A new home for my fields, and a late introduction
Welcome to my new home. I found that the ground in which my crops were growing was not fertile enough, so I had to uproot and re-plant in a more nurturing environment… LOL XD
I originally moved over to wordpress.com, but after notifying Ray from International Wota and American Wota of my move, he offered me a space on intlwota.com if I found wordpress too limiting. If you couldn’t guess, I did. Having no access to CSS editing without upgrading to a paid account (where as on blogger you get full access to your CSS), I quickly took Ray up on his offer, and so in less than 24 hours, my fields have been transplanted twice. XD
To welcome myself to my new home in this little corner of the internet, I thought I’d do a very late “about me” bit and my reason(s) for keeping this blog - since I didn’t do that the first time around.
I first discovered Morning Musume (and thus Hello! Project) around September of 2001. My first two Morning Musume songs were ‘The Peace!’ and ‘Renai Revolution 21′. I don’t think I could have joined the Hello! Project bandwagon at a better time. I quickly became hooked on the infectious happy bubble that surrounded everything Morning related. I found Hello! Project to be a very welcome reprive from the over-sexed mainstream music being released by the top female artists in North America - for this was around the time when Britney Spears dropped her cute innocent school girl act, and got all sensual (to put it mildly) and of course the other female acts had to do the same or lose popularity (Christina Aguilera followed Britney’s track, as did Jessica Simpson eventually - while Mandy Moore [who I absolutely adore] never sold herself out and made the move to movies while still giving herself the chance to record and stay true to herself).
Anyway, I followed H!P almost religiously until late 2005 (I’ve just noticed this, but it looks like it randomly coincides with Koharu’s joining of Morning… however, I will stress that it’s just coincidence. Even with my being unimpressed with Koha, she did not ruin Morning Musume for me). I can’t really explain why I stopped following Hello! Project at this point. Maybe it was due to the fact that I was in the midst of my final year of my undergraduate studies for biochemistry and I got swamped with the ridiculous amount of labs and research projects that all 4th year biochem students face. I actually think that may be the reason… Hm.. this post is bringing up some interesting things I’d never noticed before. XD
Anyway, at this point I got back into English music as I started to watch Veronica Mars, and that introduced me to song quality rock music which kept me occupied for some time. It was only late last year, maybe a month or 2 before I started blogging, that I got back into Hello! Project.
My brother got me to listen to Berryz Koubou’s ‘Munasawagi Scarlet’. He was gushing about Risako in that song, but I was drawn to Miyabi. Soon after that, I watched the Winter 2007 Wonderful Hearts Otome Gokoro concert and fell in love with Miyabi (while noting - “Hey! She’s the Aa! girl, isn’t she?”) after watching her sing ‘Hare Ame Nochi Suki’ which happens to be my favourite Morning Musume song (as outlined in my Morning Musume singles ranking). After that, I started getting into Berryz Koubou, who I hadn’t taken too seriously before (even though I did enjoy their early releases, particularly ‘Piriri to Yukou’, ‘Nanchuu Koi no Yatteru YOU KNOW’ and ‘Special Generation’) and soon after I started this blog. The rest is history… Or rather the rest is to come. ^_^
So why do I blog? Well, the main reason is I like to get my thoughts out there, but to write a journal to myself about my current thoughts on H!P seems kinda weird to me. So I started this blog in the hopes that people would be interested in my take on H!P going-ons, but if not, I could always imagine that people were reading since this is published on the web. 
It’s also nice to be able to go back and see what I was thinking a few months ago (ex. my Berryz ranking has already shifted dramatically since I started this blog, and may shift further depending on what Momoko and Risako do in the upcoming months [particularly at the Berryz vs. C-ute concert]).
I love reading other blogs because even if I don’t agree with the opinions being stated, it gives me something to think about. And of course, things that weren’t evident before can be brought to light or things I didn’t even realize were in existence are brought to my attention (ie. the H!P scarves that I first saw on Paul’s Hello!Blog and subsequently got when my friend went to Japan this past Christmas season).
Blogging is a wonderful way to share ideas and with a resource like International Wota available, it makes it even easier. I love the H!P blogging community because it’s so interactive and fun. There’s always something going on - you can never say that it’s boring. ^_^
Now back to the move. Other than the new layout and url, not too many changes will be made here. I’m still fiddling around with wordpress, though, so we’ll see what that brings. I apologize for the crazy long url, but I couldn’t think of a good way to shorten my ridiculously long blog title.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Yay! WordPress rocks!
And I must say, our interests are eerily similar. Your favorite members of MoMusu, Berryz, and C-ute are also my favorites of their respective groups… o_o
Speaking of which, you should check out the new remix I put up: “Genki Dschinghis no Jibun Song” :-p
March 12th, 2008 at 10:13 am
@Kawaiirrhea: I just checked your blog, and I’m glad to see that you found me again so quickly! LOL
Yes, WordPress does rock, and so does Ray for setting me up on intlwota. 
As for the similarities in our favourite members, all I can say is “Great minds think alike!” XD
March 12th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
[...] A new home for my fields, and a late introduction [...]
March 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Congratulations on your new site, Maize! Thank You for your recommendation of Ribbon no Kishi. I read your review, then watched it last night. The only musical of theirs I had ever seeen before was (part of) Love Century. Now I want to watch them all!
March 12th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
@Chris: Thanks! I’m liking my new home.
Sorry about the confusion with links in your comments section. >_<
I watched Love Century a long time ago… I have the DVD somewhere (must go look for it now that I think about it). I think I have most of their musicals lying around somewhere. I know for sure I have Morning Town, but never got around to watching it for some reason…
I’m so glad you enjoyed Ribbon no Kishi. I think my review of it explains quite thoroughly why I loved that musical so much!
March 12th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
@MaiZe: thought it best to reply here, otherwise we could spam up intlwota all night long XD.
Anyway, regarding Basketball, I used to be a big seattle sonics fan, simply because they had Ray Allen, my favourite player of all time. Ok, so he’s overhyped at times, and underhyped on others, but god, I just love him running the floor. Although Seattle is a lottery team of sorts, or at least they used to be - my following bball is about a season or two out of date sadly lol - they had some good attacking plays, and the players to play them out, I dunno, I just like the roster at one point I think XD.
Anyway Ray’s not with them anymore so, meh. Not too sure about my loyalty teamwise. I like the mavericks for Dirk - unless he’s been traded O_O, although he’s suprisingly rubbish under pressure games sometimes.
I should like the Raptors though, as everyone I seem to know - netwise at least - who follows bball all live in canada and all support the Raptors XD. Maybe you can make a case for me sometime :P.
Anyway, back on topic, liking the look of the new place, although you did well customising blogger. I have like, no clue about anything regarding that sort of thing.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
@wu-san: Funny you should mention that I should make a case for you regarding the Raptors… After your comment on intlwota, I immediately thought that I should make a post on the Raptors (in your honour) explaining my love for my team, pointing out my favourite players and explaining why they are my favourite players. It’d be just like an H!P members ranking. XD I may have to do that in the near future (seeing as I have lots to be excited about bball wise, since playoffs are coming up), even though it wouldn’t be a J-pop related entry here…
Oh well, I have already gone off on a tanget regarding the Raptors in one of my first posts on this blog. Coincidentally, I just happened to blog about the game where TJ Ford was injured, thus allowing José Calderon to step in an show his stuff.
I’m glad that you like the new layout. Blogger’s cool, but WordPress has prettier layouts and a lot more choice. XD I’m okay with the customizing, but I often have to pester my brother when I start getting confused with all the CSS code. Amazingly, I didn’t have to bother him so much with the customization of this blog.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
@MaiZe: hmmm we should start a bball blog XD, or you should, since im totally out of the game now. Sadly lol. Hmmm, so should I await this raptors post eh?
Man, been reading up on Calderon, and he put in some good percentages when ford was out O_O. No wonder there was that all-star talk pretty soon after. But seriously, I’m like completely lost with current Bball affairs it’s silly.
I was thinking of moving homes, with a little help from Ray too, as he kindly offered. But I dont blog nearly enough as I should, so I thought it’d be too much trouble for him right now, and me actually. Plus, as crap as my blogger blog is, I’ve grown attached to the damn thing XD. At least you know CSS code :P. I’d be like, so is that a new H!P unit?
March 13th, 2008 at 9:44 am
@wu-san: You should definitely be on the lookout for a Raptors post. I’ll probably work on it this weekend. ^_^ I have thought about doing a bball blog, but I don’t know how often I’d update it… I rant and rave to my brother after every game, but I don’t know how much I’d actually write up. If I do start one, I’ll let you know.
[On a side note, the Raps lost last night. :(]
Ray is absolutely ridiculous (and that is a compliment, in case anyone gets confused). He offered me a spot on intlwota and in less than an hour of my accepting his offer, he had my stuff ready for me to go. I don’t think I thanked him enough in this post… That will probably be in my intro for my next post. XD
I totally LOLed at your: “At least you know CSS code :P. I’d be like, so is that a new H!P unit?” And hey, if you’re happy where you are at the moment, there’s no need to move, right?
March 30th, 2008 at 2:16 am
[...] TV Osaka’s site, or in viral video form via Paul at Hello!Blog here. Thanks to my IW colleage maiZe for the linkage contained in this [...]