6 months' milestone in blogging

It's been 6 months since I've started blogging on Dec 23, 2010. How time flies!

Looking back, I cringe when I re-read my early posts... Almost to the extent of deleting them - they are so full of self-indulgent crap! But I will leave them as a testimony of how I started lost, and slowly found my way around - thanks to the guidance and support from you readers.

I've also document this constant question of mine on what to blog at the "Why I blog" page. I will keep it updated on new ideas that pop up. Quite a few of my "interests" were inspired by comments by more senior bloggers who visited and gave their encouragement:

1) "Songs that inspire me" came about from comments by Musicwhiz and La Papillion.

2) My series of bite-sized stories was the result from encouragement from La Papillion.

3) "Roar of the heart" is inspiration from reading posts at valuebuddies.com and bully the bear cbox. I find these two "taverns" a fun and intellectually stimulating place where we can engage in mature adult dialogue and discussions (not x-rated kind lah!).

I am especially glad that recently, more readers are offering alternative and/or different views on my posts. That means we are pass the "friendly friendly nice nice" stage. Please continue to do so! Many times, I find myself saying: "Eh? I didn't see it from that viewpoint. Interesting!" or "I don't share that position; but what makes him say that? Is he speaking from past experience or is he just trying to score points with book knowledge?"

Words of encouragement I appreciate a lot. Constructive criticisms I will value too. Rest assured I am only interested in the dialogue - not to engage you in debate. I am a big fan of different strokes for different folks!

By the way, I've also opened up the comments function on "My story" page. I closed the comments in the beginning as I was afraid people may laugh at me or put snide remarks to put me down... Hope for your understanding that I am testing the waters as I go along... If you have questions or want to know more on specific period of my story, you now can do so.

For those kind souls who do not wish to embarass or criticise me in public, you can write to my email: jared.seah@gmail.com

Why I blog? I guess it my way to prepare for my next step in 6 more months. Men tend to associate ourselves a lot with our job (or job titles to be precise). After leaving work, I still need to engage society in some way (can't always ask ex-colleagues for lunch right?). By blogging, I can make new friends and develop new hobbies to keep me occupied; and will piss-off my family less. I've read that after some men retired, they drive their families mad by constantly being around doing nothing!?

Spin a few songs, write a few bite-sized stories, this I can do!