This week's SQS is postponed for me to properly thank you guys.

I can never express enough thanks to everyone who reads my blog. 2009 was a pretty rough year for me and I'm just glad that I stuck through the hard parts and you still came back to read my posts.

Oh by the way, this blog is 2 years old already. Since November actually, but I was so busy that I never got around to posting about it.

2009 was the year I lost so much interest in Jpop (as compared to my previous extremes) that there were many times I just felt unqualified to blog about things. I was constantly outside the loop of things, not knowing anything had happened until several weeks after it happened (the most severe cases were Koda Kumi's murder threat and Kanjani 8's Kyu Jo Show! single), which prompted me to start Q4R.

Q4R was a crutch that I relied heavily on, and I still do. It's nice to have people inform me of the latest happenings in the Jpop world. But even that after a while seemed a little difficult at times to accomplish on a weekly basis. I'm one for originality, and it seemed my posts were gradually losing that as the days went by.

As you can tell, I am very very neurotic. xD But please, continue to update me on every single piece of news you think I'd be interested in, because you are my new news source. You are what is fueling my blog, my posts. 2009 couldn't have been without you.

2009 was also the year I fell in love with Kpop, a territory of sorts which I avoided like the plague because... it felt like betrayal. I felt like if I ventured into Kpop and feel in love with it that I would go against all that I was (I'm half-Japanese after all) and all that I stood for ("JPOP JPOP RAWR!" was all I chanted for weeks at a time on my blog). And indeed it was a decision that I'm not sure I'm happy about till this day. Sure, the music is great and the people are amazingly good-looking, but I'm not the kind who can juggle more than one passion at a time.

And so Kpop became my new love. Jpop became less important.

Though I must say, Jpop WAS boring in 2009, so it is not entirely my fault.

I had to work harder to maintain readership because blog trackers seem to love H!P or JE-centric blogs more. Mine was neither. There didn't seem to be a place for me anymore, which made me worry ever more about the quality of my posts.

Most of you have heard me whine about how hard a time I'm having to come up with posts. I like writing things that entertain people, but entertaining is not something easy to keep up all the time. No one is always funny. I had to be. It got tiring. I spent hours at a time finishing up posts. It was like a job.

I also stopped my vendetta of buying singles/albums. I stopped buying AAA releases altogether. I only bought 4 Jpop-related items in 2009 (8 if you count Big Bang's Japanese releases). I no longer had that to lord over anyone. Another part of me that died as the year progressed.

As strange as it may be, I don't discuss anything about my blog to any of my real-life friends. No one (except Angelia) even knows I have a blog. It's hard to keep my two identities separate. I always toyed with the idea of just abandoning this one, perhaps it would make life easier. But knowing that I made someone laugh, regardless of where they are, somehow pushed me to keep going, keep trying harder.

(If you're wondering, yes I AM a boring person in real life. Go ask Angelia.)

This post is seriously turning out more emo than I'd intended it to be. xD So all I'm really trying to say is I really appreciate you, for staying with me through a really hard year. Hopefully in 2010, whenever you read a post that's not entertaining, you'd still pretend to laugh to make me feel better.

I'll try harder for you in 2010. Please stay with me.

Have the best 2010 you can ever have. You deserve it for being such an amazing reader.

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