Why #Pink Blogs
9:33:00 PM
Hi peeps :D.
Today I want to
get a bit *cough* serious. Not very serious lah, I don’t think I am capable of
being too serious *LOL*. I just want to elaborate a little bit about why I’ve
always wanted to be a blogger ever since I found out what a blog is and also to
reveal a bit of my writing habits and history.
Let's start (it's going to be very long) *cracks hands*
Let's start (it's going to be very long) *cracks hands*
Ever since we’ve
started this blog I kinda make myself write regularly, I think writing is a
skill that gets better with practice. That's also because I am a very consistent
person, I never stop halfway. Writing is a like long lost love affair for
me. I’ve started writing since I was in elementary school, I’ve kept a
diary for many many years. I remember stopping just after finding out I was
pregnant with Baby Boy. Then during Friendsters days I’ve written some
blog-style entries and got positive feed backs from my friends, telling me I
should keep on writing because I am *ahem* good at this. I also always got good grades in lessons where I had to do essays because errr… I
am good at making up stories and intertwining words to make them sound good and
sophisticated, like I actually knew what the hell I was talking about (99% of
the time I didn’t) LOL. But then Facebook came and I *again* stopped writing,
for many years.
I told you before, i was inspired by other bloggers like Xia Xue to start my own blog, but for
me starting something is always harder than maintaining it. I just have this
laziness and kept on procrastinating :p. But once we get started I couldn’t
stop. #Undecided said it was years of pent up writing all pouring out of me,
and she’s 100% correct. I love writing and I guess it’s one of the not so many
passions I have (my Chinese Zodiac is pig, i believe it contributes to it :p, I
am one of the least ambitious person ever), and so far by making myself write
daily it keeps the sparks alive (fingers crossed it’ll lasts, but it's been more than a year and i've never been more in love with blogging!).
I am motivated to keep on writing, and I am a creature of habit. Now I feel like my day isn’t complete without writing a blog entry (but I’ve not been writing the past two days because I caught my hunny’s obsession with Running Man. Haih. If you’re one of not so many people who haven’t heard of it, you should try watching it. It’s a Korean reality game show, and it’s hilarious, I promise. #Undecided’s one of those who persisted on not watching it because she’s not into Korean thingy *LOL*. I am actually also not into Korean thingy and doesn’t really get all the K-Pop, K-Drama etc, but this Running Man I must admit I really love even though I was skeptical at first. Oh and I also love Korean cosmetics LOL).
I am motivated to keep on writing, and I am a creature of habit. Now I feel like my day isn’t complete without writing a blog entry (but I’ve not been writing the past two days because I caught my hunny’s obsession with Running Man. Haih. If you’re one of not so many people who haven’t heard of it, you should try watching it. It’s a Korean reality game show, and it’s hilarious, I promise. #Undecided’s one of those who persisted on not watching it because she’s not into Korean thingy *LOL*. I am actually also not into Korean thingy and doesn’t really get all the K-Pop, K-Drama etc, but this Running Man I must admit I really love even though I was skeptical at first. Oh and I also love Korean cosmetics LOL).
I must admit, I
am not completely the same as the other bloggers who started their blogs simply
because they want to record their lives. I do have other agendas. Being a
slight (slight lah, no?) narcissist I want people to read my writings. I want
to make a mark in this world, however slight. I am never one to think too big
or having an i-need–to-conquer-the-world mindset, but sometimes I do think, if
tomorrow I am no longer in this earth is there anything in this world that would
make people know I was here? I am just one person in the sea of billions of
people (past and present), and with this blog somehow I feel like I am heard at last (hey, I am
okay, we got so many hits already in such a short time, totally exceeded our
expectations!). If I do not wake up tomorrow, this blog will *hopefully* live
on. At least until Blogger shuts down LOL.
As I said,
having this blog gave me a voice. And not to just Indonesians, because our blog
actually got many hits internationally as well (number two biggest hits for us
came from USA and third’s Germany, super surprised because we thought we’re
gonna have more Asian readers but I guess writing in English helps getting our
voices, or writings, across). And this
means I can show the world what Indonesia (told you I am very passionate about
this) is like, from someone on the inside. Because it pissed me off when I
heard so many misconceptions about Indonesian and our style of living.
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| Oh yeah, and that too :P |
One of those is
the news. I heard from my foreign friends that TV news usually highlights all
the bad things that’s happening in Indonesia (bomb! Bomb everywhere! Terrorist!
Backward. Third world country) and they’d just throw the word “Indonesia”
without pin pointing where exactly in Indonesia those things were happening.
Indonesia’s a huge country okay, just because we are having a problem in one of
our cities doesn’t mean it’s dangerous to come to all parts of Indonesia. I’ve
been living in Surabaya for (give and take) twenty years and so far I’ve never encounter
any super major crisis whatsoever. That’s why it puzzles me whenever my foreign friends
said the news told them not to visit Indonesia because it’s dangerous.
And Indonesia’s
a developing country. I bristled whenever I heard misinformed people says that
we’re a third world country with its people living in a complete poverty. Yes,
we do have poverty problems, but which country doesn’t? Where there are poor
people, there are rich people as well. And it’s simply ignorant to just call a
country “third world” in a derogatory manner. If you want to know how
Indonesian lives you should read this article
: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/blogs/is-indonesia-a-first-world-or-third-world-country/501391
. It does explains how there are two very different ways of living here. Like
every country, we are struggling to overcome poverty and it is a hard task
for the government to handle. And I am fortunate enough to be on the other side
of the coin (as in the “first world” life) but this is not the case I am going to
stress here, I’m seriously not into all the political craps.
And I also know
many people never even head of Indonesia yet *LOL* (but seriously, whenever I
am reading an English book or watching Hollywood movies the words Indonesia,
Bali, Jakarta are thrown casually a lot nowadays so I think more people are
getting to know Indonesia!) so I am hoping I can introduce you to our lovely
country (remember, love the country, hate the government *LOL*) and give you a
more accurate picture on how Indonesian lives. Of course I am not
going to be able to show you how ALL Indonesian live lah, just the
kind of life that me and my family and
friends are living.
Why? The same
answer. Too many misconceptions about Indonesia and its people. I heard that
last year (or was it 2011? I don’t really remember), one of the most iconic
younger generation of Indonesian movie Ada Apa Dengan Cinta was showing in Japan
and Japanese actually was very surprised because Indonesian teenagers drove
nice cars and Indonesia has nice malls -____-. Seriously I was like…
What were they
expecting? Us living in a hut, barely dressed? Haih… Yes, there still are some
tribes that are living that kind of life style, but you could say that they are
a rarety and in need to be preserved. You might even say those tribes are a
little like Amish people or Indian in conservations. That’s how rare it is. And
it only applied on very little parts of Indonesia. People like me, we live in a
big city not all that different from other big cities that has already made a
name for themselves, Hong Kong, New York, London. What do we do on weekends? We
go to the mall. We watch the same Hollywood movies you watch, probably around
the same time that you got to watch them. Middle and upper class people in
Indonesia drives nice cars everywhere,
they tote a designer bags around (yes, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chanel types)
and they go to other countries for holidays.
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| "I went shopping yesterday" "Where?" "Singapore of course!" LOL |
It also pains me
whenever I talk to foreigners, especially Caucasians, and they’d ask me “How
come your English is so good?” (sometimes they’d insert “for an Indonesian” in
which I was very tempted to answer “my English is just good, period. I think I
speak much better English than you"). Younger generations of Indonesian speaks
English, okay. The educated, worldly ones of course. It doesn’t help when TV
shows like Amazing Race came to Indonesia and they aired the clips in which
Indonesian featured seemed to not understand a single word of English. Especially the latest
one, Amazing Race 21, which was shot at Surabaya (the city I am living in, the
second biggest city in Indonesia) so it was much closer to home.
They chose a fish market and ice block factory to shoot and honestly, those parts of Surabaya is almost like another world to me *LOL* (who would never step foot into a fish market willingly and have no business ever to go to an ice block factory) and of course the people there doesn’t speak a word of English, not that there’s anything wrong with that, they are too busy working and making a living to ever have any time or reason to learn English.
They chose a fish market and ice block factory to shoot and honestly, those parts of Surabaya is almost like another world to me *LOL* (who would never step foot into a fish market willingly and have no business ever to go to an ice block factory) and of course the people there doesn’t speak a word of English, not that there’s anything wrong with that, they are too busy working and making a living to ever have any time or reason to learn English.
These kind of
things show me how the world views Indonesian. And I am an Indonesian through
and through even though I may not look like how Indonesian people perceived to be.
I am of Chinese descent but I am Indonesian. Trust me, if you met any Chinese
Indonesian and you ask them “what’s your nationality?” they would, in a
heartbeat, answer “Indonesian”. Just because we are Chinese by race doesn’t mean
we are any less Indonesian, right? It’s like asking an African American (or
Asian American, or whatever) the same question, and they’d surely answer
“American” right?
I stated that
because I found out that there were some confusion about Miss Indonesia in Miss
Universe 2012 Pageant. I Googled her out of curiosity and was lead to forums
debating why she doesn’t look Indonesian but looks more Chinese. ROFL. Well,
that’s because she IS Chinese, dummy. I just don’t understand all the hype. I
mean, what does a typical Indonesian looks like anyway??? There are so many
different ethnic groups in Indonesia , more than 300 of them,
and one ethnic looks distinctly different than the others (except maybe for
Westerner who sometimes says Asian all looks the same to them, I’m so sorry to
burst your bubble but most Westerner also looks the same to us hehehehe,
seriously. We’d never be able to tell one Western ethnic from the other), so
why all the confusion when it comes to Chinese Indonesian?
Not only that
but whenever I travel people would kept
on guessing where we came from. Korea? No. Japan? No. And the latest one was
when we were in Vietnam and our tour leader kept on insisting that we were
Singaporean. LOL. And they’d be sooo confused when we told them we’re
Indonesian. They’d go “but you look like a Chinese!!” I’d go -____-
are you talking about my race or my nationality??? So confused. Because for us
our identity’s our nationality, not race. (on an unrelated note, Chinese people
would often go “You’re Chinese but you don’t speak Chinese??? What a
disgrace!!” OMG, I’m Indonesian lahhh so I speak INDONESIAN, plus I speak
English, fluently, do you aunty?).
Now, those are
some of the reasons (that stands out and that I can think of at the moment, if
I remember anything else that prompted me to start blogging then I’d write a
second installment on this entry okay hahahahah) why I am so keen on blogging.
To keep on practicing and doing what I love (writing) and to show the world how
mid-upper class of Indonesian really live (I must be honest it annoys me so
bad whenever foreigners say something they deemed as a typical Indonesian life
LOL, or when other nationality make fun or look down on Indonesian, or worse,
pity us. Eh hellow, we don’t need your pity leh, we’re living a good life
here).
So the next time I show you my purchases or the places I go, parties I
attend, food I eat, know that I am in no way bragging *LOL*, I just want to
show you MY life (plus record my life as well like the other bloggers).
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| Period |
In relation to the competition, let me refresh your memory why this blog is called #Pink and #Undecided (you can read the full story here). The reason is because i LOVE pink and decided to call my virtual alter ego #Pink, while #Undecided... Well, she can't even decide on her favorite color, so we gave her the moniker "Undecided" (trust me, she is the epitome of the word "undecided" LOL. And the theme of this blog? There's no theme! It's like our online diary, so everything goes! That's why i always itch to correct people who call me a beauty blogger that i am actually a lifestyle blogger (but i'm not gonna deny, the beauty part is where the fun is in and it does bring in the benefits!).
I sure feel a LOT of benefits as a blogger, naming a few :
1. Getting new friends. Blogging world is a beautiful, supportive community. I admit i only circulate in the beauty blogger area, but beauty IS a huge part of my life. None of my friends are as crazy as me when it comes to beauty, so it's nice to actually have friends who understand my passion. And doesn't think i'm crazy when i buy 10 lipsticks in one go.
2. Got invitations, sponsorships and collaboration offers. Basically it opens up a whole new world that i would never know if i don't blog. It also gave me opportunities that wasn't available before and i'm loving every second of it.
3. Refer to the second meme i posted up there, i get to rant and pour my heart out whenever i'm stressed out (or happy) and actually got people to respond to it. It's like a therapy to me, whenever i'm stressed out or sad, i start blogging and become engrossed in my post that i stop focusing on my worries. I always feel better after i put everything that's been bothering me in writings, no matter how trivial.
And that's just a few, i can go on and on but i still got a few other things to talk about so i better cut it short!
Now, if you're thinking of starting a blog yourself, allow me (this kinda-rookie-blogger) to give you a little tips and trick :
1. Get the right mindset. Blog because you want to blog, blog because you love to blog. Don't blog because you want to get freebies, for instant (the latest fad in beauty blogging world)! Readers would never connect with you if you start just for freebies! And guess what, getting freebies is not as easy as it might seem, there are responsibilities and burdens that come with them.
2. Be yourself. I am who i am, and i'm not gonna change or alter my personality so i would look better online. I am very open, opinionated and frankly, very sassy (i would say another word in any other time, but i don't think it's appropriate to use it here *LOL*). I say what i want to say and i don't really filter myself. Maybe this is not such a good tip if you have a similar personality as me (LOL) and you want to start a business oriented blog (you know, where you can get paid to blog). But i blog because i love blogging, all the freebies and invites are very welcomed bonus but not my main goal.
I believe there's a place for everyone in this virtual world, and me and my loud mouth definitely has a place too (judging the amount of love declarations we get in our posts *LOL*. No, not romantically, i mean with our writing style). After all, a really good product and company should have nothing to fear from someone as honest as me. I don't sugarcoat things, but i also won't say bad things if it's not true. Having say that, when doing a sponsored review/event report refrain from using harsh words. Be honest but do not be rude. Unless you're really really angry and have a reason to back up your anger. Still it's a no no for directly company/brand related posts.
3. Interact with your fellow bloggers, don't be a stuck up B. It's a small world, the blogging community. Interacting and being friendly (without being fake) with other bloggers would only bring good things, like they'd remember you next time there's an event or something and tip the planner to your blog (winking at Shasha). If you're stuck up and thinks you're better than everyone, people would ignore you or worse, stop any good thing that comes your way.
4. Don't be an annoyance. Read other blogs, leave nice comments, and maybe leave your link so they can check out your blog if they want to. DO NOT pressurize other bloggers to "follow back, please", or "Let's follow each other". Some bloggers might not mind, but most that i know (myself firmly included in this category) find it to be very annoying and rude. Blogs as not social medias, you can show support by following blogs you like, but don't force the blog owners to follow you back. It should be their choice to follow you, not because you make them feel like they HAVE to do it.
5. Enjoy yourself. Blog about whatever you want, don't put pressures on yourself about the page views or followers. It often confuses me a bit whenever i see a blogger asking their readers if they should continue writing about this topic or that. Unless you blog strictly for advertising and not your own pleasure, nobody should have the power to dictate what you write. Take the lead, this is YOUR blog after all.
Now, a little bit about B Blog : it's a wonderful blogger venue where the members (so if you have a blog, it'll only bring you nothing but good things to join this community!) gets to try out new products, get invited to events, join blogging competitions, etc. They have different projects each time, and there's a place for every blogger (whatever it is that you do. Lifestyle, beauty, fashion, travel... There's lots of different projects brewing here), and it's super fun and convenient for us to be a member. We've joined their competition in the past (read our entry here) and even though we didn't win, we actually got sent an MAP voucher! How great is that? So, if you are a blogger and not a member already, what are you waiting for??? Get started HERE!
Then if you're already a member, hurry and join this awesome competition! It's obviously organized by B Blog and sponsored by some wonderful companies : @princess_butik, @japansoftlens, @keziashop, @kissindonesia, @lumiere_corner and @galerikuku.
12 comments
Agreeee sama org2 blg org indo semacam 'terbelakang' gitu padahal kan kenyataannya engga >_<
ReplyDeleteanw, nice post as always ce ;D
LOL, IKR Cel! Thank you :D!
DeleteSo I just commented as an open id because there errors in the system. Nice tips for blogging Self determination, be yourself, patience, and hardwork must be present.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteSugeh.. That nice post
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing about blogging
Thx :)
DeleteSimilar to you, I was also inspired by Xiaxue mostly so I started my blog haha. I always watch her shows as well and learn many things. I also want to make a mark in this world so when I'm gone, people can still read and know about experiences I shared.
ReplyDeleteYep, i think Xia Xue is a huge inspiration for a lot of blogger, i'm totally a fangirl *LOL*!
DeleteSuch a welll written post.. yes u do write and write well.. and yes we all bloggers write for different reasons.. as u rightly said some may blog for freebies etc etc bt that is nt the only reason to blog.. noone supports me bt i hv surely made a mark in the blogging world I feel and will continue to do as long as I can.. I used to write diaries as well n now ppl do tell me that they like my writing style.. M happy with that.. All said and done.. loved ur post.. very nice.. Happy Blogging xoxo
ReplyDeleteThank you dear, you comment totally made my day :)!
Deletewow! great article again mindy...
ReplyDeletei was blogging like since I found about it, but as for me, maintaining a blog is quite difficult. especially when your schedule of clinical duties and going to rural areas to check on people's health drain all the time you need to write. I like writing and have been a member of every school organ of school I went to... It's just a joy to write things that interest you and share your perspective to the world. I also agree that writing and writing and writing really improve your communication skills and it did pay of during my thesis and oral defense.
I also feel the same with people stereotyping other races especially when it comes to speaking foreign language, indeed we foreign nationals speak their native tongue better....
those a also good tips for starting bloggers.
Thank you Jay Mee :). I do agree that maintaining a blog is not always easy, especially for those who has demanding full time job (i'm kinda jobless so i can't say LOL), but if you love it enough there's always going to be a pull to write again :).
Delete