{"id":5563,"date":"2009-11-28T19:09:05","date_gmt":"2009-11-28T08:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maddruid.com\/?p=5563"},"modified":"2009-11-29T13:32:07","modified_gmt":"2009-11-29T02:32:07","slug":"2115-of-me-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/?p=5563","title":{"rendered":"[2115] Of me, writing in general, blogging specifically"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have not been blogging actively for the past few months. This is mostly due to my commitment to The Malaysian Insider<\/em>. I have discovered that maintaining a column is harder than consistently updating a blog. I do not know how others do it but I certainly have to make compromise among various choices.<\/p>\n

Number of posts per month has dropped drastically. It was typically close to 30 posts per month. Ever since I began contributing to The Malaysian Insider<\/em>, reaching the number 20 is not a guarantee any more.<\/p>\n

Academic demand makes the whole issue harder than I had imagined it would be. Truly, there are times that I have to delay my column to focus on any assignment with looming deadlines. I need to do extremely well during my time in Australia \u2014 something that I consider as my time in self-exile \u2014 to justify whatever I am doing at the moment and open doors that I desperately want opened wide.<\/p>\n

Or maybe that is just an excuse. Now that the semester is in a break, I am still unable to sort out my writing schedule. Funny that even when time is aplenty, I am struggling with my writing schedule. For instance, I missed my column for this week.<\/p>\n

I am not regretting about contributing to one of the most popular news outlets in Malaysia. I admit, I do enjoy some of the attention I get from individuals that I could only imagine engaging without the column.<\/p>\n

It also forces me to think harder of what to write. I want my idea to be able to withstand criticism.<\/p>\n

It is also practice in consistency. By consistency, I mean to test whether my own opinion is consistent with my ideals. I place a huge premium on consistency; I tend to dismiss individuals who are inconsistent with their positions for I typically associate inconsistency with dishonesty.<\/p>\n

That is yet another reason why I discover why I have trouble writing. I am becoming a slow mechanistic thinker. I need to consider so many things to come to a point.<\/p>\n

Never mind the demand on grammar. I am always careless with grammar. With my blog, I tend to publish my stuff and re-read it after that. I could correct any mistake immediately. With column, that is harder to do. Moreover, with wider audience, bad grammar makes one looks stupid. I do not like to look stupid. Therefore, I need to be attentive to what I write and how I write it. The column helps to instill\u00a0discipline\u00a0in me as far as grammar is concerned.<\/p>\n

There was one factor that prevented me from writing frankly previously. It was the oppressive public opinion. More than that, it is the opinion of friends and\u00a0colleagues. By the time I was comfortable writing for The Malaysian Insider<\/em>, my\u00a0acquittance ranges from both sides of the political divide, sometimes going as high as up to positions of power.<\/p>\n

Then, at my workplace, which was a government-linked company, I had a hard time shutting up as a libertarian. I thought, my decision to quit and come to Australia is one of the best decisions that freed me from that constraint that I found myself trapped in, even if it was not others that imposed it.<\/p>\n

Then, there was a consultancy firm that was UMNO-linked. That was another tough spot that I found myself in. Friends within Pakatan Rakyat were definitely suspicious of what was going on, especially in times. And I think clients of the firm were suspicious of me. Nevertheless, it was definitely interesting, especially having the opportunity to attend the party’s general assembly<\/a> but that is behind me now.<\/p>\n

Also, many of my acquittance comes from countries with government that I deeply disagree with. Like the People’s Republic of China, for instance. My general hostility to religion is yet another factor that may open me to unfair criticism. I suddenly became self-conscious about these thing; I\u00a0began to become acutely aware of all this<\/a> while reading Mill’s On Liberty<\/em> much, much earlier. I am glad to share that I have overcome that. Farish Noor wrote a short message to me, encouraging me to ignore the oppressive public opinion.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, maybe, I think too highly of myself. Maybe, they do not really care whatever I write. Why should they care? Even if they cared, my liberty cannot be compromised. And so, I dismissed this concern of mine, thanks to Mill.<\/p>\n

For the next few months, I intend to catch up with my slack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have not been blogging actively for the past few months. This is mostly due to my commitment to The Malaysian Insider. I have discovered that maintaining a column is harder than consistently updating a blog. I do not know how others do it but I certainly have to make compromise among various choices. Number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[1009,700,1008],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-this-blog","tag-blogging","tag-on-liberty","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5563"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5598,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions\/5598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}