a thinking man is not sexy, in fact it's a curse, because we tend to think about all the evidence and possible outcomes that it paralyzes you.
and a man who doesn't act.. is really not much of a man at all.
it's good to have faith, but faith without works is dead. the good intention, the brilliant strategies, the things that make the world a better place, don't get implemented.
i don't know if one can stop the mind from racing too far ahead before the body can catch up. the mind is capable of so much more, that surpasses human and physical limitations. the mind, does not always live in the same reality as the physical body.
it is able to dream, imagine, prophecy and predict either the utopia or the apocalypse
but everything is meaningless if it does not come to pass.
Hey! I'm back with the second episode!! More goodness in the form of comic books, finished cookies and another awesome music recommendation: little dragon
Also, have yourselves a laugh with my BAD Jack Bauer jokes and never getting the framing right when i try to show you something..
This post has been brewing inside my head for about one or two weeks, and i thought, i might as well whack the initial thoughts out while they're still fresh, so here goes:
Beyond blogs, there's more to it right? i mean, afterall, it's only been the last two to three years that communications and marketing people are starting to take blogging more seriously. Already in Singapore, we see more and more bloggers being invited for press events, blog advertising is becoming more sophisticated, going beyond banner ads into more community centric events, or at the very least advertorials.
but make no mistake, we have not arrived, all this is just birth pangs and teething problems. blogging will continue to evolve, or the blogger will. and along with it, communication, marketing and advertising practices.
yongfook talks about the evolution of blogs into lifestreams. We interact with the internet so much, that lifestreams will basically aggregate our online experiences, a somewhat centralised point where people can be kept up to date about our activity on the net. kinda like leaving virtual breadcrumbs. all picked up by RSS readers of course.
friendfeed and sweetcron are the possible first manifestations of this future. you can check my friendfeed on my sidebar. everything also gets aggregated to my tumblog
So what do i mean by "Beyond Blogs"? Well, as the communications industry and corporate entities start paying more attention to bloggers, recognising us as part of the communications ecosystem, inviting us in their conversations, activities, press conferences, product reviews.. etc. we're already seeing how blogs and bloggers are evolving.
this is where some of my fear and paranoia lie, especially as a communications practitioner. what sort of blogging culture are we breeding with our media activity? do we see the blog as a tool? or the blogger as the tool?
there's a stark difference in this. i value the blogger. i think the blogger and their ideas, conversations are what i'm interested in when we conduct media activity. the blog in that sense, should be the least of your concerns. there are so many ways BESIDES the blog to share information and have conversation, and yes.. these conversations are increasingly happening online.
and with communications practitioners constantly reaching out to bloggers, what culture are we perpetuating? i won't go into much specifics, but i hope it won't become a festering pool of product placement, fake shakey-cams passing off as "reality", or ungenuine reviews and reporting. what's the point in all that?
communication that matters, is when it's genuine, transparent and meaningful. but i think that's too much of an ideal, there will always be some corporate matters that stay corporate matters. Maybe if we all thought carefully of what our businesses are about, we would know how to communicate it to the media, to the people.
by starting on the this train of thought, the concept that goes "beyond blogs", is to perhaps envision a future where media and public life are asynchronus. where press events can become public events, afterall.. everyone has a media capture device these days. and we'll get our share of professional media, and personal media.
it's earstwhile to highlight this post by Chris Anderson, who champions the passionate amateur, as opposed to the bored journalist. LINK
he's a bit biased, but i agree with him. but i believe thie bored journalist happens when they've lost their lustre to write. we still have great journalism today, and some very memorable ones in the past. and good journalist deliver a value that sometimes even the most passionate amateur may not be able to deliver. perhaps a skill, a flair, a trained insight, the kind of thing that only professionalism can give you.
but i'm not discounting passionate amateurs, who go out of their way to find the information that makes the most sense to micro-audiences, and sometimes, very wide audiences... increasingly, this line is getting blurred.
different motivations for very different writers. in that sense, whether paying a blogger is something we want to discuss, i say that as more journalists find themselves blogging, and as more bloggers find themselves being credible, responsible and professional, there's a middleground where both meet to be writers/bloggers/content producers that get paid.
in the future, we HAVE to see more content producers, as audiences get increasingly fragmented, post modern, searching for different facets of the truth, that there will be a breed of digital natives that are credited, and regarded to present that truth, or at least a facet of it.
will it go beyond eyeballs and readership, subscription numbers? i don't know per se.. but i'm very interested in any conversation around that.
but the media network of the future will be far more interesting, more brazen, more truth seekers.. but it'll also be harder to tell the truth from lie, from signal vs. noise.. it could go either way. i don't know if i dare predict utopia.. i envision more happening, but whether or not it ends up as a good thing, depends on how we wield our tools now.
interesting now that i'm making time to blog, and learning to let the words flow again.. i don't feel as if i carry certain burdens.
blogging is definitely cathartic for me, especially when i'm not trying to prove anything. just pure, unbridled passion when it comes to putting words together.
sometimes you blog to communicate an idea or message. this is not one of those times.. it's just pure, unbridled hurling of language, broadcasting, publishing, remembering how to live
it's all a bit self indulging, i'll be the first to admit that. but this is more than just publishing, online reputation management, or whatever it is we blog for these days.
this is the self-indulgant side of the writer, not to whinge or unfairly criticise someone else to vindicate one's injustice.. this is the manic, fervent side of writing.. the part that doesn't really get filtered and you trust your instincts, skills and own character when you go straight from brain to screen.
this is how i started, and what i want to remember, to retain, or retrain that essence.. the character of the writer, the ideal of the auteur.. the paradox that in being so open with my thinking.. it's actually a barrier to other people.. because maybe only "i" truly understand what i'm typing.
being a good writer requires a certain kind of discipline and talent.. both of which i think can be cultivated. i see this excercise as developing that raw discipline and talent.. to start good habits, carve yourself a groove so that when you need to pull the skills out, you can. you don't have to wait for inspiration to hit you.. rather, you're always inspired.
the way your words flow, the pacing you use with punctuation, the tone based on what words you use and how your string them together.. language and writing is truly one of the conerstones of any culture, any clue that our humanity is more than cells, mitochondria, dna, hormones, chemical imbalances, subatomic particles.
the ghost in the shell.. as if it were from another world, keeping it all together..
My first solo vodcast appearance. I talk about who's influenced my vodcasting, why and i sneak in a great band i discovered recently: Black Mountain
Okay. first things first, this is a very big Work In Progress as i struggle to find out what works, and what doesn't. by that i mean, the mis-en-scene, content, length of the video, even my "errmmmms" and nervous pauses.
but that's the fun part! my first.. vodcast about my life? i welcome all comments, be honest but don't be a hater!
my first thoughts about vodcasting, is that it's rather unnatural and narcissistic, talking to yourself, and having a conversation with yourself. there are no other talking points to pick of!
It would also help if i had a specific thread or theme that i wanted to comment on. initially, i wanted it to be like an MTV host sharing videos and bands. it MIGHT evolve into that, but that means no to Youtubes 10min hosting, and using more Vimeo. Well, if you like my music programme, i might make it that -)
i am tired. not of anything (in particular). but more so physically. i really could leave the office now, but somehow, i just thought i'd come into my blog to tell you that.
i'm looking forward to my bus-ride back, packing in the ipod. already know i'm going to be listening to wintersleep, and continue reading rohit's Personality Not Included.
wished i'd find more time to read, but even when i go back home, there're a thousand and one ways in which i could chill out, that i'll never be able to chill out enough. it's like i have a whole warehouse of chillout, that i do not look forward to the next day of work because i didn't finish what i set out to do.
and that's when chilling out becomes another task to strike off the list.
i hate that.
it makes no sense, does it? that relaxing activities become another list of tasks. i have no idea how it spiralled into this.. so maybe i will just.. not think about it. turn it off like a tap.
well, i'm glad i wrote this here, i wouldn't do it if i got home because.. i'd be doing something else. i still haven't mustred the discipline to blog regularly.
I wanted to do more research about Lehman Brothers right after the declared bankruptcy, but i couldn't resist highlighting this when it came up 3rd in Google searches.
I guess the last thing you want to do is invest in online corporate reputation management when you file for bankruptcy.
if there is a hell for people who tell jokes in bad taste, i fear i may end up there.
but from the bottem of my heart, my condolences go out to you if you have lost your job. it's not an easy time, and i don't want to make fun at any of you.
if traditional media enabled us to connect, by informing us about the world around us and gave us a common stage to have the same knowledge. then social media has enabled us to participate by allowing to publish anything, from text to multimedia.
participation requires connection, it is a step up from merely being in the same room, you need to say something in order to be heard.
that's the main difference i see between the media we used to have, and the media we currently have. and so, you need a new media strategy, not because you want to exist in the mindshare of the public, but because you want to participate with them in their conversations.
i first pushed "publish" more than five years ago. it was the thirty-first of january 2003 (i checked). i was still in the army then, and i had no idea that i'd see myself this far down the future.
call it a bit of a retrospect, but so much has changed since then (i was 21 when i started the blog) and i just turned 26 two days ago. add the time between finishing national service, 3.5 years studying in murdoch, perth and almost a year and a half in an agency, i'd say things have pretty much evolved from when i was just a wee lad in my early twenties.
for starters, coming full circle, i started this blog as an extension of myself, then i got embroiled in turning this into a professional mouthpiece, but now, i'm inclined to return to my roots. That this blog is me. it's gonna be a meepok blog as uniquefrequency describe diarist style blogs. why is this important to me? well.. i do my professional blogging elsewhere, namely the open room and i'd like to keep this space my little broadcast to the interwebs. a space where i can remember, and converse without corporate strings tugging.
i think this is essential to maintaining some sort of personality and identity to my craft as a blogger (if i can even call it that). futurebureau explained it nicely when he IMed me this morning, saying that'd he'd blog to benefit a user's online experience. for me, that's partly where i'd like to take my blog to, and also.. to help you see the world through my eyes. not that i have anything better to offer, but that's why i started reading blogs in the first place, to see things through your eyes.
i refer to this video from ghost in the shell: stand alone complex. tachikomas are wondering why we humans still use words to communicate with each other. why indeed? for starters, as sophisticated as language is, it really is rather primitive, only in terms of how it can be transferred. if what the tachikomas say is true, then if you and me formed a data link, you would instantly know how i was thinking, feeling, tasting, seeing.. my five senses would be uploaded to you straight away. but still, here we are on blogs, evolving as blogs are, larger data packets, more multimedia, audio, visuals.. but we're still limited by what we can do, or what our abilities are.
you can watch the video now:
but that's exactly what keeps us human perhaps. that even in a data link, i'm still me and you're still you. even if i experienced in all five senses what you experienced, i cannot put it into the context of you. in other words, i can't transfer my soul to you and vice versa. as human beings, dare we say we are more than experiences, cells and subatomic particles?
i know i majored in mass communications back in uni, but it's this other side of our non-professional selves that i'm interested in. what do we share with each other that makes us human? i do think that one of the reasons that we share, whether online or not, is to elicit a response for something or someone else. to validate our existence, that proves we are not just a figment of imagination, not just a passing of time in the vast cosmos.
and we do that by sharing things. social media has made it easier, it's been used effectively by entities and people to better understand where we're all coming from. i don't know if it's the fulfilment of the dialogue, but i believe we've only taken a step forward in terms of communicating, or finding new ways to communicate. we can now have threaded conversations and everyone can crowdsource and be part of a discussion. we are no longer bound by geography, language (language bots), audio visual aids and etc. the gift of the internet is unbridled communication tools. but the beauty and mystery of conversation and dialogue, still lies with the human. who moves like a reed in the wind, fluid, taking the story wherever he goes. to those who will listen.
According to Facebook's Superlatives application, my friends think that i am most likely to...
1. get arrested for streaking 2. end up in prison 3. achieve nirvana 4. live happily ever after 5. save the environment from global warming 6. have the best personality 7. have the best pick up lines 8. become famous 9. see the good in (almost) everyone
however, they do not think that i am most likely to...
1. succeed 2. have the best laugh 3. sing in the shower 4. say something perfectly innocent and sound dirty 5. have every facebook application 6. love puppies 7. need therapy 8. take entirely too long to get ready to go out
mmmmmmmmm... pretty insightful, hahaha.. guess i'm one of those 'nice guys' who finish last.
Back to moblogging on a regular phone that surfs WAP. Remarkably simple and backwards compatible which is what i'm all about even though i'm a technology freak. How do we empower the every voice? Technology that benefits mankind should be as simple as possible, but have maximum results. Only then will it become ubiquitous. Service that is ubiquitous, then new markets are created, and then hopefully providers will start selling us what we need, then it involves to what we want.. And then everything gets saturated and then something new comes along.
it's creeping somewhere in the dark corners of my heart, this discontentment that life is more than material posessions, packed out crowds and the emotional tingling of fancy and fleeting companionship
no, this is the void, the blatent scream for a love that does not fail, does not disappointment, and gives life. offers rest to the weary, puts a new song in your heart, makes you fall in love over and over again
love is a powerful thing, it's more than an emotion, it's more than a state of being, it's more than i love you's and wedding rings.
love is a sacrifice that you will be heartbroken, that the more you love, the more it might cost you, and yet... love exists
it's september. eight months since the start of the year, and we're starting the ninth month from now on.
it was gestation, the seeds that were sown at the start of the year are now in their last month before birth. is this what it's like? to have life growing inside of you?
