I'm Back*!!

The title is kind of a misnomer since it's suggesting that I will be resuming my blogging activities as before the announced hiatus. The truth is, half and half. While I will be resuming blogging every now and then, the topics will be more personal. In many ways, this blog will function as a personal diary of sorts -- to track my current activities like reading materials and traveling destinations.

To be completely honest, I realized as of late that, despite the demand on time it places, blogging can be very beneficial. Informing your viewers/readers aside, it also helps improve your writing as well as provide a sense of accomplishment. As someone who can be labeled as "driven" and "goal-oriented", I like to go to sleep each night knowing that I accomplished something (even if it's a self-created illusion). The fact that I find myself idle at work more often than not helps too...

Kicking things off, I just came back from the local library with an exciting haul of reading material. I like to read (evident by the posts as book reviews) and I try to borrow a myriad of books on a wide range of subjects to sustain this habit. The books from this haul are as follows:

• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See -- this is supposedly a famous novel and it's a culture-specific fiction, which I like to read. Fiction adds variety to the rest of (non-fiction) below.
• Using Microsoft Access 2010, by Alison Balter -- realized I need to learn Microsoft Access.
• Oracle SQL: Essential Reference, by David Kreines -- same as above, my work involves using Oracle and so knowing SQL would help tremendously.
• Learning MySQL, by Hugh Williams -- same as above
• Drive: the Surprising Truth..., by Daniel Pink -- this is another widely-acclaimed book. I just finished "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely.
• The Art Instinct, by Denis Dutton -- heard about this from a TED talk and thought it sounded very interesting.

The goal is to post some sort of review (maybe not on the SQL and Access books). But I'm behind already on book reviews so, I'd advise not to bet on it...

(Yet Another) Blog Status Update

Here we are again. I haven't posted anything for the past week and a half. The standard excuses apply: work, school has started, and I am still a tiny sad about Mandy. But these excuses aside, I am hereby officially announcing a reduction of my work on this blog. Rather than "beating around the bush" on the subject by offering excuses after excuses for the (obvious) inactivity, I think it is best to be forthcoming. Does this mean I will stop blogging altogether? NO. It just means I will be posting less frequently.

A few reasons has led to this announcement of sorts:

1. School has started and I will be devoting a significant chunk of free time to homework.
2. Really need to be better prepared for work, such as learning the necessary programming language to be successful.
3. Am part of a campus Christian fellowship and outreach to students will further consume significant chunks of free time.
4. Would rather spend a little more time on reading and playing sports than spending a couple of hours a day writing about a myriad of different subjects.

In addition to reason #4, the biggest factor for my future diminished activity is that these past few months with blogging have been an experiment of sorts. When I first started back in April, the goal was to push hard and see where I can go with it. I had some grand vision of eventually becoming a professional blogger (aka quitting my current job). At first the main issue was creating content to attract readers to my blog -- this took time but I understood the effort needed. Readership steadily picked up to the point of my blog averaging 50-60 views per day (~1000 views per month) by late June. I was pretty encouraged by this.

Yet for some reason, the amount of views hit a wall at this point. I never surpassed this threshold, except on occasions when some unique posts attracted short-spurts of interest. (I am also responsible for slightly diminishing my blogging output). In addition I found myself lacking the time to blog, since it mostly was a reflection of personal experiences (e.g. writing a book review requires that I first read the book). These two issues combined was discouraging; the 4 reasons listed above only sunk the ship faster. Henceforth, I will be blogging perhaps 4-5 times per week on the identical range of topics as before. 

Another obstacle I should point out is that Blogger, as good of a blogging platform as it is, can at times be frustrating to use. The level of customizations are very limited, for example. It's actually mind-boggling that a Google-owned site of great potential is marred by a lack of refinement. I think I would set up my own blogging site next time -- if I ever took up this experiment again.

Back from Blogging Hiatus

Although I did not announce my absence from blogging, the important news is that now I am back. It's been a roller coaster of a week or so since I last blogged. The main explanation for my absence is that I went on vacation with some friends to Ocean City (MD) and, as much as I like blogging, it's a difficult endeavor when the sun is shinning and the beach is beckoning.

I will probably be elaborating on some of the following over the next few days but, to give a glimpse of the roller coaster ride I had been on, here are some key events that happened:

• Ran someone over on my bike to work
• Took and subsequently failed a waiver exam
• Enjoyed the beach for the first time in 2 (?) years
• Watched the sunrise twice
• Was rejected again by Mandy

As you might surmise, the last bullet point was definitely the most pivotal one of the bunch. But all in all, it has been an adrenaline-filled week and a half. I am back and these "Chronicles" will continue.

(Yet Another) Blog Update

[This will be a short status update as I am still working on posting more. Today's triple posts is an outlier to the norm.]

The biggest change over the past few weeks to this blog is the decreased number of technology-related posts. While the lack of exciting news was a factor, this change was mainly the result of a personal decision. I realized that the 50-plus views enjoyed before (now this is about ~25 a day) is attributable to the various "tech news" I had been blogging about. It seems a lot of people were coming across my blog when searching for more information on the tech announcements -- and I suspect they were not interested to read my thoughts/opinions. More readership is nice, but I do not want to compromise the purpose and quality of this blog for just that.

I have been making an attempt to write more about the young professional life, and reflecting on my own experiences to advise others. Hopefully this will become the main focus of this blog for the future. All the other topics (e.g. cuisine, personal finance) serve mainly to entertain.

Blog Status Update

Astute readers of this blog may have realized now that I have not been diligent in certain things I mentioned in the last blog update. The main grievance has been the lack of a special weekly essay on a select topic. Let me assure you that I plan to rectify this matter very soon. At the moment, it's a matter of picking out the best topic to write about. Sometimes the hardest part about writing is...how to get started.

One positive announcement is the purchase of a digital camera. This means now I can actually post original photographs (namely cooking?), instead of borrowing from other websites. The said camera is shown below: a Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS. It is actually a "gift" from my dad, who has frequently lamented at my lack of a digital camera. All I know right now that it is small, feels good in the hand, and boasts a 12.1 megapixel-capable lens. Maybe I will post a review of the camera in the coming weeks.

(Image links to Amazon.com listing if you are interested...)

Aside from the camera announcement, I have noticed a slight increase in readership to roughly 50 views a day (from 5-10 before). This is very encouraging news! I can now safely put my self-satirizing insinuations of "imagery readers" to rest. And rest assured folks, Blogger doesn't track you or anything of the sort -- all I see are the number of views per day (which I suspect includes my own also).

Lastly, I am still working on possibly migrating this blog to its own website. I already purchased the domain name www.chroniclesofyp.com but the issue is finding the time or an expert who can help migrate all the data. Cross yours fingers...

Another Update About This Blog

A couple of weeks has elapsed since I last blogged about this blog. I think returning readers probably already noticed the increased number of postings per day, in addition to the greater variety of content in general. But it's been a roller coaster ride of sorts.

My current blogging plan entails of writing on technology news about twice a day, once a day on non-tech news (e.g. finance, world news), and once on non-news items. Every week I will release a lengthy post (pretty much an essay) on a special topic -- last's week was the first. Aside from these, I have also been blogging on Christian values and some book reviews. It's overall been a positive experience so far. For one, I feel I am developing into a better writer (or is it...blogger?).

However, it has also been burdensome to blog so frequently. Generating content isn't an easy endeavor -- especially so when you're working full-time and lack a camera. I have also been tracking the number of hits to my blog and it seems, somewhat undesirably, that the majority come from technology news section. I say "undesirably" because I feel that posts on tech news isn't really original; I am simply reverberating something another site/individual has found out about already. In addition, I think there have been cases where I felt a "writers bloc" in writing my posts. This latter problem is exacerbated by the fact that I am a slow writer.

Yet I will continue on! It's much too early to call it quits and, if anything, a quitter I am not. I am looking to buy a camera soon, or install superior graphics software, or both. This will allow me to stop plagiarizing images from other sites and post my own.

Update About This Blog

It's been almost a week since I last announced new changes to this blog. For repeat readers, you may have already noticed certain changes. I thought it might be helpful to summarize any new trends/blogging habits and speculate about the future (everyone loves speculation!).

I noticed a change in my blogging habits, which may hold until a future announcement:

• I have been posting about 3-4 times a day, if health (I fell sick on Tuesday night) allows. This is a colossal improvement over the 1-2 times a week before.
• In terms of the topics I blog about, they seem to be 1-2 posts on tech news, 1 post on world news, and 1-2 on any other topic.
• There are reasons for the above. For one, I read news during work and through the useful Chrome extension, I can directly blog about any article I come across. These news posts are short but highly subjective and prone to my opinions. The last type of posts require more thought and often are longer.
• Still have to add images or video to my posts. Main reason is that I'd like to start off with self-taken photographs before attempting to borrow (or plagiarize) from other websites.
• The best means to navigate this blog currently is through the tags or searchbar. I just went through and updated for old posts. The news posts are not properly tagged until the day after because the aforementioned Chrome extension does not the adding of tags directly. I will update the pages directory when I have more time.

In terms of the monetization process, astute readers may have seen the ad link on my review of the Great Expectations book (by Charles Dickens). This is conducted through Amazon Associates program -- which is very useful when referring to specific products. The commission margin is tiny (5%) but could add up if the product is pricey enough (and if readers click through and buy). It was an experiment and I will probably continue to experiment.

As for the Google AdSense, my account is currently on hold as Google proceeds to make a first payment. (Big thanks to anyone who checked out the ads!). The amount will probably come out to be $2-5, which may be small but it's an encouraging start nonetheless. I will be putting this into my "camera fund".

I have also purchased a domain name for potentially migrating this blog off blogger. It was a great deal --$2 for a one-year domain name of www.chroniclesofyp.com through GoDaddy.com. We'll see what happens!

Monetization of This Blog

I finished my finals exam a few days ago and have been relishing a class-free summer since. Amongst others small things, I do have personally-assigned projects like learning some programming language (SQL, TOAD, VBA) and playing the guitar.

Lately I have also begun exploring the idea of monetizing this blog -- after coming across an amalgam of success stories. Before you (the imaginary reader?) lash out against this practice, I must point out a few items concerning this monetization process:

• For now this is just a trial period as I test out the feasibility of including ads.
• I need some capital to fund blog-expansion methods outlined previously, such as buying a camera to take pictures.
• 99.9% of the time, the ads will be provided through Google Adsense and be located on the right hand-side of this blog. This means that it should not interfere at all with the posts.
• I also encourage anyone concerned or curious to contact me with any questions about this monetization process through placing ads on my blog.

The above being said, I encourage all readers to check out the ads if time or personal disposition permits. Some of the ads could be helpful -- and it would certainly help fund my blog-expansion projects.

On top of the things already noted, I also developed an outline to produce original content on a variety of topics. Capturing readers aside, I do want to better develop my writing skills through this blog. Thus I plan to categorize future posts into the following topics:

1. Young Professional -- this would include reflections about my daily routines, insight into the working world and potential challenges, and other issues related to work environment such as interactions with colleagues and bosses.
2. Cuisine -- I am certainly not the greatest chef in the world, but I do enjoy cooking and preparing meals to bring to work. My cuisine has a distinct Asian-flavor but are simple and quick to prepare. I will try to take pictures and recount how I prepared the food for anyone interested.
3. Spirituality/Religion -- I am a devout Christian, so I hope to share my experiences with others about living as a Christian. I will also be summarizing Sunday messages I hear from service and anything else related.
4. Personal Finance -- as demonstrated in a previous post about budget, I think this is a very important topic for young professionals. I will also be discussing things like planning from retirement and savings, which will be unique as it will be from my own perspective.
5. General Finance/ Economics -- I majored in Economics and currently pursing a graduate degree in finance, so I can draw from the knowledge I currently possess. I am also a shareholder in some companies, so this topic will be near and dear to me.
6. Technology -- I am a geek.
7. Politics/World News/Miscellaneous -- I like to keep track of world events and reflect on their significance. This will be topic I do so.
8. About This Blog -- I am pretty new to the world of blogging and this marks a new chapter in my attempt to become a better blogger. This topic will consist of any updates to about this blog, blogging in general, including any advice/tips.

Now after reading the breakdown of these topics, you may be wondering how frequent postings will be on these topics. The honest answer at the moment is I am not sure. But I will try to spend 1-2 hours each day blogging on a variety of topics. Some will be blogged more often than others -- for example, technology news may become a daily thing. I am thinking perhaps 4-5 times per day for now.

Thank you for reading! (And please consider checking the ads if interested...)