Just wishing you all a very happy Christmas from my family to yours!

In the next few days, I’m hoping to resume some more blogging to round-up 2011 and to welcome 2012.

I hope you’re enjoying this festive season… and getting all the holiday loot that you desire.

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So, up for grabs today are TWO $20 vouchers for the deal site, Groupon Australia*. There, you can find a number of offers in your city/state or nationwide that you might be interested in — from discounted gadgets to cheap vacations.

So, how can you win ONE of 2 Groupon vouchers that I’m giving away?

There are four ways you can enter. Each time you do one of these things, you get an entry. So, there more you do, the more chances of winning:

1. Leave a comment in this post. Your comment may answer ONE (or more, if you wish) of these questions:

• “Have you ever used Groupon before? If yes, what do you think of it? If not, what would help you to use it?”
• “Have you used other ‘deal sites’? If yes, which ones? If not, why?”

Or, feel free to leave a general comment about this post and/or deals in general.

2. Tweet this post! It’s easy. Just click on the Tweet button you see at the beginning or the end of this post and leave the @shaicoggins reference intact, so I know that you’ve Tweeted this post.

3. Share this post on Facebook. Just copy and paste the link to your status and make sure you tag me, so I know that you’ve shared it on FB.

4. Like or comment on the post about this giveaway on Studio Notes’ Facebook page (a page that badly needs some attention!). Or, on my personal FB page.

Please note that this giveaway is for Australian residents only. Sorry, my non-Oz based friends! I hope that I’d be able to do a giveaway for you too one of these days.

In any case, I look forward to folks’ participation!

Deadline: 19 October 2011 (12MN, Adelaide Time). At the end of this giveaway, I will randomly draw winners based on entries. TWO winners will be notified accordingly.

* Full disclosure on Groupon Australia: I am not paid to do this giveaway. I have just been invited to participate, and I thought some of my Oz-based friends & readers might find the $20 vouchers useful, so I decided to take part. I’ve been given a voucher to test out their service as well, which I haven’t used yet. I’m hoping to be able to share my Groupon experience one of these days, when I get to use my voucher. And, I look forward to your stories too!

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No surprises, really, as this site is constantly evolving. The thing is, I find that when I enter a new phase in my life (or find myself in a different direction), the way I look at this site changes too.

So, for the last few months, I’ve been toying with the idea of changing things around here.

That’s why finally, I managed to de-clutter the main page and just highlight some areas of the site. I even moved the blog in to a different section instead of making it the main part of the site. And yes, I formatted that blog section in such a way that would hopefully allow people to scan and to read the content differently. These are obvious changes that go hand in hand with the site’s minor cosmetic change (yep, new blog theme and all). And yes, there will still be other changes coming – including how I approach content or blog post creation.

I know that for a while now, this blog has primarily revolved around me, my life, and the world around me. But, over the last few years, I have been slowly lessening the “personal” aspects of this personal blog. And, I intend to continue in that direction.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think I can completely take out the ‘personal’ side of this blog, even if I wanted to. I would most likely continue to share my personal views on things, and share stuff that I am interested in and all that. But, most likely, the focus of this blog is going to be less and less about ‘me’, but more about other things that I care about. If that makes any sense.

Yes, I know that some people will probably won’t be completely happy with that idea, but I thought since I post a lot of my day-to-day personal stuff on my social networks* now, like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Tumblr, I figured that I can satisfy friends and family who have been visiting my site to keep up with my personal posts through those avenues. I need a place to put the other stuff that I wish to write about.

So now, I’m hoping to use Studio Notes as a way to share more resources and to provide a platform for things that I like to explore and to learn. And, even to provide some tips, how tos, and other useful information, especially with regards to questions that I receive on a regular basis via email, face-to-face meetings, my presentations, etc.

There are no strategies or plans in this change for now. I intend to work this out as I go along, to see how Studio Notes will work for me and for its readers.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc – I’d love to hear them out.

In any case, I really hope you like the changes. At least, for the most part.

* Note: If you’re not connected with me through any of these social networks, please do. And, if we’ve never chatted before, please let me know how you found me. I try to add/follow back folks as best as I can, but if I have no clue who you might be, I may miss connecting with you. So, please do leave a note or say hello, no matter how briefly.

Image: iStockPhoto

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The Wayback Machine will tell you that my site was first archived on the web on April 2001, on Geocities (no longer available). However, I started maintaining my personal site back in 1999 (yes, in portfolio and blog-like format, long before the word ‘blog’ was invented), and purchased my own domain name in August 2000.

Due to the different ‘start times’ of my online life, I never really thought about my “webversary”. But, a couple of years ago, I felt like I should. I decided to use August 2000 as my official anniversary for this site.

Last year, I did a proper 9th Year Celebration. I was hoping to do an even bigger and better one this year, but I think I’d be hard pressed to commit to anything too massive, what with work and everything else going on in my life right now. But, I’m hoping to share a handful of special surprise posts throughout the month of August to celebrate a decade of ShaiCoggins.com (now also known as Studio Notes, of course!).

As part of this celebration, I’m opening a 10 for 10 Special. That is, I’d love to try and grant 10 special requests or questions to the first 10 Studio Notes readers who leave a comment here with their request/question.

Of course, requests/questions should be within reason. For example, I can’t exactly give you $10,000,000 (or any similar monetary request), even if I wanted to… or I can’t exactly answer overly controversial questions.

If you have anything reasonable and simple (e.g., “Can you please leave a comment on my blog?” or “What’s your favourite sushi roll?”), then I’d be more than happy to comply. Yes, pretty much similar to the Ask Me Anything feature I had here a few years ago.

And yes, I wish to take this opportunity to say a great big THANKS to all ShaiCoggins.com/Studio Notes readers, both long-time ones and new. Things would’ve never been the same without you.

Thanks to you, I have learned a lot about blogging and community building.

And, of course, I am always grateful for all the friendships that have been developed throughout the years through this site.

Thank you, thank you, thank you…

Looking forward to sharing my life’s journeys with you for many more years.

Photo by mccheek

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Think about it. When faced with this question, what’s the first answer that comes to mind?

What matters most to you?

When I was looking at my work and my pathway some time last year, I asked that question. Again and again. As I pondered on what I’d do next with my life, my career, I asked myself: “What matters most to you?”

My kids. My family. It was automatic. No hesitation. I know.

It wasn’t blogging or networking. It wasn’t about making it to “popularity lists” or becoming known as Miss Influential. It wasn’t even art or writing or any of my personal dreams.

My kids and family matter most.

Following that thought pattern, I looked deeply in to what kind of work would suit me best knowing what matters most to me.

Almost the same time as my last Big Project ended for me, I received an offer to do postgraduate studies in a University here in Adelaide. The degree: Master of Teaching, Junior Primary/Primary (additional specialty in Special Education).

Working with Kids.

It was a strange sensation, thinking about it. A career change? A shift in my personal direction? Or, is it just a way of bringing me back on track?

You see, the idea of working with kids has always been something I harboured.

The fact that my first (and so far, only) book published is a Children’s Book is probably one big clue about this matter. Plus, some of my first writing gigs were for kid/family/education-focused publications.

And yes, I did teach and tutor in the Philippines. I even considered doing it full-time at some stage.

Even when I was practising in Psychology, I wanted to do Child and/or Educational Psychology. In fact, my first official psych work in Singapore was at a school there.

However, other opportunities came along – and I became sidetracked.

Somehow, though, the idea keeps coming back.

Working with kids? My heart was already jumping with excitement at the thought of it.

After some soul searching and further research, I accepted the postgrad study offer. I didn’t know how my experiences and expertise in Media, Social Web, and Psychology would all fit in to my new pathway, but it didn’t matter at the time. I knew I was on a new, exciting adventure!

As my mind shifted from my old web-community paradigm to my new working-with-kids-and-education one, something struck me.

Like an imaginary bridge connecting my “old life” to my new one, I saw this project beginning to take form. Not exactly a Eureka! moment, but it certainly felt close to one.

And, not long after, I started working on KIDoosh (kidoosh.com), a content and community network for parents, teachers, and other carer of kids (mostly ages 12 and below).

So no, it’s not just a blog. Nor a blog network. It’s not even a megablog or a megasite. Or, whatever it is people on the interwebs call ‘em nowadays.

However, as it currently stands, it’s mostly just a number of sites/blogs linked together with some social networking and such thrown in using WordPress MU and a number of add-ons to make it all work together. But, I want it to be much more than that. I definitely have other hopes and plans for KIDoosh. It’s just a matter of time, finding the right people, finance, and all that crazy business and development jazz.

Actually, that’s why I’ve held back launching KIDoosh all these time. It just doesn’t feel ready yet. There’s so much more I want to do. Including changing our logo/banner (yes, I hired a designer who unfortunately didn’t quite deliver— another reason the launch kept getting delayed). There are still a lot of things that need fixing, editing, adding… So, I keep thinking: It’s not right yet. The timing’s still off.

But then, I got a massive nudge reading the words of Mark Victor Hansen:

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

And apparently, Pixar (another kid-friendly place?!) president Ed Catmull shares a very similar sentiment about showing projects early. Or rather, before they’re even ready. To improve. To fix. To succeed. (Thanks for the hat tip, @blpro!)

So, that’s why KIDoosh is finally out of my Projects Closet. In BETA form, but still…

I’m thrilled.

Even more thrilling because I’m soft launching this baby with a few wonderful women who have been helping me to build this dream…

• Mary Emma Allen – writing Family Food, Writing for Children, and co-writing Reading Books for Kids
• Kari Rohl – writing Kids and Family Crafts
• Kristyn Maslog-Levis – writing Baby, Babies! and Gadgets for Kids
• Nikki Katz – writing Young Authors
• Melvie Yang – writing Kids’ Style

We have a couple of other sites that are still “in the making”. So, we’ll have to launch them when they’re up and about. I also contribute to some of the sites like Education and Media.

Other “minor milestones” / “mini-successes” pre-launch include:

• The site has already over 50 members, even though it hasn’t been promoted yet;
• Having its very own business plan to get us going;
• One of my lecturers at Uni saw this project and really liked it; said that he’s hoping to mention KIDoosh to other teaching students in his future lectures (oh, and I got a High Distinction from this class – heh); and
• The main site has a Google PR of 2 (with minimal linkages, etc).

Tiny, tiny stuff in the great big scheme of things, I know. But, when you’re starting a project, even the tiniest things feel exciting. That’s the beauty of a startup. The flip side, of course, is that there’s all that work and money that need go in to building and growing these tiny, tiny things. Ah, yes. Those. Well, I’ll deal with those things as we go along.

For now, if you’ve managed to read this far — and if you’ve got kids who matter heaps to you too (children, nephews/nieces, grandchildren, godchildren, students, etc etc) — please do head on over to KIDoosh. Have a look around, sign-up/register (it’s free!), leave a comment or two, create a profile, join a group, and connect with fellow grown-ups who just happen to love kids and kids’ stuff.

Also, if you haven’t done so yet, do join KIDoosh’s Facebook Page and follow Twitter.

As a member/fan/subscriber, you’ll be one of the first to know about the developments over at KIDoosh.

I’m really, really looking forward to seeing you there. And, to reading/hearing any ideas/suggestions/thoughts that you might have about it all.

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Glow sticks, sparklers, party poppers, blowers, some swimming, dancing, laughter, a hearty braai and yummy chocolate cake… That’s how we celebrated New Year’s Eve with our family here in Johannesburg.

Then, as per our tradition every time we came to visit, we ended up watching The Royal Variety Show 2009 while we waited for our 2010 countdown. There were hugs and kisses as we welcomed the new year together.

The next day, my sister-in-law and her husband invited us to their house to celebrate the New Year with a fabulous feast of Potjkie (chicken curry in one pot and beef stew in another), with mixed berry crumble for pudding. There was some croquet fun and other stuff in-between.

Tomorrow, we’re off to our first mini African Safari for this trip.

Yes. We’re loving it all.

It’s always wonderful to celebrate special days with people we care about. (Although, of course, we are missing the other part of our family!)

Anyway, I hope that you have had a great start to your 2010 too! And, may the rest of the year bring you plenty of things to remember and to celebrate.

Have a fantastic new year, all!

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Here’s a quick hello all the way from South Africa!

It has been a while since I’ve had proper internet connection… All this travelling thing just isn’t too conducive to online life. The thing is, even when I had access to the web, there wasn’t any time to go online at length. So, there hasn’t been a lot of opportunities for blogging and such. Sure, I’m able to update my social networks via mobile every now and then. But, the last few weeks had been filled with meeting people and seeing places… both familiar ones and new.

No complaints, though. I mean, this is probably the first long holiday I’ve had in years where I didn’t feel any strong need to be online a lot. For once, I am able to enjoy each day without a nagging feeling that I might be missing out on something. Well, nothing too big anyway (save for that time when I insisted on going on the web – in a tent – in order to enroll for next year’s grad school subjects).

So yeah… I managed to enjoy Sentosa, Singapore River cruise, etc in Singapore – on top of catching up with some friends and filling up with yummy food. Then, there was that whirlwind trip in England… the wedding was lovely and the kids were great… and we did manage to have a nice time punting and sightseeing in Cambridge, as well as walking all around London. And now, we’re in Johannesburg… went camping in the “mild wild” (yes, complete with warthogs, baboons and such in our campsite)… And now, trying to enjoy the Christmas festivities with the family.

There were scary/stressful moments in some places, but loving The Big Trip for the most part. In any case, I’ll try to write a proper travel report later on. Yes, with photos.

For now, I just wanted to greet you all a very happy Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying your time with your loved ones this holiday season.

Take care always and may you be filled with blissful moments.

xo,

Shai

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