Gems Sty

Merry Christmas to all!  It’s been a great year for me personally, as well as for Gems Sty. In the past year Gems Sty has been growing slowly and organically - I want to thank all of you for coming by, reading, commenting and sometimes writing mails to me. The site continues to evolve, though I try to filter as much as possible to ensure only the more interesting stuff hits the page (the temptation are great on ‘dry’ days though). I’m sure many of you surf other similar sites too - sometimes they feel a bit like carbon copies - the same materials across multiple sites. I try not to let that happen here (unless it’s really interesting! ).

And as customary of these festive times, Gems Sty would (probably) not have any posts until the New Year. Meanwhile, have a great time catching up with (real) life, and have a good year ahead!

Yup, I’ve changed it again - sorry for the capriciousness - I think this template works better and is a lot easier on the eyes.

For long time visitors who thought that you’ve clicked into a wrong website, rest assured this is still Gems Sty. I’ve just got bored of the previous template and updated to this new one instead. Everything’s still pretty much the same - I’m not quite completely satisfied - but this is what I could get while being too cheap/lazy to pay and do some customized CSS instead.

The blog’s been up for more than a year now - and it’d continue to (hopefully) delight you with design and other interesting tidbits scavenged across the web, served perhaps with a dash of (I wish) insightful/witty remarks and commentaries from yours truly.

Let me know if you love/loathe it!

Some time ago, this site was accepted under 9Rules:

“9rules is a community of the best weblogs in the world on a variety of topics. We started 9rules to give passionate writers more exposure and to help readers find great blogs on their favorite subjects. It’s difficult to find sites worth returning to, so 9rules brings together the very best of the independent web all under one roof”.

Recently, however, an email was sent with new terms and conditions - it is now compulsory to be actively participating in the forum:

If you feel you are contributing by your entries being shown only, 9rules is no longer a good fit for you, decline the agreement (or do not respond), please remove the leaf from your site and we will remove your site from displaying on 9rules. If you agree but don’t have the time to interact or don’t feel you should (or don’t want to), the participation will become a chore, something you didn’t want to do in the first place. It just won’t work in the long-term so it would be best to decline now.

When I first joined it, I liked the fact that 9Rules was a curated, closed network of blogs demanded quality content, over the more indiscriminate ‘web-directory’ approach that aimed to include all. Quality over quantity. Now that is no longer enough it seems - we need to be active participants in their forum as well.

I have never been active on the forums - I thought quality content was what mattered. Since our objectives are no longer aligned, I guess it’s time to call it quits then. So, thanks for the exposure while it lasted - hopefully readers who discovered my little abode on the Internet through 9Rules would continue to drop by.

I’d be away for the next three-four days - probably without access to Internet. So be good, I’d be back soon!

Hi,

You might have noticed that posts are getting slower these few days. Work’s been busy, and my computer’s spoilt (AGAIN!). By the way, my computer’s not booting up - power supply’s working, but BIOS screen doesn’t show. I suspect it’s either motherboard/processor. How’d I know which is it (for warrantee servicing)?

Anyway, bear with me for a while!

A new look - nothing fancy though - just choosing one of the other templates in WordPress. And hereby wish Gems Sty a merry 6-months in existence! (Don’t I just sound like those who’ve just fallen in love, and commemorates every ‘monthly anniversary’ or ‘100 days since we’ve first …’ or something like that…)

It’s the Chinese New Year soon - the Year of the Pig. I’d be back to my hometown, so you won’t see much updates for the next 4-5 days. Happy Chinese New Year, for those of you who celebrate this!

You’d probably not see new entries for the next week or so - I’d be away on a business trip to China, and if that’s not enough, my hard disk is also refusing to work - looks like it has crashed and died.

In the meantime, look out for interesting tidbits yourself - or shout out how you missed me in the comments below (wahahah)!

There’s just two days left for you to shower Gems Sty with undying support - by supporting me in this blogging contest in Singapore that’s offering a PSP for the best entry that blogged about their portal. It’s the New Year - SHOW SOME LOVE!