It's been a couple of days since I have been accepted as a member of 9rules and while it takes a while for all the 4 round members to have our blogs officially entered into the community list, we have access to the forums which are for the most part overwhelming.

In fact, the entire experience so far has been overwhelming and it's not about the fact that I'm part of an exclusive and in many ways elitist circle. I'm overwhelmed by the reason that they are exclusive and in many ways elitist. No this isn't some backwater blackslapping sessions over appearences in local newspapers and narcissistic hypes to fuel your own sense of superficial glory and fame. This is the real deal in where there are bloggers here that have the right to well known not because they are bloggers…but because they are successful in their own life and happen to have a blog.

Even now, I'm pretty much ashamed to admit that while I am aware that there are big names within the 9rules list (like…umm…Bryan Veloso who likes Azumanga Diaoh and incidentally was responsible for Flock's new makeover), I haven't the foggiest clue who most of them are and what they were responsible for. I feel like I'm sitting among a goldmine of people who have contributed to making the net better and all I can do is try not to look like a complete retard.

In a way I feel out of place, being that while the bulk of the active members of 9rules consists of web designers and programers that are good at what they do, after all…that is what they do in the first place. What I'm good at is…well…I'm still trying to find out what I'm good at that can actually contribute to the upholding the standards of 9rules. You can't really claim much uber-geekery when the core highlights of your blog posts involved a picture of a box over your head.

It's a far cry from the small part of the blogosphere that I grew up in. I feel like one of those naive country gals that left town for the big city. I would giggle, be blown away by new things and scrunch down my skirt with pink ribbons in my hair that my grandmother gave to me, blissfully unaware that while some gals actually do make it, others end up with a life of wild debauchery and depression. But given the choice of facing the puerile and often oblivious attitude that some in the community can display, maybe the risk of falling down into wild debauchery isn't such a bad idea.

At the end of it, I'm told I'm probably not going to be someone who can rewrite the blogosphere, I'm far from even the remotest possibility of it. But at least I can be someone who might be able to represent the respectable part of the blogosphere, not just some small part, but on a larger scale. I might not be able to design great sites or churn out new software that'll make our lives easier, but at least I'll be able to blog about my life and leave nothing to chance about what else I can put down as content. If that's all that it takes to be among giants then I hope I can live up to that honour of being there.

So by that, maybe it's time to be more than just a Malaysian who blogs. It's time to be a Malaysian blogger who just happens to be a 9ruler.