In my kitchen at home, I have a calendar featuring the work of Utagawa Hiroshige. The print for the month of April was particularly soothing; given how frenetic a month it turned out to be, I found the juxtaposition amusing. What would the next month bring? Depends on how you look at it, I guess.

Believe it or not, I’ve been writing blog posts these past few weeks. Every single one remains unfinished, however. I haven’t been feeling particularly inspired, to say the least, and even when inspiration does hit, I’ve been having a difficult time putting my thoughts into words. Typically, I don’t ask too much of my brain when I write; as long as I have my thoughts in order, the writing process is a sort of involuntary reflex. When the reflex is functioning, good stuff happens. When it’s not, I’m paralyzed. I could never hack it as a professional writer, that’s for sure.

This morning, I had an idea for a blog post. First good one in awhile, really. After fifteen minutes of writing, the box score was six sentences, eight trips to the thesaurus, and a hundred paces around the room. I promptly hit the close button and went outside to water my garden.

So, I think it’s about time I take a long break. I don’t intend to make a big deal out of it, but I also don’t want to waste a bunch of time dicking around, pretending that the inspiration and energy to write is going to hit me when I wake up tomorrow morning. Because, that’s what I’ve been doing. And I also don’t want you, my readers, thinking, “What happened? Did he get eaten by sharks?” Better to just make everything clear.

Anyway, I’ll still be around. And if I feel like writing something, I will. Perhaps I’ll start a new blog somewhere and post pictures of my cat.

I guess I’ll have to get a cat.

It sure has been raining a lot lately. I like the rain, though.

Sorry for the recent silence. I didn’t intend for the blog to go dark for such a long stretch of time, but it seems my brain is on vacation. I’m actually taking some time off later in the month; perhaps I’m getting an early start?

I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but voting is in progress for the inaugural Anime Blog Awards. Hop Step Jump has been nominated in three categories: Best Editorial Blog, Most Influential Blog, and Most Thought-Provoking Blog. Voting is open to the general public, so if you’re interested in participating, you can do so here. The polls close on May 15.

That’s all for now. I’m going to convalesce this weekend in hopes of finding some creative energy.

In the past two years, I’ve made 278 posts. You’ve made 3,942 comments.

That’s a lot of blackmail material.

A belated Happy New Year to all! I hope everyone enjoyed the Year in Review as much as I did. I wish I could have recognized more shows, but, like I said before, I had to draw the line somewhere. Thanks to all of the great Autumn shows deserving of recognition that are still airing, this year’s review will be a real challenge. It’s a challenge I look forward to, though.

Anyway, I’m on vacation in California at the moment, so regular posting likely won’t resume until next week. I don’t have any grandiose plans for the blog in this new year, but please stick around for the duration nonetheless.

I’ll do my best!

I hate to do this, but…

I’ll be spending a lot of time at the office this week, so I’m going to take a short break from blogging. So short, in fact, that you probably won’t notice. But, since I’ve been blogging fairly regularly as of late, I figured I should let you know, lest you think I slipped on a patch of ice and fell in front of a speeding snow plow. It’s a risk this time of year, you know.

Anyway, I’ll be back this weekend to kick off the much awaited Year in Review. Mark your calendars!

I don’t pay much attention to the amount of visitor traffic I receive here at Hop Step Jump. It’s a fair amount, I suppose, but it’s only about 1/10 of what Nowhere Anime Blog received. If I truly cared about reaching as many people as possible, I’d still be posting screenshots and writing one paragraph episode reviews - not wasting time on this editorial shtick.

However, I do pay attention to trends, and when I notice significant shifts in the number of people visiting, I start looking for the reasons as to why. In the end, it always boils down to the simplest of explanations: the more often I post, the more often people visit. Links from other blogs and sites typically only have a brief impact on the amount of traffic I receive. It’s so brief, in fact, that’s it’s lost in the noise in the long run. For example, Jason recently buried a link to Hop Step Jump in this post, resulting in a noticeable spike in traffic for a two or three day period. That’s since evaporated, however, and all I’m left with is curiosity about how much traffic Jason receives in the first place. It was an awfully big spike for such an inconsequential link.

But, anyway, returning to the matter of posting frequency and its impact on traffic, you might notice that I posted more in October than I did in the previous few months. You can probably guess why. In the period between June and September, traffic tanked, bottoming out a level I hadn’t seen since the blog’s earliest days. And it came at a time when I was tired, worn out, and seriously considering exit strategies (for the blog, that is… I wasn’t planning on jumping off a bridge), so I was clearly disheartened by the numbers I was seeing. So, I told myself, “you gotta post more,” and started making an effort to do just that.

Thankfully, it worked. My only goal, really, was to increase traffic from September levels. And as bad as September looked, I figured that was an easily attainable goal. However, when all was said and done, my October traffic was of a similar level as back in June - right around the time everything started going to shit in the first place - so I feel confident I managed to turn things around. And if last year’s numbers are any indication of what’s to come, I should continue to see increased traffic through the end of the year. The Year in Review got a lot of attention.

I have to keep posting, though. In October, I averaged one post for every two and a half days. That’s always been my target post rate, so if I can keep it up, I figure I’ll be fine. There will be good months and bad months, I’m sure, but if I can maintain my current posting rate in the long term, I’ll be satisfied. And I figure you guys will be satisfied, too.

And, yes, I just wasted a post on a bunch of oh-so-interesting meta-blogging.

See you again in two and a half days. Sorry.

As the end of the year draws closer, I’m thinking more and more about the upcoming Year in Review. In the past, I never much cared for doing such a thing, but last year’s was so well received that I feel compelled to do it once again. So, for months now, I’ve been building a mental list of my ten favorite new shows of the year, the contents of which have actually been a bit surprising. Of course, you’ll have to wait until December to see for yourself.

One notable thing about this year’s anime offerings, however, is the level playing field. There have been a number of good shows this year, yet very few stand out from the crowd. Even the shows on my list that I’ve gushed about aren’t necessarily any more special to me than those about which I haven’t. So, while populating the list has been an easy enough task, arranging the entries has not. And it’s far too early to determine which Autumn shows will make the cut (although, I do have an idea). I figure I’ll be re-arranging things up to the very last minute.

I do want to make an effort, however, to start writing my Year in Review posts as early as reasonably possible. Last year, I churned them out in real time from my temporary home in California between twelve hour workdays and holiday festivities. I wrote the final post of the series on my laptop at a New Year’s Eve party, getting it out the door only a few hours before the year ended. Obviously, I’d like to avoid such a mad rush this year, so I intend to start early. Even if I don’t know the final order of the list, I know certain shows are at least guaranteed a spot. No harm in preparing their posts beforehand.

Anime blogging is serious business.