Tag Archives: Blogging

A place for your words, thoughts, and content

Daily dose, ,

Eleven years since Jon Udell asked where have all the bloggers gone, I still find myself asking the same question from time to time. We all know the answer to this, the rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, the defunct Google+, TikTok, Instagram, etc has captured the online conversation. Google didn’t help when it killed off its Google Reader app.

But thanks to Scott Hanselman, the realization that one should continue to blog and do so on your own domain instead of putting it all in one or scattered across walled gardens would ensure that you have control of and ownership of your words.

Just look at the mess Twitter is now in. Musk rebranding it to ‘X’ is just but the latest evidence that social media platforms will come and go, and each time one goes under after going through ‘enshittification‘, what happens to all of your content?

With a blog, there will always be a place for your words, thoughts, and other content.

No AI was used in writing this blog

Asides, , ,

When the AI revolution broke out, my timeline was flooded with AI ‘gurus’ with all the praise, tutorials, and hacks to maximize it for work and in particular writing. Never mind that most of these ‘experts’ were once ‘crypto bros’ when cryptocurrencies were all the craze.

Anyway, I kept an open mind and even got excited about AI because for a moment I was hyped with the prospects of how beneficial these neural networks would be for me, thinking at long last, this could help me get back to regularly publishing content again.

When I finally got the chance to try out ChatGPT and Google Bard to write a draft blog post, the thrill quickly evaporated. It’s not that the results were bad, heck I said to myself “I finally found myself an editor”. It’s just that the reading of the output felt like it was no longer my work. I could not find my voice in it, immediately I knew it wasn’t my work anymore. It felt unauthentic.

So that was how I quickly reverted back to my own words and writing process. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t turn me into an AI naysayer as there’s genuinely some value in using it. Maybe I just used the wrong prompts and need to learn more about how to better use it, and I will. Just not for my writing.

Instead, AI has helped me with ‘spit-balling’ ideas and supplementing online searches, which pretty much suits my needs. As for my writing, it’s still just me, my notes, and a blank screen or piece of paper.

Thirty-eight

Asides, , ,

After almost a decade, I’m celebrating my birthday back in my hometown and in the house where I was born. The move from the city has been full of challenges but there’s not been a single day of regret ever since. With the worsening climate crisis, getting away from the urban jungle has been a gift for the family.

While the writing, podcasting, and building scale models are still on hiatus, the anxiety from not being able to continue with all of it has been less severe. In fact, the anticipation of getting back at these has been a positive force as it has helped me stay focused on settling down back home and getting through the difficult times.

The other day, the thought of adding more books to my home library was so tempting that I couldn’t help but consider it. Moreover, I am determined to make a good start on my reading list for 2021.

Call it baby steps if you will, what matters is I’m still moving on a trajectory rather than standing still.

While not much has been published on this blog since last year, the advocacy on social issues has been consistent on my social media accounts. The next step is getting it all synced with this blog as centerstage and happening on a regular cadence.

There was a mention of a health concern in last year’s birthday post, to which I’m glad to report that a very positive step has been taken to address it thanks to a wonderful, brilliant, and caring doctor. The prognosis is very good overall and there’s a very strong chance that by my next birthday, I would be in a much better state. I intend to talk about it more on this blog in the coming months.

To everyone who will take the time to send me a greeting today, a big thank you!

Thirty-seven

Daily dose,

Today, I turn 37. Surprising that some still get surprised to know what my real age is. Just a week ago, at a company event, a direct report in his late twenties was gob-smacked to find out I was much older than he thought. All this time, he was thinking that we were of the same age.

Most of my age and older would beam at this complement but each time I do, I still get mixed feelings – flattered that most would look at me and think that I’m still quite young and somehow a bit held back as there has been a considerable part of my life where I was dismissed as being too young and inexperienced to take on certain challenges.

Just this morning, as I was going through the birthday greetings, I got another one exactly like this, saying that it seems that I am ageless. This brings to mind an interesting thought that has had a profound impact on my way of thinking: that immortality if it were possible, had one painful downside, you remain ageless while the world change and the people close to you pass on, leaving you alone.

This is why the song Iris by the Goo goo dolls has become my all-time favorite song:

And I’d give up forever to touch you
‘Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be
And I don’t want to go home right now

Going back to reality, I am both happy and dreadful to admit that time has indeed caught up to me. In the last couple of months, there have been many nights of worrying about my health and fearing the worse, not that I fear death itself but rather the thought of passing on without leaving something behind for my family, friends, and country.

On the other hand, that fear and worry have been somewhat positive as it has pushed me to make conscious choices about my lifestyle, and the things and causes I devote my time and energies to. Knowing that time is steadily running away from me has renewed the drive to do more and be more.

It may all sound a bit somber but I assure you that there’s a sense of purpose, happiness, and drive burning within me as I write this.

This is why I raise my glass to life, family, and friends and raise higher my fist to goals, dreams, and causes far larger than my own. Hopefully, starting today and until my last, I am able to make each one count.

Thirty-six

Asides, ,

The Earth has taken thirteen thousand six hundred and forty days to go around the sun since I have come on board. What a journey it has been so far.


Three hundred sixty-five days (plus three) ago, I was at the office, sharing good food with my friends and colleagues which coincided with our team’s return to full operations after several months of being shut down by the pandemic.


This time around I’m just at home with my family as the pandemic is still far from over and has taken quite a toll on all of us. Monsoon rains and a magnitude 6.7 earthquake earlier in the day made this annual event something definitely unique and worth remembering.


The projects started last year – the podcasts and newsletter, have been all but neglected and it’s been a struggle to get back at it. So it would be fitting to finally break the blogging hiatus with this update. It’s not that I have completely stopped writing, I simply stopped publishing. Most of what I’ve written since May has been kept in a personal journal and a note-taking app that has been steadily being filled up with notes, ideas, and rough drafts of upcoming pieces that I hope you’ll enjoy or at the very least find interesting.


Aside from nearly half a year’s worth of content-in-development, my book collection has grown quite considerably. One of the goals for this year is to finish a book per month. With four months left, the to-read pile has really grown.


Looking back, and in the context of the pandemic, I should not be too hard on myself as making it this far, in good health, and sitting on a big pile of drafts is still quite an achievement knowing that there are others that have had far worse.


With that in mind, I have decided that as I will get back to regularly publishing content starting today, part if not most of it must be of help to others. Content that will enrich their knowledge, or perhaps help them with their own struggles and contribute to their own success no matter how big or small.


So I hope you’ll stick around. Together, I’m quite positive we’ll all make it through to see better days.