But when the journalist tell me that she’d failed to search the web for information or find blog posts about the topic in discussion, it irritates me. If I can use a single keyword, e.g. the name of an even to find an entire page of blogs posts discussing about it in Google, I don’t see why you can’t. Now that I think about it, I regretted sending links and information over to them. It’s their job to search and investigate, not mine.

Blogging has helped me record my life, happenings and memories in a way that’s openly searched, read and used by anyone that chances upon my blogs. Some of these posts come in very useful for future referencing or if there’s a need to provide a set of comment with regards to that particular event that happened months ago, blog posts surely serve a better memory refresher than trying to squeeze your braincell dry trying to remember what happened or who were there etc. Especially if you keep your posts organised and accompany it with related photos, videos or links, referencing back your past is made easy and possible through blogging.

Every journalists, in the digital space or not, need to get into the talks and walks first, before trying to make sense of something totally new to them and try to draft an article on it based on interviews and hear-say from others. Why not take the plunge and dive into it yourself and experience it? That’s one thing bloggers love. Experiencing things first hand. We would rather spend time attending an event and trying out the product in real life, then just reading off a press release. We take action first and blog later.

Are you picking up social media tools and learning to be human in the digital space already? I hope you do!

For future events organisers, if you’ve got cameras and bloggers, give us a card (SD, memory xD or whichever that fits your product) to use and take home. This is much appreciated than some thumbdrive or even a DVD!

Thanks Canon for the thought and looks like a great start to more of such events! Congrats to the team!

More on the products later… got few more in the list that’s loooong overdue!

Are you sure you really know who I am?
Photo from here.

Let’s imagine this scenario…

A and B are both blogging on their own blogs. A is a friend/family of B. A is pretty active in a community and wants to do something for the community. Other than writing about B’s own life, B also shares how B felt about A, and how much A has done to help B succeed. B makes A shines like a super star. C, D, E to G reads A’s and B’s blog. C to G believes that whatever B wrote about A and worship the ground of A. But what C to G don’t know is that A has been logging in using B’s password and editing or even writing the posts about A itself! A wants the world to know that A is the best and B cannot live without A. A may be the public figure in the community, but A as part of the community, how much do you really know about A?

That’s just an example of what might happen in the blogging world. Whatever that’s written on the blog may be fictional that’s made to believe. You never know who the real person is writing those entries. I can always start a Claud-fan blog or a Claud-hate blog. All these to build up the persona of Claud, be it good or bad. But is this necessary? Are you running an election campaign right here?

“I can have 2 sides of me. But are you aware of it?”

The world is getting smaller as the internet gets bigger. Suddenly everyone online starts getting to know more new friends online. 80% of the conversation and discussion and things happen online. And the thing about being online is anyone can have as many personalities and characters as they want. There’s no one rule that says Man Z can only have one identity in the huge cyberspace. This makes things very scary. If Man Z’s multiple personality is kept a secret till the day he dies, than good for him. If not, can you imagine the consequences he has to face for all the possible things that one man has/had done?

I’m not going to let myself get affected by such things online. I have a life (outside of this cyber world). I will continue to stay true to my unique identity and will ignore whatever noise that may be taking place around me. Ignorance is bliss. And I hope I can continue to ignore. Can you?

A group of bloggers whom I meet often at gatherings and events, most of us have our own personal namecards. Usually there will be our name (of course!), our email, our blog url and some customised stuff that is much like the real person themselves. Such as photos, illustrations, tags, designs and stuff. Some of us also have our contact numbers on the cards.

Some of the many namecards I’d collected from Bloggers

But why should we, bloggers, get a namecard? We’re just a bunch of people who likes to write on our blog and people around started calling us bloggers. Bloggers need namecard for what??

Personally I’d owned many versions and types of namecards over the past couple of years. Each served a different purpose. But when I started taking a more serious passion for my blog, I decided I needed one that I can give to my friends and people I may meet so they can find me online or for them to remember that they’d met me after our meeting.

Of course there’s always the search engines, blog aggregators and what not, but having a namecard that you can give or exchange with someone makes things more… hmm… what word should I use to describe it? More professional or more personal? Or perhaps, more real? Business people are always represented with their own company namecards isn’t it? I’m not saying that you’ve to be a professional or full-time blogger before you can have your own namecards. It’s just nice to have a card that you can give out when you meet someone new isn’t it?

Questions to ask before you get those cards printed
(1) Will I ever be making use of these cards?
(2) Who are the people whom will be getting these cards?
(3) What do I want to tell them about me and my blog through this card?
(4) Do I want to remain anonymous or do I want to start giving a face to the blog(s) I write on?

If you are able to answer the above questions pretty easily, than you should start thinking of a design and get those cards printed soon.

10 reasons why you should/ you want to have a personal (blogger) namecard
(1) You want to start revealing yourself and your blog.
(2) You want to create credibility to the things you blog about.
(3) You want to create an identity or a ‘branding’ for yourself.
(4) You want to represent yourself instead of your company during networking events or gatherings.
(5) You are starting to receive invitation to events/ functions where you’ll meet people but you do not have any namecards to exchange when you meet them.
(6) You want to start forming relationship with fellow bloggers, new friends, partners or potential sponsors or even future employer.
(7) You are spending too much time blogging, plurking, facebooking and whatever -ing online. It’s time you get out and start meeting people in real life!
(8) You are interested, learning, sharing and participating in social media or anything social online.
(9) You’ve attended couple of networking/ social events and by the end of the day, you’ve forgotten some of the people you’d met but didn’t get a card from. (This happened to me couple of times. I always try to exchange cards with someone new at an event so that I will remember them after the event. Guess I’m getting old and memory is failing me.)
(10) You just feel like having something that spells You to give away.

And finally, you’ll never know who you might bump into at the next gathering or social event. So always be sure to have some cards on you for an exchange!

Some other bloggers who blogged about their namecards too… nadnut, jayden, krisandro and rinaz.

Remember my entry on Asian Civilisations Museums? I was fascinated by the many amazing things there and I would like to continue my adventure in all the museums in Singapore! Thanks to NHB’s initiative to reaching out to bloggers, I got my complimentary Individual Season Pass!

I’m looking forward to my many trips to the many museums in Singapore! There’s the Asian Civilisations Museum, Memories at Old Ford Factory, National Museum of Singapore, Peranakan Museum, Reflections at Bukit Chandu, Singapore Art Museum and Singapore Philatelic Museum! WOW!! It’s going to take awhile for me to discover all the above! But I’ve got 1 year to do it!

So yap! I’m doing it! Anyone wants to join me on my discovery? If you’re a blogger too, you might want to try apply for your complimentary pass too! Just drop an email to Wei Chong at chin_wei_chong [at] nhb [dot] gov [dot] sg. (Applications has to be approved first to get the free pass.)

Intel Centrino2 Press Event at OneDegree15 @ Sentosa Cove

We were there for this chip

What’s so great about this tiny chip? More in my next post.

These beauties were all installed with the mighty tiny chip…

This attracted all the female (and some male) guests.

This was huge! 18+” laptop!

This is sexy! I like!

G50 by Asus – Should be out in the market when you see this post.
Look out for it at your friendly electronic store!

After a great buffet lunch at Latitude Bistro, it was time for the bloggers group to head out to sea!

For members only!

Erm… I highly advice all of you to NOT do this!

Brian has practiced this stunt for many years. So kids! Don’t try this at home!

We went onboard Sardinia

Where we witnessed the powerful speed of WiMax by Qmax.

After testing out the speed of WiMax, bloggers do what they do best, they camwhored! This time it was quite a tricky task. Camwhoring on a moving boat and trying to balance oneself is NOT easy ok! Video coming up in next post!

I was busy camwhoring too! But not with myself, but with the beautiful scenery surrounding us. I love the fluffy clouds and breathe taking view! I want a house at Sentosa Cove!!

Luxury living under construction

I loveee this view!!

The journey ended too soon…

I wonder when will I ever have a chance to go onboard again.

Big thanks to Brian and Tania for the invitation!

You rock!

As mentioned, more thoughts and details of the chips in my next post. And if you’re not afraid of getting motion sickness, stay tune for my shaky video clip!

Question to ponder this round… “What’s my ideal job?” If there’s a job that’ll fit perfectly in my list of answers, I’ll most probably be jumping into it in no time. If you know of any openings that fits into my list, please please please contact me ASAP ok? So that I’ll not miss out on this opportunity! Claud’s resume can be found here. Wahahahahaha!!

Claudia’s Ideal Job will be…

• one that allows me to work anytime I want.
  It should still have an office with a table for me to go to, but I can choose to start work anytime and end work as late as I want. Preferably with vending machines for coffee and snacks with a cosy corner for staff to chill and relax. SWEET!
• one that allows me to wear whatever I want to work. T-shirt and shorts and sandals! COOL!
• one that pays me what I deserve! Nope! $2.4k is sooo not enough! Imagine the amount of bills, insurance and expenses I have every month! (And with the house that I’ll have to pay for in couple of years to come!) I’m sure there are many companies out there that can do A LOT better than just $2.4k/mth right?
• one that gives me room to experiment, learn, fail and advance. I’m one person who cannot live in a boring job. I need lots of excitement and new areas for me to explore to in my job.
• one with a dynamic team of fun and happening friends to work with.
• one that’ll not stop me from attending any blogger (Social Media) event that I want to go.
• one that’ll reward their staff according to their performance at work.
• one that’ll remember everyone’s birthday and also hold parties for everyone during Christmas and any major holidays the company celebrates.

“Claud! Are you crazy?? Where got such good job in this world? If have I also want lah!”

Yap! Who don’t want this kind of job right? Claud is determine to continue the quest for her ideal job. If she cannot find it, she might just start one on her own! Wahahahahaha!!

SOooo… What’s YOUR ideal job?

UPDATED
Interestingly, I saw a twit by benkoe and I have to agree with what Charlene said…

“At a career management course for HBS alumni, I learned that a person typically gets sick of a job after 18 months. This is a natural cycle, as you go through the excitement of learning a new job, become expert at it, and then gradually, it gets routine. So the advice I got was to plan for job obsolescence every 18 months. This didn’t mean that I had to leave the company and go to a new place – it had more to do with redefining my current job first to incorporate new challenges”

Perhaps I’m a faster learner (or at least I think I’ve already learned all the things I can), 18mths seem too long for me. Perhaps 13 or 15 months will probably be the end for me. Unless something damn good or exciting takes place.

7.20pm Arrived at Bishan to grab some snacks and picked up Chaozdingo.

7.45pm Departed Bishan and headed to Hai Bin in Abang’s car.

7.55pm Arrived at the carpark and waited for a parking lot

8.05pm Found a lot and got off the car. Wondering if we were at the right place.

8.06pm SMS Krisandro to confirmed and spotted Arzhou. Waited together for arrival of remaining group…

Okok! This post is not going to be that boring lah! Hahaha! Here’s a fastforward of last night… with photos of course!

First catch of the night was by…

Wendy!! Lucky girl! (with BF Keith)

Soon after, Kitty (Daphne) caught one too!

with her prize catch

Psss… other than this shot, most of the time she’s complaining how sad the prawns were and that we shouldn’t be torturing the fish. Kitty didn’t really like the fishing process wor, thought cats like to catch fish? :P

Whenever a fish was caught, the girls will be calling or screaming for help and the guys, Arzhou, Shotgun and Krisandro will come to the rescue.

Arzhou to the rescue!

The night was pretty slow due to the lack of action over at our 5 rods. And the blur me was caught catching birds TWICE! last night! It was damn embarrassing lah! I swung my rod too much and the line got caught on the metal tent the first time. So I swapped place and went to the other side with no metal tent above me, but I still managed to get my hook hooked to the net covering the pond lah!! Wah lau!!! The man (pro-prawn fisher) next to me must be laughing inside lah! Why this woman so stupid one!

After 3 long hours plus plus of prawning, here’s our caught at my side…

Claud 3, Arzhou 1 + 1 in another net

When we were BBQ-ing the catch, we saw this group of kids with their catch lah! Wah lau eh!! BIG stabbed into our hearts lah! They caught sooo many loh!

Arzhou skewing the prawn
(Prawn was still alive and kicking!)

After 20-minutes of BBQ-ing, here’s our cooked prawns!!

1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7…

Why only 7 prawns??? Let’s check…
Claud caught 3 prawns, Arzhou caught 2, Daphne caught 1, Wendy caught 3 and Krisandro caught 4 but let go 2 as they were tiny. How many prawns should there be?

It’s 11 prawns leh!!!

But why were there only 7?? Can anyone please help explain the mystery of the missing prawns???

Alright… continuing with more photos…

Being a Saturday night and with the Euro Football heat, the place was packed with men with beer watching the match…

And here’s Arzhou who’s allergy to prawns but came for prawning, came to our rescue whenever we caught a prawn, helped BBQ the prawns but CANNOT eat any of the prawns!!

So he posed with the prawn head after we ate them

Wendy with Daphne

Krisandro with KKNN

Krisandro with KKNN again

And before I continue… here’s the group photo taken before we left. Some already left before this shot thou…

From left to right: adber, chaozdingo, claudia, arzhou, daphne, keith and wendy
Missing: Krisandro, KKNN, Berlin and her hubby, Shotgun and Abang (behind the camera)
Click for original photo and second shot

Ok, you can Cause it’ll all be Me and so-and-so photos. So if you don’t want to puke your dinner out, click on the red cross on the top right corner of this window now!!

Me with Abang

Me with Daphne

Me with Wendy

Me with Berlin

Me with “my evil twin” Chaozdingo
(After 3 shots, his face still like that! Gave up man!)

Me with KKNN

Me with Krisandro

Ending note after my first experience at prawning…

• Use cockles as bit! The chicken liver provided is useless!
• Don’t keep moving your bit in the water. Let it stay still and prawn will come eventually.
• Don’t swing the rod up into the sky, else you’ll end up catching birds instead!

That’s all! Thanks Krisandro for organising and introducing fishing to us! I think I want to go back again! When’s the next one huh?? Perhaps a Yebber one this time? :P

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