Shai Coggins

Late Friday evening, life as I know it changed in an instant.

My Dad suffered a stroke. Some stranger found him unconscious in the streets of Manila, and brought him to the ER. There, they tried to treat him. He has been in a coma and on life support. And, even after 72 hours of hospital care, my father’s vitals just kept going down. That’s why even if we long for a miracle, we were already told to expect the worst.

Expecting the worst while living a few thousand miles away just seem to make it so much harder.

So, tomorrow, I’m off to see my dad. Possibly, to say goodbye. And admittedly, I don’t even know how to do just that.

Yes, that’s how my very rough week had been capped. Little did I know that last week’s ‘tough day’ was just the beginning. The rest of the week just kept throwing one difficult thing after another my way. It made that ‘tough day’ appear like a walk in the park instead.

That’s why instead of returning to ‘normal’ blogging schedule this week as hoped for/planned, it looks like I need to go for a longer break. I already quit my 365 project today, to give me some room to mourn and breathe and regroup.

And, although I’ll be back in Australia next week, I’m still not sure when I can re-start blogging here.

In any case, I have been sharing some updates on my Twitter account, whenever I need to engage in catharsis or to be in a place where I can connect. It’s usually where I send mobile notes as well, even when I’m unable to go online. If you’re interested to receive such updates, I’d love to welcome you as a Twitter friend.

Also, if you’ve sent me an email or comment recently - and you’re still waiting for a response - I hope to be able to get back to you as soon as I’m able to catch up with it all.

Anyway, for now, I just want to say thanks to everyone who already sent in their warm thoughts and prayers. Your words of comfort and hope have definitely been helping me through this very difficult time. So, again, thank you.

The picture you see here is an SP, of me holding an old photo album. That’s my dad on the left hand side, holding me at about age one. That’s also me on the right, with my dad holding me up as he was just teaching me how to walk.

Due to some unexpected turn of events, I’ve lost a bit of puff today. This is the flip side of blogging community, I suppose. I’ve done all I can to develop a thick skin, but sometimes, these things still get to me. In any case, whatever remaining energy I have for now, I need to use it on my “real work stuff” - and tune off everything else at the moment. I’m sure I’ll bounce back soon enough.

Anyway, I hope you don’t mind that I take a break from today’s 52WoC. I’m leaving 52WoC#16: Bring-a-Friend open for now. Will post a new task in the next few days. Or, worst case scenario: next week.

Hope you have a good week ahead.

After all the virtual dusting and planning for today’s 52WoC Party (Part 3), I ended up running out of time to prepare the finishing touches. So, I hope you don’t mind that I postpone the party for another couple of days or so.

Besides, I really want to post the complete version of the art journals first before we announce the winners. And, I’ve been really swamped with work and stuff, so I didn’t get to do that. Unfortunately, last week’s illness delayed my schedule.

In any case, I closed the Collaborative Art Journal Project today. I’m no longer accepting submissions for the pages. I think we have more than enough pages to fill the books. I’ll be working on the remaining pages - and choosing a winner from those who submitted their words for the pages during the 52Woc virtual party. I really enjoyed doing this project - and I’m looking forward to doing another one with you all one of these days.

Anyway, watch this space. We’ll have our virtual party soon!

Easter Day’s pretty much over here Down Under. But, I thought I’d still greet you all a Happy Easter Sunday (if you’re celebrating).

As you can see here, the Easter Bunny’s been to our house for a visit - and left the family some yummy chocolates to feast on. The kids (well, primarily, my four year old) had a grand time hunting for them in the garden this morning. And yes, it’s the one day in the year when everyone at home’s allowed to have chocolates as part of breakfast. Heh.

Actually, this Easter egg hunt thing is quite new to me. I don’t think I really grew up hunting for Easter eggs and such on this day. So, it’s sort of a new family tradition for me. Only started a couple of years ago. My Easter weekends as I was growing up were quite different. Mostly spent going away on trips (religious and non-religious varieties) with the family. And, there were church-related events and such (still do now, but in a different way). What about you? If you celebrate this Christian holiday, what sort of traditions do you have for Easter weekends?

Anyway, we’ve been trying to make the most out of the four-day Easter long weekend break as a family. Although Friday was pretty much a work/chores day, my husband, the kids and I went on a Day Trip to a town called Goolwa on Saturday. We had a late lunch at a place by the riverside called Hector’s on the Wharf. Food, location and the weather were all great. After lunch, we went for a walk in the town centre - enjoying the craft fair, little shops, and some of the area’s landmarks. We then all went on the Steamranger train to Victor Harbor. It was the first time for all of us to take this train journey. And, we didn’t quite expect to see such great views of the ocean, farm lands, a quick run through the town of Port Elliot, and other gorgeous sights. It was fabulous.

Tomorrow is going to be pretty much a work/chores day again, even though it’s still a public holiday. And, through all the tasks in our Great Big To Do list, we’d have an active four-year-old and a baby who hasn’t been feeling all that great at home. Good times.

Well, hope you’re having a fantastic weekend! Whether you’re officially celebrating Easter or not, that is.

For some reason, I keep going back and forth with the idea of making this blog available via email. So, I kept procrastinating.

Well, I’ve finally made the decision and the move to enable email subscriptions. I know some folks would rather not have more stuff in their inboxes. And that’s cool. That’s why this is totally an opt-in thing.

But, I made this because I wanted to offer a service for people who:

1) Prefer to catch up by email rather than feedreaders.

2) Like the idea of getting weekly updates by email. Updates will mostly be done automatically as a compilation of latest blog posts once a week. Currently, it is set it to go out on Thursdays.

3) Wish to make sure that there’s really something interesting here before visiting (without a feedreader).

4) Believe that I will never rent, sell or give away your email addresses. And, no plans of spamming either.

5) Wish to receive newsflash messages - but only as ’special promotions’ for email subscribers only, etc. (I don’t see myself doing this that often, though!)

6) Want to have the option to receive the updates via IMs (Skype, Yahoo, MSN, AOL) or Twitter.

7) May be like me and do not check feedreaders that often. So, a weekly nudge and reminder via email might be a good idea.

Convinced yet? Anyway, I’ve decided to use FeedBlitz as my service provider for this purpose. I’ve been using their service in another blog for a few months now, and I’m quite happy with it so far. That’s why I thought I can trust them with sending them info from me to you.

To subscribe, just enter your email address below and follow the simple steps (and no, you don’t need to register for anything) -

Enter your Email

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In any case, if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback of some kind regarding this email service, you’re always welcome to contact me.

Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

Swamped is currently an understatement when it comes to describing my state. I know I’m never ever not busy. But, right now, I’m in major catching up mode - comments, emails, projects, work stuff… So, if I haven’t gotten back to you - or responded to things that I need to respond to… please know that I’m not ignoring you. I will eventually catch up!

But, if you don’t hear back from me in the next week or two, please feel free to send me a nudge via email, Twitter, Skype, comment - or any other way that you can communicate with me.

Anyway, one of the things I’d like to clear up on this first day of the month is my current poll: Do You Twitter?

And, the answer? “Yes - just when I feel like it.” (36% ) And, an additional 19% said: “Yes - a lot!”. That makes it a 55% total voters who have Twitter accounts. Yeah, it looks like most readers and visitors to this blog are Twitter folks too.

There’s also an 11% of folks who say that they have an account but don’t use it much. And 14% of folks without an account said they plan to test Twitter at some stage.

Then, there’s 11% of voters who are not sure if they want to Twitter or not. Only 8% say that it’s not their kind of thing, and have no plans of signing up.

Anyway, thanks again to those who voted. And, I hope you’re all having a fabulous weekend.

Have a wonderful month of March!

P.S. - Just want to send another special shout-out to Kari, for being the Top Commenter of the month (February 2008). Two months in a row now! Wow. Thanks so much!

Due to technical difficulties and me still feeling unwell, this week’s 52 Weeks of Blog Community Task #6 won’t be posted today. And, the round-up for Task #5 (Blog Post Lovin’) will be extended. So, if you haven’t joined in yet, please do!

And, if you’re enjoying a long public holiday weekend, stay safe and have fun. Will talk to you again soon. I hope.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

And, welcome to our first ever virtual party for the 52 Weeks of Blog Community Project. Really enjoyed the first month of this project, so I want to say thank you to everyone who participated. And, an extra special thanks to both Kari and Jami for participating in all *four* tasks. Woohoo.

I was actually thinking of doing a short video as part of today’s celebration. But, my Valentine’s Day didn’t turn out as planned (in a good way!), so I’ll have to do that video another time.

Right now, let’s celebrate by listing all past 4 tasks + their participants. And, at the end of this post, I’ll be announcing the winner of our first ever 52WoC raffle. Our winner will receive 1 PRO subscription to either Flickr or Picnik (worth aprrox. $US 25). The winner will be chosen via Random.org.

So, sit down, check our list, and hope you’ll congratulate our winner with me. Oh, and don’t forget to grab a drink. Valentine pancakes are on me.

To round-up all the tasks and participants…

I’m cleaning up around here.

Yes, thanks to Aaron Brazell, our very own Tech Superhero over at b5, I’m finally moved back to WordPress. Woohoo.

‘been trying to do this for the last 6 months or so. Didn’t want to say much on this blog, ’cause things were getting a bit crazy. But now, I’m soooo happy I’m on WP again.

Yes, Mr. Matt Mullenweg, I may no longer write Weblogs on About.com, but I can definitely be called a WordPress user again.

Again, thanks, Aaron.

Now, all I need is to get this place sorted out. Bear with me as I renovate and redecorate.

Twitter Updates

After a very long Twitter blockage, I’m now Twittering again. Sorta.

The thing is: I find that when my Internet connection’s not as regular as it used to be (plugged in nearly 24/7), Twitter’s a great way to stay connected. Especially when used with Global roaming and a decent mobile phone.

What about you? Do you Twitter too?