Stuck In a Rut

Lately I've been stuck in a rut when it comes to the blog. I get great ideas for posts, and I also have some stuff to review, but then when I actually open the 'New Post' page, I write two sentences then I lose interest. It's not like I've lost interest in blogging altogether, but lately I've been wondering, "What's the point?"

This blog has been going on for five, almost six years now. Now, that's one heck of a long time for a blog I'd initially set up just to do some book reviews and maybe write some nonsense on. But it's stagnated lately. I've run out of fresh ideas, run out of fresh ways to say unfresh things. Heck, even this post feels like I've written it before (hey, I think I wrote that last line before as well...).

When Haloscan got uppity and changed into that crappy Echo comments system, I lost ALL the few thousand comments I'd accumulated over the years. That's a LOT of comments. And I miss 'em. Because what's a blog if there are no comments? I'd initially thought of migrating the whole blog to a new engine like Wordpress with it's own domain name, but since then I've gotten lazy AGAIN, and just decided to leave the blog as it is.

I've been a lot more active in Twitter, true, but somehow it just ain't the same as having a nicely written blog post with people commenting about how cool or how sucky it actually is. And 140 characters just aren't enough sometimes. (Don't get me started on Twitlonger. That's for long-winded people who can't get to the point, but don't have enough intelligent thoughts or the vocabulary for a proper blog post).

Heck, I don't even update Hantu Bola as often anymore (though that's mostly because Liverpool is having a wretched season). It's like all the writing I do for both the day job AND the blog is finally catching up to me and I'm getting sick of it. Not the writing part, but the 'thinking of new ideas' part.

Anyway, I need something to get me going here again. Something fresh, something new to keep me going, something that I can actually feel enthusiastic about enough to keep updating regularly. Something like Suan's Bootcamp posts (without which we wouldn't get half as many updates from her).

Sure, we wish she'd blog about something else sometimes, but she's got such great passion and enthusiasm about the subject that it actually makes the post more interesting. So I need to find something that can spark me to write about it the way OBC sparks her enthusiasm to write about OBC. Since little bloggers like me don't get invited to half as many events as others, and I don't watch THAT many movies (so I can't keep churning out Movie Not-Reviews), I'm really at a loss here.

So... any suggestions?

Time for an Upgrade...

UPDATE (8-1-2010):
After some thought, I'm reverting back to the old layout and the stupid commenting system, while I try to figure out what to do... I'm thinking of upgrading Wordpress. Problem is, I have no idea how to do that. LOL

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Ok, the new commenting system was pissing me off. From being a simple no-frills Haloscan system it's become this stupid, clunky, shitty Echo system that is trying to be everything from TWitter to Facebook to even a bloody mini-blog by itself. I just want the comments, simple as that, you idiots, I don't need a bloody IM in my comments box!

Anyway, I'm canceling that stupid system and going back to Blogspot's default commenting system for now. Problem is, I've messed with the template so much that it has pretty much screwed up everything and I can't seem to get back the default comments system anymore unless I upgrade the template. Which means only one thing...

BLOG OVERHAUL!

So for now the blog is gonna look like this. Minimalist black. I'm too lazy to fool around with any other templates. For now. Now, if only I can find the time to sit down and play with the code. Hey, looking for ugly background colours takes time ok?

Good Bye Noughties. I'll Miss You.

You can always tell when I'm holiday. I never update the blog. That's because I have better things to do than sit in front of the PC when I'm on holiday, godammit! (such as sitting in front of the TV playing Dragon Age: Origins on my XBox...)

Anyway, it's finally the end of 2009, and the Noughties. Wow, one whole decade has gone by in the 21st century.

Looking back at the decade, I can't believe how much I've been through in these ten years. I graduated from university (despite my best efforts to prolong the studying experience). Bummed around in Poland for half a year, doing social work and drinking a lot (I blame Poland for my alcoholic tendencies and for forcing me to acquire an insatiable taste for beer and vodka). Got a job at The Newspaper when I came back (which led to a lot of traveling, concert-going, movie-watching and meeting personal idols). Turned three decades old (which didn't suck as much as I thought it would). Finally moved out and got my own pad (I'm a big boy now, ma!). Started blogging (which I've been doing for half a decade now WTF).

Speaking of blogging, I've somehow managed to keep this blog semi-anonymous for almost five years. Those of you who have followed the blog all these years (THANKS!) and/or know me in real life would know that I have always been particularly anal about being anonymous on the blog. Heck, in the beginning, I even went to the extent of actually going around asking people not to link their pictures of me to my blog, AND wearing an Optimus Prime mask to the Nuffnang 1st Anniversary Party.

At first I did it because I didn't want my boss to find out I had a blog. Then when I found out that he knew about it anyway, I decided I'll keep it anonymous because it let me write about whatever I wanted outside of work. Then later down the road, when excerpts of my blog posts ended up in my work articles (and vice versa, to a lesser extent), I decided I would still stay anonymous because it seemed more fun that way (and I wanted to see if anyone would accuse Real-Life-Me of plagiarizing Blog-Me).

Nowadays though, I've been getting really lazy about this anonymous thingy. Most of you know who I am already anyway. And since I've been hanging out with those crazy bloggers so much these days, there is no way I'd be fully anonymous anymore. As for the 'don't want office to find out' excuse, with a certain femes colleague of mine already openly blogging/Twitting etc. etc. about anything he wanted, I figured, if HE could do it, why can't I?

So, slowly and surely, I started being less anal about being linked to pictures, even posting some myself here. People have even been using my actual name on their links these days, and so far, so good, I haven't been struck down by lightning or worse, gotten a cease and desist memo from anyone yet (touch wood).

So there ya go. In conjunction with the new decade, I now declare that Eye On Everything is no longer an anonymous blog. Doesn't mean I'm gonna be parading camwhore pictures. It's still gonna be pretty much the same as before - same ugly layout, same content, and basically the same nonsense.

Don't hold your breathe for endless camwhore picture posts or me actually publishing my name openly though. This is still eyeris.blogspot.com, not michaelcheang.com.

Oh, oops.

Even Bloggers have Awards now. Good Grief.

Am currently in Singapore covering the Nuffnang Blog Awards.
Yeah, even bloggers have awards these days.
What's the world coming to, huh?
No, I'm not here as a blogger.
I'm here as a JOURNALIST ahahahha.
Even managed to squeeze in an interview with Mark Waid,
He's the writer of DC's Kingdom Come.
After that, will rush straight to the awards.
Party, yeah!

Project Beta: The TV Channel With REAL Bloggers!

What da fark is this? A TV SHOW about BLOGGERS? 'Uncovering Malaysia's Top Bloggers'? Since when did they need 'uncovering' in the first place? The only reason why they ARE so-called 'top bloggers' is because they are ALREADY uncovered, and certainly don't need further 'uncovering'. If anything, some of them (especially the guys) need more covering up. The girls can stay uncovered hur hur hur.

Anyway. Like I said (and asked during the press conference)... do we REALLY need a SHOW about BLOGGERS? Do we really need to know what goes on 'behind the scenes' and in their 'real lives'? Yeah right. As if they ALL go to Sunway Resort on normal days. As if three minutes is enough to show us how their lives are like. What next, 1 minute shows for "Malaysia's Top Twitterers"?

That said, there ARE a couple of bloggers I'd like to see them film. And they wouldn't even have to write a script or bring them to Sunway to film. All you have to do is follow them around and voila! You've got a show! Heck, with THESE guys, you'd get a whole CHANNEL of different genres of shows!


Top Blog-Gear
Genre: Automotive
Subject: Paul Tan
Cars cars and cars. Oh, and more cars. Guest-starring MyHorng as a superstar daredevil stunt driver called The Horng. LOL


Blogsurvivor:
Genre: Reality Show
Subject: Suanie
I'd love to see them film her at at Bootcamp (yes Suan, I'm a sadist hahahaha), or complaining while hiking to a waterfall... If you follow her blog regularly, you'll know she's damn sporting and willing to try anything (well, ALMOST anything). Hours of endless entertainment I tell you, not just 3 minutes!


Blogger Gone Wild:
Genre: Shock reality show
Subject: Thirsty Blogger
No need scripts for this guy. Just give him and his friends a lot of booze and let the fun begin! (Guest stars Kimberlycun as 'Chick whose voice gets damn high when she's drunk and then passes out on couch')


Blogprah's Book Club
Genre: Talk show book club
Subject: Bibliobibuli
Recommends good books to everyone. Does not feature Tom Cruise jumping on sofa, but she could get Tash Aw to jump on a stool if you'd like.


Dog Blog Lady
Genre: Pet show
Subject: Kimberlycun
Come take a peek at the life of Kim, who used to have a life, but doesn't now, thanks to her dog EmoCharlie. Watch as she cleans up Charlie's poo! Be thrilled as she rants at restaurants that don't allow dogs! And come learn how to look for a dog-sitter when she needs to go for parties!


Makan-Makan Belog:
Genre: Food
Subject: KYSpeaks
This guy is practically Asian Food Channel all by himself. All he does is EAT EAT and EAT (and complain about taking the LRT to work). Just follow him around with a camera and watch him eat! (Guest star Shaolintiger as token angmoh co-host with better Malaysian accent than most radio DJs.)


So You Think Your Blog Can Party?
Genre: Talent Show
Subject: Fireangel
Give her booze, a dance floor, and she'll fill up the three minutes with non-stop entertainment. She'll even do her Siew Yoke Dance for you if you ask nicely! (for non-Muslims only, ok?). Now, if only she'd actually get back to blogging in the first place...


Blog-E!
Genre: Tabloid and entertainment
Subject: Cyberred
Her name card says she 'chases rock stars' for a living. And boy is she good at it. Hers could be the kind of show where you stick her backstage in a concert and watch her stalk the rock stars!


Footyblog Focus
Genre: Sports
Subject: Hantubola
Watch as the nutjobs at Hantu Bola get mabuk while watching football and start calling Manure United players twats! Features truly Malaysian football commentary ("KEEPER KAYU!") and brilliant, in-depth match analysis ("CIBAI, THAT LUCAS DAMN USELESS!).


Quaint Eye For The Quaint Blog
Genre: Fashion
Subject: Pinkpau
Features Pinkpau dressing up in different costumes for the entire three minutes. What for? It's a FASHION show, numbskull. Since when do fashion shows need a reason to exist? Besides, she's hot, that's why. hahahaahha.


Life of a Blogger/Journalist
Genre: Nature Documentary
Subject: Eyeris
Follows the life of a blogger-journalist in his natural habitat. Contains EXCITING footage of said blogger pouncing on free doughnuts, devouring free cups of coffee, guzzling beer, and spending a lot of time sitting in front of the computer, sniggering to himself and typing. For the WHOLE three minutes. Because that's what most bloggers are like, no? Oh wait, I'm not a TOP blogger. bah.

300,000

This blog just hit 100,000 times three.
I'm so happy I could eat a tree.
But I will be content with a treat,
Of a pint of Guinness (or three).
Or maybe I'll go for tea,
It's a lot cheaper than stout, you see.
Anyway, this took me five years to achieve
And I still can't rhyme for shit.
It may not be as much as KY or Kenny,
But hey, at least I do it for free.



Woot!

FIVE YEARS With my Eye On Everything

This is me celebrating FIVE WHOLE YEARS of nonsense on this blog. Yam seng!

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(Update: 10:35am)

Ok ok, since it's a momentous occasion and all, let me just make my obligatory five-year celebratory post a little longer.

It's kinda weird that this blog has lasted this long, considering my analness about being 'anonymous' all this while, and the fact that it's not even about me per se. It may have started out as a book blog but it's evolved into something a lot more broader and more entertainment based than just books (I haven't even done a book review in like, AGES).

Anyway, here are some of my favorite posts on the blog, a list which was kinda hard to compile on account that there ARE FIVE years worth of material comprising 1329 posts in total.... Hope you had as much fun reading the blog as I had writing it! YAY!

(BTW, I'm not including any from 2009 though. Nothing very momentous lately... sigh...)

Here we go!

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MILESTONES

• Bandwagon Jumping (The first post EVER on EoE! It's not much, but hey, at least it got the ball rolling... and rolling... and rolling... and rolling.. and rolling...)


• Happy Green Day! (The first music post ever on EoE, and how appropriate it should be that it's American Idiot....)


• The Face behind the Blog: Eyeris Exposed! (the first time I posted a picture of myself on the blog. Well, sort of.)


• Are you a Hardcore Football Fan? (Setting up HANTU BOLA!)


• A (sort-of) Experiment in Certain Mentalities (This post it self is nothing much, but it IS about one significant moment in Malaysian Blogosphere history... it's the day Suanie got her face on the front page of the paper! Heh heh)


• Eleven questions I wanted to ask during the PPS bash (Another milestone in Malaysian Blogging History. I don't think there's ever been a bloggers meet quite like it ever since (And no, Nuffnang parties don't count. And check out the picture of the Femes Four! A skinny Suanie!)


• The Searches that Eyeris Reveals (At the time, this blog was second to some IT company. Now, if you Google 'eyeris', you get Eye on Everything on TOP! WOOT!)


• Kempen Belog Merdeka '05 : Lua-Puluh Minit Sebelum Hali Medeka (This was a crazy one. Vincent and I actually came up with a whole Merdeka Kempen to blog in Malay, and I went and changed EVERY SINGLE TEXT in the blog, including the sidebar, to Malay. Damn I had a lot of time to kill back then... Other two posts HERE and HERE)


• The COMPLETE Girls of the Malaysian Blogosphere Special Edition 2006 Calender! (Never mind putting her on the newspaper cover. Suanie's a fuckin' CALENDER GIRL!)


• My Moments of Musiclarity (Says a lot about how highly I think of myself when I actualy coined a word to describe my own music tastes. hahahaha)


• The Flaming Ghostly Mat Rempit (The first ever Movie Not-Review! On Ghost Rider, of all movies... WTF)


• eNuffnang Said (Eyeris sells out!)


• The Attack of the Plastic Robots on Cineleisure (Showing off my toys in public. Well, SOME of them anyway...)


• Jiwang Tuesday #1 (The One With Budi Weather) (The first ever Jiwang Tuesday! Now send me more Malay songs so I can post more of em!)

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ALL WHACKED OUT

• An Ode to Gandalf the Colorful (Oh dear oh dear. What was I taking at the time? See also An Ode to Darth Vader)


• Panduan LOTR (ENG-BM-AB) yang unik sekali (I loved doing these translations. I don't know why I stopped.... oh wait. Oh yeah, I got lazy. For more, just go HERE)


• The Wedding Album: Greatest Hits (I quite like this one because it was one of the first times I posted a gag that I'd been telling people a lot but never really got it down on paper until then.)


• How To Identify Snakes and Spiders: An Expert Opinion (Somehow, I'm STILL getting hits from Google for this one. Even though it's utter and complete nonsense...)


• Potential Harry Potter Spin-offs (This was way too much fun to write. heh heh)


• The Eyeris Coffee Song (I love this song so much I wrote a Morning Fix Remix AND a beer spinoff! LOL)


• Bleh. (the annual affair that has to be read to be believed)


• The Most Meaningless Conversation In the World (I miss all my pointless conversations with Fireangel. Oi come back from Sillypore already, bitch)


• How to Make a Submarine: An Expert Guide (another post I get a lot of hits for. And I didn't even have proper tequila then!)


• The Eyeris Limited Edition Bubur Kit Kat! (One of the strangest experiments ever...)


• Optimash Prime, Defender of the Potatoverse! (The first appearance of Optimash Prime, and the beginning of the Tater Capers!)


• Shitty Potatoes Lead the Optimus Prime Charge (I've made a few of these Fun with Toys and MS Paint strips, but this is one of my favorites. hehehe)


• Revoltech Smackdown Series #1: Macross one-on-one, with special guest referee, Optimus Prime! (another toy comic I had lots of fun doing... the second in the 'series' is HERE)

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SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY IRREVERANT RANTS

• When is a Blog not a Blog? (I actually used this post as a disclaimer for some time. Considering how far blogs have come since I wrote this post, I still think that my rant is pretty relevant. See also: A Blogging-Journalist's Rant on Blogging)


• Why I like being a writer (Hmm... reading this again makes me wonder why I don't feel the same way anymore. After all these years of writing, have I become a little too jaded these days?)


• Spoilers Spoiling the Spoils (Wanna know why I'm such a stickler about spoilers here? Read this post. Heh)


• I Solemnly Swear not to Swear... Too much. (Because come to think of it, me preaching about not swearing is like Fireangel preaching about not drinking... LOL)


• Writers: Before and After Blogs (eheh heh)


• How Books Are Banned (a whacked out post about a serious issue...)


• How To Review a Book Without Getting Complaints: An Expert Guide (written after some local author wrote the paper complaining and nitpicking about a review I wrote about his book. Heh.)


• You're a Celebrity? So Fucking What? (The title says it all, really. hehehe)


• Don't Call Me a Blogger Either. (Yeah. What FA said.)


• How to Tell The Difference Between a Journalist and a Blogger: An Expert Guide (Oooh this was about an issue that really pissed me off. Heh.)

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GLOATING POSTS

• One Foot Away from The King of Dreams (Meeting Neil Gaiman. Heh heh. See Also: The King of Dreams in all his shaggy-haired glory)


• The Many Faces of the Kings of Concert Ecstasy (Meeting the Kings of Convenience, AND watching them in concert!)


• A Rush of Blood to the Head At the Speed of Sound (Up close and personal with COLDPLAY!)


• Bay Transforms Awesome Autobots and Devilish Decepticons (Being the FIRST IN THE WORLD to watch Transformers, AND meeting MEGAN FOX!)


• Eyeris @ Comic-Con: First Day Daze (Visiting the San Diego Comic Convention, where I met Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, John Howe, Tori Amos, Dave Gibbons and the entire cast of Terminator Salvation and Watchmen!)

Awesome Alcoholic Blog Alert!

I haven't been checking out new blogs for a LOOOONG time, since.... well, a very long time ago. But here's a blog you REALLY should check out, especially if you have a fondness for all liquids alcoholic...



Deep's pretty new in the blogging world, but he's certainly not a stranger in the writing world (he used to be a writer with Weekender). And boy can he drink A LOT. Was with him and gang last night at the launch of Sid's Pub 2 just down my road, and the fella just kept guzzling Guinness after Guinness after Guinness...

Anyway, go check out the blog if you're interested in drinking (alcohol). He's got reviews of Absinthe in the latest post, funny stories about getting bitten by a drunk friend, and other drunken adventures. And it's funny as hell.

Simply put, this would have been the blog me and FA would have come up with if we didn't have day jobs and could drink for a living, or as much as Deep does. So go check it out!

Be Gentle, I'm a Twitter Noob

If some of you have noticed, I have this new segment on my sidebar called Eye Tweet, which basically does what it says. Yes, in line with my policy of only getting into things a year after everyone else, I finally got myself a Twitter account. Unfortunately, 'eyeris' and 'eyeriz' were already taken, so I had to settle with not one, not two, but THREE 'zzz's at the back of the 'eyeri'.

Yes, that means my Twitter account is @eyerizzz. Makes me sound sleepier than I usually am. Go add it already.

I'm still getting the hang of it though, and though I can see the appeal, I'm not sure I can see the usefulness yet. I mean, do you really NEED to know what I'm doing all the time? Haha. No, don't answer that. You might hurt my feelings. For all I know, I might be annoying quite a few of my followers with MY Tweets as well, since I've been following certain people for a couple of days and have already been annoyed by the sheer quantity of mundane Tweets they can sometimes come up with. Time to start filtering them out.... heh heh.

Being a noob at it, I'm still stuck in FB-verse where all my 'status updates' are still grammatically correct sentences stating with 'Eyeris is...'. (I've been updating it via Ping.fm, which updates my Facebook AND my Twitter at the same time. Used to do it through Plurk, but changed after being called a noob by Suanie. :-( ).

But I digress. I now only have 24 followers. I need more. Or else how to compete with @neilhimself, who is closing in on 100000 followers and even has a Twitter competition up to celebrate it!

Now excuse me while I go figure out what the heck that '#' sign is for....