The Good and Bad of Blogs

Why do people blog in the first place? I've always wondered about this strange practice of blogging. It is sort of like a hybrid between a diary and a personal website. Therefore, it serves to be both private and yet public; which is a paradox in itself.

How can you publish something on a blog yet claim it to be private? And why do people even bother to blog if not because they want to share a part of their life with the rest of the world? (Note that the blogs are accessible to anybody in the world who has an Internet connection) Is it a voyeuristic nature of human beings that leads to the success of the Internet blogs? I guess it's totally because of this characteristic that blogs are such hype today! Can you imagine if nobody bothered to even read what someone typed on his/her blog? I guess it probably would not hurt the blogger that people do not read his/her blog. But the fundamental nature of a blog is to publicly tell others what affects us in our private lives, isn’t it so?

The benefits of a blog seem to be quite apparent. It works like a diary, but more convenient, aesthetic and economical than a paper diary. Firstly, blogs are so easy to set up. All one needs to set up a blog is time. Once you set up an account, the rest is more or less done for you. Secondly, one can add pictures, videos, song files, and other media to enhance their blogs and the entries. This definitely beats looking at a plain old diary and going through the trouble of cutting/pasting and doing some tedious handicraft to enhance one’s paper diary. Finally, it’s free and definitely low-cost (if you don’t consider the electrical bills.)

However, the cons of having a blog seem to outweigh its benefits. Firstly, a blog is public (unless you choose to block/allow certain people only) Due to this public nature of a blog, it is accessible to the entire world. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can just enter into a blog and learn a lot about the blogger’s life and friends. Next, because of the open access, a lot of repercussions can ensue if a terrible hacker or nasty stranger decides to do something to defame or insult the blogger. Lives can be destroyed overnight because of blogs. And the very presence of tag-boards also opens up a whole new can of worms. Because tag-boards cannot be monitored 24/7, malicious and potentially harmful things can be said or added to insult and defame the blogger without the blogger even knowing about it. And what’s worse is the fact that others can access and see the matter happening before their eyes before the blogger can intervene. True, there is a way to block access to the culprit but can you stop that person forever? It is impossible, because the Internet is too large a network to ever successfully track down this person (unless you’re working with the CIA). In any case, this just opens up Pandora’s Box. Finally, if blogs start becoming too much a part of people’s lives, it may not be beneficial for their physical and mental health. This is because whatever happens in the Internet world may affect them very seriously due to their attached-ness to blogs per se. Thus, this may lead them to not be able to properly function in the real world. If people could just start appreciating the real world more, maybe things would not be so bad. Yes, less time on the blogs and more time smelling the flowers and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation.

In conclusion, it is certainly ironic for me to be blogging about blogging. Yes, it’s totally self-reflexive. I do have an agenda for blogging this paragraph. And it is to tell fellow bloggers to stop treating your blogs so seriously. There are so many things out there in life to think and do. Yes, blogs are beneficial in a way so I’m totally fine with its continued existence. But a balance should be established so that we do not get sucked into the unrealities of the virtual world.

HAPPY FEASTDAY, CHRIST THE KING!

This Sunday is the Feastday of the Parish of Christ the King, Singapore.
Not my parish technically-speaking, but been raised and grew up in this quaint little church in Ang Mo Kio.
Had a lot of memories here: Lotsa good ones, a couple of okay ones, and some well rather forgettable ones.



Interestingly, I was among the first few babies to be baptised at this church as I was born about the same time the church was officially opened...around August 1982.
This makes the church the same age as myself: 24 years old.

In Christ the King church, I went through my

• Baptism,
  
• First Holy Communion,
  
• First Confession,
  
• Confirmation
• First crush (NO, I'm not talking about crushing cockroaches)
• First time I handled a dead kitten while clearing an old store-room (Gross and sad)
  
• First time in an adoration room.
• First Youth Group - Youth Liturgy Ministry
  
• First brush with politics...heh...one of the not too nice memories.
• First time being in a major leadership role
• First time being a karang-guni man (Youth Fund-raising)
  
• First time being a salesman (Youth Fund-raising)
  
• First time being a chef (Youth Canteens)
• First time being an interior decorator (Youth Room)
• First time feeling mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted to the core
• Most importantly, my first real group of friends!!!
• AND so much more....

The truth about it all, the church has been a big part of my life for the last 24 years.
And yet, these few months since I technically stepped down from any active participation in church, I've not really felt totally lost.
It's that strange paradox: I want to be away, yet I want to return.

I hope and pray that I'll return to CTK some day.
(as in to be part of the church movement once more)
BUT not too soon...
In the meantime,

HAPPY 24TH BIRTHDAY TO THE CHURCH OF CHRIST THE KING!
HAPPY FEASTDAY!

REDS WIN IN RED. SEE???

As we've seen, Liverpool has won again wearing Red.
It comes as no surprise; and I don't think it's just home advantage...

Look at Stevie G! YEAH! His second goal of the season...
Hopefully, he will start to score more goals.


Stevie Gerrard scoring against PSV to make it 1-0!


It's celebration time for the Red folks...at last, something to cheer about.

And finally, we got to see Petie Crouch scoring his 14th goal of the season!
Amazing, isn't he? Surprisingly, he hasn't really been in Rafa's good books.


The lanky Crouch makes it 2-0 with an unbeatable header!

So, finally. My conclusion for the post: The Reds can WIN IN RED but not in YELLOW.
Dump the yellow! Cut them some slack! Give us fans something to cheer about!

THE REDS HAVE BEEN YELLOW-FIED...

It's a sad sad fact... But the Reds seem to be hitting a rough patch recently.
And what's killing every fan is their terrible away form!
It's something that can't really be explained, cos they do so well at home.

Comparing their home and away stats:

Home - 5 wins, 1 draw
Away - 5 losses, 2 draws

It's unbelievable, but they seem to hit a wall everytime they travel out of Anfield. I wouldn't even dare say 'travel out of Liverpool' due to their sad sad 3-0 loss to archrivals and fellow Liverpudlians Everton!!

Some fellow Liverpool fans have said it's a curse! And they all seem to agree that the curse points simply to that terrible terrible YELLOW away jersey that they wear!


"I don't believe it..My plan was flawless. Must be the yellow coloured jerseys..."


"It's a disgrace! I hope nobody recognises me in this jersey..."


"Dirk, I think it's time we used our secret weapon: The Euro Away kit!"


"Man, I thought that Yellow's my lucky colour!!!"

Truth be told, when the Reds play away in European games, they seem to have won a number of them... Remember the 1-0 win over Bordeaux? And this is because they were wearing the European away jersey (which is SO MUCH nicer than the yello one!)


Steven Gerrard: "Wear THIS. Not YELLOW."

So...maybe the problem lies with the jersey!!!
TRASH THE YELLOW JERSEY!
WEAR THE EURO AWAY JERSEY INSTEAD!

I may not believe in superstitions, but I really think that Yello is a terrible colour to wear on the pitch. It's glaring, difficult to see, and you look like losers on the pitch. Yellow is such a negative-laced colour...

COME ON, REDS! STOP WEARING YELLOW!