Wednesday April 16
 
16:51
 
A Proud Moment

As I’ve been moving my websites to Cirtex, I’ve discovered little pages and mini-sites that I’d forgotten about.

Two of them are Alan’s Macau Guide and Alan’s Hong Kong Guide. There are tiny little one pagers that I wrote back in 2001/2 and just forgot about, but I’ve discovered they are actually still getting hits daily. Today I even found that Alan’s Macau Guide is listed on this travel site, and has sporned a discussion on Gambling and Casinos in Macau. Amazing.

Searching around, I found that Alan’s Macau Guide is listed on this Investment site. They’ve stolen my images, which I’m not chuffed about, but they did link back.

It’s on CMOZ as well.

I almost deleted them. Now I’ve discovered they have a life of their own.

I love that about making internet sites - I love the way that a simple creation, a little bit of effort from me, can lead to so much more. It can even lead to things you wouldn’t imagine. Look at The Korean Blog List, it’s has become one of the major ways for foreigners living in Korea to find each other.

Those two guides are just little page - in some ways they are laughable - but I can’t help feeling a little proud that people are still finding them useful 7 years after I wrote them and forgot about them.

Of course now I know they are popular, I’ve adsensed them upto the hilt. Maybe one day I’ll get to cover my Korean Blog List hosting costs!

Wednesday March 5
 
17:57
 
Passion and Fire

When someone talks with passion and talks from the heart, you can feel it.
 
When they can talk with passion and from the heart, and they know how to drive knowledge into your mind such that you not only get it, absorb it, and internalise it, but you don’t even realise the process is happening - that’s motivational and inspirational.
 
That’s the kind of person I want to be.
 
I forgot that for a long time, but recently I’m remembering it. It’s why I started Lick The Lard, to get people who want to lose and maintain weight but are failing, to look at their lifestyles from new angles and have “Eureka” moments, because I have presented thoughts and ideas in ways that strike home to them.
 
That desire was fired even further today, when I attended a training course. It wasn’t a boring “let’s sit in front of books” passive training course, but an active, involved session, using a variety of techniques and analogies to drive messages home. I remember sitting at break time thinking: “Damn it, do you remember when you had a plan to be a motivational speaker, Alan?”
 
And then suddenly I realised: It’s not outwith my reach. I’ve done something about it.
 
I am starting to be someone that motivates others.
 
Lick The Lard may not seem much at the moment, but I have written (on paper) pages and pages and pages of techniques, ideas, stories, angles to make people think differently, and succeed where they have failed before - assuming they want to succeed, that is. It is the start. It is a seed.
 
My plan, until today, has been thinking as far as the website only. In the other side of my brain, I’ve also had the thought of wanting to create and do something that will become an alternative career to me, something that I enjoy. I realise now that they are one in the same.
 
Done right, I can take Lick The Lard - and some of the other projects I’m working on - forward to motivate, and develop motivation into a career that fires me inside, and fires others into action.

Side not: I never realised that “outwith” is Scottish English. Just shows that I’ve not lost all of my Scottish roots ;)

Monday March 3
 
16:58
 
The Korean Blog List - Revamped

The big news for me today is the release of the revamped Korean Blog List.

I set up The Korean Blog List years ago, when I was in Hong Kong. At that time there was just a handful of bloggers writing about Korea - but over time the number grew and grew, and The Korean Blog List struggled - the “one page” format scrolled on and on forever; maintaining the link quality was a nightmare; there was no possibility to search by location.

Over the last week I have completely recoded The Korean Blog List from scratch. It is now in a much better position to expand, with the ability to report bad links, bloggers to update their own listings, etc. As bloggers update their registration details to add where they are living and their nationalities, I’ll introduce browse/search by location and nationality.

I should have spent more time on The Korean Blog List before, but I didn’t have the time. Now I do, and I have some cool things planned.