So, like the headline states: Happy 2013 to you and yours! Let's hope everyone who reds this is healthy and happy and gets rich.
I suppose we are all happy in the things that count - whatever that means - but I sure would like more money.
Just a quick note on the blog, and then you can go back to nursing your hangover. Never had one, but I hear they are nasty... chalk that up to either an incredible immune system or luck of the genes, because I have certainly tied one on on quite a few occasions, though nothing in the past 12 years. Though I think I was drunk for a few days in 2011. In a row. Dark times. Glad that year is over. Glad 2012 is, too. Very little good came from it. Except for a few more friends. So what am I bitching about? Nothing.
The blog:
January of 2012 saw this blog hit 17,078 hits a month. As of the end of December, we are at (as of this writing at 1:30PM on the 31st) at 53,111 hits. That's about 8,000 more hits than November, so I am more than pleased at the response I have received.
As a writer, there is nothing better than ego-feeding. As a man, too, I suppose. So... thank-you very much for your continued support.
It is odd for a guy now living in Toronto, Canada some 20 years removed from his last visit to Japan to still be writing about Japan. My wife doesn't understand and thinks it's because I love it more than my life now. Silly. I love all aspects of my life, but it's just that to someone NOT from Japan, it was and is a place of many mysteries.
People who know me know I love mysteries. I don't ever want to have the mystery resolved otherwise I wouldn't have a mystery.
My own life in Toronto now is more serene... and is simply the mystery of how to ensure my son survives another day to grow up to ponder his life's own mysteries. It's as simple as that. If that means fewer adventures for me... well... that's what this blog is about.
As much as it is a way to discover more about Japan, it's about me delving into mysteries. I guess I crave knowledge.
They say that knowledge is power, though I have yet to figure out who 'they' are. And what do I do with this knowledge? Share it, I guess.
As you may or may not know, I am now working four blogs... three regularly. None for profit, and all for fun. Obviously I'd prefer a different way to to spend my time, but man can only ponder his navel for so long.
It's funny... although 12 years ago I was ghost writing magazine stories for the lottery... some six stories a month, I never considered myself as a writer then. It was only then that I also began writing comic book scripts... putting out my own comic with friends met at a comic book convention in Chicago, that I began to think of myself as a writer. And, really only eight years ago when I got a job as a magazine editor did I finally get the title of someone involved as a writer...
Which brings me back to this blog... 3-1/2 years... 1,624 articles with this entry. That's a lot of words. That's because of people like you who come back and read what I have written. I would have stopped a long time ago if I didn't get any feedback. And even though many choose not to write a LOC (letter of comment), the continued number of hits from around the world makes me feel... well, good about myself in this big blue marble.
We have readers from the US, Canada, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the UK, India, Germany, France, Philippines, Brunei, Denmark, Afghanistan, New Zealand, everywhere in Central and South America, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, even Africa (mostly South Africa). I know I even have people in China who want to read, but the blog is blocked there. That in itself is cool. I have a subversive blog! Nothing from Antarctica, though. Stupid penguins.
Over 50,000 hits a month. That's incredible to me. I had a total of 4,700 hits that first six months of 2009 when I started... and I thought that was way cool.
Look... I write about what I want to write about, which means my ego is huge. But it's not so huge that I can't take some direction from the reader.
Is there something you would like me to write about? Is there something you think other readers might like to know? I've begged my pal Matthew to write a blog about anything... hint-hint. Charlie... feel free, my friend! Michael Power... go for it. Three guys who know more about Japan than I do, to be sure.
Thanks, as always to Caroline, Morgana, Colette, Kristine, Cathy, Matthew, Michael, Mike, Jimbo, Paul for their contributions... whether they meant to or not. And to Rob and Caroline in particular for having read every single one of these blogs. Every single stinking one of them. wow.
Cheers and Happy New Year!
Now... back to work.
Andrew Joseph
I suppose we are all happy in the things that count - whatever that means - but I sure would like more money.
Just a quick note on the blog, and then you can go back to nursing your hangover. Never had one, but I hear they are nasty... chalk that up to either an incredible immune system or luck of the genes, because I have certainly tied one on on quite a few occasions, though nothing in the past 12 years. Though I think I was drunk for a few days in 2011. In a row. Dark times. Glad that year is over. Glad 2012 is, too. Very little good came from it. Except for a few more friends. So what am I bitching about? Nothing.
The blog:
January of 2012 saw this blog hit 17,078 hits a month. As of the end of December, we are at (as of this writing at 1:30PM on the 31st) at 53,111 hits. That's about 8,000 more hits than November, so I am more than pleased at the response I have received.
As a writer, there is nothing better than ego-feeding. As a man, too, I suppose. So... thank-you very much for your continued support.
It is odd for a guy now living in Toronto, Canada some 20 years removed from his last visit to Japan to still be writing about Japan. My wife doesn't understand and thinks it's because I love it more than my life now. Silly. I love all aspects of my life, but it's just that to someone NOT from Japan, it was and is a place of many mysteries.
People who know me know I love mysteries. I don't ever want to have the mystery resolved otherwise I wouldn't have a mystery.
My own life in Toronto now is more serene... and is simply the mystery of how to ensure my son survives another day to grow up to ponder his life's own mysteries. It's as simple as that. If that means fewer adventures for me... well... that's what this blog is about.
As much as it is a way to discover more about Japan, it's about me delving into mysteries. I guess I crave knowledge.
They say that knowledge is power, though I have yet to figure out who 'they' are. And what do I do with this knowledge? Share it, I guess.
As you may or may not know, I am now working four blogs... three regularly. None for profit, and all for fun. Obviously I'd prefer a different way to to spend my time, but man can only ponder his navel for so long.
It's funny... although 12 years ago I was ghost writing magazine stories for the lottery... some six stories a month, I never considered myself as a writer then. It was only then that I also began writing comic book scripts... putting out my own comic with friends met at a comic book convention in Chicago, that I began to think of myself as a writer. And, really only eight years ago when I got a job as a magazine editor did I finally get the title of someone involved as a writer...
Which brings me back to this blog... 3-1/2 years... 1,624 articles with this entry. That's a lot of words. That's because of people like you who come back and read what I have written. I would have stopped a long time ago if I didn't get any feedback. And even though many choose not to write a LOC (letter of comment), the continued number of hits from around the world makes me feel... well, good about myself in this big blue marble.
We have readers from the US, Canada, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the UK, India, Germany, France, Philippines, Brunei, Denmark, Afghanistan, New Zealand, everywhere in Central and South America, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, even Africa (mostly South Africa). I know I even have people in China who want to read, but the blog is blocked there. That in itself is cool. I have a subversive blog! Nothing from Antarctica, though. Stupid penguins.
Over 50,000 hits a month. That's incredible to me. I had a total of 4,700 hits that first six months of 2009 when I started... and I thought that was way cool.
Look... I write about what I want to write about, which means my ego is huge. But it's not so huge that I can't take some direction from the reader.
Is there something you would like me to write about? Is there something you think other readers might like to know? I've begged my pal Matthew to write a blog about anything... hint-hint. Charlie... feel free, my friend! Michael Power... go for it. Three guys who know more about Japan than I do, to be sure.
Thanks, as always to Caroline, Morgana, Colette, Kristine, Cathy, Matthew, Michael, Mike, Jimbo, Paul for their contributions... whether they meant to or not. And to Rob and Caroline in particular for having read every single one of these blogs. Every single stinking one of them. wow.
Cheers and Happy New Year!
Now... back to work.
Andrew Joseph
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