Category Archives: Blogging

The One With New Year Day – A Roundup of Roundups

1 January, 2013 6:53 pm | Leave a Comment |

Hi there! Did you have a good new year’s eve celebration? My evening turned out to be very lovely. Unlike previous years, I shunned the rowdy revelers in Taipei and impossible crowd in town. We opted for a small gathering of friends for some good food, plenty of booze and great time.

NYE Gathering

Much have been said about the night that was. We had some home cooked food, all the way perusing some excellent champagnes and some very comforting mulled wine. When the clock strikes midnight, we were at the rooftop in an attempt to witness the fireworks from afar and wasn’t really bothered that we failed spectacularly to do so.

In the confusion that was last night (ehem!), somehow I found myself booked on a trip to Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia and the gateway to Mount Bromo. I have been dithering for days about what to for my Chinese New Year’s holiday. It is now all sorted though I am a bit nervous about how rugged and close-to-nature the whole trip will be. I am a city boy at heart, I really am. Chris has no idea what he got himself into asking me to go along on his trip.

It would be my first holiday trip to Indonesia. Working day trips to Batam don’t count.

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Posted in: Blogging, Daily Diary

The Best Of You Got Me Blogging 2012

31 December, 2012 10:00 am | 1 Comment |

This has been a good year for You Got Me Blogging.

I would have probably eaten way more than I ever planned to – I am now permanently on a diet – but the end result is a good compilation of great places to eat in Hong Kong, and to experience authentic local culture. Being a foodie in Hong Kong has made me less of a glutton, more of a lover and hopefully never a snob to the vast gastronomical delight that this country has to offer.

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Posted in: Blogging, Food & Dining

Social Media Week Hong Kong 2012

6 February, 2012 10:54 pm | Leave a Comment |

Social Media Week Hong Kong 2012

Update: To all visitors from Social Media Week Hong Kong, welcome. It has been truly a worthwhile experiencing sharing my blogging journey with you. If you like to get in touch, check out my profile for various ways to contact me. You may also be interested in the presentation I did today, which can be found on Slide Share. A short clip on the closing Q&A session can also be found on U Stream.

Stay connected!

I won’t confess that I am fanatical about social media.

But I can’t deny that a lot of what I have achieved in my personal life and doing in my career have a lot to do with blogging. My venture into the digital world started with a single blog post about, uh, a train door. And then I got crazy about Singapore Idol. I blogged so much about it that eventually I founded the first idol’s official fan club, which became endorsed by the recording company. Then I realised I have a good grasp on building websites.

And then come along Facebook. And then, Twitter.

The rest, like they said, is history.

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Posted in: Blogging, Web Notes

The One With Being Active On Facebook

21 September, 2011 10:00 am | 2 Comments |

Towards the end of last year I did a blog post on ten things I would like to do before 2010 come to an end. It was perfectly by accident I came across that post recently, and it got me reflecting on my differing states of mind now and then. This is a series of blog posts examining my year-end resolutions.

In December 2010, one of my resolutions was:

Be more active on Facebook

I love Facebook more than Twitter. I can understand why that is a surprise to you, considering I am tweet more than I check my feeds. In general I prefer truths than lies, and like what they say; Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers, and Facebook is where you tell lies to friends. I also believe that if I have nothing nice to say, I will not say it. But I also acknowledge that Facebook connects me more to friends, drives more traffic to this blog, and lets my mom know what I am up to when I am not picking up the phone. So while I don’t think I will tweet any less than I already, I am ready to read more on your Facebook updates, and that’s a promise. Just don’t Farmville me, please.

One year on, how much of that has changed? Not very much, I suppose.

My principle still stand that Facebook is the greatest people connector online ever invented. However, with quantity comes its nemesis – quality. People post the most mundane thing on Facebook.

I could appreciate that you went to Italy for a family holiday, but do you have to upload some 200+ photos in one album? I don’t have that much attention to view all of them.

I could also appreciate that you are angry with your boss; at the very least I will symphatise with a comment or two. But not when your last twenty updates are your rants about the pointy-haired one.

I could also appreciate you love Facebook games very much. But not when your entire profile page is filled with requests to add this or that to your restaurants, or pleas to help you find some obscure treasure on a deserted (fictional) island.

No, so I choose quality over quantity. I still update my Facebook on a daily basis; some photos (never hundreds of them), some status updates, some links to my blogs or other funny stuff I found. I read your updates every day too, but looking at “Top News” rather than “Most Recent”.

I do think I can connect to you better offline. So I will drop you a note to arrange for a meet up. No, not on Facebook Chat.

The biggest thing I have done on Facebook is to create (go on, laugh) a Facebook Fan Page for this blog. If you are a friend, or if you like reading this blog, go on and stroke my ego at You Got Me Blogging‘s Facebook page.

It means you need to click the “Like” button, yes.

Posted in: Blogging, Web Notes

The One With Too Much Food Blogging

17 August, 2011 9:49 pm | Leave a Comment |

Towards the end of last year I did a blog post on ten things I would like to do before 2010 come to an end. It was perfectly by accident I came across that post recently, and it got me reflecting on my differing states of mind now and then. This is a series of blog posts examining my year-end resolutions.

In December 2010, one of my resolutions was:

Stop food reviews, for now

I have more blog material scheduled in my calendar than actual blog posts. This points to two alarming facts: (1) That I am severely behind in my blogging effort, and (2) I eat out too much for my own good. Although I do fancy myself as a food blogger in training, this blog may lose its voice if I blog about food every other day. Hence from now till end of the year, I will stop blogging about food. Probably that will help with the eating orgy I have inadvertently indulged myself in.

So did my food blogging frenzy came to a stop?

Salmon tartare (SML Restaurant)

Yes, it did.

For one reason or another, my blogging mojo on my passion for food came to an abrupt halt in the beginning of 2011. Perhaps it was this resolution I made. Perhaps I was distracted by my three-week backpacking trip to Europe. My dining adventure, it seemed, had decided to call it a day.

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Posted in: Blogging

The One With Kachingle My Blog

16 February, 2011 8:00 am | 3 Comments |

The premise of Kachingle was to support sites you love with social cents. As cliche as it may sound, that is exactly what it does.

Here’s how it works:
– You pay US$5 per month to Kachingle
– Every time you visit a site with a Kachingle badge (like this blog), you can choose to “Kachingle” the blog, or not
– Do this for every Kachingle-d sites, blogs and apps you enjoy
– At the end of every month, a big part of your US$5 is distributed to those sites you Kachingle-d
– The more visits you pay to the site, the more money it’ll get

That’s the money part, and it is a refreshing business model for publishers. Instead of being tied in to a monthly subscription to every other site, or being pestered by endless pop-up ads, you spend a fixed amount on content you enjoy.

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Posted in: Blogging | Tagged: ,

The One With The Month That Was November 2010

1 December, 2010 8:00 am | 2 Comments |

Christmas Madness @ Times Square

It’s here. The month of Christmas. The season of giving, receiving and merrymaking. Before I don my Santa hat and start jiggling my bells around (that sounded dirty), I thought I will take a breather and look back at the month that was November.

The past month has been monumental for me. Apart from a very busy time at work, this was the month when I had to reinstate my blog after a hacking attack. Getting back into my blogging stride was difficult; it’s just like dragging your sorry ass back to the gym after weeks of food gorging.

But of that, I did. I mean blogging, not gorging.

So here I am looking back at some of my best blog posts in November, and here’s to an exciting month ahead in December.

Good luck, you and me ;)

The One With Novotel Bloggers Hong Kong 2010
My first blogger event in Hong Kong, thanks to the good folks of Novotel and PRDA Asia.

The One With Hairy Crab Season In Hong Kong
There is just something very special about hairy crabs and its season in Hong Kong.

The One With The iPhone Lost & Found
This is one of the many life snippets how Singapore and Hong Kong are two very different beasts.

The One With Lan Fong Yuen (蘭芳園) At Central
Lan Fong Yuen, the legendary char chan teng in Central, is famous for very good reasons.

The One With The Culinary Whirlwind That Was Bangkok 2010
From roadside food to thousand-baht meals, Bangkok is, and always will be, a gastronomical heaven for many.

Posted in: Blogging

The One With First Impressions Of Hong Kong

25 November, 2010 8:00 am | 3 Comments |

It has been more than two weeks since the Novotel Bloggers Hong Kong 2010 event… and it certainly felt much longer than that. Had it only been two weeks? It felt like it had been months since that night when I met up with so many different bloggers all in one night.

Being a somewhat newcomer to Hong Kong (I moved here for slightly more than a year), I was curious to know the kind of impression these bloggers had on my new home. It is easy, even for someone like me, to feel a teensiest bored with Hong Kong, if you fell victim to mindless routine and endless rat race in the day-to-day life in this city.

So I snooped around a little to discover just what Hong Kong meant to these folks.

After a few years’ break since she last visited the city, Minh Giang was fascinated how the Hong Kong she remembered transformed right in front of her eyes:

It’s been almost six years since my last visit to Hong Kong and almost inevitably I’m told this every time someone asks if I’ve been to Hong Kong before. I’m a little stunned as I take in the skyline on the ride into the city, it’s one thing to remember the densely packed skyscrapers but another thing altogether to see towers lit up at night.

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Posted in: Blogging, Daily Diary | Tagged: , , ,

The One With Novotel Bloggers Hong Kong 2010

4 November, 2010 2:18 pm | 7 Comments |

Also known as the Night With Too Much Wind. No, the bloggers didn’t do a flash mob to collectively fart in one place; though that would be a cool idea.

Now allow me to explain.

Novotel Bloggers Hong Kong 2010

The good folks of Novotel Hong Kong, with a generous blessing from the Hong Kong Tourism Board, invited a group of bloggers both local and overseas for the inaugural Novotal Blogger Hong Kong 2010. Organised by the social media pros of PRDA Asia, I was decidedly honoured to be part of the event; thanks to Josie for the invitation.

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Posted in: Blogging, Daily Diary, Food & Dining | Tagged: , , ,

The One With The Revival Of My Blogging Mojo

19 October, 2010 8:28 pm | 3 Comments |

Sunflowers in the Sky

You may not have noticed that I haven’t been blogging for close to a month. Or if you have noticed, probably you did because you tried to visit my blog, only to be warned by your respective bouncers of a browser that my crown, You Got Me Blogging, has been unduly colonised by an army of malwares.

That despicable act was so unjust, so unfair, that I do not even know where to begin. With the unbloggable dethronement, I descended to the dungeon of misery, navigating helplessly through the Google Webmaster daunting maze while trying to weed out the offending malware. Endless days and nights were spent battling to replace my crown where it rightly should be at.

As it became clear that I couldn’t fight this war alone, I left the dungeon and ascended to my tower of a lighthouse, signaling for help. And help came, in the form of the King of Petphotogs and Princess of WordPress. Together, over endless emails, DMs and MSN, we weeded out the terrorists, moved my crown to a better throne and reinstated my place in the blogging world.

That, my friend, is what you are looking at. You Got Me Blogging is now officially sitting at http://www.razlan.net, not on the .name domain anymore. Kindly update your bookmarks and linkrolls, my beloved readers.

And yes, within minutes of my re-coronation, the silent observer Google cleared my name, and all is good again in the world of search engines.

I have much to rejoice and to blog about. The Bangkok trip that spanned over six eventful days, the downfall of my blog (which rightfully deserves a series of posts on its own, but why wallow in that miserable past?), the endless blogging ideas lined up…

All in good time, my friend. Before you know it, the delicious awesomeness that are my blog posts will once again present itself on your email/RSS/Twitter for your (hopefully delightful) inspection.

Once again, a shout out to Nicholas Lee and Veron Ang, without whom this blog may have not seen the light of the day again.

Posted in: Blogging | Tagged: , , , , , ,