Feels good to be back! As many of you know, I put Mainichi Anime Yume on hiatus at the end of May, returning only briefly in July for my Anime Expo coverage. But now that September has come and I start my fall semester of school tomorrow, I figured it’s time to get back into the swing of blogging! After the jump below, I discuss what kinds of posts and blogging schedule I have planned, as well as what my non-blogging self has been up to these past few months…
I needed to put MAY on hiatus because I was both working and taking a class during my college’s summer semester, so I just didn’t have enough free time. Luckily, most of the homework for the class was during the first few weeks, so it didn’t interfere with my fun 5 days at Anime Expo (also got paid time-off, one of the only perks from that job). The class, which was an introductory IT course about maintaining and repairing PCs, ended on August 6th. It was kind of difficult to be honest, and I feel that the only reason I got an A in it was because I was simply good at reading the textbook and memorizing the information needed for the many multiple choice tests and quizzes. But if you were to put a computer in front of me and ask me to do something like “partition the hard drive” or “find compatible RAM and install it,” I wouldn’t know how. Either the class just didn’t have enough hands-on stuff and I would be able to get the hang of it with more practice, or being a PC technician just isn’t for me. So right now I’m teetering between focusing on that branch of IT (PC repairing, networking) or the branch I’m more familiar with, web site building and design, which is what the courses I’m taking this fall are about. Hopefully over the next couple of semesters I’ll know which one I want to focus on more. I haven’t completely given up on the PC technician field though as I may retake the course again at a later date if I really get serious about getting CompTIA certified.
But anyway, after I quit my job on August 12th, I decided to spend the three weeks from then until schools starts on September 2nd, on a total vacation, with no work, school, or blogging obligations at all XD For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you probably saw that I spent a magical 2 days at Disneyland, then another fun (but hot!) day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Now that I have Sundays available, I’ve been able to go to my local Pokemon league again after going only once in a while before. I’ve also been spending a lot of time with friends doing relaxing things like going to the beach, the movies, swimming, or just hanging out at home cracking up at funny YouTube videos and playing Pokemon, Weiss Schwarz, and other games. And during this last week of my vacation, I cleared out a bunch of old stuff from my closets and cabinets that I don’t need anymore and gave them away or donated them, stuff like old anime plushies, manga, VHS tapes, and toys, and old children’s books from when I was a kid. It feels good to clear stuff out and now I have more room in my closets for new stuff! I had also planned to buy new shelves for my room so I could better display my figures and collectibles, but I decided to hold off on that due to money constraints.
Don’t think I forgot about anime during my vacation though! I still kept up and am keeping up with a handful of current shows each season. Of the 7 anime I picked up in spring, 5 of them have finished airing, with One Week Friends and Mushishi being my favorites :3 I’m still watching Mahouka, which is still airing, but I ended up dropping Captain Earth. Besides Mahouka, I’m also currently watching Glasslip, Zankyou no Terror, Tokyo Ghoul, Sailor Moon Crystal, Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun, and the sequels for Free! and Sword Art Online. I’m planning to review all of them eventually, so I won’t say much here, but I will say that I like all of them a lot except for Glasslip, which is just kind of okay-ish.
I think that spending these few months away from blogging was good for both me and the blog as I now feel “refreshed” and excited about writing again. I mean, I had gone a full 5 years of writing blog posts diligently at least once a week and was beginning to reach a burning out point. So it’s good that I took a break before then =P In order to prevent any unnecessary stress on me as I don’t know how busy these classes I’m taking will make me, I’m gonna try to make my new blogging schedule be every 10-14 days as opposed to once a week. I’m gonna try to adopt a “when I have time” schedule as a opposed to the “I must get a post out in exactly one week” schedule I had before, which I liked on the one hand because I’m a very schedule-oriented person, but it also stressed me out a bit on the other hand. Ideally I want to post once every week and a half, give or take a few days depending on what I’m doing that particular week for both my school and personal life. As always, you can check Twitter for all my blogging updates. As for what kinds of posts you have to look forward to in the coming months, here’s what I have planned:
– My next post or two will likely be anime and other related editorials – I’ve missed writing those!
– The following posts will be my reviews of the completed summer 2014 anime I’m watching (6 of them I believe)
– There’s a few game reviews I want to do; I’ll definitely write about Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire after they come out in November. I also started playing a game I’ve been meaning to get to for a long time, Epic Mickey. I’m kinda moving slowly with that one though, so I’m not sure when or if I’ll get a review of it. If I can afford the new Smash Bros. game later in the year, I want to review it as well. Also want to write about this indie horror/paranoia game I’ve been into lately, Five Nights at Freddy’s
– Since I’ll be going to the Pokemon league every Sunday now, I want to write my thoughts on that as someone who went as a kid back in the day compared to going now as an adult. The shop that hosts the Pokemon league also has Weiss Schwarz tournaments; since I’ve been into that a lot lately too, I think I want to write another post about it :3
– Depending on how things go with my classes, I might use the blog to practice various HTML, CSS, Flash, and other web design skills I learn if I can make them anime-related. I might just post them as little side things on Twitter as opposed to actual posts…I’ll have to see.
– And various other editorial, review, and top ___ list ideas I’m still thinking of =)
Sorry for rambling on and not having interesting content in this post. Since it’s the first post after a long hiatus, I felt it was necessary to catch up on things first rather than go straight back into regular posts. So yeah, hope the hiatus hasn’t caused me to lose any of my old readers XD It’s good to be back and I look forward to having many more engaging discussions with you guys~!
It’s good to see you back! Even though I’m a fairly new reader, I still look forward to reading your new content. :)
Thanks so much for your readership and for coming back to my blog XD
Yay welcome back! Glad you had a good cooldown period. Looking forward to new posts!
Thanks, looking forward to more insightful comments from you =D
Welcome back! Nice to see you all rested up and full of energy :) Looks like you have lots of plans already, so looking forward to that :)
Glad one of my long-time readers has returned ^_^ Looking forward to your comments~
Welcome back.
Of course, the hardware side of things require some hand on experience I done on my own since the courses I took didn’t really touch on them, but rather on how the networking hardware works and such along with how to manage and setup various types of servers, how to secure them, etc. If you don’t want to do hardware, I suggest focusing more on managing servers since it’s more related to websites. Of course, you would have to learn other operating systems besides Windows since most web servers uses Linux and some of your courses might cover server administration. (installing Linux in Virtual Box on your computer or getting a virtual private server from a place like Digital Ocean or Buyvm to mess around with). But in general, anything in IT requires a degree hands on practice, so I suggest practicing on your own. I do this with my website as I need to manage everything on my own since my site is on a virtual private server.
Also, if you want to mess around with the theme, I suggest making a separate WordPress installation and copy the theme files so that you can experiment without breaking the main site.
Aside from that, I spent most of my summer playing mainly Japanese games when I was not focusing on my summer bridge course. Of course, I went on vacation too to see relatives, although I done other stuff besides that.
Also, I look forward to what posts you have in store.
Thanks for the info. I’m still trying to find my niche in the IT field right now and I’m hoping it’ll all work out. You’ve always been so helpful to me as far as computer stuff…I’d like to get to your level of knowledge someday but I don’t think that’ll happen =P Who knows though.
Good to hear you had a nice summer too.
Good to read things from you again.
I thought you’d broken it with Mushishi, but you’ve gone back to not watching my top pick of the season, which is Barakamon. Nozaki-kun’s pretty great, too, though.
Thanks, good to see you back too ^_^
Sorry, I’ll have to add Barakamon to my giant pile of “plan to watch” anime XD But yeah, Nozaki-kun is really funny. One of the funniest I’ve seen in a while actually.
Welcome back! It will be good to read your posts again.
I’ve been playing catch-up this past week since a certain book was released last week ;-) – as you know, I was working on it for a long time. I got behind on almost all the anime I was watching in summer season, but I’m getting back into Monthly Nozaki-kun and a few others. Will look forward to what you have to say about Nozaki-kun and the other series you’ve been watching. =D
Thanks, good to be back =D I look forward to your blogging comeback as well~!
Good to hear you’re getting caught up on the summer anime. The past few episodes of Nozaki-kun have been especially funny XD Zankyou no Terror has been really good, too. The vibes of the characters and the general feeling of suspense it has is reminiscent of Death Note, at least to me.
I’m a new reader – found your blog during your hiatus and liked (or maybe admired?) that you have a writing style that expresses opinions in a way where I don’t feel like I’m reading an attack on a series when you may not have liked something as much. And the idea of creating an anime watching schedule really helped me out. I don’t know why I never thought of doing that before.
Glad to hear your summer was pretty fun. I think it’s good you’re trying out a posting schedule that might work better for you and that the break helped to make writing fun again (from the sound of it, at least). I look forward to reading what you have in store. :) Also, Nozaki is awesome. (The series, but maybe the character as well.)
I feel like I really abused parentheses here (sorry).
Thanks so much for the compliments on my writing ^_^ I’m glad you enjoy my blog and hope you’ll continue to enjoy it as I write new posts!
I use parentheses a lot too so no problem XD
Welcome back! I missed coming to this cozy little corner of the internet and reading your posts. Its something I always look forward to.
Also cool that your doing some gaming stuff. Will you be getting the “new” Pokemon games in November? I actually finally got a 3DS and picked up Pokemon Y and am addicted!
Thanks, glad to see you back too ^_^
I said in the post that I definitely plan to write about ORAS, so that’s a big “yes” as far as getting the new Pokemon games. And did we exchange 3DS Friend Codes yet? If not, can I have yours? :3 Mine is: 5000 2256 7814 (if we did already exchange them then maybe I have seen you online but didn’t know it was you XD)
Haha no we hadn’t. I didn’t have a 3DS till two weeks ago :P
My friend code: 0817 4060 8098
Youll know if you see me I use this same alias (Rioraku) for everything.
Damn I’m late for this one. Welcome back! Can’t wait for new posts!
Thanks! And considering I haven’t posted in two months, I don’t blame you for the late comment XD
Late welcome back greeting from yours truly. With your dedication I’m sure this school year will be another cakewalk for ya.
I see you too were brought to tears of laughter by Nozaki-kun’s greatness. Who can blame you when it’s that good of a show.
Thanks! =D
Yeah, Nozaki-kun is really funny. I’ll be sad when it’s over ^^,,,
“I feel that the only reason I got an A in it was because I was simply good at reading the textbook and memorizing the information needed for the many multiple choice tests and quizzes. But if you were to put a computer in front of me and ask me to do something like “partition the hard drive” or “find compatible RAM and install it,” I wouldn’t know how. ”
You’re so like me. I’m taking IT, too. I’m only good at memorization but never on hands-on stuff.
-_-
A bit late but good to see you back!
“But if you were to put a computer in front of me and ask me to do something like “partition the hard drive” or “find compatible RAM and install it,” I wouldn’t know how. ”
I think I can handle them, but in contrast, I don’t think I will be able to do web design xD
“I’m gonna try to make my new blogging schedule be every 10-14 days as opposed to once a week. I’m gonna try to adopt a “when I have time” schedule as a opposed to the “I must get a post out in exactly one week” schedule I had before”
That’s actually a great idea. I adopted the “when I have time” idea myself, and sometimes, I can be gone from a week to a fortnight, lol. But doing that doesn’t pressure me as much, so that’s certainly a good thing.
Also, I read the previous comments and I don’t know you own a 3DS xD As I just recently bought one myself, do you want to swap FCs with me as well? Mine’s 1650-3222-2408. I will add yours in a little while.
Thanks =D So far school is going well.
That’s great that you know IT stuff. In addition to web design, I’m also learning networking technician skills, which so far seem to be easier for me than the general PC technician stuff XD We’ll see.
I just added your FC on my 3DS :3
Added here as well^^ Name’s Blood, just in case you’re wondering who’s that.. :p (since I used a different name and all).
Glad to see you back!
I would be so disoriented being in an IT degree plan, I’m hardly a computer techy like some people that I know. I commend you for taking the dive into something that your interested in (and maybe not that familiar with) though, and I wish you the best.
Now I need to catch up on your others posts!
Welcome back! Good to see you’ve been busy with other things while on hiatus. :D