BlogMunch

I’m Back…well, sort of…

Ahhhh… That’s a long break I have taken from BlogMunch. In fact, I think I have taken a long break from all things blogging. I think I am sort of burnt out, though I am not too sure.

For six months since I started blogging back in the days of Blogger, I have learnt a lot. Maybe too much.

I learn about blogging while reading Darren’s blog. (if you don’t know about Darren, you will soon know). Start a few blogs on Blogger. Tempered with all sorts of Blogger theme here and there. Found that Blogger is not enough for my OCD in customising. Learn about hosting my own blog. Recommended left and right about WordPress. BlogMunch is born.

Cramped myself with all sorts of knowledge on WordPress. Played with plugins and free themes. Add every ads I can think of top and bottom to the blog hoping to at least break even with the hosting charge. Entered contest at contestblogger. Never won. Dipped into social media websites like DIgg (dying), Facebook (have not check it for a long time), Stumbleupon (like the site discovery, not the social aspect), Twitter (see no point in it) and MySpace (ABSOLUTELY hate it!).

Oh dear, this sounded too much like a rant. Which I interpret as releasing of old baggage so that I can start anew. Want to know what jot me back to BlogMunch. Quote from one my comments:

Arbie | crn-web.com |

I do not feel obligated to blog at BlogMunch (and wont!)

Wow, that really bring me back here, writing…

Hi Arbie, Thank You…

Now that the “I’m Back” stuff is dealt with, now to tackle the “well, sort of” stuff.

Now that I am back, I am going to use BlogMunch as a personal blog. Or define as “I am going write anything I fancy, whenever I want (though frequently)” blog. This will go back to the basic definition of a blog where it will be a log of my internet presence.  There will not be any common theme like wordpress themes, making money online, breaking news (mostly old news by the time it reaches me) or internet marketing. Just plain old rambling, ranting and musing. (hmm, that reminds me I need to update my About page).

As you can see, I have switch to a new theme and will upload the logo I design (which I think is too non-simplistic) later. I might even design a new logo just to refresh my mind again.

I really thank those 30 odd RSS readers for their loyal support to the BlogMunch site during the time when I went MIA. Hope you will like my new direction and as always, stay tuned.

Thanks.

Bmunch

Leap forward to a Leap Year 2008

(Credit:mr_la_rue)

Well, now you know. 2008 will have 366 days. I am sort of fascinated by leap years and here are some fun trivia and fact about leap year.

A person born on the 29th of Feb are called "Leaplings". I wonder what will the descendants of Leap Frog be called?

Famous Leaplings include Anthony Robbins (Motivational Speaker), Naoko Iijima (Japanese actress) and Ja Rule (Rapper and Actor).

Do you know there were 5 Sundays on February 2004?

The most siblings born on a Leap day on consecutive Leap Years are the Henriksen family. They are born on 1960, 1964, 1968. Wow, how did their mum plan these births?

For all leaplings, check your insurance policy. If you are suppose to get your gratuity on your "21st Birthday", make sure you don’t get this money only when you are 84 years old.

According to Irish and Scottish folk superstitions, a lady can only propose to a man on a Leap year. Every other year, the man got to do the deed.

According to Greek superstitions, it is considered unlucky for a couple to marry on a Leap year.

I have just one chance, this much is clear,
Whisper to her it is now leap year.
Unknown poet, 1908 on women chasing after men on leap years.

The rules to decide if a year is a Leap year.

1. Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
2. But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year
3. Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.

This means that year 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years. Which in turn means a person celebrating his birthday on the Feb 29th 2096 will celebrate his next birthday on Feb 29th 2104, 8 Years Later! Poor dude…

Want to know which years are Leap years? Use this leap year calculator.

A Golden Birthday is when your age matches the number of the day of the month you were born on. Leap Year Day Babies will have to be 116 before they turn 29 on the 29th!

Here is a recipie for cocktail just for Leap years.

• 2 ounces gin
• 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
• 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
• 1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve with a twist of lemon.

There is a movie called "Leap Year" It is a 1921 comedy starring Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle. Who cares?

What do you get when you cross a kangaroo with a calendar?
A leap year!
A quote by William Blake.

On the eve of 1987 countdown to 1988, you had to add a Leap second. Have you done that? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Leap second, 0…..Happy New Year!!!!

Subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed to know what I have in store for you on the 29th Feb 2008.

Sleep – How much do you really need?

(Credit: Spongebob 1)

I am sure everyone have heard about the book "The Four-Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss. I have not read the book, but I am sure there are a lot of information on self-improvement and time management. I am not sure how he did it, but with both online and offline work, I am effectively living on a "Four-Hour Sleep Day".

How much Sleep do we really need?

Well, the official school of thought is that every adult needs to sleep eight hours a night to be refreshed. I doubt more than 50% of the adult human race sleep 8 hours a night (lucky bastards). There are also those that thought having two split four hour sleep every 24 hours is the most effective sleep pattern.

Another extreme school of thought is the Polyphasic sleep pattern. It advocate a 20-40 min nap every 4 hour, so that you can get by with 4-6 hours of sleep a day. It is not recommended for normal lifestyle, but a good practice if you know you have to get by with less sleep on a busy schedule.

How much sleep do you have?

I find that I am able to get by with only a straight 4 hour sleep at night. But every 3-4 days, the sleep debt will hit a threshold and I automatically sleep a 8 hour sleep. So it averages to about 5 hour a night.

So I ask you : How much sleep do you get a night on average? Any 8 hour sleepers here?

If you don’t want to sleep, you might want to subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed to read.

Repeat after me…Do not feel obligated to blog

I fired up my Google Reader and read this sobering post by Caroline Middlebrook. I am not going to discuss her personal problems as you can draw your conclusion while reading the post. That said, I want to wish her well and hope she finds new meaning soon.

What I want to highlight is amid all her personal problems, she still feels Obligated to review her stats and analyze her blog for November, promote the $300 Affiliate challenge, and even do a 7 min podcast!

I am not bashing her because she lied about her reasons. As House said: “Everybody lies.” Actually, I am not even bashing her. I am just highlighting a point. Lying in real life conversation is quite easy; you open your mouth and tell your lie. Sometimes its a self defense reflex. But in a blogging environment, you got to articulate your lie, organize your thoughts and write it down.

So why did she lied?

I think the problem with Caroline, as with all the young rising movie stars, is the super fast rise to the top. With that comes the huge expectations that you gonna deliver everyday. So when everything crashes around her, she still feels Obligated to deliver her goods. As she have written in her post, she lied about everything in order to “save face”. I feel that she shouldn’t have to do that. Her posts, especially her Twitter guide, is good enough to maintain her blog for a few months until she gets well enough to continue. Sure, her subscriber numbers will drop, but the loyal ones will stay.

What do all these got to do with me?

Although BlogMunch is live for about 5 months, I have learned that coming up with quality content and keeping to a regular blogging schedule is hard work. Not undoable, but hard work nevertheless. Especially when you still have a day time job. Even though, you should always write about something you are passionate about, the needs and expectations of your readers can sometimes dictate what you write. The two sometimes don’t coincide. So nowadays, I only write about things I find interesting. I do not yet have the knowledge and depth to chunk out quality and insightful post day in and day out.

What I have learned from reading Caroline sobering post is not to feel obligated to blog if I don’t feel like writing. There are more important things in life (like watching Haruhi on TV). To me, it is a semi-lucrative hobby; as long it pays for my hosting every month, I am happy. Get my priorities right and enjoy life.

That said, I think I shall go for a blog break in January to recharge myself and take a rest. I think I deserved it.

Enough of my rambling. Back to my regular schedule (whatever that is) tomorrow.

Find my ramblings interesting? Subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed for more.

A chaotic series of youtube surfing to what I am watching on TV now…

Last Wednesday morning, I went in search of "To Zanarkand" on youtube after hearing it on the Animal Crossing tragic story. This starts a series of youtube surfing. Just follow me…

To Zanarkand >>> To Zanarkand on Guitar >>> Final Fantasy VII Battle Theme on guitar (this video ROCKS) >>> Final Fantasy (Chocobo Theme) >>> Final Fantasy VII Boss Theme >>> Final Fantasy X >>> KURIKINTON FOX – A Cruel Angel’s Thesis (on of my favorite soundtrack) >>> KURIKINTON FOX – God knows… (I didn’t know anything about this song at this moment, but I like it) >>> Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou – God knows… >>> Google "Suzumiya Haruhi" >>> Haruhi Suzumiya >>> Finally God Knows… (Full Version) – HQ Audio

And now I am watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime) on my TV now. With such quirky characters (to say the least) and extremely likable lead (Haruhi), I wonder how I missed this series in the past.

Does these characters look familiar?

How about this?

If you frequently read DoshDosh, you will recognise these characters as the anime image Maki always use at the beginning of his post. I even confirm with Maki on MSN. And I can’t blamed him for being such a fan.

I am having such fun now watching the series, that I am not sure why am I here writing this post. I think I want to show that from these series of events, I was reintroduce to the power of the web medium.

Well, no more rambling, back to Haruhi Suzumiya…

Subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed now. You never know what you gonna get.