I'm a simple girl with a li'l dream, of seeing her humble works in exquisite print, to share with all who feels for words, written with
an unsupressable urge. So indugle in my fantasies, and plow your way through my memories, greatly appreciated you will be,
if you can leave your comments here for me.


Thursday, October 13, 2005

Murder He Wrote

This may be old news for some people - but I didn't know about it, until today. Came across a short write up on this blogger in this month's Hardware Magazine (HWM) and thought I would check his site out.

Reading his last blog entry - chills my heart. There were over 3,000 comments on his last blog, from people all over - penning down their farewells and condolences. The blogger, Simon Ng, and his sister were murdered in their home on May 12th in Queens.

Before the brutal stabbing happened, he had gone online to blog - and unknowingly - revealed the identity of the murderer. As reconstructed, he was killed just minutes after he posted it.

He had some tough time coping with pressures from school. He was probably tossing a quick entry into his blog in the midst of his busy schedule, not realizing that his final blog entry on an unwelcomed visitor would help the police nail the cold-blooded assaliant.

I felt a heavy pang in my heart when I read the full story. His Xanga blog stared back at me, dated Thursday, May 12, 2005.

I looked at his profile - born Mar 29, 1986. He's only 19.

Went through his blogs. Like any other boy teenager, he loved computer games, anime and sports. He had tons of homework and reports. He had to do his own house chores. He had money problems. Just like any other boy his age.

I somehow found it painful to reconcile the fact that he was murdered right after that last blog and that he could write no more. I don't deal with death very well.

I do not know him at all. But I connect with him because he is a blogger, like me. His blog is depressingly static - frozen on the date of his death, and kept alive only by the people who drop by.

This must be the first time in history that a weblog is used as evidence in a murder case. It goes to show how blogging, for some of us, has become an integral part of our lives. Its impact stretches alarmingly beyond the printed words you see on the screen.

This story also made me feel that nothing in one's life is too mundane to write about. People we meet. Things we see. Emotions we feel. Stuff we think about. Everything is significant in its own little way. Sometimes, we do not even know that things we don't think much of, actually hold great meaning to other people.

I have been told that my blog helped someone get through some of his darkest times.
I have been told that what I wrote made someone cry.
I have been told that my articles touched someone's heart.
I have been told that my words can heal.

Thanks for letting me know that I can make a difference - with this humble blog of mine.

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People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did.
But people will never forget,
How you made them feel.

3 comments:

Beth said...

life is like a vapour...
will i be here tomorrow?
i also don't know
but as long as i have breath
i hope to make a difference
to those in need

Anonymous said...

because NP loves to go around labeling people as some of you here have said, he will do it here again: I think there is something very wrong with some of these mainland china kid Coming from a single child family, being doted on excessively since young, being sent overseas for studies at too young an age, these selfish bastards often end up being criminals. It happens in Singapore (recent court case of 3 20 yr old being sentenced to jail and cane for stealing a microsoft CD moulding press and blackmailing the company), and now in happens in USA (murdering someone just to get a few hundred to buy an air ticket?!?!?). Damn these people. Nowadays, there are hardly any parental control in China at all. I know of numerous cases of husband and wife who give birth to young boy in USA, then send their 1 yr old back to China for grandparents to look after, while both husband and wife remain in USA to study/work. Absurd! I wonder how all these little American-born abandon-in-China American will grow up to become. Every such baby I see, I always pity their cries of separation anxiety very much.

Elvina, how come you are so easily affected by external events: "heavy pang in your heart" you wrote. Too emotional is not very good... can get hurt easily. No wonder you can write so well, most writers and poets are like that. Ordinary people see a mountain and enjoy the scenery, poets and writers will see that the mountain is still going to be around for eternity while mortals would have become ashes and dust, and then start writing poetry about the impermanence of life and get sad in the middle of an excursion! It happens to lots of Chinese poets throughout the centuries. No doubt you are one of those :) I think there is a word for such a sad dramatic personality -- melancholic? or is it manlacholic? or something like that...

Elvina aka LaoNiang said...

I think I would call it melodrama. Melancholic and drama mama. Haha