Yep, you heard that right – Leap250’s Blog turned 10 years old this month!

In all honesty though, it does feel a bit weird being in celebration of this milestone. I’d be the first one to tell you that I wasn’t at all active and consistent with my posts throughout the entirety of these past ten years. This is also largely the reason why you never really see me celebrate the age of the blog with each passing year outside of a passing mention whenever it gets brought up. The amount of posts available here doesn’t really add up to what you’d normally expect from a blog that’s been around for a decade. In fact, it wasn’t even until I started doing the Monthly Recommendation Roundups that “Leap250’s Blog” truly started to have “regular” content.

Some of you might know/remember that “Leap250’s Blog” was originally a blog that almost exclusively dealt with anime. I already go over it in The Basics, but to cut a long story short, 2011 was the year when I first got into anime and as such it was all I ever talked about in a personal diary that I kept (which I also started doing as a means to practice my writing, being a freshman Journalism major). I was inspired by “anibloggers” and how they drew inferences from a show, and I ambitiously wanted to try my hand at it. I kept up with it as much as I could, and while I have write-ups that I’m genuinely proud of, at a certain point I stopped writing about anime altogether.

Look at that banner! LOL (and yes, adolescence is indeed wonderful isn’t it? XD)

A lot of it is because I just couldn’t put in the time and the effort anymore. I started having to devote more of my focus towards my writing-related studies, which made blogging feel like extra homework that I needed to do. Anything interesting that I came across in a show I’d just discuss with my anime-watching friends that I met at university. Whenever I did get inspired to write about something, I’d discover (after doing a customary preliminary search to see if anyone had the same idea) that not only had someone already beat me to it, but they write about it better than I could have ever hoped to. I was ultimately at a loss as to whether or not I should keep blogging.

That being said, I could never stay away from here. I always found some reason or another to make this blog have some semblance of activity to keep it “alive” if only for my own eyes. I turned to this place some five years ago, when my family and I uprooted our lives to come live in a different country. During a time when it felt like I had nowhere to go, this blog gave me a sense of comfort as a tertiary home when I needed it the most. Suffice it to say; I love this place. I’m thankful to have had it for as long as I have, and I’m grateful to everyone who I’ve met over these past ten years. “Leap250’s Blog” will forever hold a special place in my heart, and you guys along with it.

Which is why, as we enter the “update” part of this commemorative post, I thought I should ‘give back’ to the blog so to speak for all that it’s been able to provide both to me personally and hopefully to you guys as well who have shared and continue to share this space with me throughout the years. Starting off with, and as you may or may not have noticed by now; Leap250’s Blog having its own domain! That’s right. While you are still most definitely able to reach the blog by using the old url “leap250.wordpress.com” (which I do oh so cherish in my own way), as of this month the official home of Leap250’s Blog is now simply (barring any changes in the future), leap250.blog.

Simple and right to the chase. Though I say that, here was consideration of me finally christening the blog with an actual name to go along with this domain chage, but I feel like doing so sort of (or rather literally) overwrites Leap250’s Blog as opposed to celebrating it which would be my primary intention. Plus, well, I couldn’t really think of anything clever to name it as anyway (lol) I’ve fancied the idea in the past when I wrote about anime a bit more, and maybe as I continue to write more about Japanese music I might think of something so I’m not dismissing the idea entirely, but at the same time, the way it is now kinda has its own ring to it too I feel.

Aside from being a fitting commemorative token, another thing that helped in the decision of me finally opting for a paid WordPress plan was me realizing how invasive the ads are or have been for those on free plans like the one Leap250’s Blog used to be on. Now, I’m pretty sure a lot of you guys, like myself admittedly, opt for browser plug-ins that actively block ads on webpages so it may as well be a non-issue for the majoritty of people that visit this blog, but having since experienced first hand the obtrusiveness of sponsored ads on browsers that don’t have said plug-ins enabled, I figured it was a good enough reason to ensure a comfortable reading experience for everyone.

In line with that, it would also feel rather disingenuous on my part to expect you guys to have ad block on while also churning out my own ads; which leads us to the last major update that I have for you guys. I talk about it briefly in the J-Music Exchange/Rate Album Review of Aida Rikako’s Curtain Raise, and as you guys may have already seen for yourselves, the blog now exclusively has ads for CD Japan all over it (lol). That’s because Leap250’s Blog is also now an officially recognized affiliate *of* CD Japan. Rest assured, while I do get a percentage if you use any of the affiliate links on here, I didn’t really apply to be an affiliate for monetary reasons.

I just thought it’d be a cool thing to have in the blog seeing as I now almost exclusively talk about Japanese music, sort of legitimizing me in a way (jk XD) Not that I wouldn’t be grateful to you guys actually using the links for your purchases. Do know that however much I make from it is more than likely going towards my own purchases from CD Japan anyways, and if that then leads to future content from me, then I’m thankful all the same. That said, I really am genuinely interested in doing more physical media stuff (whether its reviews or unboxings etc.) moving forward if all goes well, so do let me know if that’s something you guys will be interested in.

Gonna wrap this all up now as I realize I’ve already taken too much of your time. Again, thank you guys so so much for dropping by and continuing to drop by whenever you do.

I’ll see you guys in the next one. 😉