This morning I woke up to a pleasant surprise. Apparently someone over at Feedspot likes my blog, and they decided to include it in their list of Top 100 Funny Blogs, which you can see here:
http://blog.feedspot.com/funny_blogs/
The list includes both popular and more obscure blogs. I came in at number 69, 20 places above The Onion, my primary news source. I’d like to thank whoever selected my blog for the list! I’m happy to know that people are enjoying my posts.
I’d like to thank Kausus of Otaku Gamer Zone and Ignite18@MarvelouslyMismatched for nominating me for the Liebster Award! I really appreciate it, and you should all totally check out their blogs! (Also, I apologize for taking so long to write this up. These award posts always take me forever to write compared to my usual posts, maybe because they actually require me to write words instead of just post pictures haha.)
This Liebster Award is a bit different from the previous two I’ve received because it requires me to write 11 facts about myself as well as answer all the questions from the nominators. (This is going to be a big post, but don’t worry, I included lots of pictures.) The full rules are here:
Answers to questions by Kausus:
1. How many Conventions do you attend?
For two years in a row, I was a panelist at MystiCon, which is a fantasy, sci-fi, and horror convention. I got to talk about dragons and meet other young adult authors, so it was pretty fun. I’ve heard that there’s going to be an anime convention at my college (maybe?) sometime soon, so I may check that out. I don’t know anyone else here who likes anime, so it’d be nice to find some new people to talk about it with.
2. Wine or Cheese?
I don’t particularly like either, but I guess I’d have to go with cheese, generally either mozzarella or Mexican cheese for pizza. I do love a good pizza. I was supposed to have pizza for an event last Monday, but it turned out to be salad and wraps (big disappointment). If you have pizza, you should totally share it with me.
3. How many countries have you visited/lived in?
I’ve only lived in one country (the U.S.), but I’ve visited 7 others in Europe.
4. What is your view on the community you write for? Be it Otaku, Gamer, Books, Sports, etc…
To be honest, I don’t know many people in real life who like anime and want to talk about it, but the people here on WordPress all seem pretty nice. I love having the chance to share moments that I find funny with the community to hopefully provide others with the same laughs I had. I’ve also been a part of the QuizUp anime community for the past couple months, and it’s a little more abrasive. (QuizUp is a trivia game that has become almost a social media-like site for specific topics. The anime topic in particular is very active.) The people in this community often debate what anime are good and bad and frequently end up in ridiculous arguments, which I find amusing. I don’t usually get involved in all that, but I do post funny pictures from time to time.
5. Is there a figure, living or dead, who gives you immense amounts of inspiration?
A real person? Not so much. But there are plenty of fictional characters who give me inspiration. One such character is Sensei from Barakamon. He starts off as a workaholic city boy, but he learns how to relax in the country and finally has fun and makes some real connections. He inspires me to enjoy the little things more.
6. What do you do when you hit the writers wall? How do you overcome it?
I have this problem all the time. I get bored way too quickly and lose all motivation to write (same with school and homework). Usually that’s when I decide to take a break and watch an episode of whatever anime I’m currently watching. In my experience it’s a lot easier to work in small portions. That’s actually how I’m writing this post haha. Every question or two, I go and watch an episode of My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute. It’s pretty funny so far, though I’m only on episode 4 at the moment (might be finished by the time this post is done). It references anime and otaku a lot, so it’s given me some decent screenshots. (Edit: I just finished it (the first season anyway), and I’m sad to say it goes downhill after like episode 6. Also, I’m still working on this post. Just got to the second set of questions haha. Now I’m watching Nodame Cantabile, and it’s very good so far.)
7. What is your ideal pet?
8. Ideal vacation spot?
What? You mean I have to leave the house? H-how will I watch anime?
Fine, if Ren-chon dragged me outside, I would say Swallow Falls in western Maryland. It’s one of my favorite places to swim in the summer.
9. If you could live at one convention, which would it be and why?
To be honest, I’m not a big crowds person, so conventions aren’t exactly my favorite thing in the world. I can enjoy them for a while, but living at one forever would probably end up like a nightmare for me. Plus it would make it difficult to watch my anime with all those people there. (Side note: I thought I was going to have to go back to Lucky Star to find a picture of anime girls tired of conventions, but then I watched the next episode of My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute and bang: convention episode.)
10. Do you like what you do now? If not, what would you change?
If by what I do now, you mean watching lots of anime, then yes, I definitely like it.
11. Do you like these sort of questions?
Hmm, I’d hesitate to say I like them. They’re certainly a nice change of pace, but they take a lot of time and effort to answer (at least for me). Still, I’m happy to do it, and thanks again to my nominators!
Answers to questions by Ignite18@MarvelouslyMismatched:
1. Are you a ninja or samurai?
I’m probably more of a ninja. When I was a little kid, I thought I had the ability to go invisible if I concentrated hard enough. Sadly I no longer have that power.
2. If you won the lottery, what would you do?
I’m one of those boring people who would probably just save or invest it, but I might use some of the money to actually buy anime stuff. I feel bad for always watching it for free, especially when the anime calls you out on it…
3. If you could witness any event of the past, present, or future, what would it be?
You mean besides watching what my crush is doing right now?
Hmm, I guess I’d say my future wedding (assuming I have one), so that I could have some idea of who I’ll marry. Of course, knowing how these things usually work in TV shows, I would only see myself and the guests, and the bride’s face would be covered by a veil so that her identity would still be a surprise…
4. Would you rather get lunch with Harry Potter or Ron Weasley?
Is Hermione not an option? Out of the three of them, I definitely liked her the best because I identified with her character. Between Harry and Ron, though, I guess I would choose Ron. Obviously it would be awesome to have lunch with Harry Potter, but I already know a lot about what he thought of everything. Ron may be a somewhat mediocre character, but hearing the story from Ron’s point of view might provide some interesting insights (plus he might bring Hermione along since they’re married and all).
5. Are you more of a night owl or a morning person?
I’m definitely more of a night owl. My preferred sleep schedule is going to sleep at 3 or 4 in the morning and waking up at 11. Unfortunately since I have class at 10 each day, I can only stay up until like 1.
6. If you could read minds, whose would you want to read?
It’s always a bit dangerous to read peoples’ minds all the time. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t want to know about people haha. If I could, though, I’d want to read the minds of girls I like. I can never tell how they feel, unfortunately, which often leads to awkward situations. If only real life was like an anime like this:
I’d have to go with either Pokémon or Fullmetal Alchemist because it would be totally awesome to be able to catch pokémon or to use alchemy.
8. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
My power would be to tell if fruit is ripe just by touching it.
I’m just kidding. I’d actually want to be able to fly because I just think it would be a totally awesome feeling. It would also mean I could fly to school instead of driving, which would be very helpful.
9. If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future?
Whenever I think about time travel, my mind instantly goes to Steins;Gate. I feel like it would be really cool to hang out with those characters, assuming I didn’t have to worry about SERN.
But to answer the question, I think time traveling to the past would be too risky. I wouldn’t want to accidentally change something to alter the present. Traveling to the future would be the better option, but it should probably be a one way trip so my knowledge of the future doesn’t cause me to alter the future in a bad way.
10. What fad do you wish would come back? Which do you feel should stay gone forever?
One fad I wish would come back is the one where half-naked girls hide in closets. I only have clothes in my closet 😦
Seriously, though, I’ve never been one to keep up with fads, so I don’t really know how to answer the first part. However, one fad that I think we don’t need is all the ridiculous selfies. I don’t mind when someone takes a selfie in order to share their appearance or to document their presence at a location or event, but I have seen way too many stupid ones that all end up looking exactly the same.
11. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
The craziest thing I’ve ever done happened last March. I started talking to a girl on a dating app, and we started dating (even though we had never actually met). After talking for about a month, I flew down to stay with her in Florida for a week during spring break. I had a really good time, but then I had to leave again since classes started up again. Well on Thursday of the next week, I got a text after I got out of lab that said that something had happened and the girl did not want to be alone that weekend. Now I’m not generally a spontaneous person and I don’t know what she was expecting since I lived a 2.5 hour flight away from her, but when I got back to my room, I bought a plane ticket and flew down that night to spend a 4 day weekend with her. My friends (and family) all thought I was crazy, but I had a fun time. She broke up with me soon after, but what can you do? This girl actually was part of the reason why I got into anime. Prior to meeting her, I had only watched Pokémon and Attack on Titan, but she kept talking about how she had loved Inuyasha as a child and how it was such a big part of her life.
Since I wanted to share such an important interest with her, I started watching it, and we watched a bunch of episodes (and one movie) together when I went down there. It wasn’t my favorite show ever, but I enjoyed it. After she broke up with me, I moved on to Steins;Gate and Fullmetal Alchemist and haven’t stopped watching anime since.
Facts about me:
I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures in this section. I’ve been working on this for about a week now, and I think I should probably just finish it up already.
Finally finished all the parts about me. Now moving on to the nominees, and then I have to make up some questions of my own.
Nominees:
Questions for the nominees:
Well I finished it. If anyone actually made it all the way to the end, congratulations! I hope you enjoyed the post, learned a little about me, and maybe even had some laughs. Have a nice day (or night, I’m about to go to sleep as soon as I post this)!
Yesterday I was nominated for the Creative Blogger Award, courtesy of Krystallina from the blog Daiyamanga. Thanks a lot Krystallina, I appreciate it! If you read manga, then definitely check out her blog.
The Rules:
Facts:
1. The personal statement that I wrote to get into graduate school discussed the possibility of plant intelligence. While that may sound crazy to most of you, it’s actually an idea that’s been gathering support lately in the academic community (well at least in a tiny subsection of it haha, most people still think it’s insane). I’ll give you a brief explanation for how this is possible. At its most basic level, intelligence involves electrical and chemical signaling. This is true in humans and is how our brains operate. Electrical and chemical signaling also occurs in plants. Sure, some of the chemicals are different from those in humans, but the presence of signal pathways offers the possibility for some level of intelligence.
2. I watched the live action Attack on Titan movie a couple days ago. I didn’t have high hopes for it going in, but I still was not prepared for how bad it was. The story differs significantly from the anime, and in my opinion they made it much worse. Part of that is because they really changed Mikasa’s character, and she was my favorite character in the anime. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that she is much less awesome in the movie. They also got rid of Levi and replaced him with some other character. (I know, how could they? Who doesn’t love Levi?) The new character they used instead was obnoxious in my opinion and just made the movie worse. Anyway, see it if you want, but I certainly don’t recommend it.
3. I took piano lessons for 12 years, from first grade until I graduated high school. I don’t really play seriously anymore, but I do mess around on the piano from time to time. Speaking of pianos, there’s a funny moment in Love Lab where the father of one of the characters sings a song about lingerie while playing a piano. It’s fairly entertaining, so I included the clip below. The anime is pretty good. I would recommend it if you are looking for some laughs.
4. I have visited 7 countries besides the United States. Those include Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I really enjoyed traveling and would love to find a travel companion for the future. Now that I’ve started watching all this anime, maybe Japan should be the next destination.
5. I’m having a hard time deciding whether I like Hunter x Hunter (2011) or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood better. Both are terrific shows, and I gave them both a 9/10 on MAL. However, I had some issues with parts of the last few episodes of FMAB (I don’t want to say specifics because of spoilers), and Hunter x Hunter really slowed down during the chimera ant arc (though the ending to that arc is excellent). Both shows also have a fair bit of comedy to them, although I think Hunter x Hunter was the funnier of the two. (However, I saw Hunter x Hunter more recently, so my opinion could be skewed.) I didn’t take many screenshots while watching them, though, for various reasons, so I apologize that I won’t be able to share many funny moments on the blog unless I rewatch them. If anyone is looking for a good action/adventure anime, these are both great choices and I would highly recommend them.
Nominees:
I was recently informed that I was nominated for the Liebster Award again, courtesy of One St0p for all EnterTainmenT and Otaku Highschool Life. Thanks go out to both of you! It’s always nice to be recognized.
Here are the rules:
Answers to the questions by One St0p for all EnterTainmenT:
1. Cats or Dogs?
I like both. I have a cat named Kyra and a dog named Elsie, and my family also has chickens.
2. Most favorite anime opening or ending song.
That changes pretty frequently for me, but at the moment it is Only My Railgun by fripSide (the opening song for A Certain Scientific Railgun or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun).
3. Swords or Guns?
As a fantasy author, I’m more of a swords person. Below is the cover of my first novel showing the two things most necessary for every fantasy story: a sword and a dragon. What more do you need?
4. Most annoying and an interesting anime character (Name two anime characters where one is annoying and the other is interesting).
I answered most annoying in the last award post (see here), so I’ll just answer with an interesting anime character this time. One character I think is pretty interesting is Sasahara from Nichijou. He rides to school on a goat, has a personal butler, and gets shot with high-powered artillery on a regular basis without dying.
5. How were you introduced to anime?
The first anime show I watched was Pokémon because a friend said I should see it, but I dropped it after about 200 episodes because it was frustrating that Pikachu kept getting weaker. More recently, my friends and I were bored, so one of them put on the first episode of Attack on Titan. We weren’t sure what to think of it at first since it seemed rather odd, but my roommate and I were curious about it and ending up watching the rest and really enjoying it. Meanwhile the friend who put it on has yet to finish watching the show. After that I started to watch other anime shows, and here I am about 3 months later having watched 50 of them and counting haha.
6. An anime/manga character you resemble the most. (not physical features)
Hmm, I’ll have to go with Kurisu Makise from Steins;Gate, despite the fact that we’re different genders. She’s a scientist from America like me, and neither of us are particularly social, though we do get along fine with others most of the time. We also have similar interests.
7. Which genre do you prefer the most?
I usually prefer comedy or action. Recently I’ve mostly been watching comedy because there’s less tension and I don’t have to worry about people dying.
8. On a range of 1-10 rate on how much you socialize with people.
Assuming 10 is the highest, I guess I’ll say 2 for this summer, although it’s higher when I’m at school. I only hung out with friends a couple times this summer, partly because they are all working and partly because I just don’t feel like leaving the house. I do spend a lot of time with my brother though when I am at home because he also watches anime.
9. Have you ever cosplayed?
I have not. I would be really nervous to do that unless it was with a big group of friends because I would feel embarrassed. That said, I did help my brother pick out clothes and such to cosplay as Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate at a recent anime convention in the area.
10. Favorite voice actor
I’ll have to go with J. Michael Tatum. He voices many amazing characters in the dubs, including Rintarou Okabe in Steins;Gate, Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, Kraft Lawrence in Spice and Wolf, and many others. I feel like every time I’m watching a dub, he shows up and always does an excellent job. Most recently I was watching A Certain Scientific Railgun S, and he ended up voicing one of the villains.
11. Anime you have watched more than twice.
When I first started watching anime, I tended to rewatch them a lot more than I do now because now I know that every time I finish one I can find another good one (hopefully). I watched Attack on Titan four times with three different people, and I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood three times.
Answers to the questions by Otaku Highschool Life:
1. As a blogger does blogging really help you in some way?
It helps me to keep all the anime straight and to remember some of my favorite moments from shows I have seen.
2. What’s your reaction in receiving this award?
I am happy to receive the award because it shows that people are enjoying my blog and helps to share my blog with others.
3. Can you suggest me more bloggers that i haven’t discovered yet?
See the nominees below and the nominees from the last award (click here for the post).
4. While you enjoy the wonders of the internet what can you say about the reality?
The internet is very useful to me and others in academia. It allows us to access all manner of research articles much more easily than ordering them in print. With that said, since I’m currently on a summer break I have mostly been using the internet to watch anime.
5. Do you have a current job? What kind of job?
I will be starting as a graduate student in about a month. While that may not seem like a real job to most people, it is actually a paid position. Graduate students in the sciences who are pursuing a PhD are provided with a stipend during their time at the university. I’m also an independent author, but I hardly make any money at all from that.
6. What is your purpose of blogging?
The main purpose of my blog is to entertain. I also hope that if people see a post they like, they will decide to watch the anime that it is from. In this way, I’m trying to share my love of anime with others around the world.
7. Do you have any interest in Japan?
I am becoming more interested in Japan.
8. In question number seven, if no or yes, why?
I’ve been watching a lot of slice-of-life anime recently, so it has made me curious about how much those match up with reality in Japan.
9. Are you content with your life?
I am content for the most part, though there are some things I would change, most notably in the girlfriend department.
10. If you had an ability to change your life what would it be?
I’m not sure whether this is asking what change I would make to my life or what ability I would want to change my life. If it’s asking about a change, I really wish I had a girlfriend. If it’s asking about an ability, I’ve always thought it would be awesome to be able to fly.
11. Do you accept yourself as an otaku? Why?
I’ve heard conflicting definitions of what it means to be an otaku. Assuming it means to be someone who stays in their house and watches anime all day, then yeah, I’m an otaku. I accepted that I’m weird long ago (I mean who isn’t?) so I can accept this too. It doesn’t really make a difference as long as I’m enjoying myself.
Nominees:
Since it’s only been a couple days since the last time I received this award, it’s a little difficult to come up with at least 5 blogs that I didn’t choose last time for whatever reason. Unfortunately I could only find 4, some of which have already received this award quite recently. Since that is the case, anyone who would like to answer my questions can feel free.
Here are the nominees:
Questions:
Thanks again for the award, and I hope you all enjoyed the post!
Today I was nominated for a Liebster Award, courtesy of Dale Hendricks from That Baka Blog! Thanks Dale, I appreciate it! Since I usually just post pictures, hopefully this will give everyone a chance to learn a little about me.
The Rules:
Answers:
1. What manga are your currently reading?
To be honest, I’ve never actually read manga, aside from random pictures I’ve seen on the internet. That said, I only got into anime relatively recently, so it’s likely that I will start reading manga in the future, especially if I keep watching anime with unfinished endings.
2. Best plot twist in an anime?
Hmm, I guess I’m going to have to go with Steins;Gate here, in particular the part with Suzuha. (Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it, and you should because it’s really good.)
**It was pretty obvious that she was from the future, but the plot twist was when we find out about her future/everyone else’s past. She worked part-time for Mr. Braun in the present, and when she went to the past, she took him in during a hard time. She was also the one responsible for obtaining the IBN5100. Steins;Gate does a really good job tying all the different parts together, and a lot of this takes place with the help of Suzuha. Plus it’s a bonus that we find out she’s the daughter of Daru.**
3. Which anime character annoys you the most?
One anime character that annoyed me recently was Patricia in Lucky☆Star, but that was just because I couldn’t stand her voice in the dub. Obviously this wouldn’t be a problem if you watched the sub, but unfortunately the sub did not have a lot of the quotes I wanted for my blog. Thankfully she wasn’t in too many episodes.
The anime character that annoyed me the most, though, would have to be Light Yagami from Death Note. I know a lot of people like Death Note, but I just wasn’t a fan. In my opinion, there weren’t really any likeable characters. Light especially annoyed me. He thought of himself as a hero or a god, but he just went around killing people because he could. His interactions with L were interesting, but it really annoyed me when the two of them instantly knew what the other was planning. At least take a few minutes to figure it out. It just got a bit ridiculous.
4. Besides watching anime, what are your other interests and hobbies?
One of my main interests is science. I graduated from the University of Maryland in May with degrees in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and in August I will be starting a PhD program at Penn State University in Plant Biology. My most recent study involved determining the effect of height on interpersonal attraction. I’ve gathered all the data and analyzed it, but I haven’t finished writing it up yet. It’s not looking good for short guys (Sorry Ed and Levi).
Another one of my interests is writing. I’ve published two young adult fantasy novels (A Broken World and Discordant Tones), a book of travel poetry (Poetry and Photo Travel Guide: Italy), and a philosophical booklet (Nothing Is Random). Feel free to check them out if you’re interested. I’m currently working on putting together a collection of short stories that I wrote for college creative writing classes. It’s taking a while because I’ve been a bit distracted lately with all the anime I’m watching.
5. Is there a certain routine or checklist you go through when choosing an anime to watch?
Generally I look at the recommended anime on My Anime List based off of other shows I have enjoyed. Then I read the reviews to get an idea if I will like it or not.
6. If you could switch lives with any fictional character (movie, TV, anime, etc.) who would it be?
Hmm, that’s a tough one. I’d probably go with Sadao Maou from The Devil is a Part-Timer. He’s got some good friends, girls who are interested in him, and he’s just so happy and easy-going all the time. Not that I want to work at MgRonalds, but if he can be that happy working at a fast food place, then it works for me.
I was going to say Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate because he’s sort of a scientist and I really like Kurisu Makise, but I don’t want to have to go through all the pain and suffering that he did.
7. Have you attended any conventions? If so, which ones?
Yes, I was a guest panelist at MystiCon 2013 and 2014, which is a fantasy, sci-fi, and horror convention. It was a lot of fun, and I met some great people. My younger brother is actually currently at Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland. I’m staying home and watching anime instead.
8. How long do you think anime will still be around for?
I don’t expect anime to go away any time soon. It seems to be gaining in popularity, although my opinion might be skewed since my friends and I just got into it this year.
9. What was the last movie you watched at the cinemas?
The last movie I went to see was Terminator Genisys. It wasn’t that great, although Arnold Schwarzenegger was funny. As I told my parents afterwards, how can you have action without people screaming in Japanese? I’m looking forward to the live action Attack on Titan movie coming out in a week, although I don’t have very high expectations. I’m just hoping I can find it subbed somewhere.
10. Do you prefer watching anime alone or with your friends?
Generally I prefer watching anime with others so we can talk about it. This summer I’ve mostly been watching it with my brother, but since I’m moving away from home soon, I’ll probably be watching a lot more by myself.
11. What future posts can we expect from your blog soon?
My goal is to post 5 funny pictures a day, each from a different anime. I’m trying not to have too much repetitive content so that I can keep it interesting. The posts usually depend on which series I’m currently watching.
The Nominees:
Questions:
I hope you all enjoyed and learned a bit about me.
Funny Anime Pics 