Dr Horrible

Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog is a wonderful piece of work.

There are three acts at the moment, and it's incredibly, incredibly funny. Joss Whedon (the guy behind Buffy), on the reasons behind this little project:

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

It's GOOD. And it's one week only. Go watch an evil genius in action and sing-along to his freeze ray.

Woohoo.

PS: and you did not hear wrong: the evil leader of the League of Villians IS a horse. Hehehehe.

Where are the Buggers

..........BUGS, what once was a thriving blog that had THIS [Read: Bigger than your nose] much potential and activity has become .... a blog akin to squashed bug. Literally. Standstill. [Apart from Tze Lun's review =P ]

So, WHY are the BUGGERS all not Bugging in BUGS? There are 19 authors in this blog. Surely SOMEBODY has the time to ..... add in something interesting. Or Uninteresting if need be?

[According to the order in the Permission List]
Zhe Rong
Studying Translation in USM, Penang.
Speaks too many languages.
Updates HIS blog frequently.

Sze Howe
Studying in Perth and Working as well.
Is a pea. Is a FO. Is never online.
Updates his blog once in a year few months.

Crystal
Studying in Singapore.
Hasn't talked to me for ages and seems to be having TONS of fun in Sg
Updates her blog Regularly.

Daniel
Currently doing nothing but got his JPA scholarship and will be leaving soon.
Is still gay happy all the time.
Updates his blog Semi-regularly

Danny
Studying in Swinburne.
The last time I saw him was during Debate comp.
Does not update his blog regularly.

Andrew Ho
Studying Form six in Kch Town No1.
I have neither seen nor heard from him for AGES.
Has no Blog anymore.

Joshua
Just finished Matriculation in Labuan.
Is still the same Gamer [Or so I think]
Hasn't updated his blog for 4 months.

Kenny
Studying in HELP, KL.
Lawyer in the making. Always incredibly Busy socialising
Updates his new blog pretty regularly.
[BTW KENNY. You're technically not even part of BUGS now since you changed your Blogger Profile]

Sean
Studying in GRSS.
Has he ever gotten around to making his first post?!
His blog is darn ignored most of the time.

Paul
Studying in Swinburne.
Very Very Very busy guy from what I heard. I'm not surprised.
His blog seems to be inactive at the moment.

Me
Not Studying in St Mary's.
Has finger in too many pies.
Updates my blog...whenever I can.

Cedric
Studying in St Thomas.
Judo-ing the other half of the time.
Updates his blogs semi-regularly.

Aldrin
Studying in Swinburne.
Doesn't have internet connection in his apartment.
Updates his blog once in a year few months as well. Peas *Shakes head*

Regina
Studying in Melbourne.
Used to study where Kenny did.
Inactive blog.

Jylene
Studying in KL.
Seems to be DARN happy from what I can gather.
Updates her blog Semi-regularly.

Tze Lun
Currently playing with amazingly adorable kittens Working in KL
Was sighted in KFC by ABKK.
Updates his blog Semi-regularly as well.

Adrogynous
I'm firing a big blank here.
Someone remind me who this is?
I feel so bad. I didn't forget you on purpose I swear!

Wen Qi
Studying in Nottingham U. in KL.
Used to be the MOST ACTIVE BUGGER.
Updates her blog semi-regularly tooooo.

Tay
Studying in St Thomas.
Haven't seen or talked to him since last gathering.
His blog is inactive.

So anyway. 19 Buggers. MIA people. Where ARE YOU?
Come. Back. And. POST!!!
Sam wants BUGS to be active again.

4 Blogging Styles I Really Like

1. Quaintly

Pinkpau/Su Ann's forte are her rants. Her thoughts unfold like paper butterflies on a digital canvas, and her prose is perfectly constructed, the kind you find in Booker shortlisters. Her words exude beauty: hair on the shower floor, braindust spiraling in the air. And her posts on Martian, her boyfriend, are a marvelous substitution for Chick Lit.

2. Dooce

Dooce is one of the few personal bloggers who make big money in the blogosphere. She's very good at taking tiny snippets of her life: random occurrences, minor incidences with her daughter, and she imbues them with life, wit, and good writing. These little snippets are like rays slicing into her life, allowing you an all-too-brief-a-look through her eyes.

3. Kamigoroshi

Edrei writes with absolute honesty. His posts are reflective, thoughtful ... though occasionally he writes things that make you smile. Some people think he's a girl, from the way his blog reads - but what he does well is that he takes the time to tell you not just what happened, but why it is important: to you, and to him.

4. Jonas Gumis

No kidding. Jonas has a good sense of storytelling - he times and paces his narrative, so even boring old events like St Jo's sports day come alive in his hands. I like it that he's naturally funny, and he can put on a lighthearted spin on serious topics. A downside to this is that my plug will probably boost his ego to stratospheric heights ... but at least he'll give us a laugh in the process, won't he?

Notice that I've left out Smashpop and Kenny Sia. I find they write too little, and their pictures do their talking for them. It's not a bad style of blogging, really, but it's just not my kind of thing.

Which probably explains why all of the above blogs are well written, well thought out affairs. What kinds of blogs are your favourites?

Less Updates.......

This blog is getting less update. Last time, we can see an update at least once in two days. Now, we can expect only one post in a week. I think this syndrome started few months ago.

Anyway, Tay just updated the blog today. A very unusual move by him. He seldom update his blog, what to say UGS blog... haha..

Where are the frequent contributers/updaters?? Sam and Wandkey?? For Sam, maybe she blog less because of PMR but the PMR has ended but still no post from her... Wandkey? Busy with university things, i suppose....

And the others? Only got comments from them but no post.... sighs....

Perhaps should just shut down this blog??? hahahha.... i'm just joking.....

This Week's BUGGER to Bug to Blog at BUGS

Try saying the blog post title real fast three times. Haha. Really a tongue twister. Anyway...

The words loyal blog readers fear to see in RSS feeds for their favourite blogs:

Hiatus
Taking a break…
Password protected post
Blogger Block
Farewell/Bye/Good bye
Computer crashed/Internet down
Exams/Study break

And last but not least…

Live bookmark feed failed to load. (A real nuisance)

Fret not, I am not going on hiatus or anything like that. Just realising that more and more of friends’ blogs are getting quieter and quieter. And so is this blog. Well, there is only so much I can do to contribute, and I’m pretty sure readers are getting a bit tired of seeing Wandkey posts around so much already.

So, judging from the poll on this page, the three BUGGERS that readers would most like to read more posts from are actually Andrew Ho (26 votes), Saykhia (24) and Wandkey (23).

But since Andrew Ho has already taken an indefinite break from blogging due to studies, that leaves this week’s BUGGER to Bug to Blog to be… *drumroll*, Saykhia!

We shall be awaiting your post, Saykhia. Right, fellow BUGS readers?

Lousy Birthday Presents

I know I said I wouldn't blog. In my Personal Blog. Therefore I shall not. Blog.

In my Personal Blog.

I was going around the blogs I read on a daily basis (more than my fingers AND toes) when I saw it was somebodies birthday.



That somebody is non other than Heather B. Armstrong. A Mum with Style and the owner of Dooce.

(Bloggers Note: I'm writing this post because I know the general audience of this blog are fascinated by ....the Lousy Birthday Present)

Even though she doesn't read this blog and probably would never read it, I would like to wish her a happy birthday!!!!!

Now moving on to the Lousy Birthday Present that she received.

Dang, I wish I could receive TERRIBLE present like that too!

BUGS rated G

I came across an interesting site yesterday, it was featured in a Malaysian blog, michaelooi.net. The post there was entitled, the 50 raunchiest blogs in Malaysia, based on a website where you can type in your blog address and it assesses the rating, for General audiences, PG, R or NC17.

So.. then I decided to play around and see how BUGS or some BUGGERS blogs would be rated. Here are the results.

First, I tried out Boss's blog...

Hmm... Boss uses the words suck and dead and that's bad? Thus, making his blog a PG blog.


Next, tried out UGS admin kvys2000's blog.

Oh, another PG blog. Tsk tsk, abkk used the sh*t word.

Then, Andrew Ho's blog was put up to the test.

His blog was safely pronounced friendly for everybody to read, "crappy" supposedly is not that bad a word.

I was next wondering what kind of results kubuk's blog would produce..

Wah, has the word porn but is rated G. Hmm...

Proud to say, the two female admin of UGS passed the test with flying colours!

Sam passed, no bad words were found on her blog. Haha!

Wandkey passed too! Exemplary behaviour, no bad words were found in my blog either.


Finally, the Undergroundsquare blog was put to the test.

And hey, we would have got 100% if it were not for somebody blogging about gays.. Haha. Nah, not your fault.

So, you can try this out for yourself at Mingle2. And why not share how your blog is rated?

Original Mockery

Boss posted on how one of the Congratulatory Poems sent to our newly wed Prime Minister was a work of plagiarism.

While blog surfing, I found another poem, 100% Original that made me smile until I finished reading it.

by Martin Jalleh

Samy had proudly sent to Jeanne and Badawi,
A congratulatory statement in perfect poetry,
So spellbound was Bolehland by his originality.

But damn, a sharp reader of Malaysiakini
Spotted Samy’s true and hidden capability
For from two poems, the Minister did copy.

As shame no longer exists in our country
Slowly but surely, silently, subtly and slyly
Samy sends in his handy press secretary.

“Blame not my master,” said he slavishly
“But blame rather on my lapse of memory.
“The authors I have left out inadvertently!”

Our sympathies, dear Jeanne and Badawi
For being treated to Samy’s cheap publicity
and pathetic excuses of his press secretary.

In light of government’s leaking credibility
Samy should stay focused on his Ministry
And save plagarised poems only for MIC.

Disclaimer: All references in the poem are purely accidental.

It's a blogging world

In the past, it could be said that a person can be judged by the books he or she reads. Now, the same can be said for blogs. As in, you can roughly tell a person by the blogs he or she reads.

Are blogs like Kennysia, Smashpop, Xiaxue in your RSS feeds? Then most likely you are an average Malaysian blog-reader, and probably in your teens or twenties?

Read blogs like Pink Is The New Blog, PerezHilton? You’re one who keeps up with celebrity gossip of the West and probably quite.. “Westernised”.

Frequent Cheeserland, Fireangel, Clapbangkiss? Hmm… you do love eyecandy, don’t you?

Keep to up to date with posts from Malik Imtiaz, Jeff Ooi? Ooh.. serious stuff.

Always end up at kyspeaks, food lover or similar foodie blogs? Why do you tempt yourself so? Haha. We eat to live, not live to eat. *Hypocrite*

Read Boing boing, Techcrunch, Wired? You’re probably a techie lover like many of the people here at BUGS.

Are your bookmarks filled with feeds to your friend’s blogs? Aaaww.. You really do care about what’s going on with your friends’ life, don’t you? Either that, or potential stalker alert!

Read all sorts of blogs, anything, by anyone, of any genre? Wow, you really are well read and not picky. Truly amazing.

Ah, only Wandkey could come up with a post as wuliao as this and manage to turn it into a blog plug of sorts. Haha. Well, there are lots of other good blogs out there to read but can’t really be categorised and I don't know how to include them. And then there are really good blogs of the genres mentioned that I do not know of yet. So, go ahead, there is a world full of blogs out there for you to discover!

Want to have your blog featured here in BUGS?

Okay, I need any good excuse for writing a blog post here due to my pact with The Boss, which means having to blog thrice weekly here. So today, we are going to play a game.

Whoever who can most accurately answer all the following questions concerning the BUGGERS here in this blog the fastest, will have his or her blog reviewed here in BUGS. BUGGERS of course will not be eligible for this little game.

Question time…

1. Who is The Boss? (Easy question)
2. Who in BUGS just got a new camera?
3. Which BUGGER in BUGS blogroll has yet to make a single post?
4. Who in BUGS loves purple?
5. Who in BUGS loves green?
6. Who in BUGS loves orange?
7. Which BUGGERS are currently residing in Kuala Lumpur?
8. Do we have any BUGGERS outside of Malaysia? If so, who?
9. Who among the BUGGERS is the eldest?
10. Which BUGGER has been posting the most here in BUGS recently?

So, just answer the 10 simple questions above and you may have your blog featured here in The Undergroundsquare Blog (BUGS), it’s that simple! Answers in the comments please.

Malaysian Blogs: (Where) Got Nice To Read

Blogs. The democratization of media. The mouthpiece of many. The bane of our authoritarian government.

If you're a typical Malaysian blog reader you'd have stopped after the above statement and permanently marked this blog off as 'serious stuff lah, no nice to read'. I'm sitting over at the Swinburne computer lab writing this post (sorry for the lack of images, I'll go home and add later on) and a guy in front of me just finished reading through Kennysia, Xiaxue and Smashpop, in that order.

No Jeff Ooi.

No Huffington Post.

No O' Reilly.

No thinking blogs of any manner.

The guy is scrolling through Xiaxue again. I see a lot of rabbits. Why in the world would a discerning, intelligent college student scroll through pictures of rabbits?

There is this phenomenon in the Malaysian blogosphere. I call it the Got Nice To Read frame of mind. According to this theory, the most widely read blogs in the Malaysian blogosphere must have the following qualities:

1. Have lots of big pictures. Everywhere. In every post. With every line. Take Kenny Sia (disclosure: I'm an ardent fan of Kennysia, for reasons I can't yet fathom), for example. Picture after picture after picture ... of himself swimming, running, his iPod, his trip to Egypt. Little words.

2. Blogger behind blog must be a camwhore. This means lots of pictures of the said blogger. Showing off his/her new nose, his/her new BF/GF, his/her new haircut. Us Malaysians love peering into the nose hairs and body cavities of our internet idols.

3. Must Review Food/Toilet Bowls. Almost all successful Malaysian blogs have to have one or more posts about food. Chickenricenasilemakburgertimes. I contribute this to the fact that Malaysia is one country where fist fights can start over where to find the best Laksa. Toilet bowls? We Malaysians are discerning people, and we guard the thrones housing our butt cheeks very protectively.

4. Must write about superficial topics. You're not a Malaysian a-lister if you write about real, happening topics that affect everyone. You can write about how you won the recent Nasi Lemak eating competition, you can write about how much you've spent in Blook. But the instant you start subjective analysis about the democratization of media and the New Education Policy people start running away from you and your blog like you've contracted the plague.

5. Must write little. If writing about superficial topics isn't bad enough, most successful Malaysian bloggers write little. They post up hundreds of pictures, but their commentary on recent social issues are usually 1-5 liners. Why? I've no idea. Our eyes are not made for text. We have attention spans of a 3 year old. We are Malaysians.

Consumer consumption in Bolehland rocks. Big time.

Let me make this post clear: I'm not saying these blogs are lousy. I'm not saying Kenny Sia's and Xiaxue's and Smashpop's blogging styles are wrong, or can be improved upon. There is no such thing as a correct blogging style, just as there is no right way to write novels. All I'm saying is that I'm sick of it. Why can't we have good, topical bloggers writing about local issues that maintain a degree of integrity? Why aren't we reading more of these blogs?

Andrew Ho is perhaps the greatest single example of this. He caters for Malaysian readers who don't want to think. I love his posts, I really do. I read them frequently. But that's because he's a friend, and I read all my friends blogs.

When I give him a link to, say, Dooce (who was nominated for a writing award early this year), he rejects. He's started rejecting all the thinking blog links and industry news blogs I've been sending to him.

So far I've only found two Malaysian bloggers who write beautifully, with substance, and with depth (not politics, like Jeff, who is in a league of his own). One of them is a pleasant (and much needed) breath of fresh air: Zewt, who writes about social issues in a way that most of us Malaysians can understand. I like the way he handles issues, starts discussions, and am very glad he did not go down the many photo little words path.

The other is Kamigoroshi, aka Edrei Zahari. He's now one of the leaders of the Personal community over at 9Rules, the blogging network that places quality above all other factors.

Some of the bloggers there are incredibly influential.

A lot of them command multinational audiences that make Xiaxue and Kenny Sia and Smashpop (and all the other blogs we read and many imitate), seem pathetic.

But we're not reading them.

We're not imitating them.

Why?

Bolehland prevails.

Blogging Ethics For All

Being a self declared proponent of the blogosphere (as well as a member of it for quite some time), I must admit that sometimes the childish antics of otherwise normal, mature individuals can be frustrating for all of us.

There has been a furore about the Kathy Sierra death threats over the past week or two, attracting even mainstream media coverage and plenty of commentary from blogging heavyweights.

On the other side of the web, Litlove has documented the recent spate of blogging (mis)conduct, providing links to Tim O'Reilly's call for a rewrite on blogging ethics.

The reason I'm writing this post is not to show how much I know about what's hot in the blogosphere right now (Arrington and the guys over at Technorati should know better), but I'd like to point all UGSers to a case of such misconduct closer to home: over at Gabrielle's blog.

anonymous: "And guess who is the best speaker? Me, me, me and me!" show off!!
anonymous: boo
gabby: ahemzz...its called self-amusement la hor, tats y its me me me n me.
anonymous: to your point of view, it might be just self amusement but to others, it will look like a show off act.
gabby: the purpose of a blog serves for d blogger to spew out his mind and other ppl's point view are inadmissable when blogging as a blog serves to preservea part of the blogger's life not ppl's point of views.
anonymous: well, this chatbox here serves a different purpose. it's here for me to state what i think about ur blog and it seems like you can't do anything about this can't you?
gabby: i never said it was wrong for u to voice ur pov. and in deed there is much tat i can do about it hwether it pleases u o not. refer to my post.

What worries me is this reply of his:

anonymous: well, this chatbox here serves a different purpose. it's here for me to state what i think about ur blog and it seems like you can't do anything about this can't you?

Why is this wrong?

To treat a person's personal blog as a shouting space of your own is rude, certainly. As is commenting or ranting about the person whom the blog is about. But the anonymous commentor's point of view is not only harmful to the Gabby - he threatens the mood and the tone of the blog.

If everyone out there acted like this the blogosphere would be a cacophony of disagreements and childish spats. An opinion I agree with on this issue:

It’s disappointing when healthy discussion turns agressive and nasty. It just seems so unnecessary and unproductive. I usually try to avoid blogs where the discussion is on that level.

From Litlove's comments.

Think of a personal blog as kind of open house, a place where the usual rules of polite behavior are maintained. Readers are like visitors to the party, and the Blogger will try his/her best to make sure things are entertaining and interesting and pleasant. He/She maintains full right to kick rude visitors out of the house, as he/she is responsible for what is being said under his/her roof.

Personally I don't worry too much about nasty comments in my blog - if they are not the least constructive, I ignore them. If they do assault other readers then, and only then, will I take action.

What can we do?

Go to Gabrielle's blog. Show her your support. And make sure you're ready when something like this happens over at yours. UGSers will support other UGSers.

We are, after all, a family.

The Seventh Annual Weblog Awards

And ... the winner for the Best Weblog category iisss ... BUGS!

Not.

The Seventh Annual Bloggies are back, and shinier than before. Blog addicts like Sam and Wen Qi (who are better connected in the local blogoshere than i am) should be immediately at home with the nominations - there are categories for Best Weblog according to area (American, Asian, Canadian, etc etc - and no, Xiaxue is not in it) as well as Best Weblog by topic (Sports, Gay, Entertainment)

I'm actually surprised at the great content available - my favourites, A List Apart, Postsecret and Techcrunch are in there, as is Greenr and weirder blogs like My Boyfriend Is A Twat and (nominated in the teen blog category) Sex and The Ivy. Which is essentially a sex blog, i think, written by a teenager.

Go check out the nominations and vote NOW.

Missing: Kuching blogger

If you are a frequent reader of Kuching blogs, you may have noticed that one of Kuching’s prominent bloggers, sixthseal, has seemed to have disappeared from the blogging world without a trace, and left no warnings before his disappearance. This is particularly worrisome, taking into account of his previous blog post about attempted suicide. Well, sixthseal has made quite a name for himself through his notorious posts about drug use. However, his blog is also sprinkled with posts ranging from serious posts about tests for HIV that apparently won him some kind of award, to lighter posts regarding Kuching eateries. His sudden disappearance from the blogging world is most puzzling.

My point is, what happens to a blogger or blog after the blogger decides to quit, either indefinitely or temporarily? Would it be lost in the ocean of blogs? Would it be forgotten with the passage of time? Does it even matter?

Ah, blogging fame is indeed fickle.