It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve mainly kept the site up for the past 5 years for the straggling followers of Love Sick to read along. Keeping it up as a testament to that time in my life when I was obsessed with one series…and could be obsessed with it because it was the only BL series out there. I’ve wanted to complete the series’ reviews at some point. Really, I have! But as interfans know, the struggle to access subtitles became pronounced after episode 25. I don’t even know if I could find the full set to react to. I still can’t believe that after 5 years, MCOT hasn’t deigned to complete the work that it wasn’t allowing the fansubbers to continue. Especially given how large BL has become outside of Thailand.

Besides the difficulty of continuing the series of posts on the OG Thai BL Series, I have to admit that that particular chapter in my life has closed. I needed to stop blogging in 2015 to focus on my health, work, life and other matters of consequence. But whenever I thought about coming back, I had a problem starting something new. Leaving the project incomplete has prevented me from writing anything at all. Whenever I thought of returning, I stared at the final post thinking “maybe before I start again, I should finish…” The idea of finding the remaining 20 episodes and coming up with something new to say on each episode led to writers block. As months went by and then years, I needed to close the book. Maybe I’ll write up a 10-year retrospective. That time will be here sooner than we old timers want to admit.

Jose Reyes has taken on the task of the episode by episode review for the series over at The Looking Glass. If you want to follow along on his blog, I highly recommend it.

But its January 1, I’ve officially closed the PealesView chapter that’s been preventing anything from getting written, and have started on the resolutions. One of which is to return to writing again. The blog is going to be different this time. Still focused on BL reviews, but not on episode by episode recaps. I’m not up to that kind of challenge when there are always 5-10 series active at any given time. There’s just too much BL and too much BAD BL out there to waste my time on. I’ll try to keep a regular cadence.

What’s immediately prompting this return, though, is a course I am finishing on Coursera called Fandom, Social Media, and Authenticity in the Digital Age, part I in a specialization on Fandom and Popular Culture. Like many during this period of unrest, I’ve been taking courses to improve myself, or at least stop myself from becoming a pile of WFH goo. Food History, Linguistics, Virology, Reading Medical Studies. When I came across this course, I wanted to jump on the opportunity to reflect on my fandom and become a “certified fan” or at least a fan who has thought about things.

The final assignment requires two blog posts, and I figured since I already had a blog, I might as well dust it off and put the space to use again. The first series of posts I have on COVID and BL are part of that final project. Inspired by it really. As is usual, only 2 posts are required, but 7 posts are planned. They are practice to see if I can get my blogging mojo back in 2021.

Let’s see how it goes.