in my mind's zen garden

How To Overcome Writer’s Block in 15 Minutes

Randomguru — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:49:46 +0000

For a blogger, writer’s block can be a frustrating thing.

After having read Manny’s lamentation about suffering the evils of writer’s block, I can sympathize with him in that I too have suffered writer’s block many times in one form or another.

Back when I started this latest incarnation of my blog, “In My Mind’s Zen Garden“, I only posted 3 articles in the first two months. Then in the third month I somehow came up with a total of 60 posts!!! Of course, back then I wrote much shorter posts that would’ve been more in keeping with Twitter’s 140 character limit. And a lot of those were to share a video or a link to a great site, or perhaps a quote. Those kinds of snippets can easily (and more appropriately) be shared on Facebook or Twitter these days.

. . . .

Overcoming Writer’s Block in 15 Minutes

I don’t have any magic formulas, but basically, just start typing down random thoughts that pop into your head. Do this as an exercise to keep the flow going. And, in 15 minutes you have a quick draft.

But, the one thing that’s helped me overall to become a rather “prolific” writer lately, is to keep an open mind to the possibilities.

Don’t write yourself into corner! Sometimes, we can set ourselves up to a strick, rigid formula of writing which can truly limit us in our ability to finish that blog post.

Try to be open to the possibilities. Work on staying open and creative. Avoid expectations toward yourself.

Also, what works for me is to focus on something that you could probably write for days about. It’s okay to be repetitive too, if you are truly focused on that one topic.

Take for instance the RBJ Notes series I’ve been writing lately. That was the latest thing that has been on my mind incessantly for the past several weeks. It’s something I could write and write about because it captures my interest and passion. And thus, that makes it easier to write.

So, if there is something that is ongoing in your Life that you could easily write about that would cover several blog posts in a week’s time or more, then by all means go for it.

. . . .

Other Things That Might Get In The Way

I can truly understand that work-related stuff can get in the way of blogging and writing. If that is on your mind and if you think it’s safe to blog about your work (your day gig), then I feel it’s okay to blog about work in a general sense. You can still talk about it and be quite vague so you don’t run the risk of getting into trouble with your employer.

I tend to avoid writing about my job as a musician, and the experiences and things I face while at “work”. Especially, one doesn’t want to dish out the drama and negativity from work onto one’s blog, and then somehow the people you work with are suddenly reading about it on the internet!

But, you can blog about work in a general sense and not risk getting into any trouble. I feel it can be done with tact and general safety. Just don’t be like the author of Dooce.com, who blogged freely about her work and was fired because of it. Well, now she’s one of the most popular bloggers out there and makes a living from her blog now, because of it.

It’s understandable though if one wants to keep work-related stuff separate from personal-related stuff when it comes to one’s blog.

. . . .

Easy Tips For Overcoming Writer’s Block

Use memes.

There are several memes available throughout the Internet, and these can help you get ideas for stories and articles.

One might need to jot down a few notes, or if you’ve got a photographic memory (or sometimes photographic memory like me), you can list down (or come to terms with) those topics/subjects you know you can write about forever and ever… when you’re on a roll, of course.

Music, for me, is my main passion in Life. And, I know I could write for days and days about music. But, I choose not to because I want to try to keep readers guessing and not become predictable. But that’s just me.

So, if Music IS your passion, by all means write about it, and be flexible. Be random. And try not to paint yourself into a corner by keeping a rigid format.. try to be free about your writing, and work on being inventive.

And it helps to work on a master list of topics you can write about. This actually can be your categories list. If you’ve got great categories list that is concise and very clear as to your favorite topics to write about, simply looking at that list will spark some sort of ideas to write about a new post.

. . . .

Avoid having a large collection of “drafts”…

This is the one culprit that messes me up every time. In wordpress you can have drafts that you can keep and work on when you feel the inclination. But here’s my main problem with having too many drafts in the works…

Confusion!

My philosophy is that writing is dependent on the spur-of-the-moment, zen-like, sparks-of-creativity type of stuff. This is just me, but if I have too many drafts to look at in my WordPress Admin Area, then I tend to get boggled down, confused, and indecisive with my writing.

So nowadays, I avoid the dreaded list of drafts. It doesn’t work for me. If I have one topic that interests me at the moment I go with it and focus on the topic or subject until the blog post gets done. So, if you have writer’s block, and are staring at a list of drafts, keep that in mind. You might be in a muddle because of it!

. . . .

Just Go With The Flow

I find that my best writing session happens when the creative juices are flowing, quite literally. Writing is a creative process in that your train-of-thought should easily transfer from your mind through your fingers to whatever software you are using.

Just go with the flow of your immediate thoughts and don’t be afraid to just write down whatever comes to mind, but go over what you typed and re-work it. What I find really interesting is that whatever you write (as the words flow freely from your fingers as you typed) are those spontaneous thoughts that were swirling around in your mind… then, while re-reading what you typed, you can come up with even more ideas to build on them, and begin to organize your thoughts as you re-edit and re-structure the post. Well, this usually works for me… there has to be a certain randomness and spontaneity to writing, which in turn sparks the creativity.

But keeping random notes in mind, and jotting them down somewhere is a key. Then just go with the flow and start writing whatever comes to mind.

A lot can be written when you approach blogging this way… by adopting a free flowing style and writing whatever comes to mind. Think of it as your internal dialogue of conversation. Then, it’s just a matter of re-editing and re-organizing… fine tuning the post to make it more structured and easier for the reader to grasp.

RBJ Notes: The Malaysia Directory

Randomguru — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:26:26 +0000

As of today, I’m slightly over halfway through the Malaysia directory at Rice Bowl Journals.

Just to bring those readers up-to-date (who don’t know what I’m talking about), Rice Bowl Journals is a directory of Asian blogs. And I’m reviewing all the blogs in the Malaysia directory, and removing those that fall into the following criteria:

Blogs that have been on hiatus longer than January 1, 2010. This includes all blogs that were apparently abandone, haven’t been updated for years.

Any registered blogs whose links are dead and go nowhere. These include all broken links and inactive domain names.

Blogs that are closed to the public, even if they are for “friends only”.

Blogs that have been “officially” shutdown (I see this a lot on Xanga.com and Blogspot.com).

Blogs that don’t look like blogs. Perhaps they inadvertantly lead to a porn site, or some other site that isn’t a blog. A few have become portfolio sites to showcase art, digital photography, etc… and don’t contain a blog somewhere on the site.

. . . .

The Malaysia Directory

I’ve been going a bit more slowly through the Malaysia directory. Before this, I had plowed through the Philippines directory, very quickly, because I knew this was the biggest directory of all the countries on RBJ.

I realized that I may have deleted one or two that weren’t supposed to be deleted. I couldn’t know for sure, but I was going very fast through that directory.

With the Malaysia directory, I’ve been taking it easy and taking my time. After this one, the last directory left would be Singapore. So I’m pretty ecstatic that I’m actually almost finished with the entire process of review all the blogs.

. . . .

What’s Next…

This all is in keeping with my new philosophy of trying to be an anti-social network (I know, sounds bad) because I know I can’t compete with the big social networks.

But, hopefully, when the entire directory is up-to-date and I’m confident that each and every blog is accounted for and current, then I’ll move onto the next phase, to improve on the site and achieve more integration with Facebook and Twitter (if you can’t beat, join ‘em, right?).

Facebook, for instance, has a great way of allowing its users to login to other sites using their Facebook login. I think this is great and a lot of other sites have already been using this for quite some time.

But that would be the goal for RBJ, yet still keeping it as a directory, and pushing the showcasing of the best Asian blogs on the world wide web!

. . . .

A Few Malaysian Bloggers

As of now, if you check out the Notables list on Rice Bowl Journals, you can see that I am showcasing some interesting Malaysian blogs as I find them while reviewing that directory.

The Notables List is designed to showcase any blogs that I just happen to find that look interesting.

It’s all in good fun. And while I’m reviewing that directory, why not feature some blogs while I’m at it. And these are all just chosen randomly.

. . . .

Become a Fan of RBJ

Incidentally, if you haven’t become a fan of Rice Bowl Journals please do so. All you have to do is click on the “Like” button to become a fan (if you are using Facebook).

If you’re not on Facebook, you can follow us on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/ricebowl

Either way, help us out by visiting the site! Thank you for your continued support!

[UPDATE...]

The Malaysia directory is complete. And a few Malaysian bloggers have been featured on the Notables List.

Random Posts

One Common Denominator

Randomguru — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:52:03 +0000

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is Love, Compassion and Forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives. —The Dalai Lama

It truly bothers me, when one person proclaims that they hate stupid people, then turns around and claims to be religious, moral and righteous.

It also bothers me when it comes to today’s political fighting; how vicious they are when each side claims they are right and the other wrong, when one side accuses the other of lying, and vice versa.

. . . .

A Simple Question

My simple question is this: Is all this really helping the country?

The simple answer is: No, it is not.

I don’t see any purpose in what is happening today in today’s corporate media channels, other than the fact that it further divides the country.

It’s obvious that Love is the common denominator amongst all religions, peoples and cultures.

Compassion and Forgiveness are just by-products of a person who is Loving.

When you are Loving (and compassionate and forgiving) you dismiss a person’s faults, their weaknesses, their imperfections… and you accept them for the good that they are. You look at their best, shining features.

How can one proclaim so loudly that they are religious, that they believe in God and that they are righteous, when the fact is, they Hate and are so swift to accuse and ridicule those who are different, weaker, or imperfect.

If anything, help those in need… help those who are stupid… help those who are imperfect.

It breaks my heart to see people Hate.

I personally have a hard time dealing with the Hatred that is around me.

But, I must forgive them. That is the right way. And move on…

Didn’t Jesus say to Love your enemies?

. . . .

A Sensitive Soul

Sometimes I feel I am an overly sensitive soul. But then, I have been subjected to much Hatred, that I know I didn’t deserve. People have Hated me for one reason or another, and though it hurts, I have to forgive them.

Someone once threatened to kill me. More than once. I was only trying to help someone who was claiming she was being abused. For doing good deeds I wasn’t rewarded, just threatened.

I didn’t deserved that!

Still I forgive. And I don’t want to going into details. It’s in the past and all is forgiven. But I don’t easily forget. And I don’t easily become relieved of the pain.

Love. Compassion. Forgiveness.

I think all of the worlds great religions teach those moral principles. But do their followers practice them?

The Dalai Lama has also taught that one should not go near those who do not respect you, do not think of you as an equal, or who might despise you. There is nothing wrong with steering clear of your enemies. What would be the point?

Only focus on the positive and the good.

Love. Of the universal kind, should be sought, and when found should be nurtured, rekindled, and allowed to flourish amongst humankind.

Where there is Love there is Peace….

. . . .

A Common Denominator

The one common denominator is Love… that is the one thing I see transcends all religions, cultures, peoples and boundaries.

If we continue to cultivate Love, then Compassion, Forgiveness and even Tolerance will follow… and then we will truly be at Peace.

We must focus on Love…

Random Posts

I’m A Workaholic: Extending My Appreciation…

Randomguru — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:29:19 +0000

I’m really thankful that people appreciate all the work I’m putting into the Rice Bowl Journals project. And I just wanted to extend my gratitude to those people who have commented on Twitter, Facebook and on the Zen Garden, showing their appreciation.

It really means a lot to me to get that kind of support and acknowledgement. Many people are quiet but I know they are appreciative too, but when people take the time to comment and really say it… well, it means a lot and it helps keep me inspired.

The thing about being a webmaster for a site, and even a group of sites, is that it takes an incredible amount of work. Plus, in order to keep the site interesting, the site has to be maintained on the backend, as well as maintained and updated on the frontend. Many people don’t really know what goes on behind the scenes and what kind of ongoing work is involved. So, once again, I appreciate the positive comments.

. . . .

Happy Birthday to Cyn, RBJer #1

Sending warm birthday wishes to Cindy Pon (aka Cyn), who found me online many years ago when I was browsing online journals and found out there was a legion of dedicated and devoted Asian diarists out there, when I found her “hedgie list”.

I don’t know if she still has the hedgie list, she’s more the successful novelist now and her site reflects that.

But that led me to a whole bunch of Asian diarists who were inter-connected and inspired me to create Rice Bowl Journals. It’s a lot of water under the bridge now. A lot has changed.

. . . .

I’m A Workaholic

(warning: this is just rant… I just need to get some things off my chest)

I’m surprised that a few people (in real life and in the virtual world) seem to hint that I’m a slacker or that I don’t do much… I’m very shocked by this! But that’s okay… you just don’t know what I’ve been doing, so some people need explanation.

Aside from my online world of managing websites, blogging, marketing and trying to make a dollar here and there, I’m actually a Dad.

Now, Dads out there should appreciate it when people acknowledge that’s like a full-time job in and of itself! And, along with my wife, we’ve helped raised two fine boys who are both now in college.

Now, people don’t realize this, especially parents who don’t have kids yet in college. Let me tell you, it doesn’t end at college. They will still need a lot of help if they are to successfully get through college and graduate. There’s the financial support, as well as the moral support, and initially helping them get started with college. If they are studying away from home, you’ll have to help them by traveling to the college or university and helping them move in and get all settled into university life as well as dorm life.

But… all parents will appreciate the fact that we parents work hard from day one! Think of all those diapers I had to change, cleaning up after their messes, reading them stories at bedtime, and taking them to soccer practice and games, and taking them to martial arts, and field trips, and to the park and etc, etc, etc…

It just really irks me that someone would even suggest that I’m a slacker or I don’t do much… I’m a workaholic…

I remember when I was touring or playing gigs up in L.A… I would come home at 4am get up at 6am and help get the kids ready for school. I would drive them to and from school, and many times I’d have to gig at night!

Now, in addition to my parenting duties, I’m a musician. I play drums and piano, and although I’ve been more focused on piano the past few years, I still have to practice my rudiments to keep my chops up. Once or twice a week I have time to actually practice on the full drumset. But, most of the time I practice daily on the practice pads. And piano, I’m practicing 2-3 hours a day right now. It might be in 2-4 separate practice sessions, but I am trying to practice in chunks throughout the day, even really late at night.

Then there’s my chores…

I’m the main guy who washes the dishes in the household. I take out the trash and I try my best to keep the kitchen clean. I go get the mail and sort through all the junk mail and bills. I get gasoline for the vehicles, take them to the shop when they need servicing and repair. I pay the bills and manage the finances in my household. For many years, I’ve been the one mostly vacuuming and trying to keep the house clean. It’s been tough with two boys, naturally, but I’ve been pretty dilligent about it.

And I do a lot of errands. I get the groceries, I do most of the banking, and deposit checks, I make runs to the post office… drycleaning, and buying sundries and things from various stores.

Then, I try to find the time to do yoga, meditate and do some kind of cardio and exercises. I don’t swim laps right now, but I should get back into doing that.

I don’t know why anyone would call me a slacker, and I have too much to do already… if one is a dad, husband, musician, housekeeper AND organic gardener!

Now, times are slow right now, but that is the nature of our current times. We have been in a mild depression, from what I personal have experienced. Times are tough. Work is slow, and hard to come by. People should just be thankful if they have a roof over their heads, food on the table, and are able to have electricity, water and plumbing.

The music business, unfortunately, has been incredibly slow the past 2 years. Ever since the stock market crash (have we all forgotten that?), it’s been very hard to put food on the table and pay the bills… people are losing their homes, their jobs…

But I’m a hard worker… whatever it is… I try to pick up the slack, I do the job even if it means I don’t get a reward. Because whatever that job is… it needs to be done. But, I’m the kind of guy who has a lot on my plate. I have a lot of various projects that need to be done. It never ends!

So, that’s where it stands… for those who even had the slightest doubt that I’m not a workaholic, because I am!

Random Posts

RBJ Notes: The Clean-Up… Preparing For Malaysia

Randomguru — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:23:36 +0000

The clean-up of the entire RBJ Directory is almost done!

Philippines was the latest country to purged of abandoned, dead blogs. It was the biggest with 48 pages going into the clean-up and 14 pages remaining after the clean-up!

I will say this… all through-out this entire clean-up project, I noticed online RBJ friends who hadn’t updated their blogs in a long time. I was careful to check if they had started up a new blog, so I was looking for a link to a new site, obviously.

. . . .

Randomguru on RBJ

We Had To Do It

If you know someone, or if you had a blog that was removed from the RBJ directory, I am truly sorry. But, at the same time I have to be committed to having current blogs on Rice Bowl Journals. I think it’s the only way for RBJ to survive and stay interesting, in a world wide web that has gone to the big social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

I know, I sound like a broken record with the whole social networking thing, but being a webmaster, I have been very sensitive to the sudden mass exodus of RBJ bloggers to the social networking sites. Sure, they have much more to offer by way of social interaction, and there is no way to compete with that. So, I am trying different ways to appeal to visitors. And keep RBJ alive.

. . . .

The Notables List

The Notables List is a new pet project of mine. Basically, I’ll select a couple of RBJ bloggers (as I randomly browse the RBJ directory) and feature them. The newest bloggers to the list will be added to the top, like stacking plates. And I will try to maintain only 12 bloggers on the list, removing the same number of bloggers I add on to the top.

There will be no rhyme or reason as to when new bloggers will be added to the list. It will be totally random and as I find an interesting blogger to add.

Many of the avatars were lost with that last hacker attack. Very sad. I am only featuring blogs that have avatars, for obvious reasons. But I’ll try to add avatars whenever I can. I’m going to just grab an avatar or profile pic from a bloggers site, but if a blogger wants to send me one they can.

Of course, I’m not getting paid per update, but donations are welcome. Whatever little monetary compensation that is made from the site, it’s coming from the few sponsors that we have, and google adsense. So, help us out there too.

. . . .

A Simple Directory

RBJ, as a simple directory, will exist without having to compete for the social media attention of the masses. Hopefully, my concept is to go back to “square one” as I’ve said in a previous post, and try to build from there.

But the one thing that can make RBJ a useful site and directory is by being ultra-uber current and up-to-date! The big social networking sites thrive on that type of interaction and being up-to-the-minute current because of the nature of that type of site. But they have to offer a lot… I often think of Facebook as “throwing everything in, including the kitchen sink”… Twitter isn’t as feature-laden as Facebook, but they have a simple concept that has gone viral, and works extremely well… Facebook is now the #2 ranked site in the world. Twitter is a little bit behind as the 11th most popular site in the world.

Early on, RBJ utilized a few features that Facebook and Twitter later used. But that was the same thing that many of the discussion boards had developed… the use of avatars, interactivity with comments, etc. Facebook, for example, found a way (many ways) with their army of web engineers to take the whole concepts of community, interactivity, discussion boards, chatting, etc, and simply go completely viral with it, like a community on steroids…

. . . .

Lamenting The Rise of the Social Networking Sites

I’ve witnessed as a webmaster, RBJ suddenly look uninteresting and pale in comparison to Facebook. So, what is a webmaster to do when one can see that suddenly RBJ seems like an empty community, and Asian bloggers have abandoned their blogs.

But if there is a will, there is a way, and Rice Bowl Journals is still an active part of my life. I feel I must carry on and continue to actively work on it and promote it, and carry on despite the myriad of problems the site has faced, from hackers to server problems… I still continue to work on it.

Hopefully, I will have your continued support as we go…

RBJ Notes: The Dreaded Philippine Directory

Randomguru — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:56:09 +0000

I first wanted to say that my heart goes out to the victims of that hostage crisis in The Philippines. Very sad and tragic.

I know this is yet another incident that hurts Philippine tourism and it’s overall reputation. And now the Hong Kong government and citizens are protesting in anger, and outraged with how the hostage crisis was handled.

Personally, I have to say a few words about this…

This tragic incident could have (and has) happened anywhere in the world, even in America! And, law enforcement officials usually end up being blamed for any deaths that may have occured during the rescue attempt, etc…

Still, my heart goes out to the victims and their families, and I pray they will find some sense of closure, somehow… though, I can imagine that their lives will never be the same. And I pray that relations between Hong Kong and The Philippines will somehow get “patched up” too.

. . . .

The Philippines – Directory

I’ve have been working on Rice Bowl Journals for 10 years! So, whatever has been done in the past to make the site what it is today… it took 10 years in the making.

That thought aside…

I’m currently working on the Philippines directory and cleaning it up so that people won’t constantly find dead and abandoned blogs, whenever they feel like browsing the various sub-directories.

It’s important to bring the database up-to-date so that people won’t get discouraged and move on. It’s important to have a reliable directory in which to explore blogs that are current and “alive”.

. . . .

Notes and Rants While Going Through The Philippine Directory

Oldest abandoned blog I found so far dates back to 2002. That’s pretty darn old!

But I’m also finding blogs that are current and go back to 2002 and prior.

There are so many blogs that have locked their doors and are private, only available to friends. That’s nice. But we are still going by our “open policy” about only showcasing totally open blogs on the directory. Imagine surfing the directory and finding a whole lot of closed doors… as someone who’s currently going through countries of blogs, find these closed blogs gets very irritating.

Some blogs at least post a farewell post saying “good-bye”. Okay, I can appreciate that… good riddance! *just kidding* ;)

Live Journals are so irritating. I guess that’s why bloggers point to their profiles first, because the actual URL to their journal entries brings up an ad first.

Okay, treating your Facebook profile as if it were your blog and linking to it from RBJ… sorry, that just ain’t right!

Also, some people were linking to their MySpace profiles, and I’d have to frown upon that one too. Sorry…

Tumblr accounts… hmm… I’m on the fence about that one and I’ll take them on a case-by-case basis, because a few that I’ve seen so far look like full-fledged blogs.

2004 was a very good year, but not for abandoning your blog… *poof* you’re gone!

Xanga.com seems to have a nice feature to “lock” your blog. Nice… I’ve been deleting all those!

The difficult blogs are the ones that don’t post the year. I have to search around looking to see if I should delete it or not. There was one in which I simply couldn’t find the year. It looked like a fairly new design and seemed up-to-date with facebook and twitter links. I let that one slide…

Blogdrive and Geocities blogs have pretty much been deleted… Sayonatra!

Diary-X blogs are history too.

Oh, nice! An abandoned blog ends with a post that says “Men are stupid!” Really smart to make a “blanket” statement that generalizes males in such a way. Anyway, “2007″? History…

Found a blog that was beautifully designed with impressive photos and artwork. I couldn’t find any archives or current dates, but I didn’t have the heart to delete it.

So, I came upon a site in which I know the blogger and that he’s usually quite active on his site but for some reason I can’t “connect” to the site. In this case I’m emailing the blogger and asking what’s up?

When I first started going through the Philippine directory, it was 48 pages. At this point I’m down to 26 pages. If we reduce that number by half then that would be a much more manageable list of blogs, and we would have deleted so many abandoned and dead blogs by the time we’re through.

At the time, people were blogging because it was the in-thing to do. I remember us more serious, hardcore online diarists had been doing this for years, and suddenly someone coined the term “weblog”, then “blog” for short… and you became a “blogger”… On the positive side blogging took off and is still a viable force on the web… online journaling and online diaries sort of took a back seat.

I prefer blogs that are still personal and still run like they are an online diary or journal. And I think that is where RBJ will concentrate on.

To be continued…

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

Randomguru — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:00:00 +0000

[Blog] Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-15: [Blog] Hotel Recommendations: Finding Myself in Hawaii: RBJ Update
… http://ping.fm/01OFA #
thinkin about the creative aspect & deadlines. pure creativity needs its own time and place, 2 develop & blossom. but jazz. is spontaneous! #
spent entire @Univ of Hawaii. academic advising, registration, housing, financial aid… resting now @hotel room. #fb #
going to Target in Oahu to buy school supplies. #
resting up in the hotel room. move-in 2morrow. big day. #
[Blog] RBJ Notes: Deleting Dead Blogs and Journals: I sort of enjoying the process of going through each country in… http://ping.fm/aJ20i #
@thyda Yes. But we leave 2morrow. We spent most of our time @Univ of Hawaii, getting the youngest settled in 2 dorm life. in reply to thyda #
@supershello Just moved him into the dorm. Hawaii is like RBJ in real life? #
@ptaillon And thank you for all your support. ;o) in reply to ptaillon #
The Latest… http://fb.me/EMNFVNkH #
[Blog] RBJ Notes: The Essence of The List: As soon as I got back from Oahu, I spent the better part of yesterday wo… http://ping.fm/if3YE #
site re-design and new MP3s up at: theModernAncients.com http://fb.me/GLMsPGdw #
@thyda Thnx. Been home since Thu, but still feeling jetlagged. in reply to thyda #

Random Posts

RBJ Notes: The Essence of The List

Randomguru — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:52:14 +0000

As soon as I got back from Oahu, I spent the better part of yesterday working on and managing The List and other “tasks” on the Rice Bowl Journals site.

The essence of The List is simple:

Showcase the most popular, prolific and dedicated Asian bloggers on the world wide web.

With that in mind, there has been a few key points in deciding who should be included on The List.

As part of The List, I have included the “original four”, the original four online diarists of Rice Bowl Journals.

. . . .

Honoring The Original Four

. . . .

We Were Called Online Diarists Once

Back then, I didn’t think anyone would be interested in being added to my “burb”. I’d been a fan of the other three diarists, and I asked them (with great hesitation and awe of their writing) if they didn’t mind being on my Asian diarists burb.

Of course, being the cool people that they are, they all agreed.

And of course, I didn’t know just how popular these online diarists were at the time, and other Asian diarists naturally wanted to be included on the list.

I included myself among the four at the time because, well, I wanted to be on a “burb” and at that time there were several out there on the web in which you had to have certain criteria in order to be accepted. I would get several rejections and I kind of said to myself, “Why not create my own burb?”.

But I basically included myself because I was one of the original four, and I didn’t know how popular my list/burb would become, so I padded the list by adding myself. ;)

. . . .

Examining The Criteria Involved

The criteria for determining which Asian blogs get on The List can be reviewed here.

Other notes on The List can be found below:

Quality – Stressing quality over quantity as far as the total number of blogs on The List. Quality of writing, design, connectivity with social media, storytelling, passion and dedication.

Longevity – I give bloggers much respect for having kept an online diary or blog for so long. And one simply has to respect and honor those online diarists who have been doing this since the 1990s, plus sharing their lives online. I don’t really have an accurate counter as to how long a site/blog has been around to qualify to be on The List, but overall longevity is a key factor. RBJ will continue to add new blogs in the future and we’ll be very careful as to who gets added (to help maintain the integrity of the entire directory), but The List is special.

Personal Domain – This will become a part of the list of criteria, to be used as a guide in determining who gets on this list. But, most (if not all) of the Asian bloggers on The List have their own registered domain name and are hosted with a web hosting service. This is somewhat essential in determining overall popularity of each site. For example, LiveJournal, Xanga or Blogspot can hide a site’s true popularity on Alexa or Technorati (just two web services used to determine site popularity and traffic). As a matter of fact, I will have to remove someone from The List because the site is hosted with SquareSpace.com.

. . . .

The Hidden Gems

I mentioned this in one of my previous RBJ posts, that the one awesome thing about going through the entire RBJ directory is discovering hidden gems, those blogs that were obscure in the past and suddenly have risen to greater popularity and recognition.

And, as I discover more blogs that have achieved some success in the overall sense, I will have to weigh their “value” (for lack of a better word) and decided if they should be included on The List.

I’m also toying with the concept of another great list, which would feature more blogs that aren’t as popular and successful, but deserve wider recognition and notice… I just might call this second list, “Notables”. We’ll see…

If anything, the “Notables” list would feature blogs I come across that need to be featured. And, as we find more blogs we’ll have to rotate them, bringing new ones in and just keep re-cycling and keeping that list flowing and alive. I think that would be a good reason to start up a “Notables” list.

. . . .

Getting Back To Square One

So, the essence of The List is getting back to the idea of a “burb”, or list of online diarists/bloggers, organized by topic… in this case, that of Asian diarists/bloggers.

The origin of Rice Bowl Journals…

And, I will be managing and maintaining The List, of course, and actively promoting it.

Why do this? (For those who are skeptical and critical in an age of Facebook, Twitter and social networking)

After all, Facebook and Twitter both have built-in features that allow you to create your own “lists” of people, if you so desire. Twitter launched their “lists” feature not too long ago and I’m sure many of you have developed your own lists.

But like the title says, we are “getting back to square one”, and The List will be just a click or two away, a big part of the RBJ site, and won’t get lost in the myriad of lists on Twitter, or just be someone’s personal list on Facebook.

And The List serves to “showcase” the best Asian bloggers on the web in a respectful, traditional way. Hopefully, people will appreciate the concept of The List and help promote it.

. . . .

Site Traffic versus Quality, Content, Design

Wendy Cheng‘s Xiaxue.blogspot.com blog (from what I have seen on the web, and you can challenge me on this one) appears to be the most popular Asian blog out there.

At least according to Alexa and Wikipedia she seems to be a very popular Singaporean femme blogger and web rockstar. Alexa ranks her at 44,303.

Wendy Cheng, better known by her pseudonym, Xiaxue, is a Singaporean blogger, and freelance writer. Her website has been added to the National Library Board’s list of blogs for archival.

She co-starred in a reality tv programme called Girls Out Loud. In 2008 she hosted a fortnightly series, Xiaxue’s Guide To Life, on the web.

And she has had her controversies, according to Wikipedia.

The one thing that I have to juggle is content versus quality versus popularity. There are so many great bloggers out there who are still generally obscure. Wendy’s site sort of has a tongue-in-cheek approach and she can be quite zany and upbeat, causing one to pause for a moment and wonder if we should consider her a serioius writer. But, in my opinion she writes well, has written for several magazines and newspapers, is extremely popular, and she is highly prolific.

I tend to not take Blogspot blogs very seriously, I’m sorry to say, perhaps because I’ve personally seen far-too-many that were very amateurish, not cohesive, and design-wise made it very hard to appreciate. But Wendy Cheng has been blogging since 2000 and she’s probably got the most prolific and dedicated Asian blog out there.

And I sincerely hope there are many more bloggers out there just like hers. I will be looking for that kind of dedication and commitment, in which real life and virtual life converge into one… I’ll be searching and adding more to The List, so stay tuned…