We have also had four nests (with a total of 42 eggs) stolen from under our noses! The villagers made a police report and I have also alerted the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) about it, and efforts have been taken to ensure that no eggs would ever be stolen until the end of season.

Every day after dinner, we would drive to the village and together with a few villagers who call themselves the “terrapin gang,” we would then proceed to the nesting bank by a 7-minute motorbike ride, and followed by a short boat ride. We would arrive at the nesting bank at about 8:30 pm but most terrapins would only ascend the nesting bank at about 10 pm.

To keep ourselves from falling asleep while waiting for the terrapins, sometimes we munch on snacks, sometimes we chit-chat, and sometimes we play poker cards! But once a terrapin is sighted on the nesting bank, we would sit still and whisper instead of talking loudly, in order to not disrupt the terrapin’s nesting process.

Oh and speaking of playing cards, I stumbled upon this Cheekybingo site where you can, apparently, win some money while you play for free! Which reminds me of those days after my UPSR exams when I would play Bingo with my classmates. We would write the numbers 1 to 25 (in five columns and five rows) on a piece of paper and take turns to call out a number. Every number that has been called out would be cut, and the person who has five numbers cut either horizontally, vertically or diagonally would win the game :D

I digressed.

I know, I should get back to sorting and analyzing the data that I have accumulated in the field in the past two weeks before they get too much and complicated, LOL.

By the way, a LOLshow is a series of podcasts where three, sometimes four, gentlemen talk about, in good humour nonetheless, some news and advancements in the social media scene; updates and features rolled out by some social media sites; as well as some web tips and tricks.

After listening to a few episodes, these are my thoughts about the LOLshow:

1. Content of the shows
I love how the main points of the shows are listed down on the blog posts, because they give me an idea what the gentlemen would be discussing in the next 30 minutes.

2. Length of the shows
I don’t know about the other listeners, but I think 30 minutes is about right, especially for people who tune in for the first time. I had a hard (but funny) time trying to tell the voices apart though. So what I figured out at the end of Episode 11 was that one gentleman speaks VERY FAST, and another one sounds like he’s VERY FAR away. And the fact that there are two Davids in the show makes it even more confusing to me, LOL.

3. More relevant stuff
I know, I know. “Relevant” is a very subjective word but again, I’m only speaking for myself :D For example, I’m not very interested to discuss the fact that the Malaysian Police Force has just announced their presence on Facebook (so what if I agreed or not, the decision has been made). The same goes to Gap and MySpace redesigning their logos. And how Google fails to make a deal with Groupon.

Image by respres.

On the other hand, I loooove how the gentlemen discussed Facebook’s new group features, Twitter’s new guidelines on how their trademarks and logos can (and cannot) be used, RockMelt–the new Facebook-powered social browser, YTL’s Yes 4G service, etc.

In other words, I love the parts where the gentlemen gave their own feedback on a certain topic, rather than talking about something that I can easily read online :D

4. More variety, please?
OK, I might be wrong about this, but I’d like to believe that this thing called social media covers more than just Facebook, Twitter, RockMelt, Yes. What about Flickr, last.fm, LinkedIn, YouTube, mobile apps, etc.?

5. What about sharing more web tips in each episode?
I loooove the NudgeMail web tip, but perhaps you gentlemen don’t have explain in detail about the web tips. You could just share the URL and what it does or can do, and listeners could go check it out, you get the drift..

Final words
The LOLshow gentlemen are giving away a BlackBerry Curve 3G for Christmas (YAY!), so for more information about the giveaway, visit Life On Line now! The giveaway has ended and I WON THE BLACKBERRY CURVE 3G, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? :D

Last, but not least, congratulations to the gentlemen, John Lim, Niki Cheong, David Lian and David Wang for a successful season and for the job well done. Cheers to a more productive Season 2! :D

Psst.. My favourite episode is Episode 5, where David pulled something out of his rear, and Niki said something about people walking around and talking INTO their iPads, and somebody tore a whole dictionary to make the “open envelope” sound effect, LOL.

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Merry Christmas in advance, peeps! :)

A little :heart: link love :heart: to the following bloggers who have made my busy February sound like a productive one :upsidedown:

• Franklin @ Simple Man Simple Thoughts
• littlebro @ ~darkness~
• Zhu @ Correr Es Mi Destino
• Deimos Tel`Arin @ AhKong.net
• Andy Bailey @ FiddyP
• yenjai @ After Meal Gossip
• Pelfy @ Pelfy’s Journey of Love
• Wuching @ Journal of the Whills

I know I haven’t been a good blogger lately, that explains the scheduled posts and the infrequent postings. At times I felt like I’ve got too much in my hands, but at times I felt like I could have done better at managing my time and what-nots. At times it felt like the blog is just secondary to my life, but other times it felt like a sanctuary into which I could crawl and comfortably rest and forget about the rain.

*sigh*

Such, is my life now, my friend :D

J was going diving in Cebu so I stayed up very late for a couple of nights, helping him with his final edits. He submitted the final draft of his thesis to his Supervisor just a few hours before he flew off. And I had to help my Supervisor hand-deliver a letter to a statesman in town, and for some reasons I have yet to ascertain, working hours on that particular day ended at 3:30pm, an hour earlier than normal. So needless to say, I missed meeting that statesman :(

So, the highlight of the week is the guest post on Michael Martine’s Remarkablogger entitled Are you using your power to influence your readers? That was actually Part 1, so there should be a Part 2 sometime this week (or next week) because I have yet to work on it, LOL.

Last week also saw me trying to sell my other blog, The Giving Hands, but I have also decided to give it one more try. I am truly grateful to have the support from my blog buddies who have volunteered to contribute articles at least once a fortnight to keep The Giving Hands alive. I am not sure for how long this arrangement will last, but I do hope that one day I will be enlightened, LOL.

One more thing, I have already begun answering the turtle-related questions that you guys sent me on my turtle blog, The Turtle Talks!

So far, I’ve explained (in simple terms, don’t worry) the differences between a turtle, tortoise and terrapin and why leatherback turtles are so-called. I’ve also discussed the two biggest turtles in the world, what you should feed your pet turtle with, and how turtles, err.. mate (yes, turtles have sex too) :D

Send me your turtle-related questions, and I’ll try to answer them, OK? If you have already done so, don’t worry, I will get to your question, I swear!

Now, some link loves:

• littlebro desperately needs some encouragement this week.
• I read from yenjai that Smallville will be aired once a month in Malaysia. I’m not a Smallville fan, but once a month?! By the time I watch the next episode, I would have forgotten what happened before!
• Pelfy shares a very philosophical poem she saw. I’m not sure if you could call that a poem, but do check it out.
• moz, who has been travelling excessively lately, shares some his picture taken in Beijing. If you too, want to travel as much as he does, go ask him what company he is working for :D
• One of my favourite songs is, apparently, also one of Chen’s favourite song!
• Diana is upset that one of her subscribers unsubscribed. Go and tell her it’s alright, will you? :)
• It’s not fair! Zhu gets to play with inches of snow! I am so so jealous.. Go check out some snowy pictures. Oh my, this reminds of of Christmas :D
• Wayne Liew share some tips on how to increase productivity, both online and offline.

If you have some time on your hands, you may want to participate in these group writing projects:

• Why do you blog? @ Blogsreview.net (Deadline: 30th Nov)
• My best blogging achievement @ All Tips and Tricks. This is a contest and the top three winners will win USD 100, USD 50 and USD 25, respectively (Deadline: 4th Dec)

Good luck :vodka: