Teochew Thunder: Year One (Part 1/2)

And with the arrival of October 2015, TeochewThunder has passed its first year. I'd like to thank my esteemed readers for being patient with the sometimes monotonous nature of this tech blog - at times too technical for the layperson, at times too simplistic for the tech guru. And, at times too ranty for the weak of stomach. It's been an interesting ride.

How did it all begin?

It was in the October of 2014 when I met Catherine Ling. Catherine is a food blogger of some fame, and runs Caremberu, a food blog with some very well-written reviews and appetizing pictures. We got along swimmingly, and I revealed that I had nursed the idea of starting a blog. She told me to go for it.

This got me thinking. I'd been nursing the idea since late 2012. Several things have put the idea on hold - job changes, the acquisition of my first (and hopefully last) home, and so on. Catherine was dead on. It was time to stop talking and start writing.

Thus, here we are.

Why blog?

To go back even further, why had I been thinking about blogging? My hands were full with household chores, bills and work. It wasn't like there was nothing to do. No, this went beyond that.

Bits and pieces of a puzzle.

Firstly, as a web developer trained in the 90s, a lot of my knowledge tends to be piecemeal. A bit of this and that, taken off various sources. I wanted a place where I could document everything I'd learned in the process of being a web developer. A technical scrapbook of sorts. This would include not only technical knowledge, but also knowledge of the industry. My experiences. My reactions. What I've learned, not just technically, but personally.

The Third Level of expertise.

Secondly, there's this thing about expertise. I tend to divide expertise into three levels. Level One - how readily you can understand concepts when explained. Level Two - how readily you can apply those concepts. And finally, Level Three - how well you can explain those concepts to someone else. I was going for gold. And starting a blog seemed like a step in the right direction, a way to keep honing my craft. Because the amount of research needed to ensure that whatever I post is factually correct, I level up in the process of writing these blogposts. It's different from doing, where all I need to do is ensure that shit works, to hell with why it works or how to explain why it works.

I'm good, baby.

Thirdly, putting modesty aside, I've been told I have a way with the English language. And that I should totally do something with that.

Who reads TeochewThunder?

It's a very modest demographic. My friends, ex-colleagues and family, some of whom receive special mention from time to time. And when I write something that resonates, I'm rewarded by them sharing the link.

Damn, that's dry.

Laypersons who read this blog will sometimes find the content dry. Terribly dry. Dryer than the Sahara. When I comment on life in the office, I like to think that's where we find common ground, regardless of whether or not they are web developers.

Techies who read this blog will often already know the stuff I'm going on about, like in the web tutorials, for example. But there's a million different ways to accomplish the same things, and often these guys are just comparing notes. Because how I do things isn't necessarily how they would do it, and vice versa. That's how we all learn. There are no blanket solutions.

What goes into TeochewThunder?

The focus of this blog started out pretty narrow, but evolved to become a bit more inclusive as time went by. So what do I write about?

Tech. In particular, web tech. Tech news, tech snippets, tech tutorials, tech reviews. Experiences as a web developer. Experiences as an office drone in general. If it doesn't come under any of those, I don't blog about it. Focus. I don't want to be rambling on about a million things all at once. To elaborate...

Tech news. News about the web industry, news about how internet technology has wormed its way into our lives. Even non-related news may get exposure on my blog if I can wrangle a tech angle out of it. See the death of LKY.

Tech snippets. Little programming or coding elements, and my musings about how they work. This will be very varied. The skillset of a web developer demands it. Things like Spot The Bug are a prime example.

Tech tutorials. Self-explanatory. This particular feature was requested by my sister, not that she seems to have used any of it.

Tech reviews. From time to time, I may offer my two cents on some of the products involving computer technology. These may be reviews on movies, apps, software or books (both fiction and otherwise).

Office experiences. Part and parcel of being a web developer. I share my view of how the industry works. Sometimes, it's very developer-specific, and sometimes it's a bit more general.

Next

I go into detail about the blogging process. Stay tuned!