Chikorita157's Anime Blog

The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student

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Happy 25th Birthday!

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Artist: Kisugi Akira

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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Happy 24th Birthday and Behinds the Scenes of Blogging

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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.

messy-desk
This is usually where I make most of my posts.

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) 

Hurricane Status Update

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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. 

Happy 23rd Birthday and Some Thoughts

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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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Happy 22nd Birthday and chikorita157.com’s 1st Anniversary

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With my 21st birthday quickly passing by us, I turn 22 years old today. Since my last birthday, lots have happened with my blogging of more Anime series, most namely Ore no Imouto, Madoka Magica, Wandering Son, Gosick, Hanasaku Iroha and Ikoku Meiro no Croisèe while facing a mild case of an overactive thyroid. In the first few months, I found it considerably difficult to blog while dealing with the autoimmune disease, but I eventually overcome it.

Besides that, my parents and sister are planning to take me out to celebrate my 22nd birthday. I have received a Nintendo 3DS as my birthday present in advance (a new iPhone has to wait) and planning to review it sometime this month. Besides this, feel free to share your birthday wishes in this post or on Twitter. I’ll post the birthday tweets on this post once the day is over.

In addition to my birthday, the domain I am using for this blog and everything else (chikorita157.com) finally turns 1 year old on August 11th. I felt that getting a domain name was a rite of passage to get more noticed and it was fairly affordable. Even so, I am planning to keep on maintaining the domain well into the future. (Image Source)
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On Summer Vacation… we will see you soon!

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Like I have mentioned earlier, tomorrow will be the day I will leave New Jersey for the Midwest on a two-week vacation. I will NOT be on hiatus at this time and will still be making new blog posts while on the road even though they may be delayed until I get to a place with Wireless Internet.

As always, if you want to know what I am doing during vacation, check my Twitter, Google+ (if you have an invite) or my side blog, Shiori’s Diary. I will be posting updates there frequently through my iPhone. I will also approve and respond to any comments if I see any with a small delay. Nevertheless, I hope my vacation is a good one and hopefully everyone enjoys their summer thus far.

Also, feel free to check out the list of shows that I will be marathoning on vacation… These reviews will be posted in a few hours after I completed the series.

 

MM! – Exploring Abusive Relationships and Bullying

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Bullying and Abusive Relationships has been a hot topic because of the recent suicides that resulted from prolonged bullying. In the last two episodes, Yunno, a soft-spoken girl developed a fear for men as a result of an abusive relationship she had in the past. In the third episode, she ran into her former boyfriend, Yoshioka and things got a bit nasty.

The last two episodes gave me some thoughts about the recent bullying cases that resulted in the victim to commit suicide. Also, I felt that the experiences Yunno gone through with her abusive boyfriend could actually happen in real life.

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Exploring Further: My Activities in the Anime Fandom

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As we all know, the fandom is not all about watching anime, but the related activities that goes along with it. After reading the post, I have commented on what I actually do in the fandom. However, telling every exact detail on what I do in the fandom will just leave it in a style that it would be too long to read. That is why I decided to explore even further and in detail on what I actually do besides watching Anime and it could draw some similarities to the activities you participate in the fandom.

I would also like to note that if you just watch and like Anime and not participate in anything else, you are still a fan of Anime. This was something that I haven’t cleared up previously.
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