One Year Older

Time sure passes quickly doesn’t it? On this very day (I really picked an odd day, June 30th) of 2008, I’ve made my account on WordPress and picked up blogging.

Things were also a bit out of order these days. I was planning to write this post earlier, but a friend of mine from the lab invited me to have dinner with his friends.

The past:

A lot of things have happened in this brief year. A lot of change has overcome me and, well, you could say several “alters” was born the start of summer in 2008 (I don’t actually have dissociative identitiy disorder, so psychiatrists stay the hell away from me). The major one is my otaku identity, also more well known as GNdynames. Not exactly the most original internet handle, but I really wanted to get this thing off the ground, and as a science (now specializing physics) student I’ve made up a story that seems to make sense.

GN came from the initials of GN (Gilbert Newton) Lewis, the guy who discovered covalent bonding. Dynames is derived from dunamis, Greek for power or force (ironically they’re two different things in physics)

As for blogging itself, I was dragged in by a friend I met during elementary school. He initially joined the blogosphere because he wanted to improve his writing skills. Ironically, he quit and the person whom he influenced (me) stayed. He’s still helping me out with stuff such as banners (sadly I don’t know how to use photoshop) when he’s not busy.

I was more than clueless when I first started. Part of the reason being that I’m a very blunt guy who accepts everything he sees. This serves somewhat as a benefit because it makes it easier to learn things, but the drawback with this of course is that I would lack questions and/or opinions regarding various things. I see things the way they are, what happened happened and end of story. Thus, it is really hard for me to just draw up an article (I’m glad to say I’m actually improving). The other thing is I tend to like what I see and hardly criticise stuff, plus, I lack the sufficient knowledge to properly review things, on top of that science students like to keep things brief and to the point. All these factors serve to limit what and how often I write (and make most posts quite boring). This serves to make my blog “unattractive” to new viewers, and well, not having any external referrers didn’t help in the matter either.

Shortly after, I discovered Danny’s site and otaku.fm. It was also then that I joined the community of other otakus and fans. Soon, I got acquainted with other bloggers, the very first few being fellow Torontonians Rin and Saku. Later, my RSS feed got displayed on Anime Nano and Sankaku Complex, which also helped loads with traffic.

"Ecchi na no wa ikenai to omoimasu"

Of course, the other alter is the hard working one that takes over when I’m at school, which has an unbelievably strong will to study and keep studying. I’m thankful for that alter, but I’ve always wondered how the blog made it to this day alive.

The Present

Blog articles have always been random because, as mentioned earlier, I really can’t think of anything to write about unless it hits me in the face. The past stuff has usually been acquisition of figures, gundams, etc. Even though it has been one year, I still haven’t adapted to a proper writing schedule yet.

The post popular stuff here has been my Fate/Hollow Translations. Ironically it is also the one to get the least amount of comments. I had originally wanted to translate the game, but I couldn’t find programmers to help and so I decided to just publish them as a teaser of sort until whoever completes the translations, some day. Originally, it had been intended as a weekly thing, the problem with that is exams seems to always be hanging around the corner, and that idea (along with the last reminents of what was my “life”) was thrown out the window. My alter didn’t seem to care though, and thanks to him I managed to survive.

Currently, while not having all too much to do (at least going to class and studying qualifies as something), I’m pretty much constantly trying to think about the next topic blog topic. I also should mention that I try to pass myself as a perfectionist and thus I try to not make posts for the sake of making myself look “active”. Currently, I still have a few figures to be photographed, but I lack the lighting equipments to produce the quality of shots that most others have produced. I’ve been trying to get away with it by doing outdoot shots, it works for some cases, but not for others.

Speaking of figure. My collection has grown quite a bit since when I first started. According to Tsukiboard, I have 33 figures/gunpla in total (and 1 resin kit). 20 of which are PVC, 2 trade figures and 9 Gundams. 9 of them are Saber (and Saber Lion), 16 are from Type-Moon.

The Future

For me, the future looks bleak. I will be entering my second year in university in the fall, and it will certainly be a lot of work. First year kept me busy enough, but I’ve got even more class hours in second year, on top of that I will most likely be taking a third year course, which probably won’t be pretty. Once school starts, I will do my best to keep blogging. Although I can’t be too optimistic about what will happen and there is definitely the chance that I will be disappearing from the blogosphere (as well as the community). Also, blogging actually did improve my writing abilities, which is something I will need in the future, and another reason for me to do my best to continue.

Regardless of whether the blog lives or not, I am and always will be a loyal Saber fanboy.

Assuming that I do manage to keep blogging, things probably won’t change all too much. To say the truth I don’t have that dream of going and living in Japan one day, this will probably answer the question as to why I don’t write too much stuff regarding Japan, the Japanese culture, etc. I will do my best to continue the F/HA translations, and I will also be writing articles about advice on how to succeed academically, because I view things much differently from Danny.

Now, assuming that I do manage to keep blogging and remains alive until the end of my second year, I will be getting my own domain. But that’s still a year away, and there are many obstacles to pass.

A guy can always dream...right?

REALLY distant in the future (2 more years if I’m lucky) and I enter medical school, expect a big give-away event (and probably also a Toronto gathering with me paying for dinner or something).

Now, with only half an hour until my day is over, I’d like to have your attention for a bit longer.

I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming and returning to my blog, today would not have been possible if it weren’t for you. A special thanks for the members who are constant visitors and commentors (Rin, Blowfish, Optic, Saku, Q, lightningsabre and others, sorry, I’m running out of time here). You’ve made me feel like I’m somebody other than just another person on the internet, and for giving me something to look forward to other than the next exam paper. I am deeply grateful.

Thank you for taking the time to read. All the best to everyone.