Origin of You Know You Are Bruneian When...
I found the following piece about 'you know you are Canadian when...' and read an almost familiar piece about the peculiarities of Canadians similar to the 'you know you are Bruneian' postings. The postings that I di in July and November about 'you know you are Bruneian' attracted many comments from both sides - those who agreed and those who didn't. I came across a couple blogs which flamed me whereas there are others which raved and posted copies of the postings. Maurina even wrote about it on her BT's blospeak on November 24th. On the second 'you know...' posting, more than 1,100 readers came on that particular day and the whole of November still remains the highest number of visitors averaging at about 800+ a day. I even saw the 'you know...' making the email rounds recently.
Quite a number of readers asked me where did I get the idea to post the 'you know you are Bruneian' series. The most interesting thing about 'you know...' postings is that I didn't write either one. The first one was handed to me and I posted it. I did ask for the original writer to email me so that I can credit it properly. I never got any answer. From what I have gathered is that most likely it was started by someone and got added on to eventually about 70 odd items. When I got it, to make it politically correct, I did delete a few and reduced it to about 69 and posted in on 28th July 2006.
The second series was posted on November 15th 2006. The second was essentially my compilation. After posting the first one, there were many contributions by many readers and by November I had about 59 of them and I thought why not edit the list and post this one too and I did. The rest was history. The 'you know you are Bruneian' series became a classic hit.
Recently I went trawling the internet to find the original posting of the first 'you know you are Bruneian'. I discovered a shorter list of about 50 items on someoneone's blogspot - friskodude.blogspot.com. He wasn't a Bruneian but was an American who writes travel books about Southeast Asia and blogs about countries in Southeast Asia. His post was dated October 2005. According to him he got the list from a possible Brunei blogger - lifeinadarkroom.flawedperfection.net. But when I went there, the blogsite was no longer updated and everything seems to have been wiped out, so I wasn't able to verify that. But even if lifeinadarkroom was the creator, it would seemed that someone somewhere added a number of items as the list I had was about 73 or 75 items before I edited it down to 69.
When I posted 'you know...' it was meant as a tongue in cheek. Something to cheer readers' day. Obviously in a long list like that, there are items which hit readers bullseye and may be considered offensive and did rub readers the wrong way. Obviously too there are also a number of readers who did not comply with any of them. Anyway, life would be less fun if everyone just agrees with everyone else. I leave it up to you as to how you would perceive it. (Both lists have been merged and are now available on the main library at www.bruneiresources.com - click here for the merged list).
Quite a number of readers asked me where did I get the idea to post the 'you know you are Bruneian' series. The most interesting thing about 'you know...' postings is that I didn't write either one. The first one was handed to me and I posted it. I did ask for the original writer to email me so that I can credit it properly. I never got any answer. From what I have gathered is that most likely it was started by someone and got added on to eventually about 70 odd items. When I got it, to make it politically correct, I did delete a few and reduced it to about 69 and posted in on 28th July 2006.
The second series was posted on November 15th 2006. The second was essentially my compilation. After posting the first one, there were many contributions by many readers and by November I had about 59 of them and I thought why not edit the list and post this one too and I did. The rest was history. The 'you know you are Bruneian' series became a classic hit.
Recently I went trawling the internet to find the original posting of the first 'you know you are Bruneian'. I discovered a shorter list of about 50 items on someoneone's blogspot - friskodude.blogspot.com. He wasn't a Bruneian but was an American who writes travel books about Southeast Asia and blogs about countries in Southeast Asia. His post was dated October 2005. According to him he got the list from a possible Brunei blogger - lifeinadarkroom.flawedperfection.net. But when I went there, the blogsite was no longer updated and everything seems to have been wiped out, so I wasn't able to verify that. But even if lifeinadarkroom was the creator, it would seemed that someone somewhere added a number of items as the list I had was about 73 or 75 items before I edited it down to 69.
When I posted 'you know...' it was meant as a tongue in cheek. Something to cheer readers' day. Obviously in a long list like that, there are items which hit readers bullseye and may be considered offensive and did rub readers the wrong way. Obviously too there are also a number of readers who did not comply with any of them. Anyway, life would be less fun if everyone just agrees with everyone else. I leave it up to you as to how you would perceive it. (Both lists have been merged and are now available on the main library at www.bruneiresources.com - click here for the merged list).
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