NST Feature

Just to showoff inform you guys, this blog was in the News Straits Times on Monday! Been seeing many new "faces" here too and I wish you a very warm welcome.



Alright, time to bore you with some words......

EVER wondered what the world looks like to a teenager? Just take a peek at Stanley Liew’s blog, Me and the World (http://stanleyliew.blogspot.com), and you will gain an insight into the 17-year-old’s thinking.

Liew’s blog was initiated in January after much experimenting.

“Initially, when I started Me and the World, I was still figuring out the theme

of my blog. I started out posting random stuff that came to my mind, so everything was like rojak.

“It was only in June when I decided to concentrate on travel and photography. Travel and photography have always been my passions, so I thought, ‘Why not blog about things like that?’” said the Rawang-based lad, who goes to school in Kota Damansara, Selangor.

Liew credits his interest in travel and photography to his parents – for surrounding him with National Geographic magazines for as long as he could remember; the articles and photos inspire him to do the same with his blog.

So, what is in his blog?

“Well, I post stories about my travels, be it to China or a visit to my garden. The posts are dominated by photos because I tell stories better through photos than words,” he said.

More recently, Liew did a week-long feature on Kuala Lumpur to celebrate the country’s 51st year of independence.

“It was really nice to get good feedback from so many people. There were people from the other side of the world like Europe and even India who got a glimpse of Malaysia’s beauty through the posts,” he shared.

Liew confessed to enjoying watching different people live their lives and being amazed at the diverse cultures.

“I also love thinking about things going about in this world. I may not be right about certain views, but they are raw opinions from my mind,” he said.

He also supports charity events and blogs about those that he takes part in.

So far, Me and the World has over 4,300 hits.

“My blog can be counted as an infant in the blogging community – I’m still getting to know people in the blogosphere. Perhaps, it’s also because of time constraints due to my SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) preparations. I don’t really have time to ‘publicise’ my blog,” Liew said.

Besides, his parents keep a strict tab on his computer time.

“I plan my posts so I don’t have to sit down at the computer the whole day figuring out what to write about. I take up one hour at most,” Liew pointed out.

On future plans, he hopes to travel to more countries and blog about his
trips.

“Currently, I’m very restricted due to school and the money factor (I haven’t started earning money yet). Take bloggers like NicoleKisss for example, who gets to travel to so many places,” he said, wistfully.

“I also dream that my pictures would one day be in the same league as those taken by US-based wedding and portrait photographer Jessica Claire and international wedding photographer Louis Pang. I’m very hard on myself when choosing photos to post and always compare my photos to theirs.”

Thanks to New Straits Times for the feature. Can check out the online article here if you want to.