Can attending two bloggers meet in one month be too much? Lucia Lai of Mental Jog is organising a meet in Penang. This is a good opportunity for bloggers and blog readers alike to put a face to the blogs they frequent. It will be another great opportunity for me to make more new friends. Do come and join us. Details are here and as follows:

Date: January 30, 2005.
Time: 4:00pm
Venue: Nasi Kandar Pelita, Sungai Dua.

I had to drag myself out of bed this morning. This is nothing unusual since that is the routine I go through almost everyday. But I slept pretty late last night and the night before. Last night was because we went out with William and Cynthia, and had loads of fun catching up. The previous night I found out that Jinny whom I had been exchanging emails with is the niece of an old friend of mine. Jinny and I chatted in ICQ until 2:30am. But that is the story for another entry. I had to drag myself out of bed this morning because of what Oon Yeoh wrote in his second email to me.

“Hey, make sure you get a copy of theSun on Saturday. I’m mentioning you in my Heart of the Matter column in theSun Weekend.

Will keep you in suspense what it’s all about so there’s a pleasant surprise when you read the article on Saturday!”

Plebeians like me do not get mentioned in the press very often, certainly not by the editor of the online version of a newspaper. Even before I brushed my teeth and catheterised, I logged in to check the online version of theSun since Wuan was still not back from 7-11 with a copy of the newspaper.

Oon’s blogged called Transitions was one of the first blogs I read. I caught the blogging bug from there even before I understood what blogging was all about. What interested me most was the dynamic and interactive nature of blogs and the emotions it could invoke. I remember there was much furore over something that Oon wrote. I do not remember exactly what the issue is about now but I realised the reach, power and possibilities that a blog could bestow.

Thank you Oon Yeoh for initiating me into this wonderful journey into blogosphere. It has given me so much. I have made many new friends and got discovered by many old friends. Blogging has also shaped my thoughts and changed my outlook in life. I am a much better person today because I discovered a lot about myself through my writings. Thank you. Click here to read what Oon Yeoh wrote in his column.

Touching chronicles of a ’special’ blogger
Oon Yeoh

MERRIAM WEBSTER famously declared “blog” the word of the year for 2004.

Every year, the dictionary publisher lists the most looked-up words and last year, “blog” was the one that people have asked to be defined most.

Blogs first emerged in the US around 1999. It didn’t really catch on here until two years ago, but even then hardly anyone outside the cyber-elite knew about them.

It was only last year that common folk started noticing blogs.

A lot of credit for that has to go to Jeff Ooi, whose often controversial blog has irked a lot people and won him a cult following as well.

There are now countless local blogs touching on everything from drug culture to politics, to food, to relationships.

Most of them involve deep navel gazing, which suggests that the majority of local bloggers are writing for themselves.

It’s also why none of these bloggers have achieved the fame or notoriety of Jeff Ooi, who clearly writes for an audience of fans, strangers and detractors alike.

One inspiring blog that I came across purely by chance is Digital Awakening (http://www.petertan.com/blog) by Peter Tan.

It too is not a conventional blog, with lots of hyperlinks. Rather, it’s very much an online diary.

Now, I don’t usually care much for those. I have enough problems in my life, I don’t need to read about others.

But Peter is not someone with ordinary problems like you and me. When he was 18, he suffered a spinal cord injury during a diving accident and became paralysed from the chest down.

Peter’s blog chronicles his life, thoughts and opinions on various things.

In reading his writings, I couldn’t help but admire his courage and his optimism.

None of us who do not have his disabilities can come close to imagining how life must be for him.

But reading his blog will give us some sense, and hopefully help cultivate more compassion in ourselves.

I felt moved to write to Peter and got a reply: “Actually, I am quite used to my disabilities after so many years. It is just that I like to grouch and complain a little every now and then to get some of the stress of daily living off my chest. This blog is a good way for me to do that.”

Sometimes, you can feel the bitterness he feels about those who let him down.

Here’s something he wrote about friendship: “In times of crises, we see who is genuine and who is false. Blood relations do not figure in this equation. Brothers and sisters could just stand aside and watch indiffe- rently while friends and neighbours provide helping hands that aid unconditionally.”

Other times, he has a good laugh at how ignorant people can be of spinal cord injuries. Here’s an encounter in an elevator:

Stranger: Are the cosmetic counters at Level 1?
Me: Yes.
Stranger: Are you going to the basement?
Me: Yes.
Stranger: What happened to you?
Me: Spinal cord injury.
Stranger: You can’t walk?
Me: No.
Stranger: Are you sure you can’t walk?
Me: Do you think I will be using this if I can walk?

But Peter’s website is more than a journal of his thoughts.

“Of course it also serves a few other purposes, namely to show the uninformed public that disabled people are not totally helpless and we can still do many things. We do not need sympathy but opportunities to live our lives as close to normal as possible.”

I didn’t interview Peter for this article. Instead, I delved deeper into his blog, to learn more about him through his writings.

I’ve learnt, for instance, that Peter is a web designer. Here’s one of his commercial web design projects: http://www.mlghospitality.com. A non-commercial project is his website on spinal cord injury (http://sci.petertan.com).

Peter is a photographer — and a very good one at that. His entries are full of beautiful photographs. I don’t know if he takes on commercial work for his photography, but he should.

Peter believes in harnessing the power of the Internet to connect with people and when he recently moved from Penang to Kuala Lumpur, he successfully organised a bloggers’ meet through his blog. He is now trying to create an online Catholic network.

In his writings, Peter constantly refers to a person named Wuan. I wasn’t sure if this was a family member or his girlfriend or wife. But he referred to her as his cyberbuddy. I guess they must have met online.

Whomever this Wuan is, she is obviously someone who now takes very good care of him, and someone whom Peter loves dearly. He’s even built a website for her called Poems for Wuan (http://wuan.petertan.com).

Perhaps what was most surprising to me was that Peter and I already had a sort of connection long before I wrote him.

“Your blog was one of the first I read, when you were writing for Malaysiakini,” Peter wrote in his e-mail. If I remember correctly, it was called Transitions, and Jeff’s blog was also linked in Malaysiakini around that time … You can say that you had inspired me to start blogging.”

As a blogger and a columnist I get a lot of comments from readers. Some slam my views while others support them. None was as meaningful to me as the comments Peter made.

Let me leave you with an entry he made about his recent move to KL, which captures both his fears and hopes.

“Wuan had been trying to get me to come for a long time. Somehow, I always had something to do. I am glad I made this trip finally. Being away from the comforts of home has posed some challenges. It has also opened my eyes to the kind-heartedness of strangers. Their sincere smiling faces while assisting me along the way from Penang to KL tells that there is hope yet, especially after the indescribably sad catastrophe in the region. The monotony here is just a little price to pay for regaining some clarity of mind and to be reminded of the beauty of humanity.”

Oon Yeoh is editor of Sun2Surf.com

Updated: 10:13PM Fri, 21 Jan 2005

Last night, finally, Wuan and I met up with William and Cynthia again. William is our IRC buddy from many years ago and the very first online friend I met in real life. Cynthia and he got married recently. In the six years of friendship, William and I have met less than ten times but the times that we do get together, we would be chatting like we know each other very well.

William had asked me where I would like to eat and suggested Victoria Station if western food was my preference. Now, the last time I ate at Victoria Station in Penang, it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I swore never to step into any of its restaurants again. The service was absolutely pathetic. The waiters chose to serve the Caucasians and other better-dressed guests first even though we were seated before them. And they had the audacity to bill us for the Caesar’s Salad that we ordered but never served and never once apologized for that oversight. Instead the waiter and captain openly displayed their displeasure at having to wade through the piles of order chits to be sure we did not cheat them of the salad.

Therefore, I was slightly dismayed when William drove into the Victoria Station driveway at Jalan Ampang.

“You never give a second chance one ah?” William asked.

So there we sat, giving this popular steakhouse a second chance and to prove me wrong about their service, while talking about my kidneys and the kind of diet I have to adhere to.

“Today is my meatless day. You should be very honoured that I am breaking it just for you.” I told William.

William, in his usual self, shot off a series of seemingly innocuous questions about my dietary habits, then turned to Cynthia and said, “This fella very fussy one. This cannot eat. That cannot eat.”

Our food arrived and Wuan took my plate and cut the lamb into smaller pieces for me. William had wanted to get the kitchen to do that when we ordered but I preferred to have my food served as is first. Seeing Wuan struggling with the knife at the tougher portion of the cut, William offered and took over the task. This is also one of the reasons why I seldom eat steak unless Wuan is with me. Cutting meat can be an onerous task.

Victoria Station did redeem themselves. The service was good, the staff attentive and courteous. After our dinner, William suggested having a drink somewhere else. We went all the way to Strawberry Fields Caf� at PJ State. It boggles my mind how and why KLites can travel a great distance just to have a drink. Or did William drive the distance just to show me the night sights of Kuala Lumpur? KL Tower and KLCC were indeed impressive from the distance.

A short while later today, the four of us will be going to Low Yat Plaza. William had offered to take Wuan and me there because we could not find a wheelchair access ramp into the complex. William thinks the only way in is through the basement car park. I cannot ask for a better friend who will deprive himself of sleep to take me where I want to go. He was also the one who went to fetch me from the airport the first time I travelled alone to Kuala Lumpur in 1999. That is William for you.

I will soon create a link aggregator page within this website called the Malaysian Roman Catholic Bloggers Network (MRCBN). The blogs do not necessarily have to be about Roman Catholicism or Christianity. As long as the blogger professes the faith, he is most welcomed to add his details in MRCBN. Bloggers are invited to send me an email with details of their blog names, url, name of parish church and location to be included in this list. I will also gladly add links of overseas bloggers who send me the same information. Links will not be arbitrarily added without the blogger’s consent.

This idea was born out of necessity on my part. When I first arrived in KL, I was looking for a church to attend Mass. There was little detail available on the Internet. Thanks to the information from Mystic and Adriene, I will be attending the 11:30am Mass this Sunday at Church of St. Francis Xavier in Petaling Jaya. The MRCBN can also serve as a launching point for Roman Catholics from all over Malaysia to forge fellowships via cyberspace.

Additionally, I welcome information on the location of Roman Catholic churches in Malaysia. This will be most helpful to those wishing to attend Mass or just visit the churches when they are in the neighbourhood. Please provide the name of the church, name of parish priest, address, telephone number and if possible, the Mass schedule. Please send all emails to mail@petertan.com. Alternatively, you can leave the details in the comment section of this entry. Likewise for the details of your blog. Thank you in advance. Peace be with you.

*Note: The Malaysian Catholic Bloggers Network page is at MyRCBlogNet.

When bloggers meet, we inevitably whip out our digicams and start snapping photos of each other. That was not all. In the midst of smiling for the cameras and chatting, we had a Rubik’s Cube Speed Contest, See Whose Camera Flash Shoots Off Fastest and Who Is Drinking The Most Expensive Water. We bloggers can be a bunch of weird people doing strange things when we come together.

I almost could not make it to the meet. Early Saturday morning, I was knocked off by bouts of fever that got from bad to worse. For the whole of that day, I was either shivering uncontrollably from chills or incoherent in my thoughts. It was that bad. I did not eat for the entire day because each time I tried to sit up, fainting spells would just overwhelm me.

When Wuan got back from work at 8:00pm, I was still in bed. She looked at me straight in the eyes and told me that we will not be going to the meet if my fever persisted. And I was wondering how I was going to explain to those who went and I did not. There was no way I could put up another entry in the state that I was in. Even if I did, those who had planned to go might not read it. What if I recovered enough the next morning?

When I woke up the next morning, I felt better but still weak. I was glad Wuan and I made it there. Twenty of us met at Starbucks, One-Utama. I was really late, arriving at 11:45am when I had set the time at 11:00am. I am sorry to have made you people wait for me. When we arrived at the venue, I saw Adriene and Marita and two of their friends. As I got closer, another group joined us. I could recognise two of them, Kaz and David, from the photos that they posted in their blogs.

The two girls with Marita and Adriene were Chet and Renee. When Adriene was in Penang the last time, I got to meet a cousin I never knew I had. This time around, Adriene met Renee, an ex-classmate whom she has not met for a while. Adriene and I must have this aptness of getting unknown relatives and long lost friends together.

It was truly a great day for me. Now I get to put a face to most of the blogs I frequent. They are Andreas, Redzuan, Fazri, Leo, Albert, Sashi, Jordan, Jess, Edrei, Jocelyn and Grace. Wuan, Renee, Little K (Jocelyn’s daughter)and Leen (Jordan’s wife) were the non-bloggers there that morning.

I was surprised and heartened by the large turnout. You all came with just an invitation through my blog. I am truly moved. Thank you guys and gals, for spending your Sunday morning and afternoon with me. Although we did not have the time to really get to know each other at this gathering I hope that we can continue to foster this new found friendship through our blogs, bloggers meets, emails and IM. This has been a wonderful weekend and most probably the highlight of my trip to KL. Blog on mates!

Who won the contests? I do not know about the first two but Jordan won hands down for drinking the most expensive bottle of water that day. Jordan, there is no prize for that except the bragging rights to the price you paid for that tiny bottle of water. Perhaps you should have kept that plastic bottle as a trophy? After the meet, we had another contest – The Fastest Blogger Meet Poster. While I was still busy window shopping with Wuan, Marita and Chet, Andreas had already got details of that meet up in his blog. Andreas, I have no prize for you either but a few useless MT tips that you can probably fish from the forums anyway. You can pick it up from me anytime.

Read the following for their account of the meet:
Andreas’ Bloggers Meeting In Starbucks
Jordan’s Invasion Of The Bloggers!
Chet’s What A Day
Dave Yoong’s Persatuan Persaudaraan Bloggers
Edrei’s Gathering After The Darkest Night
Leo’s 1Utama Bloggathering and photos.
Fazri’s Meet The Bloggers and photos.

* The rest of the images will be uploaded when I get back to Penang.