Random Curiosity - 1056 (END…?) August 21
Back when I had surgery in mid-June, I had taken a few days off from blogging even after I had gotten back from the hospital. During those days, I thought a lot about what I was doing and the future of this site. It was a struggle about whether or not continuing to write was worth the time and effort.
Taking my personal life out of the equation for a second, I have to explain that for me, running a site like this has had its ups and downs. On one hand, I love introducing people to the latest and greatest bleeding-edge stuff. I’ve always said that my favorite times of the year are at the beginnings and ends of seasons. Finales are exciting because they are the culmination of so much time and emotion invested into a series, but even more exciting for me is exploring new shows and then being able to share my thoughts with a community of people. And aside from anime, I also love talking about the newest music videos or whatever crazy thing the Japanese variety shows are airing.
On the other hand, however, blogging does take a lot of time. The advice I always give to new bloggers is to not write summaries unless you’re really really motivated because there’s nothing that will kill your interest faster in blogging than that. For me personally, I didn’t mind so much because I was both highly motivated and I had plenty of time to kill. But just like everything else, there were times when I hated writing summaries (such as almost every week of Fate/stay night) and times when I just couldn’t write them fast enough because of how much I wanted to tell people what happened (the latter half of Mai-Otome is a good example of this).
However, I’m at a point now that I don’t have quite as much motivation and I definitely don’t have much time. In those days after I had my surgery, I had decided not to stop and instead to continue blogging until I went back to school. Well, today is finally that day - the first day of my final year of college. I have a lot of work ahead of me, especially since I’m going to be applying for graduate school soon. Still, that alone wouldn’t have stopped me. The truth is that I really just feel like I need to take a break from blogging. I’ve felt this way for a while now and the school factor is what made that day today.
Does this mean that I’m quitting for good? Probably not. I’ve been blogging for some four years now (not all on this site), and so I can say with almost 100% certainty that I’ll be back to doing it again eventually. But how long that “eventually” turns out to be, I don’t know. It could be a week, it could be a month, or it could be a year. I also don’t know if I’ll come back to this site, some new anime site, or even a site on a completely different topic.
What I do know is that Random Curiosity is the most successful site I’ve ever created. To put it in numbers, I’ve written 1056 posts which have gotten a total of 19,680 comments. This site averages about 18,800 visits/51,000 page views per day, and during this past July, it logged around 147,000 unique visitors, amounting to over 300GB of bandwidth used during that period. It’s thanks to Maestro that this site exists with AnimeBlogger’s free hosting, and it’s thanks to the support of the community and thanks to readers like you that this site became this popular.
In closing, I have to say that while writing this entry, I felt the urge to scrap the entire post and rethink all of this at least three times. But for now, I really am going to take a break. And so, to each and every one of you who reads and relies on this site, I’m sorry. Who knows, maybe I’ll find myself longing to blog again when next season starts or maybe even sooner, but there’s no way I can guarantee that.
All I can say now is つづく…? (To Be Continued…?)
Cyprus at 3:50 am on August 21st, 2006
Well, good luck with life and such.
Kevin at 3:50 am on August 21st, 2006
You’ve done a great deal for me in terms of influencing what anime I decide to watch. You definitely have full and detailed reviews of anime episodes. If this is truly the end, then I wish the best of luck to you. I will certainly miss having an anime guide although I think I should start making decisions for myself :p Thanks for everything up to now.
Pakxenon at 3:53 am on August 21st, 2006
Omg nuuuuu my #1 anime blog site I visit everytime I go on the Internet. X(
Well, I suppose you could do what some other bloggers are doing: season preview and first episode impressions. Also, the summaries could be a little shorter.
In any case, this site was VERY successful (holy crap 3.7 million hits). Cheers to your life and school.
Paracelsus at 3:55 am on August 21st, 2006
Good luck with real life. Your blogs were the best.
Astasia at 3:58 am on August 21st, 2006
Hi! I understand your thought…what i can say it’s that you site is a point of reference for me…I like the grafics…the content and the anime of course… ^_-and your way to present them to us…
and now that i ‘ve decided to open a mine blog and add your site on my blog roll …i “arrive” here and read your post… ;_;
I’m very sad…but what it’s important is what you want to do with your time…
I will hope to read you again…soon or later…
Bye bye and thanks for your great blog!
Astasia
p.s.
Sorry for my english!!!!
Shiro at 3:59 am on August 21st, 2006
Good luck! T___T Your blog helped me a lot.. Thanks!
shadowWizz at 4:11 am on August 21st, 2006
I’m going to lose my source of great reviews… T_T
Hope you would come back and blog when you are free or have the time. ^_^
I’m sure going to miss your great reviews, hope you will be successful in your future endeavors.
Per at 4:14 am on August 21st, 2006
Back when I found this site, I hadn’t even heard of anime blogging, let alone blogging, but since I did find it, I’ve never bothered looking for others. It might just be coincidence, but this site’s always been blogging the series I’d been watching and introduced me to quite a few I hadn’t, not only due to the massive amount of screencaps, but also summaries and impressions and your sheer dedication. For such I thank you, and good luck with school and life in general indeed.
qin at 4:14 am on August 21st, 2006
Good luck with everything!
hope you come back…
eventually…
ceecee at 4:15 am on August 21st, 2006
Will be miss your blog heaps! Your site was great for all those episodes that I wanted to watch but had no subs! Thanks for the great work you’ve done so far and I hope that you’ll do well in school! Good luck!!
rebecca at 4:16 am on August 21st, 2006
i’ll miss you so much! you were the one that turned me on to hana yori dango my all time favourite j-drama. miss you so much already. well good luck with everything.
By at 4:20 am on August 21st, 2006
best blog ever, I willll really miss you =( I wish you the bets of luck with your life and let it rumble in that school of yours
Kurogane at 4:33 am on August 21st, 2006
Well, it’s sad to see you going off Omni, but it has been a nice time.
Good luck with yout life and studies :). You’re always welcome to come back to blogging ;).
Typer at 4:35 am on August 21st, 2006
Things like this happen eventually, can’t be helped. Thanks for keeping me updated. Goodluck in life.
If you ever get back to blogging, you could just post pictures and a few points on the main events. Since that’s what i come here for.
Cheers.
Stripey at 4:37 am on August 21st, 2006
You have done a FANTASTIC job and pls don’t be apologetic for taking a well deserved break. The anime blog community will no doubt be shaken with the loss of a vital pillar but will continue to draw on your examplary dedication and consistency in reporting anime to grow.
I really hope you be back but even more so, I hope you’d be well in life. So take care and keep that flame for anime burning bright.
See you around.
golthin at 4:37 am on August 21st, 2006
I am sorry to see you quit, but all good things must sometime end. It is like a good anime, you enjoy it while it last but you know that some day it will end. I thank you for all the time you spent writing your summaries. I always look foward to read your summaries to get anything I missed, It helps a lot even when you know some Japanese . I wish you the best luck with your studies and hopefully you get the time and motivation to come back. Ja ne!
kurodarei at 4:41 am on August 21st, 2006
Just wanna tell u that u deserved the break! Thanks for all the info on the animes and all the best
I will always visit this site in the future hoping to see u blog again..;)
paiser at 4:42 am on August 21st, 2006
damn dood im going back to the army and ur leavin too T,T i hope u come back to this bloggin site man dont go to another UR SO POPULAR AND WE LOVE U!
Sanjiyan Unkara at 4:54 am on August 21st, 2006
I visit here at least once each day. I shall miss your site greatly. Good luck with your application to graduate school and your final year as an undergraduate.
Hagges01 at 4:57 am on August 21st, 2006
man….that’s quite
I’ll miss your blogging…-_-, don’t say goodbye, just see you around
as soon as you be rigth call us back XD
btw, quite nice job….you really got potencial…..^_^