Celebrate with me! This is a double first for me: my first Year-In-Review, AND, my first guest post too! 😀

This guest post is especially close to my heart because how it came about is actually the origin story of this blog.

THE ORIGIN STORY

Up to about 2 months ago, I had been a persistent lurker in the kdrama-verse. For most of my six kdrama-watching years, I visited lots of blogs regularly and kept up with the k-entertainment news and lapped up other people’s views and reviews, but I almost never commented on anything. Once in a long while, I would leave a comment somewhere, but mostly only if I had something that I was just burning to say.

I’m an introvert at heart, though most people who know me in real life wouldn’t guess it, and this was my inner introvert acting out.

One day close to Thanksgiving, I encountered a moment where I did burn to say something.

It was on Stephanie’s blog Crazy for Kdrama, and she was asking for votes on which drama to marathon over Thanksgiving. One of the choices was Queen In-hyun’s Man, which was a show I really, really loved, and I decided that I just had to step out of the lurking closet to endorse the show.

And then some time later, Stephanie decided to embark on some serious marathoning to bump up her number of watched 2012 shows, and asked her readers for opinions and recommendations. I decided unlurking had been quite fun, and jumped in to give my 2 (or 5! or 10!) cents’ worth. One thing led to another, and Stephanie soon asked me if I’d be interested in doing a guest post for her 2012 Year-In-Review series.

I jumped at the chance to actually do a guest post. It all seemed so novel and cool, especially since I didn’t even have a blog yet at the time!

The more I thought about it, though, the more intrigued I was at the thought of what it might be like to actually have my own blog.

Stephanie’s invitation was the catalyst that caused various pieces of the puzzle to come together in my mind.

PIECES OF THE PUZZLE

I’ve kept a personal journal for quite a few years now, and among writing about all the other things in life, I do also journal my thoughts from watching kdrama. Sometimes I only journal my thoughts after completing a show, but often I will also put down my thoughts and reactions during the course of watching a show. I thought, why not share those drama thoughts with other drama lovers? That’s one big part of the puzzle.

Another piece was, I was inspired by one of my favorite reviewers, Dnoella at KDramaGuk. She is so witty, so engaging and so insightful! She’s on hiatus now, but I love her blog so much that I’m keeping it as a long-term feature on my blogroll.

It was because of her reviews that I found some dramas that I really loved, like Chuno and I Live in Cheongdamdong, and I wanted to create a blog in the same vein. Not a blog that keeps up with the k-entertainment news, coz I don’t have the time to keep up with writing on that very dynamic scene, but a blog that features reviews that would entertain others and perhaps help them make their drama decisions.

The last piece of the puzzle is, I enjoy writing, and always have, but in recent years, I hadn’t really written anything. Not too long ago, the writing bug bit me all over again. I had this inexplicable desire to write, and even started writing a children’s book. I’m still writing that book, but this blog is also a major outlet for me, to let that desire to write come to life.

POKING AROUND

I first started poking around in Blogger in early December, just to see what it would be like to have a blog. I put up reviews and tinkered with the settings, trying on two different templates to see what it was like, but neither template quite satisfied me.

In the end, I did some research and some experimenting, and I found that WordPress let me create my own Gong Yoo banner. YESS!! Well, I think it’s possible to do it on Blogger, too, but I didn’t know how, and I figured it out on WordPress first.

Two WordPress templates later, here we are.

SETTLED DOWN, FINALLY

You’ll have noticed that this blog is mostly reviews-driven, and occasionally I include a musings post when I’m inspired to write about something.

I believe that a good review has longevity – though “good” really is subjective! – coz not everyone watches the dramas right away when they’re first broadcast, and I hope that everyone who comes here will find a fair amount to enjoy on this blog.

Clearly, I’ve gotten very used to unlurking, and I’ve embraced the Kdrama-verse with gusto. I’m even on Twitter now; did you notice? 😉

This is, obviously, a brand new experience for me, and I’m learning a lot and meeting lots of really cool people in the virtual drama-verse who share a similar passion for kdramas and other related k-stuff. It’s been a whole lotta fun, and I sometimes wonder why I waited this long to jump in. But hey, I refuse to have any regrets, coz y’know, why waste (more) time? 😉

Also, thank you for your tremendous support for the blog! As I post this, this blog has had 1,155 views in just 25 days! That’s really pretty decent, right?? THANK YOU, for contributing to that! 😀

THE BIG REVEAL

Finally, without further ado, you can check out my historic, first guest post (WOOT!!) on Crazy for Kdrama (reuploaded here); the guest post that helped to spawn an entire blog..! 😀

Feel free to comment either here or there, I’ll check in on both ends 🙂

Love! ♥