Tuesday, April 29, 2008

To blog or Not to blog (Pak Adib)


The following post is from Pak Adib’s blog (my mentor of bloging, http://adib.typepad.com/). Another mentor is “oversea sister @netpal” (http://funnyaccent.typepad.com/).

To blog or Not to blog.
(With permission)

I plan to celebrate my 10th year of blogging on 31st August this year, insyaAllah. By now, a few thousands postings,short and long, had been beamed to
cyber-space, read or waiting to be read. Most of my blogs are related to my profession and my hobbies-all apolitical.

Lately, I read that new aspiring leaders of UMNO youths were told to blog; otherwise they cannot contest in the next party election. Please
read it here. That is a good pre-requite to give some basic lessons for future leaders to learn how to articulate their ideas other than to introduce themselves to the party members/general public. From my 10 years experience in this subject matter, writing made me think and at the same time it keeps improving my writing skills and style. Even with 10 years experience online, I am still learning,far from being a guru but just an older student.

Before I started writing my first blog using
geocities.com as my website/homepage, I was asking myself why did I want to write. From my reading, I discovered these wise words as follows:

"You don't write because you want to say something - you write because you've got something to say." --F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." - Cyril Connolly

At first, I was worried whether I can keep writing. As a Chinese proverb says: Anyone can open a shop, but not anyone can keep the shop open. This aptly applies to business, but it also applies to blog. Honestly, I can't make a comment whether it is the right reason to blog because one wishes to contest and get elected. Whatever the rationale is,blogging is good for the soul.

My first blog is called
The Perigi. (Some of the links are missing). Below is what I wrote then on why I blog:

The Perigi is dedicated to writings, mostly mine with a few from others. It is my personal experiments in writing both in Bahasa Melayu(Malay) and English. For the past 22 years I have been avoiding writing unless I had to. With the web, I found it quite convenient to write and share my opinions, feelings, knowledge and experience.

I write to express my views and feeling toward certain issues or events that I feel important for me to record and to tell others about it. My views are not necessarily right, however it is a view from my window. Please check with others' windows as well. It is also an avenue for me to release my feeling/ emotions. It is mainly for me, but if others can share and benefit from my writings, why not.

I also write on something that I like or enjoy-like reading, mathematics, travelling and cycling. Taking advice from the guru, I will focus on something that I know (actually only God really knows), my personal experience and also about my culture. It may appears to be mine, but actually it belonged to and shared by others as well.

Since I am new to this part of the world, please accept my apologies if I happen to step on any body's toes. In trying to get the feel of the place, I may touch on sensitive parts. In that case, please sound the alarm!

And according to Ernest Hemingway:

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master".

No comments: