Happy Birthday my love!
nekosasu | March 10, 2010 | 7:03 pm
Guess the location!
Wrong guess. It’s not Hisui’s birthday indeed, because, as you might remember from last years’ posts, hers is tomorrow the 12th. Actually, today is my gf’s birthday (and the proximity of the dates was NOT why I chose her). Consider this my ronery spamfest, without the embarrassing worshipping.
Well, I broke the ice already. Neko posted! How awkward. So… In a nutshell, Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! And stuff. …erm, right. I also owe you guys an apology, and perhaps a small explanation for my sudden but ever so recurrent AWOL.
Edit: Well, I thought I had scheduled this post for the 11th, but yeah it’s been a long time, WP, and it posted today, gg. Well, whatever. It’s the 11th! :V
Now, as you might (definitely) have noticed, is that I haven’t been here for over 3 months now, omitting my own birthday (a first! Thanks Matt for the post nevertheless, it really touched me), Xmas, New Year’s, and this blog’s third birthday on January 14th. Not only did this underline my and Matt’s general poor activity here and on the ’sphere, but it made it clear that I pretty much lost interest in anime… somewhat.
I wish I could dish out tons of excuses about how anime and the whole hullabaloo around it sucks massively nowadays, how it can’t compare to what “anime” used to represent over ten years ago, but in the end it just boils down to my own inability to relate and eventually hide in that fictional universe anymore. I guess, in the last few years, I’ve been bridging over my boredom and lack of popularity (read: love).
Of course, all of this was not the main reason why I started this blog at all in January 2007. All this time, my primary goal was to practice and put my little knowledge of the English (Japanese) language to good use, and to widen my horizons a little. Sometimes though, I wonder if that was just a facade not only to deceive you, the readers and critics, but also myself, who didn’t want to give in to such petty motives as popularity. Obviously, having the right friends and community makes it a more worthwhile experience, but it requires a mutual effort, which I often in my selfish ways did not deliver.
But therein also lies the biggest mistake I have made in all these years: while I used to watch anime for entertainment in the past, I watched anime only for this blog in recent times. I totally lost the focus of my watching, deluding myself that I was having fun while consuming the occasional marathon runs on some series. Don’t get me wrong, I totally enjoyed watching these series and waxing lyrical on those, it gave me a good opportunity to view the extents of my writing and appreciation of a certain work, but I am positive that I could enjoy them even more without having to feel obliged to waste long time screencapping, layouting my posts and dishing out hundreds of fake ecstatic words for a bunch of comments. Same with my figurines – actually, why did I buy some? I still haven’t unpacked my Petit Nendos because I couldn’t take pictures for my blog, and same would happen with my two Reimu figmas at home. More enjoyment comes out of those figs for visual entertainment/room decoration, not just mindless and repetitive display found on every second mediocre blog.
It’s like, a few weeks ago I watched Ponyo on TV with my girlfriend, and it was quite a great experience because it was unprepared. Of course I had subs somewhere on my external HDD, but planning on watching that would have required me to write a post afterward, as if I couldn’t live without reporting back on my experience. Victim of social networking, I guess. Probably why I stopped using twitter too. Guess I was just too bent on hoping that anyone would take interest in what my life was about, although perhaps it was just because I never had a love experience or so. Dunno. Incoherent ramblings.
Now, this absence from my blog, and distance from anime helped me to (partly) recognize some of my mistakes. My blunt outing here would also suggest that I would correct these mistakes and start doing stuff that I really like, whenever I like… a bit like I used (or claimed) to do… but much freer, and bound with much less expectations in terms of feedback/popularity gratification. Indeed I do feel motivated to watch some older series to get back in the mood, but… Yeah. There are quite some limitations.
For one, my time is entirely consumed by my dedication for my girlfriend. She is my everything, and in the last four months (we’ve been together for that long already, crikey!) I felt like I’ve been catching up to everything that I have missed in my youth. We live relatively close together in Brighton, so we spend as much time as possible (also because she won’t be here in the next 2 years..). …as such, anime doesn’t really have a place here yet. Because she doesn’t like it. :( Ghibli movies are fine, but she gladly passes on the rest. Can’t blame her, guess I had to foresee that by crossing the river separating the general nerds from the rest. Ah well.
Uni also takes up 5% of my time, and the rest of my time I spend gaming again. Playing TF2 on my laptop is all I can do, though, but that’s all I need for now. Wish I had my PS3 here, because I have Disgaea 3 at home, Cross Edge, Ar Tonelico 3 (FFFFFFFFFF) and FF13 which arrives here tomorrow (or perhaps already arrived today). So much stuff to play… where can I fit anime in this whole mess? Well, nowhere so far. At least not for blogging. But I didn’t have that in mind already, did I…
In summer, when I’ll be back home, I might spare some time. Or during the next 2 years, where I’ll be alone in Brighton. Lots of stuff ahead. No ETAs, no plans, nothing. Future updates will come on-the-fly, hopefully with the right mindset and a genuinely positive attitude.
This. (is applicable to my poor dead ‘We Love Maids’/Anime²)
+ Awww, I’m so glad about you and your gf! I wish you all the best and happy birthday to her too :)
DUDE!! Neko is alive…
RAEG! jk… For what it’s worth, life isn’t online. Sure we can make use of it via information and connections, but ultimately, we don’t exist in the WIRED. Everything we do, even if it is staring at a bright lcd panel, is in reality, so keeping it real is cool. (Don’t forget to breath) Also, “I watched anime only for this blog in recent times” GAH, that’s a such a burden, so I’m kind of glad if you can simply not worry about blogging and stick to the experiences, anime or otherwise. It’s so much easier to enjoy when not thinking about wording online expression.
Very glad you posted :)
Cheers!
ps. is that some kind of wicked glass hooka thing? w
OMG… Neko is alive!!!
Well, real life experiences is not a bad thing at all considering I spend most of my time in front of my Macbook Pro since my parents won’t allow me to get a girlfriend since college is alot more important and I’m picky myself when it comes to girls… Congrats on getting a girlfriend though, but make sure it doesn’t take over your online life completely. :P
Also, I write on Anime for enjoyment, not just to be popular. I stopped doing summary posts like RC and end up writing a reflection on what I see and what I thought about it with a very small synopsis since writing those synopsis are too time consuming and RC is doing them already, so why the extra work. It’s more about experience than synopsis writing IMO.
Anyways, have fun with your social life since being online too much can be a bad thing as well, as what I’m doing now… lol. :)
Glad to hear things are still working out! The two year distance in the future sounds like a bummer though, good luck and enjoy the time you have with her now!
Definitely being more free with your posts and posting because you want too, when you want too, not because you feel obligated too, is a much better experience. I haven’t actually watched any new seasons of anime since spring of last year, still watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Cross Game. If you think about it, the stuff isn’t going anywhere and if it isn’t enjoyable to watch it, then why take the time too? I think some parts of the anime community in general just has it’s head up it’s ass at times and lose their selves in every new show every new season.
As for Ponyo (and Ghibli films) I think anyone could enjoy them, I picked up the Blu-ray, when it came out last week, and I enjoyed it a lot. The animation is pretty beatiful and I like Ponyo and Sosuke’s voice actors (Japanese, I haven’t watched the English dub yet).
Lastly, I got Final Fantasy XIII yesterday and played only about three hours the past two days. It is different in a lot of ways, I think in general to try to appeal to a much larger audience with faster paced battles, no random encounters, and lack of levels, towns, and traditional Final Fantasy terms and settings. The music is exceptional, even with the lack of Nobuo Uematsu. A few annoying characters, but so far I like the cast and the story is interesting. Hopefully you enjoy the game when you get the chance to play it!
In other news, Team Fortress 2, along with other Valve’s Source Engine Games are heading to Mac this April, with Steam also being compatible with Mac. Looks like you’ll be playing on the same servers as them too!
Nice to see you update, hope you stay well!
Oh hey, you’re still alive!
Good to hear you got your priorities straight. GF and real life >> anime and blogging lol.
Real life is serious business, just post whenever you feel like it. So many PS3 games you have to play there; FFXIII!!
FFXIII indeed.
We’ll keep at it, eh?
@Eugen: Thanks! (You’re the only one who greeted her for her bday, good boy ;))
@devon5: More than ever, dood… :P
@RyanA: Well I had reached that epiphany quite a while ago but tried to convince me otherwise… which is why I was never 100% sure why I was doing it in the first place. Status quo w/o gf was definitely the preferable choice, but now that she’s here, I don’t have to try so hard at it anymore. ^^ ps. no, nice try.
@chikorita: I used to think I couldn’t bear to be away from the whole srs internet bsns for over a month, and I think I still wouldn’t have been able to do that on my own, but I guess I’m more the wiser now, along the cheesy lines of “she opened my eyes to the many wonders of the world…” xD But yeah, it’s true. But also, my mistake was also to be online everywhere, and I knew already I couldn’t juggle between so many hobbies at once. Guess that without anime/blogging/console gaming, I suddenly find myself managing my free time a lot lot better. Just got competitive TF2 gaming back into my schedule, let’s see how long that will last…
@Brett: The Ponyo I watched was English-dubbed – yes, I did cringe every once in a while, but that was the better price to pay in order to keep my gf watching (says that subs distract her too much). FFXIII: Ew, no random battles anymore? That’s what I liked in this franchise… you never know what’s coming for you ;) And all the other details… Merde. But things have to evolve, right… let’s hope for the better. And Steam for Mac, you can’t imagine how much the Mac-nerds in my clan have been rejoicing over this news… At long last! I’ve been sick of hearing their passive-aggressive ragings on Microsoft xD
@TJ: Yep, almost impossible to fathom that until you’ve been there! xD
@Reltair: Real life… been escaping it for too long. Though who knows, maybe these same PS3 games will turn me into a social recluse again? :’((
@Matt: Yep yep, just post more you lazy bum xD j/k, once again thanks for your post on my bday!
Oh and by the way, that’s us both at the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. Noone even tried to get it right. :)
Oh my God, I love this room! So it’s the Sherlock Holmes museum huh – no wonder it’s so amazingly stylish.
She’s such a cutie too! Be sure to make her happy and don’t forget us entirely :)
Well you can’t really see her face there, I kindof wanted to respect her privacy too (the least she’d want is her face to appear on an anime blog… anime *shudder* xD) but yeah you’re right, she’s damn cute, cuter than Hisui dare I say (and that’s quite bold to say that on Hisui’s bday none the less). And she knows Badisch, too! (wtf?)
I definitely won’t forget you guys, you guys kind of shaped my past to a certain extent (for the better and for the worse, I guess xD). I’ll pop in every once in a while for a holler and greet, when I fancy it.
How’s the girlfriend, man?