International Blog Day

I wonder if the fact that it’s International Blog Day today has anything to do with the West Australian Blog Awards Night also happening today. (Yes, I know I’ve said this before!) I wonder if it will be reported in that august (no pun intended!) rag, the West Australian! I don’t think I’ll be going, as I am of the shy, retiring type who prefers to remain as anonymous as possible…

As part of the International Blog Day celebrations, you are supposed to recommend five new blogs that you like, “preferably Blogs that are different from their own culture, point of view and attitude”.

I don’t know how we define “new” but I chose these blogs because I find them interesting, and they are written by people I would probably never meet, ordinarily. It was very hard to choose…

Here’s my five:
Ceejbot.
I have been reading this blog for some years now (I think it’s one of the first blogs I ever read, actually). CJ is a programmer who plays MMORPGs and rides motorbikes. She also writes about her life in general, warts and all.

Living on Less.
The author writes about her frugal life. Because of her health she doesn’t work. Writings about her life, politics, and all sorts of observations, nicely illustrated with her own hand-drawn pictures.

Illusion Perdues.
Written by Song Li who lives in Beijing. I like the look of this blog (the author majored in fine arts) and I like reading about life in China.

Pathologically Polymathic.
By Danny Yee in Sydney. Another blog I have been following for years. I also enjoy his photos and his book reviews.

Ada apa dengan shinshin.
Recently found this blog, which I have been enjoying for its dissenting voice on various aspects on Malaysian politics and society. Which leads me nicely to…

31 August is also Malaysian independence day. Selamat menyambut hari kebangsaan ke-48, Malaysia! (Translation: Happy 48th national day, Malaysia!) There’s a plan by Malaysian bloggers who normally blog in English, to blog in BM, that is, Bahasa Malaysia (Malay), today (saw this on Sharon Bakar’s blog; she in turn got the tip-off from Eye on Everything). There’s of course quite a sizeable population of Malaysian bloggers who already blog in BM anyway, but quite a lot of the Malaysian blogosphere normally do it in English. The day’s entries should be interesting to read, at any rate!

I occasionally toy with the idea of writing in Malay or even Chinese, just for a change, but I usually abandon the idea because I think I would have to translate any such entries or risk alienating 99% of my readers. I’m sure I could translate things, but it just seems a bit like an unnecessary affectation on my part. Writing in Malay wouldn’t be too difficult, but writing in Chinese would be torture…

I wanted to write about Malaysia today but I’ve dawdled too much and it’s almost time for breakfast. Despite having lived in Australia for more than half my life now, I still follow the news in Malaysia and ponder its future. The book I reviewed yesterday, A bit of earth, just touches on some of the complexities of Malaysian society. Mooiness has talked a bit about some of the problems too.

Categories: BlogDay2005, blogs, Malaysia