coffee conversations

Somehow these past few days, news just happened to whiz by, leaving me catching up only after it has gone stale. I was a late in digging up the dirt on the emergency in Pakistan, and I was late for the long-awaited 2007 Weblog Awards.

Not many blogs caught my eye, prominently because a considerable amount of them are political and US-centric. They even have THREE categories just for politics. Guess that says much about the importance put on what bloggers have to say in the political landscape.

Best Blog award so far is dominated by the indomitable PostSecret. I can’t blame the voters, PostSecret was a social breakthrough, and they somehow confirm our fears that inside all of us, we’re all a bunch of psychos. I, however, was rooting for Boing Boing, which in my opinion is more off-beat—with its daily coverage of oddities and intriguing arts.

Best New Blog: deputydog, surely. Go there, now! You’ll find it is very worth your time,

Other categories in the awards that caught my attention are Best Technology Blog (I voted for the seemingly underdog Lifehacker), Best Music Blog (I voted for Stereogum. I wonder why Pitchfork is not in?) and Best Comic Strip (I have to vote for xkcd although my favourite has always been Achewood).

After scrolling down a few lines, I realised that there was a category for Best Asian Blog. Surprise, surprise! A Malaysian blog is one of the finalist: Footsteps in the Mirror.

Clicking on the link, I was impressed by the swish layout, though a bit plugin & script-heavy. The last time I was impressed was by Wan Zafran’s The Idiot Behind the Iron Mask.

I never got around the reading many of the posts though, it does seem to be a personal and reflective blog, maybe a tad too personal. But here you go, Kamigoroshi: a sincere plug from a fellow citizen.

So ladies & gentlemen, if you would like to vote for a fellow Malaysian for the Best Asian Blog Award, go here!

The other competitors are (by rank):

1. IZ Reloaded: a Singaporean blog, covering the weird and fascinating, ala-Boing Boing (currently leading the votes).
2. Marina’s Bloggariffic: a personal and photography Singaporean blog.
3. Terra Byte: personal blog of a queer Asian Australian.
4. Pinoy Urge: personal blog of a…. um, queer Filipino.
5. Webbed Feet, Web Log: an “amateur web monk living in Siem Reap Cambodia.”
6. Agam’s Gecko: an observative blog on politics and conditions in Southeast Asia, centered in Bangkok.
7. withlove, me: a personal blog of a Singaporean girl.
8. ko htike’s prosaic collection: a blog chronicling the politics in Burma.
9. without giving the movie away…: a Hindi movie review site! w00t!

The thing that struck me straight away was HOW THE HELL DO THESE BLOGS GET TO BE FINALISTS?

After a search in the FAQ, the answer was these blogs were nominated by the public. Hence, it was more of a popularity contest. But if it’s popular it must be good, right? Right?

I’ll leave that question to linger with you.

Meanwhile, if you think other blogs are definitely better (note: better is very subjective) than the finalists above, perhaps you shouldn’t forget to nominate them for next year’s Weblog Awards.

So be nice to me, and I might even consider nominating (and voting for) your blog next year.