The 1st Anniversary...一週年...一周年...

Kinkakuji 金 閣 寺 in snow in Kyoto....taken by my friend who went to Japan this Jan...it was so beautiful with the snow and everything( i went in Spring) i decided to post it here...my blog did start in Japan so its appropriate too i guess....
UPDATE 16/5/06: Some readers have been asking for updates...but i am currently VERY BUSY as EXAMS are coming...so it will have to wait till after my exams in June....coming posts will include the Chinese century, my thoughts on homosexuality, a stranger coming out to me (*GASP*i know!),and getting to know this really nice guy (who's Tongzhi by the way) whom i actually met 2 yrs ago and recently re-intro in quite special circumstances (by another nice guy WK) ....hope u guys will wait for my posts and not like stop visiting my blog (I HOPE NOT!!) and special thanks for the support shown by the Tongzhi blogging community, thank you so much guys:)
I started this blog of mine exactly one year and a day ago in Tokyo, Japan...i had started it cos at the time, i was in exchange at Japan and so obviously when u are in a foreign land on language exchange, there is just more interesting things to experience and alot of things to blog about....and after i came back to Melbourne, i decided to continue my blog as i thought it was a nice personal space for me to just write topics of my interest and share it with the millions around the world....i initially wrote more about issues of my interest instead of my daily life but gradually i wrote more and more about my life and recently i have also changed the style to include just abit more personal stuff...as i felt it was somewhat ironic for me to call this blog 'a personal blog' if i did not reveal anything personal...i have gradually included more personal things like love, etc...post about gay issues have also increased although i initially did not want to post too much about it in deference to my other readers who may not feel comfortable with it..overall, i hope my readers like the more personal approach now....however i will not include personal stuff in general as i am simply not the kind of person to reveal all to a world of strangers...really personal stuff, for me at least, are to share with friends and not with bloggers or strangers...so i hope people will not get the misconception that i lead such a great and fantastic life from my blog as i can tell my readers now that i censor alot of things i write and ALL negative things about my life do not make it into my blog...so only the positive side of my life is emphasized ...i hope readers will understand...
Milestones of my Blog:
I started out not knowing much about blogging and not a person who visited blogs. But after having my own blog i started visiting other blogs too...there have been a number of milestones in my blogging life in this one year...
I had no links when i first started and did not know how to get linked so i emailed ppl asking them to link me, some were extremely rude and didn't bother a reply and some replied saying they would but didn't...however i now realise it was the wrong approach as ppl should link u only if they feel like it and i personally now also dislike bloggers who advertise on my blog or use my links to advertise on other ppl's blogs....gradually other bloggers started to link to me without me asking and to date i have been linked by Korea-related blogs, Malaysian gay blogs, Chinese-related blogs and even a Portugese blog i think! I credit this to the fact that my blog cannot be defined as within any category and the breadth of my post on a range of issues widens the scope of my readers....for instance i get alot of readers who are interested in korean stuff, gay stuff (an academic quoted by the Japan Times left a comment!), women's rights, chinese studies, the qi pao chinese dress (actually an author of a book on the chinese dress once left a comment!),etc...

Some of my posts have also been publicised on other blogs and forums such as a review of a Japan Times article on Global Voices online, two posts on qi pao and WW2 on Frog Under the Well Blogs' Asian History Carnival and a post on Taiwanese TV shows on East Cathay.

I would like to extend special credit and thanks to the Plunge who was the first and only blogger who actually wrote a post especially recommending his readers to read my blog and he also wrote another post again directing readers to a post i had about gays in korea..his post and links brought alot of readers over as i could tell by the counter i have...i got alot of korea-bashers actually but they seem to have given up posting ridiculous comments which at one point reached 40 over comments making my blog somewhat of a 'celebrity blog'...there were alot of nice ones too, if u still read my blog korea-interest readers, do leave a comment!!

Another special mention goes to Ooby whose link has also brought in alot of readers from the malaysian chinese-speaking blogging sphere, as alot of people visit his blog, i also noticed in my counter that all of a sudden my click rate increased and comments from the chinese-speaking world also increased...and also thank you Ooby for saying that my Chinese name was a nice
name as you have been the first person to say that which touched me(especially the part u wrote about us exchanging names reminded me of this Korean love story!). However i know Ooby probably said that as he mistook me for another blogger and he was prob touched by the other blogger's emotional post about love,etc...and NOT mine But i am touched nonetheless
note that i DO NOT use my Chinese name at all in real life and only my family and taiwanese side of the family would know my Chinese name which is why i have included it on my blog!

I would also like to mention about this one reader who was like THE most loyal reader i had...sadly he is no longer visiting i presume....we had much in common, being malaysians, law students, same law faculty in the same university, and other crucial aspects too and i was overjoyed to find that a fellow law student had come across my blog...i wanted to know him better as i wanted a Tongzhi law friend (i am sooo jealous of alexander and his roommate!) in law school, someone to check out the nice cute boys in the law library whilst we were studying together,u know it would have been nice, however, he did not feel the same and avoided me big time when i asked simply stuff like email or even just which part of malaysia he was from? (i mean isn't that like a normal question?) He refused to give any details as if i was gonna go hunt him down or something....but although i was angry at why a person whom i shared so much in common with whom did not even know how i looked like would go to such length to avoid me, i guess i was more sad and hurt than anything else cos it reflected upon me as a person. That i was such an unworthy person for him to avoid me like this. I guess maybe he felt I had other intentions eg; wanted him as my prospective boyfriend or something (ok to be frank, i had imagined what would happen if he turned out to be this unbelievably good looking, kind, smart, perfect guy...even then i would NEVER have asked for anything more if i felt the feeling was not mutual, i would have kept the friendship and suppressed my feelings) i only wanted a Tongzhi friend in law school...was it too much to ask? ...sigh....oh yeah, forgot to say why i still think he was my no 1 loyal reader cos till now, only he checked my blog almost daily DESPITE me not updating like for weeks and weeks, when i updated, within 24hrs, he would leave a comment ...he checked so often that i was surprised...but then he didn't want to meet me...
可 是 我 已 經 盡 了 我 能 力 了 ﹐ 人 與 人 真 的 是 需 要 把 握 機 會 ﹐ 珍 惜 緣 份 ﹐ 單 靠 緣 是 不 夠 的 。 我 一 方 面 的 把 握 也 是 不 夠 的 ﹐ 他 把我 們 的 緣 分 切 斷 ﹐ 我 除 了 感 到 傷 痛 ﹐ 遺 憾 ﹐ 真 的 什 麼 也 做 不 了 。 如 果 你 還 有 來 我 這 而 看 得 懂 中 文 ﹐ 我 只 想 說 : 如 果 你 改 變 主 意 ﹐ 我 依 然 在 這 等 著 你 。
I have met alot of friends here as well not least CK and my GHB amongst others...thanks for ur friendship and i hope u will understand that i have been busy recently and cannot spend as much time talking to u guys as i would like to...well my GHB is surrounded by so many cute hunky guys, not least his recent cute work colleague!!,i am sure he is keeping himself busy,hehehe...
Also a BIG THANK YOU to all those who have left comments on my blog, i really appreciate it...it is a wonderful feeling to know that someone reads ur blog and likes it enough to comment...(frequent past+present commenters whom i would like to thank are: prinzJ, joshua, mr nasty, goku, lawboycool, executorlouis, xavier, ooby, plunge, alex, the searcher, 滑翔翼,daniel, kimcafe, DMNK, paul, ca va, harvey and many others... apologies if i forgot to mention u!!) another milestone is that the no of ppl viewing my blog profile passed the 1000 visits mark by May 1st, which is a great celebration for my 1st blog anniversary...so if you visit but do not leave comments, leave a comment, it will make me happy and introduces me to ur blog too!

Finally, in celebration of my 1st Blog Anniversary, i will from today onwards for 2 weeks or so, put out an open invitation for my readers to get to know me more...you can leave your email,MSN,etc OR your blog in my comment section and just state you would like to contact me. This is the best opportunity to get to know me better (not that i am important or anything)given that i do not write much personal stuff in my blog...of cos, normally i would still be happy to get to know u but during this period i will basically reply ALL requests, emails,etc....

And thanks once again to all those who've taken the time to visit my blog and entered into one person's story amongst the billions of stories out there in this world...i hope that this blog will continue to its 2nd anniversary....who knows?....thank you...