New Year's Message: Chronicles of Laziness

I want to open this posting with best wishes for a happy, albeit very belated, New Year to all of the readers of Akihabara Renditions. Not only am I late in writing up the New Year's post but all of the plans for moving AkibaRen to its own domain (first mentioned here) have been tossed by the way-side for the moment. I have no excuse other than my real life duties "getting in the way" so to speak. I received an unexpected job transfer coupled with the end of the year fiscally, I was working most of the time during the day. Then, of course, there was all of the chaos associated with the holiday season, so when it came down to the wire, the couple of hours it usually takes me to write, organize, and research the average post usually lost to me instead vegging out on a sofa or trying to catch up on some much needed rest. Immediately after New Year's, I was sick and before I knew it school came back - with none of my goals during the break accomplished.

In addition to researching the layout of the new site, I've also wanted to write up the articles I've mentioned at various points in the past. One was a comprehensive history of the Mahou Shoujo genre, as it was Mahou Tsukai Sally 『魔法使いサリー』's 40th Anniversary but the research is incredibly hard to come by, espeically for a topic which I've little personal interest in, save for seeing a few very popular titles. There's also the Con Report for Anime Weekend Atlanta as a part of being accepted as a part of the press team (an experience I would greatly like to repeat). It's been hanging over my head - my notes and convention program sitting on my desk and a note to remind me that I need to get extra pictures from my photographer - that I've just not been able to concentrate on whn I sit down to do it. Finally, the last article I have sitting on my mind is a keynote that I want to make an annual occurance: The State of Clasical Anime in North America. SCANA is a summary of the events of the year and a bit of predictions for the follwoing year. I've not fully developed the idea of how the layout will be or what all will be included (for archival purposes, I'd like to keep AkibaRen updates separate); however, the rough outline of information has been compiled - I've just not gotten around to writing the actual article. Certainly, the Con Reort and SCANA will be completed (and hopfully soon) but I am unsure of the fate of the History of Mahou Shoujo article.

So, that is a review of where AkibaRen stands up to this point. Since there is a delay concerning the migration, I'll be focused still on building up content for the actual migration. I plan on having some of the recurring posts here, such as the Tech Connect postings, become their own feature on the new site. Once migrated, I also hope to maybe solicit some guest articles or editorials to add a bit of flavor to the site. Of course, all of the articles, news-commentary, and straight-up editorials will have direct links to an attached forum. The forum will also have a place for all members to start their own threads, too, of course. All in all, I have a lot of work ahead of me to get the site migrated and keep this blog active in the meantime, all on top of my other "real life" duties. I've got some major re-tooling on the schedule to do but I will be working to get the migration accomplished as soon as possible.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope everyone will have a safe and prosperous New Year.