1 month Blogging: What brought you to Blogging?

Hi everyone. While I am writing the next post, requested by May about racial descrimination, I decided to write a short story about how I came to be a "blogger" and find out how so many of you came to be "bloggers" and why it is special or important to you?

Fat Bastard's Story

I had recently returned to the US after volunteering in Asia and Africa. I was gone along time (7+ years) and had not kept up with the changes and technologies of the Net. Last month, I decided to do a Google search for a recipe "Ikan Pangang" that I had enjoyed in Malaysia many times. The first thing that popped up was Kuishinbo~Meow~ where some guy named cooknengr told a girl "fish-fish" that she would be "Ikan Pangang" if she stayed in the L.A. sun too long. I clicked on the link and saw my first Blog. I was determined to get the recipe and chased a few food blog links and left contact information on a few pages requesting some of the Malaysian bloggers to cantact me. After a few days, I went back to check if there were replies and thus started my first blog hopping session. I was facinated and irrevocably hooked. I had had no intension of having a my own Blog, as I thought I would need to have mass programming skills. Then I came across a page I really wanted to comment on and I was required to log in. To login I needed to register and while registering, I needed to pick styles, layout etc...and here I am.

I had always thought that it would be nice to have a web page or site where someone could ask a question and get some un-biased answers. A page intellectually stimulatiing as well as informative. With my background, a high school drop out and homeless for nearly 3 years, I had had to learn or re-learn the proper skills to function in society. Ah, the turmoil and conflicts, self- loathing, doubt, and fear, coupled with a complete and desolate loneliness. To gain control of these agressions and basic instincts that had surfaced during my long trials of Manhood, I hurt so many people. In time, I wanted to change, to achieved one of the highest titles that can be bestowed in our society and become a positive contributer to this world (and hopefully change some of the injustices), but how? Inorder to traverse this full spectrum of life's "situations", I sort of became an expert on finding answers. All sorts of answers...I became a kind of "how to" Guru both in the proverbial "streets" and in the academic settings. Blogging has opened a new avenue for me to find answers for others and also to allow me to keep learning.

In closing this post, I would like to add something that astonishes even me. As some of you have seen some photos of my life and read some of my personal observations, you may have geussed that I am very adventurous and daring. I sky dive, scubadive, bungee, mountain climb and cliff hang (photos to follow). I have eaten almost everything presented to me that was edible. From snakes and snake eggs to the famous thai beetles Mang-dah. I felt, if you were eating it, I would eat it. I have had drunkin street brawls and so many passionate situations, that if written down may net me a book deal or land me in jail? Why do I mention all of this? Because until I started blogging, I never knew how much love and warmth and support I could gain from people I never met (formally?). I truly feel affection for some of you. I say to myself, how can this person be so beautiful, so moving? I could really love that person. At times, I wait for responses from my new friends, sometimes impatiently, wondering what they are doing and how they are coping with their problems.

Blogging has removed so many of the stereotypical bounds of age and looks that society (big corporations) has led us to believe are so important (through marketing of "beauty" products), and put personality in the forefront. This is something most of you knew, but alas, I was ignorant of. While glimpsing small portions of your lives, I am made a better person.

I want to thank you all for opening my eyes and making me feel so welcome in such a short time. You are all so wonderful....

I would like to hear your story on how you became a blogger and what it means to you. Please dont be shy or think it is too boring or insignificant...just hit comments and let us all share a part of you!