Things you never cared to read about.
What is this, a month belated? No one cares? Too bad. I don’t care about you. No, really I do, please stay and read some more.
A month ago, probably more - I honestly can’t be bothered to find the exact post – broomhead of True Life Seek posted a survey for bloggers to fill out. You may notice that though he has me linked on his blogroll, I haven’t really reciprocated the favor. Yet. I probably ought to update that sidebar sometime. (Though there is more than a slight suspicion that I’m on there only because I’m linked on iWota. Yes, I went there.) I wasn’t originally planning on responding to it, though it popped up around the same time I returned to this blog, but it makes for a quick filler when I’m still trying to adapt my mind to the fact that yes, I will be sludging through a KAT-TUN single. Also, I’m filling this out at 3AM in the morning after 5 hours of laser tag, not that it was necessary information, but I used Nino’s Gimmick Game to help pace me through. I also failed spectacularly.
Goals:
* Why do you blog?
I think it started as a response to a bunch of other blogs around at the time. Before International Wota, just around the start of the Sunday Blog Roundup. I watched the video for w-inds.’ BOOGIE WOOGIE 66 and hated it – and thought the world should know. I also wanted to promote AAA as much as possible, likely most successfully in the form of a download blog. And so let it beat! was started in September 2006 as an outlet for both these desires – a download blog with as full-fleshed reviews and I could possibly pull out of my butt. Not that anything was written until November of that same year.
Somewhere along the way, I realized there was a bunch more I wanted to write about, and did. Also somewhere along the way, probably after that first somewhere, Ray decided he liked my writing, and began to link to it. After let it beat! died because of its download status, I’d started this one to continue spreading my so-called gospel. Things happened, and now this feels like more of an obligation, I admit.
* What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish, if any at all?
Perhaps the spreading of whatever my major fandoms are at whatever periods I’m writing about them. In the case of Arashi, it’s an attempt at reviewing and enjoying their music without letting my love for their personalities fog up the facts – a way of showing that not all fangirls are heavily biased and unintelligent though I may stray in that direction. In the case of AAA, it’s perhaps a peacock performance – I’ve been a fan of the group since 2005, and this is a sad attempt to establish my place in the fandom. And overall, this blog has always been a way to get me to listen to music and perhaps become a potential job doing what I love.
* Where does your blog fail to meet your goals?
I have been getting considerably less objective towards Arashi. Perhaps the only reason why anyone recognizes me as an AAA fan is my 3-part report on their presence at Otakon. And there are times when I put off listening to/watching things just because I know if/when I do, I will want to review it here.
* If you do have goals, what will accomplishing them do for yourself?
Short of an ego boost, and perhaps a wider knowledge of Japanese pop, absolutely nothing. Perhaps they’ll help me in some obscure manner that occurs as I go through the process of achieving them, but the goals themselves are happily useless.
* What do you want to gain out of blogging? A creative outlet? Praise from others? Personal satisfaction? Money?
Praise from others is nice. (Though I shoot it down just as quickly.) Money would make me amazingly happy, and be an even better motivator. Also see: Free stuff from specific companies, fame, potential possibilities to meet beloved celebrities, maybe even a chance to become an idol. But in the end I blog for the same reason I always have – because there’s no way you can put me in front of a keyboard and not have me ramble somewhere. (I guess you might interpret it as both a creative outlet and personal satisfaction.)
* Do you feel that your blog should meet a requirement for amount of entries? Do you feel any particular entry should be a certain length?
Because I sit and type and type and type and then type some more, though sometimes with day-long breaks in between periods of typing, I feel like a post should be long or else it doesn’t seem very Kimitsu-like. I feel like I should have to scroll through an entry of mine, even if it’s only a quarter of the page more. (More often than not, I deliberately use screencaps to help me lengthen an entry.) And perhaps there’s a subconcious thought that any post should contain at least three paragraphs (regardless of paragraph length), thanks to the essay formats beaten into me throughout elementary and middle school.
* For any particular entry, what motivates you to start and finish blog posts?
The stupidest things can motivate me to start blog posts. A minute of a song on an album, a second-long observation and comparison between my sister and I, the absolute basic concept of a game, an intended response to another post. The unfortunate downside is that I lack motivation to finish – and my low attention span isn’t any better at helping the situation. (All of the aforementioned post topics have been sitting on a back burner for a year now.)
* Do you actively consider long term goals for each individual post?
Perhaps again because of my low attention span, the point of each post becomes my feelings, my thoughts at that individual moment. There are many times when I go back and wonder what I was thinking as I wrote what I did, but long term just doesn’t matter to me, even when I’m making a post asking for change.
Subject Material:
* What do you blog about?
Japanese pop culture as a whole was my original plan – and it’s still my plan. Music is just the easiest subject, followed by dramas and movies, but variety shows, books, games, and food are all still in my ideas for post topics. Within the realm of music, it tends to be whatever I like and am listening to – because there’s just no fun in posting “I hate this” over and over about anything or forcing myself to listening to something I don’t enjoy. As of 5 months ago, that has steadily become a lot of things that fall under the “Johnny’s” categoru.
* Would you be keeping a blog even if it wasn’t about the subjects you tend to cover?
You mean, not Johnny’s? Not music? Perhaps. I think of a blog as a way of sharing opinions – though I don’t have especially strong ones on anything. Sometimes fun anecdotes happen to me and I want to share them, and that’s probably the only reason I still have a personal blog somewhere (that gets updated… once every three months). If we had me focusing on snacks or videogames, both subjects I don’t tend to cover here, I might still continue. But if we switched the topic to politics and hardcore technology, there would be no point in me running my mouth.
* Do you write about the material to promote it to others?
Yes and no. It depends on the creator/performer and how much I like the material in question. More often than not, a thought springs to mind regarding the material and the post is built around showcasing that thought.
Readership:
* How much do you care about readership?
I want to say “a lot”. But if I did I’d probably be posting regularly again, wouldn’t I? Readers are important to me in that I think it’d be pointless at this stage for me to blog if no one was reading. By knowing I have readers, I know I have an audience and when I have an audience, the automatic reaction is to satisfy.
* Does it satisfy you to know people are reading, even if they don’t comment?
Not so much. I know people are stopping by this blog daily, but because I also have things like lyrics on here, I know they’re here to use me as a reference rather than as a source of entertainment. Even if I don’t get constant comments, though, the occasional comment here and there does satisfy me.
* What effect does receiving a comment have on you?
I brighten up. Though not literally. It’s always nice to know that what I wrote provoked a response, whether agreeing or dissenting. I usually fail to reply to comments, but they give me an idea of how some of my readers think about what I’m writing, and I sometimes adjust to reflect that.
* Do you write with a particular audience in mind or an unspecified general audience? Why?
I always mentally acknowledge that there are certain people who have my blog in their feeds, or that I may get linked on International Wota, and make note of that within the post. For the most part, I write so that anyone interested in the subject of my blog can stumble upon and enjoy it. So in a way, the specifics is based on the subject.
* If you write for a particular audience, is it International Wota? If yes, why?
No. Because, frankly, I continue to see International Wota as an H!P crowd – even if more regular pop and Perfume fans are popping out of the woodwork daily – and that continues to make up the greatest percentage of their readers along with being the main subjects of a greater percentage of linked blogs. I’ll acknowledge that probably most of my readers have hopped over from there, but I don’t expect them to be my main audience.
Community: (The International Wota section)
* If International Wota didn’t exist, would you blog?
Since I started blogging before iWota, Feed of Pop, and even the regular installents of Sunday Blog Roundup… yes. To a great extent though, the desire to blog was inspired by people like Santos (or the blogger formerly known as him), pengie, Thea, and of course, Ray.
* When IW covers an entry of yours, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
Neither. It is an honor, in its way, that my entry is considered interesting enough to be mentioned. Since I think most of my IW readers are people who’d check my blog anyways – being the contributors – it doesn’t have much of an impact on me.
* When IW does not cover an entry, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
Again, neither. If I think it’s an especially good entry (such as with my review of m-flo’s COSMICOLOR album), then I’ll be curious as to why, but it doesn’t effect my own blogging schedule.
* How often do you read other blogs?
It used to be daily, dropped to once a week, then once a month, and now it’s around twice a week if I’m actively blogging. This only refers to blogs on Japanese music/dramas/what have you, of course. If we talk about food blogs, that’s daily.
* How often do you comment on other blogs?
Only when I feel I have something I absolutely must say, or as a courtesy if they’re responding to something I wrote about. Which, of course, isn’t the best way to make myself known or noticed, but for the same reason I don’t especially expect comments on my own blog.
* If another blog covers a topic that you wanted or wished to cover, do you still blog about that specific topic? Why or why not?
Usually yes, especially if I feel that I have my own specific take on the subject. Since I do believe I write the most out of any blog that covers the topics I tend to cover, there’s always at least a cent of my own to add to the fray.
Commitment:
* How serious is your attitude towards blogging? Do you consider it just as something to do for fun?
It has always been something I want to do for fun. When it stops being fun, I lose the will to do it – and when this blog started becoming an obligation, I put it at a lower priority than my other obligations. But no matter what I want to at least keep this going, even if on heavy life support.
* How often do you blog? How often would you like to blog?
I started out multiple times a week, and gradually dropped to bi-weekly for various reasons. But ideally I’d like to post at least once a week.
* What priorities do you or have you put aside in order to blog? Why?
My priorities are generally screwed up – so it depends on what I want to do more. And since I never want to do homework, blogging gets done during those periods. But if I want to play games or perhaps watch a variety show, that inevitably occurs first.
* Do you see yourself blogging in 6 months? Why or why not?
Hey, I’ve kept this going for a year and a half already, who’s to say I can’t see let it beat! celebrate its second birthday? I also think that I’m never going to be able to virtually shut up so long as I have a keyboard and an outlet.
Personal:
* Would you say you blog for yourself?
Yes and no – I blog for other people to read what I want them to read. Figure that one out because I can’t.
* What is your feeling after posting an entry? Is it relative to the time and effort you put in an entry?
A slight sense of achievement, followed by a slight relief that there is time until the next entry should be posted given my current feelings. Regardless of the time and effort, as long as the entry is posted there is the snese of “It’s done”, though I may be prouder of an entry where I liked the contents even if I spent 20 minutes half-assing it.
* What needs does blogging fulfill?
None, as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t generate enough attention to satisfy my ego (though I wouldn’t want that for something I think I’m bad at), it doesn’t provide any release from whatever I need to be freed of, and I certainly don’t need to blog to get my fingers tired of typing complete BS. (Yay for college papers.)
* Do you consider yourself a writer?
I want to, if only for the sole reason that I want people to enjoy what I’ve produced, or at least come away with something even if not some sense of amusement.
* Do you consider yourself good at writing? Good at blogging?
No and no. The former because I have self-esteem problems and don’t write so much as I ramble; the latter because we’ve seen the schedule I keep for this blog and it is not pretty.
* How much of your personal life do you share on your blog? If none, why do you leave this out?
I want to think “only as much as necessary”, but it seems I share quite a bit. Always for a purpose, of course – usually to give the reader a way to relate to me as a person, but sometimes because what happens in truth is much more interesting than fiction. And in that case, who am I to keep it from you?
