It’s a miracle that I even got the chance to go to SBG’08 last night, as my better half finally decided that he’ll look after the kids. Since I don’t have a digicam, I had to make do with my humble Nokia N70 camphone. The picture quality leaves much to be desired, so understandably I didn’t take any picture.

Well, maybe just a couple.

The far side where the cool people sat.

My side of the room where the less cool people sat, the exception being Gaman (sabahan.com), my money-making guru.

Or three.

Aleaf and Ricardo shares my sad corner.

Or four.

Boogey on the dance floor with Terry Peter and his posse.

These are just sad, sad photos. I’m just waiting for other bloggers who attended to upload their photos so that I can just leech those from ‘em *sigh*.

One of my main purposes of coming to this gathering is for networking, and I vowed to myself that I would shake hands with every single one of them. Which I didn’t. The large crowd and loud music made it almost impossible. Still, I’d like to believe that I did manage to know a lot of them, compared to last year’s gathering. Nice to see familiar faces, and great to know new ones. We have great sponsors, too!

So, a shout out to the organizers and those I chatted to personally (in no particular order): Elphege and Ben Godomon, Gaman, Joneh, Aleaf, Pai, Ricardo (who happens to be my “uncle” whom I haven’t seen in a long time), Echah and hubby, Eshark, Emelda, Gallivanter, Jacq, Wei Chuen, Fara, Julian, Sumardi, Nur, Robb, “Chegu” Carol, Josie, Margaret, Ratu Syura, Shemah, Clement, Dan, Angriani, Zach, Shueqry, Maya, LadyMariah, … oh I swear I missed around 20 or more people with their cool names! This list will grow I promise.

I hope the socializing will continue through our blogs, and I look forward to another Sabahan Bloggers Gathering next year!

To commemorate Malaysia’s 50 years of independence, I have dedicated this week’s Gem of A Blog to three Malaysian bloggers.

Luke Chong’s The Eleventh Hour features his thoughts on matters facing the world, particularly Sarawak and East Malaysia. Looking past the blog design, I was amusedly drawn to his fascination with the print daily Borneo Post, while his poignant recollection of people and issues from his past and present (like his post on Old Miri) feels more like going on a private trip into Malaysian history. Luke’s sidebar is ridiculously lengthy, but not soon enough will you notice why — the fascinating collection of sometimes funny, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes the honest and stark reality that is our world commemorated in pictures.

Luke’s site brought me to Jelas.Info (literally translates as “clear information”), a blog by KokoNat a.k.a. Nathaniel Tan who is currently arrested by Malaysian police under the Official Secrets Act and is being investigated by the Cybercrimes Division of the Commercial Crimes Department. I’m guessing it’s not just because he blogs about Malaysian politics’ other side of the coin, but also the fact that he is under the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) didn’t help, either. I don’t do politics at all. Still, I find posts such as his to be very educational, and I’d like to say educational because accepting the information as true or not is a different matter altogether, and I respect that he does voice out his opinion clearly. Critics and bloggers alike may find interesting on how he was enlightened by Anton Ego from the movie Ratatouille.

If you have never heard of Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, then Ruhaizad Daud may be able to help you with his Kinabalu Blog. It’s obvious that this is a niche blog that just screams of blogging for money, but how could you resist not reading his posts on the history of mountain climbing and mountain climbers at the “Mountain of the Dead”? His recent post on lethal attempts by climbers far and wide to Low’s Gully will sure to peak your curiosity about Mount Kinabalu, pun intended.

So there you go, my first ever Gem of A Blog. Hope you find them a gem as well.