Anime blog that focuses on Yuri and School Girl Slice of Life Anime and Editorials
It seems like yesterday since the last blogging anniversary has come. Today, this blog finally turns 7 years old and I’m quite surprised how I managed to made it this far. With that, it’s time to reflect on the 7th year of blogging.
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Now that Thanksgiving is over, 2015 is almost coming to a close. With that, it’s time to focus on the plans I have in store along with my thoughts on the recent announcement regarding Love Live.
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Yep, it’s the summer festival episode and as usual, Luvia and Rin are at it again.
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Today I turn 26 years old and it feels like I’m not getting any younger. Last year, besides winter being cold like the year before, I finally finished my master’s degree and completed studying the Advanced Japanese Textbook. While the job search was rough and at times, which made me felt discouraged at times, luckily found a job within 5 months after graduating in the Federal Government, although I had to relocate.
I started working on the 27th of July and so far, it has been a good experience so far. I will be learning more on various database tools, data warehouses, database administration and more on security (yes, I will be getting a Security+ certification, which is being paid by my employer at the end of this month). Not only that, the transition to living on my own has been going well so far as I finally got used to driving and doing chores own my own. It took some time adjusting to this new life, but I can admit that the future looks bright, providing I do not screw up. I highly doubt I would since I worked so hard to get here. Still, I have to admit that I was lucky.
With that, what does the future holds as I turn 26. Well, a lot of things. While I have to pay for living expenses and student loans while living within my means, I plan on going to at least one convention next year and hopefully start saving up on that soon once I strengthen out my budget. I will announce it in the near future which one I will be going to. In addition, I plan on studying for the N3 next year as I focus more on actual Japanese media and start writing some posts in Japanese only for practice.
To celebrate the occasion, it’s time to share my new place where I will be writing posts and yes, it is clean compared to my previous location. While my setup will change as I earn and save more money, I’m hoping to add another monitor to have a dual or even triple monitor setup (which includes the laptop display), a bigger network attached storage, a server of some sort and solid-state disk upgrades. My new setup consists of a Mid-2012 15” Core i7 2.6 GHz Macbook Pro, 24 inch Apple LED Cinema Display, an old 22 inch Samsung LCD monitor, Surface Pro 2, Mid-2010 2.4 GHz Core i5 Macbook Pro, Bose Speakers, Blue Snowball, 3 TB WD MyCloud NAS and 2 external hard drives.
With that, feel free to say Happy Birthday in the comments below. I will be going out for lunch and dinner alone for my birthday (my parents will be coming to visit this coming Friday), although it will not be anything fancy.
Also, this site’s domain turns 5 years old on the 11th… Yep, time flies.
After one month of waiting, I finally got my start date last week and my official offer letter. With that, it’s time to make that important announcement about the future of this blog among other things.
In other words, no more NEET life for me!
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At last, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel as the job search comes to an end.
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Yep, another year has passed and it feels like yesterday since I started my blog back in mid February 2009. Now, it’s time to take a look back on my 6th year of blogging while I share my thoughts about the future.
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It seems like yesterday since I turned 24 years old. Like last year, it has been a calm year thus far except for the couple big snowstorms. Not to mention, I have been focusing primarily on learning new vocabulary and Kanji from playing video games and memorizing them through flash cards. I am still planning to tackle grammar needed for JPLT (will focus on N3 next year) with the references I have since there are apparently not many good advanced level textbooks unless you want to learn from one that is only in Japanese.
As I turn 25 years old, I have a feeling that 1/4th of my life has already passed by me although I look younger than my actual age. During those years, I have been focusing mostly on education. After the fall semester, I will finally complete my master’s degree and find my first job. I have high hopes that I will get a good paying job, but it won’t be easy. Once I get a one, I don’t expect things to be drastically different depending on the workload. In fact, I will be able to cover more types of content and be able to attend Anime conventions. Not sure which one I will go to, but Otakon is a good possibility since it’s only about a 3-hour drive from where I live. I’ll figure it out once I get there.
With that, feel free to say Happy Birthday in the comments below. I will be streaming games today and tomorrow, so feel free to watch on Hitbox, if you want.
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Since summer started a few days ago, it’s time to share what will happen in the next 11 days (June 26 to July 7th). As mentioned in a Summer Anime Preview post I made earlier this month, I will be going on vacation to the Midwest yet again. Since this month as been rough for me with my blog having traffic woes and such, which cause my motivation to write posts to go down slightly. It’s probably best to take a short break to prevent myself from burning out completely. Hopefully, I will come up with more ideas for future editorial posts once I come back. (Image Source)
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Toyko, Japan – In the recent episode of Nagi no Asukara, Miuna sacrificed herself to save Manaka, which left viewers with buckets of tears, especially those who wanted to see her with Hikari. After several days of fans morning over her, Mari Okada announced that Miuna would in fact not have to live life as a wooden maiden for longer. The main reason she changed her mind is because she was moved by the emotional journey of Red being controlled by thousands of people in a stream known as Twitch Plays Pokémon. In this adventure, the main character revives a Helix Fossil after beating all the gym leaders with some sad happenings such as a bunch of Pokémon being released and of course, political fights over democracy and anarchy. After watching the players finally beat Blue, the Pokémon League Champion, she couldn’t bare seeing the extreme sadness of the viewers again after they were heartbroken by the ending of AnoHana, so she did something that is extraordinary to give Miuna a happy ending, use the helix as a deus ex machina!
Mari wants to resolve the hardships the Sea God was facing by having Hikari and Manaka bring back the precious Helix Fossil containing the spirit of the girl the sea-god loved. While Miuna suffered for these years since she had to sacrifice herself during the 2nd Ofunehiki festival in order to save Manaka, perhaps with the revival of the Helix Fossil, the sea-god might reconsider and release her in place of the fossil. Time will tell if Miuna is allowed to return to the surface.
Still, Lord Uroko, who refers himself as a scale of a sea-god declared that April 1st will be an unofficial holiday named “National Helix Fossil Day” in honor of Miuna making her sacrifice so that no one will suffer the same fate like Manaka did initially. Of course, the sea-god reunites his love in the form of a female Omanyte. He should be proud of this decision since Shioshishio won’t have to suffer a horrible fate. The balance is finally restored between land and sea!
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It seems like yesterday since I started my Anime blog back in February in 2009. Today, this blog reaches yet another important milestone of turning 5 years old. While the 5th year had some ups and downs, I still enjoy writing about Anime and even Japanese language video games. (Image Source)
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As 2013 comes to an end, I want to share what special things I have planned for December. (Image Source)
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Before I knew it, time flew by so quickly. During that time, I finally graduated college this year and experienced the worse power outrage last fall because of Hurricane Sandy. Even so, this year was a rather peaceful one as I focused more on writing about Anime, and diving into intermediate level Japanese language studies despite my up and downs. The question is, how I will manage my time as I head to grad school? I probably do more of the same, with a few adjustments.
For this birthday post, I will share behind the scenes on where I do my blogging. I do most of my blogging in a separate room, which has my desk with a LCD monitor and a screen. Since I’m busy all the time, my desk is unorganized and it’s pretty embarrassing. While I do most of my web surfing and browsing at this desk, I also do my blogging and web surfing at college and when I’m on vacation, in the hotel room. Since these places usually have Internet access, I no longer have the excuse to go on hiatus.
As for the computers I currently use, I have two Macbook Pro laptops. The one on the left (Takanashi Rikka) is my main one, which has a faster Intel i7 Quad Core CPU, 16GBs of RAM, 750 GB Hard Drive, Matte Display and nVidia Geforce GT 650m graphics. The right is a 2010 model, Takamachi Nanoha, which replaced my lemon laptop.
With that, feel free to say Happy Birthday in the comments below. As always, my parents are going to take me out later for a special meal. (Image Source)
While my post on my Anime Music Tournament nominations is nowhere close to completion, I feel the need to share what will happen late next week and how it’s going to affect my blogging for 11 days. As some might know already, I’m going on vacation starting June 27th until July 7th to the Midwest, namely Chicago and mostly dull Wisconsin. I will also be making updates on Twitter and uploading photos to flickr during my vacation.
Even though I will have Internet all week through hotel wireless and my iPhone, I know that some reviews are going to get delayed because I will be on the road. Because of this, posts for the last episode of Gargantia and Photo Kano will be delayed a little, but I will try to get them up. As for the Neptunia Idol game, which released recently, I will write a review on that once I finish the first play through, which will take some time since I have to translate dialog.
With that out of the way, here are the two shows I plan on doing:
I will watch as many episodes as I can while I’m in the car and then write a full review. Of course, revising it will take some time so don’t expect it right away once I finish all the episodes.
In addition, I will be making a “ask me anything” post where you can ask questions as long it is related to blogging, Anime, or video games, which will stay stick to the front page until I come back. I will check them every day as they come in, so please keep it civil. With that, I hope everyone have a nice and fun summer.
Just recently, I have been feeling down because I haven’t received any comments lately for my coverage of Spring Anime compared to last year. I know I haven’t been commenting on other blogs since I have been busy lately and have been addressing that. Even with that, I still haven’t received any responses or any likes at all since Monday, which might be an indication that my writing needs improvement.
I know that other bloggers are in this slump and I’m not the only one. However, I want your feedback so there will be more interaction instead of complaining about it. I still want to blog as I still have a lot of ideas I want to write about, but I have lost motivation to write posts as I feel that nobody seems to care about what I’m writing. Because of that, I want to use this opportunity to see what I need to improve on content wise such as my writing quality in the comments below. Also, if you have any ideas on what ideas I should write for editorials or what improvements I need to make for episodic posts to make them interesting. (Image Source)
I decided that Anime is too good, so I’m going to stop blogging about Anime. Instead, I’m going to become the most famous alchemist in the whole world by making stuff like weapons and food. It’s going to be totally awesome…
But yeah, I should get back to making stuff… If you are wondering what I will be making through alchemy, just read more below. (Image Source)
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Believe it or not, my 3rd year of blogging was a pretty good year. While I didn’t win the 2nd Aniblog Tournament, at least my match came a bit closer compared to the first one that happened in 2010. In addition, I explored other means of content besides writing episodic and editorial posts. Aside from that, there were some real life events such as Hurricane Sandy, which prevented me from blogging for a few days. Despite the difficulties I face while more Anime blogs died in the past year, I pushed on and now have reach the fourth year of blogging.
Since I reached my fourth year of blogging, where do I go from here since I don’t show any sign of dying anytime soon? Well, I’m pretty much doing more of the same since I’m satisfied by how things are going now. On the other hand, with Grad School is on the horizon, I might have to adjust what I blog and probably stick to weekly editorials and stuff. When the time comes, I will figure it, but it all comes down to proper time management.
With that, I thank all my friends, followers and readers who supported me for all these years. Let’s make the fifth year a strong one!
Raw Statistics: 1140 posts, 2655 Comments, 54 Completed Series (No visitors/page views statistics as Piwik sort of broke on me). (Image Source)
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As we finally leave 2012 behind, its time to set some new goals for the New Year. (Image Source)
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For those who celebrate, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays [1. Take that Fox News who thinks that there is a so-called “War on Christmas“]. Be sure to check out my last 12 Days of Anime post. There is no Secret Santa review this year since I didn’t have the time to do it this year.
Just as a note, I won’t be blogging tomorrow like I done in previous years. I will resume on Wednesday the earliest. For now so along and Happy Birthday to Nagisa and Yukiho, whose birthday lies on Christmas. (Image Source)
Its kind of funny that Murphy’s Law always kicks in at the worst possible time. At first, I thought grass was greener on the other side with Virtual Private Hosting having better uptime and security (if set up properly). Unfortunately, that is not the case. In short, the server started having high load times this morning. This is probably the reason why you had a hard time loading any page on my blog. Believe it or not, I experienced high load times in the past that lasted all June before dropping to normal levels despite not impacting performance. The only difference this time is that the website could barely load and readers kept getting 500 Internal Server Errors. Because of this, I decided to change servers.
Believe it or not, although OpenVZ is cheaper than Xen hosting, it has its share of problems. Since it’s not actual virtualizing or can be viewed as running a computer that is shared by everyone although you can use it at the same time, it caused more stability problems with overselling. Since Xen hosting is not that much more per month, I decided to switch to that. At least with that, you get a dedicated slice of resources (CPU, RAM, SWAP and HD), ability to use the latest OSes and more isolation. For that, I dived in and luckily, I got everything up within a few hours of getting the new server since I have backups. While it will cost more than the last one and I still have to move more stuff and tweak the server settings, I hope there will be less problems so I can spend time blogging and do other things besides messing with the server.
Also, if you experience any problems or have any thoughts, please leave them in the comments below.
It’s that time of year again and with Christmas coming in a few weeks, it’s time to announce the 12 Days of Anime project once again. Like the same suggest, it’s an activity that bloggers retell moments in anime or anything related to it. While each blogger does it slightly differently, it’s the same concept.
As for me, I’m doing the format differently since I have pretty much finished all the heavy lifting of my final semester besides finals. Therefore, I’m doing 12 separate short posts focusing on anime and of course covering two major events related to Anime Blogging. This obviously includes the SOPA/PIPA protests that happened early this year and the 2nd Anime Blog Tournament. Besides those two, the other 10 posts I plan on writing is a secret, so stay tuned until December 14th when I plan to start publishing them. (Image Source)
As 2012 is almost coming to a close, I would like to share what I will have in store in the coming weeks.(Image Source)
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For the past day, I have been without any power, cell service and Internet as the hurricane knocked all those out. I want to let everyone know that I’m okay. I just won’t be sure when I will regain access to the Internet, but once it comes back, I will start publishing a backlog of post.
For now, stay safe.
Update (2012年11月1日): Cell Service is finally restored, so I can communicate with the outside world and make a few posts. I may go on campus this weekend if the power doesn’t return tomorrow to write up Chuunibyou Episode 5 since I can’t download anything on my phone.
今日は私の誕生日です。(Today is my birthday.)
Believe it or not, time flies when you are working hard. A lot has happened since then as I took on the task of self studying Japanese, experiencing some Anime Blog Tourney drama, moving to another server and of course, overhauling my blog’s theme. Although I have experienced some hardship with my mother having cancer that she has fully recovered from, I think the future ahead will be blight one. I don’t intend to give up blogging any time soon since I enjoy doing it and there is a lot to write about.
As for what I got for my birthday, I received a Playstation Vita. I still haven’t got any games for it besides my downloaded games from Playstation Network since I don’t know what game I should get. I plan on fixing that soon. Aside from that, “Idolmaster SP Missing Moon” plays great on it.
With that, feel free to share your birthday wishes to me, whether it’s on Twitter or in the comments below. Also, I want to thank all my readers and followers who have supported me during these years. Hopefully, I can defy Anime Blog death by passing the four-year mark!
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