9 years later…

Credit to linked pixiv user

Art by 唄 on pixiv

Today is Mainichi Anime Yume’s 9-year anniversary. And, ironically, despite the fact that I haven’t been blogging much lately, this is the first time in years that I actually remembered the blog’s anniversary on time! So I felt like I’d use this special occasion to update those of you who still read this blog on how things have been going with me, as well as any plans I may have for MAY’s future…

As most of you probably know from my initial hiatus post, I decided to take a break from blogging, mostly because I was starting a full-time job, but also because I was running out of topics to write about and just haven’t been as enthused about anime as I used to be. So it’s been over 3 months since that post…has anything changed?

Well, first off, I’m glad to say that my job has been going well. There’s still a lot for me to learn and I have a while to go before I can earn the kind of salary I need, but I’m still training for new tasks, which has been valuable experience that will hopefully lead to promotions and such down the line. Compared to the low-grade jobs I’ve had before, it’s great having a job where people appreciate the things I can contribute. I know nothing is certain, but having this job is surely a step in the right direction.

But alas, working a consistent schedule of 40 hours a week means less free time than I’ve ever had at any point in my life. For someone like me who has tons of hobbies and interests, that means I have to drop some in order to make time for the ones I like the most. And unfortunately, anime has still been on the back-burner. I know initially I was gonna try to watch one or two shows from the summer season, but I ended up not watching any…the first time since I started this blog nine years ago that I completely skipped a season of anime. The only anime I’ve watched in the past couple of months has been the latest Pokemon episodes, and I’ve even been falling a week or two behind on those.

But this doesn’t mean that I’ve completely dropped anime as one of my hobbies. Even though I’m not as into it as I was before, I think it’s come down more to lack of time than interest. As I said, with the limited free time I now have, I have to prioritize for the things I’m more interested in, and anime has since fallen down that ladder. Another realization I’ve had is that, to me anyway, anime is a much “heavier” medium for me to watch than, say, my favorite YouTube Lets Plays. After a long day at work, I want to watch things that are “easy,” and the fast subtitle reading and complex stories in anime just haven’t been what I’m looking for. My life schedule for the past few months has been as follows: Monday through Friday, get up at 5:45am, get dressed, have breakfast, leave for work around 7am and arrive at 7:30am. My work day ends a little after 4pm, I get home around 4:45pm, have dinner, relax for a bit, exercise on the elliptical for a half hour or so if I’m not feeling lazy, take a shower, and by then it’s around 8pm. I then spend an hour doing whatever and have my night snack at 9:30pm and go to bed at 10pm to get at least 7-ish hours of sleep (except for Friday and Saturday nights, when I go back to my old bedtime of 12am since they’re not work nights). As for weekends, I usually spend Saturday running errands, helping my mom with things, playing Pokemon, and just enjoying my time off. And Sunday is “get together with friends for Pokemon and Weiss Schwarz” day where I hang out with a group of my friends and do just that – go to our Sunday Pokemon league at the local game store, go out to dinner, and play Weiss Schwarz and other video/card games in between.

So as you can see, I have some free time but not that much. I’m lucky that I have more free time than most full-time workers since my mom helps me out a lot with cleaning and cooking meals; I only have to do a house chore here and there. Sure, I could have time for anime on Friday nights and Saturday, but as I said, there are other things I’d rather do. I’d rather use that time trying to climb the rankings of Pokemon Battle Spot, watching a movie with my mom, or going out with friends. If I had more free time, I’m sure I’d still be watching a few seasonal anime and blogging about them. But with how my schedule is now, I just haven’t been motivated enough to squeeze in new anime.

But! Like the old saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I feel that if I spend a certain amount of time not watching new anime, I’ll start missing it. At some point I feel like I’ll start marathoning new anime rather than watch seasonally, and/or go back to rewatching my old favorites. So yeah, I’m pretty positive this is not the end of my anime fandom…it’s just on hiatus, like the blog itself. I’m sure one day I’ll want to put my current interests like competitive Pokemon and YouTube videos aside for a while and get back into anime. Or I might even get the inclination to fit anime into my already full schedule.

Anyway, for those of you who still check this blog, I can’t express how much I appreciate your continued support despite the lack of new content. When I started this blog nine years ago, I had no intention of ever closing it down…and even though it’s been on an indefinite hiatus, closing it is still not an option. I can’t say when or what the next new post will be, but I know it will happen eventually. As always, you can follow me on Twitter to keep tabs on me in the meantime (though I don’t tweet that often either). Thanks again to all of you who are still reading and I hope you’re still around whenever the next new post may be~!

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. chikorita157 says:

    Congrats on your site turing 9 years old and it’s good that your job is going well.

    I do agree that 40 hours does take a lot of free time away. As for me, I get up at 6 AM, eat breakfast and get to work about 6:50-7:00 AM since it only takes about 13-15 minutes to work and I’m usually the first one there before everyone gets in. I get home by 3:45-50 PM. Considering that I don’t have much of a social life, although I do have to cook dinner, which is usually something simple and do the usual chores like washing clothes on the weekend, I still manage to have a good amount of free time somehow. I guess it will vary from person to person. However, I do visit my parents once in a while and of course the drive is 4 hours long (8 hours round trip) since I do not speed, which takes a good chunk of my time from doing things while I am down there. But generally, I do bulk shopping so I don’t waste time spending hours grocery shopping every few weeks, and save some money.

    But it’s understandable that with limited time, there will be less time to do things. During my Master’s, I started to limit how much I write a week since the courses were a bit harder. But in general, my posting rate did not change much since I usually publish about 4 posts a week. But yes, it seems that people tend to focus on hobbies that they are more interested in than others given that there is not much free time. As for me, my hobbies haven’t changed much since it consists of messing around with computers, video games, anime and learning Japanese. As for my little sister, she is busier than me since she is doing her Doctorate while TA for a class, which is why she mostly play video games during her free time. At the end of the day, the amount of free time depends on one’s lifestyle.

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, when I lived on my own back at college, I would do laundry twice a week and grocery shopping once a week (didn’t have to buy much since I never cooked and would just eat or take out). But my mom usually does both of our laundry and shopping, so I’m lucky there. She’s also really into eating healthy and insists on cooking “real” food as opposed to getting fast or frozen food. Occasionally I’ll have to stop after work or on the weekend to get food for us if she’s not up to it, but usually she does it, especially now that we have two cars.

      Have you made friends with any of your coworkers? I love my solitude too, but you should try and be social too, especially now that you’re living on your own…it’s a nice feeling hanging with people you can relate too :3 I’m still good friends with a few of my ex-cowokers from my old job, and I’ve already found a few people at my new job who like similar things as me.

      • chikorita157 says:

        I decide to eat at home for the fact that eating out is expensive. Just a few months back, I realize how expensive it is to eat out at fast food. I had three pieces of chicken tenders and fries and it’s already about $6 when you can buy a bag of 8 lb frozen fries and 3lb chicken tenders for around $16 in bulk sizes. Since I live in the suburbs, driving to a resturant also uses gas, which is why I tend to eat at home, especially since I have a warehouse club membership, which already pays back in savings on groceries and even gas, meaning less trips to buy groceries since the stuff comes in bulk, although I have to eat mostly the same stuff since they don’t carry much variety, but I don’t mind. In short, I can use the savings towards my hobbies and savings, after all the important stuff like utility, mortgage and student loans are paid.

        As for making friends with my coworkers, I haven’t made friends with them yet although I do get along with them. It’s mostly because they are usually interested in other things, mostly sports which I don’t have much interest in, although some do play video games, mostly first person shooters.

  2. Justin says:

    Welp, I guess I’ll be the guy that says it:

    “You’re old” =p

    In all seriousness, congrats. Yep, you’re going through that time crunch now, but I think you’ll get back on the anime watching bandwagon before you know it. Just focus on what’s taking control of your life now, and then see where anime fits in there.

    (I do expect you to come back and watch more anime though haha)

    • Yumeka says:

      Yes, I know I’m older than your average anime blogger, or even your average anime fan nowadays XD But it’s all good, I’ll always be young at heart.

      I’m sure I’ll get in the mood to watch anime again, whether it’s picking up a new series or marathon-watching one of my old favorites. And I may even be motivated to write about them as well. Looking forward to it, whenever it happens XD

  3. Kal says:

    Hi, glad your job is going well :) I’ve been pretty busy as well, but still try to fit a few anime shows here and there. I just have to get much more selective with what I watch. But totally understand. Especially when you are still a rookie at your job, it’s a good idea to focus a lot on it. Learn a lot, pay attention to detail, and make a good name for yourself. That will take you really, really far. And yeah, anime will not go anywhere :) as you mentioned, you can always marathon a good series when you have time, and enjoy it like the old days. Advanced technology has it’s advantages :)

    Good luck with your job, and take it easy. I’ll keep watching your blog from time to time anyway, it’s been a fun ride :)

    • Yumeka says:

      Thanks for checking in ^_^

      I know I’ll start to miss anime before too long and want to watch it again, whether it’s back to seasonal viewing, marathoning older series, or just rewatching my favorites. I doubt I’ll be able to watch as much anime at a time as I used to, but it’ll never completely disappear XD

  4. Kai says:

    Kinda late here but grats! Glad you seem to be doing well even though you had to sacrifice anime a lot.. :\

    “fast subtitle reading and complex stories in anime just haven’t been what I’m looking for.”
    And that’s why I love my simple slice of life :p

    • Yumeka says:

      Thanks for checking in, I appreciate you continuing to visit my blog =)

      There’s actually a lot of subtitle reading in many slice-of-life shows, like Lucky Star and Kiniro Mosaic, because the humor is derived from what they say as opposed to action shows like Naruto. Not all the time of course, but often XD But I’m sure I’ll want to watch some new anime before too long.

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