01 May 2007

The Thinking Blogs

I feel so honoured to have been awarded a feel-good Thinking Blog Award by Firehorse aka Fatty Poh or Overseas Mom-wife. (Gee, if not for programmable html links, this unthinking blogger will never figure out a way to get to her blog. Hehe, can't help making that dig - it's my sarcasm at work.)

In my opinion, every blogger is a thinking blogger. How can anyone write anything that is comprehensible if he does not think before he writes? Even my 10-year-old son needs to think (and very hard too) before he writes a composition. So I guess I should be writing about blogs that make me think instead.

This award was started here. You have to award five others whose blog you think deserve this award. Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

The participation rules are simple:

  1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
  2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
  3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all — blogs that really get you thinking!


Now for the my own list of deserving Thinking Blog Award winners, in no particular order of merit:

1. Mr Wang Says So

Mr Wang is a very popular blogger who writes about Singapore's social, political and economic issues. His posts are often based on newspaper articles on some controversial issues, a recent one being about our ministers' pay. Mr Wang, who is a lawyer by training, would also add his own insightful views on the issues. Each of his posts typically generates more than a hundred comments from readers who offer a variety of opinions.

2. Sleepless In Singapore

This is another blogger who is similar to Mr Wang in terms of what he writes. In his own words, his blog is "one middle-aged Singaporean's commentaries on some of the unpleasant things we read in the news and Singapore society in general". As to why he chooses to focus on writing about the unpleasant things, I have no idea. Perhaps he is a pessimist by nature. His nick gives me the impression that he's sleepless either because he's worried about the "bad news on the doorstep" or he writes his posts when he can't sleep. He does not write very often (his last post is dated 7 Apr 2007) which could be a good sign because it may mean that he is getting more sleep nowadays.

3. Don To Earth

The owner of this blog is the very senior Donald Crowdis. His blog's tagline is "A Nonagenarian (90+) Ponders Life, the Universe, and Aging". He has done work related to museums, libraries, heritage, and radio and television broadcasting. Some investigative browsing through his blog will reveal that he was born on 24 Dec 1913. (Gosh, he has the same birthday as my elder son but their years of birth are 78 years apart!) That makes Don 93-going-on-94 this year - definitely old enough to be a museum exhibit himself, kekeke. He is obviously one of the oldest bloggers around, possibly the 3rd oldest in the world. Don writes extremely well. He is proof that not every elderly person suffers from diminished mental faculty. His posts are short, sweet, thought-provoking and to the point. He even has a great sense of humour to boot - his last post on 8 Mar 2007 with title "I'm Not Dead" assures readers that he is still alive, kicking and writing. In his own words:
"Family concerns are currently preventing me from posting to 'Don To Earth', and from responding to the numerous e-mails that I have received and continue to receive."

It has been almost 2 months since that post. I do hope that he will resume writing soon.


4. Good Morning Yesterday

In his blog, Mr Lam Chun See reminisces about life in Singapore during olden times. Reading his articles never fails to make me think... about my own personal experiences as a child. I can relate to his stories because he is only 4 years older than me, biologically that is. Intellectually, there is no comparison; it is obvious that he is much, much older.


5. Life As I See It

Many of Chris' articles are thought-provoking and insightful. Like mine, there are some mindless ones of course but these are few and far between. He likes to horse around with me and whenever he does, I have to think very hard of how to "monkey around" back at him. It saddens me that I might not have this chance ever again.


I am not tagging anyone for this meme because firstly, thinkers are not known to be doers and secondly, at the rate that blogs are being shut down nowadays, soon there will be no bloggers left to tag. Sad but true. So one day, if you visit my blog and find that I have not written for some time, it could be one or more of the following reasons:

a. I am too busy to blog and have taken a hiatus;

b. I have moved my blog to a new private one or a good old-fashioned diary;

c. I am dead (possibly from deep vein thrombosis because of successive 8-hour blogging sessions);

d. I have quietly shut down my blog as well because it no longer provides the challenge to me.


Yes Elaine, it is proven that the blog flu can be as infectious as the bird one.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come on, bring back the challenger!

Anonymous said...

aint it sad that more n more bloggers are closing down their blogs?

Lam Chun See said...

Victor. Less than a month ago, you told the whole world, "There's a joy in blogging - you have to be in it to realise it." (here). Now, you contemplate quitting. How come? Certainly us 50+ oldies should not be subject to such mood swings arising from relationship problems.

My suggestion. Take a break. (Maybe that's what the Sleepless guy is doing :))But don't stop completely.

Lam Chun See said...

What is this man? First Elaine, then Chris, now you. You 3 are among my 'oldest' blogofriends. I believe the first comment I ever rec'd was from Frannxis. Elaine not only posted such flattering comments - she said her dad was my age wished her dad would blog like me; she even taught me how to download the Chinese language tool bar. Sigh.

Anyway, if you guys want to start new anonymous blogs, you know my email. I will try not to let the cat or monkey or whatever out of the bag.

Victor said...

Alex G - Why not you take up the challenge instead? Come on, I know you have a blogsite. Open it to us leh.

Victor said...

Etel - Yalor, and you have the honour of starting it. :)

Victor said...

Relak lah, Brother Lam. I didn't say that I will be quitting for sure. I am keeping my options open for now. Just want to prepare my readers for any eventualities.

One thing's for sure - even at 51, it is not normal for me to have such wild mood swings. I don't have andropause yet and I can still control my emotions better than people who are decade(s) younger. And just in case you are thinking that the recent developments are due to relationship problems, let me assure you that it is not. My best friend is still my best friend.

Yes, I did say that there is a joy in blogging not too long ago. But what I did not mention then is that sometimes it comes with a pain too.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry.. I did not mean it, really.

Thanks to Uncle Lam, for remembering what I've said. I'm still lurking around blogs, but I was really surprised when I see Chris closing down his blog. I hope my GD will not close down.. though I see the possibility as super high since Chris is the one that "challenged" GD to blog.. and now...

Sorry people.. If I can bring Chris back from blogging by blogging, I will open my blog again... :) but its abit stupid la.. I'm sure he is not really influenced by me too. Should have other reasons too..

As for the pain, yes... Painful indeed. When friends start to quarrel and fight over things written on blogs or comments, it got me thinking... that the whole world is looking at u though they do not leave comments.

Anonymous said...

Hi Victor...yes I am still reading your posts every week and it would be a pity if you close it. I am sure there are alot of hidden readers as well who do not make their presence known but nevertheless support your writings. - dawn

KopiSoh said...

Apa lidat, just when I found you, you tell me I might wake up tomorrow and you won't be there.

Shilpa said...

Victor, dun lidat lah... I suppose to be on holiday, ie, refraining fro; blogging, but make the exception to leave comment on your blog because i read one shot sad mah... you wan to close your blog better warn me hor? anyway, what nonsense, deep vein thrombosis?!?! Hahahha!!! Siow!

Alex G said...

Is the blogging season over?

Vic: I'm still trying to figure out my password. Don't think I have a blogsite to begin with...

Victor said...

Hey Alex, how come you cannot remember your password but you're already signed into Blogger when you wrote that comment? Try accessing your Dashboard to enable your profile.

Click on your nick "alexander" and it brings you to your profile page. The pop-up page says:

"Blogger: Profile Not Available... If you're a Blogger user, we encourage you to enable access to your Profile."

Fyi, your profile page is located at:

www2.blogger.com/profile/12727233137495224337

While mine is at:

www2.blogger.com/profile/10339178864363140977

Your number is much bigger than mine which means that you signed up much later than I did but you have not enabled your profile.

Who are you kidding huh?

As for blogging, as one of the school motto goes, "The Best Is Yet To Be".

Victor said...

Etel - No lah, I was just pulling your leg when I said you started the ball rolling. It's not you.

Dawn from HARP - Thank you for your support.

Firehorse - You've forgotten that I am sarcastic ah? You really think that I "monkey see monkey do"?

Shilpa - I am so touched by your concern. You didn't hear about the news? A 29-year-old S'pore woman really died from DVT recently and she was also a blogger. But it looked like she was too stressed out by work and it was not because of blogging. So it's possible, not siow, okay?

KopiSoh said...

Phew......Victor pls dun scare me lidat. Oh btw can do me a favor, if you meet Chris pls tell him I posted a blog obituary for him :P

Victor said...

FH - Done. I just gave him a call to tell him. Anyway I kaypoh a bit and hopped over to your blog to pay my respects. Woah, you so sweet (and cute at the same time). Now I know that there will be someone who will keep me in memoriam should I decide to go too, hehe.

alphabet soup said...

Victor
Forewarned is forearmed as they say, maybe not in Singapore, but they do in the place where I am sitting...

I hope you will be only taking a break and will come back to blogging again later on and the reasons for the break will be either a, b. or d and definately NOT c.

I am pleased to see Donald Crowdis and Mr Lam Sun Chee made your list of thinking bloggers.

Ms Soup

Victor said...

Hey Ms Soup - It's good to know that you are always lurking around, ever ready to cook a bowl of piping hot soup for me whenever I go hungry. You would have made it to my list of thinking bloggers too, but I could only name 5.

Alex G said...

The password was saved on the computer, I guess. The system prompted me for my google password, after I clicked on the link to enable my profile. I have no idea at all what is my username and password.

Anyway my school motto was "Up and On".