Despite my high-and-mighty elitist sounding “RSS is awesome!!!” pimping, I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been living up to what I’ve been preaching (particularly Google Notes and Sharing) until recently, when more and more people started sharing their “Google Notes crap” and I don’t seem to be making any efforts in doing so! oh notes!

I’d like to think of Ryan as the main proponent of this in the anime ’sphere, followed by Lelangir, Owen, Omo, CalAggie, j1m0ne, who now made their Shared Items visible to the public, while mine remained hidden in my own burrow. But all that’s about to change, as I finally open the “pandora’s box” of my dark sekkrets. Not as sinister as it sounds, but you will get to see my trollish tendencies every now and then — stabbing bloggers behind their backs FTW!

Feel free to take a look at my Shared Items feed, and see random posts that I feel like taking note of (when I’m not being lazy) — posts tagged for a later reading/commenting, for trolling purposes, or for reference in the future, especially inspirational ones. The posts I tag *might* be indicative of future posts I’m going to write in the near future, so if you feel like doing a collab with me on a certain topic or something, just give me a holler and we can probably work out on that. I lack the initiative to suggest my post ideas to the ABC or the now defunct R-R because I’m not sure if other people would be enthusiastic about the topics (since most of them are somewhat ‘personal‘). I’m staying in my comfort zone wayy too much atm, I can probably need a little ‘push’ to bring some post ideas out of the blogging queue.

EDIT:
For instructions on how to go about Note-taking, I’ll just redirect you to Lelangir’s helpful tutorial. Spread the word around!!

No related posts.

Cosfuck, as the name implies, refers to “cosplays that are f*cked up”, a term which reeks of elitism in and of itself. By referring to a cosplay as “cosfuck”, the elitist sends out this [hidden/overt] message to the ‘accused’ cosplayer: “Your cosplay SUCKS, F*ck Off. Go Die/Pack Up your Bag and Don’t Ever Venture Into Cosplaying. Ever. Again”, placing himself/herself into this high judiciary pedestal, as though he/she was given the right by the heavens to proclaim what’s a good and bad cosplay, what’s fail and what’s not, or which certain demograph (of people endowed with great physique / features) is only entitled to the “right to cosplay”. Sounds like a cool thing to do huh? Not when it goes out of bounds, like flaming cosplayers in the public domain.

Now before you start accusing me of being an almighty elitist myself, let me just say that I’m not going to whitewash my own elitism crimes because I’m guilty of it too. I’m prone to having what we call “Cosfuck RAGE” among other kind of rage, and even got close to making fun of them in a post too, but stopped in thought as I realize how f*cking wrong it was. It’s not a matter of “wanting to hide my blemishes and show the world how saintly I am”, but a matter of reflecting on whether or not bashing a cosplayer in the blog is a right thing to do. Think about it, what good will that bring? Make my e-penis (or e-vagina, whatever) longer for being able to point out what aspects of the cosplay was done WRONG (especially when commenters all AGREE with it?). Yeah Right. You know what kind of post it would’ve turned out? Nothing else but stupid Tabloid Material, like other silly doramas in the blogosphere. Or even worse, considering that the one being trolled / made fun of is an unsuspecting cosplayer who attended a con filled with nothing else but enthusiasm and love for the game (and a lot of guts).

“But we are entitled to our own opinions, so f*ck off, faggot!” would probably be the counter-argument of the elitists in question. Elitism isn’t that bad, so long as you play it FAIR, may it be in your rage or whatever harsh criticisms you will utter. As Martin has very well said:

While the idea of what makes someone elitist stems from others’ impressions of them, the deciding factor as to whether it’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’ elitism depends on how the elitist projects his or her views. If they state their opinions with confidence and conviction without putting other peoples’ down or disregarding the validity of an opposing arguments, I think they can still be ‘elite’; crucially they aren’t projecting an offensive sense of superiority or ignorance that’s a characteristic of the traditional definition.

So tell me, what gives us the right to trash cosplayers as though they’re vile creatures that should be rid of from the face of the earth?! Being a ‘good cosplayer’ is not an immediate passport to cosplay elitism, it still doesn’t give you the right to trample on other ones who, in your elitist sight, is a COSPLAY FAIL. Some cosplays will certainly turn out to be “not so aesthetically pleasing”, considering the different “standards” we have for judging this, but if that’s how they want to express their fandom, who are we to devoid them of that right? If you can’t respect these people as cosplayers (since in your AWESOME sight they’re not suited to cosplay EVER), can’t we at least respect them as people?

It might seem like I’m trolling a certain someone with this post, and while I can’t deny those allegations, I’d say that’s not really what this post is about, since what we’re trying to deal with here isn’t supposed to be anyone per se, but the _ACT_ — something I even fall short of at times, there’s no denying that.

Before raging, and doing any vitriolic posts, why don’t we all calm down first and spend time thinking of whether the said rage is justifiable, or even necessary to be posted in the blog or in wherever public domain (this act is tantamount to ostracizing, in case you haven’t noticed that). A little reflection every now and then would be good, that’s for sure.

Raging bunny, now signing off!

No related posts.

1. I Can See Dead Blogs and Posts

The heading says it all, if you’re subscribed to an RSS feed, you’re sure to access the site during downtimes, even when the blog becomes dead or deleted! Even deleted posts won’t escape your sight. Awesome right? For readers, that is. Because for bloggers who want to erase something they’ve written on the interwebz, well, sorry to say but you can’t, not unless Google dies together with your cached data. Once it’s published, it’ll be there. Forever.

Lelangir’s blog, for example, has undergone quite a number of death and revival “cycles”, and if you’re subscribed to his blog’s feed in Google Reader (I’m not sure about the persistency of feeds in the case of other feed readers/fetchers), you won’t have to worry about his future decision to delete/undelete the blog because his posts will right in your Google Reader inbox, available for your reading pleasure.

Still not convinced about the “you can see dead blogs” I’m talking about? Well then, let’s try a little experiment, shall we? We all know that Os’s old blog Karoshi as well as jpmeyer’s あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし are long dead, right? While it may be true that you can no longer access their sites/posts directly, Google Reader allows access to their feed (thanks to the Great Google Cache), which means you can see their posts come alive if you know their blog feed’s URL and subscribe to it (though of course in the case of jpmeyer this isn’t a big deal since he imported his posts from the old site to the new one)! Here’s the feed URL for both Karoshi and あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし, if you feel like trying this out, to prove me right. I also tried this out with Wrex’s Anime Whirls and Helspectre’s blog, just for the kicks. You can try it out with other sites that disappeared from the face of the web, if you feel like reminiscing the good old days when they were still alive.

If the blog don’t offer full feeds however, you’ll only see the snippets of their posts, which means you still have to visit the site to read it in full. So if the blog is already dead or the specific post has been deleted, well, sad to say but you can no longer [fully] read it. Moral of the story (for bloggers)? Provide full-feeds, for posterity!

2. Unblock the Cockblockers! Images not included.

Simply put, you can read posts from blogs and other sites, even if they’re blocked by your cockblocker network administrator through Google Reader (again, I’m not sure how other feed reader fetch/synchronize the feeds, so I’m just going specific here, on the reader where I tried and tested this). This is particularly useful for those who read blogs at work, school, or other places with secure/strict network policies. The images uploaded in the blocked sites, however, will still not be visible in your feed reader since that would have to be fetched from the site itself.

And yet again, this will only be an advantage if the blog offers full feeds, otherwise you’d still have to visit the site to see the rest of the post. But since the site is blocked, well, boohoo you still can’t read it. Feel free to use a proxy site and hope your net ad won’t catch you red-handed.

Do take note however that you might run into image-loading problems with blogs that have hotlinking protection enabled (and not disabled for the feeds), and you’ll see this “NO HOTLINKING” image plastered all over the posts — one of the disadvantages of subscribing through RSS; not like that can stop you from going RSS, right? Right?

3. Avoiding Bad Design Like a Plague

Admit it, there are sites out there which tick you off with its aesthetic unpleasantness and activate your “design elitist” genes — the ones that make you wanna scream “OMGZ YOUR SITE DESIGN SUCKS BUTT”. Now if you don’t want to get distracted by the ‘horrendous’ theme design (that you yourself labeled), then do yourself a favor by subscribing to the blog’s RSS feed so you can read it in your feed reader instead — simple and clutter-free. Minimalists will surely opt for this.

Again, this will only happen if the blog offers full feeds (I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but this just goes to show how much advantage full feeds will give); otherwise you’d be left with no choice but to visit the blog and put up with its fugliness. Poor you.

4. Oh Notes!

The notes feature of Google Reader was brought to my attention by feed crazy Ryan, and it’s not until recently that I started getting into the habit of blog post note-taking. This goes hand-in-hand with otou-san’s helpful tip on how to use Google Reader to follow comments, with the latter allowing your Reader to act as a Breadcrumb application of some sort, as you’ll be able to keep track of your “commenting trail” in the ‘sphere, and the former for writing scribbles and notes about the post — either why/how it compelled you to comment, or anything else about it that you found rivetting, or other sentiments you may have about it — taking “tagging” one step further, in a way (omg long sentence is longgg).

Both of the aforementioned tips are a godsend to me, since I’ve been meaning to find a way to keep track of remarkable posts I run into, for future reference, or for future commenting (since there are posts which are ZOMG AWESOME, leaving you starstruck and unable to churn out an insightful comment in a whim).

5. Let’s Zoom In!

Time for a little personal narrative.

Back in the day, I never thought I’d find much use for RSS feeds, or aggregators for that matter, since I was an egotistic blogger who was far too engrossed in my own blog to bother about the whole blogosphere.[1] The moment I finally decided to stop being lazy and discover the anime community out there, I relied on Anime Nano and Animeblogger antenna, and found them pretty neat, as they provide you with this “wide angle view” of the blogosphere – the horde of blogs out there, the latest buzz, trends, and issues that you shouldn’t miss out on.

I hate being out of the loop, especially with riveting topics that I want to piggyback on, knowing well that I would’ve contributed some insights in the whole discourse (if I’m not being lazy). But I digress.

Despite how aggregators provide a convenient means to keep in touch of / reach out to the anime community, at one point I just felt it wasn’t enough. I wanted to get closer not only to the “community”, but the people / bloggers who make up this community in the first place. I looked for a way to “zoom into” the bloggers, and Google Reader did just that — now I have the anime community, right at my fingertips. All that’s left to do is to stop procrastinating and get into reading their posts, and participate in ongoing discussions.

Like Kabitzin, I never thought I’d find much use for RSS feeds, until I finally started using Google Reader to keep track of blogs, and has then become an indispensable part of my geeky otaku life.

UPDATE:

6. Be More Social, Share.

omg how could I have not included this! Thank you lolikit for reminding me about this.

The notes feature mentioned above, is one of the ways you can get more “social” with Google Reader, and it all boils down to one thing — sharing (or “pimping”). You can share notes, in connection to a post that you want to pimp to your friends (in Google Talk), for whatever reasons. And this turned out shorter than I expected, oh well.

…and that’s basically it for my so called “testimonial”. Feel free to add to this list, the more RSS testimonials, the better (better chances of converting more people too! )!

If you remain unconvinced to take advantage of feeds after reading this post, well I still hope you guys will drop by and continue to read our random babblings. Now if this post actually did convince you, I suggest taking a look at otou-san’s RSS guide (for those who still haven’t seen it, or have no idea how to go about using Google Reader), and I can only hope that you’ll add us in your feed reader — if you deem us worthy that is. Earning a spot in your reader = earning a place in your heart, after all (whether that’s good or bad only you can tell). Oh gawd this is getting cheesy, have to end this before it gets worse.

Hope you learned something from this, at the very least :3

Toodles!

[1] Proofs of my egotism

No related posts.

I’m not sure if we’re all aware of the hidden comments that reside in subtitles, because they’re not really meant for us leechers public viewers. They’re primarily useful for the fansub translators, QC people, etc –- aka the staff, for clarifying translation nuances, adding side-comments, etc. The moment they get encoded into the video, it’s supposed to be not rendered by the players. Or so people thought.

Now here’s where GomPlayer comes in.

GomPlayer, as I briefly introduced above, is a really lightweight media player which supports playback of most, if not all, video formats, and supports them well (unlike VLC which often fails with mkv files). It also allows ease in taking snapshots with a simple Ctrl+E shortcut, automatically saving the screenshots in one folder, named after the video’s filename (with a bunch of random characters following the filename). But of course, like any other media player out there, GomPlayer is not without its faults.

First, it doesn’t render fonts embedded in mkv videos (hence you have this plain old Arial font, or whatever font you choose—in all the mkv files you play), so you have to bid a bit of goodbye to super stylish fonts when using this one. Second, the screenshot capability isn’t all that ‘stable’. It advances a few frames when you take the snapshot, so you might not really get the screenshot until a few microseconds rewind -> re-snapshot. Then lastly, it renders the {comments} in the mkv file, comments that are supposed to be hidden. I noticed this way back when I was watching Kure-nai (and now, in Antique Bakery and Natsume Yuujinchou). I found this bug annoying at first (especially if the particular scene you want to capture has the additional {comment} on them), but eventually got to appreciate after all the eureka! and lulz moments it brought to my anime viewing experience. It’s kinda like seeing side comments in niconico douga, but this one is in English, and from the translator/QC-er himself/herself! To give you guys a brief overview of what I’m talking about, here are the proofs.

from Kure-nai:

Explanation for the sake of those who don’t get the chess term metaphors… orz

close encounters with the nuances of the Japanese language

from Natsume Yuujinchou:

fuck yea! hurray for side comments!

from Antique Bakery:

learn something new with each phrase!

Lost in translation, literally. @__@

The evolution of translation. bow.

For the sake of those who don’t get it, duh.

Kickass translator elaborations. Like yeah.

Translator-tan is dumbfounded o.O

Who ever thought a simple “Un!” could mean this much?!!

Instant manga comparisons FTWWW

So yeah, despite the glitches of GomPlayer, I decided to stick with it, to see more of these hidden translation notes This only happens in mkvs, if I’m not mistaken, so this also prompts me to download mkvs.

No related posts.

September 6 will forever be remembered as the day the 1st ever WordCamp Philippines was held (to all those who attended it, that is). Needless to say, and it was awesome! Fun and insightful, and I got to spend it with fellow anime bloggers hazy and Zeroblade too. I’m pretty slow so both of them have already given their respective reports on the event, while mine is days late orz.

Random Introductory Babbles of an Otaku

During the seminar, there was this trivia / gift giveaway portion where the audience was asked to answer some questions (and they get some prizes in exchange), and the people who were able to answer are made to introduce themselves as well as their blog. This introduction made me all the more hesitant to participate, even if I clearly knew the answer to some of the questions. It’s not an issue of showing how geek I am (since many of the questions are geeky, like how do you install Google Analytics into your blog, what is Google Gears, etc), but rather having to pimp my blog in front of an audience, almost all of whom might not even have the slightest idea as to what anime is about. There’s supposed to be nothing for me to be ashamed about, amirite? I’m proud of being an anime otaku, and I’m proud of my blog. I clearly am, but my subconscious took over and I sort of went back to those days.

Way back when WordCamp Philippines was announced, I already had the resolve to attend it, even if I had to do it alone. I can just wonder what difference that would’ve made. Perhaps it’d be awkward, since I won’t know any other anime bloggers in the bunch of participants, but then it would’ve also prompted me to step out of my shell and have more guts to introduce myself and my very own anime blog to the rest of the bloggers out there. Anyways, time to leave those What-Ifs behind. The next time, such an opportunity comes, I really hope I can stand proud of my anime blogging achievements! If there is such a thing

The Blogging Lectures

Blogging cartoon piccies to break the wall of text and at least not alienate the non-anime fans reading this post.

Partially due to the nature of the tracks I chose, the blogging lectures I attended were all not-so-technical in nature (though I was honestly expecting the Organizing & Optimizing Your Wordpress Blog to be more technical, like tackling design-specific issues, CSS or plugin sins to avoid and all that).

The first two talks I attended, by Jayvee Fernandez and Ely Apao, respectively, both focused on the blogging extrinsics, how to become a remarkable blogger, how we measure / capitalize on our media value and all that. The issues they tackled was more of selling your blog, but even those who don’t really plan on making monkey business money out of their blogs can learn a thing or two from them.

But really now, who wouldn’t want to make money out of their blogs? Their lectures prompted me to once again bring back the affiliation linkage that I do in the past. Pimp, then provide links to where they can directly order it online. That way, I’ll be able to contribute to covering the expenditures for the site hosting as well, since I’m just leeching and taking advantage of Maestro’s kindness. The monetary benefits is only a second priority of course, since what should prompt us to review something should be our love, more than anything else.

On Being a Remarkable Blogger

Going back to the topic, I’d like to share a few more tidbits regarding the Blogging 102 lecture we had with Mr. Fernandez. To make this easier for both you (as readers) and me (as the writer), I’m just going to mention snippets of what the speakers mentioned throughout the lectures, and voice out my thoughts along the way.

“Many bloggers write excellent content — however, not all of them break through the clutter of their niche” –quoted from ProBlogger
“There’s no better or worse, only remarkable.” -Jayvee Fernandez

This reminded me of the “The [anime] blogosphere is saturated” hot topic almost two years ago (way back when I knew nil about the whole blogosphere), or the episodic vs editorial issue that shows its fangs every now and then. It’s good to look back at these posts from time to time, especially after seeing the ones which I never read until now

I suddenly missed the good old blogging roundabout posts, the ABC adventures, Round-Robin, or what have you. I wonder who can pioneer or spark-up another one of these inter-blog discussions.

Many of us blog for fun, or so we say, but I’m sure that each and everyone of us wants to be well-known or remarkable. Otherwise, why blog if we just want to enter and exit the blogging scene like an anonymous weed, right? I remember 21st Century Digital Boy (whew that was a mouthful) say that one of [our] goals in blogging is “to have an opinion with authority behind it”. Like when says something, all people bow down, kinda like Omni, Jason or Danny Choo. This is also one of the reasons why many people feel honored when they get cited by Author-tan, in his on posts. It makes them go “Gosh, I got cited!”

So how do we break through the clutter of our [anime] niche, you ask? The first set of links above already give tips regarding this, but in the end, it’s all about discovering the blogging voice that commands us to write, being enthusiastic and passionate about what we do, striving to become better everyday, all for the sake of shaping our blogs (and ourselves) the way we want it to be.

If you want to be remarkable, then do something about it, and not just laze around hoping people will flock to your blog and that you’ll get famous even without you doing any extra effort. Instead of envying other famous blogs, make them your inspiration (Believe me, being envious or wallowing in self-pity will lead to your own doom). Not only will that flatter them, they’ll most likely recognize your humility and efforts as well. If you think you can provide something new to the blogosphere (whether you think it’s saturated or not), then do it. If you think you can make a difference, nothing should stop you from doing so. Believe in yourself, or believe in the people who believe in you.

The remarkable ones in this whole blogosphere get to be distinguished with their unique voice, and leave imprints in the minds of people. In this faceless internet, we all want to be recognized, to make a name for ourselves. As Mr. Fernandez also said, “Deep inside, we all want to know how much our efforts are worth”, whether that worth is in terms of tangible or intangible measures. I haven’t been long enough in this whole blogging business, but I do know for a fact that one of the key to staying long and fruitful in the blogosphere is to not be let-down by setbacks (lack of comments, lack of hits, lack of earnings – to those earning commissions out of their blogs), but allow these negatives drive you to become better. That’s one of the most basic rule of thumb to success which many of us forget, it seems… or it’s just me forgetting it. Coincidentally, as I was writing this, Impz writes about his current writing dilemma. So yeah, this one’s for you, Impz.

Wanting to be remarkable and set ourselves different from other bloggers is what drove Seleria and I to do our deep frying posts made of blood, sweat, tears, and LOTS of fangirl enthusiasm. We pimped our blog posts whenever we get the chance, earned readers, lost some along the way too, but still we’re alive and kicking! Or rather, I’m alive and kicking T__T; As to whether our blog can be considered remarkable, well, you be the judge.

semi P.S. While scourging the Philippine blogosphere, I stumbled upon the blog of Markku Seguerra, one of the first WP users in the country, and got enticed by one of the recent links in his homepage, What Makes For a Good Blog from Merlin Mann of 43folders. Boy does it make me strive to become a better blogger everyday! “Good blogs make you want to start your own blog,” he says. How great it would be if I can have that inspiring effect on people

On Responsible Blogging

The last lecture I attended was on Blogging and Journalism by Sir Danny Arao, which tackled the issue of responsible blogging. I really felt Impz’s spirit throughout this lecture, since the very words of our lecturer is pretty much what Impz mentioned in his comment to a previous post of mine, about Responsible Raw Anime Blogging.

One may argue that they’re not really treating blogging as major SERIOUS BUSINESS, and hence this whole blogging journalism issue does not concern them, but this is certainly not true. In his lecture, Sir Arao mentions about the Blogging Code of Ethics, which, I believe, all of us bloggers should try our best to adhere to. We may blog for personal reasons, like an online diary which we didn’t necessarily intend to be read by other people, but this shouldn’t be an excuse for us to become irresponsible bloggers. We should realize that the moment we publish anything on the web, Google will find it, and someone will certainly read it. We should all be conscious of that, and be accountable for whatever we write.

Blogging nonsensical LOL posts of course, would be another thing, but in the end, we still have to be accountable for whatever damage that will cause, especially those people who misunderstand them and take them seriously.

On Wordpress 2.7

Matt Mullenweg, the father of Wordpress, talked about the State of the Wordpress during the Plenary Sessions, where he showed us a glimpse of the upcoming WP 2.7, to be released this coming November. Zeroblade already summed up the features to expect in this upcoming release so I won’t go into details regarding this (especially since I feel really wasted because of a stomach-ache whose cause is unknown… makes me feel like I have Bulimia T__T). I’ll just mention a bit of my thoughts on BuddyPress (said to be the “Facebook in a box”)

I just wonder how useful BuddyPress will be. I mean, it’s cool and all, having your very own community within the blog, but that might also entail bloggers to stay in their comfort zones instead of exploring the vast blogosphere, and make the current situation worse. Random Curiosity can certainly make the most out of this feature, since this blog is quite an active ‘forum-like community’ in itself! But yeah, I’m pretty divided about BuddyPress atm =/

Misc Afterthoughts

I’d love to say more stuff, like how Mr. Regnard Raquedan advocated a ‘Wordpress Web Standards campaign’ as he tells us to do our part in ensuring Wordpress adheres to Web Standards (to the lesser geeks: at least check the plugins and themes that you’ll be using), not only for the sake of accessibility and usability, but for the sake of conserving energy (optimized code = less energy wasted), but alas, this post has gotten far longer than it should’ve been already.

Anyways, I’m pretty surprised I still managed to chatter this much given my wasted state. But now, I shall be off to sleep. Pray for my sty and also my tummy ache, sigh.

No related posts.

We finally reached a million pageviews last week!! Hurray! And we also made it to 9rules! Hurray2!! A big thanks to Kabitzin for the 9rules heads up, as always! We were rejected the first time, and instead of actually asking why we weren’t accepted, I moped… and thankfully enough, got enlightened and inspired to upgrade the blog + theme, organize the categories, and make this inspirational post.

Being accepted to 9rules is like a pat in the back, more than anything else, like a sempai who tells you, “Good job!” (I haven’t finished Gurren Lagann, but I do believe that Kamina x Simon moment best depicts this). There’s so much to celebrate and to be thankful for, in all these 17 months of blogging. And you, dear readers and commentators, especially those who became my 心の友 (kokoro no tomo => bossom friends), are all part of this. To add a certain twist to this thank you post, I decided to do make it more tl;dr and share this little eureka! moment as I discover the etymology of ‘arigatou‘.

Way back when I first encountered the kanji equivalent of ありがとう [arigatou], I was both amused and befuddled at its sheer oddness and irony. Yes, there is a kanji for ありがとう, but it’s rarely used. It’s commonly used in the otome games I played, however. The kanji goes: 有(り)難う (it can do without the り, hence the ‘()’), which, to my n00b eyes back then, translated to something like ‘…presence [有り => 有ります => arimasu] of hardships [難 => nan => difficulty]‘. And I was like, “being thankful for having hardship?! o.O” It didn’t make sense at all, and I never bothered researching about it too. I ended up thinking that this kanji must have been an 当て字 [ateji], kanjis representing native and borrowed words — aka, more kanji pain in the butt for Japanese and gaijin people alike.

One example of this would be the borrowed word クラブ [kurabu => club], which was turned into something authentically Japanese-y: 倶楽部 (also read as ‘kurabu’, with the kanjis representing ‘together’, ‘fun’, and ‘place / club’). In this case, the ateji makes sense because it matches both phonetic and semantic values, but there are also times when it won’t make sense at all. Like the ateji for すし[sushi], 寿司, which, by semantics, would mean ‘life span => 寿(命)’ and ‘command 司(令)’.

Now in the Japanese beginner’s class I attended in college (which was already during my last year), I remained curious about this weird 有難う kanji and so I asked our professor about it. My memory is pretty vague but I recall him actually agreeing that it is an ateji and hence it reinforced my little hypothesis. And then, just this week, while I was studying for JLPT1 using the UNICOM grammar book, I came across this ’special extra note’ for one of the grammar patterns, and it read: “The etymology of 有難う [arigatou]” I was fascinated beyond words, especially after finding out that my hypothesis for yearsss was all wrong (I felt a little disappointed at my Japanese professor too, just a little~).

The etymology of 有難う goes wayy deeper than just being the nonsensical ateji that I used to think. Not to mention the kanji has long been part of the word, not just assigned to it after xx years of conception, as with the case of atejis. And, it actually makes perfect sense.

Apparently, this all came from this one little phrase: 「有る（ある）こと」が「難い（かたい）」 => [aru koto] ga [katai] => ’something that’s difficult to come by’ or ’something that doesn’t happen all too often (in this world)’, either an act of kindness or any form of blessing [1]. It’s a blessing that’s difficult to come by, which makes you all the more thankful for it. Hence, it’s 有難く [arigataku] => which just later transforms into arigatou. Got it? I sure hope you did.

Whew… that was a mouthful.

Something to make this post all the more beautifully Nia-filled

This blogging endeavor brought me many of those really special blessings, more than just improving my English (lolz), how I communicate and express my thoughts and opinions, and organize my usually jumbled-up thoughts… it made me part of this whole anime blogosphere, and brought me closer to a diverse group of people who share the same interests as I do (or otherwise ), far more than I ever imagined. And for that, from the bottom of my heart, ありがとう！！！

Notes:

[1] Sorry if I’m confusing the heck out of people with this explanation. Kanjis are really complicated you see, and so the ‘難’ I read as ‘nan’ earlier, has tons of other reading, one of which is ‘kata(i)’, which, when suffixed to ari, becomes ‘gatai’ instead.

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This post is just as random as how I got to read the book “Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet”, which became my source of inspiration for this. And in case you’re wondering, I didn’t type this under the summer sun. I had this post scheduled ^^;

Most of my life I’ve been struggling with a superiority-inferiority complex, and despite how many times I convince myself that I should be proud of myself, take pride in my abilities and what God has endowed me, I was never fully at peace, and that inferior angsty attention-seeker persona of mine would always creep in no matter what. At one point I’d think that I’m so good like I can rule the world! But then at times just a simple criticism is enough to crush my pride as though it was simply founded in sand. That’s how shaky it was.

It happens in most of my endeavors, be it in school, at work (though I’d have to be thankful that the environment in my office fosters camaraderie, teamwork, and love, not competition and such), and also blogging. After a year of blogging, and having realized that episodic summaries is not my thing, I remain a lost little sheep who hasn’t fully come into terms with the reason why she’s writing in the first place. Not being able to make it into 9rules made me all angsty and sulky as well.

I’m not sure if I shared this before, but one of the reasons why I started out blogging is to seek attention, to serve as an ego-booster to this inferior self of mine. I measured my worth as a blogger in terms of hits and comments, hence I resorted to shameless pimping way back the early days. I got steady hits because of being a pimp, and I somewhat spoiled myself into thinking that I NEED these hits/comments.

Another one of my biggest blogging booboos is comparing myself with other more established blogs, wondered how they are able to gather all those hits and comments, why my blog remained unnoticed by other people and such. When hits and comments come in, I’d be on cloud nine, but when they don’t, I’d sulk like an immature child who got robbed of her lollipop. I viewed these hits and comments to be a “requirement” or measure of my posts, I was looking for extrinsic forces to affirm my worth as a blogger.

From my previous meta-blogging posts, it would seem as if I already got over this dilemma, when I actually haven’t. I know I’ve preached about blogging for fun, not caring about hits and comments, and all that, and I’m sorry for being such a poser. It seemed as if I believed in someone who believes in me, yet pretentiously so. It’s not until recently that I came into terms with all this, after reading the enlightening book “Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet”, which my good friend/officemate Dean lent me (out of sheer randomness XD).

In the book wrote Rilke’s letters to an aspiring young poet by the name of Franz Xaver Kappus, who sought his advice in the hopes of finding enlightenment to the questions plaguing him. Through their correspondence, I saw myself in the confused young Kappus, who was wandering in the path of being an artist. While I’m not aspiring to become a poet and dedicate my life to being an artist like Kappus probably was, I found his concern regarding why he’s writing to mirror that of my own. How he was searching for answers and affirmation from extrinsic forces, when the answer lies deep within him.

The first letter of Rilke was enough to pierce through the depths of my being, which, although supposedly addressed to Kappus, might as well serve as that voice of epiphany people like me have been searching for.

“You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you – no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity;

And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it.”

…says Rilke in his first letter. That was all it took to make me bow down on my knees and repent from what I’ve been doing. The moment I read these lines, Rilke’s [silent] voice resounded in my head, and will forever serve as a constant reminder of what a right blogging mindset should be, to find joy in writing, without expecting external rewards (aka hits, comments, fame, etc).

All these months I’ve been consumed by the desire to have more hits and comments, and in the process, I forgot the joy of reaching out to people, the happiness in just being able to impart all these thoughts and experiences to others. This felt like one of those turning points in movies where the zero-to-hero-transformed protagonist comes to realize how this power is consuming him, making him lose track of what’s supposedly important, and then changes for the better, to become a REAL superhero or something lol.

Ironically enough, I think the moment you stop thinking of all the hits and comments, and focus on writing for fun, people will eventually flock to your blog. It’ll just happen even without you thinking so much about it (though of course you’d still have to do a little extra effort if you really want to be noticed, participate in the blogosphere in particular)! By not expecting all these external rewards, you’ll treat them like an added bonus to the joy you’re already feeling by simply writing, and that will all the more make you appreciate these hits/comments.

Blogging can be considered analogous to real-life relationships in this sense. In order to gain [true] friends and get along with other people, what you need to do, aside from having a sane mind and a good grasp of social etiquettes / good manners, is stay true to yourself, show who you are to people (with a good grasp of manners of courtesy, you’d know how far you can go in showing who you are). At times, you’d have to make that extra effort to initiate the friendship, but don’t expect that they pamper you with attention, just interact with them naturally. Eventually, you’ll find yourself blending in, naturally as well.

And of course, for a relationship to be nurtured and become healthy, the people involved should have a good grasp of their identity and be able to realize their value and worth as people. Nothing can ruin a relationship more than jealousy and lack of trust, which more often than not, stems from these feelings of inferiority. Believe in yourself, be confident while maintaining humility, carry on these values in blogging.

So if you ask me now, why am I blogging? It’s because I view it as an extension of my soul, the part of me that screams and tries to reach out to people, something I’m usually unable to do in the casual chances of my life. The blog serves as an outlet of my feelings, my passion, and just about everything otaku about myself. While hits and comments serve as good indicators of my “reach”, the absence of these should never be a reason for me to undermine my worth.

Thank you Lord.

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While I initially didn’t intend to post about our 1st Round-Robin topic about the subject of anime and escapism, I had a sudden burst of inspiration after reading Hinano’s entry, and I found myself empathizing with, and pondering upon this escapism issue. Then comes Soshi’s write-up on this topic, and once again I am inspired.

First of all, what is escapism? According to good ol’ Wikipedia:

Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an “escape” from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily stress. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to try to help relieve feelings of depression or general sadness.

Given this definition alone, one might say that using anime as a means of escapism is actually good. Hey you’re using it as a stress reliever! Instead of getting all depressed and frustrated about real-world issues to the point of being suicidal, you channel all those negative chi to watching anime, and voila, say goodbye to a stressful life! Happily ever after. Not really.

Real life can strangle you at times, it becomes suffocating and daunting. We all need a break from time to time, to unwind from all the stress. And for otakus like you and me, we turn to anime, mangas, and games for such relief. But at the end of the day, after having indulged ourselves with our anime hobby, we’d still have to return to the ever present Real World, whether you like it or not.

Anime is one form of medication, as Soshi puts it, which, at its worst can be debilitating drug the moment you consider it to be the be-all and end-all solution to your problems. It’s ok to turn to a dose of anime for medication and some meditation, so long as you don’t forget what it was that drove you to seek this refuge in the first place. Escaping from real-life issues won’t make them go away — a common sense we know, but that we often forget [or shove to the darkest corners of our minds] as well. You’d have to deal with them like a REAL [WO]MAN, confront and conquer them, just like any normal [healthy] sane person would.

I’m a melancholic emo bunny~

Now here goes my anime dorama…

If there’s one thing in my life that I never seemed to have lost passion for, I’d say it’s anime/manga/otakuism. It’s been part of my life ever since I could remember, but it always remained that way. It’s just a part of my life.

As a kid, I was naturally drawn to all things aesthetically pleasant and cute, and the moment I got to watch anime on our local TV, it was love at first sight. My interest grew as I got older, and I was inspired to draw fanarts and study Nihongo because of it. I was proud of my achievement, I was proud of having anime-centric hobbies / skills.

Brought up in a really competitive family, I was more or less required to excel in my studies, become the top of the class as much as possible. In a way, anime provided that escape from all the pressure and disappointments I felt throughout the years. It made my life brighter; it allowed me to do something I want, out of sheer enjoyment.

But then being overzealous about anime (side by side being an introvert) is not without its disadvantages, as I have experienced throughout my teenage years. Way back elementary and high school, I was considered to be different from most people. I preferred anime over the typical dramas “normal” girls in my class watch: Dawson’s Creek, Melrose Place, etc. I also preferred mystery books like Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys instead of Sweet Valley High which most girls in my class were raving about. I was a party pooper, I don’t like going to discos and hanging out with the other girls (having their usual ‘boy talks’). I was never fond of shopping because my aunts and uncles shower me with clothes for my birthday and Christmas presents anyways, so why waste monies! I was an introvert who preferred socializing with down-to-earth people who understood my eccentricities.

But still, I managed to find my place in society despite being an anime fanatic, thanks to my family and close friends who accepted me for who I am (my mom enjoys watching cartoons and animes too <3). While pouring my energies on animes, mangas and games, I spent time busying myself with church and socio-civic activities, and other extra-curricular activities in school. I also grew a fondness for baking and cooking thanks to my mom, and contrary to popular belief during high school, I don’t prefer 2D over 3D guys. I just don’t talk about that topic much with the girls in my class, hence they probably thought I prefer virtual guys *facepalm* I grew up as a normal healthy girl, so to speak. I knew well that what stays on paper and on-screen will remain as such.

For the most part, I don’t think my love for anime was driven by the need to escape from reality. Whenever I get really depressed, I listen to some contemporary Gospel music, and I feel renewed. The only time I remember watching an anime due to depression was during my first few months at work, which I also talked about in my previous Ouran Koukou Host Club story post. I had some issues with fellow batchmates/trainess/co-workers, and Ouran helped uplift my spirits. I found myself laughing so hard while watching, despite BAWWing with tears earlier (which made me look like a lunatic). Still, at the end of the day, the problem remained, and I dealt with it the way I should. I confronted the person I was in bad terms with, and settled the score between us. There was another person involved in the sad incident, but I was able to forgive him and put that past behind us. Now we’re all good friends, and I’m happy about it.

We have our own idiosyncrasies (like being anime fanatics), yes, but that shouldn’t hamper us from growing holistically as people. We should all grow-up to become mature and responsible individuals, and we can do so in spite of all these eccentricities. Despite enjoying all these fictional fantasy anime stuff on one hand, we should not be blinded by what is real and what society expects from us (from normal socially-healthy people), on the other.

Anime might provide entertainment, something to reflect upon, or to fap upon, even. But no matter what happens, anime will always remain anime, and Real Life will always be present no matter how hard you try to run away from it. You can’t be reincarnated as an anime character in an anime world. Reality isn’t made to be that way. You were born as you are, a person with your own identity, and however you want to shape your life is in your hands. No animes will do that for you.

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