Hiatus

I haven’t given up, I refused to!

The past 4 months have been hectic and I refuse to use my blog as a place to rant. So I took a hiatus. Now I feel bad about not blogging.

After weeks and weeks of not checking into my WordPress account, it was nice to find that I have been missed. And yes, I do miss blogging. A lot.

I examined my blog long and hard just now and decided I was trying too hard to keep it going, to the point of just, well, trying too hard. Everything is so cluttered, so many widgets, so many tabs, meaningless posts….ughhhh!

While being busy and stressed with studies was a strong excuse for me not to blog, really I was just tired of maintaining it.

So now……a new theme, a less cluttered look, it’s just me and my writing. Good ‘ol journal style and low maintenance blogging, the way it should be.

I shall blog with a vengeance. Properly this time.

Thank you for still sticking around. I am back.

 

Missing In Action

I’ve been a lousy blogger yet again for abandoning my blog for weeks!

Terry and I are moving again! There are so much to do, so much to organise, so much to buy. The fact that we have such a clutter problem makes it almost a nightmare! But at the same time, we are excited to move to a bigger place.

On the other hand, studies have been keeping me busy. My work has come to the level where I can start working towards publishing an academic journal paper so that my work gets recognised. Very happy about that. But first I have to work out some really difficult maths to make my work strong enough. Don’t even know if I am capable of that but I am trying!

I have heaps of pictures of my cooking and lots of things I want to talk about but haven’t really found the time to sit down and blog. Hopefully by the time we are settled in our new place, my blogging routine will get back to normal again!

In the meantime, Happy Eid Mubarak to all my Muslims friends!

I’ll update soon, promise.  :)

The Journey So Far

This is my 88th blog post! If you are a Chinese, you must recognise that the number 8 is a very lucky number, just because it sounds like the word “prosper” and is often associated with wealth, money, luck, prosperity – oh yes, we Chinese love our money.

Anyway, I digressed….

The last time I noticed the number of posts I published thus far was when I published my 52nd post. Well, by now you get the hint why I haven’t been blogging for weeks now

So, as my 88th blog entry, I decided that this will be a very special entry. I will recap my blogging journey thus far. Its been more than 8 months  (8 again, it’s a sign….!) already since my very first entry in December 2010! How time flies.  Actually Danielle tagged me to do this post weeks ago but I have been procrastinating until today.

1. Most Beautiful Post

It is very difficult to choose one single post that is most beautiful in my blog because I thought every entry I have written about my visit in Japan is equally beautiful. Almost magical! I saw beautiful red leaves of Kyoto and Nara amidst magnificent castles and temples, the tragedy that is Hiroshima, the fast-paced, colourful life and modern lights of Tokyo, the legendary Mount Fuji at Kawaguchiko, , the happiest place in the world that is Disneyland, the cold breeze of Machida and the quirky-ness of Harajuku girls. All of them deserve the most beautiful post tag in my opinion.

2. Most Popular Post

The most popular post is the one I wrote about the talented Yunalis Zarai, a Malaysian singer song-writer who sounds like a combination of Norah Jones, Diana Krall and Colbie Callat. She is young and already making her mark in the American jazz music scene with her signature Muslimah yet stylish image and of course her captivating smoky voice. Perhaps I should write about her again for more traffic

3. Most Controversial Post

I have deliberately avoided controversial topics in my blog so far because I feel I lack the confidence to express my stand with firmness yet with grace, maturity and diplomacy. Plus, I am not sure if I could handle the debate that may surface. Maybe someday in the future, I will write about my stand and opinions on certain issues generally deemed controversial. *Fingers crossed*

4. Most Helpful Post.

The most helpful post has to  Unblocked – the one following my 52nd post, in which I wrote about my blogging meltdown. It is simply a compilation of tips on how to overcome blogger’s block. If I may add, I also think that this post is the most inspiring post I have written so far, simply because it shows how supportive the blogging community is and how generous fellow bloggers can be in offering advice/help although we have never met in real life!

5. A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

When I wrote I Wish, I was actually having another blogger’s block and had nothing interesting to write about other than this random incident I saw on the bus that morning which cracked me up, and then sparked a random musing about kids and growing up. I was pleasantly surprised to receive quite a number of nice comments from a few friends of mine  on Facebook who then subscribed and has been following my blog ever since.

6. A Post That Didn’t Get The Attention It Deserved

This is a difficult one. I don’t think I have ever written anything that “deserved attention” per se. I simply blogged about things that mused me at the time! Maybe I should aim at writing articles that is worthy of serious attention…..hmmm…..

7. The Post I Am Most Proud Of

I am proud of every post I have written so far! The fact that I have maintained this blog since the first post is enough to make myself proud. Hey, three previously abandoned and deleted blogs to date, I say I am doing pretty good with this one Here’s to many more blog posts to come! (Okay, if I really must pick one, I’ll pick this one in which I finally made nice dinner buns, haha!)

Wow, this is a challenging post to do but fun nevertheless. It’s good to have a nice insight into my blogging journey so far. It kinda gave me some perspective on what I can improve and what is lacking. Thanks Danielle for tagging!

Since I am at it, do you have anything to tell me about my blog? What do you like or don’t like about it so far? What do you like to see more/less? Tell me, tell me, tell me….

Hello, Hello!!

Hello blog!

Hello you!

Hello me!

How I miss my blog! How I miss reading your blogs and receiving comments!

Right after my last entry about cutie Maple, I decided to challenge myself. My progress in my studies have been terrible because of procrastination. And excuses. So I decided to set a serious target in my thesis writing and before its done and ready for my supervisor’s review, no blogging for me!

I anticipated that it would take only 2 weeks, max. It took nearly a month! You have no idea how bad it is to want to blog and then turn away from it (withdrawal symptoms haha!). My fingers were itching for weeks! But I am very proud of myself. I kept the promise, I delivered (albeit taking way longer than 2 weeks) and now I can blog…..with a vengeance *grins*

Thank you Pervisha, Danielle and Nadia for checking on me, I am still alive and well, just playing good student for the past few weeks ;)

I have so many things to blog about that I don’t know where to start. I am very hungry (it’s lunch time now) and I am just minutes after hitting the send button, e-mailing my 105-page (ahem!) report to my supervisor. The first thing I wanted to do was blog instead of eat. So yeah

I feel sorry for my little blog, going through a dry spell for a whole month. But rest assured, I am back to nurturing it with lots of writing this week. For the time being, here’s another shot of Maple while I warm up to the blogosphere! I have lots of catching up to do

Lament

Like most days, I typed away in front of my computer today trying to progress with my work as much as possible.

With at least 5 windows open at a time, I tried to multi-task between making the numbers and equations tally on an excel worksheet, referencing at least 3 academic articles on PDFs and trying to make sense of it all in a word file which somehow has to emerge as something “brilliant”. Somehow.

So many aspects to report, so many technical complications to explain and so much to solve, I begin to wonder how I could manage to link all ideas and concepts in a systematic manner. At the moment, I have so many  different word documents written on different days on various topics related to my work and I fear at the thought of trying to compile them all nicely in one continuous document, with good structure, flow and formatting. And sound brilliant too.

Oh and not to mention, it must have a complete reference list and proper citations within the text too. This is the part I drag the most when it comes to technical writing. It is not enough to know what you write about, you must also remember where you first read about it and give due credit by citing it. Otherwise, you’ll get penalised for plagiarism, very serious offense.

This slows me down a lot, spending time trying to dig through hundreds of journal papers in my “collection” and pin point the exact piece for every few lines of text I wrote. Making sure formatting is consistent and up to standard throughout is quite a headache too. I get quite put off by the task of writing my thesis because of these.

Which then procrastination comes into the picture. And then I complain. And I whine.

Sometimes I just sit there wondering why I wanted to do this in the first place. Questioning if this will ever get done.

Then I thought, at least I have a powerful word processing software that is Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel to speed up calculations and Endnote as my efficient citation management sidekick.

Imagine having to do ALL this using only a typewriter….with no delete or backspacing function. Or formatting tools. How did people do anything without a computer? How was it done 30 years ago??

I am fortunate to be in the 21st century.

With that, I snapped out of it and got back to work.

I Am An Award Winning Blogger!

I got a pleasant surprise yesterday morning when I found out my lovely blogger friend Vix has passed on the Versatile Blogger Award to me! I’m so excited and happy to get an award, my very first blogger award, yayy…!!

My first blogger award!

Thank you so much for the honour, Vix!! Vix blogs at Little Miss Everything and has never failed to make me smile with her awesome posts. Go on, go check her out

I proudly proclaim that I accept the award

Hereby, as the recipient of the Versatile Blogger Award *ahem*, I shall adhere to the following rules:

• Thank the person who awarded you and link to his/her blog
• Tell 7 random facts about yourself
• Pass the award to 15 new found bloggers
• Contact each blogger you want to pass the award on to, and let them know you’ve done so, and let the giver of your award know you accept it…or not.

Alright, let’s get to business. Seven random facts about myself:

1. I have a very sweet tooth. I can eat cakes, chocolates and ice creams everyday for life if not for diabetes and obesity.
2. I have never been to a concert in my whole life even though I am an absolute music lover. I hope to change this very soon.
3. I love hot and spicy food very much. I can eat raw chillies dipped in soy sauce with almost anything. Sometimes I don’t feel totally satisfied with my eating experience until I feel that heat on my tongue!
4. I have never held a baby in my life. I like looking at them because they are so cute, but I always think I might break them or make them cry if I get closer! Let’s just say I have a way with small animals but not small humans.
5. I am a die-hard fan of Indiana Jones. I can watch Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade over and over and over again. Harrison Ford rocks!
6. My all time dream holiday destination is Greece. I fell in love with the place ever since watching Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 and Mamma Mia. Such a beautiful place!
7. My favourite activities in the whole wide world, like my REAL favourites, are eating and sleeping *blush*!

Now, I would like to pass on the Versatile Blogger Award to 15 12 of my favourite bloggers whom I follow very closely. Sorry I can’t come up with 15 because I am still new remember? Vix is also one of my favourites, but she is the one who passed me the award, and I know my other favourite, Nicole has also received one. So lucky 12 it is. They are all awesome, do check them out yourselves!

And…..The Versatile Blogger Award goes to (in no particular order):

1. Shinloo at The Geographically Blind
2. Genn at Cadencies
3. Danielle at A Happy Peach
4. Mindy at Finding Silver Linings
5. Nadia at The Expats
6. Pervisha at As’salamo Alaikum
7. Kimberly at Narcicissm is Necessary
8. Suanie at As Suanie Sees It
9. Margie at A Lighter Shade Of Gray
10. Jaclyn at Jaclyn Rae’s Blog
11. Diane at Simply Diane
12. Debbie at 24atHeart

Congratulations everyone!

Unblocked!

On my 52nd post on Tien Unscripted, I had a “blogging meltdown” – major blogger’s block. I have mentioned that I am not proud of some of the posts I published because they are mundane, boring and “forced”, that particular post included. I take that back! I am so glad I wrote and published that post, reaching out to other bloggers out there.

That post was a product of frustration and a desperate attempt of getting a blog post published anyway. I am so touched by all your kind comments, encouraging words, tips, suggestions and your sharing of experiences about blogging with me. I realise now that I have been approaching blogging the wrong way. I was trying too hard and being too hard on myself! I forgot that blogging should be light, fun and casual.

So folks, from today onwards, my blogging motto is K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple, Sweet.

Thanks for being there and offering your support, assuring me that I am not alone. Even though we are “practically strangers”, I feel like I have known y’all a long time…..at least in the blogosphere! Now I can truly testify that the best thing about blogging is getting to know wonderful, wonderful blogger friends whom I can always turn to whenever I need a shoulder to lean on.

I am so inspired and fired-up by your inputs that I have decided to compile all the tips and suggestions you have made and dedicate it to all bloggers out there. I re-phrased some of your words to make them fit nicely in this post, hope you don’t mind. It’s your brilliant suggestions that matter

Now everytime I feel like I can’t blog, this is the post I will re-read and re-read and re-read over, and over again…!

You are my rock, love y’all!

“Whenever I run out of things to say, I start taking pictures or recall random things about me and blog about it.” -Nadia-

“I capitalise on the days when I have a lot of things to say, by saving draft posts, some just with titles and some with just a few words – to remind me what I want to write about when I run out of things to write. Pictures are a good way to ‘cheat’ and it’s something I use often. If not, you can consider sharing meaningful quotes.” -Genn-

“I round-up interesting things I’ve found out or thought about throughout the week and shcedule it for Fridays. None of them constitute to a full post. I use Google Reader to keep my feeds in. It lets me add a star to the posts I like and a review of the starred items help job my memory” -Margie-

“Pick a theme or one part of your day, like at three in the afternoon and take a picture no matter what you are doing. We all get those little moments that makes it harder to compose our thoughts, or figure out what we want to talk about. We’re all here for each other.” -Danielle-

“On days when I have a lot of ideas, I make drafts. On my writer’s block days, I polish up my drafts. Sometimes I play off of my mood. If I’m feeling nostalgic, I’ll write about a memory. If I’m feeling excited, I’ll write about something I am looking forward to. Don’t stress! It’s supposed to be fun!” -Mindy-

“Never ever think of the subject that much, it will only ruin your flow of words! As far as the post ideas for blogging are concerned, well look around! There are topics everywhere. You just need to learn to pick up things and mold them into your blog.” -Pervisha-

“I think it helps to find your nitch and to know your readers. One thing I do now is to have scheduled days. I have Saturday Snapshot so I only need to post a picture. I have Sunday Fixin’, so I post a recipe. I think I’m going to start Fitness Fridays in which I talk about my determination to get back into shape. So now I only have to worry about Mondays through Thursdays.” -Nicole-

“I think it’s best to post whenever you have something to say. Otherwise, read.” -Julie-

“When I blog, I have something to say and am not forcing things. I think best blogs are inspired by a sense of fascination with the world and what is happening currently, either to me personally or in the world. Timeliness and relevancy to current feelings or situations create the most interesting and authentic blogs. A couple of other things I love about blogging, is sharing links, sharing information, making someone else’s world richer with things that I have discovered or have given me an ah-ha moment. If you are bogged down by the blog and have too much to say and can’t figure out how to sort it all out and then just throw in the towel because you are afraid that you aren’t sounding absolutely brilliant (a curse of course because all bloggers want to sound brilliant and witty), try just limiting yourself to a paragraph. Write about what is in your mind at that moment but in the briefest manner possible. You connect with your readers, feel good about yourself too because you are keeping your blog alive with your thoughts! Think of it like as if you were tweeting something. But just a tad longer.” -Melissa-

52

This is my 52nd post on Tien Unscripted!

I wasn’t keeping track of the number of posts I was writing until a few minutes ago when I noticed it on my dashboard.

Alright, to be honest, I have been staring at my computer screen since two hours ago, trying to blog. Typing and backspacing and deleting and retyping and finally deleting everything!

Somehow, my blog subscription page just wouldn’t load and I have resorted to clicking on the links in my blog post comments to read blogs I subscribe. After tracking 3-4 blogs that way, I got tired. So, no luck getting inspirations through reading my favorite blogs this time.

I tried Plinky for some prompts. And I was back to the process of typing, backspacing, deleting, retyping and deleting everything and repeated that for about 3 times. Then when I resumed staring blankly at my dashboard, I saw that I have already published 51 posts and this would be my 52nd if it ever gets published. Thus the opening line in this post.

When having writer’s block, write about writer’s block, eh?

I have another confession. I get writer’s block very often. Or is it blogger’s block?

I have not gone through one week of blogging without writer’s blogger’s block since I started last December. I committed myself to publishing at least three times a week, consistently from day one. Even that was is a challenge for me. I refuse to let myself break my blogging pattern because I know that I will eventually just stop and abandon my blog altogether if I start to do so. Like I did for my previous blogs *blush*.

I find myself churning so hard sometimes just to keep to that commitment that some of my published posts are mundane, boring and seemed “forced”. Not proud of those….(this one included).

I salute bloggers who signed up for the WordPress’ DailyPost Challenge and have kept to it for like two and a half months now! When I saw that challenge, I know I wouldn’t be able to do it, so I didn’t bother. I figured three posts a week would be a good enough challenge for myself and I was right!

You know who you are! If you blog everyday or more than 5 days a week consistently, how did you do it? How did you come up with so many interesting topics to blog about every other day? Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how did you get over it?

Please, please, please share….I really need the help! Anyone?!

Chocolicious

When I first started Tien Unscripted in December 2010, I spent days trying out different themes because I am fickle-minded like that. I particularly wanted a blog theme that is easily readable because I wanted my writings to be the centre of attention. So only themes with a fairly wide width appealed to me. But then I also wanted a personalised look for my blog so that it won’t look too standardised.

After changing and readjusting to at least 5 themes, I finally settled for the default Twenty Ten because it still has the best readability compared to all other themes – my opinion. I particularly like its clean look, large fonts and it comes with lots of theme options. My full attempt on personalising the overall look only included usage of typekit fonts and a plain green coloured background instead of the default one. I wanted to tweak it more but, well, I have neither HTML nor CSS knowledge! Plus WordPress does not allow CSS alterations unless you pay. I personally hated the header image!  But since I am hopeless in coming up with really creative design or ideas of the like, I had to settle with the standardised image from WordPress.

I was telling myself week after week that I would think of a nice photo or image design to go onto the header, then that would make me happy. Alas, weeks went into months and this morning, I decided I would just do away with the “really catchy and awesome header image” and just use a more artsy and stylish theme to make up!

So…..tadaaa…..the new Choco theme from WordPress!

Hope you like it as much as I do. Tell me what you think

Day Two

Just one day after my first post, I am starting to think all this blogging thing is a mistake! I start to doubt if I can consistently update with interesting stuff about my life that people would actually enjoy reading. I know, I know, I blog for myself and not for an audience. But I really can’t help it. I wouldn’t want to come back and read my own posts and find it mundane and pointless. Yes I consider myself as one of my own audiences.

Perhaps I should just relax and take it easy. Maybe today is not a good day to write. Probably I am being too hard on myself again. I have already changed the appearance of my blog more than thrice since yesterday. I want it to look good, its one of the factors that would make me like my own blog and prompt me to write better. I am not quite happy with this narrow column for my posts though. The sides seem too wide and a waste of space! I want my words to be the centre of attention here, yet I want the blog (My blog!) to look nice as a whole. I want it more personalised, to be more “Me”….but I am not tech savvy enough to make the necessary tweaks!

This is very frustrating and it is making me very anxious too.

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Its been 5 minutes since the last line was written. And look, I’ve hit 240 words for this post. Thats not so bad, ain’t it?

I feel better now.

I think I can really do this blogging thingy.

End of lament.