I’ve been infected, twice. Once by Bernard and another time by Jonzz. With the ‘infection’, I now have to tell why I blog and am I addicted to it.
Before I start, I did an online self-test on myself, much like what dobbs did, and my addiction rate was 49% (much less compared to dobbs who scored an admirable 63%!!). Therefore, I can safely declare I am not half addicted as others. 
I must credit Edina Monsoon for introducing me to blogging. It was in November 2005 and nearing the MMed Part 2 exam. Not surprisingly our adrenals were working over time and stress was an all time high. Edina was very excited about “her website” and insisted on showing me and so we logged on, I took a look at her blog and I was hooked! Blogging was a great way to vent away all the tension and frustrations.
Truth be told, I ‘ve been keeping a journal ever since I was in, well, standard 3 or 4???!! Of course those days the entries were short and starts off with the cheesy “Dear Diary”. Over the years, the journals became a sort of log book of my personal journey through life. I now have a huge collections of written material dating all the way back to my childhood days. Am hoping that it will be made into a Holly/Bollywood blockbuster one day or a TV serial.
Over the years, the entries in my written journals got longer, more reflective and sometimes dark and cryptic (oooo..). Interspersed were entries of joy, jubilation, laughter, humor (I stuck a lot of comics inside) and poetry and profound sayings (I don’t write any but cut-and-paste what I read or found). In many ways, the journals were the place where I vented out my feelings, be it happy or angstsy.
When I started my blog in blogspot, I was a novice in blogging (they call it tech-virgin!). Whatever stuff I know now I’ve picked up along the way. Initially I had hoped that my blog would be an electronic extension of my written journal. I have underestimated how wide and open is the WWW!
In the first year of my blog, I had an average of 20 readers a day and it was fine with me. The intention (and still is) was not to publicise myself and the blog was an avenue where I could vent and explore IT stuff creatively. Midway through the blog, I migrated to wordpress which is the current site that I am using to host my blog. It wasn’t a very wise move because back then wordpress was a lot more un-user friendly than what it is now, but I was too lazy to migrate back! Migration also caused a lot of problems as I had to spend 2 months rebuilding all the corrupted entries transfered from blogspot to wordpress.
By the end of the first year, I had 10,000 hits which I thought was great.
Now I get about 300-600 readers a day. Ouch!
Unfortunately, the blog became more public as time went by and it became increasingly difficult for me to write what I used to write in my journals. So, the focus of the blog changed. I still write all kinds of stuff but mainly about me, what I do and my family. I also blog about the patients that I encounter in my work and what lessons I have learnt from them. I hardly blog about my deep inner feelings anymore. I am back to writing them down in my journals.
At any one time, I have too many things in my head to blog about. some people would call it “Flight of Ideas”!!! (at this moment I have about 20 odd drafts waiting in line to be published). I don’t have that much time now or the luxury to sit and blog. Work and family commitments take up most of my time.
When I finished my MMed, I moved on to my current job and my readership grew (I swear, not once did I publicise my blog! They must have stumbled upon it) and now it’s like Big Brother is watching my every move. Ugh!
I am seriously contemplating taking a long break from blogging…..
As for blog addiction, I confess that initially I was a total addict, clicking to check my blog whenever I have the opportunity to see if anyone visited my blog or left a comment. I also blog hopped a lot those days. Not anymore these days. I hardly ever visit any blogs other than those on my blogroll (and that too very infrequently). Again I have too much on my hands to have that luxury.
One thing I truly delight in from blogging is meeting many fellow bloggers online. The blogosphere is the new meeting place.
Hmmm…what else ah? That’s all I think.
And sticking to tradition of not passing this ‘infection’ on. The buck stops here. 
So sue me…
THE FORUM IS NOW OPEN FOR QUESTIONS, ONLY 5 QUESTIONS WILL BE ENTERTAINED.
Mon, 020707 @ 1818; work’s done and I am so tired.
Glad to read article like this.Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
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Brucely.
Drug Rehabilitation Programs
We always ask our students to summarise after a long long long long history presentation, hence I am just saving you a lot of boredom!
Cheers YP!
what lah.. summary of long answer…. now I feel cheated. LOL
I already know jonzz, fibrate, terence, bernard, george, palmdoc, kok hon, sbanboy, sherman, edina monsoon, TE cheah and vagus personally. I also know most of my student readers. I suppose the engmatic one will be LM (who’s awfully quiet these days). I would like to meet LM one day. I think I shall be meeting eve real soon too.
What about u just me? Next time you spot me in a conference, say “hi” ya. 
question number 2….which blogger /reader would you wish to meet or none?
Wah…. lengthy and ‘chim’ tag reply. *clap* *clap* *clap*
Bernard, you should keep up your blog. I find it refreshing and gory (when you show all the innards!).
YP, long long answer ah? Um…here is a summary of the long answer. I know some of my readers are also my students. How does that make me feel? Well, I feel honored (that they read jottings of an old tired ID physician) and horrored at the same time. There are a lot of crap we teach students these days (yours truly also a culprit la) but I hope that my student readers would realise from reading my blog that this old dinosaur is not perfect, that I don’t know everything and more importantly, that medicine has a heart and soul.
Hey Jimbo, takes a lot of discipline to keep a journal doesn’t it?
I can’t… I have a short attention span.
Wooo… got opportunity to ask questions!!
Let’s see… I know that some of your readers are also your students, how does that make you feel? (Long long answer please..
)
Wah ! Well a break once a while is good