Bidding Farewell to 2017

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2017 has been an eventful year. It is the year that I got to know my good friend who is my also my community builder @perennial. It marks my first baby step into Steemit. I made many progress and I am very proud of my students that have made it into Steemit as well.

Most of these students are doing quite well. It is remarkable how fast they catch up with the technology and the concept of blockchain. It is also a bitter year for me because a close family member of mine has passed away.

This is my first posting under the guidance of @sndbox.

Television Interview

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I was interviewed by one of the leading morning talk show in Malaysia together with @abgmie. The media is concerned about the development of the cartoon and comic industry in Malaysia. It is an open fact that with the decline in published prints, the cartoon industry is suffering and good talents are leaving.

The purpose of the show was for us share our experience and also to offer suggestion as to how the cartoon and comic industry is going to overcome this paradigm shift. At the same time, I also took the opportunity to share with Malaysia the work of my students from Multimedia University, Malaysia and the effort that we take to publicise their work.

(@abgmie introducing his work that took many years to complete)

New Challenges

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The art community in Malaysia is in need of a new catalyst and unless we change and adopt a different approach, we will be a victim of these changes. We are left with no choice but to accept that the change is the only constant. The month of December 2017 was also the month where we launch a very long exhibition. To the art community, to have our work exhibited in the National Museum is considered Tier 1 honour. There is stringent requirement in terms of quality for the work to be exhibited. For that I am proud of the young talents that I took under my wings.

In 2018, I guess the time is ripe that Steemit be given a more open and public exposure. I have tried 2 months on this platform and I have absolutely no qualms that this platform is legitimate and even without its paying mechanism it is worth every effort to showcase our work to the world. Let's not restrict beautiful work to only Malaysians. If the world appreciates our art, we want to share more.

This is also going to be the year that I will try to bring more exposure to other institution of creative design. The remarkable project that I undertook with my students on Steemit has gained a lot of publicity locally partly because I received rave reviews from my other cartoonist friends who are leaders in this industry such as @orenisme, @chendol, @rambai, @aurah and @cartoonistpandan.

2018 is going to see steem-cartoon spread its wings to more institution of creative designs and we will be directly engaging with the government on our initiative. Afterall, if it means better publicity and source of income, there is no reason why we should be stopped at our tracks.

The One Lesson

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In this journey on steemit, I realise one thing. A solitary walk is way harder than a community march. I am blessed to be in two excellent communities #teammalaysia under the leadership of @bitrocker2020 and #steem-cartoon the initiative of myself and @perennial. The journey in building this community was made much easier with the strong support by my cartoonist friends. I guess everyone wishes to see how far Steemit can take us in this new era of Blockchain Technology.

To those that are the movers behind successful communities such as openmic, steemiteducation, steemitbloggers, I understand the effort it takes to build a strong and sustainable community. There are certain amount of sacrifices to be made and there is a lot of leadership to steer the community into the right direction. I am still learning.

In my journey, we fall back on good people that matters and I am fortunate to have many good people in my life.

(@perennial and @abgmie trying to coax the deputy director of the National Museum to grant us a slot for a Steemit Workshop at the National Museum auditorium and they were successful in doing so)

This is so far what we have done and I am proud of the progress that we have made thus far. Signing off, @sireh.