2011 was a great year and its coming to a close. After factoring my own personal work commitments, I’d realised it is has been increasingly difficult for me to cover as much content as I would like on my site. Hence, I’m looking for talented guest writers to join me in the coming new year. If you enjoy writing and think you might be a good fit, then continue reading to see what I’m looking for:

• You enjoy the Japanese popular culture
• Keeping up with the latest news on your interests (e.g. JPOP, Cosplay, Anime/Manga, Idols, Tokusatsu etc) is part of your average day
• You understand basic photography and photo editing skills
• You are able to read and understand some basic Japanese

If the few things above describe you well, then you could make a good guest writer for this site. As a guest writer, you’d be tasked with writing a few posts on a specific aspect of Japanese popular culture. If things work well, there’s a possibility of a more permanent position that allows opportunities for you to be a representative for media briefings and events.

If you’d like to apply, drop me an email using the contact form. Nationality is not a problem as long as you are contactable by skype. Here’s what to put in your email:

• 4-5 sentences about yourself, why you’d like to become a guest writer, and what would make you a good fit
• A couple of links to something you’ve written (especially blog posts) and other interesting projects you’re proud of
• Your availability

Image Credit: Mike Szmigielski flickr

During an interview, she share on why she was doing this: She shared that

Ms. Hayashi posts her daily photos on her blog “Yowa Yowa Camera Woman Diary” — meaning “a feeble camera woman’s diary”.

When Gunota Headline announced its conclusion from the scene, Ngee Khiong automatically took over as my most read source for Gundam news. Kudos to Ngee Khiong for providing us with so much updates over the past few years ｍ（．＿．）ｍアリガト

Its seemed almost coincidental that both Ngee Khiong and its predecessor Gunota Headlines had blogged for around 5 years before announcement the end of their blogging career. The cursed 5 years is also shared by Random Curiosity that departed from the scene in March 2010.

Since this site only celebrated its 3rd anniversary back in May, I guess I still have 2 years of lifespan left … but don’t worry I love you folks too much XD

I’m sure most of us who watch anime would have at some time come across Random Curiosity’s episodic reviews written by Omni and his crew. Even till now, I would still periodically read their reviews for anime series that I had not been following to decide whether its worth watching. So I definitely want to give a kudos to Omni and his crew for all the hardwork and contribution to the anime blogging community!

Over the past few years, I’ve seen many excellent bloggers stop writing due to other commitments in their lives. As we draw closer to my own site’s 3rd anniversary, I can’t help but also wonder how much longer would I be able to sustain my passion for blogging and continue this site. While nothing is for sure, I’m glad to say that at this moment I have no plans of stopping and I want to continue pushing forward instead. (But then come to think of it, it would make a great April Fools Day joke) ^^

As you can see from the screenshot above, his first post was to wish everyone a Happy New Year and the photo was his office taken using his camera phone. And here is his first tweet:

みなさん、あけましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いいたします。今日からツイッターとブログ「鳩cafe」を始めました。http://bit.ly/7OSH1o ご感想など@hatoyamayukioへお寄せください。馴れるまでは１日１ツイートが目標です。

He wrote that he had written the tweet himself and will target to tweet at least once per day to get use to micro-blogging.

For those interested in following him, his official blog is http://hatocafe.kantei.go.jp/, while his twitter account is http://twitter.com/hatoyamayukio.

Ameba Blog has revealed that the password for some 450 celebrity blogs were compromised last Friday, after a staff noticed an unauthorized image posted on the blogs of singer Miki Fujimoto and pro wrestler Jaguar Yokota.

Clicking on the image revealed a list of around 450 user IDs, passwords and some email addresses for celebrity blogs.

The password was changed immediately and the incident was reported to the police. Since the list was used only by the system administrator, and how it was stolen remains unknown.

Source: Mainichi Japan

I think it would be really terrible if someone actually managed to hack into my blog. How do you safekeep your passwords and private information? I think one of the safest way is still to tell no one about it ^^

I had never visited either of the sites before, but it seems to me that Battle of the Blogs is some blog contest site that pit blogs of the same category against one another, while Dumb Otaku is an interesting otaku site with some useful articles on learning Japanese.

I’m not asking you to vote for me, but just to inform you that the deadline is this weekend =P

Here’s a shot of the venue before the workshop began:

Since this workshop was graciously organised by Animax Asia, we must give a big thanks to Gregory Ho, the VP & GM of Animax Asia at SPE Network.

Danny clearing his throat, I think he had way too much curry. LOL

Danny giving a quick intro to how he become an otaku.

Danny sharing about how to optimise your site and make $$$.

Sharing with us how to utilise web2.0 services.

And then a nice summary of what we should bring home at the end of the workshop.

Of course, no grand event is complete without a group photo. Since I’m not sure whether these bloggers wanted to be identified, I’d just list their aliases: One, Soshi, Leefe, Pyoro, Nekoguchi, Impz, Wcloudx, Gordonator, PP, double, tj_han, darkmirage… can’t remember the rest. Sorry LOLz

And the most amazing best catch of the day. A photo with Danny of course~! Another major milestone in my blogging career.

Right up there on top of the charts is of course our favorite idol Shokotan!

The 11 of them are pretty interesting though I’m unfamiliar with most of them.

But nontheless, this articles brings to mind a question:

Which Japanese celebrities’ blogs do you read frequently?

There’s a couple for me: Shokotan’s, Yuriko Shiratori are the ones I visit almost daily. And, of course, Danny Choo as well. ^_^

Well for those that folks that are unable to read Japanese, do not fret. Because Shokotan now has a blog that is being translated into English that will be running for a limited period during her stay at Anime Expo.

The English blog is nicely translated and the entries starts from her arrival in L.A. on 02nd July.