A year in review: My blog year 2009

Watch out, I'm rambling, it's long ;)

1 My beginnings

I think, since 2009 is nearly over, many bloggers will write their year in review. And so will I here. Well, where to start. I've tried blogging in October 2006, but lost interest after a month and deleted the blog. Then came March 2008 and I decided to start blogging again. I don't know, whether that was a blessing or a curse to you, my followers, but I must say I do enjoy blogging ever since and you, the readers are a big part of that. In 2008, my blog was more of a diary and I didn't update a lot and also didn't have any readers. But it was still fun to add my 2 cents on various issues. Then came this year: I returned from Malaysia in February and started to blog more passionately, updating a lot and commenting on other blogs. At that time my blog's name was Nino's World. I was heart-broken and blogging was a kind of remedy for me, even if only temporarily, it did help me make it through the hard times. I got few followers and blogging seemed pretty much fun. Until there was an 'incident', where I was dragged in and suddenly haters were directed to my blog, bashing me in the comments. I did not seek trouble, but trouble found me. I guess this sums it up the best.

2 A new bloggining

It stressed me out so much, that I deleted my old blog and started a new one naming it My Kafkaesque life. I imported all the old posts, but the URL was new, the design was new and at least in the beginning, I was more anonymous, but I'm less so today. I left all the drama behind and I found back to my old self. Because I used to be bitter at times, I was negative and moody. Blogging wasn't really fun in July. But it all changed end of August. I stopped following people, who didn't do me any good and I found new ones, who made me feel like I was reborn - and of course the biggest part of this happiness belongs to my sweetie. So I can say I'm happy since end of August and I'm trying to take things as easy as I can now.

3 About following

Those who I follow, probably know, that I'm a very supportive and loyal follower, but I also stopped following people, who didn't give back enough in return or who tended to be too negative sometimes. It doesn't mean I don't like them or that I completely stopped reading their blogs. It's very rare, that I delete a blog from my Google reader. I love reading blogs. But now that I have so much more followers, I do take care of them first. My time is limited, I can only give back so much. And I think everyone does that: The blogosphere is huge, new people come and go, but some stick around. And those who do, you need to cherish them, because they make blogging so much more fun. I really treasure you girls and guys, a big fat thank you!

4 About followers

But there's also people who followed me for a while and then stopped. I thank you, too. I have no idea, why some stopped following me, but I guess the reasons are similar to the ones I have, when I stop following other bloggers: They bore me, I don't agree with what they write or how they comment. That's all legitimate and ok. That's a solid part of blogging and I'm not mad at anyone, who stopped following me. I don't try to be interesting to everyone and I don't take blogging as a popularity contest and I know some won't like me or just misunderstand me. That's just very common here. But I do have to say, that some who stopped following me, did surprise me and I was disappointed for a while. But new ones started following and I got used to that constant changing. Then again, blogging is not everything in my life. Lately I don't write so much about my private life [I merely hint], although a lot of interesting things are happening. On the other hand, my blog's motto is scribbling about everything and judging by the poll [previous post], most of you like my blog this way. So I always have something to blog about and I don't need to write a diary :-)

5 Fun facts about 2009

1 Infamous Chinabounder commented on my blog: See here.
2 Singaporean celebrity blogger Dawn Yang commented: See here.
3 My most popular post was 7 Things about me you didn't know: See here.
4 Most interesting comments were on Asian Women/Western men: See here.
5 Most hits from Google got my post about Elly Tran Ha: See here.
6 Most controversial post: About Dawn Yang [I deleted hate comments]: See here.
7 My personal favorite post is How should a man be in 2009: See here.
8 Old posts I'd recommend to read again [click on the links]:

- Brad Pitt lecturer in Seoul and Tokyo [this was supposed to be funny, I made it up!]
- No urinating in common areas in Hong Kong [interesting stuff from my trip]
- Get a brain, morans [Banners, where the English is misspelled, mostly by Americans]
- Chinese girl at the temple [A sexy girl I saw near a temple in Malaysia]
- Did Susan Boyle freak out? [I annoyed my friends on twitter with this #fail]

6 In conclusion

It was an interesting blog year, with many ups and downs. I was misunderstood and complimented many times, people followed and stopped following. I wrote brilliant stuff and I wrote rubbish, I wrote great comments and I wrote comments I am ashamed of now. I was involved in controversies and nontroversies and I apologized more than once [and I would still do so, if I know that I did something wrong]. Well, that's life and that's how blogging is ;-) Let us not forget, that all of us are human and we can make a mistake or two now and then, it just shouldn't become the norm. However it was: It was exciting! :-) And I hope that 2010 will be an equally exciting blog year for all of us. There are a lot of changes coming up in my life - in few months I will be blogging from Asia. Hope you guys will like it :-)

And now I'm tagging everyone to do the same post like I did: Sum up your blog year like I did here and you can be sure I will be eager to read about your experiences and also I hope you highlight your popular posts and old posts worthy to read again.

Thanks and good luck! :-)

Your MKL