It’s been just over a year since I started this blog and to mark the occasion, I thought I would fess up and come clean about some things.
1. I lurk. A lot.
I follow a lot of blogs and I read and enjoy a lot of stuff. But my comments are few, and if you’re not on WordPress, the chances of me commenting on your post are close to nil. I’m too lazy to have to log-in with my details every single time just to comment. And I do have a Disqus account but damned if I can remember the password. If you’re on twitter, I will likely high-five you there instead of commenting! I will try and do better.
2. I get lazy
I have a gabillion half-written posts sitting in my drafts. I lose interest as fast as I get inspired, and then another episode calls out and I’m off watching instead of writing.
3. I’m green with envy
I marvel at the copious output of other bloggers who are far more gifted than I. How do people spin an entire post out of one photograph I will never understand. Me, I look at a still and go, oh that looks nice and move on. And how on earth do y’all write 5000+ words of glorious commentary I will never know either. Teach me!
4. I wish I had higher stats…
…but I’m not bothered enough to write more stuff that will generate page views. Whatever those are.
5. I wish my blog was prettier…
…but I’m not willing to learn how to make things pretty. I downloaded GIMP ages ago. Have I opened the damned thing?
6. I have a crappy blogging work ethic
See no. 2
7. I don’t like my blog name
I wish I had thought more about blogging before starting then I wouldn’t be in this mess. I started this on a whim with hardly no time thinking of a name or what I wanted out of this blog. Now, I want to change my name and it’s driving me up the wall trying to come up with something.
8. I don’t get social media
I have twitter and Facebook and tumblr, but hell if I know what to do with them.
9. I care too much about what others say
I angst more than I should about negative comments from complete strangers if it’s about a show that I like. If it’s a show I love, all hell breaks loose. I know intellectually that a diversity of opinions is a good thing, but in my heart I just want everyone to agree with me. And I rarely respond directly because I’m so passive aggressive. Unless you’re my friend in which case I’ll politely try and see where you’re coming from. If you’re not my friend, I silently judge you from afar. I’m not proud of this. At. All.
10. I still haven’t figured out WordPress
I just found out today that you can embed a tweet on WordPress by using the Add Media button instead of copying and pasting the code from twitter. Same goes for Youtube videos. SMH.
I have more but that’s enough ‘fessing for one day. Any of these sound familiar to you?
obsessive compulsive (k)drama-watching disorder 
OMG I love thisssss. All ten points are hilariousssss and I relate, totally. I’m thankfully not a WP noob much (…much being the keyword) but I have been here 7.5 years and well, if it takes me 7 years to learn just a portion of the know-how – you’re doing just fine 😉
Happy 1-year-ish anniversary and I love your blog! Love your URL too! Cheers to many more years of blogging 😀
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Heh thanks dear! I’m quite a dilettante by nature, I don’t really invest the time to fully explore something if I feel I’ve got enough of a handle on things & WP is a classic example. And lordy, I don’t even know whether I’ll still be blogging in 7 years. It boggles the mind! So the real kudos goes to you, not me, for staying the course for that long.
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I feel you on all points! I lol at #9 I think we all feel like that at some point! I don’t angst but I do kind of wish ppl share my view though I’m genuinely curious about different opinions too! especially if they are well expressed cause it sort of enhances my view of the show but, It hurts me when people mock
or hate something I love 😞 Happy anniversary! I luff you and your blog 😘
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I’m curious about other views as well, just as long as they’re not diametrically opposed to mine ahahaha. No but seriously, different views make things heaps more interesting. And if I haven’t made up my mind about something I’m open to anything. But if I have, I’ll need to be convinced and it’s just not very easy sometimes to convince me :D. And views change all the time too, which makes things even more interesting. I’m talking bout dramas right? Coz life is another matter. Or is it? I have no idea what I’m talking about, so just ignore me…
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Haha that’s totally hillarious! I just found your blog recently. Don’t worry, your blog is still awesome! Bye the way, I nod in agree to more than half of those confession list! ;p
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Welcome to the confession club and welcome to the blog Heidi! Looks like we’re all in the same boat XD
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But I LOVE the name of your blog! I think it’s clever and funny. But I do get what you mean because I have the same issue with my blog name. I want to change it but I have zero good ideas.
Actually, majority of the things you’ve listed here apply to my blogging habits as well. Especially the first three. Particularly no 2. I currently have 95 unfinished and unpublished posts. About 90% of those drafts are likely to remain drafts forever, the other 10% are reviews that I should have posted ages ago. Blogging is hard…
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Oh but I see nothing wrong with your blog name either! It’s descriptive and I immediately get what your blog’s about. 95 drafts? Ok, you get the award then for…having so many ideas for posts! That’s amazing. I struggle to come up with ideas and I guess reviews are the easiest thing in that sense, but they’re the hardest to write, at least for me. Yes, blogging is hard, and it’s something you don’t realise until you start doing it! Hwaiting to us all!
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I can totally agree, that’s like me right there in a nutshell! I think most people can agree with number one. I have been a lurker for a long long while and I still am. I blame the laziness in me for not commenting. Ahahaha. Oh yesss, and laziness! It takes me forever to write up a blogpost! Maybe that’s why we don’t get paid to blog, lol. I honestly do not understand how some people can churn out posts and posts of 1000s of words long one after the other *coughMsKoalacough*. And number 9 as well. In my mind I’m just all like agree with my thoughts will ya! Don’t mess with me and my dramas! 😛 Ahahaha~!
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I think if I were paid to do this while it would certainly give me a kick in the ass, might suck the joy out of it. Coz then I might start thinking of this as paid work instead of just work for pleasure or for fun. If that makes any sense. LOL, I was thinking of MsKoala too when I wrote that. I admire how she can write like, a THESIS on ONE still! How??
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Yeahh, that’s so true. Even though being paid pushes you to write, but it becomes work instead of a hobby and that could diminish the passion for dramas.
I know right!? And she even writes multiple 3000+ words recaps each day! How is that even possible! Plus, the ladies at DramaBeans too! How can they do that!?
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They’ve cloned themselves. Or they have typing monkeys. It’s the only explanation that fits.
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Lol. Fun post! 😀 I started my blog on a bit of a whim too, and didn’t think terribly hard on the blog name either. I’m pretty happy with the blog name, but sometimes I wish I’d chosen a screen name that’s easier to say. It’s not a huge deal and people have found ways around it, some shortening it to kfan or KFG. I’m not even sure what screen name I’d choose if I could choose all over again. I just picked kfangirl at first coz I’d been using that on some other sites on the rare occasion that I did comment, and that became kfangurl when WP told me kfangirl wasn’t available. Now I’m so used to being called kfangurl tho, that it’s kfangirl that sounds weird to me. And.. that was a long and unnecessary tangent! XD
I have a whole lot of drafts of half-reviews too, and they’re stacking up even I type this! I have hopes that at least some of these will get to see the light of day in the not toooo~ distant future! XD
Oh, and I’ve found that the stats go up exponentially the more posts you have.. each post just keeps collecting views as people google stuff, so as time goes by, and as you write more stuff, the stats will grow 🙂
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I think I use ‘gurl’ and ‘girl’ interchangeably? I think? Coz ‘girl’ seems more natural but I should be used to the ‘gurl’ by now, and I should get it right. It’s GURL. Ok, committed to memory 🙂
Yeah, I should really think more about my process. I’m not in the habit of working on multiple posts at a time, like chipping away at the block, since I seem to lose momentum that way. But it makes the most sense, especially if you don’t want to burn out (or so I hear).
Oh well, there’s no short cut except to just squeeze out that turd, I mean post 😛
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Ahaha!! I didn’t mean that I’ve got it all figured out, DDee! XD I mean, I wish I didn’t have a pile of half-written posts. I actually think it’s best if you focus on the one at hand and see it to the end. That’s probably way more productive! ^^ Now if only RL demands and our fickle attention spans didn’t mess with that! 😛
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Fickle, that’s me. But I kinda feel drained if I watch too many things at once, that’s probably coz I like to be engaged or absorbed with my dramas maybe a little too much.
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Loving this one! I can relate to all of them, especially #1, 2, 3, and 9. Glad to know that I’m not the only one with the #9 issue…probably it’s time for me to stop reading comments 😛 As for #3…I like to share magazine spreads but the only thing I keep saying is, “Okay, here’s someone looking hot for something something magazine. Drools.”
If there’s something I regret about blogging, it’s my username. Pfft, I should have changed it instead of causing so much trouble for people just to spell it correctly >.<
BTW, happy blog anniversary! Here's hoping that you'll stay for years to come! Let's continue to spazz on twitter too~! 😀
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HAHAHA “Here’s someone looking hot” is ALL you need to say. Isn’t a picture worth a thousand words? And it takes time to get good mag spreads too. Really, it all takes time.
About your username, really, all I need to see is your mustache. You can change the name but not the ‘stache, ok? XD. Thanks for the well wishes, from a pro like you, it means a lot.
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Okay, I’ll follow your advice! “Here’s a hot guy. Drool over him.” Hehehe! I don’t think I’ll change the ‘stache in the nearest time because I really like it, although it’s not related at all to my username~ 😉
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In your case, your ‘stache is so iconic that I think even if you change your name everyone will still know who you are!
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I too am a serial lurker, I can never think of anything clever or interesting enough to say!
My other problem is primarily frustration, I only use images covered by creative commons or similar licensing. I refuse to change this rule but it does sometimes mean my blog doesn’t look like I would like it to or have as many images as I would like to so I then throw my toys out of the pram for that post.
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Uh huh, that’s the other thing. I’ve erased entire comments when I thought I sounded like an incoherent fool. I marvel at folks who can come up with witty, insghtful comments at the drop of a hat when I’m mostly just capable of squeeing!. And there are times when I comment just to say hi and show some love and a high-five.
Hmm yes I can understand that. If someone has a reference for ethical blogging behaviour point the way please coz I have no idea what I’m doing half the time. Make that all the time.
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Agree, agree, agree. I wish these blogging sites on wordpress / blogspot would get as much fame as Dramabeans does, because they’re really worth it.
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Too, true! It’s also funny that I get some traffic thrown my way because people are looking from dramabeans recaps for a drama they aren’t covering and end up at my site instead. Must be a disappointment for them. Our writing styles are way different.
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Oh but surely you’re not under appreciated NeeNee?! Anyone who writes and recaps at the speed and consistency and the amount you do surely must get lots of love! And that’s on top of all the music you write about too! The length and breadth of what you cover astounds me.
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I think the one thing that I would like that AAA doesn’t get is comments (tho I have several blog friends who keep commenting alive), but I have learned that fewer people comment on recaps. At least on my site. But no, I am still amazed how my piddling little under 100 views a week has jumped to what it is over 4 years and I’m thankful for that.
I think the breadth of what I cover is due to starting the site not knowing what I was doing. It was an edict from work to learn how to use WordPress. I decided to learn it while blogging about something that interested me…Asian entertainment. From anime to manga to dramas to music. Though I do admit my friend nichan who has disappeared from AAA did most of the anime posts for me. And I tend to get scolded over the sheer length of my music playlists and posts, lol.
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Ahh I see. Actually, I’m least likely to comment on a recap as opposed to any other type of post, come to think of it. I can’t say why though. And who doesn’t love comments right? I do hope I’m around in four years to savour that feel of a jump in page views 🙂 Heh I have noticed your lengthy music posts yes, but why would anyone complain? Lengthy posts never bother me in the least! I’m quite in awe of them actually.
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Who wants to stick around for 2500-5000 words, I wonder? But mine always tend towards that length, lol. Live recaps are really bad as I write even more for those than for non-live recaps.
The comments were more towards narrowing down like a top 10 in music since the sheer amount is too hard to digest. When I did the 30 day challenges, I had such a hard time picking favorites that trying to choose a top anything for the month in music or elsewhere is too hard a challenge for me.
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Me! I’d happily read essays if there’s substance or if it’s entertaining. Like dramas, I don’t invest time on something I’m not likely to feel fulfilled by. So yes, I stick around if I get something out of it.
Heh yes I noticed that about your music playlists, they’re are voluminous but that’s the nature of passion, you can’t contain it 😀
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Yes indeed, there are many many awesome blogs that may not be as high profile as DB, but still get plenty of love too I feel. DB may never be surpassed though but there’s enough love out there for all of us 😀
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I wonder if a lot of dramabloggers have regrets over names? When I started mine I thought Asian Addicts Anonymous was a good thing. Lots of SPAM in relation to porn kept flooding in. Plus, if I want to abbreviate my name it turns into AAA which is either an insurance company or a Jpop group. I had been desperately considering changing it. One contributor was all for the change and churning out name ideas and another contributor was horrified by the idea I would even consider changing the name of my blog. It is what it is, although I always wonder if I should change it or not. It is my baby that I’ve been sporadically nurturing along for 4 years now. Hard to imagine it with another name.
I think everyone in the dramablogging sphere (and blogging sphere in general) can definitely understand these confessions. I have a hard enough time injecting comments into real life discussions, so I’m mostly a silent lurker on other people’s blogs, like yours, lol. Don’t worry about being witty necessarily and just give voice to your honest opinions in comments. I think that’s more natural than attempting wit.
My problem with dramas and blogging is I sometimes get ahead of recapping in the watching department and never bother to catch up. See all the dramas languishing incomplete. Plus, I have this itch. Even if I like a drama I have to stop watching it and move on to something else for awhile. Instead of wanderlust, I get dramahopping lust. It’s really weird. And yes, I can be totally lazy, too.
Loved this post and hearing all your confessions! Happy belated first birthday and many more 🙂
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LOL at porn spam. I can see how that could happen! But I LOVE your blog name. I think it’s catchy and memorable! It’s been four years and you still think of changing it?
I do understand your drama wanderlust since I can be a magpie but I have a bit of completist streak and I dislike dropping a show in general. But I’m willing to drop shows much earlier now than before so I don’t feel too invested enough to finish them.
Thanks for the wishes!
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Thinking being the operative word. I won’t ever change it in the long run, lol. Mostly because I could never think of anything better.
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Giggles. Sorry DDee, I started my blog on a whim too and after some point, I changed my blog url. It was tough. I lost my readers. Kfangurl knows it… for months, my stats were below 25 views daily. It was depressing but I bounced back!
As for you, ………………………………………. still pausing and shaking my head………………………………………. I’ll whip that azz (wait, you’re too skinny!) of yours next year! Need to get that #2 off your list! LOL
p/s: I feel ya, sista. Don’t lose hope.
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KAKAKAKA should I name my blog My Skinny Azz then??
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Your blog looks so pretty with Woobinnie gracing the top! How could you possibly think it isn’t?! Hahaha I really agree with some of your points. It sometimes is so hard to keep on the ball with writing about things that I watch, and when RL is too consuming I turn to comforting fluff to keep myself sane.
As with Kfangurl, I agree that stats should’t be the main reason to blog. If you have interesting and good content in your posts (which you do!), visitors and stats will build up over time. I love reading your weekly digests and reviews, so keep going 😀
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Woobie is undoubtedly pretty, and it’s thanks to the lovely Jamie the Drama Noona who made that banner for me that he’s here sprucing up the place!!
Heh, I couldn’t write to chase stats even if I wanted to! It seems to me you either have to be a) fast which means you read Hangul or b) you have something to say about whatever K-ent coughs up on a daily basis, or c) write recaps. None of which I have the ability, the skills or the inclination to do!
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GIMP is complicated to use; instead I would suggest paint.net if you’re a beginner. Picasa is also very simple to use if you just want to adjust the levels & use some simple effects. 😉
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I do use paint and other sites like picmonkey etc. I want to learn GIMP not just to spruce up the place but also to GIF! Which at this point, it comes down to a matter of spirit is willing but the flesh is weak 🙂
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Paint.net is different from Paint, btw. 😉
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What a fun read! And oh so true! The fact that you have this site is achievement enough Ddee. I’ve been trying to blog for a year, but the fact that I never got past a blog name I liked, I never get to making it public. Hahaha!
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For a year? Really? Don’t let a name stop you, just go for something simple like Kaiaraia’s Korner!! LOL.
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Awww and here I was wondering what I should do for my blog’s first anniversary. Lol I can relate to everything. Except maybe for the lurking part. I know how good it feels to get a comment, even if it’s just “thank you”, so I just say it. If I don’t, it’s probably because my English is failing me and I’m too tired to figure out a way to express myself, but that rarely happens.
I think the blog’s name is fine 🙂 it’s catchy and easy to remember. Anyway, happy anniversary!
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You too?! Happy Anniversary!! You’ve come a long way too, and I must say, your site looks increasingly spiffy. Are you planning to do anything to celebrate? I’m not done celebrating. I think I’ll continue to commemorate the moment a little while longer :P. Must seize the moment, dunno how long I’ll be around, right? Anything could happen!
Yes, I think my commenting has slowed down as well as I don’t hv as much time to read as much these days too. Oh, and your English has always sounded perfect to me.
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I’m still thinking about what I could to celebrate, but I’m kind of running out of ideas lol I’m focused on getting all the translations I want to be done before the end of summer, so I can start clean in september. o/
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Yes, maybe the best way to celebrate is to keep doing what you do best 🙂
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Congratulations on blogging for over a year!! I think we must have started around the same time-ish! 🙂
And sigh….. I am also such a big lurker! It is terrible….. 😦 I am so lazy for commenting but I am still alive, lurking around, enjoying everyone’s awesome blogs!! 🙂
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You too are a year old?! I thought you were far more experienced since you always sound so …experienced?. And I see you’re back to blogging regularly again, and writing fic at that! Bravo Popsies!!
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Thanks DDee, yeah I’m trying to be a bit more regular……we’ll see how long it lasts! 🙂 But I’m determined to see the story through to the end at least! 🙂 Also there are so many dramas out at the moment and coming soon!! I’m so excited!! I am mad keen on Joseon Gunman, I am just adoring it and think it is the best thing ever, and I just watched your preview for Nightwatchmen with Jung Il Woo too, can’t wait for that, I don’t even care if its bad, I just love sagueks so much!! And Yoo Inna is coming back as a lead in ‘Secret Hotel’ as well! So much to look forward to, I am so excited!! 🙂
(Sorry, what a rant!)
Love reading your blog as always !! 🙂
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Heh heh don’t be sorry for being excited! I watched the first two eps of Joseon Gunman and it was very good indeed so I’m looking forward to marathoning it soon. Speaking of sageuks I finished Chuno, and I’m desperate to start Tree With Deep Roots soon, just as soon as I finish clearing my backlog of reviews! Secret Hotel does sound kinda delicious and I hv all sorts of hopes for it too. Yes, lots of upcoming potential goodies, so lots to get excited for 🙂
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Love this!!! ❤
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Thanks for reading 🙂
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Happy belated! I’m with you and I just started. I am using the blog to help me be more disciplined in all aspects of my life.
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A very belated reply saying thanks for the well wishes! I hope the discipline thing is working out for ya, it sure isn’t doing much for me LOL
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