Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Happy Birthday, Life in Boxes!

It all started with a tiny idea, wondering how it would work, if it would work, and who would work for it. Thoughts were shared and words were exchanged, until the first of many Thursday night blog meetings was established. "Yes, this is it!" we all thought, nervous in anticipation and out of fear of the unknown. And here we are, with a year of blogging under our belts..

So in lieu of our one year anniversary of blogging, the editors of Life in Boxes reflect on a year of blog meetings, posts, features, and .. Life in Boxes:

Jen Shin
I can't believe it's been a year since we started Life in Boxes, it's amazing how fast time flies. The blog lasting this long is a testament to how committed we the editors are to it. Some of you might think we're big dorks for having weekly blog meetings, but honestly, without that effort on our parts, you wouldn't be reading half the stuff you find on our blog. For all the time we spend with and talking to each other, we're lucky that we actually like one another. :)

I remember my first post being about the simple conundrum of finding the perfect cereal-milk ratio. While I still occasionally write about hard-hitting issues such as that, my forte is more along the lines of tv/movie/music, with the occasional and passionate Britney Spears posts thrown in. :) I think my favorite post that I've done is 'What to do when your car gets towed' which was never meant to be a hard guide on what to do when your car gets towed, rather me venting about what had happened to me, but became one of the most visited pages of our blog. I also loved my open letters to Miley and Hillary who just happen to be one of my least favorite and one of my most favorite women in media, respectively. As for my fellow bloggers' work, I always enjoy mythbusters by our mythbusters resident Yuri- who knew that the 'close door' button on elevators just doesn't work? See, our blog is educational as well as being entertaining.

We hope to be around for much longer, so we all appreciate you guys visiting and commenting (WE LOVE COMMENTS, even the occasional hateful ones). Thanks for keeping our little blog chugging along!
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Julia Park
Like all blog writers, we all come from humble beginnings; sure, our first few posts weren't exactly stellar, but we were excited to blog and share our words out in the blogosphere. But from our humble pie beginnings to our more recent posts, the editors of Life in Boxes have definitely grown up a bit, learned a lot, and have changed some (such as our layout!). Lesson learned: investing time into something yields to something. Surprise, surprise! Thursday blog meetings do make a difference (so stop making fun of us for Thursday night blog meetings!).

For the most part, the posts I found most enjoyable to write were ones which I felt super-passionate about. So all of those posts about Harry Potter (nothing but genuine excitement, here!), rants about Top Chef (I bet you loved my photoshop skillz, as much as I enjoyed making them!)...100% passion! And like Jen, I guess I would consider myself to be more of the tv/movie/music writer, with occasional news, marketing bits, and Cuteoverloading.

I think that my favorite post that I personally wrote was my feature on Moving Out, since it was something that I was (and still am) considering to be my next big step in life, and something that people my age-range can definitely relate to.

As for my favorite post written by the other editors? Definitely the joint post on 30 Things To Do Before You're 30.

Anyway, cheers to a full year's worth of blogging experience; keep the comments rolling and let the suggestions for making Life in Boxes legen-waitforit-dary better flow in!
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Yuri Kim
Looking back at our one year anniversary for Life in Boxes, I realize that it hasn't really been about getting readers or trying to express our ideas to the internet (although that was a great bonus :x). As cheesy as it sounds, it has been about personally getting through this odd time that comes after graduation.

As I look back on a year of posts, I am able to confirm that I am cheap and that I love food, Kanye West, and the Do-It-Yourself subculture. It was really through the discipline of posting multiple times a week and having our weekly meetings that I was kind of able to manage all of this. If you think about it, that's pretty cool.

I think each editor probably can also find out a bit more about their own personality through their posts. Whether it's them loving sports, Britney, or loving to hate pirate hookers, we all have a voice that is unique, but still from that same viewpoint of recent college grads.

Things will change. We'll all eventually grow up. Hopefully you readers will be able to see it all unfold through our posts!
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Jorge Feliz
Oh LIB, what can I say that hasn't been said already. From choosing a name to writing the features, it has been nothing short of interesting. To LIB I say, stay charming. To the readers I say, keep reading, especially my stuff.

My favorite posts are those that are useful to you. Yuri's Gift Guide for the Christmas season was something that I think most of us last minute shoppers used. Julia's Top College Majors By Salary made me contemplate learning more about computers and her 20 Healthy Foods>$1 made us think about getting more french fries (technically potatoes and on Wendy's Value Meal). Jen's What To Do When Your Car Gets Towed was a big hit with readers, and having had a part in the ordeal, I learned a lot. That being said, my favorite post has got to be Say What Karaoke. Why? I really like singing. Clicking on those videos and singing along to those songs are like crack to me.

Happy Bday LIB, get drunk, and I'll see you again next year.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats LIB writers. It has been a blast reading :) love- ash jung

Anonymous said...

LOL to yuris pic

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday LiB. I've only been following along for a few months, but it's been very nice.

I might have to go back as read some of the references "best of" items.

Anonymous said...

congratulations! proud that you guys stuck with it and haven't killed each other yet =)

Anonymous said...

I gotta say that I check Life in Boxes more then anything else on the internet. There were many days where you guys weren't posting fast enough (especially during the school days). I can honestly say I learned ALOT through Life in Boxes, Bittorent, politics, pop culture to name a few. Keep up the good work guys, and Thanks for all the awesome posts and keeping me entertained through out the week!

P.s. I didn't know you guys had a blog about karoake. Now I have to search through the old blogs to see if I missed any and check out the karoake songs.