django is a framework for building web applications (like blogs, or Twitter, or Facebook) and I'm currently using it to build some writing software. More on that in a bit.

And ... well, the rest (recursion, graph, trees, set theory) are math stuff - and I'm not going to talk about them now because I've yet to learn anything apart from recursion (and I don't think they make for polite dinner conversation). Don't you just love polite geeks?

Redux

Bookeeping

Now I don't really like tags, but this one's from le Edrei, so I can't just ignore him and hide under a bomb shelter. And he's right - memes are a 'lost art people don't really know how to do anymore' - but I think that's mostly because Malaysians grew up in a blogging environment that threw about the Stupidest. Memes. Ever. I mean, random songs as answers to questions? Like that's interesting to read. And then there's this one going around ...

Okay maybe that was a bad example.

On with the tag:

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
Oh yes. I was a very lonely kid in primary school - my classmates mostly spoke Chinese, my best friend transferred out in Primary 3, and I was stuck in this alien world where running fast meant the difference between being bullied and being - (wait, what's the word for 'not-bullied'?) - happy. Reading - and later on writing - was a very good way of escaping my problems.

There was this one time in Primary 4 when I had two essay corrections to hand up right after recess, but I hadn't done both and there was no way to complete them in time. I was in the 'new' block in Chung Hwa No. 1, and in front of it there is this slice of beautiful slope, covered by trees and always overflowing with kids. I took a book, sat under the roots of one of those trees, and read the recess away.

The caning seemed more bearable after that.

What are some books you read as a child?
I finished a good portion of both the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew series, and I think I ploughed through at least half (if not all) of the Famous Five, Secret Seven and Adventure books by Enid Blyton. I really enjoyed The Secret Garden in Primary 3, and I started reading Harry Potter when I was in Primary 5.

Thinking back on it now I realize that the books I loved were usually the ones with a lonely, misunderstood character in the centre of it all, who finds a reprieve from his/her problems in some way. The secret garden and Hogwarts became wonderful places to run away and hide in, back then, and now sometimes - just for kicks - I take those books out again and vanish into their pages.

What is your favourite genre?
I don't have one. Or rather, I'm not sure I do. I enjoyed a lot of fantasy when I was younger, but after SPM I forced myself to start reading real literature, for what it was worth. And I found that I enjoyed both - and thrillers, and mystery novels, and chic-lit. There are too many good books in too many different genres with too many winning qualities out there to be picky.

Do you have a favourite novel?
Oh that's easy. Lord Of The Flies. Golding's masterpiece is a wonderful exploration of sin, civilization and man, even if using boys on an island to play it out is a slightly perverse premise. But what the hell. Great pacing, jaw-dropping writing and an explosive ending - crazy stuff.

Where do you usually read?
In bed, in the family room, or on the road. I've developed reading while walking to a fine art - you know how those action sequences always never seem to end ...

When do you usually read?
Anytime. And I'm not kidding. Sam lent me Life Of Pi once, and I spent hours on a lifeboat along with Pi Patel, way into the wee hours of the morning. I finished Breaking Dawn at 4 a.m. A whole day on Daniel's Dune. A week in Lord Of The Rings. Ahh. Good times.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
Yeap. I've put War and Peace on hold for a very long time, and I recently paused Moby Dick to read some online work. I usually get back to them once the shorter, easier books are done and there's nothing else in the house.

Do you read non-fiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
Yes. I read non-fiction less voraciously, I often reread non-fiction, and I take my time between chapters to think about what I've just read. No choice. Some of the concepts in the non-fiction books I read are way over my head, even if they are easy to understand. And here's a head's up: really good non-fiction books tend to make you rethink everything else you thought you knew about the subject matter (Theology of Economics, I'm looking your way).

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
Let me paraphrase Edrei on this one:

Being poor, I don't usually have the option of buying the books that I want. So I usually borrow them from someone else or check them out from the library. These days though, thanks to the genius that is the internet, I find myself reading more and more books in electronic format instead. I may love the smell of musty pages on a cold day, but that's nowhere near my thirst for reading and finding out new things I never knew.

Being poor, I don't usually have the option of buying all the books that I want. So I usually borrow them from someone else, or check them out from the Sarawak Club library. But I'm reading more and more fiction online, blooks, torrents, the like. It helps that the publishing industry is starting to experiment with using the Internet as an alternative distribution channel, even if similar attempts have failed in the past.

Do you keep most of the books you buy? If not, what do you do with them?
No. I feed them to my dog.

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Were they some of the same ones you read as a child?
I don't have kids at the moment, but if I do ... well. I'll definitely want them to read Harry Potter, and probably Famous Five, Secret Seven and the like, but for their sake I hope they don't identify with the lonely, misunderstood children in those books.

But then again I'll be happy as long as they're reading.

What are you reading now?
My Chemistry and Physics textbooks. Sigh. But I'm also rereading Oren Harari's Break From The Pack, and Stephen King's On Writing.

Do you keep a "To Be Read" list?
I did. But I lost it, so all I've got is a buy all Steinbeck novels you find item flashing in my head.

What’s next to be read?
I'll see if I can get a PDF version of The Wealth Of Networks printed, and then I'll probably consume that.

What books would you like to reread?
It's funny you know, how this question plays out. Some books I've found to be better and better with every reread - the Lord of The Rings, for instance, was horrible the first time I finished it at 14, but then it became better and better everytime I revisited Middle Earth. I'm not really sure why.

I reread Harry Potter too, when I'm bored, and sometimes I open up random books I have in my room to find a particularly memorable passage, or perhaps a particularly touching scene. There is one in The Age Of Innocence where Archer bends down on one knee and kisses Countess Olenska's shoe, because he is forbidden to love her and that is all he dares to do. I friggin loved that. Completely fell in love with that. Yowza.

Who are your favourite authors?
There are many. Steinbeck, for one. Jeffrey Archer. Diana Wynn Jones. Johnathan Stroud. But this really shouldn't matter, no? It's the books we fall in love with, not the authors, and these names aren't as important as the feelings you get when you're curled up, mug in hand, buried in a good book.

I tag:
Tracy
Wen Qi
Ember

Interview

Am being interviewed in The Malay Mail for my work on Novelr. The only problem being that I don't want people recognizing me, especially since Novelr is so community driven. So I got my sister to take out the camera and frame a photo where nobody can see my face.

She now thinks she is the greatest photographer in the world, because she's made her Iban-looking brother look like an Eurasian.

My sister is crazy.

[Update]: Tze Lun just sent me a clipping of the article (thank you Tze Lun!). There's a lot cut out from the original interview - but hey, space constraints and all. I'm not complaining. I am one very happy boy. The article's below if you'd like a read. Just click.

[Update 2]: I have died and gone to heaven.

On Blogging

When I was 15 I remember reading a Star Education feature called World Wide Writing, published 30th May 2004. That was a long time ago, and I was a very different person: I hadn't yet joined Judo, I thought the PMR was the worst thing to have happened to me, and I thought Avril Lavigne sang art of a very high order.

This article featured what Star Education thought was the best of Malaysian student blogs. Here I pause in writing this post - I ran upstairs, opened my inspiration folder, and started entering the links of the blogs from that article. Most of them no longer exist: Daisy Boo (baabaablackcitysheep.blogspot.com), C'est la vie (gonzalos.blogspot.com) and William Fong (williamfong.theuseless.com) are all 404 page not available. The only blogger from that article whom I still read is Edrei Zahari, and with 1000++ posts in his archive he's still going strong.

A few months later, on November 17th, I started this blog.

It was a nicer time to begin blogging. Blogging wasn't mainstream yet, so nobody was there to tell us what to do and what not to do. None of that "OMG the whole world can read what you're writing about my school" garbage had started, and only Dooce had been fired for blogging about work. Heck, it was a grand time for all of us. It was like the 70s all over again (make love not war, at least not blog ones), corporations wondered what the heck blogging was for (now we get corporate blogs ... so go figure) and we made up the rules as we went along.

Today we have spite wars and people blog for the strangest of reasons. They actually do it for money, can you believe it?! Ohmigosh - money!!! Others blog for readers. Back then we neither had money nor readers, and if you told people you had a blog you'd have probably gotten a stare for all your efforts.

"Block hia? Ohhh ... that one I know I know. I use got Vitamin D wan, can prevent skin cancer! You lerr??"

So here I am, scratching my head and wondering why I'm still doing this most arcane of Internet activities. It's been a great journey, sure, and I'm certain the million or so teenagers out there ranting and venting their feelings would say the same (oh, you mean it's 2 million now?! It was a million the last time I checked ... like, oh, 5 minutes ago ...).

Why Do We Blog?

Which, come to think of it, is one very important question. I've given my reason quite a few times before: I blog because I want to keep a record of my growth. When I'm old I would want to sit down and go through my archives, and laugh at my thoughts; laugh at my antics. It's a picture that keeps me going: in my mind's eye I have kids, and my wife will be chucking a frying pan in my direction over a sexist remark I made back when I was - what? - 16?

Ahh, good times lie ahead.

I am convinced that people blog for many reasons, and some reasons are more fulfilling than others. If you want to blog for popularity ... fuggedaboutit. You may very well get popular, but that's by far a long shot, especially if you've got the writing skills of a rock. More often than not you'll get disillusioned and stop blogging, and then - this is bad - let your writing pollute the already polluted blogosphere. And if you get popular - cool. But I've seen too many cases where bloggers have their blog define their self-worth, and their egos inflate over something as unsubstantial as reader numbers.

Others blog for money. Now, I've got no problem with that, but I can't stand blogs who blatantly splatter ads all over their layouts without giving you quality of any sort. I'm happy if you give me writing that'll move me, and I'm happy if you give celebrity gossip or well picked fashion photos or just brilliantly composed photographs. But God please save your readers if you're blogging for Pay Per Post, or if you've just put up a Beowulf review with 6 pictures and less than 100 words.

Please God in heaven help me.

The thing about blogging is this: it's a very unfulfilling, boring hobby if you don't do it for the right reasons. Do it for the people you'll meet, rather than the fame you'll get ... do it for the feedback and the support you'll receive, rather than the money. Some do it for therapy - they spill their guts out on the digital page - and that's perfectly fine. Only often it's so unreadable only people who really care about them read it ... and even then sometimes not. But so what? You're writing for therapeutic reasons, and nobody has to read it to make that kind of writing effective!

Different people have different ways of blogging. I've friends who let their pictures do their talking for them, and I've friends who rant a lot, eventually letting 1000 words or so make their point. And I read them because they're my friends. Nothing to it.

But it's reaching beyond our circle that's tricky. It often calls for us to really improve the way we write. It means being honest, being clear, and - occasionally - being funny. And this is the good stuff - it means we're churning out real quality ... and that can only mean a better blogosphere.

There is a phrase in Stephen King's On Writing that applies to blogging as much as it does to writing:

Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.

If I ever (God forbid) let my blog take over my life, it would do me well to remind myself: it's just a blog. On the Internet. That's probably read by less that 0.1% of the world's population. Blog well, blog good, and for all our sakes do it for the right reasons.

Our eyeballs will thank you for it.

Also related: Mark Bernstein's seminal 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web.

Update: I removed a sentence from the 14th paragraph, reading: 'In doing so, however, you're lowering the quality of writing out there. There's nothing much we can do about that.' It doesn't make sense, and even if true, doesn't contribute anything to the point I'm trying to make.

Why I Don't Have Ads In This Blog

You should all know by now that I rant.

Sometimes my posts are all long winded fantasies, or narratives of things that had struck me through the day. And when I was wondering whether or not to continue posting things up about Judo a couple of friends had to remind me that this was my blog, and I could do anything I want with it.

It's the age old blogging paradox: should I write for myself? Or should I write for my readers?

Right now I'm about 80% writing for myself, and 20% of my efforts are spent making sure my rants and raves are readable by you guys.

And as a general rule of thumb the more you write for your readers the more successful your blog would be. I don't need to give examples - just take a quick peek around the blogosphere. Personal blogs like mine are read by my friends, or by people who are interested to see how I'm getting through this roller coaster called Life. They don't come here for a quick read, a five minute stand to laugh about the latest stupid thing I've seen.


And it's because of that I absolutely refuse to put ads up in this blog.

Reasons

1. My personal blog is myself.

This blog is a 100% self centered effort. Everytime I post something up I think to myself: when I'm old and married and with grandchildren which part of my youth would I want to reread about? So I try as much as possible to write up on the stuff that matters to me, that captures the spirit of the times (zeitgeist is the proper word, I think). This means balancing melancholy with positive writing; happiness with sadness. I want to read it when I am grey and think: so this was me.

2. You can never make reasonable money through ads in a personal blog.

If you write for yourself as I do the grand total of money you'd make is probably 40 dollars ... over 4 years. If you're running a topical blog, however, with a clear focus and an industry driven niche ... then there's a chance for you to make a pretty penny. More than a pretty penny, actually - problogger Darren Rowse earns about 5 figures every month from his blogs; Shoemoney at one time earned 100k from Google adsense. But overall ... you rant, you lose. Xiaxue and Andrew Ho and Kenny Sia can never make as much money through blogging as, say, Boing Boing and Techcrunch. It's just a reality of life.

3. If I put up ads in this blog I'll be forced to treat it like a business.

Which I don't want to. Refer to reason #1.

4. I'm honoured by your presence.

Readers of this blogs are usually my friends. Why would I want to piss you all off by plastering ads everywhere? It's like a pal inviting you over to dinner and then suddenly shoving an Amway catalogue in your face. Euch. I'd only put up ads if this was a blog that serves up extremely high quality content - with disclosures and interviews and breaking news all day, everyday.

5. Been there, done that.

Been an adsense publisher for 3 years now. You definitely need a topic to write about ... your life is not a commodity easily sold.

Alternatives?

If you seriously want to put ads up on your personal blog ... don't go for Adsense. Or Nuffnang. Or Adverlets. All these pay you CPC, that is ... when your readers click on an ad you earn money. This just doesn't work well for low traffic blogs like this one. There just isn't enough Seach Engine traffic to power it.

So what leh?

The first thing that comes to my mind when I'm thinking of a low traffic blog is Text Link Ads, because they pay you a steady amount every month for just displaying ads on your blog. Of course you'll need advertisers to buy the links, but quite a few low traffic bloggers I know cover their hosting costs every month through TLA ... and with just one link purchased. Some even have leftovers for dinner. Or lunch. Or a week's groceries.

And of course the other ad network that works like TLA (and is undeniably the best for making money) is Blogads. Which is invitation only. Figures.

Case Closed (swt!)

Someone once said that regarding ads there are 3 schools of thought:

1. I do not put ads on my blog because I am an ethical, morally upright person. Ads are bad! BAD! They're the scourge of the earth! The harbingers of doom for all mankind! Grr! Rawr!

2. I put ads up in my blog coz I wanna make a quick dime from me blog. L33T! You noobies my chequebook is gonna pwn you!

3. I don't mind ads. I feel there is no obligation to put ads up in my blog, and I do not (usually) discriminate against blogs that display ads.

I'd say I'm from the third group. Now ... which one do you belong to?