I've been trying to curb my addiction. Along with all the other ones I have. I have an addictive personality. I get into things easily. I don't get out of them easily... if ever. Even if I do it's hard to forget on account of all the time I spent doing those things.
Recently my life has kind of been scattered to the winds. I don't really have a stable home base anymore. That sporadic lifestyle has naturally reflected itself in my posting habits on this blog.
Let's take a look at the post history of Plamo Addiction.
► 2014 (10)
► 2013 (12)
► 2012 (14)
► 2011 (119)
► 2010 (198)
► 2009 (168)
► 2008 (129)
We see a gradual increase from the inception of this blog to 2010 and then a slight drop off (historically unprecedented at the time) in 2011. After that, for all intents and purposes, it's been roughly one post a month. So this blog isn't completely dead but it's safe to say that it's kind of gone into hibernation for the past two years.
I started this blog when I was in Nagoya, Japan. It was easy to stay on top of Gundam news and at the time there weren't so many choices for Gundam news in English. In those days I really used to follow Danny Choo and enjoyed his model building tutorials, particularly the USB Mark 2 (a technique which I still haven't tried myself yet 6 years later. And that tutorial is almost 10 years old now!)
Danny was always big but he's exponentially big now. Reading Danny's story helped me to start this blog. After a while he started going in a different direction (the doll stuff) and I kinda got away from it because that's not my thing. I'm a mecha guy. That's how I found him and that's why I stayed for as long as I did. I learned a lot from him... And probably still can so I think I'll go back and have a read at what he's been doing recently.
Funny. I haven't thought about Danny Choo in ages and have taken for granted how big he's become. How other people cosplay his characters now. It all seemed so natural. I wonder if he ever imagined it would have come to this. Where starting a blog about his experience in Japan would lead him to have his characters being popular world wide... so much so that they're on the sides of airplanes, buses and sports cars.
Only Danny could have done that. It was his vision, initiative, drive and passion that drove him to do what he done. He's always just done what he loved to do regardless of what other people thought about it. He's a good example... and I followed him.
But I'm me. I'm not a supremely motivated guy like that. I didn't have a 'passion' for Gundam. It was just fun for me... and my mentality is if it's not fun why are you doing it? Eventually Gundam started to seem like work... That would be fine if I was getting reasonably paid for it but that hasn't happened and to be fair that was never really the goal. It was just about having a venue to talk about my experiences with this hobby... And I'd like to think I've been faithful to that theme for better or for worse over the years.
I've been in the Gundam world for nearly 20 years now. I can't escape. I'll always love them. I'm not just going to forget all of my knowledge about mobile suits. I'm not going to throw away any of my models or T-Shirts. I will still watch the programs when they come out. I care about what I've created here over the years. It's not big but it's mine and that's enough. And with anything you care about in life... sometimes it desires some extra attention.
When I returned to Canada in 2011, things changed obviously. It was hard to find my groove again. So much was going. So much is still going on. I can't commit the time to model building like I used to. Other things are taking priority... That doesn't mean I've lost my love for the hobby. It just means my priorities have changed. Life. It happens!
But this place is like home in a lot of ways, even when I don't have a physical one of my own. It changes when I want it to. The home I've created for myself and for those who are willing to follow along on my journey. Who knows what's in store... but I know one thing for sure... I still love building these things!!!
