Archive for October, 2006

Comments

Published on 26 October 2006 in connecting, comments and blogging. 12 Comments

Darren Rowse on ProBlogger has just reposted a series of tips on attracting readers to one’s blog, and tip four is:

4. Comment on others blogs - I suspect that a number of my regular readers first came to my blog because I left a comment on theirs. It was not a strategy I thought about - I just found myself quite addicted to reading others blogs and giving feedback. When you leave a comment leave your own blog address. Often people like to know who is reading their blog and will come visiting you. Don’t comment just for the sake of it. If someone leaves me a ‘hi’ comment or is obviously trolling my blog I won’t visit them - its just frustrating. Make genuine comments on posts that connect with you. You might make a good friend in the process.

I agree that this definitely helps other bloggers to notice you. The first blog I ever had wasn’t a very successful one, partly because I didn’t update it very much (Darren’s tip six: update frequently), nor did I leave the comfort zone of my own blog and venture into others’ to comment and participate in any discussions. Like Darren I didn’t really think about it when I started this blog, but I did start to comment and interact with others with this blog and this has made a big difference. I always try and comment where I can, although busy-ness does get the better of me sometimes. If I’m only managing to skim through my subscriptions I don’t manage to comment as much as I’d like.

Bloggers, what do you do with comments left on your blog? How do you respond?

a) on the blog itself (ie you comment in reply)

b) by emailing the commenter (assuming they have left an email address)

c) both on your blog and via email

d) on your blog, and you visit the commenter’s blog (assuming they have one) and thank them for the comment

My usual practice is (a) - I reply to comments by commenting. Do you use any of the other means I’ve listed (or different ones altogether), and why?

Addendum: Great advice from Ann Darnton (courtesy of normblog):
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger?
> Stick with it and get out there and make friends. Read other people’s blogs and leave comments. If you want people to stop by your blog you have to return the favour. It takes time.
(Ann’s blog is Patternings.)

Penat lelah. (Exhaustion)

Published on 26 October 2006 in translation. 3 Comments

I don’t like leaving you all wondering what I’m on about, so here’s the translation:

Penat tak terkira pagi ini. Kalau boleh, ingin aku tidur terus sahaja. Tiada minat untuk masuk kerja langsung.

Really tired this morning. If I could I’d just stay in bed. I don’t feel like going to work at all.

Blog pagi semalam telah saya tag dengan kata ‘renungan’. Entah kenapa, hanya perkataan itulah yang rasanya sesuai.

I tagged my post yesterday with the word ‘renungan’ [Malay for contemplation, meditation, rumination]. I don’t know why, but that was the only word that felt right.

Eh, kali terakhir aku menulis dalam Bahasa Malaysia di blog ini hari Khamis juga! Waktu itu aku cuti beberapa hari. Mungkin aku perlu mengambil cuti kali ini juga…

Eh, the last time I wrote in Malay here was a Thursday as well! Back then I was on a few days’ holiday. Maybe I need a holiday this time around too…

Gambar: aku dengan Si Manja Baubles, amboi nyenyaknya tidur!

Picture: Me with Baubles the Cat, how soundly we’re sleeping!

Si Manja Baubles doesn’t really translate as Baubles the Cat. The word Si is used “in front of adjectives as an appellation, in mockery, endearment, etc. - Si kecil the little one, the baby. Si manis the sweetie [either for humans, or food sweeteners]. Si sulung the oldest one [sulung oldest child].”

Manja is one of those words that I don’t think can be properly translated into English. The dictionary* says:
1. spoiled, pampered (of a child, young woman).
2. attached (emotionally).
3. intimate, familiar, confidential.

Baubles could be said to be very manja (spoiled, pampered, indulged) I suppose. In fact, my grandmother has said this of Baubles many times!

The word nyenyak literally means to be sound asleep.

* For the definitions I consulted A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary by Alan M Stevens and A. Ed. Schmidgall-Tellings, Ohio University Press in association with the American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, 2004.

Sorry it wasn’t more profound!

Lunchtime fantasy

Published on 26 October 2006 in navel-gazing. 0 Comments

From Glenda Larke’s blog, on her recent holiday on Gunung (Mount) Kinabalu:


We are close to 1000m high. Cold water in the bathroom, straight off the mountain. Electricity for a few hours at night by way of a generator. No frig. No phone, not even mobile lines. No internet. No shops. No people but us. And the place is gorgeous with views from the verandah to die for. A river just below us, chattering endlessly over stones, a background sound to whatever we do for the next five days.

Sunrise starts at the top of the hills and sneaks downwards. The mornings are cloudless and hazeless, the afternoons misty or wet as the mountain creates its own weather and then dumps it on us. The evenings are cold as the sunlight creeps upwards to turn Mt Kinabalu red, leaving us below in the valley in the dark, already tucked away for the night.

I go birdwatching. I write. I read. I walk in the forest.
I am rejuvenated.

Sounds like heaven!

* Picture is Glenda’s, also.

P.S. This post follows on from this morning’s Malay language post. Does anyone want a translation, could you guess the gist of it? I’m guessing not, but I’m lazy unmotivated…