123 - The idea process and guest posts

I have a little notebook, with a space for each day, in which I enter my blogging ideas, and what I write down in this journal ends up being what I talk about on my blogs throughout the week. I spend about an hour or two every weekend, and think about what might be good to discuss on Do you hate it too? and "If you're going through Hell, keep going." I do this to prevent cases of writer's block that may come up if I instead wrote my entries on the spot, in the moment, each day. After a year of not planning ahead for my posts, I really understand how hard it can be sometimes to think of something to say, and what a detrimental effect it can have on the quality of my blog.

Also, there may be some instances when I'm simply too busy or too tired during the week to sit and think of my ideas slowly and carefully. So, in the weekend, I spend time jotting down titles, and then some bullet points underneath each one, as a general guideline I can follow when the date arrives. It makes my writing easier, makes me more efficient and organized, and guarantees better content, because I actually spent time thinking my topics through, doing research if necessary. Plus, on the actual day I come to put these ideas on Blogger, it's kind of like my second chance to self-critique my ideas, and I feel like I've got a little bit of an editing process going on.

If there's one day you go on Do you hate it too? and don't see new content, that means I'm not doing the job I intended, because I ultimately aim to do one entry every day. When I miss one day, it can only mean I was too lazy to blog that day, even if it meant I had an idea written down already. In fact, I already have ideas written down to last me 'til the end of February. I have no excuse to miss any day, so if I do, I'm slacking off, and I apologize for that. Trust me, I hate the lazy pig I am just as much as you do.

As for this blog, my personal blog, I give myself Tuesday and Wednesday off, a bit of a holiday on the busier weekdays. So if I'm missing some days out, it again means I was being slothful, and if I'm blogging on the Tuesday and Wednesday, it means I had some thoughts/feelings I really wanted to publish.

I can't say it's easy to come up with substantial subject matter. In fact, brainstorming interesting stuff is more often difficult and time-consuming than it is fast and smooth. If I didn't go through the process I outlined above, I'd be lucky to even produce just more than five posts in a whole thirty days.

Someone told me that I could ask people to do guest posts on both my blogs, more so on Do you hate it too? as it's the more popular one. As difficult as the idea process can be sometimes, I still don't think I'm going to open that door of opportunity any time soon. These blogs were started by me, all by myself, and it would be like I was giving up a part of me, my own integrity, and in my mind, ownership, as the sole author of all the posts that have been written so far. I'm proud of what I do by myself, and as much as I would like to share the space on Do you hate it too?, I don't think I'm ready to welcome anyone else's work - that of my friends, my family members, my fans, the people I go to school with, and all the bloggers I've come to meet through Blogger.

Some day, maybe, I'll be open to offers, but I'd like to see how much more I can do by myself. I'd like to really be confident in my own style, and have the appropriate mindset for sharing, before seeing if anyone would be interested.

84 - I know I'm a bad blogger.

Damnit, it's 3:20 in the morning, but I've got to write something here. I must write something everyday, anything, any little thing will do. And I must read other people's blogs - at least ten - everyday as well. This no-blogging-because-I-now-have-a-job-with-insane-hours thing is getting on my nerves, and I don't want to be the cause of any distress (albeit, only towards myself).

There has been a lot on my mind lately, but I shall bore you with that next time. Right now, I just want to say that life is pretty routine, and I didn't really want it to be so, as I had just graduated from high school.

Instead of waking up everyday to go to school, coming home late and then going to bed, I now wake up everyday to go to work, come home late and go to bed. It's the same thing. Do you notice that?

Only school doesn't take up fifteen hours of my day.

One hour to get to work, then thirteen hours of work with a three hour break somewhere in the midst of that, then an hour to get back home, followed by one hour of settling down when I get home, and two hours worth of time for me to do useless, unproductive shit on my computer until I fall asleep. So, altogether, that makes...

18 hours, leaving six hours for me to sleep. That is, if I actually do spend only two hours worth of time doing meaningless stuff, and if I also go home straight away after work.

I know all this talk about my new bartending job is boring blog material, for both this blog, and Do you hate it too? I know. I know that. There are bigger topics that I could discuss, but I just don't have the energy, I've been awake for forty hours over the past two days. I also feel a bit nauseous, as we bartenders tend to down a few drinks towards the end of the night just to celebrate another day of work surpassed. I actually don't want to drink - believe me, but my coworkers peerly pressurize me into the celebratory spirit.

Oh. This is now long enough. End.

47 - Got an award, so I guess it's time for some honesty

Argentum Vulgaris gave me an award (here), and I proudly present it to you on the right sidebar. I actually like the, uh, rules of this award because I can already feel, at this stage of the post, that I will be able to finally blog properly again. What I mean by the word 'properly' is complicated, but I think I'm implying that I will be able to display some honesty again, like back in the day when I used to do that more often, instead of going out to get drunk before every post, before posting pictures and videos.

Oh, but whatever. I must first accept the honor, so thank you, AV. Then I must list five people who I believe deserve to receive this award, share ten facts about myself and then provide a meaningful quotation. So here it goes:

If you receive the award, please copy and paste the image and incorporate it somewhere in your blog.

I want to bend the rules a bit. I want to give awards to five people who I think already have a lot of recognition and deserve to carry an extra badge on their blog. I also want to give awards to five other blogs that I just don't think get read enough, but I consider awesome, and really enjoy. So ten altogether, aren't I generous?

The Famous:

1. Mike at 365 Sonnets
   
2. Alan at Laid Back Think Tank
   
3. hrix at moonless night
   
4. A struggling writer at My Writers Blog
5. The Short Stick at The Patsy Log

The Awesome:

1. gaf85
2. J.J. at The World according to J.J. in L.A.
   
3. Randa at 365 Days
   
4. AV at Nether Region of the Earth
5. My dear friend, Sarah, at Swing Life Away
   

My ten facts (here is the honesty I mentioned):

1. I grew up in Hong Kong, I've lived my whole life here. Even though I know it so well, even though I love this place, even though it will break my heart to leave, once I depart from Hong Kong, I've decided that I will never, ever come back.
   
2. I actually don't have a 'happiest' memory. I have problems being happy, in that I've never experienced a happiness that didn't have a catch, that was without conditions.
   
3. I lose my appetite and I can't sleep whenever I get majorly depressed. There was one point in my life where I went for four days without any food or rest. I got really sick, not to mention I was utterly miserable throughout.
   
4. I've only ever fallen in love hard for one person - a boy, by the way, who was straight.
   
5. When it comes to games, I love Pokémon and Neopets more than anyone will ever comprehend. On my Xbox, I play Burnout, Halo and FIFA. On my NDS, I play Bomberman, Mario Kart, Frogger, Harvest Moon and Final Fantasy Tactics. I play word games like Text Twist and Boggle. I also play online poker and mahjong with my family.
   
6. In the past five months, I have watched 304 Friends episodes. Since it began airing in 1993, the count is probably in the thousands. I love the show and will continue rewatching it for many years to come.
   
7. I lie a helluva lot.
8. I don't love either of my parents, although, I care about my mother and thank her for everything she's given me.
   
9. If I could be anywhere in the world, I would be lying on a sunny beach in the Caribbean.
   
10. In the past six years, I have had crushes/feelings for 195 people, at various extents, in many different ways. Even though it seems like I hate the world, and cannot even find it in myself to love my parents, this tenth fact about me tells you that I, at least, want to like people. I, like many others, am in a search for love.
    

My quotation:
"If tequila was water, and I was a duck, I would swim to the bottom, and never come up, but tequila isn't water, and I'm not a duck, so give me the bottle, and shut the fuck up."

41 - The Fourth Picture.

So I was tagged by Alan, creator of Laid Back Think Tank, Robot Nine and Balloon Release, in this post to partake in a little game where you go into your computer, find the fourth file, find the fourth image in that file, and post it on your blog to talk a little bit about it. And here it is:

That picture up there, my friends, is a picture of a banana caramel chocolate ganache tart. Saved in my 'Dessert' folder, it is the fourth image and appears amongst many, many other photos of cakes, ice creams, tarts, pies, crêpes, mousses, cookies, pastries, puddings and trifles. I'm sad, pathetic and hungry, so I stare at these images to satisfy my insatiable appetite late at night.

Many of the pictures in this folder come from a blog called Cup-Cakerie, a blog that highlights many cakes and cupcakes, all home baked by a 32-year-old mom living in Bangkok, Thailand. ...I encourage you all to pay that blog a visit to drool.

As for the four people who I tag:

Argentum Vulgaris, creator of Nether Region of the Earth, Nether Region of the Earth II, Tomus Arcanum and Things That Fizz and Stuff. I know he will find the time and just the right image to take part in such a thing while he's working at the office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

J.J. at The World According To J.J. in L.A., obviously in California, USA. My resident taggeficiary whenever it comes to any of these tagging games. Often, when my life seems like too much to handle, I like to go to her blog for something 'normal'. No, not 'boring'. I mean honest, homely and simple, free from strife, with just a touch of sarcasm. (J.J., all you have to do is tell me that you don't want to do them and I'll stop tagging you :P)

Vivienne, maker of Vivienne in Wonderland, half-Spanish, half-German, grew up on the Canary Islands, lived in Switzerland and currently lives in London (phew...). As I understand it, she hardly posts any images, but I want her to because I think it would make a wonderful change. :)

eC at Thumbs Up, Feet On The Ground, from Roc-Town, Minnesota, USA. Known for her unique, charismatic and youthful blogging style and her new-age haikus, I nominate her solely for her hilarious teenage flavor alone.

Voilà.