Oh snap, it’s Award post time again!

Last month, I got nominated for the Liebster Award by Karandi at 100WordAnime and the Mystery Blogger Award for the second time, this time by Moyatori at Moyatorium! Special thanks to both of them for such honors…and my sincerest apologies for taking a while to respond to them. January was a busy month for me. Hopefully, this post will still suffice.

Also, special thanks to Lina at Tiny Ugly Animal for nominating the Blogger Appreciation Award to me. I usually don’t expect this kind of recognition so getting not just two awards but three really made my day!

If you haven’t already and you’re in the mood for some solid content about anime, check out all of these bloggers’ websites! I’ve been having a lot of fun reading through posts and my only problem is that I wish I had more time to freely read through them all. Also, since the Liebster Award obligates me to add more promotion (and also I because I think this is really damn cool), I want let some readers know that Karandi has released an eBook compiling all of her anime reviews from 2017. The book, titled Thoughts on Anime 2017, can be purchased here for $3.99.

Now without further ado, let’s respond to some awards!

The Awards

Who needs Grammy’s? I got these treasures!

Liebster Award

1. Display award
2. Thank the person who nominated you and post a link to their blog on your blog. Try to include a little promotion for the person who nominated you.
3. Answer the 11 questions they’ve written for you.
4. Nominate 5-11 bloggers.

Mystery Blogger Award

1. Display the award
2. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
3. Mention the creator of the award (Otoko Enigma)
4. Tell the readers 3 things about yourself.
5. Nominate 10-20 people
6. Ask your nominees 5 questions with one weird or funny question.
7. Share a link to one of your best posts.

With this being some weird combo post, I’ll just keep things simple: 5 nominations, 5 questions, and I’ll also include 3 things about myself.

3 Things About Me

1. I’m Left-Handed

I already pulled the “I’m Asian” card so here’s another trivial thing about it. Actually, I remember being kind of annoyed whenever people pointed out that I’m left-handed. Growing up, I didn’t know that there was a history behind handedness so I always got so confused why people were like, “OH MY GOD, HE’S LEFT-HANDED!”. That said, I don’t know if I’d say I’m “completely” left-handed. I legitimately had no idea that left handed computer mouses are a thing and to this day, I always use a right handed mouse for some reason.

2. I Prefer Physical Media Over Digital Distribution

Give me a game disc/cartridge or a Blu-ray any day. I especially prefer to have a real book in my hand. I just find something about holding a book and flipping through the pages more immersive than flicking through an ebook and yes, I realize that might sound weird to you. The one type of media I’m okay with owning digitally is music…although I still love adding a music CD to my shelf…

3. I Didn’t Have a Phone Until My Freshman Year in College

Honestly, my whole family didn’t really get smartphones until 2013-2015. My parents thought me having a smartphone in high school would be too distracting and I guess they were also concerned about cyberbullying. Not having my own phone bugged my friends since they couldn’t talk to me as easily on social media. In hindsight, I would’ve liked a phone in high school but I have one now so whatever.

Favorite Post

Plugging in my First Impressions post for Violet Evergarden for this. I thought about going further back but I don’t have time to go through what I’ve written in the past six or seven months and honestly, December was not a prolific month for me. Still, I’m proud of how my first Violet Evergarden post came out and blogging about the show has been a lot of fun.

Karandi’s Questions

Karandi’s Questions were New Years themed. It’s the beginning of February at the time of me finishing this post….I really suck at this.

1. One thing you loved about 2017.

This will sound really self-centered but I’m glad that I started blogging. I love writing but for the longest time, I kept that as a private hobby or something I improved on at school. Before WordPress, I I tried blogging on MyAnimeList and even at that time, I was anxious about having my writing out in the public. After a close friend of mine strongly encouraged me to make a dedicated blog, I finally signed up on WordPress and now I don’t regret that decision at all.

2. One thing you hated about 2017.

Well, I live in America and there was definitely a lot of stuff in this country that drove me crazy…but let’s not open that can of worms.

As far as my personal life goes, I hated having an inconsistent sleep schedule the most. Sometimes I went to sleep at 10 PM and other times, it was like 4 AM. Why did I stay up that late? Sometimes, it was me indulging in my hobbies for an unhealthy amount of time but for the most part, it was college just being the massive time sink that it is. I’ve been trying to be a little bit better with sleep lately though I still get very tired from time to time.

3. One thing you learned during 2017 that you think you will use in 2018.

One of my college majors is Education so I was honing my classroom, behavioral, and planning skills a lot last year. I won’t delve into this too much for the sake of privacy but I will say that it’s still a learning process for me and I’m always trying to get better at it.

4. What did you do for New Year’s Eve?

It’s been a month (again, sorry Karandi!) but honestly, I don’t recall doing a whole lot. It was largely just spending time with my family and finishing up some 2017 anime. That’s it. To be frank, I don’t really see New Year’s as a particularly amazing holiday. I do particularly like how Japan celebrates it but in America? I don’t know, a ball drops in Time’s Square I guess. Now, Chinese Near Year is more my jam actually. I’m Chinese American and you can absolutely call me biased but I adore the cultural traditions and festivities of Chinese New Year. Certainly more than watching a ball drop.

5. If you could change something that happened in 2017 (only one thing) what would it be?

I certainly would’ve liked this past October and December to have been less of a shit show for me. Besides the fact that my blogging was consistently late and all over the place, I just had a really annoying semester in college. Three of my classes were big requirements for my undergrad and the busy work got so suffocating for me. That was really the only time in the year where I honestly screamed in my head “what on Earth is going on?!”.

On the bright side, I got good grades (B or above) and my GPA is pretty solid so surviving it was at least worthwhile.

6. What is one goal you have set for 2018?

This is less of a 2018 goal and more of a life goal but I really want to write a novel starting this year. It’s actually something I’ve thought about doing for years but I really want to pursue now. I used to prefer creative writing over its analytical counterpart but after I declared an English major, I ended up straying away from it. I took some creative writing courses last year and that got me re-interested to try writing a story again.

7. What are the odds of you actually meeting your goal?

I have absolutely no idea. It’s definitely a wild card. I have notes and random story bits written in different Microsoft Word files and it’s a lot to sift through. Considering it’s a novel I have in mind, I have a feeling that it’s unlikely I could finish it in just one year.

8. What anime are you most looking forward to in 2018?

Had I gotten to this nomination a lot sooner, I would’ve said Violet Evergarden. Now that I am watching the show, I feel the need to pick something else. Thing is, I usually don’t investigate upcoming anime until it’s time to write a Season Preview. I will, however, say that I’m particularly excited for Boku no Hero Academia Season 3. The first two seasons were fantastic and given the manga’s reputation, I have little reason to think the anime will jump the shark anytime soon.

9. What are you most excited about for your blog in 2018?

In general, I’ve been really excited about starting things anew with the Winter 2018 line-up. There’s still some 2017 anime I want to address on this site and I didn’t really like putting that stuff on hold but honestly, soft resetting my focus to the new stuff was a healthy decision for me. And I’ve been having a blast covering two of Winter’s anime, Sora yori mo Tooi Basho & Violet Evergarden.

As for specific projects, here’s a few ideas I’ve had in mind:

• Episodes Reviews for Older Shows – Basically rewatching an older anime and covering it. I think it’d be something nice to do when there’s not enough current anime I want to blog about. Additionally, I’d less confined with getting posts on a timely manner since the anime is already finished. I did, at one point, say I want to cover Hyouka and I’m still considering that as the first possible Throwback Blog Series.
• Redux Episode Reviews – Basically revisiting a series of Epsiode Reviews I have finished with additional thoughts from a rewatch as well as some changes to stuff I got horribly wrong or was forced to skim over. The show I’ve been most tempted with is Princess Principal. I like what I wrote but I just feel like it could’ve been even more in-depth and organized. Now, I don’t plan on doing this tomorrow but it’s something I’ve considered and I think part of the joy of analysis is re-exploring and developing it further.
• Dragon Ball Super Reviews – I’m a moderate Dragon Ball fan and I’ve considered covering Dragon Ball Super for a while now. Not sure how to approach the show though. 100+ Dragon Ball posts sounds like a suicide mission to be honest.

10. Are you going to any conventions in 2018?

I currently have two planned and they’re both set in Boston, Massachusetts. First is Anime Boston which is March 30-April 1 and the second is Fan Expo Boston (formerly known as Boston Comic-Con) which is August 10-12. I have considered blogging about my convention experiences but for a while, I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested. Maybe I’ll reconsider when I go to Anime Boston.

11. What advice would you like to give other bloggers for 2018? 

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in the past seven months so I have some advice to share.

1. Time management is key. Blogging definitely adds time to your hobbies and you want to find the perfect balance between that and whatever personal commitments you have.
2. Be very passionate about what you choose and can blog frequently. I intended for this website to cover anime as well as video games and movies. I would still like to cover those latter two areas though I don’t regret being anime-centric right now because I’m having a lot of fun with the anime I cover.
3. Be aware that there’s a good chance that it’ll take a while before your blog gets attention. Honestly, I’m still shocked that people have found my website. I started blogging under the assumption that no one would read my stuff. Having low statistics can indeed sour your motivation to blog so always be willing to weather through it and keep writing.
4. My most important advice: don’t be afraid to experiment with how you approach blogging. I started out thinking I knew exactly what I wanted to do but honestly, my first seven months on my website feel like a test pilot I was working on. I only chose to limit how many shows I cover because I learned from experience that I currently don’t have enough time to cover that much.

Moytari’s Questions

I’ve been told by Moyatari that her questions are silly but honestly, how odd can they possibly b-

1. What’s your opinion on kale?

Oh. Well…I haven’t thought about kale in a while. I’m far less picky about vegetables than I was growing up so maybe I’d eat a plate of kale if it was an option.

2. If you have to eat kale, how would you prepare it?

I want to say I’d steam it (provided that I know how to cook that well). My family is all about steaming stuff for dinner, especially vegetables. That and stir-fry but I honestly don’t know if kale would taste that great if it was cooked that way. If anyone has stir-fried kale before, can you let me know?

3. Would you rather: kale salad or kale smoothie?

Salad. Frankly, I’m not that big on smoothies though I admit that there’s a personal reason behind that. My mom once tried to make smoothies out of all sorts of fruits and vegetables so that my younger brother and I had more vitamins in our diets. It, uh, didn’t taste very good. Although to my mother’s credit, she did compel me to be less of a picky eater. I’ll take the greens any time over whatever strange concoction she tried to make all those years ago.

I do have a question to this question though. Am I allowed to have other stuff on said salad? I’m a firm believer that salad takes better with some dressing or other stuff thrown in.

4. If somebody buys you a kale-green sweater for Christmas, would you wear it?

Hey, it’s a free sweater so darn tooting, I’m going to keep it and wear it! If I keep and wear the free socks I get from my parents every Christmas, I don’t mind receiving a kale-green sweater.

5. What’s the longest time you’ve been in love for?

Well I’ve never been in love with kale so I don’t know how well I can answer this. Oh, it’s not about kale? …Well okay then.

To be more serious, I’ve had crushes but they were all silly middle school/high school kind of crushes and they came and go like any other crush would. I’ll be frank, I haven’t really been pursuing a romantic relationship. I would certainly like to have kind of thing in my life but it hasn’t been a priority for me. I’m fine with being forever alone single for now. I’ll worry about it when I’m like 40 and I’m living alone in my parents’ basement.

My Nominations & Questions

My Nominations:

• Irina at drunkenanimeblog
• Kingdlybag
• Fueled by Smiling
• Rodrovich
• Brigadeleader at OriginalOriginality
• Shokamoka at AnimeWonders

Responding to my nominations is of course, optional, so the choice is entirely up to yours. If I’ve nominated you before, I apologize for any redundancy with nominating you a second time by accident (especially to Shokamoka who I nominated because this is apparently a running joke in the community).

My Questions:

1. What’s your favorite non-anime TV show?
2. What kind of merchandise (for any franchise) do you like buying?
3. What was the longest time you’ve spent binge watching and was it exhausting?
4. What’s your favorite meal of the day?
5. Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

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