I heart blogging

When I first came to know about blogs back in 2004, I wasn't particularly impressed with it. Perhaps it was becos the author was a rather obnoxious individual, writting longwindedly, whinning and complaining about his sentiments of his boss(es) at work. Specificially, he was rather detailed about situation of his dissent, downright describing numberous instances of their arguments.

In 2005, I knew of another handful of friends who had their own blog and I would once in a blue moon visit their site. Finally in 2006, my SIL shared at a family dinner that she has started her own blog. And becos she was posting quite regularly about herself, her baking exploits and the kids, it became a favourite bookmark that I would check every other day as a "reward" or break from the monotony of work. Then, it dawned on me that I should have my very own blog site too so that we could update the extended family of our progress as our soon-to-be little family unit might be expected to travel due to Louis' work (click here to see our very first humble beginnings and posting).

Indeed this blog has served that very purpose and more. More than the extended family, it is a way for friends to get updated about us and Faith. Especially a number of friends from Louis' MBA days that are now scattered all over the world and for one reason or another, our blog has served to update them about our developments, on Faith's entry into this world, our little parenthood trials and tribulations and new happenings in our daily lives.

For me, blogging is an outlet for me to voice my thoughts, preserve my sanity and quite importantly, to maintain my writing skills. You may laugh at the thought of the last, but I kid you not. While I took a one-year hiatus from work to accompany Louis for his MBA studies, English, which had all along been my first (and key) language of communication at work and in life took a nosedive. I forgot how to spell simple words and writting lost its structure -- frankly, IM could be the bane of proper English language use due to its casualness, number of abbreviations like LOL, BRB, TTYL and of course, Singlish. A typical conversation with friends could go...

Friend: Yo!

Eve: Yo!

Friend: Wahh... you now then log on ah?

Eve: Yah lor! Sleeping mah.

Friend: Wah say! So lucky. I got to wake up early today. Y'day, I slept late somemore... went out to "chiong" with my clubbing frens... drank until puke. This morning, really din wan 2 wake up man!

Eve: Serious ah?....

Well... for all the non-Singaporeans reading this, you might be flabbergasted and scratching your head at the thread of sample conversation above. And so you see...its easy to know why my English deteriorated. I'm not trying to pin the blame on anyone, least of all, the friends that I enjoy chatting with using Singlish and these days, the whole gamut of emoticons that peppers all IM communications that Louis finds it hard put to read becos it contains words and emoticons all jumbled up to the uninitiated.

When you are at work, the endless number of emails that you could be writing to your bosses or CEO (necessitating the need to spend an incredible half a day just to write a few paragraphs in an email), potential business clients, responses to public complains etc etc at least ensures that you put more thought into your writing instead of shooting from the mouth. Or how about that strategy paper for a 3-year programme that's supposed to justify your existence in the organisation that will potentially be scrutinised and poked holes by the senior management?

And of course, blogs are also a nouveau way to make friends. Well... you would occassionally click on an unknown link on your friend's blog and return often to read updates, drop an occassional comment or two and initial the start of a new friendship.

Most recently, we've received emails from 2 friends whom we have not contacted for a while. They were most curious to know what had happened since our last communications when they remembered our blog site link. And presto! They got their answers by reading our blog. In fact, one of them remarked that our blog kept her company one night when she couldn't sleep due to an upset stomach :)

So technology does have its many pros and alongside, some cons as well. Well... you've got to take the good with the bad, but for us, the goods have outweighed the bads so far in blogging.

That's why I HEART BLOGGING :)