My year in blogging, or something like that
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In my About Me page I said,
Is this a web log? “Personal blog. I started since 2003 as far as I can recall. I started at Blogger.com. I called it my first web diary and since then I’ve been switching url’s but people tend to follow the links and it’s still grinning”.
It seemed like a long time ago. I never really do celebrate Blog Anniversaries or knowing how many years I’ve been blogging, I, quite frankly, don’t remember how I started all these, no one has ever told me to blog - or what a blog is all about. I first heard of the word blog (weblog) at the chatrooms and I thought it was also related to the chat-lingo LOL or ROTFLMAO. They told me, “go to blogger and in five minutes, you’ll have a blog running”. And right, it caught me by surprise - it’s been more than fun.
I blog for few simple reasons. It’s the music that makes me do all these. So after a few years using free blog, I bought my own domain - now dyfunct because Beng Hafner has introduced me to this radioblog and because I love music playing in a blog, she even let me used her music using her own bandwidth account to my blog. Remember, she even awarded me with a free domain? I might one day, use that when I’m ready to learn what FTP means.
I started downloading songs, plays them and share it to everyone. I think I’m very generous at that. It’s like wait, I have never listened to Alternatives, Gospel music or some Dixie Chicks but why do I listen to it? I recalled, my first few nice commenter that time named Pep of Scotland told me that the reason he keeps coming back is because I share music and videos I post here and there, is that right? Infact it teaches me that music is such a universal language. Somehow some of us pick about life songs because we think it’s what we should see them as and maybe these are the songs to be the one that defines our life. I know I am an 80’s kind of music person. But other people are what?
Admit it, many of us blogs because of others. I blog because sometimes it helps to share feelings of homesickness. Duke can testify to that. She’s been like my sister, maybe because she have lived here in Hong Kong for quite-a-while, telling me that she do feels the same thing. I feel vulnerable to it and thought I am already immuned to it. I guess I have my own level of tolerance to learn different ways of coping with this situations. But why is it so hard? Sometimes being away from the family for a long time, you then feels like as if you’re on your own seeing unfamiliar faces in your surroundings, you work all the time and you easily feel burnt out. And some people are good at cheering you up - the first person who really made me smile was Sha when she sent me this beautiful mug from Greece. It feels like we have known each other for a longest time.
The best thing that happens to me to this blog is that, you guys helped me quit my smoking, although admittedly, not a hundred percent yet, but everytime I re-read your positive comments towards my quitting, I realized there are really a lot of nice and true people in the internet. I like being influenced by good people, seriously.
Hopefully for many of you who doesn’t know what’s behind-the-scene, the blogging experience has been pleasant. I’ve been through a lot of blogging. I’ve learned how to use the Akismet spam blocker. I even replied to one of them, yes you laugh because I thought the spammers would stop attacking me. I use many browsers as they sometimes won’t let me play my music, videos doesn’t load, etc. But of course, Wordpress.com made me stay. No more running, no more going away. I would say, wordpress is my blog builder. Although I have never really learned something from the people in their forum, I tried it all my own, change themes (like almost every month), delete images, learn widgets, etc. They even included the I Love Wordpress logo I made for Wordpress. Too often it was nothing more than just reading others blog, copy some of their ideas, and simply asking them questions via their blog. I blogged about the XP Vista looking desktop and people have been clicking that since then. I would like to thank Carol for helping me do that.
On the other hand, blogging is like learning how to read and write. At one point, I shared these thoughts to Isay because I know she loves to write and good at it. One day she told me that she signed-up and from then on — she started to write even on her busy times. I wonder what she’s up to now. I must admit, I write and rewrite my posts three times or even four. If I have made one that I rewrite the fifth times, I just delete them. I write like I talk, I can’t correct words or grammar myself because I am not perfect. Well, I tried, I check dictionaries and I’m learning a lot. I admire the way Gigi writes and she’s the one taking my time, in a good way - if you take a look at her blog, she’ll let your imagination to work and not just that, we seemed to have a lot in common when it comes to the choices of music. In case she flies to Hong Kong someday, I’d probably ask her “can I stay in your hotel for one day and play all those music?”.
Still, I am somewhat bewildered at the way other bloggers talk to each other. Jack Yan introduced me to this commenting system. I’ve scored pretty well at that and since then, I started to reply to every comments in my post. I thought, it’s the reason why we keep on blogging - we create a kind of community our own. Asha encourages me to keep on blogging, she’s the first person who continues to read my blog everyday even if Grace doesn’t like the idea of blogging on a daily basis, their regular visits creates a score into conversation, well it’s neither you win some nor wholesome, it’s a great thing about having few conversational partner is what makes your blog up-to-date and uses the thing called, Me-Me’s.
Finally, thanks to the many faithful readers of this blog. Yes, a lot of YOU. It has been good to get to know you, there’s so many names to mention - even if only through comments and writing. Many thanks to the nice people of flickr for sharing the beautiful images on my daily posts - and to tower records for the daily “music of the day”. And from now on, I will celebrate the month of February as my Blog Anniversay month. Here’s my first post in Wordpress, it was written on the 13th February, I was heart-broken that time because, you’ll know why.
At the moment here’s my blog stats:
Total Views: 199,158
Totals Posts: 224
Comments: 5,080
Tags: 25
Spam: 22,772 spam comments caught.
Well, you guys, inspired me. So let’s keep on blogging!
Be Here
by: Raphael Saadiq feat D’Angelo
had the same experience about blogging. in fact im still on that stage wherein i stay 24/7 in front of my pc just doodling around and changing everything. this is a whole new experience for me i should say… the fun part in working with your new site is that you get control over things, customize everything according to what you desire and become this unique individual whose inspiration came from someone else’s ideas… ang totoo nyan, ive been lurking in your blog for sometime now trying to figure out how the heck did you do your widgets… i am planning to imitate it actually
but im running out of patience on the mystery called “widgeting” so if you don’t mind me asking, can i, from time to time bug you with questions regarding your awesome blog? I rest my case!
keep well and God bless!
Hi blue, anytime - lurk around. Actually I really like my previous theme (2813) which actually removed from the presentation theme list. It’s a 3 column theme, white backround. I like the simplicity of it very much as it also creates Categories/Months that works very well in a Page Archives. I hate to admit tho that a 2 column theme like I’m currently using makes the sidebar looks very crowded (depends on what you want in the sidebar) so when you have more than 15 tags/categories it gets really long. I want something like a drop-down menu bar for Monthly Archives but they are not available - and for some reason, wp doesn’t allow javascripts. What can we do, a free blog is nice but it’s limited. However, the good thing about wordpress is that, your posts are organized, it’s easy to browse inside your blog and most of all no ‘hiccups’.
wow K! HAPPY BLOG ANNIVERSARY!
Cheers!
Special mention pa ako
I really am touched knowing that I am part of your blogging circle. It’s nice to relate to somebody in this virtual world
Duke, syempre, bida ka parati. Can you be my younger sister? It’s probably because you left 1/4 of your heart in HK. Isn’t it nice when you have something to look back? Everytime I post a picture of HK here, you can easily spot them on.
Ditto to duke!
Wow, I feel so honoured K. Thanks for the mention. Well, to be truthful, it was you who inspired me to blog. Though I’ve stopped, I just feel that I might continue someday. But hey, you do write well. Eloquent and expressive. And I could relate to most of your entries as well.
Wait, i thought I was doing a short blog entry here.. hehe.
Anyways, Yeah, keep the vibe going K. I’m always here to read you.
Happy blog anniversary to you and happy readers anniversary to me! Hah.
ps: I like that pic! And i love your music! Your ‘multiply’ rocks!
Congratulations. One year is always special. ^_^
Hi Asha, you’re the reason why I keep it. I remembered I almost called it “quits” - now it becomes a hobby really, doesn’t sound nice for a hobby but you know when I joined wordpress, I think I’d stay longer. Thanks for the continous support on this blog.
Hi Weng, what made it special? Because of many people like yourself who come read and leave comments here and there. Thanks.
grabe na ito! brought tears in my eyes! big hugs to you … mmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhh! happy anniversary!
like asha you inspire me to blog … kahit na lulubog lilitaw ako na parang palitaw you still give me a push to not be lazy! hahahahahahhaha!
wishing you many more years of blogging as well as many more times of sharing menial and gigantic stuff together! cheers!
ayoko ma miss ito…. kaya maligayang anibersayo sa iyong blog ….. hehe natatandaan ko tuloy yung pagtuturo mo sa akin dati …. di ko malilimutan iyo … huhuhuh…. heheheh
happy blog anniversary K!
and good luck pa rin in your quit smoking project
Grace, hahahaha. Exactomento. Oscar Awards in few days, so might as well share a long speech to thank everyone. Including of course you, one of those who makes me smile everytime you leave your funny comments - and I may say, this blog is dedicated to all the Mothers out there. Din’t you notice, all my blog-friends are family oriented people - and I love that.
Wind, hehehe, ok lang. I remembered, I found your blog first, natawa ata ako dun sa entry mo nun and syempre dahil you’re a nice person, I celebrate this blog anniversary to you as well.
Vina, salamat po. But you know what, may bagong product ang Marlboro, its called “Wide” fresh looking in cool silver box. Teka nga. LOL.
im returning the compliment hehe, thanks also for visiting my blog. Though wp has many limitations, yet you are right, i love it. very easy to use (except for some of those darn widgets). But the versatility compensates for its weaknesses.
thumbs up for your blog.very interesting indeed. and i love all the music.
i’ll link this up. looking forward for more entries.
keep well and God bless!
@k: honga! drop downs can ease the “astigmatism”. it’s also my difficulty in my sidebar. kung pwede nga lang na numbers gamitin at magegets na ng reders eh gagawin ko eh. but your theme is very nice. very simple. ako naman in contrast with whites. i prefer black, dark and earth colors. just to deviate a little, i have this eye problem that usually persist when i stare at bright lights for a long time. i have prescription glasses and prefers to wear shades whenever i go out under the sun. same goes with surfing the net… believe it or not i wear my shades in front of my pc from time to time just to prevent eyesore. weird ba? hahaha. in my profession we call it “photophobia”.
anyhow i hope the longer we stay in wp, the better the upgrade of service lalo na sa widgets… (lol ayaw talaga tigilan no? frustrating kasi when you expect that this and that would work tapos di pala).
im also celebrating my 2nd year anniversary in blogging this month ata or the next, but in a different blog site. so happy anniversary din sa akin!… ngayon ko lang nalaman pwede pala sya icelebrate. i’ll just send to you a piece of my anniversary cake here in your blog… if its possible (darn widgets and codes! hehe).
keep well and God Bless!
Blue, haba nun ah? I blog the hardway, if you notice, I include images from flickr and music on the bottom. At first I was like trying to figure out how to put music using the Pink Fat Player from Odeo, you know the instant click for music. Few months later, they released the music sonific widget and because of the lack of music choices, I dumped it. I’ve always wanted to put music anyways so I like the player they use (the black slides) except that we have no choice but host our own mp3 files somewhere. The thing is, parang nasanay na ako to blog that includes my music of choice of the day, so if you see my sidebar, I used Text Widget and learnt a little bit of HTML. I hotlink images & notes from Tower Records (which is I think there’s no problem with that) and copy tiny player images from iTunes. End of the day, I realized, doing all these extras took my precious time in learning how to make it work in my blog. Well, if you love doing it, the pressure doesn’t really affect me. I even made an extra blog (tagalog) to use it for theme checking, widget testing and so on.
So far, I enjoy using Wordpress for blog. If you are really a “writer” this is for you. For fun, this is for you. But then if you want to earn bucks for your blog, I suggest you buy your own domain as wordpress.com has many restrictions and all if you own one. If they found out that you are using their free service for money-related stuff, sexual stuff and other things, they will take it off from the aerie. But despite some flaws, I enjoy it here. I don’t care anymore with Javascripts. It’s like having a Mac, “I will never go back to Windows”. Hahaha.
wow!!! 4 years in blog…. not too sure will I hang on till than, hahaha!!! too bad I just know your blog less than a year!!! but lucky I did.
keep i t up K…. I really love your blog!!! too bad I can’t love u ya!!! hahaha!!!
I agree with you on the reason why we blog is because of others. Part of it is true for me. I blog because it lets me express my thoughts and share ideas, share knowledge and help others by talking about useful topics or issues. Without the loyal readers who visit my blog, I don’t think I’d still be blogging until now.
Happy Blogging Anniversary!
hi K, happy blogsary!
keep on writing! blogging doesn’t mean that you have to be a perfect writer, you just have to be a perfect storyteller. and a perfect storyteller, friend, you definitely are! 
[...] take a macro shot of something inside my home. To make up for my delinquency, and in honor of his blog’s anniversary, I’ve taken several pictures of things inside my home instead of just one. I actually [...]
Vince, hehehe you’ve been an avid since you first visited. You seemed like a nice person so you know I myself really don’t count the numbers.
Jaypee, thank you so much. I hope you’re familiar with “personal” blog, I’m all that. Or maybe this can be music blog, photo blog. Thanks for keeping my link.
Meeya, that’s a nice compliments and for giving me the “honorary” award. I read your latest post. Hahaha nata-meme ako sa shots mo. Thanks for complying that as well.
Well, I called mine quits heaps, but I have a reason to keep going
Hi K!
Hey, I got a mention! And thanks for acknowledging and remembering our initial contacts! I’m astounded that you do!
One slight correction though…. yes, I do enjoy your taste in music, and you have given us some fabulous tunes to share, but my main reason for the continued returns, and the following you around, is that basically you’re a very, VERY cool guy! Your views and observations, your comments and prose, your wit and your take on yours and other’s lives is fantastic, very well presented, excellently written, and in my personal list of blogs, THE most interesting and entertaining of all!
Like other bloggers, I’m facinated with life outside of my comfort zones, and country, and your blog is immense and gives me exactly that, a terrific view on the life and times, YOUR life and times.
Never, ever stop K, you’re one in a million!
Thanks for the nice words, Pep.You’re giving me “goosefunk” (goosebumps) here. I blog mainly because of that - in whatever means, I’m just keeping it randomly real. It works for some, like we give a deeper understanding about each other.
I personally think that many of my posts are personal, but I kinda feel comfortable talking about it in public. Afterall, a blog is full of our personal thoughts, and isn’t that what a diary/journal is for? I think a blog is where the public gets to see you, your presence in cyberspace.
Thanks again Pep, and same to you, never stop.
Happy Anniversary K! Remind me before I go off to visit HK (which I really want to do soon) to load my iPod with as much as it can hold — and then I can visit YOU and we can share, listen, and talk about music all freakin’ day. In between shopping sprees of course!
Thanks Gigi. I actually love the music you sent me and if that happens, I’ll bring you the Filipino band clubs, have a little drink. I mean overall that’s what tourists really do here and of course shopping.