Studio Notes by Shai Coggins

What’s The Meaning of Life?

Shai Coggins — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:36:18 +0000

“Life is meaningless only if we allow it to be. Each of us has the power to give life meaning, to make our time and our bodies and our words into instruments of love and hope.” ~ Tom Head

When J.R. LeMar posted this question in my 10 for 10 Special blog post:

I’ll give you an easy question: What is the meaning of life?

I laughed and thought: How on earth am I supposed to answer that?

It just seems to be the hardest and simplest question to try to respond to. I mean, we all know that the question is loaded and huge. Yet, at the same time, there are basic, easy answers that come to mind when we think of that question.

And, while we may all have similar answers to the same question, each of us would probably have a different way of looking at it.

So, yes, to me, the meaning of life is what we make it out to be.

Sometimes, life is about celebrating personal milestones and goals… or being joyful in someone else’s special achievements.

Or, it can be about digging in to a big bowl of banana split sundae and finding all sorts of sweet, crunchy, soft, goeey things in every scrumptious bite. On your own – or with someone special (or with a number of special folks! )

Other times, it can be about sharing the most inane Skype conversations with friends, family, or even co-workers. And, finding yourself really smiling when you type in the smiley emoticons… or laughing your head off at the silliest jokes.

Some moments, it’s about seeing old friends, catching up with loved ones, making new friends, building fresh relationships…

Or, it can be just about stretching out and enjoying a wonderful sunny day that feels perfect in every way. Or perhaps, curling up under the blankets with a nice book and a cup of tea. Or even finding an extra burst of bliss upon the sight of a bud to show the signs of spring approaching.

Life can also be about little bits of daily serendipity… like when I encountered this video by someone called Santé title “The Meaning of Life” while I was trying to think of how to blog the answer to J.R.’s question. What a joy to watch! I hope you like it too.

And perhaps, if you get the chance, you can share with us YOUR answer to the question: What is the meaning of life?

P.S. – This video made me remember that we should be paying more attention to the moments when we’re doing something that makes us sigh and think (directly or not): “This is the life!” , as they may be the very things that give our lives meaning.

ShaiCoggins.com: Then and Now

Shai Coggins — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:03:32 +0000

For my 10th blogging year anniversary, I shared my 10 for 10 Special blog post where I invited folks to make requests and/or ask questions. I promised to respond/reply to the first 10 folks. And, through that post, my good and long-time online friend Kari asked:

“In your very first days of blogging in 1999, how did it differ from what your blog about in the present day? Was it more like a diary or somewhere to share your art maybe?”

And, in connection with my web history, RogerAD asked if I had a screenshot of my Geocities site.

So, I decided to answer two questions/requests in one post.

Unfortunately, however, I didn’t have a clue how to take screenshots back in those days. So, no, I don’t have a Geocities site screenshot. However, I’m pretty sure I have a back-up of the HTML of my old sites in a floppy disk (! — do you still remember ‘em?!) somewhere. But, I don’t even have a computer that has a floppy disk drive anymore. And, yeah, Wayback Machine didn’t really archive my earliest sites. Too bad, eh?

The earliest screenshot I found of my site was this one from 2002:

It was powered by Movable Type, one of the first blogging/CMS platforms I’ve ever tried. But, we’ll get to that later. Maybe.

To answer Kari’s question…

Well, my site has always reflected where I am at any given time of my life.

In 1999, when I first started on the web, my very first site on Geocities was focused on writing. Yes, I was mostly writing about writing, and sharing my short stories and poetry. I had a mishmash of other interests too, but I found that the most popular part of it was my writing stuff. So, I decided to do a ‘spin-off’ site and that became eWriteLife (formerly known as The Write Life, which I hosted on a Freeservers site). It’s through my writing site where I first found the joy of connecting with online communities.

I was also ‘blogging’ at the time in a small section on my site where I posted little things that I found interesting. A bit later, I started to do more journalling type things.

At the end of 1999, I got married and moved to a new country (Singapore). In 2000, I expanded my web writing and began exploring buying my own domain names. ShaiCoggins.com is the first domain name I bought. You can see on my WhoIs data that I purchased it on the 24th of August 2000. At the time, I did not buy my own hosting account yet. Instead, I just pointed the domain to my old Geocities account. I believe it took me a year before I decided to purchase my own hosting.

In any case, in 2000, ShaiCoggins.com became an online portfolio thing, trying to showcase my writing as that was my main focus at the time. Especially after landing a number of freelancing gigs then – About.com (still a Primedia company back then, not a NY Times company), Suite101.com (back when they paid writers upfront), and even later on, finding print jobs like Elle Magazine (Singapore).

At the same time, I was developing my interest in art. I started taking private watercolour tuition and attending a variety of art workshops. So, my blog was slowly incorporating pieces I was doing from my art lessons. And yes, my travels.

In 2001, the Dot Com world crashed and a lot of my online writing gigs were wiped out.

Strangely, even though I was doing my Masters’ in Psychology at the time, my jobs were mostly media/writing related. But, thanks to that Dot Com Crash (bye bye Web 1.0!), I turned to psychology as a profession. I started taking on psychology consultancy roles, which ended up with me landing a job as a psychologist in a nonprofit organisation for people with intellectual disabilities in Singapore.

And, when I can’t write, I usually express myself visually.

So, I painted. A LOT.

With my apartment beginning to fill with artwork (and rising costs for art materials!), I ventured in to selling art online. Hence, as you can see in the above screenshot, my site became an online art portfolio. My main avenue for art selling was eBay. You can still see my eBay Art Gallery/Account, if you wish. I don’t sell anything there anymore and my page is probably all messed up and such by now. But yeah, there’s my proof that my art DID sell around the world. And, I have a 100% Positive Feedback (from about 146 recorded sales). And, I did manage to get a few non-eBay sales too from exhibits, an open studio visit, direct from my website, etc. It was fun times. I stopped selling art shortly after I arrived in Australia. I think I last sold my art officially in 2005.

Anyway, in one of my earlier blog incarnations, I called it “All Mixed Up” -

Back then, I blogged a lot more openly. I talked about my day-to-day life. I wrote about what I saw, what I felt, what I dreamt of… I blogged about hopes and fears, disappointments and triumphs…

Over the years, however, I’ve learned to pull back a little.

I was even tempted to pull back on the personal blogging altogether due to my increasing presence on the web and a few other reasons. That’s why you won’t find a lot of my older archives.

You see, I realised that due to my work online, it got a bit tougher to be too personal.

But then, I realised that I can’t completely abandon personal blogging… So, I continue here at Studio Notes. After all, this is me. This is where I started.

Sure, my approach to blogging has definitely changed from how it was back in 1999/2000. My life has transformed a lot since then too – from being a single girl, to finding love online, to getting engaged, then married, then having my first child, to now being a mum of two young kids… And, from my solo writing ventures to finding small writing gigs (where I got paid in cheques that I couldn’t even cash at the time!), to finding cool and well-paid writing gigs (including getting my first book published), to selling art, and to co-founding an online media business that received multi-million dollar funding and receiving all sorts of press and awards…

Through this site, I have shared my exciting moves to new countries, the births of my children, the loss of my father, my thrilling travels and the people I meet, new personal and professional directions, my adventures in learning how to drive or paint or dance, dreams and friends that I made and lost, my obsessions-of-the-moment…

Yes, the last 10+ years of my life online has been full. I learned a lot, hurt a lot, lost a lot, loved a lot, and gained a lot. And yes, I wrote a heck of a LOT.

In any case, I just hope that even though I couldn’t quite fulfill RogerAD’s request, I managed to answer Kari’s question in my very long-winded way of blogging.

10 for 10 Special: Celebrating a Decade of ShaiCoggins.com

Shai Coggins — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:04:17 +0000

Ten years ago, I reserved the domain ShaiCoggins.com to host my personal site. Over the years, it has been moved, revamped, redirected, and shifted so many times to reflect the changing seasons of my life.

The Wayback Machine will tell you that my site was first archived on the web on April 2001, on Geocities (no longer available). However, I started maintaining my personal site back in 1999 (yes, in portfolio and blog-like format, long before the word ‘blog’ was invented), and purchased my own domain name in August 2000.

Due to the different ‘start times’ of my online life, I never really thought about my “webversary”. But, a couple of years ago, I felt like I should. I decided to use August 2000 as my official anniversary for this site.

Last year, I did a proper 9th Year Celebration. I was hoping to do an even bigger and better one this year, but I think I’d be hard pressed to commit to anything too massive, what with work and everything else going on in my life right now. But, I’m hoping to share a handful of special surprise posts throughout the month of August to celebrate a decade of ShaiCoggins.com (now also known as Studio Notes, of course!).

As part of this celebration, I’m opening a 10 for 10 Special. That is, I’d love to try and grant 10 special requests or questions to the first 10 Studio Notes readers who leave a comment here with their request/question.

Of course, requests/questions should be within reason. For example, I can’t exactly give you $10,000,000 (or any similar monetary request), even if I wanted to… or I can’t exactly answer overly controversial questions.

If you have anything reasonable and simple (e.g., “Can you please leave a comment on my blog?” or “What’s your favourite sushi roll?”), then I’d be more than happy to comply. Yes, pretty much similar to the Ask Me Anything feature I had here a few years ago.

And yes, I wish to take this opportunity to say a great big THANKS to all ShaiCoggins.com/Studio Notes readers, both long-time ones and new. Things would’ve never been the same without you.

Thanks to you, I have learned a lot about blogging and community building.

And, of course, I am always grateful for all the friendships that have been developed throughout the years through this site.

Thank you, thank you, thank you…

Looking forward to sharing my life’s journeys with you for many more years.

Photo by mccheek

We

Shai Coggins — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:39:09 +0000

If marriages are glued together by simple formulas like having “shared interests” or “common passions”, mine might fall apart easily. You see, although my husband and I share a lot of values, hopes, dreams, and belief systems, our hobbies and choices of entertainment don’t always mesh.

That’s why, thankfully, marriages don’t rely on having the same kind of DVDs to rent from Blockbuster. Well, at least not this one.

Sure, we both love travel, music, movies, food, and a few other things. Sometimes, we even get to choose the same destinations, CDs, films, and restaurants…

But, if my first instinct is to look for museums and galleries in a city that we’re visiting, he has the inclination to find out if there was a famous sporting stadium or exciting game that he can watch… And, while I love fish sauce in my food, he warns me never ever to cook my Asian dishes with them.

Celebrating differences, of course, is what we’re all about. Sure, the differences can both drive us insane a bit, but hey… We kinda knew that was going to happen anyway.

There are times, however, when things just click.

When I say something’s amazing, and he agrees without gritting his teeth…

Or, he finds something extra cool, and I actually think he’s right!

One of these moments was when hubby introduced me to this band called Scouting for Girls. They’re a British band who’s been making waves in the UK, apparently.

Due to a project that we’re helping our son with, I ended up purchasing their first album of the same name (Scouting for Girls) on iTunes.

As I downloaded their songs, I already became amused by song titles like ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’ and ‘I Want to be Like James Bond’.

Then, the other day, I started listening to their songs on my iPad whilst I was on the way to work on the train. And, I had to stifle a few laughs and chuckles. I think listening to them just put me in such a good, giggly mood for the rest of the day.

With songs like ‘It’s Not About You’ and ‘I Need a Holiday’, I just couldn’t contain my delight in this band.

The songs are clever and humorous. The tunes are catchy and fun (even with sad sounding songs like ‘Sob Story’). And, I’m well and truly captivated.

When hubby picked me up that day, he was listening to the album in his car too. We started talking excitedly about the songs and the band. Sharing a laugh in-between gushing. And, by the end of the evening, our whole family was singing away.

Ah, yes. Marriages and families may not be held together by shared interests and common passions. But, it’s always great to find these little bits of glue, isn’t it?

- Blogged from my iPad

You Know You Love Your New Job When…

Shai Coggins — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:07:44 +0000

… you complete the first two weeks of work and you’re still almost as excited as you’ve been when you first heard the words, “We would like to offer you the job…”

… you love meeting all the new people that go with doing the job.

… you don’t even mind working on Windows again (temporarily?), even if every part of your being is longing for a Mac.

… (and) you panic on Day 2, as you realise that you haven’t got a clue how to turn on the silly Dell laptop because you’ve never seen the ‘on’ button placed on that part of the computer ever. And, well… wouldn’t it be embarrassing to ask someone how to turn the computer on? Especially because you’re working in a TECH-oriented organisation, and you’re meant to be a WEB specialist!

… you jump right in to the projects with little to no hesitation – and just get going because you can’t wait to get started.

… you wake up at 4am, having dreams about the projects that you’re working on – on several occasions!

… you find yourself reading as much as you can about the organisation, the work that you do, and… well, just about anything regarding the whole thing… and actually have fun with it.

… you enjoy talking to – and getting to know – your new colleagues. And, you find yourself laughing about all sorts of things while on the job.

… you find yourself sharing nice morning teas with said colleagues who bring cakes to share (it just so happens that there had been 2 birthdays in 2 weeks!).

… you don’t even mind the thought that the boss and your colleagues might be reading your blog, your Tweets, your FB updates… (it’s always a strange thought, but… )

… you like learning about the different “work traditions”… and perhaps, even unwittingly finding yourself starting new ones.

… you find yourself with extra 15 minutes or so before you need to catch the train, and you’d rather choose to spend the time doing more work in the office than sitting in the train.

… you are able to hum or sing while getting ready for work (even when it’s freaking cold and you’d rather be in bed!).

… you try to keep up with the work energy, even when you’ve got a very challenging time outside of work (such as hubby going away for a week while you start your job and you have to take care of kids, home, dog, etc mostly by yourself!)

… you do work-related tasks (e.g., brainstorming, mind mapping, To Do lists, wireframing, research, etc) even out of office hours, just because you feel like it.

… you get unsolicited compliments about what you’re doing on the job from brand new job-related acquaintances (whom you’ve never even met in person!)…

… you meet lots of new people who are also excited to tell you about their work, in jobs that they love…

… you receive your pay slip and you still can’t believe how awesome it is to be getting paid for this work.

… you are thrilled when Friday comes – but Mondays don’t seem too bad because you get to do more fun stuff, see more exciting things, meet more amazing people…

What about you? How do YOU know you’re loving your job?

So yes, folks. I survived my first two weeks at The New Job. And, as some of you may have gathered, I am loving it.

Of course, I’m exhausted at the end of the day. The To Do lists are mounting up and all that. And yeah, I haven’t had much time to blog here or to do any of my other personal projects. But, I can’t complain. It’s all good. I’m hoping my system will slowly acclimatize and I’ll develop a better rhythm for things. We’ll see…

For now, I’m peeking in here to say hello and to keep you all posted. And yes, I know I still owe you guys the final 52WoC Party and a few other things. I’m definitely planning on catching up on all that as soon as possible. For now, please bear with me.

Studio Notes Presents… Claire McCarthy, Writer/Director of “The Waiting City”

Shai Coggins — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:42:11 +0000

Remember my fascination with films and filmmaking?

Well, I’m happy to report that not only have I managed to create a number of short videos lately, I’ve also been given the exciting chance to pick the brains of a talented Australian filmmaker. It was all done through the magic of the interwebs, of course (Thanks, Melissa Cook and Hopscotch Films crew!).

But, yes… I’m pleased to present to you my first official virtual interview — with Claire McCarthy. Claire has written and directed the film “The Waiting City,” which has been shown recently in the Toronto Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival.

The Waiting City will be shown in Australia from the 9th of July (Friday) to the 11th of July (Sunday) 2010 in selected cinemas nationwide (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth). And, if you leave a comment or Tweet about this (or post on your Facebook, etc), you can be one of 10 winners to get a double pass to see the film for free. I’ll have to go with the first 10 comments/Tweets/FB posts. Please don’t forget to add @shaicoggins to alert me!

Now, here’s the interview video with Claire (+ my mash-up intro/ending)… Enjoy!

And, here’s the official trailer for the film -

I really think it looks great. I already read a number of great reviews about it, so I’m hoping that I’d be able to see the film too.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out The Waiting City’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

10 Cool Message and Sign Generators

Shai Coggins — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:30:16 +0000

Every now and then, I indulge myself in some fun time suckers online. One of the things that recently caught my fancy are message/sign generators. Since I haven’t shared a Web Wednesday feature for a while now, I thought this might make up for it… All you need to do is visit the site, type in your message, then save your customised image with your message. Enjoy!

1) Chalkboard Message – Back-to-School Sign Generator – One of my favourites from these message generators, probably because it’s school-themed.

2) Spell with Flickr – I <3 typography. So, this sign generator that enables me to create a customised sign using Flickr images just blew me away. Love it.

3) Street Sign Generator – This cool sign generator tool from Easy Street is simple and fun. You can even choose from small, medium, or large.

4) iPhone Message Generator – No iPhone? Well, you can still send an iPhone message through this generator… Er… Kinda.

5) Word Mosaic – This message/sign generator is fun. Just type in your text, choose symbols, and you can also customise colours and background.

6) Twitter Logo – Create your own Twitteresque sign using this sign generator. Simple.

7) Alphabet Soup Message Generator – Have you ever tried to spell words with alphabet soup? Well, now you can do it easily using this tool.

Dog Tag Sign Generator – Create your own dog tag signs using this online tool. You can even order them and make them in to real dog tags!

9) Chinese Restaurant Sign Generator – I would’ve loved to come up with something more witty, but, oh well…

10) Absolut Vodka Bottle Generator – Create your own bottle sign using this online Absolut Vodka bottle.

Hat Tip: Go Make Something

Daily Delights

Shai Coggins — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:15:20 +0000

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If you were to define your reasons for catching the “blogging block feeling,” would your reason be:

A) You just wrote a couple of massive posts, so it feels like anything that’s not as massive feels too puny or insignificant.

B) You have too much going on in “real life” that it’s getting more and more challenging to translate those things in to “online life”.

C) You are looking at your “Things to Blog” list and you can see that you’re getting further and further behind.

D) Distractions both on and offline abounds.

E) Life just simply gets in the way.

Me? It’s all of the above at the moment.

My solution?

Just do something completely off the typical blogging schedule and wing it. Yes, that’s what I’m doing right now.

Oh, and psssst… I wasn’t really planning on sharing this at all, but since I’ve decided to share one of my latest digital doodles (yep, made on the iPad) right here, I thought I’d let you know that I’ve been archiving some of these doodles and sketches via Studio Sketchpad. I’m also slowly planning on posting some of them on my Flickr account. Yes, I’m doodling/sketching again!

- Blogged from my iPad

Studio Notes by Shai Coggins

What’s The Meaning of Life?

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ShaiCoggins.com: Then and Now

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10 for 10 Special: Celebrating a Decade of ShaiCoggins.com

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We

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You Know You Love Your New Job When…

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Studio Notes Presents… Claire McCarthy, Writer/Director of “The Waiting City”

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10 Cool Message and Sign Generators

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Daily Delights

Random Notes & Things…