It’s been a while since there’s been life here in the blog, but fear not, for we have come to rectify that! or so we hope. Springtime has come, now it’s April, a month dear to me and my co-bloggers because it’s the month our blog was [officially] born. The same goes for Totali, Owen, CCY and… oh wow that’s it?! I don’t know any more April blogging celebrants ;_;

Anyways, we figured we owe you guys some explanation for this long absence, especially on this Special Day (I’m pretending that it’s still the 17th). I myself am very curious about the sentiments of my co-bloggers–why they drifted from blogging, why they started out blogging (because they started out this blog, and I was the foreign specie that ruined their habitat), how Scrumptious was born, and ultimately, whether or not they have joined the ranks of people who turned their back 180° from blogging, never to come back. So without further ado, a word from the Scrumptious chefs:

What made you blog?

I love to write and I love anime. Anime blogging is the perfect marriage of these two things, but before I became a blogger, I was a reader. Reading about anime became a daily part of my life and the more I read, the more I convinced myself that, “Hey, I can do this. I have worthwhile things to say and it looks fun.” Thus, I jumped into the world of anime blogging and, consequently, the creation of Scrumptious.

Wanted to have an outlet for my thoughts about anime. Got so much stuff in my head and I just want to share it with people.

I already had a personal (non-anime) blog even before scrumptious and I’ve been running it for around ten years already (though it has moved from one host to another a few times). Blogging, for me, is a way to express my thoughts on different matters.

As for scrumptious, Seleria, who was an officemate of mine, invited me to create an anime blog. I’ve been into anime since high school and I thought it would be interesting. She also introduced me to usagijen, who’s also an officemate of sorts, and thus, there was Scrumptious.

The desire to fangirl and connect with fellow fangirls. Specifically, to fangirl over Kin-iro no Corda. Hence, this, back when it wasn’t merged with Scrumptious. I was so gaga over this otome game way back college, more so when the anime started airing, and I somehow wanted to make the most of that Kin-iro no Corda passion (read: fangirl freak). And make money while we’re at it, so the stuff I’ve been buying on amazon won’t go to waste!

But things changed; what started out to be a not-so-noble inspiration to blog propelled me to heights, introduced me to this Whole New World, reunited me with writing, and got me in touch with my artsy side (however little). Thanks to this I’ve come to like blogging / writing because it allows me to express my innermost thoughts, connect with people, and gain perspective on a lot of things, my life and this hobby.

彼の園 by ちび

What made you stop blogging?

After starting Scrumptious, a desire to reach a wider audience started to grow, hence the transfer to animeblogger. From there, my ambitions for the blog only grew bigger and bigger and what started as a hobby slowly turned into an obsession (I tend to do that to other things as well, call it a personality flaw). I fell into the constrictive trap of timely episodic blogging and burned myself out keeping up with airing schedules, raw and translated episode releases, news and updates, and a myriad of things that was not writing. Posting a single entry took me hours to finish because there were so many things to accomplish aside from content. I had to worry about screen captures, formatting, timeliness of my entries, and self-imposed deadlines. Even after posting an entry, I still had to think of how to peddle my posts.

The commercialization of blogging took away the fun of it. Blogging became a chore and nobody likes doing chores.

First, episodic blogging takes up too much time especially with work and life and all that. I still want to write but it’s either I’m too lazy after a full day of work or I just can’t seem to manage my time properly with all the stuff I want to do. Anime is just one of my hobbies, I got LOADS MOARR!

Second, anime for me just went downhill after Code Geass. Since then, I’ve never really gone past 1-3 episodes and most of the newer titles just doesn’t bring any excitement whatsoever anymore. The barrage of harem and explicit fanservice (you know what I’m talking about) animes ain’t helping either.

I don’t see myself drifting away from my personal blogging but scrumptious is a different matter. Before, I never updated myself with the latest anime broadcasts but thanks to scrumptious, I started to follow the shows that come out every season. I tried to do episodic blogging. It was fun at first but it became too tedious. For one, I blog from the subs and sometimes, subs are slow. And when the subs do come out, I have to find the time to watch the episode and blog about it. Most of the time, my to-blog-episode queue would get quite long and I’d only be able to completely blog a series long after it is over. In some cases, I’d have to drop some shows. I am happy, however, for my coverage of Mononoke since the show was mostly ignored by other anime bloggers at the time of its broadcast. I think scrumptious was one of the few anime blogs that provided detailed synopsis and analysis for Mononoke. ^^

When Mouryou no Hako came out, I attempted to blog from the raws but the show proved too difficult for my Nihongo skills. In the end, I stopped blogging about it.

But I guess the biggest reason why I drifted away from anime blogging is that I haven’t been watching much anime lately. Been very busy at work (and that is even an understatement) and even when I do have some free time, my anime resources are limited. Also, the shows I decide to watch aren’t those from the current season. Most of them are old and I thought no one would be interested if I blog about them. Sometimes, I do have some posts in mind but I’d never get the time to write them.

Twitter. NOT Google Reader Shared Items is the more likely culprit because it made me narcissistic. Sometimes I’d find myself checking people’s Shared Items just to see whether someone shared my post. Oh the shame. But no, it’s not you GRSI, it’s me.

Seriously, the [self-inflicted] pressure, the obsession, as the case with Seleria. Obsessed with the hits, popularity (if there was, ever), the attention. Wow I never felt so alive! But you know, as with most problems with insecure people, I got lost, and woke up one day, confused, not knowing why exactly I’m here. And the lack of co-bloggers, the lack of Seleria–my Kamina–simply made it worse. I have been wanting to take a break from all things blogging to search for my voice, but the attachment was too strong, and I ended up stuck in a limbo. Thanks to my recent Japan trip (and my laziness), I was finally able to do that, giving me some time off to really think things through.

A lot of the habits I’ve acquired in the recent years came about because of blogging. They weren’t natural to me before this. Unlike Seleria and absolute0, reading blogs–anime-related or not–was not part of my lifestyle. So is following anime season after season. I kept myself updated with the latest animes, to see if there’s any series that piques my interest, or whether one of the mangas I’ve read or the games I played will get an anime adaptation, but that’s it. I followed manga and otome game releases more than I do anime. But blogging changed that; It shifted the course of my anime/manga/J-related habits, and I ended up too focused on anime & blogging, at the expense of others.

I got into blogging with the wrong mindset, and I got into it prematurely. I say this because I started blogging when I still haven’t found the voice that commands me to write, in the words of Rilke. But when exactly is the right time to blog? Should you get into writing even if you haven’t found your voice? While you’re in search for it? Or after you’ve found it?

This dilemma might seem foreign to other people, in the same way the plight of the insecure lost sheep is foreign to people who have been confident and secure throughout most of their life, or how the struggles of the normal person is foreign to a genius. But each and every people are different. For some people, blogging is a walk in the park, so naturally and smoothly ingrained in their lifestyle that they can just sit and come up with a post without much of a struggle. I envy these people, but just because it’s no walk in the park doesn’t mean we should quit either. Perhaps the reason why other people can write so easily is because they’ve already found their voice, and I’m still struggling. Perhaps struggle is necessary to get better in writing, or that I just need to continue searching for that voice.

In the end, I chose to distance myself from blogging, to see how far I can go without looking back, perhaps? Getting lost on purpose so I can find my way back. My life needs readjustments, more balance, with blogging still in the picture. And in order to do that, I needed to “reset”, to distance myself from the things I used to love, to fall in love with it again–fall in love with anime, with blogging, with the community, with reasons far more lucid, clear, and pure and I like how my interests are expanding as of late–getting into musicals, TV series (Big Bang Theory! Glee!), JDramas, and finally, books!–enriching my perspectives in the process

yes, I know, being succinct has never been my forte.

雨が来りて春を吹く by カノ

What would make you blog again?

My love for writing still remains and anime is still fun. Sometimes I just feel so compelled to articulate my thoughts and share how a certain show or episode has entertained or moved me, because in the end, isn’t that what anime blogging is? Wanting to share what you find enjoyable, so that others may have the chance of enjoying it as well.

(But as of the moment, she’s lazy and busy with real life, or so she says :P)

“a blog where we are not constrained by time, seasons; where we can write about any anime, manga, jdrama, and movie we want. we don’t even have to be connected to the ’sphere… just, write~” That right there is reason enough for me. I still keep up with the industry, just not the shows itself though. And if shows the likes of kimi kiss, boys be, H&C, code geass and shows similar to cooking master boy and skip-beat’s genre (what do you call that genre anyway?) would turn up then color me interested. hahahah

Well, I am sure lots of cash would be motivation enough for me to blog. Seriously, time and anime resources, I guess. And a fresh perspective too. If I blog again, I want to do something timeless, something that isn’t constrained by the latest shows of the season. I want to do some quiet blogging, one that doesn’t mind if the post gets read or not. Something like Iwa no Hana or Ha Neul Seom.

a change of perspective, definitely. And more confidence! Shoo my inner demons! I don’t want to be constrained by seasons (who wants to be?!), but it’s not something I can just ignore either. In the end, it’s up to me to find a way to balance things out–keeping up with the current season, remembering/discovering love for older series, blogging, translating on the side and reading more books. I have yet to find the blogging/writing style that suits me best, in terms of reflecting my personality and something my limited time can accomodate. Maintaining a certain focus in blogging would help, perhaps. Or I should just discover the ‘best time to blog’, brew post ideas in my mind, until they’re finally ready to hatch (complete with outline, or at least plans on how I want it to flow and end). Most of the time I write my drafts will only bits and pieces of ideas, and that’s probably why it still takes me hoursss to finish the post.

If I’m going to blog again, I want it to be purer and more innocent, not tainted by the “pressure to blog”, or the desire to pander to an audience (there’s nothing wrong with giving readers what they want, but that shouldn’t be the primary reason for blogging). Quiet blogging, as absolute0 says, “one that doesn’t mind if the post gets read or not”. I’d like that. Blog as though I’m talking to a friend, not to seek attention or validation, contented simply with being listened to. If we can sit and talk awhile, then it’s fine too~ *sips a cup of tea with her pinky raised*

I’m leaning towards the blogging style of bateszi-sempai, schneider, Iwa ni Hana, gaguri, ghostlightning, OGT, Martin, ETERNAL, 2DT, and sdshamshel (more like my “[How I] Wish List”) Whether or not I can actually come close to what they do is another story. The aforementioned bloggers seem to have that certain zen and zest balance in the way they consume and produce (blog posts, etc), a stable space with their own pace, with balance and stability that will keep them going strong in this game.

non tl;dr version: I’ll blog once I found my voice, gained the necessarily [rhetoric] skills to express that, and found that right balance. And of course this will only happen after I fall in love with anime (and manga!) and blogging again.

These are questions I’d also like to ask other people who seemed to have drifted away from blogging. Any chance that the “retirement” will turn into retry-ment?

No related posts.

If you visited the blog recently, then you would’ve been plagued by 404 errors all over the place. But rest assured, people, the situation is under control. The blog wasn’t hacked (though I thought of the possibility, and panicked a little, until I realized what really caused it) it was just uhh– messed by yours truly. Been working on the new buggy theme for the last couple of days, and thought I’d tweak the .htaccess file to load the post images on my local server– and forgot to bring it back to the way it was.

So yeah, Golden Rule: don’t mess around with your .htaccess file. It might be < 1KB, but it holds the power to mess up your entire blog, sorta.

Oh and Happy New Year everyone!! Though I won’t consider this officially a New Year until I’m done with the theme revamp *shakes fist* Or until after I’ve posted my 2010 resolutions. Better late than never, right?

Ja ne!

No related posts.

(My Garden by ぱ)

Bloggers have been accused of loving their blogs more than they love anime. I plead guilty. For the past few years, whether I like it or not, blogging has changed (revolutionized?) the way I consume animes. Life-changing as it may be, it turned out to be a double-edged sword. Gone were the days when I could simply sit down and relax, watch an episode or two, marvel at it for whatever reason and go on with Life^TM. I’m sure you’ve heard that elsewhere, right? Blogging has made be an active consumer, and that’s good, but somewhere along the way, it also alienated me from what I’ve been doing.

Lately I find myself thinking, did I really like [insert name of series I blogged in the past], from the bottom of my heart? So much for spending more time blogging or thinking about blogging the said series instead of just basking in it and loving every moment of it, to the point of wondering why I even blogged it in the first place. From enlightenment, here goes another blogging blues relapse. Oh boy. Seems like I’ve become even more confused now that blogging has not only taken my time, but has also tainted the lens through which I view my animes. I guess it all boils down to “I don’t know myself enough just yet”, and more importantly, because blogging is not the cure to this identity crisis. That I should’ve known since a year ago, since that blogging crossroad.

(Catcher For U by ハルイチ)

This blog is an extension of my soul, and that’s that, just an extension. If I’m confused IRL, then I’ll be even more confused when I blog. In the same way as you don’t get into a relationship to fill whatever void in your heart, you can’t just blog to complete your anime and manga fanaticism, or to make up for your incompetence. It’s there to complement the animanga-loving fan that you are, and you shower it with your love overflow, the kind of love that oozes from you when you’re an enthusiastic fan. More importantly, you should have a firm grip on yourself, what you want and why you want it, so as to not get drowned into the Blogging Waves and lose yourself in the process. Somewhere, somehow, I lost my Hontou no Jibun and now I’m struggling to get it back. And again, I have to tell myself, I can’t find that True Self of mine by blogging and blogging alone.

You get better at writing by writing MOAR, but if you’re confused about what you want to write about, uncertain of your feelings even, you don’t exactly write about not being able to think of what to write. Instead, you step out and explore the world, head out for an adventure, discover its beauty, get to know yourself in the process, and grow holistically. For the aniblogger, this entails more than just discovering the ’sphere, but filling your very own love tank with true animango love. How? By blogging less and watching/reading MOAR, immersing yourself in what you watch and read, even without the premise of blogging.

(by 幼夢堂)

I don’t know what came into me, but suddenly I feel so confused. For the past two and a half years, who exactly was the usagijen blogging here? Was it really me, or a mere persona (or ‘nexistence’ in the words of lelangir) I created, a whole new beast and not really myself? But if so, then that means everything I’ve been doing here is a lie, which isn’t exactly the case. Admittedly, some of my posts are pretentious, but not exactly a lie. Sigh. I hate hate hate being confused, but here I am. Again.

After much enlightenment, I remain a Takemoto who headed out for a bike adventure without realizing why he even did it in the first place. What was I trying to achieve? Was I even trying to achieve something in the first place? I want to remember love, like ghostlightning, but how the heck will I remember love when I’m not even sure if there was indeed love in the first place? My love tank is running low on fuel, and I have to fill it up, quick. More importantly, I have to make sure that my feelings are genuine and real. Man, if only I was simple-minded, I wouldn’t have any of these problems.

(■□廊下□■ by 108)

I mentioned before that blogging has made me an active consumer. Sounds good, but not until you realize its negative implication: I’m pushing (forcing?) myself to be attentive because I’m thinking of blogging it. Ergo, I’m watching and enjoying what I watch for the sake of blogging and not exactly for pure & genuine enjoyment reasons. “But isn’t the desire to blog something an accurate indicator that you really love something?”, you ask, to which I return another question: How can you be so sure that you really love it if you can’t leave blogging out of the picture?

Actually, the thing about me being an apathetic viewer (which I talked about here) in the past isn’t exactly true, because I already was active before blogging, in my own little way. How else could I have remembered much of Daa! Daa! Daa!, Aka-chan to Boku, Ranma 1/2, Magic Knight Rayearth and KimiNozo (the CDs of which I dumped into the garbage bin out of RAEGG, and I got depressed for days even when I don’t have the slighest reason to be!)? Or even with other series which I can’t remember as vividly but lingered in my mind (Mermaid’s Forest, Honey and Clover, Ouran High School Club and Nishi no Youki Majo). Not once did it cross my mind that time that I was going to blog them, and yet, I remember them.

(道端の堕天使 by ベカサク)

otou-san once talked about how our experiences at the time we watch an anime affects the way we perceive it, “the circumstances at that very moment are important”, he said. ghostlightning also said that “We will not like some anime because we are not ready for it”. But how exactly will we be able to know if we’re ready? The voice inside me says, “you’ll _feel_ it, my child, you certainly will”. Time and again, I really will have this Eureka Moment, and I can wholeheartedly say I LOVED THIS, FEELS SO GOOD. But at times–many times–I end up cheating my way through this because of blogging, and I end up trying to convince myself that I am ready to enjoy a certain anime, when in fact, I’m still not. I end up skipping through the “watching and enjoying animes without exactly understanding why” immersion stage.

Or let me put it this way: At times, I’d be blogging about how “This series is sooo awesome and I LOVE it” even before reaching that actual “OMG I’m sooo enjoying and loving this, and know & feel that this is real and know exactly why I’m loving it” state. And when that happens, I’d look back at what I wrote a few months and end up wondering whose reflection it is I see in this blogging mirror. Or perhaps I’m just being too hard on myself, perhaps it’s just recency bias coming into play here. But something else is complicating all this for me.

There are people in the ’sphere who influenced me (and continues to influence me) in blogging — the Kaminas I look up to, my source of spiral energy yo. They inspire me, they humble me a whole lot. But the downside of it all is being haunted by the feeling that I need validation from these people, that I need their acknowledgment and recognition before I can recognize my worth as a blogger. I’m still not secure with myself, and I hate hate hate feeling this way. I hate my post-blogging blues where, after writing a post and it doesn’t exactly connect with readers the way I wanted it to, I end up moping and questioning what I did wrong. Did people read my post? Did they like it? Did they even care? And worst of all, is realizing on hindsight how disconnected I was from what I wrote; it wasn’t heartfelt enough and didn’t have my True Soul. Perhaps that’s why I keep on looking for external rewards in all this, to fill that emptiness, to cover up my incompetence. I was supposed to be over this, but here it comes again.

Blogging for 2DT is a cure for loneliness. I guess it is, for me too, though at times it becomes my source of loneliness.

For digitalboy, it’s a (questionably) legal drug. With the highs and lows I get from blogging, the alienation I feel at times, I’d say it’s like a drug for me too, with both beneficial and harmful side-effects. But I don’t want blogging to be just a drug I use for escapism purposes; I want it to be a reflection of who I am, something I pour my love and devotion to not simply for the external rewards I will gain after, but because of the internal rewards I will reap just by being able to write and express my thoughts and feelings, by sharing all this to an audience (imaginary or not). So that each and every step of the way I’ll be able to sing:

This is real, this is me
I’m exactly where I’m supposed be now
Gonna let the light shine on me
Now I’ve found who I am, there’s no way to hold it in
No more hiding who I wanna be, this is me ♫

(瀬戸内夏便り¹ illustration by 犬丸)

This is the time of the year when I (once again) realize that I’m still stuck in the lower end of the Moral Development Stage, and I have to find a way to reach the post-conventional level. Blog not just for the sake of it, not for the sake of other people either, but because I love what I’m doing and know exactly what I’m doing. And hopefully, be able to realize the Higher Purpose of why I’m doing this in the first place.

Perhaps blogging pushed me to be an active watcher, and there’s nothing wrong with having that little push to motivate me to do something. That’s even the key to people’s success at times. But one way or another, I have to step out of being pushed and be moved to act by a force within, something that’s got nothing to do with external validation rewards, something that’s not dependent on the ‘whims of other people or social groups’ either. If I’m going to ponder upon what I watch, it’ll be for the sole reason that I delight myself in it, not for whatsoever pandering purposes. As this one motto goes, “Until you are happy with who you are, you will never be happy with what you have” If what I write is not good enough for me, it will never be good enough.

In the meantime, while I’m still struggling to find that Higher Purpose, the least I can do is to be true to myself. I’m a little slow compared to most people. I’m not spontaneous, and I can’t outright say my thoughts on what I watch until after a bit of pondering. Unless we’re talking about shows I can quickly fangirl and KYAA over. This is who I am, and I should delight myself in it. And as of the moment, I prefer immersing and delighting myself in what I watch and read without the premise of blogging; Allow the episodes I watch to linger in my mind first (in the words of Michael Jackson, “You gotta let it simmer”), and finally, when the Right Time comes and I’m ready to pen down my thoughts into one coherent post (and even not-so-coherent ones), then I will. I won’t have to force myself to think of what to write because it will just come out naturally. The words will just… flow~ And I’ll be doing it in the spirit of good fun. As Hige said, “Blog in a manner that suits you, that makes you happy. Fuck the rest.”

I may still not see the 2D world from the eyes of them Great Bloggers, but there’s no need to rush. In my own time, I will grow; My perspective will change, be enriched… No need to rush. Be still my soul, fly free and soar above the clouds, but be grounded in reality and never lose sight of who you are, and why you’re doing this in the first place. I should tell myself that All The Time. Blogging shackles, begone!

Never have I felt more free and enlightened. Sorry dear readers, for I have been a pretentious wank. If you’ve read my past posts on this very same topic, I won’t be surprised if you’re now going “NOTTO DISU SHIT AGAIN?!”

And once again, I summon Rilke’s spirit and let his voice move me:

“You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you – no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity;

And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it.”

I’d also like to dedicate Miley Cyrus’ The Climb to myself, just because I can:

Every step I’m taking
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high

There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

The struggles I’m facing
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I’m not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on

You say my post is long-winding? So what? These are my thoughts, confusing and jumbled up, right there as you see it. My writing will get better in time, I’m sure. But more than anything else I need to find out what the heck I really want to do, and do it. There’s no need to rush~

Comrade schneider already beat me to this “You don’t have to rush it” talk, darn! hehe But yeah, I do want to have the same mindset from here onwards — take things easy not just because I’m growing old. I had my chance to be on the spotlight; I experienced how it was like to ride the waves of hype, be the hype machine myself, and also how it was like to get caught up in the hype and end up losing myself. It was EPIC and fun, but now I realize that’s not exactly where I want to be. That’s not what would keep me going in the long run, because in the end, what matters most is what’s left after the hype is gone, after the in-love state has run its course. Whatever lies beyond this path, I would have to see and experience it for myself.

This blogging adventure is just beginning~

EDIT: Ryan’s comment reminded me of one more song I’ve been wanting to dedicate to myself for the longest time now, Lenka’s The Show:

I am just a little girl
lost in the moment
I’m so scared
but don’t show it
I can’t figure it out
it’s bringing me down
I know
I’ve got to let it go
and just enjoy the show

Dum Di Dum, Da-dum di dum~ Just enjoy the show~ ^_^

Further Reading

My introspections, which a lot of people are probably sick of reading by now (not that I really care or anything ):

Confessions and Epiphanies of an Incompetent Blogger
Micro-blogging is Confusing the Heck Out of Me Now, But I Has Gained Englightenment! (this one’s pretty stupid now that I’ve read it again, in a lolz way, but at least I was being honest?)
Beyond the Blogging Crossroad Part 1: A So-called “Love Affair” with Animes
Beyond the Blogging Crossroad Part 2: Why I Blog

Enough about me, and go read these posts by other bloggers which are far worth your time instead:

2DT on Anime Blogging as the Cure for Loneliness
digitalboy on Anime Blogging as his (Questionably) Legal Drug
Hige’s Editorial #12 – Convention Can Suck My Left One
ghostlightning on Recency Bias and How it Affects Anime Appreciation
what color are your glasses now? asks otou-san
schneider’s Continuing World turns one year old, and in this first anniversary post he talks about his humble beginnings, and keeping it cool yo~

1. an independently produced short film/anime TV ad(?) supposedly uploaded here in niconico, now deleted before I even had a chance to see it.

No related posts.

So I’ve been away for a few days, had this one s-s-silly post scheduled, looking forward to what people have to say about it upon my return, if readers were actually compelled to respond. So imagine my shock, surprise, and overall frustration when I realized that the comments were disallowed in the post, like, 4-5 days after the post was published, with the post’s sizzle now gone or what. As it turns, the post was also incomplete, so is the version reflected in the feeds. The earlier revision was the complete one orz

I’d still say this is not due to my dojikko tendencies though, but rather, a glitch when updating posts. This happened with a number of my posts now, first was with Skip Beat, also one of my Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 posts, then this. This most likely happened during one unsuccessful auto-saves update. Sigh. It’s frustrating, not knowing whether people didn’t comment because it’s been disallowed, or because the post really sucks -_-

There’s no way I will turn off commenting in my posts because I’m a comment whore. I. Love. Comments. Sigh. Oh well, so much for that. Will make sure this won’t happen again. Ever. Hope the other chefs can actually check the posts in my behalf to prevent glitches like this.

Feel free to drop off yer comments in that post, if you still feel like it. Though you probably lost that will to comment now, or you didn’t really have it in the first place. Sigh again.

Now that this is out of my system, I guess I can proceed to better things, like writing more posts and/or sampling the Fall offerings.

Credits to ササガミ百 for the image above

No related posts.

Reporting for the recently concluded WordCamp Philippines 2009 last Saturday o>

I totally failed at giving the heads up about this early on in the blog, unlike last year. It was already too late by the time I realized I wasn’t able to inform hazy and Zeroblade about this, the two blogger friends I went with last year OTL

I ended up going to the event by myself, broke out of my anti-social shell, met new people and chatted up a bit with them during lunch and during the afternoon sessions. As an anime blogger (gotta wonder if I was the only anime blogger there) who’s still not in the know about the Filipino blogosphere, I was surprised to know that the girl I was seated to next during the lunch buffet was a prominent travel blogger. Nina Fuentes of Just Wandering. It was an honor

The Talks

The event itself was great, a learning experience for me yet again. Danny Arao’s talk, especially, was awe-inspiring. He zoomed in on responsible blogging, juxtaposing blogging with journalism, just like last year, with a focus on the upcoming 2010 national elections this time around. Even those who are apathetic to politics could leave the talk inspired and filled with insights.

Mr. Arao told us of the power we have as bloggers to shape public opinions, “a minority (considering bloggers only comprise about 2.5% of the population), but a force to reckon with”. “Blogs wield considerable power and influence”, he says, measured in terms of PageRank, Alexa, technorati authority, feed readers (or readership in general), linkage, among others. With this sphere of influence, bloggers could said to intervene by providing breaking news (one tweet is all it takes!), social commentary, mainstream media monitoring (bloggers as watchdogs of watchdogs, promoting responsible journalism), and fact checking, and in turn, be able to promote social change.

*in before Blogging is SRS BSNS comments*

Journalism, politics and social change talk aside, this also applies to small-fry anime bloggers like you and me. For as long as you have readers, you already are being an influence — you make your readers laugh, make them think, make them cry, or make them rage. “Responsible Blogging” sounds like a heavy word, since responsibility tends to be equated with burdensome or Serious Business, but in the end, it all boils down to being accountable to whatever we write or say on the internets.

Drawing the line between responsible and irresponsible blogging in the anime community is tricky because we can always give the excuse that “we’re only talking about 2D stuff”, “this is the internets and it’s got nothing to do with real life”, “this is my blog and I can do whatever I want with it”, so we shouldn’t be subjected to whatever standards. We can also get so bogged down by so-called blogging conventions and end up treating blogging as a chore. But all that said, having standards is good, for you and your readers. “Because people (readers) deserve no less”, as Mr. Arao said.

It’s a constant battle, having to fight your inner blogging standards demons to avoid blogging burnout, but for as long as we’re flexible, understand that taste and blogging style can change through time (while keeping standards in mind), evolve, all’s good. Realizing that taking a break from time to time, to actually consume anime and mangas than write about them, is good too.

Responsible blogging in the anime ’sphere can be as simple as “Don’t be pretentious, don’t pretend to know what you’re talking about when you really don’t”, you owe it both to your readers and to yourself.

If you’re trying to build credibility and authority, setting standards and practicing responsible blogging is a MUST. As Mr. Arao told us, “Don’t be irresponsible for the sake of having readers”. You can’t just say, “sorry readers, whatever I’ve been doing in the past is just a shtick to attract your attention, time for the real show :D” and expect people to listen to you without questioning your credibility. Your name and blogging identity is what you make it.

Impz mentioned in a comment one time that the problem with writing on the internet is the lack of gatekeeper. “Anything can go out without restrictions” — a very tempting sorry excuse to be lazy and be irresponsible. But please please please, don’t say you are lazy datte hontou wa crazy. Having a blog is not enough. Don’t just blog, blog with a sense of purpose, that’ll be more fulfilling in the long run too.

Wordpress In The Wild

have a break, have a piccie

For the Wordpress geeks, this one’s for you. Then again if you’re a WP geek you most likely know this now.

Marku Seguerra’s Wordpress in the Wild was a talk full of tips — tips on deployment, performance, optimization, and security, in particular. Here goes my summary:

Deployment
- should be simple, fast and secure
- only download from wordpress.org, for security purposes (no hacked codes)
- ssh/sftp is the way to go. Make ftp the last option, since it’s vulnerable to sniffing.

Performance
- use Super Cache!
- offload content to other sites, e.g. flickr or photobucket for photos, youtube for videos
- use 3rd party comment platform, Disqus, Intense Debate, etc. (kinda hesitant to try this)

Optimization
“Wordpress takes care of 80-90% of [the mechanics] of Search Engine Optimization”, says Matt Cutts of google

- Highlight Your Content (plugins etc):

• All in One SEO Pack (for your SEO needs)
• permalinks – including %postname% at the end of the permalink is recommended
• Analytics 360, Google Analyticator (offloading site traffic info to Google Analytics instead of relying on other plugins which could possibly make your database bloat)
• Google XML Sitemaps (Create an XML sitemap for your site and submit to search engines. Help google’s tentacles caress your site, in the words of Kabitzin)
• FD feedburner (feedburner is <3, feed subscribers even more <3)
• Broken Link Checker for checking broken links in your posts (I have to go get this)

Security
- Using RSS footer plugin to fight content theft
- Removing the default ‘admin’ username
- Hide WP version
- Securing /wp-admin/ with server passcode, through .htaccess (More on making wordpress hack-proof [->])
- WP Security Scan (scans your WP installation for security vulnerabilities)
- Don’t forget yer backups! Use WP-DB-Backup for scheduled regular backup, download backups to PC, burn to DVD.

Sugar n’ Spice and Everything That’s Not So Nice

As per Mr. Arao’s talk (pardon me for using this in a different context), we bloggers are supposed to be watchdogs, so yes, this post won’t be complete without both positive and negative comments about the talks.

On Wordpress as the Ultimate Content Management System (CMS)

From the looks of the title, one would expect a discussion about content management system, how Wordpress is considered the Ultimate CMS compared to the likes of Joomla, Drupal, or Textpattern, but there was a sore lack of CMS discussion.

What comprised the majority of the talk was Karla Redor’s demo of 3 premium WooThemes themes — how to tweak them to suit your CMS needs — not so much about CMS. Perhaps it was assumed that the audience already knows what a content management system is?

In the end, though, with the lack of comparison with other CMS platforms to show what the edge of Wordpress is, it’s like it was assumed that since Wordpress is the recommended CMS for non-php coders and/or html/css beginners (and since this is WordCamp, and it’s all about Wordpress), we just have to embrace the fact that Wordpress is the Ultimate CMS.

On Editorial Voice and Taste in Writing Tech

Jeff Villafranca gave the talk on Editorial Voice and Taste in Writing Tech, and even those who are not into tech blogging could actually relate to and learn from it. The talk was great (even if he doesn’t think so), it just so happens that all throughout the session, our speaker would give remarks as to how the audience doesn’t seem to be interested with his talk, that they’re all giving him blank stares (mainly due to the lack of oxygen in people’s brains after the Scrumptious lunch), that he’s going to finish the talk much sooner than he thought because the people were despondent. Ugh, it was horribly distracting.

His talk was meaty (something so self-explanatory that we tend to take it for granted), he had much blogging wisdom to share, but it was sad seeing him not believing in the audience who believes in him. There’s Murphy’s Law, “anything that can go wrong will go wrong”, and there’s also “when you feel like something will go badly (or get any worse than the situation you’re in atm), it tends to do just that.”

All that said, gonna share a bit of what I learned.

The need to create expectations for readers

While expectations is most often associated with pressure, it’s actually good. Why the heck would people want to read/visit/subscribe to your blog if they don’t expect anything out of it? And you, dear blogger (yes you), without expectations (reader expectations and your own expectations), what the heck are you living up to? Why even blog when you don’t expect anything out of blogging?

This scene from Cross Game episode 16 comes to mind with the mention of expectations:

Expectation drives action, also evolution. It gives you the drive to improve, to become better than you were yesterday. And, it allows your readers to have something to look forward to.

The way to create expectations [in blogging], according to Mr. Villafranca, is by writing with a consistent voice, by sticking to your guns. Also by maintaining the quality of your posts. By really getting into the bones of things and not f*cking it up. You build up credibility that way.

With digiboy’s Don’t F This Up series (born out of this hilarious meme c/o ghostlightning), he has managed to create the said expectation(s). Now people are looking forward to the series of posts he’ll be writing, all the while thinking, “Will he or will he not f*ck it up?”

Do keep in mind, however, that you should be setting reasonable expectations. I, for one, can’t expect that I’d be able to write in an intellectual masturbatory level like that of, say, Wabisabi, gaguri, kritik, Owen, ghostlightning, IKnight, the Superfani guys, 2DT too. Each of us have our own strengths, and we should learn to capitalize on that.

I just wonder though, what exactly do the readers of Scrumptious look forward to? Fangirl posts (I’ve been failing in fangirling as of late)? Posts of valuable insights (if there’s such a thing)? Nihongo stuff? Emo posts? Feminist rage? Lulz? Whatever the answer might be, I’ll just keep on writing…

The Inverted Pyramid

As the above slide states, the Inverted Pyramid is a style of writing in which the chunk of the post is presented first, followed by less important details. From what I understood, this is supposed to give the readers a clear idea of what you’re talking about early on. Adapting this style, however, will depend from blogger to blogger and the effect he/she wants to achieve. Each of us have our own blogging style after all.

From the looks of it, though, the invented pyramid technique is frowned upon, as it is said to be “less efficient when it comes to more elaborate web news”. It could also potentially lead to loss of readership, since readers can just stop reading at any point and no value of worth will be lost. Bashing it further, it is also said to be “an uninspired and artless form of journalism”, designed specifically for the print media to allow flexibility in omitting portions of the article when space becomes an issue.

The suggested style is either that of the tumbled pyramid or the hourglass. Or so that’s what they say. I’m pretty much clueless about this since I don’t really pay attention to the style and structure of my posts, heck I don’t even make outlines for my post before writing, hence the lack of coherence and organization in what I write heh.

Sourcing, Attribution, Linking and In-text Story Tagging

Crediting / linking to your sources, giving credit where its due — that’s basically it. In-text story tagging refers to linking to your own post/s, in case the readers are interested to read similar posts, or posts with the same subject matter.

Best case in point of this in the anime blogosphere? ghostlightning’s posts.

Matters of Taste

• The need for flexibility, understanding that taste evolves. (Just remember to stick to a stand despite the said changes in taste, having a set of principles you abide in.)
• Don’t do something just because someone else does it, don’t just mimic other people’s style. “Give it your own spin.”

The wise words of Ira Glass that the speaker shared with us:

“Do lots of work, put yourself on a deadline. Put yourself through a volume of work and close the gap between where you are and where you want it to be. Keep at it.”

“It takes a long time to get good.”

Great bloggers are not born overnight. It takes skill perhaps, but more importantly, it takes practice. If your writing sucks, keep on writing, find ways to improve and evolve. Humble yourself, be open to criticism. If blogging becomes a chore, then find ways to make it fun again. Don’t whine that this is easier said than done, just do it.

See: tips on storytelling from Ira Glass. It’s about storytelling, but applicable to blogging too.

There are two other tips on that list which I like:

“Just talk like yourself, be yourself. Don’t try to be someone else. Don’t imitate someone else, some famous personality. Talk like yourself.”

“Be interested in the world and the people around you. You are a part of the story, but don’t be the main part of the story.”

Be yourself, but also remember that it’s not all about you. Whether you like it or not, blogging is social, and the community that blogging fosters makes it a whole lot more fun and worthwhile. Don’t let the social aspect get to you so much, but don’t take it for granted either. Cherish your readership and comments, s-s-silly snob bloggers (snobloggers?)!

…and that’s it, this post has been long enough as it is. A big thanks to Mindanao Bloggers who once again made this WordCamp possible. Looking forward to next year!

Thanks for reading!

P.S. If there’s going to be a battle for the most tl;dr WordCamp Philippines entry, I’m likely to win. That might not really be a bad thing, isn’t it?

Credits to danbooru, しらこむぎさん and chry for the piccies. Can’t find the artist for the other ones

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Ever since I set my eyes on the nifty post slideshow in the homepage of Oi Hayaku, I immediately thought of it as a MUST HAVE for our blog. *in before accusations of being a thief * Rather than having it display the latest posts, I thought it would be most useful to showcase the ones that we personally deem to be worth-sharing, especially those that have been buried deep in the archives ‘graveyard’ that most readers wouldn’t really bother digging deeeep into, unless he/she is a hardcore fan of the blog. Or is just a totally bored. Imagine a ‘Blogging Hall of Fame’ of some sort, composed of stuff carefully(?) selected from among the pile of posts in the blog. And with this, we bring you the ‘random featured posts’ slideshow in the homepage. Step out of your RSS Feed Reader for a second and please take a look! Oh and be amazed with the Tag [Cumulus] Cloud too

Plowing through posts in a blog like ours is especially difficult since ‘gem/timeless posts’ don’t come by often, being a blog that doesn’t really have as much EPIC WIN levels as other blogs out there. And regardless of that, I’m sure every blog out there have certain posts that they’re most proud of, and would want other people (especially to those who just discovered their blog) to read them if they can. While I can’t really say the posts I chose are the ‘Best of Scrumptious’ or ’sure to be worthy reads’ (since I added some Alternative Universe [photo] posts there lol), I’d say most of them are stuff I feel like sharing for people to read, for a variety of purposes, serious and/or for teh lulz.

I think I ought to make a post explaining the ones I chose to feature, the way N did with his epic ‘Best of Drastic Anime Blog 2008′ post, but heh… I’m too lazy right now. I’d love to see more bloggers showcase their posts, I’d happily read them ^^ So… share your epic posts for people to read! Don’t be afraid to pimp yourself, or better yet, pimp for other people. It’d be like sharing stuff on Google Reader with Notes, for the entire ’sphere to see

Oh, and please do give feedback regarding the random featured posts thingy we have! It’ll be much appreciated. I might just throw in some random reviews we have there, especially the ‘one shot/overall series reviews’. Whaddya think?

I’m planning to switch themes soon too, since our current theme is getting cluttered and unmanageable T__T I’m gonna migrate the slideshow to whatever theme we’re gonna be using, and hopefully we’ll get to have MOAR banners then too. So much for unresolved resolutions, heh x__x;

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Despite my high-and-mighty elitist sounding “RSS is awesome!!!” pimping, I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been living up to what I’ve been preaching (particularly Google Notes and Sharing) until recently, when more and more people started sharing their “Google Notes crap” and I don’t seem to be making any efforts in doing so! oh notes!

I’d like to think of Ryan as the main proponent of this in the anime ’sphere, followed by Lelangir, Owen, Omo, CalAggie, j1m0ne, who now made their Shared Items visible to the public, while mine remained hidden in my own burrow. But all that’s about to change, as I finally open the “pandora’s box” of my dark sekkrets. Not as sinister as it sounds, but you will get to see my trollish tendencies every now and then — stabbing bloggers behind their backs FTW!

Feel free to take a look at my Shared Items feed, and see random posts that I feel like taking note of (when I’m not being lazy) — posts tagged for a later reading/commenting, for trolling purposes, or for reference in the future, especially inspirational ones. The posts I tag *might* be indicative of future posts I’m going to write in the near future, so if you feel like doing a collab with me on a certain topic or something, just give me a holler and we can probably work out on that. I lack the initiative to suggest my post ideas to the ABC or the now defunct R-R because I’m not sure if other people would be enthusiastic about the topics (since most of them are somewhat ‘personal‘). I’m staying in my comfort zone wayy too much atm, I can probably need a little ‘push’ to bring some post ideas out of the blogging queue.

EDIT:
For instructions on how to go about Note-taking, I’ll just redirect you to Lelangir’s helpful tutorial. Spread the word around!!

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1. I Can See Dead Blogs and Posts

The heading says it all, if you’re subscribed to an RSS feed, you’re sure to access the site during downtimes, even when the blog becomes dead or deleted! Even deleted posts won’t escape your sight. Awesome right? For readers, that is. Because for bloggers who want to erase something they’ve written on the interwebz, well, sorry to say but you can’t, not unless Google dies together with your cached data. Once it’s published, it’ll be there. Forever.

Lelangir’s blog, for example, has undergone quite a number of death and revival “cycles”, and if you’re subscribed to his blog’s feed in Google Reader (I’m not sure about the persistency of feeds in the case of other feed readers/fetchers), you won’t have to worry about his future decision to delete/undelete the blog because his posts will right in your Google Reader inbox, available for your reading pleasure.

Still not convinced about the “you can see dead blogs” I’m talking about? Well then, let’s try a little experiment, shall we? We all know that Os’s old blog Karoshi as well as jpmeyer’s あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし are long dead, right? While it may be true that you can no longer access their sites/posts directly, Google Reader allows access to their feed (thanks to the Great Google Cache), which means you can see their posts come alive if you know their blog feed’s URL and subscribe to it (though of course in the case of jpmeyer this isn’t a big deal since he imported his posts from the old site to the new one)! Here’s the feed URL for both Karoshi and あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし, if you feel like trying this out, to prove me right. I also tried this out with Wrex’s Anime Whirls and Helspectre’s blog, just for the kicks. You can try it out with other sites that disappeared from the face of the web, if you feel like reminiscing the good old days when they were still alive.

If the blog don’t offer full feeds however, you’ll only see the snippets of their posts, which means you still have to visit the site to read it in full. So if the blog is already dead or the specific post has been deleted, well, sad to say but you can no longer [fully] read it. Moral of the story (for bloggers)? Provide full-feeds, for posterity!

2. Unblock the Cockblockers! Images not included.

Simply put, you can read posts from blogs and other sites, even if they’re blocked by your cockblocker network administrator through Google Reader (again, I’m not sure how other feed reader fetch/synchronize the feeds, so I’m just going specific here, on the reader where I tried and tested this). This is particularly useful for those who read blogs at work, school, or other places with secure/strict network policies. The images uploaded in the blocked sites, however, will still not be visible in your feed reader since that would have to be fetched from the site itself.

And yet again, this will only be an advantage if the blog offers full feeds, otherwise you’d still have to visit the site to see the rest of the post. But since the site is blocked, well, boohoo you still can’t read it. Feel free to use a proxy site and hope your net ad won’t catch you red-handed.

Do take note however that you might run into image-loading problems with blogs that have hotlinking protection enabled (and not disabled for the feeds), and you’ll see this “NO HOTLINKING” image plastered all over the posts — one of the disadvantages of subscribing through RSS; not like that can stop you from going RSS, right? Right?

3. Avoiding Bad Design Like a Plague

Admit it, there are sites out there which tick you off with its aesthetic unpleasantness and activate your “design elitist” genes — the ones that make you wanna scream “OMGZ YOUR SITE DESIGN SUCKS BUTT”. Now if you don’t want to get distracted by the ‘horrendous’ theme design (that you yourself labeled), then do yourself a favor by subscribing to the blog’s RSS feed so you can read it in your feed reader instead — simple and clutter-free. Minimalists will surely opt for this.

Again, this will only happen if the blog offers full feeds (I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but this just goes to show how much advantage full feeds will give); otherwise you’d be left with no choice but to visit the blog and put up with its fugliness. Poor you.

4. Oh Notes!

The notes feature of Google Reader was brought to my attention by feed crazy Ryan, and it’s not until recently that I started getting into the habit of blog post note-taking. This goes hand-in-hand with otou-san’s helpful tip on how to use Google Reader to follow comments, with the latter allowing your Reader to act as a Breadcrumb application of some sort, as you’ll be able to keep track of your “commenting trail” in the ‘sphere, and the former for writing scribbles and notes about the post — either why/how it compelled you to comment, or anything else about it that you found rivetting, or other sentiments you may have about it — taking “tagging” one step further, in a way (omg long sentence is longgg).

Both of the aforementioned tips are a godsend to me, since I’ve been meaning to find a way to keep track of remarkable posts I run into, for future reference, or for future commenting (since there are posts which are ZOMG AWESOME, leaving you starstruck and unable to churn out an insightful comment in a whim).

5. Let’s Zoom In!

Time for a little personal narrative.

Back in the day, I never thought I’d find much use for RSS feeds, or aggregators for that matter, since I was an egotistic blogger who was far too engrossed in my own blog to bother about the whole blogosphere.[1] The moment I finally decided to stop being lazy and discover the anime community out there, I relied on Anime Nano and Animeblogger antenna, and found them pretty neat, as they provide you with this “wide angle view” of the blogosphere – the horde of blogs out there, the latest buzz, trends, and issues that you shouldn’t miss out on.

I hate being out of the loop, especially with riveting topics that I want to piggyback on, knowing well that I would’ve contributed some insights in the whole discourse (if I’m not being lazy). But I digress.

Despite how aggregators provide a convenient means to keep in touch of / reach out to the anime community, at one point I just felt it wasn’t enough. I wanted to get closer not only to the “community”, but the people / bloggers who make up this community in the first place. I looked for a way to “zoom into” the bloggers, and Google Reader did just that — now I have the anime community, right at my fingertips. All that’s left to do is to stop procrastinating and get into reading their posts, and participate in ongoing discussions.

Like Kabitzin, I never thought I’d find much use for RSS feeds, until I finally started using Google Reader to keep track of blogs, and has then become an indispensable part of my geeky otaku life.

UPDATE:

6. Be More Social, Share.

omg how could I have not included this! Thank you lolikit for reminding me about this.

The notes feature mentioned above, is one of the ways you can get more “social” with Google Reader, and it all boils down to one thing — sharing (or “pimping”). You can share notes, in connection to a post that you want to pimp to your friends (in Google Talk), for whatever reasons. And this turned out shorter than I expected, oh well.

…and that’s basically it for my so called “testimonial”. Feel free to add to this list, the more RSS testimonials, the better (better chances of converting more people too! )!

If you remain unconvinced to take advantage of feeds after reading this post, well I still hope you guys will drop by and continue to read our random babblings. Now if this post actually did convince you, I suggest taking a look at otou-san’s RSS guide (for those who still haven’t seen it, or have no idea how to go about using Google Reader), and I can only hope that you’ll add us in your feed reader — if you deem us worthy that is. Earning a spot in your reader = earning a place in your heart, after all (whether that’s good or bad only you can tell). Oh gawd this is getting cheesy, have to end this before it gets worse.

Hope you learned something from this, at the very least :3

Toodles!

[1] Proofs of my egotism

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twitter-ing. SRS BSNS.

I never quite understood the rationale behind having multiple twitter accounts (I first noticed this with Icy’s twittering escapade), until Impz announced the birth of the THAT merry bandwagon twitter, and everything just started to make sense! As you’ve noticed (or most likely not), I invaded the sidebar with my self-indulgent twitter-ing, which is, to say the least, a useless pile of crap that no one really bothers to read in the sidebar! I mean, would readers bother checking the site just to see the latest trivial happenings in my life, like a BLOODY paper cut event, for example? If I was just a casual reader who wants to know about animu/manga and couldn’t care any less about the blog author’s boring real life events, I sure won’t give a damn about that.

So, what better way to make the twitter sidebar more useful but to follow the footsteps of THAT, and transform it into a mini blog where the chefs can spit random blurbs on the animes they’re watching, mangas they’re reading, and on other otaku-ish/blogging endeavors! This way, it will be Scrumptious Blog-relevant, and allow me to separate my otaku/non-otaku persona for the sake of my RL friends on twitter who are not into anime too X__X Sorry for spamming your twitter updates with my nonsense babblings lol. You’ll get to see more of the chefs this way too (you might not see a blog update, but you’d most likely find a blurb there or two, will make sure we update it on a regular basis to keep you guys updated on what’s happening behind-the-blogging-scenes), especially our dear hamster chef Seleria who has become too lazy to post (she needs your encouragement, dear readers!! Show her that she has fans! ), but still has enough energy to watch animes and tweet blurbs about it. I’m still finding ways to make updating this easier, especially for my fellow chefs. Hopefully, absolute0 and BeLe can join us in this diabolical tweeting plan too. In case you missed the twitter link, it’s here.

Your feedbacks will be much appreciated! If you think the twitter sidebar still sucks, then tell us what you think we can do to improve it. Cheers!

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…someone else will, in my behalf (if the subs come out, that is), considering that he is the true Junjou Romantica fan (yes you heard me write, he’s a fudanshi ). As such, it’s gonna be from a [slightly] biased POV too. I’m looking forward to reading his posts myself, knowing well that he is a talented writer, and my good friend. The interesting things are yet to come, so watch out for it!

and wow, this is quite a pretty good timing, since someone just decided to troll one of my JR posts to proclaim it as the BEST YAOI SHOW, EVAR.

EDIT: It seems that people didn’t quite get what I said, so here’s the simplified version: I recruited my officemate to become a part-time chef and write about Junjou Romantica, considering that he’s a real fan of the show. As such, it’s a totally biased (for) POV, unlike mine which is more on the dark side lol.

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