(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.

Related posts:

1. Beyond the Blogging Crossroad Part 2: Why I Blog
2. Beyond the Blogging Crossroad Part 1: A So-called “Love Affair” with Animes
3. A Koushien-esque Cross Game Blogging Ambition Once Forgotten

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

Related posts:

1. In an Effort to Bring Back Old Posts from the ‘Grave’
2. Stabbing Bloggers Behind Their Backs, the Google Notes Way
3. White Album: Realistic? Unrealistic? You Tell Me.

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

Related posts:

1. Beyond the Blogging Crossroad II: The Woman on the Mirror
2. In an Effort to Bring Back Old Posts from the ‘Grave’
3. Beyond the Blogging Crossroad Part 2: Why I Blog

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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2. Comments Are (Not) Allowed

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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2. FireStats Data Burned Our Blog (A Caution to Other Bloggers)
3. Comments Are (Not) Allowed

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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2. In an Effort to Bring Back Old Posts from the ‘Grave’
3. WordCamp Philippines 2009 – With Great [Blogging] Power Comes Great Responsibility

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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I finally decided to separate this chunk from my Someday’s Dreamers post to inform people that this is for everyone, aka it won’t alienate you if you’re not a Someday’s Dreamers fan because it’s not really about the show. If you’ve read my Natsu no Sora episode 04 post, feel free to skip this. or not, your call

Quietly anticipating many of the summer shows has left me nostalgic about the episodic-blogging nature of many of my posts before. I’m really missing it now, badly. I did mention that one of the reasons why I decided to blog was for some ego-boosting effect, but as I look deeper into my heart, I realize that my love for those shows was pure and genuine. This love is what really drove me to blog them (the attention seeking was a 2nd aim of some sort, which became one of the ultimate source of many of my silly blogging blues). Oh nostalgia~ I only have Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ (which will just be called ‘Someday’s Dreamers Natsu no Sora’ from hereon) and Natsume Yuujinchou to blame for all this cheesiness

I miss blogging and blabbing random stuff about the shows I watch. I miss the times when I get myself all lost in thoughts after watching an episode of the animes I anticipate, churning out whatever randomness that comes into my mind. I’m talking about KimiKiss and True Tears here, specifically. One thing I loved about episodic blogging is how it brainwashes makes me gain more appreciation for the show, or at least allow me to understand why I love or hate it. Posting about these thoughts and feelings then serve for its posterity, so I can one day look back and see what shameful things I’ve been saying

I miss having those round of discussions with other bloggers, going through the whole journey of following a series together with them and other visitors or commentators of the site. The True Tears and KimiKiss roundabout posts were such fun times~ Looking back at those posts sometimes make me wonder how I managed to say all those stuff, actually lol. I guess that’s what happens when my heart and mind is at peace, when I’m not thinking of anything else but wanting to share my genuine thoughts and feelings

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Foreword: This is what I get for attempting to “micro-blog” in more than one place at a time.

Remember the ‘Asides’ help we asked you guys before? Well, that sort-of worked for and against us (or rather me, the source of all randomness around this blog). It was a delight knowing that you guys are interested in our boring lives and other commentaries we might have. But then because of the jack-of-all-trades ambition of our ‘Asides’, I also managed to confuse the heck out of myself with the schemes I’ve been devising to make this section more effective and efficient. I brought my MAL and twitter into the blog, which I decided to use for blurbing on animes and RL or otaku stuff, respectively, by aggregating their feeds with the Asides category.

Given that this section consists of all sorts of randomness, I considered them to be ‘noise posts’ which seem out of place in the blog and excluded them from the blog’s feed. And then came this one Aside post I wrote, a random babble on the Birdy the Mighty OAV, Aika, City Hunter and Yakushiji Ryouko, which I also posted in my MAL blog. My desire to share this experience with people prompted me to once again include the Asides category in the feed, so people would be notified of this post. As it turns out, that simple “Asides” blurb was just about as potent as any random posts I have. People shared their thoughts on City Hunter, and perhaps I piqued other people’s interest on Birdy the Mighty? Now if that post remained as an invisible Aside post and/or a lonely MAL blog post, I doubt it would’ve garnered such a response.

As I sat down and think about all this Asides microblogging jambalaya, I remember Hige’s post about Microblogging and the conventions we set for our blog, and wondered why the heck I even went to all the trouble of separating my MAL blurbs from the main blog. Perhaps I thought they wouldn’t be potent enough, that unlike Hinano’s babbles, mine would be useless thoughts bubbles which are better off ignored? Or perhaps I just wanted to take down notes and later on use them for a more noteworthy editorial-like post? Whatever it is, I felt alienated from my own blog because of all these made-up conventions which never should’ve been there in the first place.

You see, I babble a lot. The dilemma I usually face in making a post is that I can’t make it coherent enough to become a noteworthy post. That, or I can’t express my feelings about a show eloquently enough. Or that my comments are too short, and whatnot. As iniksbane summed up and pointed out, one of the main reasons behind this micro-blogging fad is the concept of blog identity. What bloggers think don’t fit into this blog identity, will then go to the micro-blog. Then I paused for a while and asked myself, what is our blog’s identity anyways? What is my identity as a blogger?

I’m nowhere as smart as IKnight, Owen, Hige, and itsubun. Yes this line has been said for who knows how many times but I’ll say it again because that’s how I feel, and that’s what makes it different. I’m not as witty as Kabitzin and issa nor as entertaining and funny as Hinano, Baka-Raptor, DS and lolikit though I try, from time to time But seriously, what the heck right? Right now there are so many jumbled thoughts on my mind, comments for much about every summer show I sampled. There are also other stuffs I want to fangurl about. And I’d like to think that the faithful readers of this blog would want to know them. *ahem* Amirite or not? Ok, no need to answer that.

In times like this, a little self-talk is good, something like “Have faith in your goddamn random babbles and thoughts, demmit!” So yeah, post length and whatsoever conventions be damned, I say. I’m just gonna blurb and whatsoever here, in a similar manner as my tweeting perhaps, but in a more “organized” manner. As much as I want to write more editorials, creative inspiration can sometimes be bleak, and I don’t really want to stop writing during those blogging lull moments, since I still want to share my thoughts on what I watch (and read or play even). So there, this is totally free-form blogging desu~! I’ve already said before that this blog is the extension of my soul, and by voicing out whatever thoughts I have, I still am abiding by that dogma. Blogging is a way for me to share my thoughts and feelings, and just being my thoughts alone is enough of a reason for me to post about it (and I once again remember a passage from Rilke’s book).

That said, I’m going to forget about blogging in MAL now, and perhaps the Asides too, since I don’t know what I’m gonna post there now .___. I feel more comfortable in spouting random blurbs on shows I’m watching and what I’m doing in twitter (or plurk, a much cooler 3D kind of twitter, though I think this one works best for more accustomed acquaintances and friends). What can be more convenient than being able to post twitter blurbs through your firefox status bar (or other more convenient means, depending on the twitter tool you’re using)! Now I can finally say that I found my NARITAI JIBUN, being a randomly raving rabbit I’m leaning towards the idea of turning the blog into a うさぎ友人帳 (usagi’s book of friends) or シェフ友人帳 or something

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2. Beyond the Blogging Crossroad II: The Woman on the Mirror
3. On The Excitement Over Eden of the East