What does it take to be a blogger? Over 16 million people in Malaysia have access to the Internet. How do you become one of those two million among the 16 million that Rais Yatim, when he was the Information, Communication and Culture Minister, said were blogging in Malaysia and about Malaysia?
For starters, if you were me, that means waking up at 5.30 this morning, shower and get your personal self organized, put in one load of washing, fold up and put away the other load that you put in the night before, clear the kitchen of any dirty dishes, fill up the empty water bottles and ice cubes, take out whatever fish or meat you intend to cook for the day, clean up the cat food dish and put her morning meal in that cleaned dish, empty the rubbish bins (yes two bins...one for domestic rubbish and the other for recycles), make your bed, make yourself a cup of Tea or Nescafe (depending on your druthers...this morning it is black strong Tea) and by 6.45 or 7.00 AM or thereabouts...sit yourself down at your table to begin your "work" as a blogger.
Now that is what I have to do before I can even think of becoming that most misuse, misattributed and most mischevious use of the English language ever: "warrior"....they say that I am a "keyboard warrior" On par with that Bugis politician who labeled himself a Bugis "warrior". We, Najib and me, have as much right in calling ourselves warriors as that Flying Hippo calling herself FLOM. So perish that thought!
Now comes the part where I start to have self-doubts.
Before you write you must have something to write about. Yes, you have ideas. Yes, you have grand designs....hell you may even have a burning desire to change the world, impose world peace upon all man and women kind....BUT....Who cares? Who wants to know? Are your ideas, thoughts and "want to do's" coherent and doable? And then that most difficult of things to do : Put those ideas in words so that you can share them with others. The actual process of writing may take a few minutes if your thoughts and your flow of words are in sync.....or as is usually the case....hours of write and rewrites before it is done. Then with a flourish and that feeling of "job done!" you click that final "publish button!".
Remember that line in "Fields of Dreams"..."If you build it, He will come"? To me that line is akin to "carpe diem" ....that you should trust your instincts, follow your dreams...seize the moment! So if you want to write, if you want to blog...just go and do it.
Easier said than done!
When you push that "publish button" to put what you have written on to your blog page, you then start worrying if anybody will read it...will anybody want to read it!
Self-doubt is always there but self-doubt is good because you try harder to write better and you put only your best effort onto the public domain for once you push that "publsih button" what you write is no longer yours. It is no longer in your heart or your head to have and to keep for yourself. Now anybody and everybody can, if they so desire, agree or disagree with what you write. How many of you are prepared to open ideas, your thoughts, your beliefs and yourself up to scrutiny by others without having a "face to face" moment to defend yourself? How many?
I have been doing this for close to seven years now. It is the same process every day with every posting that I put onto steadyaku47. The fact that I am 6300 kilometers from K Hell helps a hell of a lot because I am far from the maddening crowd....but in the end, I am also human. Do I not bleed when you prick me?
So be gentle my friends when you want to tell me the errors of my ways. But if you want to engage me in civil discussions and tête-à-tête of the graceful and civilized kind...bring it on! I
Enough for now...I will write more on blogging when it moves me to do so. Salam.
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