I’ve been blogging slightly over a year and I would say it is now an integral part of my life.
Since sometime mid June last year, I’ve been posting on a regular basis. From Blogger, I’ve moved on to Blogsome and finally hosting on my own domain.
I blog because I have an ingrained fascination with the web. This is however, not my first online presence. I’ve set up a Jpop website sometime in 2000 known as Viva Japan. It was born out of a love of everything Japanese and more importantly, I wanted to use the website as a platform to enshrine my one and only Takuya Kimura.
This is how it looked originally. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a screen capture of the site back then and this is the only black and white printout I have in possession.
It was a world of glitzy Japanese pop culture where I wrote articles on celebrities, fashion trends, food, toys, gizmos, dramas, movies…Japanese entertainment of any kind. It was fairly popular back then and I had numerous visitors. Someone in Germany even paid me to write some articles after he visited my site.
I ran the site for about 2 years but shut it down eventually in 2002. I got pregnant, became lazy, and the site also became too expensive to maintain. In hindsight, I really should have saved some of those articles written. Oh well…
Then I came to know about blogging. But I was too preoccupied with baby minding to find time for this activity. I did register a site with Xanga, then Blogger but I just couldn’t think of an appropriate name then. So it was not until last year that I began.
Blogging is a creative outlet for me. I choose to blog anonymously cos it gives me more space. It is also for me to polish my writing skills, and this explains why I don’t blog in Singlish although I use a lot of it daily.
While I like to maintain a happy tone for my blog, I don’t always publish happy stuff though. It depends. And as the title says it all, this is a mishmash of happenings in my life.
Sour. Sweet. Bitter. Spicy.
Wow…i’m impressed by the viva japan site! *whistle*
I enjoy reading your blog, as your topics are always so interesting!
Keep writing and i’ll keep coming back for more.. 
Comment by Eileen — Thu, 1 Jun 2006 @ 5:37 pm
I enjoy reading your blog too! Keeps me coming back for more and yeah, I’m a sucker for blogs that doesn’t have too much Singlish, though a little makes it, erm, feel more like home.
BTW, you mean you did not save those articles you posted in Viva Japan? Or they can’t be saved? Curious IT idiot.
Comment by domestic rat — Thu, 1 Jun 2006 @ 7:13 pm
Wow your viva japan website looks really impressive! Such a pity.
Comment by fuzzoo — Thu, 1 Jun 2006 @ 9:12 pm
Your Viva Japan website looks really like a pro’s. You didn’t keep any of the article you’d posted? What a shame.
So you are a vateran on this web journal thingy yeah? Impressive!
I enjoy your blog too.. your post are always short and concise and they cover a variety of subject. Nice.
Comment by zara's mama — Thu, 1 Jun 2006 @ 10:18 pm
your site looked (and looks) really nice. i don’t think that i even knew about such things in 2000. you’re a trendsetter. glad i found you.
Comment by ally bean — Thu, 1 Jun 2006 @ 11:56 pm
wow, you really love your kimura so much! quite frankly, the only japanese actor (not counting Takeshi Kaneshiro) that I know was Yutaka and that was coz my sister’s infatuation for him.. though I have to say, I prefer Jap actors compared to Korean actors..
Comment by Erika — Fri, 2 Jun 2006 @ 12:45 am
I like your blog…sweet and sour tofu balls I like.
Blogging is a great hobby…it’s something you can share and put it out there to the public.
Comment by mrsmogul — Fri, 2 Jun 2006 @ 2:29 am
I love reading your blog, is like breakfast for me.
Comment by Ashleigh — Fri, 2 Jun 2006 @ 8:34 am
Wow, thanks everyone for being so supportive. This definitely brightens my day.
But please don’t be mistaken. I’m no pro in this. The Viva Japan site was built on a WYSIWYG platform. I know a little about Macromedia stuff but not good enough to develop a website from scratch. I think my strength is in content development.
DR: I didn’t save them. I just shut it down, left the database in an old drive which was later reformatted.
Erica: Ha, I like Yutaka Takenouchi too. Very handsome! Your sis got good taste!
Comment by sesame — Fri, 2 Jun 2006 @ 11:47 am
Viva Japan looks like a very cool website. Too bad you had to close it down. I also started a family website before I even got into blogging. It’s still up and running and don’t have any plans of closing it down, although I don’t update it quite as often. I also run my high school class website. Only update it when classmates submit new info and photos. It’s fun.
Comment by niceheart — Sun, 4 Jun 2006 @ 2:34 am
I like your blog because it has a nice mix of personal and general - I like mommy blogs, but I don’t like mommy blogs that only focus on being mommies.
Comment by Hsin — Sun, 4 Jun 2006 @ 11:41 pm
niceheart: good to know you also dabble with web publishing. I noticed that you have a few sites linked up on your blog but I haven’t checked them out yet.
Hsin: Thx. That means a lot to me coming from you. I enjoy reading your blog too.
Comment by sesame — Mon, 5 Jun 2006 @ 9:05 am