memoirs on a rainy day

Blogging has become a part of my life since I started in 2006. I blogged in other ways before in HTML files that were constantly updated from 1998-2003. I wrote this post about my blogging habit. Today, I will go into the reasons why I love blogging.

Suplado tagged me with a meme, so here are my reasons for blogging.

1. Power of blogs

More than once, I have seen a positive change in my life due to blogs. For example, there was the time that I had topped my upload limit in a month on Zooomr. I blogged about this. A few hours later I received a comment and an email from Kris Tate CFO of Zooomr. He reset my upload limit for the month so I could upload my photos. I really appreciated that. Earlier this year, I had trouble uploading my photos. Kris managed to resolve my issue in a few minutes.

More recently, I blogged about losing a Better Bottle from CamelBak. I was running at full speed in order to catch the bus. I made the bus, but immediately noticed once in the bus, that I had lost my bottle in my full out run. I asked myself which I preferred, losing a bottle or being in time for my university classes. It took only a fraction of a second to decide that I’d rather go to school on time. I will receive a new Better Bottle from CamelBak later this week, courtesy of their marketing department.

2. Immediate results

As an aspiring writer, photographer and artist, I love seeing an immediate result. This happens when I push the “Post” button in my WP dashboard. Immediately, my post is published on my blog and sent through my RSS subscriptions. With a good Pagerank, what you write has immediate impact as well. The power of your blog relies on how easy it is to find your content.

3. Exposing racism and other injustices

As a visible minority in a largely Caucasian population, I am extremely sensitive to racism. This means that I notice it easily. A look, a word, a gesture. I can interpret these when they are racist. I have said before that between France, Germany and Canada, Quebec is by far the most racist place I have ever lived. I won’t count Taiwan, since the Taiwanese are pretty much racist towards anybody. That’s not necessarily true, but from a certain point of view, it is.

4. Sharing my writing, my photos and art

From paperblogging, to watercolors, to photography, to creative writing, I do create things. Some of them are crap, others are good. In an effort to better myself, I post these. Hopefully some people will like them. I don’t really post them to receive criticism. In that sense, I am my own harshest critic.

I was messing around with a paint brush and ink a few weeks ago and this was the result. I have been researching ways to do some calligraphy. After a few experiments, I decided on using ink dip pens as they get the best result. I’ve seen some typographers and calligraphers working with brushes, but they are hard to use. It will take a lot of practice.

This piece actually turned out to be a short poem. Click the image about to read or read it below.

The weight of the world lay on his shoulders, but he could not tell.
Like the abyss that spawned him, his heart of hearts told him different.
What could be said?
What could be done?
No one could tell.

It crushed him slowly into pieces.
The gaps became larger.
No one knew if he could ever be put back together

Things would always fall apart.

Power Lines by Crystal Bale. Written when she was in grade five.

Calligraphy and penmanship lessons, including books available in PDF format.

SXSW interactive Moleskine notes by Mike Rohde.

Mattias Adolfsson’s moleskines. (via mp)

A single piece of paper art by Bert C.

Using a moleskine notebook to GTD.

Here are the results from an Advanced Typography class using Field Notes.

A little something that I sent my wife yesterday. I used Faber Castell 0.8mm, 0.5mm, 0.3mm and 0.2mm. I also used Tombo ABT coloring pens to add a dash of color. It’s done paperblog style.