I guess I consider myself a mysterious blogger. My stinking username is “Xenodude” which is peculiar enough (or maybe just plain dumb, I don’t know) and I do keep the most personal stuff about my personal life outside of this site. If I’m being honest though, I consider myself to be a pretty normal and modest person. I’m just a weeb who’s currently “looking forward” to a ton of college finals while still trying to find the time to share his thoughts on a bunch of anime (and video games and films but one hobby at a time I guess).

My own opinion on myself aside, Irina at drunkenanimeblog has nevertheless bestowed upon me the Mystery Blogger Award, an award that acknowledges my genius(?) and contractually obligates me to answer five questions about myself. Frankly, I’m surprised but I’m more than happy to answer these questions! Also, I want to apologize to Irina for taking a while to respond to my nomination. I got busy with Thanksgiving Break and I had to catch up on a bunch of coursework for the past two days. I hope this post isn’t too late.

The Reward Itself

Information:

• An award for amazing bloggers for ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates, it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there and they deserve every recognition.
• This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging and they do it with so much love and passion.
• The award was created by Otoko Enigma.

Rules or Guidelines:

• Display the logo on your blog
• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Mention the creator of the award and provide a link.
• Tell your reader 3 things about yourself
• Nominate 10 5 bloggers. (the number keeps changing but Irina says 5 so I’ll nominate 5)
• Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on linking to their blog.
• Ask your nominees 5 questions of your choice.
• Share a link to your best post*

*-This is actually listed in other people’s versions of this award and not Irina’s but I do love shamelessly sharing my stuff sooooooooo……

3 Things About Myself

1. I’m Asian 

Hey, it’s not that obvious if I’m being represented with text here.

No joke, I once wrote that down for an icebreaker because I hate icebreakers and I wanted to go with something that’s way too obvious to bring up during one. For the record, I am Chinese-American and a First Gen.

2. I Hate Cucumbers

I’m not the pickiest eater and whenever friends or family put them in meals, I begrudgingly eat them. I hate how they taste though. They’re so bland and moist; it’s gross. Oddly enough, I love pickles so imagine my surprise as a child when I found out they’re technically still cucumbers.

3. I quote SpongeBob SquarePants whenever I can. 

Frankly, this is the best way to both make and lose friends. I always love quoting Spongebob (pre-movie Spongebob specifically) especially when the context fits. I remember traveling with my Dad and he told me not to lose my passport. Immediately, I quoted, “FIRMLY GRASP IT!”.

To this day, I eagerly wait for the opportunity for when I’m in a Gold Team. I just want to say, “Gold Team Rules!”.

Favorite Post

Going to go with my review of March Comes in Like a Lion Season 1 for this. I’m really happy with how this one turned out and I’m also just in love with March right now so I just want to keep signal boosting it.

Irina’s Questions

1. What skill do you wish you had? Why?

I wish, for the life of me, that I could draw. I’m fascinated with visual arts, especially animation, but the best I can draw are usually stick figures. Sometimes, with a lot of time and concentration, I’m decent at drawing with vector graphics.

There was this one course on children’s literature I took in my freshman year at college where I had to create my own children’s book for my final. Most people usually go with a simple counting or alphabet book so that they can easily draw numbers and letters. For some reason, I went hardcore and I wrote and drew an entire story for my book. I really loved working on it but sheesh, drawing those illustrations to a level that it could be consider illustrative was tough. The main character in my story was an owl with arm sling (trust me, it makes sense in the story) and that was not easy to draw.

My younger brother actually draws and paints as a hobby and he is infinitely better at that stuff than I am. I’m content with my own skills but I can’t help but envy him from time to time.

2. What is your go to comfort food?

Lately, I’ve noticed that whenever college is stressing me out, I like to grab a pack of M&Ms to eat while I work. It’s actually helped from time to time, especially when I’m tired and could use some sugar. When the vending machine is all out of M&Ms, I usually go with potato chips (usually Lay’s) or Pop-Tarts.

3. What’s the thing you admire the most about your best friend?

This is a little awkward since I don’t really have a single best friend. I have a close circle of friends that I’m really thankful to be a part of but I’d hate to choose favorites. I guess I’ll just say what I admire about said friends.

I really admire how my friends are able to put up with me. I mean that both when I’m feeling stressed and depressed and they’re always there to support and encourage me and also when I’m also being a massive troll when I hang out with them.

I also admire how everyone in the group is always interested in whatever each other is up to. All of us are pursuing different degrees and while we’re pretty much all nerds, we’re not all interested in the same hobbies. I’m really the only one in the group who’s super into anime. Still, those differences don’t really matter too much and we talk a lot about nerdy stuff anyway. Some of my best memories have been with hanging out with my friends.

4. Any good Manga I should read?

I’m way more on and off with manga than I am with anime but here’s what I’d recommend at the moment.

• 3-gatsu no Lion – Gotta keep bringing 3-gatsu up. In all seriousness, I’ve been reading the manga from time to time and the story is just as good in that form.
• Fruits Basket – An all-time favorite manga of mine; I want to re-read it at some point. I love the story and Tohru Honda is one of my favorite protagonists in general. Now if only a full anime adaptation of this got produced…
• Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun – The anime adaptation is one of my favorite anime from 2014 and the story is just as funny in its original, 4-koma form.

5. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

What do you mean? African or European Swallow? I need specific details!

My Nominations & Questions

I’m still a newbie in the anime blogging community so I’m still trying to get familiar with what everyone does but these are five bloggers whose posts I really enjoy reading.

Nominations: 

• Brigadeleader at Original Originality
• Karandi James at 100WordAnime
• Moonid at RandomGarage 
• Rodrovich at Rodrovich’s Anime Blog
• Shokamoka at Anime Wonders

My Questions:

1. What was that one show or movie that got you hooked on anime?
2. What is one anime that you wish was good but it ended up being super disappointing?
3. Who is your favorite music artist?
4. What was the silliest or pettiest argument you’ve ever had with someone?
5. If you could have any superpower (from any property), what would it be?

I apologize if anyone’s already been nominated in the past but if you choose to answer, I’m looking forward to it. Let me know via a pingback or in the comments.

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