About 15 to 17 years ago, I can be found on mIRC almost everyday. I was fat and ugly and the only way to start conversation with anyone (especially the opposite sex) was through chat rooms and private chats. There are rooms that I hung out and than I started having regular chatters which became online friends. Some even started chats over the phone. And when this list of friends grow, I had to start writing down their nicknames, real name, mobile number, when we chatted online, age, sex, occupation, school and what other details that’ll help me remind which online friend he/she was.

The beauty of it all, is that none of us ever get to meet in person nor have seen how each other looks like. (Even if photos had been exchanged online, that doesn’t mean the photo is the real deal!)

But now, although still fat and ugly, am still spending every waking hours online. But instead of mIRC, we’re now on facebook, twitter and many other networks. But isn’t things still more or less the same?

Instead of chat rooms with faceless nicknames, there’s millions of users in facebook and there are so many groups and pages you can be part of. If that’s not enough, check out your friend’s and their friends’ friends. See a name or face that you want to network with, send them a message. Once you’re connected, there’s the wall for you to show your public affection (similar to main chat rooms in mIRC isn’t it?) or you can send a private message to share your secrets (private chats). And now, there’s no need to write down how you all met, there’s the friends list that you can create on facebook and you can add friend’s details to be reminded of how you got acquainted. Hasn’t this make your life so much simpler?

How many of you 10-20 years ago, you’ll hang out at the club (e.g. Zouk) and than later that night return home, login to mIRC #zouk to see if anyone you saw or met is in there too? Nooo! Don’t lie! I know you’ve surely done this kind of things before right?! Don’t need to be shy, its part of growing up!

So now with forums and communities online, these things happen more effectively and people get to make more new friends. Taking facebook as an example, you go clubbing, return home, wanting to see if that cute guy or gal has a facebook account, you login to facebook, search for Zouk group or page and scan through the thousands of people in the member/ fan list. And there you found her! Add her as friend with a personalised message, or drop her a message first to see if she’s keen to be friend. (Wah lau eh! Why you so chicken one? Just go up to her on the spot at zouk lah! Go facebook for fack?) Well… Mr, not everyone is as buay pai seh as you, and facebook (and friendster) is the other alternative mah.

*This thought just came to mind and I thought it’ll be something interesting to share. If you’ve got similar ideas or think otherwise, do share. Don’t shy! We all very steady one lah!

On another thought… how many of you are still using mIRC?? Seriously!

The last two weeks passed by in a flash, and I could hardly remember what happened during the last two days at Blogout! 2009. My mind is filled with more emotion than knowledge, which shouldn’t happen since Blogout09 was a learning session. Perhaps its the time, energy and effort put into the event and the adrenaline rush over the two days that was too overpowering for my weakening heart and mind.

Two days before Christmas last year, I met up with a few guys (officially) for the first time. I was told about their plans for Blogout 09, an event too close to my passion to miss, and that’s when I started my first project with The Digital Movement (TDM).

It took us 2 months of countless emails, gtalking and late night meetings to put the show together. The experience with TDM had been a love-hate journey. But I’ve to thank Howie, President of TDM, to give me the opportunity to be part of the team.

Apart from the love-hate journey with the organising team, the planning process was an adventure on its own. When we started putting together the list of speakers we hope to invite for Blogout09, I was tasked to handle the contacting and putting together of the event’s program. My first for such an event in term of scale and format. Indeed quite a challenge. But with support and discussion with the team, we decided on it, and I started the exciting part, getting in touch with Yongfook and Joel Postman. Both experts in their areas and interests. One whom I’d been a fan for sometimes now, and now I’ve converted him as my inspiration. (Yah! I want to be as hot as him!) So you can imagine the excitement in me when I dropped him that first invitation email to fly to Singapore! Let’s keep the crazy fan talk for another post. Moving on to Blogout09…

When Blogout09 day finally arrived, the 48 hours that followed was like living in a roller coaster ride. Seeing the many new faces on the two days makes me very happy. This means we’re not only living in a world made up of the same few people which we see at almost any other blogging/ social media related events. This means that there are many out there who are as interested and wanting to learn more about the mystery and science behind this new generation of media. This means that there’s good hope for the future of social media and blogging or whatever we should call it in years to come. Just visualizing this makes me a very happy person.

So why did I say that it ended with a mixed of emotions? Well, at the end of the two days, I was happy cause most of those who came were happy, I was sad because it was over, I was excited cause of the many possibilities waiting ahead, I was smitten-ed, I was hopeful for what’s to come with TDM, I was angry as some things could have been better carried out, I was tired due to lack of sleep, I was kinda lost too! Anyway, these feelings will be sorted out soon.

Much have been discussed and brought up during the two days. Some can be found on twitter at #blogout09. Hoping to continue the discussions too from the two days, a discussion board has been set up in facebook. Let’s see if the offline conversations at Blogout09 can be brought online and carrying it on till the next meetup.

I’m going to be spending more time over the next couple of days (or even weeks) to reflect and think about the points I’d noted. Don’t want to clutter everything under a single post. Else this post might only go live two weeks after Blogout!

While I carry on pondering about the things I learned from this experience, here are some photos from Day 1…

The amazing audience and friends

The new way of photocopying

Yongfook goofing while camwhoring

Yongfook, me and Joel

More mobile uploaded photos can be found here for Day 1 and Day 2 and the rest on flickr. I’m sure there’ll be more photos to come as the other photographers share them.

My first encounter with Barcamp was Barcamp SG II in May 2008. No posting found in this blog on that because that event didn’t interest me enough for me to share? Nope. I didn’t blog about it because I left within an hour after arriving. It was one that targeted at the developers and I kinda got lost in there.

Good thing we’ve Preetam onboard this time round, with his experience with many Barcamp sessions from different countries, we know this was going to be a great one. And it was!

Here’s my experience, breaking down into 1) as a planner, 2) as a speaker and 3) as a participant.

On 1 February, I was out with a group of friends at Sentosa Flower Festival. Sharing some of the better shots I got that day.

“Many many money! Huat ah!”

“Bonded together”

And lastly my favorite shot from the day… “I want to be like her”

Other photos taken by fellow photographers and friends that day can be found in the facebook event album. All thoughts, critiques and trashing for the above three shots welcome. Comment below…

Click here to view photos taken with Nikon D40

The once static and not-so-attractive Yesterday.sg has got a major overhaul! The new Yesterday.sg has brought mix thoughts and sentiments for me.

Started my blogging journey with them in September last year and had contributed a little ever since. But it sure was an experience that any blogger should at least try once. (Or more because once is never enough with the new facelift!)

If you’d managed to read Straits Times today, you would have seen my big round face plastered on page A6. And ya, I’ve put on weight! LOL!

Gen Y gets down to work is written by Sandra Davis. She was also the one who did the previous Gen Y story where I laid down on the grass with my gadgets. Its very nice of her to remember me and got in touch for this latest piece.

She told me the piece will come out sometime this week and when my phone started ringing non-stop with SMSes since 10am, I knew its out.

The Beginning
Sandra dropped an email asking how I was coping with the recession. I shared what I did and how I try to maintain low running cost so that I can help my clients save too. And I do not see the recession as a downfall but a great opportunity. That’s why I started 24seven.

We are what we read. Or are we what we read? And we read what we want to read.

Newspapers, magazines, books, websites, blogs, twitters, and even photos in facebook or flickr. There are so many updates every second, you can’t possibly be reading everything you come across, so which do you read? What elements help you decide which article to read in your RSS feed, or which magazine to buy off the newsstand?

When I was in primary school, newspaper wasn’t part of the curriculum. But I had time flipping through the comic section, which I don’t remember seeing now. In those days, there would be 2 full pages of comic strips and those are the only things I read. Later in secondary school, we were somewhat forced to read at least one article every week and write a summary of the article in our scrapbook. And since there’s no focus on which topic or section we have to choose, I pick the lifestyle and entertainment section. What one reads depends on one’s interests and stage in life. Just like the girls in primary school reads Teenage magazines, those in secondary read Teens and than when one matures, they start reading Cleo, Her World or even Woman magazines.

And now, I stopped buying magazines. Even if I should get tempted by the freebies that comes with the magazine, I would usually buy and chuck the magazine aside after flipping through it once. I seldom touches the papers. Why would I want to spend $5 on a stack of papers when I can get my reading pleasure online? I would also like to see that I’m saving earth by not buying those magazines.

Now that there are so many (daily new) content online, reading options increases but we’re still left with the same amount of time to spend reading (or perhaps even lesser since we are spending way much time checking out friend’s statuses, videos and photos in facebook!).

So what do you read on a daily basis? I’ve grouped my readings into tabs with netvibes, but I also follow many on twitter who shares good reads in their tweets.

Than there’s the ad-hoc msn messages, facebook posted items and emails that leads you to even more reading! If I loose control and continue clicking, no work will be done by the end of the day!

So we started selective readings, we read what came within our sight when we are in our reading time. We read links whom we respect and trust share. We read what our closer friends write. And when we really need something that’s to a topic, we search.

What about you? What do you read on a daily basis? Or should I ask, how do you read?