MEET our Blog Addict of the Week, melancolia of Expat sa Vienna.

Here’s a photo of melancolia in disguise.

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BLOGGING is fun, but just as in the real world, sometimes you encounter unsavory characters.

Maybe it’s spammers. Or trolls who want to pick a fight and leave rude comments. Maybe you’ve had to fend off online stalkers, or deal with impostors who pretend to be you in cyberspace.

What’s the worst thing you’ve experienced in the blogosphere, and how did you deal with it?

WANT to net a cool million dollars for the charity of your choice? You could if you take on the challenge of outspoken Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who blasted the media for saying that the blood on his famous sock in the 2004 American League Championship Series was a hoax and offered a million dollars to anyone who could prove it was not blood.

Here’s an excerpt from the story that came out in the Baltimore Sun:

Schilling was injured in Game 1 of the 2004 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. Team doctors stitched a tendon in his right ankle to keep it from flopping around, and he returned to lead the Red Sox to a remarkable win in Game 6 to tie the series at 3-3. The Red Sox went on to win that series, and won the World Series for their first title since 1918.

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LOTS of people are blogging nowadays, but not everyone is able to consistently update their blogs.

Sometimes it’s a case of ningas cogon, where we’re all fired up when we start blogging for the first time, but then lose interest or can’t find the time to add new entries. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and before you know it, your blog has joined the growing ranks of the dead and dormant.

As a disclaimer, I have to admit I haven’t been able to update my personal blog for almost two months, though I hope to start blogging there again pretty soon, otherwise people might think I no longer have a life outside INQUIRER.net, heh. I’m not making excuses, but in my defense I’ve been building the INQUIRER.net Blogs network, among other things, as our company’s gaming and multimedia editor.

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MORE and more people are blogging in Asia. In China alone, there are an estimated 30 million bloggers, according to this report from the Voice of America.

Excerpt:

Millions of people in Asia have taken to blogging in recent years, creating personal Web sites that often take the form of an online diary. The word blog derives from Web log. China alone is estimated to have up to 30 million bloggers.

As elsewhere in the world, the region’s collection of blogs on the Internet is diverse and amorphous. But in Asia, a survey by the U.S. software company Microsoft estimates that nearly half of those who are online have a blog, compared to just eight percent of U.S. Internet users.

Most people create blogs to share their lives and interests with friends, family and a few strangers. Many use text and photos, but also sound and video. Others blog to exchange information, create networks or express opinions about a wide range of issues.

THE DONALDS W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University has released an interesting study on business journalism blogging.

Of course, INQUIRER.net also believes in blogging business topics, as INQUIRER.net business editor Salve Duplito’s Money Smarts personal finance blog shows.

Here’s an excerpt:

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YOU’VE probably experienced it at one time or another. Days when you just can’t seem to blog about anything.

We know about writer’s block, but since blogging is becoming a way of life for many people, I think we should make a separate category for blogger’s block, heh.

What do you do when blogger’s block strikes? How do you keep blogging even when you’re not in the mood — particularly if you’re a pro blogger? Are there days when you feel as if you’ve lost your passion for blogging? Share what works for you, and help others cope with blogger’s block.

And gee, looks like I was able to post an entry even when I’m kinda suffering from blogger’s block right now, heh. I guess that’s one way to deal with it: just blog it.

HUMAN Rights Watch has called for the release of Egyptian TV journalist and blogger Abd al-Monim Mahmud. 

Here’s an excerpt from the Human Rights Watch statement posted on the Human Rights Education Associates site.
 

Around midnight on April 14, security forces at the Cairo airport detained
`Abd al-Monim Mahmud, a 27-year-old journalist for the London-based
satellite channel Al-Hiwar and prominent blogger affiliated with the
Muslim Brotherhood, as he attempted to travel to Sudan to do reporting for
an Al-Hiwar segment on human rights in the Arab world.

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THINK the most common language in the blogosphere is either English or Chinese?

Think again. Based on Technorati’s The State of the Live Web, April 2007, which was cited in this Global Voices Online post, Japanese is the number one language for bloggers.

Here’s an excerpt from the Global Voices post:

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SAY hello to our Blog Addict of the Week, Alma Pasaraba of Saipan Impressions.

Could you tell us something about yourself: How old are you and what are you currently doing? When and why did you start blogging and who got you hooked?

I am thirtysomething. I am a CPA and I am currently working as the Internal Auditor and Compliance Officer in one of the banks here in Saipan. I started blogging in September 2006. I am a first time OFW and blogging has helped me cope with my homesickness. The alienation I experienced and to generally make sense out of my decision to take this job and leave my comfortable life there in the Philippines. I’ve been writing essays and I’ve been journaling since I was in grade school and blogging is basically just like journaling except that people could read what I’ve written. It’s a cathartic exercise for me.

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