No More Mr.Nice Guy

Yup, Mat Salo has graciously exited Bolehland (with passport duly stamped and endorsed) and am now fidgeting anxiously in my base office in Balikpapan waiting for my boss to grant me the honor of giving me "face time".

And no, it's not about the raise I didn't get.

Ancient Mariner said something in his blog the other day in a response to some comments, ' . . . I stopped trying to be Mr. Nice Guy a long time ago'.

And that sat me thinking.

The Good Captain, fortunately has his untold wealth of experience behind him to be able to say this. Down the line, I suspect, most of us will eventually adopt a similiar attitude, but for the moment we'll blame it on our misplaced Youth.

In deep conversation with man-of-the-moment, Rocky Brew

And he also said, ' . . . but I blog merely to inform, to educate and even to entertain as the case may be. It has never been my intention to force anybody to put on their thinking caps.'

It was Ancient Mariner's apologies for declining to be tagged you see. Apologies duly accepted, Sir, because I was one of the two who had tagged him.

Sorry, Cap'n, but he's always got me more-or-less with my "thinking cap" on, as with his other posts - that to me isn't just merely "to inform, to educate, . . . or entertain", as he put it. It's not intentional, I know - but for whom the bells toll?

Ancient Mariner seen with another ancient - Chegu Bernard, The Infamous Unmasked Zorro, with the latter claiming that he is more "ancient" one.

As bloggers (and readers) with our own individual quirks, we never know what stokes one's fancy. One mans meat / another man's poison, that kind of thing.

Another man-of the-moment, Datuk Ruhanie Ahmad (left), a former 14-year MP and vociferous back-bencher who runs two blogs: Kuda Kepang (in Malay) feat.Toyol Code and Ron Cyber Prince - being "interviewed" by The Mariner. Or is it the other way round?

Basically, I'm agreement with the Mariner, because the thing is, as bloggers we're such a diverse lot, and we need to celebrate this diversity. Where else, can you find glorified roughnecks (me), media stars, Members of Parliament, ship captains, film directors, web designers, plastic surgeons and all - sitting down together cheek by jowl, walloping Mee Rebus under a shady tree in PJ?

I just love this shot. Why? Because I got to shoot a "Photographer's Photographer". His photographs has appeared on the cover of TIME for no-less than seven times, seen here with his more famous spouse, preparing a candid shot of the Captain. New York-born Tara Sosrowardoyo's photos has also graced The New York Times, Fortune, and Paris-Match, to name a few. In honor of His Majesty Thailand's King Bhumipol 80th Birthday, Tara was included in a commemorative book which the King (an avid photographer himself) commissioned, listing Tara as one of "55 World-class Photographers".

Each has his own "voice", a particular forte if you will. Some are political and some are not. Like me for instance, I just don't have enough "vocab" to do justice to write about the political situation in Ijok, or a wonderful book review like the one Miss Elviza did on The Reluctant Politician.

But I sure as hell can try - after all it's my blog and I'll do what I want to (sung to the tune "It's my party . . .) because I don't have sub-editors to report to. But sometimes I wish I had though, just someone to proof-read and correct all my crappy grammar and inane sentence construction.

Yeah, that's what we bloggers are, a diverse lot - unceremoniously toiling for goodness what.

If bloggers we're to get paid a ringgit for for each "hit" they get, bloggers like Rocky Bru and Jeff Ooi would be millionaires by now.

Instead of wallowing in millions - with the lawsuit that they're facing - the threat of being sent to the poorhouse is very real.

For that I commend them for standing up and fighting the good fight.

And by the way Cap'n, you'll always be a Nice Guy. Just someone with a more "different" outlook, that's all.

All the better for it, and for Bloggers out there too.

Bereft of original ideas, I've become just a poor plagiarizer of themes . June Tan wrote an excellent piece earlier (which I shamelessly "plagiarized" here) on bloggers and blogging in Malaysia for her Master's thesis. She had just completed it by the way. (I suspect she too was wondering the effects of blogging on Ijuk's eventual outcome). I urge everyone to read her piece and her "debates" on the subject with Susan Loone.

Congratulations on having completed your thesis June!

© 2007 MatSalo Images