Wednesday, May 7, 2008

sparingly incredulous reminiscing from a sea change that we all have grown up

not the usual title you might have expected of me if you've only been reading my blog for the past year.

however, if you started reading me back when i started in 2003, this might seem vaguely familiar, something like a past life. Brian before he started in all this Social Media hullabaloo.

things changed in April 2007. i was blessed enough to find a job in Ogilvy's Global 360˚Digital Influence team, and have been working there ever since.

as i reflect, what a great ride it's been! ups and downs, but it truly is one of those things where i can say, i learn something new everyday. and the people i've met! colleagues, clients and bloggers! i really value the lessons that have been learnt, how much i've matured, and actually better manage my time.

don't ask me how i manage to work a full time job, play in a band, dabble in currently 3 side projects for music and serve in church.

something's got to give, i haven't managed to lose the 10 extra kilos i put on in my my last year studying in Perth. just check out my friendster profile if you don't believe i wasn't this size before!

thing's really came full circle in what i believe to be engaging bloggers. we launched The Open Room last week, and actually got bloggers to meet clients in a social setting. this isn't for us, but for bloggers and clients, to know where each other is coming from, to see down in the trenches, what's changing and taking place in the market place.

some see the value, some don't. to those who see the value, i know we'll be having a lot more valuable conversations as we enter the new communications and information age together.

well, from 2003 - 2006, you'll get a sense of what this quirky little blog used to be. in fact, it was a wonderful colour of purple and pink! it kind of reflects the colours in my mind, because it mixes different base colours to form something extraordinary, something different from the norm, something like "red makes my car go faster" sorta norm. zzzzzz. if you want to know the guy before he donned his corporate colours, this will be an interesting journey for you, the reader.

so i'm a little dichotomised right now, just where does harmless?bananas! stand in the grand scheme of blogging with a purpose..? well, i think i finally have the opportunity to go back to being a bit more personal, and definitely the place to experiment new applications that get launched everyday. i think, this blog is finally me once again.

i'm just taking something i found off uniquefrequency's blog. it's a meme, but it's been awhile since i did one, so here goes -)

7 Things You Didn’t Know About My Social Media Journey
1. i started blogging because i admired two bloggers: styra and yongfook

2. my ICQ number was 5635761. 7 digits. only 5 digit people rule more than me!

3. i used to go into mIRC as |PhaseR|. i was 16 and i'm 26 now.

4. after napster died, i found solace in soulseek and found tonnes of great music there.

5. my first website was actually everlasting peace, but the link is dead. my second website is single scene evolution that contains poetry i had typed in HTML from the years 2000 - 2004

6. harmless? bananas! was birthed from a night of playing Counter Strike, the words seemed to rhyme and i was drawn to the use of symbols. call it an early lesson in linguistics and semeotics

7. litford has absolutely no meaning apart from the acronym i gave to "laughing in the face of death" and added an 'R' to make it look not so ridiculous and actually phonetically pronounceable.

and if i may add an eigth point.

8. my spelling still sucks after all these years.

feel free to continue the meme! and thanks for stopping by! feel free to contact me from a variety of methods in the side bar -)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

awwww, brings tears to my eyes, as i remember the time when you were my e-minion, my online-egor and I, your Mistress of Darkness.

Anonymous said...

Brian -
Greetings from the DC arm of the 360 DI team!

I remember the first time I asked a local Austin entrepreneur who had started a blogging platform called "Easyjournal" (now owned by Pluck) and had 50,000 people registered why anyone would want to blog. Good times.

brian koh said...

@ginette: hahaha, some things never change mistress -) you're always one step ahead of me -)

@virgina miracle: oh hai! some love from DC! welcome welcome, to the long arm of Singapore -)

hahaha, those were famous last words i assume -)