The Pakistani Spectator

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?

The site came about when I worked long nightshifts with a lot of quiet time.  I always enjoyed writing and during the evenings there was a lot of banter around the office.  I decided to start writing down some of the thoughts that went through my head and then got a little
addicted to it.  Many years later I still write on there, albeit not as often as possible.  The site is meant to be humourous in nature and I try not to offend anyone, but as is well known, you cannot please all the people all the time.  It is lighthearted in its outlook though, and I prefer for people to read it when they want to escape the world for a few mintues.

I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?

In the early days, I enjoyed the banter I would have with other bloggers.  One of my favourite things about blogging is that while I will likely never meet the people I talk to, there always seems to be a comeradre among the various bloggers regardless of the content of each site.  Bloggers come and go but I have managed to strike up some great online friendships with people through the site.
If you had to describe life as a blogger in a Twitter message (140 characters) what would you say?

Bored Englishman writes the weird things that comes in to his head on to a website

What do you think sets Your site apart from others?

I dont know if I can say sets apart, but everything I write is genuine content directly from my head.  I do not post content from other sites and try to stay away from being confrontational or purposely rude to people.  I have read a lot of sites that try to engage the “shock factor” to try to stand out but I prefer to try to appeal to all audiences regardless or race, religion or creed.

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?

I would love to be able to work in a role that I could use my unique humour.  I try to leave the serious side of life to other individuals and prefer to enjoy my life.  If I could be successful in that, I would be a very happy man.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?

The birth of my 2 daughters outweighs any other happy moment in my life.  They continue to show me that no matter how bad your day at work has been, how busy or worn out you are or how tired you feel, one smile from either of them makes life all that much better. In regards to gloomy moments.  I cannot really answer that.  I am a naturally positive person (one of those annoying ones that refuses to be brought down by others because they feel they are being treated
unfairly and feel they should bring the rest down too) and I prefer to see negativity as a potential for improvement.  Of course, this is not always achievable, but it always worth trying.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?

Just the world?  So i cannot pick the internation space station or the moon?  That is a shame.  They are two places I would love to visit. If it was the world, I would pick:

1 - A remote island somewhere warm where I could take my family and escape the hustle and bustle of the world.
2 - Dubai.  I would say why, but I honestly dont know.  But it always comes in to my head when people ask this question.
3 - New Zealand.  Because if I am leaving home for a while, lets go as far from it as I can.

What is your favorite book and why?

I dont as a whole read books.  If I am left with a book it is genuinely a book of short 2 page stories.  In my spare time I run, so I instead prefer to read magazines regarding running instead.

How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?

Outside of the blogs that achieve international fame and millions of hits, I honestly believe that bloggers cannot make money from blogs. I have a no ads policy on my site.  I write the site for fun, I do not wish to bombard my readers with ads that are going to retract from the experience of visiting my site

What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?

To not stoke the fires that already rage.  The biggest seems to be religion.  Once we get the issue of differing religions fighting under control, I believe that a lot of lifes issues may be helped.

Who are your top five favourite bloggers?

Life doesnt afford me the time it used to and as such I do not get a chance to follow the blogs I used to.  My favourite blogs in the past have all fallen by the wayside and my hunt for blogs that have that wow factor that makes me go back time and time again has so far been in vain.

Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?

I wrote a post about being vegetarian being bad for your memory.  As with all posts on my site, it was to the regular readers, a humourous post with no malice intended.  But the comments section of the post showed that people didnt really look at the name of my site, nor any other content and took my words as something I deeply meant.  I find the post referred to a lot on some sites.  I didnt take the post down due to it offending people as I believe if they are unable to look at
the whole site and its content over a few hundred words in one post, the issue is theirs.  Not mine.

Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?

I have been stunned more by the sites that are not giving anything particularly great to the community but manage to get thousands of hits a day.  I dont know if they spend a lot of time marketing their blogs or if they are faking the stats, but it astounds me what people look for in a blog.

What is the future of blogging?

With the internet being what it is and the direction in which it is going, I believe most “personal” blogs will slowly go.  Sites like Facebook will take the social side away from blogging.  I may be
wrong.  I hope I am wrong.

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?

In my current job I am bound by my contract to not mention my job in my blog.  I also have a very busy job which means my personal time is more precious to me now so I post a lot less than I used to.  Content is also not so easy to come by when I am unable to mention things that
happen which I would before have blogged about.

What are your future plans?

I have plans for a new site which will be a smaller quicker site to write.  I have the domain name, I just need to get the hosting done. At that point it is possible that I will stop my current site
altogether.  The best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?

Live life to the max.  Enjoy all you do.  Love your family.  Love your friends.  When someone tries to ruin this, throw a stick at them.