Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Starting Fresh

After taking a break from my blog Mande's J-Life, I decided finally to start fresh because I do need a place to write and gather information, but my old blog was holding me back somehow.

Some friends and family members often complained about it or made comments referring to the fact that I often wrote about my personal life. Originally, Mande's J-Life was intended to be a way of keeping in touch with old friends and family members from the USA, and I hoped they would either comment or privately email me keep up our relationship. But, it didn't really pan out like that.

I found that many of my friends back home are not that interested in blogs, do not write their own blogs and do not even seem to like email (or letter-writing, or Xmas card-writing, or phone calling). So, really, you can lead a dog to water, but you can't make him drink. Basically, I rarely heard from most of these friends or family members, and if they were keeping up with my blog, I wouldn't have known about it (except to hear occasional complaints or jokes like "oh, you should blog about that now," whenever something happened.) Well, I am sure some fellow bloggers would understand where I am coming from.

I found that many of my readers were friends or acquaintances and other bloggers living in Japan. Understandable. We all relate to each other since we are in the same boat, so to speak.

This new blog is partly a place for me to stay organized about what I need to be doing or thinking about. It is also a place to comment on my daily life as a working mom, a working housewife, a foreigner in Japan, teacher at a high school, pursuer of various hobbies, and whatever other roles I play in my life! I hope others enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing.

Here goes!

6 comments:

Lulu said...

Sometimes a change is as good as a holiday!!!!!

Look forward to catching up through your new blog- I don`t think I knew you had another bub on the way- CONGRATULATIONS! Very exciting!!!

Best of luck for 2009 and your goals for the year. Would love to see some of your scrapbooking projects sometimes!

Mande said...

Thanks Lulu,
I have to apologize to you, really. I wanted to explain more about last year and some of the stuff that happened. I will post about it, but I was glad to see you joined AFWJ and I wanted to write you and see how things were going.
Amanda

illahee said...

i am looking forward to the new year and your blog!

congrats on the baby!!

Jill said...

Dear Mande,
For some reason the shut-down of Mande's J-life (or perhaps your reason for shutting it down) has me feeling tearful. Your friends back here in the States (or at least this friend of yours back here in the States) love you and want to be part of your life. I miss you and send support to you. I'm excited about your new blog, and look forward to reading it. AND I love you and want to figure out a way to stay in touch. I know I'm a bit of a techno-phobe. :) Bear with me!!
Love,
Jill

Mande said...

Jill, don't be sad! I mean, you and another friend-from-way-back-when Amy were both very supportive of my writing, no matter what I wrote about, and I appreciate that you followed the blog and commented sometimes. That meant a lot. My main complaint regards those people whom I have actually lost touch with because they make no efforts on their part...and to my family for just being ... well, you know.

Phaedra said...

I'm still a reader too!