If you've been checking this blog periodically over the past several weeks, you no doubt have noticed a lack of activity. The reason is quite simple: for all intents and purposes, I'm laying Sponge Bear to rest, and moving on to new blog on a new platform. From now on, I will be rantin' and ravin' and taking pictures of things no one else is interested in on A Curmudgeon Abroad (aka Sponge Bear/Kaminoge 物語), which can be viewed by following this link: http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/. Since my last entry on this blog, I've uploaded musings on my daughter http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/2011/12/portrait-of-saturday-done-in-amber.html; "The River of Wisdom" exhibition in Taichung http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/2011/12/moving-pictures.html; signs in Japanese (what else is new?) http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/2011/12/signs.html and http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/2011/12/alls-quiet-on-eastern-front.html; and hiking in Dongshi http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/2011/12/taiwan-hikes-like-taiwan-girls-are-easy.html and the Dakeng area (same old, same old) http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/2011/12/merry-critters.html.

It's been a long run on LiveJournal, but a combination of irritating server/technical problems, and more importantly, the non-stop barrage of unwanted spam (as if any of it was ever desirable), much of it from the former Eastern bloc, proved to be too much of a hassle, and I just became tired of dealing with all of it. I've been able to export all of my old posts from Sponge Bear over to A Curmudgeon Abroad, and I'm now in the process of going through the old entries. Unfortunately, none of the comments survived the journey, but feel free to say what you like on any of the posts, new or old.

So, without further ado, please update accordingly and I look forward to seeing you over at http://kaminoge.blogspot.com/.

Happy Holidays!