Livin Da Life - Past Tense

One day I was in class, sitting up a bit higher than the midline, so if I fell asleep the lecturer wouldn’t catch me. Not that he does, anyway.
Yeah, so he was like “In the brain, the visual stream processing in V1 can generally be broken down to the dorsal (V5), and ventral (V4) path way".

What I heard was “…brain…break down…”
And I started thinking, in class, of a brain. That suddenly grew hands and legs. And started doing hip hop. And there was this music going Break, b-break, break it down!
And then everyone in class started dancing.

Which was weird.
So yeah, that’s what I get for skipping breakfast. The bacon god is punishing me.

Another thing, I blame THE BLOODY STUPID SEMESTER FORMATION for making us all edgy. Eugene’s blog is starting to go emo. I’m getting to be more moody, as seen in previous posts. Hazel’s new blog is BLACK, not pink! (no offense, Zel!) Daryl is starting to look like Shern Ren (again, no offense to both).
And everyone I talked to is feeling drained. Most of the time, anyway.
Please, please bring back a mid semester break that is actually in the MIDDLE.

Now.
On to the good stuff.


Recently Chiox came under fire because of how he umm worded his criticism on MSO and MASCA? And apparently someone didn’t like it.
Now for once I’m not involved, and I’m not going to open up that can of worms, but having had the same problem previously I can identify with him.

And then Shuey and Yeam commented about how blogs are personal, bla blabla, so we should have freedom to type, bla bla..

But then some people don’t like it, but not because we or they are wrong, but its because we have different stands on issues. Apparently in blogs heated comments often rear their heads, some constructive, some being a pain in the ass.

The question is, should blogs be a totally free-for-all thought recorder? And if so, how should people respond to that?

Now first I would like to draw your attention to some recent cases in Malaysia, where bloggers have been detained under the ISA for writing uh..damaging stuff about our ‘truly Asian’ country. ISA claims to be protecting the security and peace of our country which otherwise would go all May 13 (which, by the way, could NEVER happen again) and…doomsday. Or something like that. That’s their excuse? In the first place, I don’t believe in the reality of us, civilized people, being involved in the uprising of races (but we could be pushed to it, if said situation continues). C’mon, this is the same shock and fear tactics the Gestapo used under Hitler to oppose the Jewish people, following which they had to run and hide.

But I’m getting away from myself here.

The Malaysian arrests represent ONE end of the extremity, where people take (often unjust) action against bloggers who are purportedly utilizing their right to free speech under the “freedom of cyberspace” assumption.

On the other hand, we can see that too much free speech, like in America, gives way to weirdos. Like the Raelian sect who said we were cloned by aliens. Or gay protests against governments. Not that I have anything against gays, but can you imagine if we had a gay uprising in.. lets say… Seremban? Pak Lah would have a heart attack, and then Najib would take over and everyone would be given anti-gay brainwashing. Or something like that.

The thing is. Its often hard for us bloggers, to walk that fine line between our rights to free blogging, and the point where it is damaging to people. Maybe this sense of freedom is (falsly?) afforded to us because of deemed anonymity of cyberspace. Of course not everyone would like what we write. People like anonymous Insensitive Prick write back. We argue back and say that “it’s OUR blog, don’t like it? Go write your own!”

Shuey commented that she’d rather not blog if she knew certain people frequented her words.
Chiox (and me!) got in arguments because we criticized the outcomes of events.


But then

Wasn’t the purpose of us blogging in the first place to let people KNOW what we think?

Granted, there are different types of blogs and not all have the purpose of being an opinionated one.
Ours, that expresses our opinions, food blogs (which I frequent a lot), report blogs, photo blogs, personal blogs, a mixture of these, and so much more. Out of all these, it is our type (the diary/opinion/expression) blogs that have the most social impact among people we know, how it can change relationships, foster new ones. Which is why when we ever DO publish reputation damaging stories, most of the time we change or hide names of people involved.

But THAT’S NOT THE POINT.
I mean, I remember when I first started this blog, what I wanted was for people to READ it, read my thoughts on stuff, and somehow, at a much deeper level, agree with me.
I was looking for people to know how I felt and identify with me.
Shuey, i don't know about you, but i actually WANTED people to read my blog.
Do you remember your feelings and aspirations when you first blogged, that "Yes! My friends can know what i think about this now!" feeling?

Or else whats the point of blogging your thoughts at all? Sure, you can say it was for personal diary thoughts, personal feelings, which were meant for you and you only. But then, why let others know about it? Some people, go to lengths to protect their thoughts, allowing only people with passwords, telling only a select few, screening visitors, etc.

A friend of mine has an even better solution. He writes IN HIS COMPUTER. He doesn’t blog it, but he keeps an electronic diary. In this way he’s free to write whatever, whoever, and however.

But for US. Who keep public blogs. That potentially ANYONE with internet can view. What was our purpose? I remember it clearly.

TO HAVE A VOICE.

And not just that, but TO BE HEARD as well.

And so. Our kind of blogs. Were meant for us to connect with people. Which means that like it or not, people whom we disagree with can read it. For they too have the right to BLOG. They too can blog that “oh, today Jared made an idiot of himself when he started break dancing in class”, or “Jared can suck a cows balls (no offense to Indians) because he so pisses me off”

Yeam said it very nicely.

"at times..u feel that it's ur blog..u can write anything u want..but want it or not..there're still some personal stuffs that u can't pen..especially with the increase publicity of ur blog"

The answer? Yes, blogs are free for all, but inevitably we will, and are going to step on someone’s shoes with our writing. And of course they’ll respond, cos its their right too. And maybe because we wanted to connect with people in the first place we get so riled up that someone out there doesn’t agree with us. Maybe also because we think that our illusion of cyberspace anonymity and confidentiality is breached.

Solution? I propose that RESPECT and WISDOM can help. Alot.

Respect that when other’s blog it is their thoughts, and how they feel, and they have a right too.
Wisdom to know when to blog in increasingly public blogs about increasingly private matters. For goodness sake if you really want to connect with people on REALLY personal matters DON’T blog it! TALK to the select few people. Theres more connection anyway. And if you still can't resist that technological edge, start an electronic diary, email, msn, BUT not a blog.

Sigh.. we didn't have this problem back in the days of paper diaries and journals. =P


To end with a true story.
On the day the Torch came to Canberra, the whole place was RED. Chinese everywhere. I was walking back on the main bridge, when some local Aussies wearing pro-Tibetan tshirts and carrying this HUGE sign saying “FREE TIBET” ran across the bridge.

Yes, the bridge with more than 500 Chinese people on it. And they had only FOUR. Naturally some Chinese got angry, took the sign, and threw it over the bridge. A fight nearly broke out.
And can you believe this, one of the protesters involved took out a camera and started taking photos of the angry Chinese mob! Next moment, camera goes flying over the bridge too.

And he nearly got beaten up. Thank God the police showed up in time.

Much later on, he complained that carrying an anti-China sign was his right to free speech, and who were they (the Chinese) to do anything about it? Furthermore he said that taking photos was his right too, because he wanted to show his friends what Chinese people really are.
Please. For goodness sake. Use WISDOM! be wise! at least have some street smarts.

How do I know all this? I was 5 feet from the fight and nearly got dragged into it. Some Chinese people even gave me funny looks when I didn’t shout pro-China slogans with them.

Bloggers out there, please don’t end up like that guy. Yes we have rights, but then again, we have brains.

Moral: Respect and wisdom goes a long way.
Now. I have to sleep. Exam. Again, stupid timetable =(

P.s. I hope ISA can ignore that ONE paragraph about them.