What Was the Last Video Game You Played?

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

Aw, well if you say so, then I’m glad to be of assistance!  I guess I was just feeling kinda bad knocking down ideas without being able to substantiate my claims by providing suggestions.  Ohh, it’s good to hear to have a new idea you’ll try to work with.  I look forward to seeing how it turns out!  And also, brainstorming ideas on my end isn’t too time consuming of a process.  If there’s any down time in my busy schedule, like when I’m eating or taking a showering or trying to fall asleep, I try giving it some thought, haha.  I haven’t had a ton of luck with it, but at the same time I’m not stressing over it, so no need to worry!

 

Oh gosh, I didn’t mean to use reddit for anything more than efficiently trading and racking up Club Nintendo codes for coins and prizes.  But as that activity eventually fizzled out, the amiibo craze was just beginning to pick up.  Once I realized that collecting the eight Servants would require more than just a little bit of luck, I began stalking the amiibo subreddit.  Now that that’s done, I really don’t have much of a need for reddit anymore.  However, during the long time I was hunting for amiibo, I’ve gotten into the habit of checking the anime and Smash Bros subs daily, eheh.  I’m not as active as a lot of people on there, but I do my best to contribute when I can.  I guess you could say I’ve at least started establishing myself there.  It’s pretty much the only place I use to “discuss” anime, apart from DCW.  I’m glad to hear that you’re still using your DeviantART occasionally even after all this time.  Keeps your graphics skills polished and brings in a bit of revenue.  Ah geez, I actively read the DC manga and I still don’t really contribute much to the chapter discussion threads.  Because I’m always watching so many anime series at the same time, there’s always at least one show I’m more emotionally invested in than DC.  In fact, if an ongoing series interests me less than DC, then it’s really really bad, hahah.  Because of this, I don’t have much motivation to sit there and guess the criminals of cases or speculate about Black Organization uncertainties.  Ohhh, you donated back then?  Even if it was just a little bit, good on you for that!  Ahaha, yeahh, I’m really greatful to DCW for giving me the opportunity to meet you.  I really don’t know where I’d be today without you, seriously.  I owe this site a lot for that, I really do.  I remember you adding that tree in the middle of a field to the character list, ahah!  Chek didn’t flag you for it and it was obviously done as a joke, so you should be good.

 

Yeah, I lot of people have commented and made jokes about Zygarde’s parallels to Cell, but since I don’t follow DBZ to any extent I wasn’t able to make the connection myself.  I guess it’ll grow on me; it was just so random it threw me off guard at first.  But yeah, Ash-Greninja is just…………  Oh gosh, it’s just so ehhh.  My guess is it’s the same case as with AZ’s Floette, but apparently it only happened once before several hundred years ago.  AZ’s been around for thousands of years though, so unless they’re just going to act as if “hundreds” is the same as “thousands” then the years don’t add up.  Not to mention, it’s kinda silly how Greninja’s been with Ash for just a short period of time and is the one that “bonded to the limit” while poor Pikachu’s the same old Pikachu.  Actually, I’m thankful for that.  If they made Pikachu look like Ash then oh my gosh……  I dunno, there’s still a lot of unknowns surrounding this appearance change, so we’re going to have to see how this plays out.  Well, at the very least with Zygarde’s forms revealed hopefully news of Pokemon Z or X^2 Y^2 or whatever they decide to make is revealed soon.  Meanwhile, I’m still giddy over the thought of Pokemon Go, heehee.

 

(Throw in the two sequel Zero Escape games, perhaps the two Zelda games, and yeahhh… you’re probably never going to get around to it…)  Of course, if you ever find that you’re short on time in college, you might want to consider solo running the new Pokemon game, even if it may not be the ideal scenario.  Hm, Abandoned Ship huh?  I look forward to seeing it, haha.  As for where I am right now I believe I’m in Lavaridge Town.  I haven’t really explored it much or versed Flannery yet.  The only thing to report is that I’m finding it difficult keeping Metang below the level cap, since it’s treated as a traded Pokemon.  It’s exactly level 41 now, which is just over the limit.  To bring it up I need to defeat Flannery.  Sigh, I’m going to have to get through that gym with a Pokemon that doesn’t listen to me, oh dear.  It doesn’t help that I don’t have a Ground type move right now either.  I’m not sure how crippling the Speed decrease that comes with Hammer Arm will be, but hopefully it isn’t too bad.  I’d really like that extra power boost, but Brick Break isn’t too shabby either.  I don’t really feel like calculating which one will be better in certain situations, so I guess I’ll just see how things go with Hammer Arm initially and change it if I want to.  Same with Mega Metagross; I’ll give it a try and see if I like using it.

 

Ehhhhhh??  I baited you???  You were the one who brought up how you slept in the first place.  You have no one to blame but yourself, hmph.  And if a robber barges in on you half naked, then use that to your advantage and take him by surprise!

 

Because we’ve only had two official Republican debates (with the first Democratic one coming October 13th) and those have been practically my only source of info until the playing field narrows down a bit, I still have a long way to go until I commit to any candidate.  But as things stand now, I’m beginning to understand the Republican candidates a bit better.  While I don’t agree with Trump on some things, I don’t think he deserves the hate he’s getting either.  Some people are treating him like the devil incarnate, but there’s nothing blatantly wrong with his position on any issues.  I like how he’s blunt and to the point, unafraid to drop the politically-correct talk.  Also, he’s a political outsider, which is nice.  People have been crying for a Washington outsider for ages, and while Trump wasn’t exactly the man they all had in mind, that he’s self-funding his entire campaign is something that can’t be denied.  The only other person outside of politics that’s running is neurosurgeon Ben Carson, but he’s not rich enough to not be getting help from lobbyists.  Carson’s a pretty exciting prospect.  He’s not the best speaker of the bunch and he doesn’t have the charisma of Trump, but he’s consistently at the top of polls.  I don’t feel too strongly for or against him, but I’m curious to see how far he can go.  Chris Christie is an interesting fellow.  Though I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life, I hadn’t really followed much of what he’s done in our state since he became governor in 2010.  At the very least he hasn’t made our state worse.  Because Edison is such a leftist state, Christie gets a ton of heat from my classmates, much of which is unfounded.  He did a fine job in New Jersey, though I’m not entirely sure if he’s up for being President.  Jeb Bush is someone I’m a bit hesitant to support.  I wasn’t the biggest fan of how his brother handled the presidency prior to Obama, and while Jeb insists he won’t be like his father and brother before him, just the thought of a third Bush in office makes me a bit uneasy.  I just feel he’s too deeply rooted in politics to bring about the right kind of change. Another candidate I’m not terribly fond of is Ted Cruz.  His political stance is a bit too conservative for my liking and he comes off as a tad too religious-y, if you know what I mean. Pretty much the same story with Mike Huckabee; he’s too far right.  John Kasich is an interesting person.  He spends a bit too much time talking about his past accomplishments during the debates, and I hope he starts focusing more on what he’d do if he’s in office, but for now I’m not strongly opposing him.  Rand Paul is a candidate that I’m more in favor of.  I like that he recognizes there’s hypocrisy in the fact that poor blacks in inner-cities are sent to jail for smoking weed but privileged white kids in suburbia are rarely arrested for the same reason.  That he understand this, which is something people are hesitant to acknowledge despite it being an undeniable fact, is rather commendable.  Marco Rubio is also a candidate I can see myself supporting.  A good speaker who isn’t too conservative, he’s someone I’m keeping an eye on.  For now, the person I’m most strongly siding with is Carly Fiorina.  She is a strong presence and a fantastic speaker, with views that aren’t too far right (you know this is true when those who are really conservative criticize her for not being “right” enough).  She’s also a quick thinker.  At the end of the debate, when all the candidates were asked the light-hearted question “Which woman should be on the ten dollar bill?” she responded, “I wouldn't change the $10 bill, or the $20 bill.  I think, honestly, it's a gesture.  I don't think it helps to change our history.  What I would think is that we ought to recognize that women are not a special interest group.  Women are the majority of this nation.  We are half the potential of this nation, and this nation will be better off when every woman has the opportunity to live the life she chooses.”  Damn, that’s slick as butter.  Of all the Republicans, she’s the one I support the most.  Since I haven’t watched the secondary debates, I don’t know much about those who have pretty much exclusively spoken there, like Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, and Rick Santorum.  Also, there’s really not much to say about those who have already dropped out, like Rick Perry and Scott Walker.  I’ve always thought presidential elections were really cool, because it’s like a real life battle royale.  It’s not nearly as fun when there’s an incumbent running for re-election though, so 2012’s election was rather bland.  This year though, since both sides are looking for candidates, it’s going to be a two-way mud-slinging fun-fest, haha.  Of the seventeen original Republican candidates, two are out which leaves fifteen remaining!  Ohoho, just thinking about how the numbers will dwindle down before we have an epic final showdown is getting me excited, heheh.  Geez, I’m so weird, I haven’t met anyone else like me who sees politics this way.  Either they’re too blinded by their single party that they can’t enjoy following the other side of the story or the extremists have scared them out of following politics for life.  (Sorry for going off on a tangent, I probably sound like your econ teacher…)

 

Wut, you guys have your surnames on the back of your jerseys?  Sheesh, yeah, we don’t do that…  We do have sweatpants and hoodies though, for public purchase at least.  Nothing with names on them, but they’re there, I guess.  Damn, there are other townships even richer than Troy??  I-Impossible……  I don’t think there’s ever been a problem with sizes.  Marching band and color guard uniforms all come in a crazy number of variant sizes, so there’s a fit for bodies of any dimension.  The other sport uniforms just come in your standard XS, S, M, L, XL, and XXL sizes I believe, which covers all your bases and there’s never a shortage of spares from what I can tell.  If you’re an XXS or an XXXL, then you just gotta make do, hahah.

 

Hmm, I guess if you’re used to it then sleeping with a watch wouldn’t be too bad.  I’m just trying to imagine it in my head and even if you have your hand under your pillow, it still sounds rather uncomfortable.  I wear an average-sized digital watch in an average position and my laptop isn’t unusually big or anything.  I’m just really sensitive to things being even a little off centered, so I’m probably just more affected by it than you would be in the same situation, eheh.

 

Yeah, I’m not against Free existing or against anyone watching it, but in general I lament the overabundance of ecchi in anime.  It sucks that the industry is so focused on “sex sells” that that’s the main focus when an anime is made.  They know sexy characters will come with a ton of merchandise like stickers and posters and bags and figurines and body pillows, and that’s their main source of income.  Relying on Blu-ray sales isn’t going to cut it for most anime.  That’s why you don’t see many Tatami Galaxy’s or Ping Pong: The Animations or Zankyou no Terrors; they don’t come with merchandise and therefore won’t make as much money as Monster Musume.  Seriously, if you think about that for a second, you begin to realize just how ridiculous the fanservice storm as become.  I don’t blame outsiders for stereotypically looking down at anime.  It’s far more than 90% crap.  In terms of percentage of quality works, it’s no better than the action-saturated Hollywood blockbusters.  Jurassic World is just America’s version of Japan’s DanMachi.  On rare occasions, we get a brave soul willing to stand against the mainstream money-greedy industry, like Takechi Koike who made the movie Redline.  Redline came out eight years late.  That’s right, eight years.  That’s because Koike refused to settle for less.  Even if it would take a ridiculous amount of time and money to finish, he wouldn’t release a product he wasn’t proud of.  Would the movie sell well?  Even if it did, there’s no way it could have made up for eight years’ worth of expenses.  I honestly can’t believe the production company let him have his way.  That’s probably why no one has let Koike make a movie since; his style is unprofitable and that’s the last thing people want even for the sake of “vision” and “quality”.  Props to him.  I admire what he stands for; restores a bit of my faith in humanity.  He’s a man who truly believes “it’s not about the money”.

 

Oh man, I think I’m going to like PSG.  At least I’m hoping I do.  I loved Yondemasu yo Azazel-san, and most recently Prison School and Shimoneta, all of which are filled to the brim with toilet jokes, sex gags, and black humor and are some of the funniest anime I’ve ever watched (I recommend them, heheh).  They can be pretty vulgar, but since I haven’t seen PSG yet I don’t know how they’d compare.  There’s nothing I personally was turned off or revolted by though, so I think you’ll be fine if you pick them up. 

 

Ohhh, if you’re looking for original and “different” kinds of anime, then you’re going to like Mawaru Penguindrum and Kino no Tabi.  They definitely aren’t your run-of-the-mill shows; I think you’ll enjoy them.  At the very least, you’ll appreciate them for breaking out of cliché molds and tropes, even if you end up disliking them for other reasons.  Hm, yeah, I know what you mean, the romance genre can feel pretty stagnant and stale, especially when people try to sell it off in series that should rightfully have nothing to do with romance.  You know, the whole “male protagonist goes on an adventure to save the world and in the process of doing so gets this really hot chick to fall in love with him”.  Yeahhhhh, at that point the creator’s insecurity-driven fantasies are just getting the better of his writing.  For example, Kirito and Asuna’s forced romance in SAO knocked it down at least 2 points for me, holy geez that was bad.  Just pandering to those who daydream about meeting a girl in some online game or community and sexing her up, sighh.  5 Centimeter’s per Second and Hoshi no Koe are both romance, but not the standard kind.  In the former’s case especially, many people recognize that it’s an extremely realistic portrayal of romance.  It receives both praise and criticism for this: those who dislike it say it was so realistic it was boring and sleep-inducing while those who like it say it’s so realistic it’s almost scarily relatable and that much more gripping.  I hope you end up enjoying them, hah.

 

Ehhh, I definitely wouldn’t recommend Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.  I was one of the conductors of the hype train initially, I’ll admit.  Much like with SnK, I was there when the first PV was released and loved how gorgeous it looked.  The animation is stellar, and that’s something I’ll give it credit for.  When the first episode came out, and its MAL score was in the high 7s and not nearly 9 like it is today, I was really hoping this would be the next big thing.  In a sense, it did kinda blow up into something revered to kingdom come, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to maintain my initial level of praise to the end.  First of all, it’s very predictable.  You can foresee the ending by episode three; it’s pretty obvious and they don’t do anything to hide it.  Knowing how a story ends, when done correctly, doesn’t necessarily ruin the plot, but in this case it did.  Also, probably the biggest flaw, the characters were terrible.  All of them are cliché middle schoolers trying to make much ado about nothing.  That’s another thing, this is a romance trying to give me feels with middle schoolers.  Seriously, middle schoolers?  Even high schoolers are bumbling inexperienced fools when it comes to romance, let alone fourteen year olds.  What do middle schoolers know about love?  Am I supposed to take this melodramatic, fat-tear welling stuff seriously?  Another thing, this anime tried way too hard to be artistic and symbolic.  It’s like they thought to themselves, “hey, if we put in pseudo-trippy and abstract scenes in there during the musical parts, do you think the opiate masses will lap it up and call it deep?”  Well, that’s exactly what they did and as they thought people praised it as beautiful and meaningful.  …It’s not.  And the things the characters say, oh my gosh.  They’re trying to sound deep and philosophical, but instead they just sound pretentious and try-hard.  I’ve seen my fair share of poetic language, and this stuff definitely isn’t poetic.  Not to mention, they’re kids, why are they rambling on like “ohh, this music is my body, I can see colors, colors… yes, you illuminated the stars so I could find myself, blah blah blah”?  It gets really tiring when actual character development is just replaced with hollow, meaningless internal dialogue.  And about the music, the anime doesn’t portray recitals accurately at all.  I know, sometimes you need to dramatize in fiction in order to make things more exciting, but the way they did it was so forced.  “Wow, look at this tug of war between pianist and violinist!  The crowd is enthralled in this battle!”  Uhhh, no, if you’ve ever been to a recital before, that’s not how things work.  Especially if this is a concert hall filled with laymen, the majority of people can’t tell when a musician is playing well or not.  And now you’re trying to convince me that toddlers are all like, “wow, this guy plays the piano so well, it’s so beautiful, I can see his soul in the colors of the sound, ohh I am moved to tears!”  Pshht, please, that’s ridiculous.  There are plenty more flaws, like the misplaced and poorly executed humor, but I don’t want to ramble on for any more than I already have.  The people who like this show are the ones who get emotional easily.  I cry a lot more than you over anime and this only made me tear up when I yawned every other minute.  Trust me, there is nothing here that’s worth your time.

 

The Tale series has been going on for 20 years now and has a small but dedicated fanbase, especially in Japan.  The most famous game is probably Tales of Symphonia, whose main character, Lloyd, was actually given a Mii costume DLC in Smash 4.  I haven’t personally played any Tales game so I can’t vouch for its quality.  I’m going to watch it anyway, mainly for the ufotable animation, and hopefully it doesn’t flop like God Eater did.  I’m just a bit upset that ufotable isn’t giving the Heaven’s Feel movie(s) priority, since with the Tales anime announced HF is most likely pushed back to the end of 2016 at the earliest.  And that doesn’t count the time it takes to for it to be released on Blu-ray and fansubbed.  Ahah, there’s no need to feel out of the loop for not knowing much about KyoAni.  I’m just a loser with too much time on my hands, eheheh.  There’s really nothing they’ve made that would take priority over the other anime I’d recommend to you, so you haven’t really missed much.  And their upcoming anime, Myriad Colors Phantom World, looks no less generic than their past works.

 

Oh geez, even if you say operating 20-30 tabs at a time isn’t as bad as I think it is, it still sounds rather daunting.  I click things really fast and as a result mis-click a lot.  Even with the few tabs I have open at a time, I accidently slide things around and pull things out and “x” things out all the time.  I’m glad your computer is must faster now though, haha.  I’m surprised you managed to keep it “running” for so long.  Don’t you ever get notifications to update stuff?  Like ones that have popups and are really annoying?  Or do you just postpone those over and over and over again?  I’ve gotten pretty OCD about updating my devices.  If an update is available, I install it right away.  That’s kinda why I jumped on Windows 10 even before reviews were really out.  Only reason is because my parents never updated their Mac Book, one we bought a long time ago.  Big mistake.  It became so antiquated that the OS and apps remained in their original states, 5+ years after we had gotten it.  It got to the point where nothing was working on it anymore.  Videos and images didn’t load right, update notifications kept on popping up but we were unable to update things even when we tried, and it quickly became the slowest laptop in the house.  My parents don’t even use it anymore and prefer a rickety old Dell that’s that Mac Book’s senior by three years because it was at least maintained during its long run.  Since my dad’s not familiar with how Macs work very well, instead of factory resetting it and salvaging it he’s given up all hope.  I haven’t seen in months, and this was back when I was in Edison.  Must be stored away in a closet or something.

 

Nah, we like to conform everyone to the same standards so as to quell individualism and creativity here in JP.  But in all seriousness, I don’t really mind.  The part of me that likes seeing everything neat and orderly gets a kick out of flipping through the senior pages of the yearbook.  Even if I was given the freedom to send in a professionally shot photo of my own choosing, I don’t think I would have done much different.  And yeah, fake tuxes and dresses.  They just place a “shell” of an outfit around your shoulders and fasten it along your back.  You don’t even have to take off what you’re currently wearing, the tuxes and dresses go right over.  Pants aren’t changed of course, no one can see those.  Yearbook photos are taken on the second day of school, and because we don’t have A/C very few freshman, sophomores, and juniors bother to dress up.  So non-seniors generally wear casual clothing, but since you can barely see below the shoulder in their yearbook pictures it doesn’t really matter much. 

 

Aogashima Island, huh?  I believe I’ve heard of that island before, not sure under what circumstances or context, but quickly forgot that it existed, eheh.  I decided to look up some pictures of the night sky there out of curiosity and… oh my gosh…  I haven’t looked at night sky photos in a long time so I quickly got distracted ogling at not only stars in Aogashima but just night sky scenes in general.  Geez, there goes my productivity.  Thanks a bunch Kenzi, pfft.  But seriously, what a gorgeous looking place and that it’s light pollution free makes it even better.  Wow, I’d love to go there some day.  It seems like an ideal location for weddings as well, eheheh. 

 

Oh damn, you’re really fast in the mornings.  That’s me when I wake up late and have barely enough time to rush over to class, which thankfully isn’t too often since I only have enough energy to pull off that stunt once every two months or so.  As for how I handled my schedule in high school, I don’t really remember how I made the numbers work.  First of all my parents woke me up.  With their prodding, I rushed every morning and somehow made things work out.  It involved a morning jog sprint to the classroom almost every day, but hey it worked.  Huh, so you just eat bread for “breakfast”?  Hahah, I’m imagining that in my head and it’s kinda funny, I don’t know why, heehee.  I guess just imagining you sneaking bites of random slices of bread from your purse or wherever you store your food is amusing.  I’m surprised none of your teachers have caught you in the act if you’ve been doing this regularly.  Three meals a day isn’t necessary, at least not for me.  I’m perfectly fine with just a breakfast and a dinner.  I could go for only a single meal in 24 hours and still be fine.  I do that all the times I oversleep.  It’s only a 20 minute walk because a lot of my classes are in the quad, which is located on the south side of campus as opposed to the freshman dorms which are way up north.  Bikes decrease the travel time by a significant amount of course, but I didn’t feel like investing in one.  Curious Kenzi strikes again, hm?  (I might seriously start calling you that, heh.)  W-Why are you so interested in my “getting ready for bed” routine anyway??  D-D-Don’t tell me you’re some kind of pervert?!  Haha, nah, I’m just kidding, I don’t mind telling you if it means satiating your curiosity.  Let’s see, my shower takes about thirty minutes.  It can be either much longer or much shorter depending on how much or little effort I want to put into rushing.  After that, it takes an additional 20-30 minutes to finish up my toiletries.  This mainly consists of brushing my teeth, carefully washing my face, and putting in my night contacts.  Ah, I don’t think I ever mentioned I wear night contacts to you before, ahah.  Looks like your curiosity has uncovered some new information!  Yup, my eyesight is atrocious, due to staying up late into the night reading books and playing video games in my bed since elementary school.  I had glasses for about two to three years, in late elementary school and early middle school.  I then converted to night contacts, which temporarily correct your vision as you sleep so you can see clearly the next day.  Of course, the catch is that you can’t skip a night, otherwise your eyesight will gradually revert back to its natural state.  It used to hurt like the dickens when I first started, but now my eyes are so used to it that it feels weird sleeping without contacts in.  I think it’s mainly because psychologically I’m wired to connect “no contacts when sleeping” to “not being able to see the next day” so I never skip a night (unless I pull an all-nighter, in which case RIP vision).

 

Ahahahahah, you’re good at this; that actually got a chuckle out of me.  And nah, I’m certain it was a new cold.  The first time I came down with something my throat hurt but nothing else.  For a full day I felt much better, nearly no symptoms.  Then by the late afternoon of the following day, my throat started acting up, as did my nose.  The morning after was a mess; my nose was running like a shoddy dam and my throat ached.  My second sickness didn’t last nearly as long as the first one though, and my muscles weren’t cursing my name either, so it was manageable.  Ohh, a white Christmas sounds absolutely magically; I hope I can experience one soon, too!  Even in the worst of conditions I walked home.  I always had a mini-umbrella stored away in my backpack, regardless of the forecast, so I was never left out in the rain to fend for myself.  Well, maybe not never.  I believe I had to suck it up and got myself pretty soaked on the way back at least once during the four years.  Aww, you lived in a small neighborhood?  I’ve taken my large neighborhood for granted it seems; I suppose that would prove to be quite the problem in your case.  I could walk in any directly from my house and hit up scores and scores of houses.  There was this one house that always, without fail, put up extravagant decorations and gave out super-sized candy bars.  The guy who lived there was my sister’s classmate in fact.  That was the highlight of every year.  My siblings and I always filled our bags with a ridiculous amount of candy and spilled our piles out on the floor when we got back home to organize and trade treats.  My parents never turned off the lights to keep people away, but we always had a really sad collection of candy to give out anyway, and I lived in a cul-de-sac (ohh, second fun Akazora fact of the day), so there wasn’t much threat of people coming to our house.  My parents only ever celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom’s sister’s family.  Whether we or they hosted, there’s always an overabundance of food (yay for leftovers) and, back in the day, a lot of video games.  General multi-family parties were things we used to go to but not for personal holidays like Thanksgiving.  And I don’t think I ever lost any games during those events, sheesh.  Man, I really wish you could have had better Halloweens and Thanksgivings.  If you end up coming to Case, why don’t we celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving together?  I know, we can’t dress up and go trick-or-treating, but we could celebrate it some other way, right?  Also, I can’t cook, so I don’t know how nice of a Thanksgiving dinner we could have, but I guess maybe we could grab a bite to eat somewhere that’s not the dining hall, ahah.  Well, that's definitely thinking far ahead, be eheheh it’s an idea.

 

Oh my gosh, I thought my parents were the only ones who did stuff like that!  They cut cable as well and just watch a bunch of Chinese programs on these shady sights.  I don’t usually watch with them, but they hook up a laptop to the television and play random stuff as they cook in the kitchen and keep it on while we eat dinner.  I’ve kinda been drawn into the stuff that they watch, embarrassing as it is to admit.  I now keep up with the weekly airing The Voice of China, eheheh.  I know, I don’t even follow The Voice here in America, and yet I’m rather invested in how the fourth season of TVoC is going.  Fei Chung Wu Rao is also a silly dating show that seems to have taken China by storm and I’ve watched a bit of that.

 

Pfffh, what a lazy teacher.  When I was the president of my anime club and I was going over the other club members’ quizzes, I graded carefully and strictly, ohohoho.  Grading papers is actually quite fun.  Of course, I only graded quizzes on rare occasions and I never had a huge number of quizzes to correct at a time, so maybe I don’t have enough experience to say anything.

 

Ah, I actually forgot to mention an anime that made me cry.  It’s called Kekkai Sensen, and I’d highly recommend it.  It’s only one-cour, so not that long if you decide to check it out!

 

Yeah, there’s no rush to watch F/Z, since it would probably be better to watch Heaven’s Feel first.  Of course, since it’s going to take such a long time for HF to be released, if you ever get the urge to watch F/Z during a long break or something, then you can go ahead and do that, hah.  I only discovered Detective Conan when my parents went on one of those shady China streaming sites and found a Chinese dubbed DC movie (the 8th one, specifically) a number of years ago.  Granted, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but something about it was enticing.  We went on to watch movies 9, 10, and 12.  After that we stopped and I forgot that it existed for a while.  When relatives from China visited one summer, they brought a bunch of Chinese dubbed DC discs with hundreds of episodes on them, since apparently my parents told them that my brother and I really liked the movies.  We marathoned those episodes and finally took the time to actually Google what Detective Conan was all about to catch ourselves up with the rest of the movies and the important episodes.  I made my DCW account shortly afterwards and the rest is history, ahahah.  Watching a bunch of weekly ongoing anime isn’t so bad, because most of what I watch is pretty bad.  Nearly every season there’s at least one series that really draws in me, but at the same time there are a good number of shows that I have to force myself to watch (MK1412 oh lawd).  They kinda balance each other out, in a sense.  I dunno, I’ve been watching ongoing anime for three and a half years now, so maybe I’m just used to it, heh.

 

I actually haven’t seen anyone smoke weed before, or drink underage at that.  I’d probably be just as surprised as you though, if I had seen that dude behind the building.

 

My parents think I’m a friend-less shut-in (which isn’t entirely untrue, heh) and that getting a Facebook would help me assimilate into society better.  They were under the impression that if I went around saying stuff like “I don’t have a Facebook” people would think I’m a psychopath with something to hide.  I feel that having a Facebook with nothing on it might actually be worse…  Also, they said it’s good for networking and stuff.  I guess having a phone is pretty useful.  It’s good as an alarm and it makes checking your e-mail easier but apart from that I haven’t found much use for it.  Texting is pain and I don’t like calling anyone, so I rarely use those features.  I still don’t think it’s “essential”, and I’d be able to get through college fine without one, but I do see how, if utilized right, it can become a central part of someone’s life.  Ah, shipping, how nostalgic, haha.  It’s reassuring to know you’re not eager to get drunk.  I guess some people just really like the taste of alcohol and others really like the feeling of getting drunk.  That doesn’t explain why they’d begin drinking as young as sixteen years of age though.  Aw, thanks, there’s really no need to worry about my safety, but I appreciate the thought anyway!  Like seriously, my idea of an amazing Friday night consists of anime, video games, and replying to your responses in the comfort of my dorm, haha.

 

Ohh same, the south side of Edison has the “trashier” high school, and as much as I dislike JP at least it’s not as bad as Edison High.  Huh, Brandeis really only guarantees housing for the first two years?  Bleh, that sucks.  But since it’s a relatively new school that doesn’t have a ton of street cred I guess that’s to be expected.  I saw the inside of an upperclassman dorm in Brandeis when I visited, and damn those facilities are really nice.  It’s too bad there aren’t enough to accommodate all the students.  Hah, I’m also the kind of person who really can’t stand e-books.  Physical text books are so much better.

 

From what I can tell, the cutoff for normal classrooms versus lecture halls is fifty people.  So if there are less than fifty kids in a class, they’re put in a level classroom.  If there are more than fifty students, they’re placed in a stepped lecture hall.  My accounting class is the only course I’m taking this year that’s in a lecture hall.  Because it’s in the Peter B. Lewis Building, it’s a really fancy one, heheh.  There are barely over fifty people in that class, so we must have just exceeded the limit.  And naw, there are still some people who rush to the back and claim up the last rows.  I wouldn’t recommend this though.  It kills your productivity since you have the urge to go on Facebook on your laptop instead of actually take notes.  If you’re in the front, you’re far more engaged and you kinda have the feeling that others are peeking over your shoulder to see what tabs you have up on your computer, which makes slacking off difficult.  During the ten to twenty minutes downtime I either read over my notes or play a bit of Deemo.  If there’s an exam then of course I’ll be trying to cram in some last second studying, haha.

 

Oh gosh, well you already know that I pulled an all-nighter the other day, and embarrassing as it is to admit it really rekt me up the following day.  I felt pretty good for the first few hours of the day, but after my wellness class when I went to the PBL Building to find a quiet place to study accounting for the exam at 1:15 pm, I fell asleep.  Goddamn.  And worst thing is, I slept through part of the exam.  Shiiiieeeeetttt.  So I rushed over to take the exam (obviously I was the last one to show up, sheesh that was embarrassing) and was down twenty minutes.  I still finished it on time, and it wasn’t terribly difficult, so that was nice.  But then there was the first lecture for the Physics and Astronomy Club that I had to attend later that day.  Though the lecture was kinda interesting, there was no way I was able to keep myself awake during the whole thing.  So I didn’t.  I was sitting way up in the front though; I hope the professor didn’t take an offense by it.  After that I got back to my dorm and decided to take a quick nap before going to the gym.  Welp, as you can imagine, that didn’t work out too well.  I went to sleep at six in the afternoon and woke up at 1:30 in the morning.  The gym was obviously closed at this point and I still had a bit of homework to do, so I stayed up a few more hours to get that done.  Bleh, I was feeling a lot better on Friday, but for all of Thursday I was a train wreck.  It was my fault for pushing off that SAGES essay for so long, sigh.  Oh yeah, and I felt bad for missing my work out on Thursday, so yesterday night I decided to go to the gym to make it up.  I still have to work out later tonight, but my muscles aren’t too sore so I’ll be fine.  Ah, I’m sorry to hear that your own all-nighter attempt didn’t go as smoothly as you would have liked.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to truly get used to staying up all night long either; it just messes up the following day so badly, I’m rarely in a position to pull one off.

 

They publish an issue once every week, on Fridays.  Opinion articles are due the Monday prior to the Friday issue that you want it to be featured in.  Your article is read over by the opinion editor, and once he checks to make sure it’s good and maybe fixes a few mistakes, it’s set to go.  I’m guessing anyone who doesn’t take the “job” seriously can be weeded out pretty easily anyway.  I doubt anyone would even apply if they weren’t at least a little serious.  I dunno, if you’re comfortable with it then joining a sorority wouldn’t be too bad of an idea.  I’m not entirely sure what the deal is with fraternities and sororities anyway.  Like, I’m not really sure what they even do.  Frats in other places, like Ohio State for example, are pretty trashy.  It’s a just drug, alcohol, and sex fest every weekend and it’s something I definitely do not want to get involved with.  Sororities can be pretty “obscene” as well, but from what I can gather, at Case the Greek life here is pretty toned down.  Of course they’re not going to be doing legal things all the time, but it’s not nearly as bad as it is in large public schools.  Ehhh, because I’m just against partying in general, nothing about Greek life appeals to me, but if you want to do it then you can.

 

It’s not that he’s difficult to approach, but there just aren’t any opportunities to talk to him that aren’t awkward.  Like, you technically could just walk up to the table he’s sitting at filled to the brim with all his friends, say “Hey, your hair is cool, can I sit here?” and out of kindness they’d give you a seat, but that’s just really awkward and probably wouldn’t be a great way to ease your way into his social group.  I was just lucky enough to be standing right behind him in line for dinner, and he didn’t have any of his friends with him at the moment, so I made some small talk.  After he got his lunch though, he went off to find his friends and there wasn’t any room at the table for me so I just sat elsewhere, haha.

 

Oh dear, I finally unlocked Anima, and that song… jeezus.  On easy mode it’s only level 5 or 6, which is manageable.  After playing through it a few times I got a percentage I was happy with and tried my hand at the medium version, which jumps to level 9.  That song rekt me.  It’s like being steamrolled by music, haha.  It’s going to take quite a bit of practice to master, but it’s a great song and a ton of fun to play, so I’m not complaining.  Hm, this might sound really random, but if you asked your parents to buy you a new phone, say the OnePlus Two, right now, what would they say?  Disregard the fact that you need an invite, and just pretend that it’s available to purchase for the general public.  Could you figure that out by asking them?  Like, would it be possible to, on a moment’s notice, just ask them to buy you one and have them say yes?

 

Going to the gym may seem daunting at first, but once you start it becomes a lot easier.  Doesn’t exercising produce dopamine or something to makes you happier?  And when you look in the mirror and see that your arms are starting to firm up, you get a bit of a confidence boost from that, eheheheh……  It’s like a beneficial vicious cycle!  Oh wait, I just Googled that, and apparently those are known as “virtuous cycles”, haha.  I only started working out because it was convenient to.  The gym is free of charge a just a short walk away from the freshman dorms.  I’m already paying so much money to get an education here, why not get my body into shape as well?  Apart from the very first session, working out has been going well.  I always push my muscles as far as they can go without overdoing it and hurting myself.  My fitness level is still in the bottom tier compared to everyone else that frequents the gym as often as I do, but I’m working my way up.  Seeing even a little bit of muscle growth on my arms and legs and abdomen is good enough motivation to keep me going.  Hrm, I just hope my eating habits aren’t holding me back…

 

Damn, I’m sorry to hear that Oryx and Crake wasn’t that good.  I really liked Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, both in part because the writing style was nice and because the plot was gripping.  And it’s too bad none of the other summer reading books blew you out of the water either.  I’m so bad at Super Smash Flash.  I’m so wired to playing Smash on a GameCube Controller or 3DS that I can’t react fast enough and input the right buttons on a keyboard for certain moves, ahahah.

 

There’s no need to worry about me at all, I’m very well situated to the college life right now.  I’m really happy as well.  I may not say it often or come across as any happier than before, but gosh I love it here.  Maybe it’s because I just came out of JP or something, but why is college so good???  I’m so much more productive now than I was when my parents nagged me to do work all the time (ironically enough) and I’m just… so content with life right now, hahah.  I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve been in such a good mood ever since I came to Case.  Even when I royally screw up and am inundated with work, I’m still happy.  A-Am I even making any sense?  It’s hard to explain, but that’s how I feel.  I’m more concerned with how you’re doing.  I hope you settle down soon!  Also, remind me, are you taking any standardized tests next weekend?  I’m sorry if I’m wrong, because my memory isn’t the greatest, but you said you won’t be retaking the SATs anymore right?  But that you will be taking a few SAT II's again?  Will that happen on October 3rd or are you going to take the November test?  Whenever it happens, best of luck!

 

Whoever you vote for, you better vote soon!  Only a week left!  After posting this response, I’m going to officially vote for Cranky Kong.  I know there’s no way he’s going to get in since very few people are voting for him, but voting this late in the game is more to make a statement than actually to make a difference, haha.

 

Edit: I would have said this on the other thread but felt just tacking this on the end here would be easier.  I'm glad you got to see the super blood moon last night!  I only saw a smudge of red for a few seconds at a time, but there's always next time... when I'm 36... right??  Apple cider's the best, haha.  I don't have it very often; maybe once a year for Thanksgiving or so.  And it's nice you talked with your sister about life and stuff.  I'm curious though, what do you mean by "rethink some things"?  Did it have to do with what you were talking to your sister about?  Gasp, or did you have one of those really magical Common App essay-worthy epiphanies like I did?

Edit: Added a bit to the end... again...

 

Ahaha, I'm back to the position where I have an introduction and conclusion written out, but no body paragraphs, lol. I'm planning to perform an experiment on myself, err, "try something" sometime soon to help me create grounds to base my essay off of. It's not going to be anything crazy, I promise, haha.

 

I mainly joined to discuss DC on /r/OneTruthPrevails and Legend of Korra on /r/TheLastAirbender. I don't check on the DC subreddit as often anymore, and I pretty much completely left the Avatar subreddit after LoK finished airing. I still stop by a few other random subreddits nowadays, but not very actively. I don't have much to contribute, but man, reddit is a goldmine of gifs. Nah, I'm not charging people for graphics anymore. I don't get nearly as many requests as I did at my channel's prime, so processing them isn't a problem for me. Plus, the people who ask me for requests seem pretty sincere. They message me with stuff like "i just want to say ;; w;; thank you <33" now how am I supposed to turn that down, haha. Their happiness is payment enough. Oh, and about a year ago, I had this plan to watch every single DC episode for the helluvit (I don't know what I was thinking). It seemed pretty plausible with one episode a day, and maybe more on the weekends. But then you introduced me to F/Z and I suddenly remembered how much I missed watching plot-driven anime. I tossed DC aside afterwards. At this point, I'm only cherry picking plot-based episodes to watch, and even then I'm still kinda behind. Which is why my main discussion-contributing posts on DCW tend to be rants about characters and lack of plot, or playing the devil's advocate. Haha yeah, I saw the forum post regarding the wiki crash and decided to donate anonymously since I didn't have an account at the time. The wiki really helped me weed out the AO episodes and fillers so, I mean, donating was just a small way of showing my appreciation. And in all truthfulness, I honestly don't know where I'd be today if I hadn't met you either, haha.

 

I don't follow DBZ either, but I'm somewhat familiar with it after watching DBZ abridged. Actually, Ash doesn't even have a Greninja yet (I don't follow the anime, so ty serebii). "Bonded to the limit" with Greninja is basically a kick in the gut for Pikachu, who's been around with Ash longer than I've been alive. And maybe the "several hundred years ago" was just a typo, lol. It's all speculation so I could be completely wrong (but they can't just leave AZ's Floette in the dust...). Uh, if they made Pikachu look like Ash, I... I don't know. Mega Pikachu confirmed? Oh wait, there's more where that came from. Okay, now I'm done. Also, I'm calling it now; the new Pokemon game is gonna be "Pokemon XYZ". Pokemon Go is an interesting concept, but I can't help but think of all of the incidents that'll arise from this. A little kid running across highways because he/she found a shiny Oddish? Or maybe something like this will happen. But it's another step towards virtual reality, which is pretty cool. It's like my childhood dreams coming true...

 

Nah, I don't think I'll ever solo run a new Pokemon game I haven't played yet. I like immersing myself with the new setting/scenery and taking everything in slowly. Solo running would feel too rushed for my taste, haha. I was just really impressed with the aesthetic changes they made with the Abandoned Ship. It was almost unrecognizable when I first saw it, lol. Ahaha, so the real challenge of this solo run is staying below the level cap? Sheesh, level 41 already? Maybe the speed drop from Hammer Arm won't matter too much after all. But considering how high your Metang's (soon to be Metagross) level is, the power difference between Hammer Arm and Brick Break will probably end up being insignificant. I prefer accuracy over power on most occasions so I'd change to Brick Break when the opportunity comes, but it probably won't matter in the grand scheme of things seeing as the Metang/Metagross will end up at level 90 or something by the time you reach the Elite 4, lol. 

 

Well, I mean, you brought up how you didn't wear much in the winter when you slept, which really shocked me, haha. And even more shocking was when you told me that you were surprised that I wore clothes to sleep. I still want to know why you found that surprising, lol. Ahahahahaha, and wouldn't being half naked be a disadvantage?

 

Whoa, I actually didn't expect for you to type up so much, haha. There were a lot of instances when Trump seemed like he was sabotaging his own campaign. I'm not going to list them all since it's pretty subjective, but I'm sure you know what I mean. He's blunt. A bit too matter of fact for his own good if you've read about some of the things he's said. The quality of being blunt isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the things he's said are pretty... controversial or disagreeable, to say the least. Carson is basically the butt of the joke behind his stance against having a Muslim president. Can't really base his political standing off of this joke, but I thought it was hilarious. My friend seems to be in favor of him solely because he's a neurosurgeon, but I'm sure she was kidding. Bush is probably going to have a hard time getting anywhere simply because of the stigma behind his name even though he claims he won't be like his predecessors. Oh, and there's been a lot of people in support of Bernie Sanders. I know, he's a Democrat, so I'm just going to diverge a bit. He supports universal health care, affordable college, higher minimum wage (could cause a bit more unemployment, but hey, it'll probably help in the long run), net neutrality, gay marriage, and he's considerate of both the left and right sides of the spectrum. This honestly sounds pretty awesome. But I guess we'll have to see what happens in the Democratic debate then. In terms of where I stand, I'd say that I'm a moderate leaning towards the liberal side. Ohh, it's cool to think of the presidential election as a battle royale. Ahaha, how fun! Many Democrats seem to think that Republicans are the spawns of satan, and I guess many Republicans probably feel the same way about Democrats. Pfft, silly extremists. But at the same time, I can't say much on the subject matter since I'm not too caught up in politics and only peek at some articles every once in a while just to see how things are going. Ahaha, don't worry. My econ teacher mainly just rants about Obama and how he's his least favorite president.

 

You guys don't have surnames on the back of your sports attire? I thought it was a thing that all schools did... Ohh, pfft, there's this one private school my parents almost sent me to that's rich af. Seriously, the tuition ranges anywhere from $30-40k depending on whether you decide to live on campus or not. I love the place (and parts of the campus have this old-timey feel) and I've visited the place loads of times for summer programs I attended as a kid, and it has museums, a really polished garden, an institute of science, a crapton of other facilities, and I've gone there for a few tennis matches as well. It's basically a huge posh school. The school's name is Cranbrook, if you were wondering (and fun fact: Mitt Romney attended this school, lol). Even if it's a private school, it's still insane how much money it has. It's far richer than Troy HS. The school itself is probably richer than the entire Troy School District. My parents encouraged me to attend a while ago, and I was kinda tempted to because a few friends went there, but sheesh, Troy's not bad and I don't think it would've been worth the money my parents would be forced to throw at the school. Oops, rambled on again. But yeah, there are townships richer than Troy. Hell, there are schools richer than Troy. Wait a second... if your marching band and color guard uniforms come in plenty of sizes, does that mean you guys don't get new color guard uniforms every year?

 

Haha, it's not the least bit uncomfortable. It's actually barely noticeable. Hmm, so you're sensitive to things that feel off centered? What did you do before your old watch broke then?

 

Even worse, the industry is constantly trying to outcompete itself in creating the raunchiest anime. It's all gone really out of hand these past few years and I can't even begin to imagine what's to come in the following years since it's showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. It's a shame the industry is capitalizing on this crap, but it's ultimately "our" fault for encouraging them to dish out more. After all, we, the consumers, are the ones who helped establish the whole "sex sells" concept. It's a huge generalization since there are obviously people out there against objectifying these mediums of entertainment, but the ones who'll eat up everything thrown at them are the people the industry is targeting. And it's working because now the industry is rolling around in easy money from creating substandard shows that'll hit the mark without fail, because guess what: sex sells. You know, quality anime is good and all, but why bother when quantity > quality in this case. It's a vicious cycle, and it's this kind of mentality that only further feeds into the stereotype that anime is crap. So yeah, for the people out there who look down on anime, I don't blame them either (lookin' at you, Miyazaki). It's also one of the main reasons I avoid watching unfamiliar anime until I see the reviews because more often than not, the reviews tend to be good indications of what I'm getting myself into. But it also really makes anime like Ping Pong and Tatami Galaxy stand out in the crowd. And while many of these anime don't reap as much recognition as they deserve, it's always rewarding unearthing these hidden gems amidst the trash heap. As for Redline, the visuals are amazing. I haven't watched it yet, but I've seen the trailer, and it's stunning. It's definitely a good sign that there are visionary people like Koike are out there going against the grain and doing everything in their power to create something with "quality" instead of "quantity" in mind.

 

Haha, that's kinda funny. When I first met you and saw the kind of content you posted back in 2014, you didn't give off the impression that you would enjoy anime like PSG. You seem to be a lot more free with your language and how you express yourself now, but maybe it's just me since I can only base this off of your previous responses. Then again, I guess most of the people I've met don't give off the impression that they would enjoy PSG either, lol. I know you've mentioned Yondemasu yo Azazel-san in one of your previous responses, so maybe I'll add that to my PTW list now. It's hard for me to find anime with this raw kind of humor, ahah...

 

I also dislike harems and reverse harems for similar reasons. I just think they're really cheap ways to "develop" a romance. The inevitable drama that ensues from these harems is also completely unnecessary and off-putting. And the whole "male and female protagonist 'inadvertently' falling into each other's arms after tripping over a sidewalk crack" stuff. Haha, c'mon, you guys can do better than this. I'm okay with the childhood friend cliche, but it better not have some half-assed backstory behind it. I like more realistic portrayals of romance, so I think I'll enjoy watching 5 Centimeter's per Second and Hoshi no Koe. I'm also confident that Mawaru Penguindrum and Kino no Tabi won't disappoint either.

 

Oh, yuck. After reading your impressions of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, it's really quite astonishing how high it's rated. From 7s to 9s?? Sheesh, these people will eat up anything that they can impose symbolism on. Middle schoolers too?? I know Lord of the Flies just had a bunch of prepubescent kids wreaking havoc on some island, but at least the stuff they did and the items they used were developed enough to be considered symbolic. Dialogue like the examples you gave really grinds my gears--especially when thrown out of nowhere in an attempt to craft an evocative scene. What's even worse is when the audience is consisted of partisans who'll blindly pedestal anything shoved in their faces that remotely resembles symbolism--which, I suppose, is why the anime's MAL rating is inflated so much. Well, I haven't watched it yet, so most of what I said is just based on what I got from your impressions. But it definitely doesn't sound like anything I'd watch so I'll do my best to heed your warning. 

 

W-what... HF is going to be pushed back to the end of 2016 at the earliest?? Lemme just... crawl into my little corner... and cry... Hmm, I'm not sure if I want to watch ufotable's adaptation of the Tales series, but I could check it out. Aw there's no need to bring yourself down like that. Hopefully you're joking around, but I just want to say that you're in no way a loser in my eyes. You've been a real big help in recommending me things to watch and keeping me updated, which I'm really grateful for, haha.  

 

I also used to "x" out things all the time, but it hasn't been a problem for me lately. Not sure why since operating 20-30 tabs should be making it even harder to avoid. Oh, I disabled the update popups a while ago. It can be quite frustrating when the laptop decides to restart and exit from everything I've been working on for the sake of "updating". The updates don't do much anyway, or at least from my experience they don't. I dislike Macs in general. The interface is difficult to navigate, the keyboard shortcuts don't make any sense, there's no right-click button, and everything's backwards. Windows is a crapton more straightforward (and yes, I'm well aware that everything I've just said is completely subjective and probably refutable, but let's just disregard that for now) so I have no idea what went on in my parents' heads when they decided to invest in an iMac. Granted it's only a few months old, but it still feels like a retrogressed version of Windows. Toying around with the darn thing makes me feel prehistoric. The incident your parents had with their Mac Book and the fact that they went back to their Dell only further solidifies my stance against Macs. Even though you say it's because they never bothered to update it, the laptop I have has been around for four years and is still running okay even though I haven't updated the thing in ages. Windows ftw, man.

 

Ahaha, a shell of a tux was fastened onto you guys? Well, I suppose that can make the yearbook photos seem more polished, but pfft, that's no fun, lol.

 

I remember discovering it through some Buzzfeed clickbait article, but I ended up googling it up and I was like, whoaaaaaa. And uh, ahem, you're very welcome, heh. Aogashima is a relatively small island, so I can't seem to think of a way for a wedding to be planned there unless the person happened to be a Japanese native (traveling expenses and stuff). But yeah, I can see what you mean. A wedding under the moonlight and starry sky sounds pretty neat, haha.

 

Actually, the teachers have been getting less strict about eating in classrooms over the years. Nowadays I can eat bread in front of them after they've finished giving a lecture and they wouldn't give a lesser damn. Or maybe my friend sitting a few seats away from me wants a slice towards the end of class and I'd toss the bag over to her (which did happen a few times). I don't think the teachers care about what we eat in class as long as it's not distracting (like the repeated crinkling of a potato chip bag or something). At most, the teacher would question me, chuckle a bit, then resume whatever he/she was doing before. It's definitely a lot more chill than in middle school where sneaking a bite of breakfast or sliding a fruit snack to the kid sitting next to me felt like drug smuggling. I'm assuming that you weren't allowed to eat in class at all back in high school? Yeah, there'd be no way I could survive at JP. I sometimes ate my lunch in class (very rarely, but sometimes). If I could choose only two meals of the day, I'd pick lunch and dinner. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Yeah, right. I could sometimes go without lunch though. I would frequently skip lunch back in middle school just to get my math homework done early, lol. Geezus, you can function with only one meal in a 24 hour time span? I guess I've done that before (mainly in middle school), but only if you count eating snacks in between. Curious Kenzi? Well, I can't say that I disagree with the name. Whaaaaa?? I actually didn't intend for that question to come off as perverted and I definitely didn't expect it to either, though now I can see how you interpreted that way. Maybe you're the real pervert here. Haha, I was just curious because I've never had a legit bedtime routine before. It's always been brush my teeth then go to bed, lol. I only shower a few hours before I go to bed because I prefer my hair to air dry, but even then my showers normally take around 10-20 minutes (sometimes longer in the winter) unless I want my fingers to resemble prunes. Ohh, you wear night contacts? I can see why you have a bedtime routine now. Despite playing video games, staring at my laptop screen, and burying my face in textbooks for half of my life, I still don't need any glasses or contacts. My vision has worsened though. I'm no longer 20/20, and the last time I checked I'm 20/15. I can feel my eyes getting worse, but I'm really hoping that I won't have to resort to any vision correctors. My eye doctor said there's a 50 percent chance I'll need them, though I'm not entirely sure what that means. My parents are really overprotective about my eyes since they don't want them to turn out like my sister's. Like stating that my workspace is too dim even when I have the lamp and ceiling lights turned on, and scolding me for using a flashlight to do my homework late at night in order to prevent them from discovering that I'm up past 1am (I bet you can find the irony in this).

 

Glad to see that the cold didn't bring you down too much! But two colds in a row? I've never dealt with anything like that. Most of my colds come in the winter or late fall. I rarely get them any other time of the year even though there's been a nasty cough spreading around the school lately (which I actually ended up catching, but it was very, very mild and hardly affected me). Even with an umbrella, I'd be a bit reluctant to walk home from school in the pouring rain, regardless of the distance (I wouldn't want my homework and textbooks getting waterlogged, after all). That's rather commendable of you! My most memorable Halloweens were back in NYC when I trekked flights of stairs to different floors in a little witch costume with my best friend at the time. We lived in those apartment complexes, so each household was literally a few feet away from the next. It was exhilarating running across the hallways and seeing the other little kids drag their parents along to fill up their stashes in those cute plastic jack-o-lantern containers. I'd lug my bag from door to door because my weak little kid arms didn't want to carry it off of the ground. The handles always felt like they were on the verge of tearing, and there would always be a tender imprint of the scrunched up handles digging into my skin. The bottom of my bag would also have this spotty gray color from getting dragged along the floor. There were still people ringing our doorbell by the time I got back, so I sometimes handed out pre-packaged bags of caramel popcorn that my mom bought. Then I'd compare my stash of goods with my sister's and we'd haggle with each other, haha. The most I ever got out of Thanksgiving were the leftovers. Leftovers from those potlucks were the best because it's practically a buffet for the following days. One of the kids from those parties sometimes brought his Action Reply along with all of the Pokemon he hacked, so sometimes I'd pester him to trade me his shinies, lol. Sometimes I'd wifi battle with this other girl. Sometimes I'd go on DS Download to play Mario Kart with them. My Halloweens and Thanksgivings weren't all bad. They just weren't terribly memorable in recent years, eheh. Haha, I'd love to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving with you if I end up going to Case. It's certainly thinking a bit far ahead, but I'll definitely take you up on that offer if the time comes.

 

Ahaha, I know that dating show! I can always recognize the cheesy background music and sound effects from downstairs whenever I'm doing homework in my room, lol. I've watched a few segments during dinner, but I can only catch about half of what they're saying because my Chinese is godawful, eheh. The only show I actively watched with my parents was a rerun of this drama called My Daughter. I jumped in kinda late so I had my mom fill me in on the details. And uh, I laughed when that one girl got into a car crash. Like, I think that's the hardest I've ever laughed in front of my parents. I collapsed on the floor in an instant and I couldn't stop laughing even though the scene was supposed to be serious and mournful. It was just so poorly executed, and the special effects looked like something a second grader could've directed. C'mon, how am I supposed to take that seriously. And not surprisingly, my parents thought I was insane. I don't watch The Voice of China, but I can sometimes hear it running in the background.

 

You gave out quizzes as president of the anime club? So you're one of those people. Hehe, kidding. I'm curious to know what you quizzed them on though, hah. My experience grading papers weren't that great. I was helping a teacher out after school by grading papers from a freshman bio class, and aklfdfdskghjsdgjl. I felt like some of these students didn't even bother to take the assignment/test seriously. Mistakes are okay, but misspelling "genes" with "jeans"? When I come across mistakes like those, I just give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that the person didn't get enough sleep even if the rest of the assignment/test also looked like it was bs-ed. Mistakes and misconceptions are fine, but seeing haphazardly completed assignments/tests like those is kinda painful. Then again, I also make some pretty careless errors, so I guess I shouldn't be talking.

 

Ohh, I remember you mentioning Kekkai Sensen a while ago. I'll be adding that to my PTW list too!

 

I do have a pretty big backlog of anime to watch, so maybe I'll put off watching F/Z until I get through most of it, or maybe until HF is released (if I can wait that long). Ohh, your parents watched the DC movies with you when you first discovered it? That's kinda fun, haha. I think my sister was just flipping through channels when she discovered DC. It was the Chinese dubbed version, but we could still understand what was going on for the most part. She completely gave up on DC though, and I don't blame her, lol. MK1412 was so bad. So bad that I just flat-out dropped it after episode 20-something. It had a few fun gags at the beginning (lol drunk Aoko) but everything else was just. so. bad. It's stuff like this that make me want to avoid those hoards of anime released every season. Probably only a couple are worth watching at most, so why bother when you can just watch something you truly want to watch at your own pace. The hype between the SnK episodes was awesome--I won't deny that--so I can understand why people enjoy watching airing anime, but this is just my stance on the topic, haha.  

 

My parents also think I'm some sort of anti-social shut in, lol. Well, at least compared to what I was like in NYC. I guess they're one of those "don't believe it till they see it" types. The only time they were concerned about my Facebook was when I was away at String Camp last year. My mom decided to snoop on my laptop's signed-in Facebook account in case I was being "cyberbullied" (so I guess this was partially my fault for not signing out). I only discovered this after digging through my history when I came back from String Camp. Even though she did it with good intentions, I felt a bit violated. A lot violated, actually. Who knows what embarrassing posts and comments she stumbled across! Well, it could've been worse, I guess. My phone is a huge part of my life now. A few friends from the UMich summer program I attended still text me regularly, I can respond to Facebook messages when I'm away from my laptop, I get notifications from my coach regarding practices, I can check my email whenever I want to, I can surf the web and google search anything, check the weather, take photos of assignments, call people, etc. So yes, it's pretty darn essential in my life, haha. I don't know about you, but alcohol reeks and I don't see why I should get drunk out of my senses. But I've had beer flavored chips at a grad party before (yes, it is a thing, and no, it doesn't contain any alcohol, lol), and it tasted really... weird. Hmm, I haven't thought about an ideal Friday night, but I guess I'm open to just about anything that doesn't require stressing about school and life in general.

 

While Athens isn't a terrible school per se, it's definitely overshadowed by Troy in a lot of aspects. It doesn't have the greatest reputation or history (also, the building was designed by a prison architect, so there's no windows in classrooms), and I'm pretty glad I didn't end up there. Hmm, I don't think my sister's dorm was that great when I visited, but maybe it's because she had to get hers last minute. Yup, just going through the physical motion of flipping through pages makes the textbook feel more manageable. E-books can be a real pain to work with sometimes.

 

I don't enjoy sitting in the first row of the classroom, but at the same time I don't enjoy sitting in the back either. I almost always choose a seat in the second or third row so that I feel neither too exposed nor distracted. But if I had to choose between the first and last rows, I'd probably pick the first row. Oh wow, your accounting class is the only course that takes place in a lecture hall? Haha, I guess they weren't lying when they said that most of the classes tend to be reasonably sized. 

 

Hmm, I don't think I've ever truly fallen asleep during an actual exam. Even when I'm sleep deprived, taking an exam is stimulation enough to keep me awake. Or at least it has been so far. You must have been really out of it that day to have dozed off during your accounting exam. Gosh, what are you doing to yourself! I was also real close to pulling my first all-nighter of senior year last night since I had a book to finish by the following day, but uh, thank goodness for Sparknotes. Still only got to savor three hours of sleep, but it's better than nothing. It's good that things ended up working out for you in the end for the most part! How was the Physics and Astronomy lecture?

 

Yeahh, frats and sororities tend to have this stigma following them, but I heard that joining a sorority is a good way to make another family. I dunno, I heard equal amounts of good and bad things so I was kinda unsure. Maybe I'll take a look at one just to see what the hubbub is about. I don't want to join anything too "loud" and certainly not anything that regularly promotes "indulgence" in drugs, alcohol, and sex, or whatever. I just want to make the most outta my college life, haha.

 

Out of all the Deemo OSTs I stumbled across, Anima is probably my favorite, haha. Hmm, well, I guess I could probably convince my parents to buy me a new phone. Not right now though. Maybe when I graduate and they ask me if I want a graduation gift or something.

 

I've read that "feel good" chemicals and exercise are linked from a few articles, and they're not wrong. I've experienced runner's high a few times, but uhh... I still can't find the motivation to go to the gym. My main fear is my parents, who'd probably assume that it's a waste of time. It would most certainly be nice to tone some of my body though (particularly my left arm). It's good to hear that working out has been going well for you so far! Going to the gym is definitely something I'm considering when I head off to college.

 

I've never played Super Smash Flash before, ahah... I actually discovered it from watching a few classmates playing it in class. I was just really fascinated with the fact that the game incorporated characters like Goku in there. And I guess the general layout and the pixilated graphics were also quite intriguing. 

 

Waaahh?? Is the college lyfe really that great?? Regardless, I'm really glad you're enjoying it so far! I've been okay, but tfw I have days when I'm feeling chipper with a less than sufficient 2 hours of sleep, and days when I'm feeling half-dead with a solid 6 hours. I guess it's just a little overwhelming thinking about all of these assignments and deadlines, lol. Yuupp, SAT II's this Saturday. And thanks, haha.

 

Hehe, well, in that case, Ice Climbers it is!

 

Not trying to burst your bubble or anything, but we might not even see another super blood moon in 2033. Like, for all we know, it might only be viewable on the other side of the planet or it might be overcast again. But I'm glad you still managed to catch a smidge of it! Yupyup, sparkling apple cider is great. Really helps set the mood sometimes, haha. Ahh, what I meant by "rethink some things" was my outlook towards certain subjects. My sister was just kinda straightening out a few things for me. Naw, it wasn't a Common App essay epiphany. I already have a topic I want to write about, but I guess staring at the stars kinda reminded me of yours, ahah...

 

And sorry about the relatively short (and late-ish) response this time around. I've been a little pressed for time lately, but hopefully the hectic-ness will die out soon. I'm sure it will by next week, lol.

[What's on Your Mind?]

I'm straight outta luck here.

I saw a bit of the partial umbral eclipse and total eclipse earlier, but now the clouds have thickened up and it's beginning to drizzle just as the greatest eclipse passed.  And by "a bit" I mean I saw it through hazy clouds, so it wasn't very impressive even with a telescope.

whoaa, you managed to get your hands on a telescope??

 

I got really lucky since it was fully overcast only before the moon entered the umbra. Drank some beer apple cider and ate some mooncake as well.

I managed to see a clear sky up until the middle of the eclipse. Then the smattering of clouds came along and blocked the view (only partially since they came and went). But I continued to stay outside anyway. I was staring at the clouds and stars ('twas a nice view) and talking with my sister over the phone about stuff. Life and everything. And then something started welling up inside of me.

 

It's a shame you couldn't see much of the eclipse because we had a pretty decent view for about an hour or so.

It was a relaxing experience; it made me rethink some things.

[Avatar The Legend of Korra]

By believing that it only would have 1 season it allowed them to make a crappy romance between the 2. Like those teenage ones which you hate to watch by how out of the blue they came. No getting to know each other, no flirting, no date.

How dare you say that about Meelo, he was interesting till the end

BAD BAD kenzi

but you are right about opal and kai

i meant when in TLA, ep 17, S1, those people came to live there as refuges and the mechanist kinda remade it with the pipes and mechanisms and what not

In korra that is changed back to the old way as i saw

the romance aspect/development in LoK was really lacking compared to ATLA; it's no contest

 

Meelo was awesome until season 4

it was all downhill after that

I want season 4 Meelo to taste my fury

 

oh really?

I didn't notice that little detail, and I don't think anyone else pointed it out either

but I'll take your word for it; good eye

[What's on Your Mind?]

okay, the sky better clear up by 10pm

 

>will be updating my thoughts later

[10 Years Later]

10 years later, I hope I stop wasting my life like I do now, and I hope won't be considered as a nerd anymore, cuz I'm not

>implying that being a nerd is a bad thing

 

embrace your inner nerd

[Memes and Troll Faces]

Damn, I guess there's...

 

[Avatar The Legend of Korra]

You are not wrong for thinking that THAT ending came out of nowhere. I felt like they were reading fan mail and got that idea. I mean she was gone for 3 years, before that she has warmed up to her as a person...so all of a suden...lets be in love ??????. I thought the ending should have bean that they al got together to take pictures. But only those 2...smh

Season 2 is like the first season of UBW for me, slow but i can get use to it. The bad things were as you said the love stuff, and i guess they didnt have to make varik a bad guy. Im just wondering why unalaq never went inside the spirit word via south portal with korra...she clearly isnt able to alighne with any avatar or rava. If she saw vaatu, unalaq could have said it is a spirit tree. Once opened his army would bevthere to ambush....all in all, it is clearly rushed as they said

But begininngs were awesome.

Going back to amon, well, they had to make him bend vater and that was the only way...i guess

How he unlocked het airbending i will never know.

Ironic how aang took his dads bending and now he takes the avatars.

But killing himself and his bro...wow, not even disnay is that dark.

Im stll stuck between 1 and 3

You know what bothereth me about 4.

Its that mako was only noticeable in the ladt one, bolin has not became a master fighter

Not enough meelo, suu, the united nations are the same as the un...if it is happening to someone else then its not our problem untill it is.

Not enough toph, she is my fave even in old age

Spurit ray canons...where did that come from

Kuvira was ok

Here is a something

Do you rememmber in ep17 of season 1 of the last airbender

The northern air temple then and now look diff

my thoughts exactly

the shock factor from Korrasami just came out of thin air

 

I think season 2 was just poorly planned.

I guess they didn't leave any room to create a coherent story for season 2 since they didn't intend to continue LoK after season 1

 

I actually really like how dark LoK was compared to ATLA. ATLA was a little bit too kid-friendly for my taste, but I still loved it

you know, season 1 wasn't bad, but gosh, I really dislike how they just forced Korra and Mako together for the sake of having a romantic subplot

 

my main complaint for season 4 is the lack of Sokka and Toph

the spirit energy cannon was a bit over the top, and Kuvira's mecha was poorly designed and tacky (a tank would've been a lot more effective, imo)

Kai and Opal were really annoying side characters

Meelo got really annoying as well

Lin and Suyin's backstory was kinda neat though

 

well, Ghazan did burn it down

but if you were referring to the art style, the art and animation of LoK was a huge step up from ATLA

it was glorious

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

Melissa's pretty good, but damn SID's Rain is awesome as well.

(I know I haven't watch FMA/B; I don't know or remember why I'm familiar with the openings either.)

who am I kidding, all of the OPs in FMA/B are fabulous

the EDs also deserve recognition

freaking loved all of them

 

Uhhhhhhh, speaking of staying up late writing essays.....................

I finished at 4:30am but I was too embarrassed to hand it in that late at night, so I submitted it at 7am while I was at school, lol

and judging by the looks of it, you ended up pulling an all-nighter for your essay, didn't you

the college lyfe sounds fun!! but srsly, wat r u doin 2 urself :c

[Memes and Troll Faces]

Damn, not nearly close enough to "not expecting".........

But like seriously doh, One Punch Man actually looks like it's going to be good.

well, to be fair, the title of this thread is "Memes and Troll Faces" lol

and I still don't plan on diving into anything I'm not familiar with while it's still airing. I might give it a shot after the reviews come out though.

[Avatar The Legend of Korra]

Realy, season 2. Mine would be season 4. But season 2 has the worst episode ever...6. Even worse then the great devide.

I guess its a toss between those 2, based on fan coments

I know of laghima, poetic fella

Im torn between amon and zaheer

But the best anti-heros are eska and desna

I thought season 4 was fine (Kai and Opal got on my nerves though). My biggest complaint has to be... uh, okay, I'm going to get a lot of beef for this (and I already have), but I didn't like how the fourth season ended. I'm fine with Korra and Asami being bi, but I just got ticked off at how underdeveloped their relationship was. It was almost as if the creators just pulled this ending from their arses for the sake of triggering discussion. Still, it's not the worst way it could've ended, but it definitely had room for improvement.

Kuvira was a solid villain though.

 

Season 2 was godawful. First of all, the love triangle was disgusting. Completely unnecessary and distracting. It took away from the story and my enjoyment. Also, the final fight scene looked like something that was ripped off of DBZ.

But none of this changes the fact that Desna and Eska are my spirit animals.

 

I liked Zaheer a lot. Amon was good, but he would've been a better villain if his "scar" was waterproof.

Having his makeup washed off was the most anticlimactic unveiling scene of the entire series.

 

After taking the time to type this all out, I think season 3 has to be my favorite then.

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

>heart stops at DC part

>heart doesn't stop at Nichijou or FMA parts

pls Kenzi, are you sure you're not actually a closet DC fangirl??

haha, don't get me wrong, I loved the Nichijou and FMA excerpts (Melissa is probably my favorite OP out of the entire FMA/B series for pretty subjective reasons as well) ...and while DC isn't a great anime objectively (it's not even close to being my favorite, contrary to what I may have posted a while ago), it still has a special place in my heart. I've also listened to his Nichijou covers loads of times, so it didn't catch me too off guard. But the FMA excerpt did (I was also overcome with a fair amount of nostalgia since I haven't listened to Melissa in years). Still waiting on Steins;Gate tho...

 

gosh, you should've seen me when I heard marasy play the DC theme for the first time ever in one of his previous medleys

I was giddily hammering away at an essay past 3am without a care in the world that night while playing the entire medley on repeat even though the DC excerpt was only 17 seconds long, lol

 

oh, I also had an essay due last night, and guess what I did for old times' sake

ahh, memories...

[Avatar The Legend of Korra]

just curious

whats your guys favorite season and villain 

I don't really have a favorite season, but season 2 was, by far, the worst

 

favorite villain though

idk

 

guru laghima, I guess

an airbender

who lived over 4000 years ago

you've probably never heard of him

 

jk, I know he's not a villain

[Memes and Troll Faces]

Anybody else going to watch this anime? --> http://myanimelist.net/anime/30276/One_Punch_Man

pfft, who'd ever want to watch that trash-tier anime

pls, Akazora, get your priorities straight

ya gotta watch real tearjerkers like this one

 

...and not gonna lie, I was half-expecting to get Rickrolled when I clicked on that, uh, mal link, lol

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

OH MY GOSH MARASYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

 

my heart nearly stopped when I heard the Detective Conan excerpt

this is the second time he incorporated DC into one of his medleys

 

I've been listening to this for the past few days

oh gosh...

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

Oh no no no, I didn’t mean to imply that I think you’re psychotic now or anything, haha.  It’s just I’m afraid college admissions officers may get that vibe from you with an essay like that.  If someone like me, who knows you really well and read the topic with the mindset of wanting it to be good, was taken aback by it, I’m worried a stranger would just reject you on the spot.  And if you decide to just completely scrap this idea in the end, then that’s fine too.  As you said, it’s not the most unique thing in the world and it did feel a bit stale.  Hrmmm, but being back to square one does kinda put you in a tight spot, especially given you have less than two months to throw something together and you’ll also be working on preparing for those SAT IIs that I believe you plan on retaking.  Oh dear, I hope you can manage.  I’ll try to brainstorm interesting ideas as well, but I don’t think I’ve been doing a very good job of that these past few months, bleh.

 

It was mainly there for fun; I didn’t expect anyone to have the motivation to solve a riddle just to figure out some random guy’s name.  But at the same time if such a person happened to stumble by, I definitely would’ve been pleased as punch, heheh.  I really don’t have much of an idea as to why I stayed on DCW.  There was a point in time when I felt like I might as well leave this forum and jump onto something a little more overarching, like the MAL forums, but I also couldn’t be bothered to slowly work my way up and make a name for myself somewhere else after establishing myself so well in this slow, quiet area of the Interwebs.  So I really don’t know what compelled me to stay or how long I planned to hang around.  Of course, now I have a reason to check back relatively regularly, and that’s because you’re here, eheheheheh.  And I never really felt like I contributed a ton to the site either.  I’ve somehow fallen in charge of keeping track of the new DC openings and endings that come out, and occasionally I start threads about newsworthy topics and events, but apart from that, spending time derping around in the Chatroom is more of my specialty.  I still feel obliged to donate to the site one day, but not until I start receiving a somewhat steady income.

 

Ahahah, same here, I felt like 6th gen lacked a lot of the magic that 5th gen had, even if the amount of work that went into making all those 3D models and renders and animations was probably backbreaking.  Aww, it’s no problem at all, I’d send you those files a thousand times over if you wanted me to, haha.  I’m just really glad you were able to experience 999 in its near fullest state. It would have been even better if you could actually flip a physical DS upside-down for that Sudoku puzzle part, but regardless an emulator on your computer is good enough.  And whhhaaa Cat Mario is a thing??  I was confused at first.  I was wondering why you’d have any interest in the Super Mario series and why you called the game Cat Mario instead of Super Mario 3D World, but then I Googled it…  I have been enlightened……  I’m sure the new Pokemon game(s) will have spectacular graphics and camera angles and cut scenes, especially given the somewhat long gap between ORAS and whatever is to come.  They better be pulling out all the stops, heh.  If you play the new Pokemon game in college, you’ll most likely be playing it at night anyway.  There’s really not much time to play it during the day, except maybe during the weekends, but even then you’re most likely going to be playing it during the late afternoon/evening and will therefore see everything bathed in a really nice orange glow.

 

Watson and Flannery won’t be giving me any trouble, haha.  Solo runs aren’t that difficult, and are probably easier than running through with a balanced party of six, funnily enough.  Your one Pokemon gets to really high levels by the end of the game, so you just go ham and plow through everything you run into, whether they resist you or not.  My shiny Typhlosion solo ran HG just fine, my shiny Blaziken completed the majority of Sapphire just fine, and my sad little shiny Beautifly even conquered Diamond all on her own, despite having 0 IVs in Special Attack.  A Beautifly of all things.  Haha, my Metagross will be fine (it’s a Metang right now, by the way).  I kinda multi-tasked while soft resetting, but it was also a pretty focused activity since I just had a Twitch stream open in the background for a bit of mild entertainment.  That Jolly one was actually only the second Jolly I ran into that entire hour and a half.  I’m not even kidding.  Every time I stumbled upon a Modest or Timid I internally screamed.  It wasn’t the least common nature I ran into though.  I don’t think I encountered a single Sassy Beldum.  The first Jolly had pretty bad IVs, and the second one wasn’t much better, but the perfect IVs in attack were just too good to pass up.  And it was getting late and I was frustrated, so I jumped on the opportunity.  Super Training took about two hours the next day to complete (thank goodness for this feature, I swear).  I just recently entered Mauville City and YOOOOOO WHAT THE MUK HAPPENED TO THIS PLACE???  IT'S HUGE AND I LOVE IT BUT HOW AM I GOING TO HATCH MY EGGS NOW???  (please don’t tell me, I haven’t had time to explore the city yet, don’t spoil anything)  The solo run is progressing at a really brisk pace, since I’m just going by muscle memory.  Sometimes I’m taken aback by NPCs that shouldn’t be there and dialogue that shouldn’t happen and buildings that aren’t laid out the same way they used to, but half the fun is noticing the differences, heheh.  As of now, my Metagross will have the following moveset: Meteor Mash, Zen Headbutt, Earthquake, and Hammer Arm.  Obviously, MM and ZH will be my go-to moves, but if I run into a Pokemon that resists them then EQ and HA will cover things like Electric, Fire, Steel, and Dark types.  There may be a few match-ups where I’m at a disadvantage no matter which move I use, but I’m hoping when that time comes I can just tank and power my way through to victory.  As for whether or not I’ll use Mega Metagross, I still don’t know.  Haven’t ever used Mega Evolution unless I was forced to by the game in Y, and I still do have a tendency to lean toward Lucky Eggs or Amulet Coins, but we’ll see how I feel once my Metang hits level 45.

 

Ah no no, I never really wore anything extravagant for extra credit.  Sometimes if a teacher is like “dress up formally and you’ll get a few extra points” then I’m up for it, but if it’s something like cartoon day or 80s day, which requires Halloween levels of prep, then yeahhhh I can’t be bothered with it.  Wait wut, you go to sleep fully clothed?  In winter gear no less???  D-Does it really get that cold…?  Or maybe it’s because your father refuses to turn up the heat?  I don’t really sleep with much on because it feels restrictive to sleep with clothes on.  I dunno, it’s just hard to get cozy.  It feels so nice to just be wrapped up in a mess of blankets and sheets.  If I get cold, I put on more layers, that’s all.  Of course, we don’t have weather in Jersey like you guys have in Michigan.  Even in the winter, just so long as I have sufficiently thick blankets over me, all I need is… uhh………… all I need is b-boxers and I-I’m fine………  K-K-Kenzi no baka!!  Making me say weird things like that, hmph!  But like, in all seriousness, this way of sleeping does have its drawbacks.  On really cold mornings, getting out of bed is a struggle because I can’t take my warm blankets with me to the bathroom.  I have to expose myself to the chilly air nearly n-naked as a jaybird and it kills my self-motivation.  Throwing a robe over me as I get up helps, but not by much.  Huh, as the weeks pass I may have to rethink the way I dress when I go to bed, else I risk not making it to classes on time.

 

My “professor” (he’s really just the wrestling team’s coach, might as well just call him “teacher”) doesn’t actually teach.  On Tuesdays he makes us go online and research a topic he puts on the board.  You can type it up or hand-write it, then hand it in or e-mail it to him by the end of the class.  Class is an hour long, and you just have to bs a few short double spaced paragraphs.  If you finish early, you can leave early.  On Thursdays, we get into groups and just talk about the topic.  Legit, that’s it.  We talk for a few boring minutes then informally present everyone’s collective ideas.  After that’s done, the hour usually isn’t over yet, so he just lets us leave early.  Th-That’s actually it.  If you miss a Tuesday, he doesn’t even require you to make-up the essay.  I’m pretty sure it’s a pass/fail class, so as long as you show up and physically be there for about thirty minutes, you get full credit.  I lucked out with this class actually.  Everyone else is pretty much a sophomore or older, and they all took the class because their upperclassmen recommended it as being a joke.  So yeeahh, I didn’t intend to take it easy, it just sort of happened.  Oh geez, speaking of politicians, I should seriously get around to registering to vote.  I want to be ready in time for Super Tuesday, which occurs in a few months.

 

So I checked in with some of my sporty friends since I’m no expert on the matter of uniforms and jerseys.  From what I’ve gathered, our school does get new uniforms… kinda.  The deal is, you get your uniform for free at the beginning of the season but you have to return everything after the season’s over, so it’s one of those borrowing things.  In that respect, as unhygienic as it may sound, you usually get hand me downs.  However, varsity teams tend to get privilege over JV teams.  Every other year or so, varsity teams school-wide get new uniforms, sometimes with slightly altered designs, sometimes with the same design.  JV teams don’t get new uniforms nearly as often, but they do get fresh gear on rare occasions.  In this sense, sometimes you do get the joy of wearing brand new jerseys.  However, for band/orchestra/choir students, their fancy performance clothes are recycled year after year.  Same with marching band, no buying or anything, just reusing very very very musty old uniforms that are too thick for the summer and too thin for the winter.  In summation, the uniform situation in JP… doesn’t really make much sense at all.  It’s a mess, there are no true patterns, you just go with it.  At least they don’t cost any money out of our own pocket, heh.  But still, your township is too extravagant, psht.

 

Y-You sleep with your watch on???  Don’t you ever want to use your hands as a cushion when you lie on your side?  Won’t your watch be all like, “hah, you think you’re comfy now, but wait until you wake up and find a misshapen watch-print on your face!”  I just… oh my, that certainly is rather odd.  That’s like someone going to sleep with their glasses on.  Eheheh, if that’s what you’re comfortable with though, you do you.  I’m not going to try and deter you from that or something.  And when I type, my watch actually clanks against my laptop.  Well, not really “clanks” but it’s touching it and making my left wrist feel off balanced in comparison to my right wrist.  My OCD and need for everything to be symmetrical kicks in, so I absolutely must take off my watch when I’m using my computer.  Since you seem to like your watch so much, why not try to spin an essay topic off of that?  Something about how time is important to you, or something.  I dunno, throw in some world line and morphogenetic field stuff in there to sound smart and it should be good.  Just a thought, you don’t have to take that idea too seriously, haha.

 

As someone who was there when Free took the anime community by storm and read countless debates spanning many corners of the Internet (sometimes civil, thought-provoking, and meaningful, other times just outright stupid *ehem* YouTube comments…), the whole “females being deprived of their ‘man’service” issue is pretty familiar to me.  When Free came out, there was obviously a lot of backlash in the anime community, generally by the males of course.  Many claimed it was an oversexualized, unrealistic, and shallow portrayal of high boys on a swimming team that was the lowest denominator of fanservice and should be regarded as nothing more than eye candy unworthy of being called, by any means, “an amazing anime”.  Females were, in turn obviously very furious to hear these complaints.  Many responded by insisting that anime has been portraying females in oversexualized, unrealistic, and shallow ways for decades and yet no one bats an eye and males are not judged for liking things such as Highschool DxD and Maken-ki.  If guys can watch arousing anime, why can’t girls watch arousing anime as well?  Much of this disagreement and discord lies in a general lack of communication and understanding.  In terms of where I stand, I am one who really finds fan service rather distasteful.  On rare occasions it’s used correctly, as a means of humor and/or parody like in the case of Shimoneta and Prison School and, from the looks of it, Panty and Stocking.  I’ve watched a good deal of ecchi, and in most cases I haven’t enjoyed them.  At all.  There is such a huge market for ecchi though, that the anime industry continues to pump out low quality show after low quality show.  There are just enough pervs out there willing to stoop low enough and actually support this business, while the silent majority of males just stand around wait patiently for actual quality shows to be churned out.  Since obviously the males who gush about sexy shows and the males who do creeping things (marry their “hug” pillows) are the ones that garner the most attention and talk on the Internet, many females have taken that as a cue that most guys enjoy ecchi.  But what they don’t realize is that there are just as many guys silently shunning and looking down on those who do.  I find anime to be an amazing means of storytelling, with the visual advantage over books as well as the artistic advantage over live action films.  However it receives such a bad rap because of the saturated ecchi culture that’s shocking and revolting enough to make front page news.  That being said, I dislike ecchi but I won’t be against any girl, you included, wanting to watch Free.  It interests you, that’s fine, watch it if you want, I have no right to judge you for that.  You’re even allowed to enjoy it.  However, and there is a big however, if you enjoy it for nothing but the male-focused ecchi (because in all honestly, Free is just ecchi for girls), then there’s a problem.  It’s fine if you give it a 10/10 and tout is as the best anime you ever watched, but that better be because the animation is stellar, the music is superb, the writing is spot on, the characters are lovable, relatable, and realistic, the plot is engaging, the humor is funny, the sad parts are genuinely heartbreaking, and the directing is masterfully executed.  It should not be because you got turned on by the cast’s sexual antics, fantasized about having every single one of them in your bed at the same time, pleasuring and coddling you all night long, and no other reason, that you enjoyed it.  That would make you no worse than the pervs who marry nude body pillows of their favorite waifu and who judge anime solely on how turned on they are by the end of each episode.  ………Oh geez, sorry for rambling like that.  I didn’t mean to go off on such a tangent when I started, whoops.  But yeah, that’s pretty much my stance on this whole fiasco.  Once again, I’m just joshing with you with all this manservice stuff, haha.  The gifs and Lenny faces are all in good fun, I’m not judging you or anything.  I’ve known you for a while now, and you don’t seem like the type to fangirl mindlessly over manservice, and you yourself claim to not find blatant fanservice of any kinda appealing, so I’m confident that if you decide to watch and eventually finish Free, whether you end up liking or disliking it, you can come to that conclusion with a level head.

 

(gonna make this a new paragraph, because lord, I don’t think the last paragraph can take any more extra baggage)

I guess what I mean by romance catered toward guys is somewhat related to the whole issue of fanservice.  When you say “romance” the first things you think of are of the shoujo genre, and in American culture that would be parallel to chick flicks/books like Pride and Prejudice, The Notebook, Twilight, etc, similar to how you’d first think of females (and not males) being portrayed sexually when someone says “fanservice”.  Despite being an all-encompassing genre, romance still tends to lean toward female taste and preference.  While in romances both the man and woman who are destined to get together (or not, I guess, depends on the story) are technically always main characters, the point of view is many times from the woman’s.  The story starts off on her side, with her friends and family, and as the romance develops it generally shows her getting flustered.  Being at loss for words, getting worked up over how to dress and/or act, thinking about him absentmindedly, etc.  Very rarely is the guy’s point of view explored.  The way he is feeling is generally given across through his interactions with the girl.  To give an example of the few exceptions to the rule where we see the romance develop form the guy’s point of view, one that comes to mind is Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.  While I personally did not like the anime as much as many others have, it was all clearly from Arima’s perspective and not Kaori’s.  He’s the one that we see when the story opens.  It is Arima who stumbles upon Kaori, not Kaori who was stumbled upon by Arima.  He is the active participant of the story, the one whose actions set the chain of events flowing, and as important as Kaori is, the story primarily revolves around Arima.  We get his inner thoughts, his insecurities and triumphs articulated in his head.  What we know of what Kaori is thinking internally, we see through Arima’s eyes and assumptions.  I suppose this is what I mean by romance catered toward males.  While I truthfully haven’t given shoujo or chick flicks much of a chance, I’d still like to see more romances developed from the male’s point of view.  …………I-I rambled again, didn’t I?  I should seriously control myself.  I feel like I take this whole anime thing way too seriously, and storytelling in general I guess.  My English teachers would be so proud of me though, analyzing and taking to heart all the nuances that books and movies and anime even all share.  Hrm, maybe I should just drop this whole accounting thing and become, legit, some kind of a movie critic?  Hehehe, doesn’t sound like something too bad to do on the side at least.

 

KyoAni does what KyoAni does, and I’m not really sure why they adapt what they do.  You could say the same about ufotable though.  Why do they love adapting video games to anime?  They worked most famously on the Fate series, and while Kara no Kyoukai isn’t a VN it’s part of the Nasuverse which primarily consists of VNs.  They’re currently airing God Eater, originally a game for the PSP, and they worked on multiple Tales series video game openings, like Tales of Xillia, Tales of Xillia 2, and Tales of Zesteria.  They’re even going to adapt a full Tales anime series sometime next year.  You’ve actually already watched a KyoAni show and enjoyed it, Nichijou.  Of course, you’ve also watched a KyoAni show and hated it, Lucky Star.  I’ve generally had negative experiences with KyoAni.  Nothing they’ve made has blown me away, despite their admittedly amazing animation.  They had one chance at actually making a dark, plot-driven, action-packed anime, in the form of Kyoukai no Kanata (quick AMV to give you a taste), but they shot themselves in the foot by throwing this in there and expecting us to still take the show seriously.  Even if they got their hands on “better” light novels, I don’t think I’d dislike them any less.  Two of the most popular LNs, Sword Art Online and Mahouka (obtained by A-1 Pictures and Madhouse respectively) are some of my least favorite shows.  Personally, I find LNs in general to be a weak entertainment medium.  I like very few light novel adaptations, and since KyoAni has recently been focusing almost exclusively on LN adaptions, I know that whatever they come up with will most likely not be my cup of tea.

 

Th-Thirty tabs, holy……  Isn’t it difficult to keep track of them all?  Aren’t the words up at the top labeling each tab just, not there anymore??  I always have a main Chrome window open and an incognito window open, so I can sign into two e-mails at the same time, but for either window I have on average four to six tabs open at a time, leaning more toward four.  That’s all I really need at once, since there’s only so much one guy can do at any given time on a computer anyway.  Completely shutting off my laptop is no hassle either, because manually opening up all those tabs when I boot back up is a simple process.  What do you even have on those tabs anyway?  I don’t think Windows 10 affected my Internet speed, for the better or the worse.  YouTube videos load just as fast/slow (depending on the day), so if you’re looking to fix your lag you really probably should think about cutting back on some of those tabs, eheheh…

 

Uwah, Physics C is calc oriented??  The more you know, I suppose…  Ohhh, no no, you misunderstand, the article was focusing on those three entrepreneurs.  The title is misleading, but they were trying to get at the fact that together the three men are worth $2.5 billion and, since they all attended JP, that the school was “worth” that much.  I know, stupid clickbait.  And as for the yearbook, those pages were just the seniors.  All seniors wear these fake tuxes and dresses for the yearbook photos; freshman, sophomores, and juniors can wear whatever they want.  Yuuup, when I say there are a lot of Asians at my school, it’s not just a skewed point of view caused by the classes I’m taking and the clubs I’m in.  There are actually a lot of Asians.  I already told you before how Edison is famous practically worldwide among Indians.

 

I’m not even entirely sure if I want to bother with studying abroad.  It’s something I’m considering, but in all honestly I’ll only be motivated and excited to go if it’s Japan, eheh.  If I’m forced to study abroad in some place like Prague for example… ehhhhh the prospect doesn’t exactly appeal to me, to say the least.  I’ll talk to my counselor once I declare a major and see if studying abroad in Japan, with the accounting dual degree program in consideration, is possible.

 

Ahaha, speaking of Wombo Combo, I found this picture recently.  I don’t know why, but it cracks me up every time.  Hahahahahah it’s just words but for some reason… I can’t stop laughing every time I see it, ahahah… haha… I’m such a dork oh my gosh.  Naw, the dining hall is pretty close to my dorm.  I can see it from my window and it takes about a minute to walk there.  I have to backtrack to get to my classes though, but that doesn’t take up too much time.  My schedule is just a super-sized and wasteful version of yours.  I only take night showers and always get all my work done the night before; I even have my backpack ready to go for the morning.  When I wake up, I need 15-30 minutes to get out of bed.  Like, the physical act of getting out of bed.  After that, using the restroom to wash up takes anywhere from 20-30 minutes.  The majority of my time is spent wrestling my hair with a comb, a process that ranges from 1-20 minutes alone depending on my luck.  After that, putting on clothes takes 5-10 minutes, depending on whether or not I had my outfit planned and ready the night before.  Breakfast on a good day takes 5 minutes.  On a bad one with long lines it becomes 15.  Walking to class takes 20 minutes, since all of my first classes (calc/wellness) are in Clark on the opposite end of campus.  Total up the extremes, give an extra 15 minutes for human error and mistakes, and you get 120 minutes: 2 hours.  That’s why ideally I need two hours to comfortably get up in the morning for classes.  That’s ridiculous, I know.  My parents and brother always give me a hard time for how long it takes me to get up in the morning but I can’t help it, eheh.  D-D-Don’t judge me, that’s just the way I work, bleh.  My “getting ready for bed” schedule is no better, heh...

 

Update on my A/C status: since my roommate was out for most of the day, I tried again and now that the outside temperatures are a bit lower I was able to get my room temperature deeper than 69, all the way down to 68.  ᕦ( ͡°╭͜ʖ╮͡° )ᕤ  Eheheh, I’m no masochist, I swear, but being chilled to the bone is a wonderful feeling ufufufufufufu.  I’m joking, I do have my limits of course, but yeah, JP has broken me…  And oh my gosh, Kenzi, pls, you can’t use references from games you haven’t yet played!  And in truth, I got sick again.  While I was recovering from that cold I caught right after going to the gym, I was hit with another one.  I had one day of feeling better, and then my nose started running and my throat started hurting all over again.  It was manageable since at least my body didn’t feel like it was going to fall to pieces, but it was still a bother and I haven’t completely recovered from it yet.  I just hope I’m in good shape for next week, since I have quite a few tests and exams and essays lined up.  I always just thought white Christmases were super rare occurrences and that Edison wasn’t a lucky town, heh.  Whhaaaaa, I actually didn’t know cold days existed.  I thought there were only snow days.  Of course, it never falls into the negatives in Jersey.  Farthest down we’ve ever gotten is the single digits, which really isn’t that bad.  I walked home from school every day of the year, for all four years.  As for why, it was just a personal choice I guess.  There is a bus that gets pretty close to my house so I could have taken that, but I felt that having to always rush out to catch it was too much of a hassle.  Not to mention getting into the habit of walking every day wasn’t a bad thing, haha.  I’ve faced all kinds of crazy weather as a consequence though, but I got used to it.  Aw man, Halloween is so nostalgic.  Going out to collect candy on a chilly October’s evening, in some ridiculous purchased or hand-crafted costume, was a lot of fun, especially with my brother.  Thanksgiving brings back so many memories of having my cousin over, having a really nice feast, and playing the heck outta video games.  I wish you could have had nostalgic memories like that too.

 

It was actually my brother who found it.  I had previously heard of it because someone I kinda knew in high school mentioned it a few times, but I didn’t have much motivation to watch it.  I think we had a long break or something and my brother was determined to sit my parents down and have a family movie night of sorts, more specifically an anime movie night.  My brother did a lot of research and tried to find a movie even a non-anime watcher could enjoy.  My parents are generally against “cartoons” as well, but they must have been in an agreeable mode that day, haha.

 

Awww, how could I not be worried about your safety?  I’ve come to know you so well, and you’re my best friend, haha, of course I’d be concerned about your well-being!  From what I understand, in New Jersey you get a different test every time.  They generate a different set of questions, but I think there are probably overlaps.  So while the test itself will be different, you may end up with a few of the same questions.  Not a huge help, but I guess that would make the retake slightly easier.  Hmm, an experiment huh?  Pray tell, even if it may difficult to explain, since that sounds interesting!

 

Oh true true, there’s still work to be done after all and you can’t be slacking off just yet!  You could probably sneak the movies and shorts in during a not so busy weekend, since they’re one-time deals that are over quickly, but if you’d rather save those for a long break then that’s fine too.  Ah whoops, must not have made it too clear, but I’d recommend the Monster manga over the anime, yup.  And it’s perfectly fine, no need to apologize!  Senior year can still be pretty hectic, so put all your focus into your school and pre-college work!  There will be plenty of time for anime and manga later, ahaha.

 

Gilgamesh confronting Waver, paired with Rider’s last stand and the buildup, which included Waver feeling insecure as well his talk with Glen Mackenzie on the roof, was my collectively favorite segment of Fate/Zero.  Really showed just how much the Grail War changed the little Clock Tower genius.  There were a ton of scenes, pretty much all in the second season, which I loved as well.  In no particular order, Kiritsugu’s backstory, Kirei’s backstabbing of Tokiomi, the fall of team Lancer, Kiritsugu vs. Kirei, the very first and very last episodes (upon rewatch), the river battle against Caster’s Cthulu monster, and Saber chasing Rider on her motorcycle are among the rest of my favorites.  Detective Conan was pretty much my only gateway anime.  There were gateway shows for specific genres that I watched of course, but DC was all I needed for me to get into short one/two-cour shows and eventually seasonal, on-going anime.  Only problem is, once I got stuck in the “short” anime mindset and got into a rhythm where I had time for pretty much only on-going series, long shows like the FMAs intimidated me.  I believe I already mentioned this before, but whenever I was in the mood to start a new completed series, for whatever reason I was never in the mood for Steains;Gate specifically.  I guess that’s my “excuse” for taking so long to watch that, eheheh.  But as for FMA, I’ll probably just end up reading the manga.  College looks like it’s going to take a lot of work, and I want to make the most out of my time here, so I can’t afford to be too excessive with my free time.

 

The guys I can yap up a storm with are all just nerdy dorks like I am, ahaha.  This was back in JP though, haven’t really found anyone who shares a ton of my interests here in Case yet.  They’re all probably just hanging in the back being as reserved as I am, sigh…  Oh yeahh, you mentioned before how you’re prone to Freudian slips, haha.  Geez, I’d love to meet you in person and see how you talk without the ability to go back and fix your mistakes like in these responses, ufufufufufu.  No need to be embarrassed; while I don’t make Freudian slips very often, I stutter a lot and can sometimes take a long time to find the words I’m trying to say.  You may think I have a way with words, but that’s only the case on paper.  Oh dear, I’m a bumbling idiot if I try to wing it.

 

I’m not really “friends” with the people I know who get high, but the ones who have openly stated, from their very lips, that they enjoy getting high, are people I’ve shared classes with and many times worked on projects and such with.  We get along well though, and they’re nice folks, but apart from that one year or class we saw each other often, we never really talked.  So they’re more like familiar acquaintances, I guess.  We had a suicide at JP as well.  It was… a bit horrific.  I believe it happened during my junior year.  On a school morning, a sophomore stole his parents’ car (he was obviously not licensed to drive), made his way onto a busy street, and collided head-on with a car coming in the opposite direction.  He died instantly, as did the two men in the car he crashed into.  The men both had wives and children.  There was a note in the boy’s pocket that read something along the lines of “it will be embarrassing if this doesn’t work lol”.  The quiet town of Edison, north Edison no less, where students work hard and people go about their daily lives peaceably, was sent into a bit of an uproar.  Online at least.  Obviously this made the news, and the comment sections of new articles erupted.  People were blaming the student, others said it wasn’t his fault and that suicidal people are complex and can’t be judged.  Some blamed the parents of the students, others said the parents were not to blame and were just as much victims.  How could this happen?  Why did this happen?  Was there any way to prevent this?  It was an absolute mess, and was obviously the hush-hush talk of the school as well.  Eventually everyone moved on from the tragedy, but it definitely was a bit of a wake-up call for me, as I was only just beginning to discover the dark underbelly of today’s teenagers.  I don’t personally know of any pregnancies, but Edison’s other public high school, uhh, definitely lived in JP’s shadow.  Lots more shady things happened there than over where I was, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was at least one pregnancy.  My roommate only had alcohol once before coming to Case, and that was just a little bit of wine, so it wasn’t enough to get him any more than tipsy.  The whiskey (what the hell was he thinking...) he had at the camp was more than he could handle.  From what I understood, the tradition has been recently losing its intensity.  Obviously, over the years countless of young Koreans have lost their lives because of this tradition, and there’s been a public push to cut back on the “necessity” that this drinking used to have.  In the past, guys were forced to drink.  Actually forced.  They did not have a choice, they had to get drunk.  Girls could drink if they wanted to, but they could opt out without being judged or pressured any further.  Nowadays, no one is forced to drink anymore, but at Case’s Korean Student Alliance party, my roommate said everyone had at least a little.

 

“Stubborn” is my middle name, they just left it off of the band website, fufufu.  Psht, sophomore year?  Get on my level Kenzi: K-12 with no cellphone or Facebook or driver’s license, bwahahaha.  I managed to fend off the peer pressure all of my childhood and only lost the battle when I became an adult and my parents literally made me do these things.  Literally.  They said I needed a phone and when I refused they said they’d buy me a crappy low-end LG if I didn’t specify what I wanted.  They said I needed a Facebook and when I said no they sat me between themselves in the middle of our Orlando trip, during one of those break days, and watched me as I made an account.  They wouldn’t let me get up until I finished.  When my parents told me I needed to get a license and I turned them down, they signed me up for the written test.  Didn’t matter what I said, they were going to get the paperwork done and I was to take that test whether I studied or not.  *sniff* It was a long and grueling battle, but I suppose I should be proud I got as far as I did…  I’m curious though, what was that “something” going on that warranted your attention and was a deciding factor in you getting a Facebook?  Oh trust me Kenzi, it’s very easy to get your hands on alcohol in college.  Last night I went to the restroom to take a shower and heard someone puking in the toilet.  Pretty sure he pushed himself a bit too far at that party going on a few doors down.  As long as there’s one person in a group of friends who knows an upperclassman willing to sell them alcohol, that whole group of young adults has access to getting drunk.  In Case, most parties are house parties.  The surrounding area is just too trashy to explore and find bars anyway, so when “exciting” things go down it’s usually in someone’s dorm or in a frat house, not at a club.  Because there’s no need for regulation there, anyone who shows up and is allowed in can get as drunk as they want.  Whaaaa we can’t both be tsundere to each other at the same time on the same topic!  That defies the laws of anime tropes and causes a paradox in otaku culture!  But in all seriousness though, you should definitely take at least one friend with you when going partying.  They can be there to make sure you don’t fall under peer pressure and over-drink in the presence of strangers or vague acquaintances and they can also keep an eye on you and intervene in case someone hits on you a bit too hard.  You know, the corny discreet hand gesture which leads to a friend swooping in and finding an excuse to pull you away from the increasingly sexual conversation.  And if the dude’s drunk, it doesn’t matter how bad or forced the acting is; he’ll fall for it.  If you get a bit too drunk yourself, your friend can be there to walk you back to your room, instead of have some guy you don’t know offer to take you back.  And it doesn’t have to be a one way thing either, both friends can look out for each other.  Bring a group, and then you have a whole web or net of people looking out for each other’s safety.  It’s just not a good idea to go alone, under any circumstances.  Just letting a friend know you’ll be out for a while before leaving and telling her or him to make sure to give a “status” call at midnight or something isn’t enough.  If something happens to you at ten and your friend calls at midnight and you don’t pick up and s/he realizes something is wrong, it’s probably already too late to prevent an incident from happening, especially since s/he isn’t at the actual scene.  Sorry for going off on a tangent again, but during orientation there were a lot of events and activities regarding parties and drinking and stuff like that.  My orientation leader said that bad things like this do happen, unfortunately pretty often, and that he’s seen far more than he’d like to see with his very own eyes, and that you can never ever be too careful.  I know this advice is coming very early, since you aren’t even in college yet, but I couldn’t help but type this all up right now.  I really do hope you take what I’ve said to heart.

 

Mhmm, the freedom to pick your classes and when you have them is really helpful.  There’s definitely more work, but I’d have to say I like college better than high school.  I went to JP though, so that definitely affects how I feel, hah.  I can imagine those who adored their high schools and made the best of friends there would have somewhat negative and salty outlooks on whatever college they go to, regardless of quality.  Your sister had a hard time finding a place to live in her junior and senior years?  She wanted to live off campus I assume?  I’m pretty sure I recall Brandeis saying that if you wanted to live on-campus you’d be guaranteed an accommodation, so I can only imagine someone struggling to find a place to live if they were trying to find housing outside the university’s jurisdiction.  I’ve spent a fair amount on textbooks.  Not full price for anything, since there are plenty of sites where you can find used copies of books for relatively cheap, and there are renting options as well, but a pretty solid amount regardless.  As for how helpful they are, it depends on the professor.  Some require you to do reading, and will pull a trick where s/he does not cover a book topic in the lecture but will put it on an exam to check that you’ve been working on the text as well.  Others just refer to the book for optional practice problems and don’t require you use it for anything other than reference.  Because it all comes down to “it depends”, it’s hard to generalize.

 

Hrm, maybe I should have multiple alarms set up on my phone, like a string of 10 alarms with each one set off a minute apart.  And they’re called Fourth Hours because a SAGES class is a four credit hour course, but each week you only have three hours of classes, so the weekly Fourth Hours are your “fourth hour” of “class”.  I know, pretty ingenious.  My econ class consists of about 45 people.  By good seat, I mean a seat in the front.  My econ class takes place not in a lecture hall with seats and desks on a pitched floor so that those in the back can see the professor as they’re positioned on higher ground, but rather in just a regular classroom.  Okay, not a “regular” classroom, but one twice the length of a normal high school classroom.  That means if you’re stuck in the back, you’re stuck wayyyy in the back and have to somehow see over everyone else’s heads and shoulders.  Not a productive place to be for note taking.  I sit in the second row, since I always arrive early, so I can’t complain.  If you show up ten minutes before the start of class or later, you’re pretty much straight outta luck.  Arrive around twenty minutes in advance and you’re guaranteed a seat in the first two rows.  Ahhh no no, I was crunched for time and just had to churn out something that sounded decent and hope for the best.  They aren’t amazing works of writing or anything, trust me.  Gosh, believe me Kenzi, I would have treated myself better if I had the time to.  But one slip-up and a domino effect caused to me lose all of that time.  Eh, it is what it is, I feel like it was a good experience in a sense, haha.  There’s an office in Sears called Educational Services for Students (ESS) which actually has Case specific planners available for free.  They have all the breaks and important dates (like finals, deadlines for dropping classes, etc.) incorporated in the booklet, which is really helpful.  There’s even a place to map out your weekly schedule by the hour, to help you visualize how to manage your time on an average day.  Apart from a full academic calendar, they also have little tips and places where you can seek help, emotional or educational and everything in between, all typed out in the back.  It’s super useful, I recommend you use it if you come to Case.

 

Hmmm, the writing aspect is a bit heavy, but in other colleges you’d probably have to otherwise take expository classes anyway, so SAGES just takes the place of that.  If you want to know a bit more about how SAGES works and more about the kinds of courses they offer, you can read up on it here.  I’m fairly certain some things at least kinda capture your fancy, haha.

 

Ehhhh, I dunno if I’d call writing for the newspaper a job.  Anybody who wants to write can.  Show up to the general meeting, talk a bit one-on-one with the person in charge of your area of focus, and you’re pretty much in.  You can write as much or as little as you want.  If you want to write once a week (which is insane, why would you do that to yourself?) then go for it.  If you want to write once a year (met someone who literally did exactly this last year) that’s okay too.  Since you get paid for each article you write (I don’t know how much you get paid, felt too embarrassed to ask, eheh) you’re not really committed to a schedule and you can do as much or as little as you want.  You do have to let them know in advance if you want to write something, so they can reserve you a spot, but once you’re set to write for that week you better not chicken out and leave ‘em hanging once the deadline rolls around.  Pretty much the only way you’d get “fired”, hah.  Ohhh no, I don’t think a fraternity would be for me.  You already heard my opinion on drinking, sooo…  I might consider joining a professional fraternity though, like Alpha Kappa Psi, which is the professional business fraternity for not only Case but a ton of universities nationwide.  Since that’s more of a legitimate organization, it has more of an appeal.  I’m not going to rush just yet though; I’ll wait until at least sophomore year.

 

Yup, his hair is like that all year round.  I’m sure if you come to Case you’ll see him.  I mean, he doesn’t exactly blend in, so you’re at the very least going to catch a glimpse of this hair around campus.  Speaking to him would be a bit harder though, since he always has so many friends around him all the time.  I was lucky even to have had that one minute chance in line, haha.  Haven’t spoken to him since though, sigh.

 

I pretty much just spammed the “activities” and “honors” sections of the CA with band stuff, even if it was mainly small one-time things.  In the description or extra info area, can’t remember what it was called, I made sure to subtlety laud my band program as much as possible while giving more info on the activities and honors I had listed.

 

Oh dear, pls ctrl yourself Kenzi, at least wait until the OnePlus 2 is publicly available before breaking your phone.

 

Couldn’t really find a good place to talk about this anywhere else, so I guess I’ll just tack it on near the end.  As I briefly mentioned before, I’ve started working out.  Not just a couple of reps of sit-ups and push-ups a day like I used to do in high school, but actually going to the gym regularly.  In high school I just lightly exercised to maintain my average level of fitness, but in college I guess my goal is to actually build muscle mass and condition myself.  Puberty, from the looks of it, is pretty much over for me, and I’m leaving my teenage years behind.  Might as well take advantage of this time by putting as much of my “youth” energy to good use and getting as fit as I can.  If I wait too long, I’ll be past my peak and start becoming “old” before I realize it.  I’m going to start off by working out three times a week on Saturdays, Mondays, and Thursdays.  This gives one to two days for my muscles to rest and recover between sessions.  As I exercise more and my body gets used to a strict exercise regimen, and given I find the time for it, I may add in a few days to bring the number up to five times a week, maybe even every day of the week.  I work out late at night, but before midnight though, so that my showering lines up with preparing to go to bed and I can still stick to my regular “one shower per night” schedule.  In fact, since it’s a Saturday, I’ll be heading out to the gym in a little while after posting this, ahah. 

 

Ah, I’m glad you managed to finish your summer reading!  What did you think of the books you read?  It’s too bad that you drew the short end of the stick with your anatomy class, but at the very least you have something to fall back on!  Now that school has started for you, really, don’t be afraid to miss a week if you’re busy!

 

Edit: We both got so caught up in the back to school hype, we forgot about the Smash Ballot!  Or at least I did, ahaha.  The deadline is October 3rd, so right around the corner!  There's not much time left to push this back any further.  Though I'm not sure how much of an influence our last second votes will be, it doesn't hurt to drop a name and hope for the best, right?  My number one option would have been Phoenix Wright, but then a second Capcom rep in the form of Ryu was confirmed, pretty much dashing all hope since a third Capcom character would be overkill given Sega only has Sonic and Namco only has Pac-Man.  I also really want to vote for Inklings, but I feel that a DLC Mii Fighter costume deconfirms them.  Same with King K. Rool, who I considered for a bit.  I also want Cranky Kong and Krystal to get in.  Cranky sounds like a ton of fun, because he's an old monkey who insults Donkey and Diddy for being scrubs at games.  He's a really funny character, and it would be so satisfying beating people up with him.  But I don't think there's much of a demand for him.  Krystal is from the first video game I ever played, Star Fox Adventures.  While I don't like her much as a character, she's from my most nostalgic game and with her staff she can add a whole new fighting style never before seen in Smash.  I'm still kinda torn, so I'll have to give it a few more days of thought before voting.  That being said, who are you voting for? 

Edit: Added a bit to the end.

 

Oh no, not at all! You've been a bigger help than you may think. Pointing out which ideas and topics to get rid of is actually quite helpful. If it weren't for you, I'd still be stuck on bland topics that'd make for an awful essay. And please don't feel obligated to brainstorm ideas for me! I know you have college to focus your attention on, and I don't want you to worry about all of this for my sake. I have something new I think I'll work on. It's still in its early stages but I think I can make something outta this. And don't worry, I'm well aware I have a deadline to meet so I'm not saying this just to ease your worries or anything. 

 

Haha, I felt the same way about other sites after losing my YouTube channel. I haven't really found my place in Reddit, but I post/comment whenever I find the opportunity to; same with DeviantART. And although I've watched anime for years and years, I haven't watched enough to immerse myself with that community either. I guess I've dabbled around in a few communities, but I haven't exactly found a new "family" after leaving YouTube. I also feel like I would've left DCW a while ago if it weren't for you. The only reason I joined was to add to the discussion, but that part of the forum is relatively slow since it's usually just a bunch of old threads getting necroed. But it's mainly my fault for not taking part in the manga discussion since I don't read the manga. I already donated to this site a while ago before I made an account (only a small amount though) back in February 2014 when the wiki crashed and was under maintenance if you remember, but DCW has done more for me than anything I can ever do for it--and that was giving me the opportunity to meet someone as life-changing as you, haha. Aside from that, the only other contribution I've made was that one silly wiki change to the minor characters list I did as a joke (and inspired by you, heh). Hopefully Chek didn't mind too much, lol.

 

I know you saw the leak about Zygarde and Greninja, so I'll just post my thoughts here. I'm okay with the concept of Zygarde (seems like a direct parallel to DBZ's Cell), but wtf did they do to Greninja. Uhh... I guess it's creative, but geez, it really doesn't sit well with me. And its name "Ash-Greninja" oh my lord. the. darn. thing. looks. like. Ash. why. just. why. It probably has something to do with its Protean ability or AZ's Floette or something, but I can't be the only person who finds the design and even the concept somewhat unsettling. It'll definitely take a while for it to grow on me. Oh yes, Cat Mario is very much a thing, and not at all a game that spawned from the depths of hell, not at all! Hehe. I don't think the layout of new Pokemon games will differ too much from the previous 6th gen games. Graphics will likely stay the same, the 3D models will likely stay the same, animations will likely stay the same. Anything they do end up changing will probably end up being minor aesthetic touch-ups like the tall grass or buildings or something. I can't think of anything else they could do, but hey, I like surprises. They better make the nighttime a sight to behold though, heh.

 

Ohh, solo runs are actually easier than using a full team of six? Ugh, I really want to try it but I don't want to reset any of my games... I'll try to dig up a flash version then (after playing the AA games, Smash, the new Pokemon game, then FE... I'm never going to get to it, am I...). Twenty-five natures, an hour and a half, and you only encountered Jolly twice, but managed to get one with a perfect attack IV? Yooooo........ Haha yeah, Mauville had a huge revamp, but the Abandoned Ship though... (let me know your thoughts when you get there, heh). That's a pretty solid set for Metagross, but do you think the speed drop from Hammer Arm will be a problem? It could leave you vulnerable to faster Pokemon unless you decide to switch out. Do you plan on replacing it with Brick Break after you get the TM? I really love Mega Metagross. It's fast af and has op attack power and defenses. It'll probably make the solo run a lot easier/faster, but if you don't want that, maybe try it out anyway to see how you like it, haha. 

 

Our teachers just force us to dress formally if we had presentations to give. Otherwise we'd lose points, sigh. It's not a huge deal though since it rarely happens anyway, haha. Still though, lucky you! I'm actually rather surprised that you find it surprising that I sleep fully clothed, lol. And yes, all year long. In the summer, I'll wear a t-shirt and some pants. In the winter, I'll wear anything to keep the cold away. I'll take in an extra blanket if I have to, but it won't help me get out of bed--that's for sure. Well, uh, I-I'm not comfortable sleeping... bare. You know, in case my parents or sister (or a robber I guess) decides to barge in all of a sudden and I'm not, uh, properly clothed. Needlessly awkward situation for all of us. Actually, I've never thought about sleeping bare. I don't mind sleeping with clothes on, and I know sleeping bare isn't uncommon... I-I guess I'm open to trying new things so maybe I'll give it a shot next summer when I won't feel like a popsicle... is it really that much more cozy? Oh my gosh what am I saying. I feel so embarrassed. Hmph Akazora, baiting me into typing this kind of stuff! I guess sleeping bare isn't as much of a problem for guys, haha. Judging by the looks of it, you also sleep like this in college? With the A/C on full blast? Sheesh, you're determined, lol.

 

So if I'm interpreting this correctly, there's little to no added workload in this wellness class? You can even leave early, you don't have to make up essays, and it's just a pass/fail class? Dang, man. I bet you're pretty happy about this, heh. I haven't been following the election very actively, but I'm fairly certain my econ teacher will fill me in on the stuff just fine (he's prone to going off on these kinds of tangents). I'm not too into politics or anything, but are you in favor of anyone yet?

 

Oh my gosh, so everything at your school is reused? We can't reuse our uniforms even if we wanted to because much of what we wear has our surnames embroidered on them. We also receive other attire we can wear outside of matches like hoodies and sweatpants and stuff. Everything we receive/pay for is ours to keep. But our township isn't as extravagant compared to some of the other schools. The more sport-oriented schools go all out. Matching bags and shoes and everything. Geezus. Hmm, so what if the uniforms are too big or too small? If there aren't any better sizes leftover would they still have to wear them anyway? What do you guys do about color guard then?

 

Haha, yeah. My watch is the first thing I look at when I wake up, lol. I normally slip my hand (palm up) under the pillow when I'm on my side, so I don't use it as a "direct" cushion. The hand I use changes depending on which side I'm facing. If I'm facing the right side, I use my right hand for support. If I'm facing the left side, I use my left hand. The other arm/hand stays under the blanket, clutching the underside of the opening of the blanket near my collarbone. But when it's really hot, I just toss and turn until I feel comfortable. I've never felt uncomfortable wearing my watch to sleep since I've been doing it for so long, so maybe that's why, haha. If your watch clanks against your laptop, either your laptop's unit system is a lot bigger than I thought or you wear your watch too close to your wrist (or both). I've never had a problem with my watch clanking on my desk or laptop and my left wrist doesn't feel off balanced either. Maybe your watch is unusually heavy? Is it a digital or analog watch? Hmm, writing about my watch, huh... it's an interesting idea, but I don't have any incidents I can write about. I'll definitely keep it in mind though. I saw my friend in comp sci writing about his struggles with putting on his contacts in the morning, so I mean, I can give it a shot, lol.

 

I don't care for fanservice as long as it doesn't get in the way of the story. Once it turns into a distraction, then it becomes a problem for me. With that said, I don't care for fanservicey shows either. I know people have fetishes for ecchi or whatever, so by all means watch what makes you happy. And then there's Free. The anime industry has been saturated with ecchi so I don't see why guys should complain about Free. Now, I'm not defending or condemning the show because of its fanservicey nature, but rather because if guys have DxD, I don't see why girls can't have Free. There's a famous saying "sex sells" and I'll admit, it has some truth to it. It takes one erotic video clip or image before the comments section of any site is flooded with "what is the anime/show/movie at 5:28" so it's understandable why ecchi is so commonplace nowadays. It's a shame a lot of potentially good shows are soiled because of it. The thing with PSG is, it's such a blatant spoof of both western shows and anime. My only problem with PSG is how vulgar it can be with some of the jokes. Admittedly, quite a few episodes made me feel a bit uncomfortable because of how overdone they were. The toilet humor and sex jokes were a hit or miss for me, and if you're not into that kind of stuff, avoid PSG like the plague (also, lol Gainax). And about Free, I'm in no hurry to watch it, haha. It's really low priority for me at the moment, and I assure you I won't be watching it for the fanservice if I do end up watching it. I know you were just messing with me with the gifs and Lenny faces but I wanted to play along, hehe.

 

I love watching shows that stem away from standard expectations. Basically anything that takes in something completely unconventional and original, if that makes sense. PSG was definitely one of them. It blew me away, in both good and bad ways, but it was something I enjoyed watching for the mindless entertainment. Ping Pong is a great rainy day anime and one of the most original anime I've ever watched. Same with Tatami Galaxy in drilling those themes into the audience's heads. I love watching things that are "different"--something that breaks standard tropes and isn't afraid to stand out and try something new. I really dislike how almost every romance I've seen is so cookie-cutter (barring anime like Tatami Galaxy, which are gems in this coal mine). Even in some of my favorite anime, the romance is obvious and clichéd. It can be developed well, but I can see it coming from a mile away. And yeah, it's nice to see the characters get together, but it's kinda boring seeing the romance developed under a template that hundreds of other anime have followed; a cut-out that forces them into a happy-go-lucky fairy tale ending (most of the time). And while these fairy tale endings aren't all bad (I've enjoyed quite a few), I would like to see something that follows an unconventional path. It can be a lot to ask for, so I don't expect much for the romance aspect of any anime I watch (plus, I'd rather it be a subplot or have subtle development instead of being the main focus of the story anyway). For anime like Kaichou wa Maid-sama (where I just plowed through some clips and completely spoiled everything for myself), the romance was annoying. I know it's a shoujo, which is all about the romance, but it was just downright annoying. From the clips I watched, the female protagonist (Misaki) is some failed attempt at a tsundere damsel in distress who overestimates her abilities for pretty much everything she does, which the male protagonist (Usui)--the epitome of the "Gary Stu"--inevitably uses against Misaki in order to cause her to "develop" feelings for him. Ha, and even better, Misaki's alter ego is a submissive maid; how perfect. Some sorry excuse for a tsundere and some entitled Gary Stu falling for each other. What a great plot. This kind of clichéd romance is also the same reason Twilight was the first and last book I picked up from the Twilight saga. Whoops, I should probably stop before I ramble on any further. I guess my main point is that I haven't found many romance scenes/anime/books/etc. that I've taken a liking to (scenes like the one in Steins;Gate were cute, but nothing I'd gush over). But at the same time, I haven't given the romance genre much of a chance either, so I suppose I'm being harsh and rather unfair in my judgment since I'm not willing to dig through a trash heap of clichéd romance to find a gem. Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso sounds kinda interesting. Is there a reason you didn't like it as much as others have? I don't think I've ever watched a romance from the guy's perspective, so I might take a peek out of curiosity. You could make for a good critic, haha. Maybe make a blog in your free time and update your thoughts on the anime, movies, shows, and books you've gone through, lol.

 

I've never played the Tales series before, but I might check out the anime series when it comes out. I recall you posting about this a while ago, but would you suggest it? And whaaaa...????? KyoAni adapted Nichijou and Lucky Star?? I... I don't... what??? Oh my gosh I feel so uninformed... how... whaaaaattttt... Haha, and funny enough, Nichijou didn't resonate with me the first time I watched it. I gave it another shot by re-watching it a while later and I ended up adoring the darn show. Freaking loved it and slapped it on my list of all time favorite anime not too long afterwards. Lucky Star though... KyoAni, how could you possibly make this abomination of an anime when you had the potential to create works of art like Nichijou, sigh. Also, I've seen Kyoukai no Kanata being thrown around here and there, but I never bothered to look up what it's about. That amv you sent me was really solid. And then I saw the following clip. Umm... well... what. I was also thinking about watching K-On and Haruhi a while ago--back when I was in elementary and middle school when my sister still watched anime and allowed me to barge in her room to join her whenever I got bored. The shows seemed pretty appealing at the time, but I kinda lost interest as time passed. KyoAni was responsible for those as well??? I'm so out of the loop.

 

The only thing that helped differentiate which tab was which was the little website icons. The only reason I had so many open was because I didn't want to open a third window. I didn't want to close any of the tabs either since many of them served as reminders for things I needed to do. And as much as I'd hate to admit it, many of the tabs consisted of sites to help inspire me for college essays. I'm a wreck. Oh, and something on my laptop crashed about a week ago. I'm not quite sure, but every videoplayer, whether it was on YouTube or Facebook, would freeze after I clicked on the play button. The volume button on my taskbar was also unresponsive, so I'm pretty sure it was connected to the problem somehow. I ended up restarting my laptop for the first time in months. And now my laptop is running a lot faster. I normally have up to ten tabs open on one window at most, but operating 20-30 isn't as difficult and tedious as you may think, haha. I also do most of my work on incognito, but not because I'm going to shady sites or anything. As you said, it allows me to sign into two emails, but also keeps my google history clean. And by "clean", I mean it prevents links from turning purple when I click on them. Seeing purple links is just a silly pet peeve of mine, lol. A few Windows 10 users have said that the upgrade helped with computer performance, so I dunno. I guess I'll give it a shot soon, haha.

 

We haven't gotten to the calc stuff in Physics C yet, but the teacher said it's coming this Friday. Time to brace myself for impact. Oh, wut. Pfft, I knew something was fishy about that $2.5 billion worth, but I guess I couldn't put two and two together, haha. Ehhh?? Seniors have to wear fake tuxes (wait, wat) and dresses for the yearbook?? All we have to do is send in senior pictures that we had done in a photography studio. For our ID cards, we can still wear anything. A bunch of friends decided to go in with pigtails, and another person trolled the photographer into taking a picture of someone else for his ID card. In hindsight, I should've done something silly like putting on my reindeer antlers or something, lol. Freshmen, sophomores, and juniors can also wear whatever they want (most of them choose to dress formally though). Our school and city are pretty diverse. Although most of the AP and honors classrooms are flooded with Asians (I'd say around 50-75 percent), there's a myriad of ethnicities floating around the hallways. If you were to flip to any random page in our yearbook photos section, there would be a good amount of diversity there as well. Orchestra is probably the only class where everyone else is the true minority (band is pretty diverse though).

 

Just the concept of traveling abroad sounds awesome in my opinion. Obviously, I'd prefer certain places over others, but just thinking about going someplace where the culture and environment is completely different is so exciting! I don't know if my dad would be happy about me going to Japan to do anything though, lol. I heard that Aogashima Island is a great stargazing spot too! Ahaha, whoops, trailing off too much again. Hehe, but be sure to update me on your status!  

 

Well, that escalated quickly Not gonna lie, the image got a snicker or two outta me. Haha, no worries. I've also laughed at my fair share of dorky things. Oh my gosh, I'm always in a rush to get to school. My bus comes at 6:50 and I wake up at 6:30 (my dad told me he's only going to send me to school in the winter now, eheh). So that leaves me around 15 minutes to get ready and 5 minutes to run to the bus stop. I set my alarm to 6:20 just to give me 10 minutes to snooze. After the final alarm goes off at 6:30, I begrudgingly push my blanket to the side, drag myself out of bed, then sluggishly head to the sink to brush my teeth, wash my face, grab some clothes from my closet and/or drawers, comb my hair, and stuff my phone into my backpack and do one last check to make sure I didn't forget anything. It's usually around 6:40 by then. I scramble downstairs to fill up my water bottle and shove my lunch into my backpack. Oops, now it's 6:43 and I haven't eaten breakfast yet. That's okay because I just stuff a plastic bag with a few slices of bread to eat in class. I leave home at 6:45 and arrive to my bus stop around 6:48. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the week and/or school year. The thing is, I really don't like breakfast. A few slices of bread spread across a few hours is enough to get me through the morning until lunch. If I ever get sick of eating bread, I'll bring a bag of something else. I even brought an entire bag of dried mangoes with me not too long ago for breakfast. Yeah, I got some weird looks from my friends that day and had to explain myself, but it's no big deal, lol. Definitely better than skipping breakfast entirely (which was a regular occurrence last year). I know, my "routine" is a mess. 1-2 hours to get ready would be nice, but that would mean waking up around 5am. A relaxed morning routine at the expense of sleep when I don't even get that much sleep to begin with... is not worth it. Hmm, what did you do in high school then? Whoaaa, combing your hair takes anywhere from 1-20 minutes? My hair tends to cooperate with me on most days, but I can always choose to pin it up and go on my merry way when it doesn't. Or I can pin it up or put it into a ponytail when I know it's going to be sweltering outside. Yikes, 20 minutes to walk to class? That's... pretty far away. My parents also complain about how slow I can be sometimes. When we go on family trips to an outlet or something, my sister and I are almost always the last people to get ready. My "getting ready for bed" schedule though? It's practically nonexistent. I just brush my teeth, turn off the lights, and go to bed. I'm curious, what's your "getting ready for bed" routine? 

 

All the way down to 68? Careful there. You wouldn't want to screw around with the A/C by keeping it turned on so often ( ͡͡ ° ͜ ʖ͡ °). Well, I guess it's good that you're taking full advantage of the A/C, but... haha, I guess if it makes you happy... just don't freeze yourself to death, eheh. Okayokay, I know I haven't played anything from FE yet but the opportunity was just too good to pass up. And you got sick again?? Are you sure it wasn't the same cold? Sometimes my sore throat goes away during the day and comes back the next morning. Hopefully you've recovered by now! Hehe, fingers crossed you'll be able to experience a white Christmas this year! The low negatives we get around here are mostly because of wind chill. Otherwise, the temperatures would sit at negative single digits. Wha... you walked home from school all four years? What happened if it was pouring outside and you forgot to bring an umbrella? If the house wasn't so far away I'd also choose to walk home. I still have to take the bus since my parents don't have an extra car for me to drive, lol. I don't have any fond memories of Halloween for whatever reason. I stopped celebrating in late middle school because of how small the neighborhood is (only a couple dozen houses at most). My parents didn't want me to always head off to my friends' neighborhoods (which is what I was doing in prior years) so I just stayed home with all the lights turned off these past few years because my dad didn't want others to come to our house. Yeah, it's kinda depressing. And for Thanksgiving, we just eat hotpot and my parents just watch some Chinese programming. Sometimes we'd go to or host a card party, but it was never anything eventful since most of the guests were adults. Sometimes I'd play Mario Kart or Pokemon with a couple of the kids there, but I'm fairly certain one of them stole my Shadows of Almia game during one of those card parties sooo.........

 

Aw man, I haven't had a family movie night in years. Haha, I miss those days. We never watched any "cartoons" though; it was mainly movies we borrowed from the library. My parents are now doing their own thing by cutting the cable and replacing it with this weird Chinese Netflix knockoff. So everything they watch now is either in Chinese, or some R-rated action movie with Chinese subtitles. I don't think I would ever be able to convince them to watch Grave of the Fireflies. My sister might be able to though.

 

And same to you! Ahaha, you're far too much<3 I don't know a single person who had to do the retake, but I guess that just goes to show how easy the test is, lol. Ahh, well, the "experiment" wasn't anything significant. I was just challenging the way the instructor graded papers. Our tests were multiple choice and we transfer our answers to a separate sheet of paper with fill-in bubbles. In order to make the process of grading easier, the instructor just punched holes on a blank answer sheet for the answer key. He would then overlay one of our tests with the hole-punched answer key and grade them. If the hole-punch matched up with the answer/bubble the student put down, he wouldn't mark anything. If it didn't match up, he would mark a red dot in that corresponding hole. I took note of this when he was grading a few of our quizzes and wanted to try something: bubble in multiple answers for the same question and see if he noticed. I did this for a few questions, and I ended up getting those questions right when he should've marked them wrong.

 

Hehe, I'm going to have a pretty awesome break with all this anime and manga to catch up on. I'm really excited!  

 

Ohh, that's right... I still need to get around to re-watching F/Z. I also liked the scenes that you mentioned, but my absolute favorite is Kiritsugu's backstory. I have a soft spot for those, heh. After looking back on everything, I'm confident I'll have a better impression watching it this time around. I knew about Detective Conan a long, long time ago (I think I discovered it when I was in China with my sister). I've watched a bit of anime as a little kid; namely stuff like Pokemon and Naruto though. But I only watched them when my sister was around. It wasn't until a friend started spazzing about Hetalia when I decided to watch anime on my own. That's when I decided to go through stuff like FMA/FMAB and thought to myself, "hey, this stuff isn't half-bad." Even though I've known about DC forever, I didn't pick it back up until a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how I managed to unearth the idea, actually. The thought just randomly occurred to me even though I barely had any traces of it left from when I last watched it way back in elementary school. Life's kinda weird like that. So DC was your only gateway anime? When did you discover it? Ahh, it's a shame you skipped over the FMAs (I still find it a bit surprising). They're classics, for sure. Also, I continue to stand by not watching any currently-airing anime I'm not familiar with. The last anime I blindly dove into while it was currently airing was SnK. And the only reason I watched it was because marasy's cover of the opening intrigued me. I jumped in a little late though (when episode 7 just aired, I think). I can't deal with having to wait a week between episodes. I was miserable when any episode from the second season of F/SN ended with a cliffhanger. The anticipation would slowly die out as the week passed, and then I'd get another weekly high from watching another episode. Once I finished watching the episode, I'd go through withdrawal again. I don't know how you managed to handle it so well, lol. Yup, college is a lot more important in the long run, and running through 27 volumes can be a bit daunting, so no worries!

 

Haha yeah, finding someone who you share common interests with can be a bit tough, but don't give up! It's definitely a magical feeling once you stumble across someone who does. And about my Freudian slips, ehehe, it depends on the day. Some days I really screw up when I'm talking, but other days I'm perfectly fine. I definitely have more "good" days than not though, lol. And right back atcha'. I'd also love to see how different you are in person, heh.

 

I've never seen anyone openly admit that they do drugs. I only knew because a few friends decided to mention about people they knew who did. And I've never seen anyone on school premises getting high either even though, apparently, there's this one group of people who regularly smoke weed near the tennis courts. I've only seen someone doing drugs once in my life. And that was when I was sitting in a car and happened to pass by a person behind a building smoking weed. I was also sitting with a group of friends in the car that day, and for whatever reason they decided to record my reaction. Gosh, I don't know why I find this all so surprising. Even they were shocked to hear that I've never seen anyone getting high until then. Oh my gosh, the guy just... he stole his parents' car in order to kill himself?? Well, uh, I don't know what to say. I guess I just find this all really shocking since I've only seen these kinds of incidents in media and because I'm still in the "oh, this'll never happen to me or anyone around me" mentality--however naive that may sound. Just the fact that this is very real and truly could happen to any of us is... definitely a wake-up call for me. In the past, the guys were forced to drink?? It's good to know that the tradition is dying down, but your roommate willingly downed whiskey?? Geez, what an eager beaver.

 

Ahaha, I'm still a bit surprised that your parents forced you to get a Facebook. My parents wouldn't have cared since they don't see the appeal in it. My dad was the one who pushed me into getting a driver's license though, and I'm really glad he did. It definitely saved me the trouble of taking the test during the school year. I was fine without a cell phone for most of my life, but I guess I didn't realize how "essential" it was until my parents forced one into my hands, eheh... Oh, well, what pushed me to get a Facebook wasn't a big deal. A friend just emailed me a conversation a few other friends were having about me on Facebook. It was some shipping business they sucked me into. After reading the conversation, I cracked and made an account. Geezus, it's that easy to get your hands on alcohol? Ehem, well then... I guess I'll just have to be extra paranoid and cautious when I head off to college. Gosh, why are people so eager to get wasted. Haha, you say that as if I'm willing to drink at those parties. Rest assured, I'll try to avoid alcohol as much as possible. I didn't realize how serious this drinking business is since I don't think my sister has ever encountered situations like this (aside from her roommates who drank so often they had the windowsills and floor lined with bottles they've drank--which easily stretched past a dozen meters in total). Thank you very much for your concern! It was definitely an eye-opener for me. It's a scary thought how quickly these parties can go awry, but I'll be sure to keep what you said in mind! Be sure to look after yourself as well!

 

I figured you'd like college more than high school, but it's reassuring to see it actually coming from you, haha. I most certainly like the high school I go to, but I don't "adore" it. It's a nice school, for sure, but I don't feel as strongly attached to it as some of the others around here. I should count myself lucky that I ended up here instead of our rivaling high school on the supposedly "trashier" side of the city though. I've known people who've had a blast in high school and still loved college. But maybe it's just that their charisma follows them wherever they end up, lol. Actually, my sister lived on-campus for all four years. Brandeis only guarantees an accommodation for freshmen and sophomores. You can still choose to live on-campus as a junior and senior, but it's a lot harder to find a place to live. I'm the kind of person who enjoys having the physical book on my lap (so I'll avoid ebooks when possible). I'm a little worried about how much the textbooks will cost, but hopefully I'll be able to find a bunch used versions, haha. I just want to make sure I'm not wasting money on books I'll never use.

 

Not gonna lie, the meaning behind "Fourth Hours" turned out to be a lot more straightforward than I thought it would be, lol. Hmm, 45 people is actually decently big. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the class in an actual lecture hall then? Are your other classes also on flat floors or are the seats positioned on stairs? Haha, it's kinda funny since everyone in high school fights for the seats in the back of the classroom. So what do you do during those 10-20 minutes of waiting? Well, I'm glad you managed to learn something from the ordeal! Oh, and I feel the need to mention this: I was at String Camp and decided to attempt an all-nighter last Saturday (it's a tradition for seniors to stay up late and prank the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors). Ugh, not worth it. I gave in around 4am and was left with three hours of sleep (I actually had enough energy to stay up longer, but I decided against it). When I got back home Sunday afternoon, I crashed at 1pm and slept until 7pm. I got little to no work done that day and had to push all of my work to the following days (and I had a lot to do). That little slip-up completely threw off my sleep and work schedule. Major screw-up on my part since I knew about the work I had to do beforehand but still attempted the all-nighter anyway. I didn't learn any major life lesson other than "don't attempt all-nighters for no reason", and the domino effect following the attempted all-nighter was enough to reinforce it. It was far from a "good experience" for me since it made me really crunched for time. And by that, I mean the amount of work felt magnified tenfold compared to what it would've been if I had just finished the work I had to do last Sunday. Ohh, there's an office in Sears that offers Case specific planners with academic calendars and places to seek help? Whoaaaaaaa, that's awesome!

 

There are science SAGES courses?? Haha, yay! That makes things a bit better, heh. And geez, they have some really strange classes lined up there, lol.

 

Once a week or once a year? It's certainly nice how flexible the newspaper committee is! Is there a person who edits your work? How do they know whether or not the person applying for the position is serious about it? It sounds like a nice way to earn some free-spending money, and it sounds kinda fun so let me know how it goes! I know it's a bit early to think about this, but do you think I should join a sorority? And please excuse my ignorance on the subject, but are frats really that... uhh... "obscene"?

 

Oh dang, is he really that hard to approach? I'm curious though, how did your conversation with him arise?

 

Ohh, I see. I can't add much in the description areas since there's a character count limit, which really sucks, and I ran out of space in the "activities" and "honors" slots. But I'll try to find stuff I can replace.

 

Okay, this is going to sound really weird, but I legitimately thought my phone died out on Wednesday. For some reason it wouldn't turn on no matter how many times I pressed the home or power button. And I know it wasn't out of battery because it had 80% battery left when I last used it, and I know it wasn't turned off because I didn't turn it off. I started panicking because this phone was the only way I knew about last-minute changes to assignments and tennis practice. Long story short, I still don't know how I managed to "fix" it, but it nearly gave me a heart-attack. And I recently found out that a friend of mine also plays Deemo! I saw a classmate tapping on his phone during String Camp and mistakenly thought he was playing Deemo. My friend then walked over and told me he was actually playing Osu! (I should've recognized it from the clacking noises, but I couldn't help but get my hopes up, eheh). That's when he told me that he actually had Deemo on his phone and was in the process of unlocking Anima. I dunno, it made me kinda happy to hear about it, haha.

 

Whoaaa, you're going to the gym regularly now? Three times a week too? Oh geez, you're quite ambitious, haha. I can't afford to go to the gym (in terms of time, money, and motivation). I also have a treadmill at home, but I never use it. I haven't gone jogging in a while, so maybe I'll try to work that into my schedule when I have more time. It's nice to know that you're taking care of your body and finding the time to go to the gym regularly in your busy college schedule! I'll be rooting for you! How is it going so far?

 

Oryx and Crake wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It felt like one of those campfire stories (might've been the way it was formatted). It's a bit hard to explain, but I wasn't too thrilled about it. It had a really strong start though. It's an okay book, but not something I'd personally recommend. The Road was depressing and the end was kinda cheesy, but it wasn't bad. Jane Eyre was okay. Except that I lost motivation and ended up Sparknoting the rest of it. How to Read Literature Like a Professor was really dry and bland and why did I even bother. Haha, I'm not too bummed about the anatomy class. I'm actually kinda glad I got the teacher I didn't want since it gave me an excuse to switch out into comp sci and orgo--both of which I wanted to take pretty badly in order to broaden my horizons a bit (and I wanted to take another stab at orgo, lol). And oh my gosh, during comp sci, I saw a few classmates playing Super Smash Flash

 

Phew, I didn't expect senior year to gut me so quickly. It's probably because we lost a week of September (due to Labor Day being pretty late this year). Teachers were scrambling to catch up and ended up shoving assignments into our already-filled-to-the-brim arms and burying us under these tests and due dates. It was definitely a rude awakening from the somewhat leisurely pace of summer I got so used to (and it also may or may not have been caused by my slipup at String Camp...). Okay, I'm done venting, for now. On the bright side, I haven't fallen asleep in any of my classes... yet. I'm still trying to get back into the rhythm of things, but hopefully you've adjusted to the college life! And thanks for being so understanding!

 

Reckless Safety Notice Man Hmm, I actually have no idea who I'd vote for. I'd like to see some of the old characters back, but I also want something new. I'm not casting a vote for Shovel Knight. Probably not going to vote for Quote or Meat Boy either (I just don't think they fit with the game or bring anything that great to the table). We have enough Pokemon characters, and I know Shantae seems to be a popular choice, but I'm not too familiar with the franchise, sooo... Well, I highly doubt my vote's going to matter this late in the game anyway, haha. Maybe I'll just cling onto some false hope and cast a vote for Ice Climbers, lol.

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

Oh my gosh, just because the songs usually don't have much to do with the plot doesn't mean you should go out and listen to them all!

(Kenzi, pls, stahp, wut r u doing) 

I haven't actually unlocked that song yet (very close though, almost there) but uh-oh, another intense song.  There are a few of those out there and they're absolutely brutal.  They're already level 7+ at medium setting, and that's at the range where it takes quite a bit of practice and luck to get a decent score.  Lord have mercy...

Here's one of those intense songs, that I just barely managed to get around 84% on medium (level 8):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vWNDOgjvRk

I just couldn't help myself ;-;

but I'll have to stop if I want to enjoy the game to the fullest, haha

best of luck to you!

Anima sounds like a helluva good time

 

 

--

HYYYPPPEEEEE

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

Yeah, OnePlus is still far from a popular company.  It has a devoted and dedicated fanbase, but it still has a long ways to go.  I’ve been at Case for three weeks and haven’t caught a single glimpse of anyone else wielding an OPO, despite people being more open to brandishing their phones whenever and where ever when compared to high school.

 

Woahhh, that… definitely was not how I expected you to open your essay, jeezus.  Admittedly, the talk and sight of blood that’s not my own can get me pretty queasy.  You once fell so ill you coughed up buckets of blood?  I-I thought that was just an anime specialty (ehem, Fate series, you seriously overuse this technique).  But apart from that, that would definitely make for an… uh, interesting introduction.  I do feel it’s a bit jarring starting off with that, only to lead into your love for biology and discovery.  Like, ayyy so the sight of your blood surging up from within you is fascinating instead of horrifying?  What about the sight of a dead body?  Is that intriguing instead of revolting as well?  wut if ur really a physco ahhh  I dunno, I just kinda feel like the admissions officers might take things the wrong way, or at least be rubbed the wrong way subtly enough to affect your application negatively.  Your body paragraphs definitely feel a bit more grounded, just as long as you make sure it doesn’t get bogged down by the scientific facts.  Because I’m not scientifically inclined, that bit with the lemons and oranges and scent didn’t do much for me.  It went over my head when I read it fast (because admissions officers are going to read your essay pretty fast) and only contributed to the fact that you’re passionate about biology and the way the world works.  Even then, your good science grades are somewhat evident of that even without that specific example laid out in the essay.  Finally, the conclusion might need a bit more oomph.  The intro perks the reader up, the body demonstrates your passion and intellect, but by the end… so what?  How does all that build-up make you special and different from everyone else who loves biology?  I definitely struggled with the conclusion with my essay.  Initially it never really ended.  I just rambled on and on with description and by the end it was just like “yeaahhh, I like stargazing *two thumbs up* accept me will ya?”  It was a couple weeks after my sister first read my rough draft that I was hit with an epiphany and finally wrote a conclusive final paragraph. From what you have so far, since you didn’t give me the exact words that you’ll be using and instead just summarized, it’s hard to tell whether or not your conclusion will leave a lasting impact.  Either your essay will go out with a bang as strong as its beginning or it will go out with a whimper and leave the reader unsatisfied, depending on how you spin it (eheh, threw in a literary reference).  Hrmm, after writing all that down, I feel like I might have criticized your essay a bit too much.  I’m not saying you should scrap your essay completely because its faults make it beyond saving or something extreme like that, but it is in a rough place right now.  Why don’t you finish up a full rough draft and have your former (and current) English teachers take a look at it?  They’ve all had a lot of experience reading college essays, while as opposed to me I’ve only written one full-length one for the Common App and kinda glanced over a few of my peers’.  They’ll be better judges as to what major things need to be tweaked or completely overhauled.  Ahh, sorry, I don’t know if my advice was of any help.

 

While playing OoT3D, I realized that I could spell out my name with the Ocarina (or at least have the buttons match).  For whatever reason, that was the first time I realized that a lot of Nintendo controllers had buttons with all the letters of my name on them (GameCube, DS, etc.) and decided I might as well make a riddle out of it.  I didn’t really mind if people on the Internet knew my name in real life, but at the same time I felt like just spouting it out everywhere wouldn’t be any fun, so I made the puzzle for anyone driven and capable enough, ahah.  I didn’t expect anyone to figure it out.  I believed I would grow out of and leave DCW before that time came, so I thought I was dreaming when I saw your message, eheheh.

 

Ohhh, that’s where the monkey came from!  I was confused because it didn’t seem like Aya carried a monkey around with her anywhere else I looked.  That explains it, heh.  And geez, you sure are full of surprises!  Never knew that’s how you could easily get pictures from YouTube videos, probably would have helped a lot if I knew about it earlier, bleh.  All that print screening, sigh.  Thanks for the advice again!

 

I can be a sucker for improved graphics, so honestly even if a Pokemon game was pretty forgettable all in all, I’ll always remember how in awe I was when I first laid eyes on the 3D effects.  White had a lot of those moments.  Skyarrow Bridge was like woahhhh, and then Castelia City was like geeeeezzzz, and then N’s Castle when it popped out of the ground, completely dwarfing the Elite Four, was like daaaayyuuuum, and by the time the legendaries faced off I was ded.  Even though XY utilized true 3D instead of the pseudo 3D in fifth gen, I wasn’t quite as blown away.  The Elite Four was massive and grand and a lot of the camera angles and cut scenes were fantastic, but I think the magic is starting to fade.  Except for Brave Bird’s animation.  Hory shet, that’s one badass looking move in sixth gen.  Ahaha, and the playthrough skipped the books in the hideout, huh?  (see, this is why I have qualms about playthroughs Joking joking, though I do hope you realize in retrospect just how much you would have been missing if you watched someone play through 999 instead of experience it firsthand.)  Yeah, that was pretty much what I saw when I versed Serena, but since the camera was angled upwards and the sky was a lot vaster, it looked a lot better.  I guess it just took me my surprise as well, since I hadn’t laid eyes on it before.

 

Speaking of Pokemon, I’ve finally started Alpha Sapphire.  I didn’t do much with the Y post-game.  I just poked around Kiloude City a bit, and when I looked up post-game content to find that there was indeed very little to do after the celebratory parade, I figured I couldn’t be bothered to do the Looker Side Quest.  Y was fun, but I wasn’t too emotionally connected to it either, and I have so much else to do I don’t want to be held back by it.  As for Alpha Sapphire, I’m loving it.  Seeing the parallels and comparing the similarities and differences to RSE (which isn’t that difficult in my case given how much I replayed those games) is tons of fun.  The DexNav, which I didn’t even realize was a feature in ORAS, is pretty cool.  I especially like how they incorporated old RSE sprites for the background of the DexNav.  The music is top notch, and Hoenn brought to 3D is gorgeous.  I especially like how much more character the NPCs have now.  May, while retaining pretty much the same lines as in the original games, is a lot more dynamic with her facial expressions and body movements.  She’s even kinda cute now!  Same with Wally.  His wide eyes and uncertain expression make him actually seem like a shy, sickly child as opposed to in the original games where he just seemed like a normal kid.  Even he’s cute now (no homo…).  As for how far I’m in the game, I’ve only just finished talking to Norman and setting Wally off on his very own adventure, so only in Petalburg.  I’m going to be there for a while, since I need to Super Train my shiny Beldum.  After giving it much thought, I realized that I didn’t know which starter to pick.  Not only that, but I’ve played through the Hoenn region so many times I didn’t have much motivation to catch everything I saw and make a team of 3rd gen Pokemon.  Hrmm, what to do?  I came to the conclusion that I would solo run the game.  I would take the event shiny Beldum from the delivery girl in the PC and use only him (err, it?) the entire time (aside from the very beginning of course).  The rest of my team will consist of Mudkip (the starter I ended up picking), Skarmory, and three Zigzagoon.  Mudkip and Skarmory will be my HM slaves, with Mudkip running Strength, Surf, Waterfall, and Dive and Skarmory running Fly, Cut, and Rock Smash.  The three Zizagoon will be Pickup-ers, so I can snag free items.  Also, I will turn on Exp. Share.  I’m not doing this to make my team OP (I’m only solo running after all) but I’m doing this to make sure my Zigzagoon (to be Linoone) will maintain high enough levels to Pickup worthwhile items, since the quality of the items is tied to the level of the Pokemon with Pickup.  All in all, it’s very similar to my shiny Blaziken solo run team (that I’m still in the middle of because goddamnit Kyogre, I don’t feel like RNG abusing you). Ufufufufufufu, now I can get through this game as fast as possible while not worrying too much about my party to fully enjoy and appreciate the changes they’ve made to Hoenn!  Ohh, if you were wondering, my shiny Beldum is Jolly natured with perfect IVs in Attack (an hour and a half of soft resetting...).  Sounds amazing, I know, but its other IVs are slightly below average, so ehh.  I’ll be running a pretty standard 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 Def set with whatever moves I feel like it needs to get through the game.  I haven’t quite thought that far ahead, but I have time to contemplate while I Super Train it, heheh.

 

Interesting to hear that your sister was born in Canada, hah.  And yeah, the driver’s seat is on the right side because they were under British control almost continuously from the mid-1800s after the First Opium War until just a few years ago.  Guess the automobile rules and regulations are already too far developed and ingrained to change now.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to visit Hong Kong, since my parents don’t have any reason to travel there and neither do I apart from curiosity, but if I have the time and money to afford it I’ll keep it in mind.

 

I don’t truly get what the hype is about either.  Football games are fun once in a while every year when it’s Super Bowl season, but they’re not anything I specifically look forward to nor are they anything I’d get especially excited about, so I wouldn’t say you’re missing out on much.  Geez, everything I say and do gets you curious, there’s just no satisfying you.  Even just wearing the right colors is something I don’t bother doing, heh.  And we didn’t always get extra credit.  It was mainly for the big spirit days (80’s day, cartoon character day, etc.) where you had to go out of your way to prepare something especially extravagant that nabbed you a few extra points, and even then only with the nice teachers.  Ohh, ahahah, I wouldn’t wear my pajamas to school either, eheh (b-because I don’t wear much when I go to sleep… not even in the winter…………)  Yupp, nothing can faze me!  Th-though I didn’t expect for you to take that as a challenge either.  I don’t have a very good feeling about this, heheheh…

 

Nah, the class isn’t anything to really take seriously anyway.  I had a class, and it’s just attendance-based essay writing, so as long as you show up and BS some words on a paper, you’ll get full credit.  He probably just didn’t have enough material planned for the full semester, so he cut two classes for us, eheh.  Pls Kenzi, you got your own hopes up, I didn’t even lead you on in the slightest, hah.  There’s not much footage of that rally though; nothing of major importance really happened.  There will be tons of campaign stops just like that in the coming months, so it doesn’t really warrant anything more than a minute or two on the evening news, tops.

 

Whhaaaa, new uniforms every year???  How does your school afford that plus A/C???  Edison always struggles making the most of their school budget.  Sports teams just reuse the uniforms and only get new ones like, once every never.  The only “sports” team that got new uniforms while I was there was the marching band, I believe my junior year.  And even then, that shipment of new gear was two years late (they legit expected to have new uniforms purchased in time for when I was part of the organization my freshman year).  Football, soccer, tennis, volleyball, basketball, track, cheerleading, the list goes on.  They’ve had those same uniforms for at least four years, and probably even longer than that.  P-Put in a good word for sad, old Edison Township, would you?  Troy’s too rich and they won’t let the money trickle down…  It took me a while to get used to not wearing a watch, but after some time I just didn’t need it anymore.  I was never so busy or so worried about the time that I needed to constantly check it.  I didn’t have a cellphone either, but whatever, if I really needed to know the time I’d just ask someone or find a clock lying around.  My watch was so distracting for me when I first started wearing it a few days ago (it still is, I can’t stop twisting it around and messing with it) and I take it off immediately when I’m back in my dorm room.  It’s rather intrusive; I can’t seem to type well with it clanking all over the desk.  But yeah, it’s useful, sure, but I could live without it since it has its flaws.  And I’m not too sure why you feel so strongly about this either, eheheh…

 

Shoujo is popular with girls but it still only covers the romantic side of things.  There’s still that lack of “guys with perfectly sculpted bodies do both subtly and overtly sexual things because why not?” that’s already saturated the ecchi genre when “guy” is replaced with “girl”.  Anime with fanservice specifically catered toward females is just as rare as anime with genuine, dramatic romance specifically catered toward males (like seriously man, romance when done right is awesome, where are all the good ones that aren’t shoujo??).  Hrm, your sister was/is a Lelouch fangirl eh?  Make her print this out and hang it on her wall.  Insist if she refuses.  She knows she wants it.  The water is animated nicely?  Mhm, sure, that’s totally what you were lookin’ at Kenzi…  I was waiting for the perfect moment to use that gif as well, haha; so glad that chance came.  It’s most effective when you have to click on a link to get to it, ahahahah.  And scientific purposes, hm?  Be sure to write up a report and publish it; won’t be official otherwise.

 

But on a more serious note, the animators of Free are Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) and they have a budget bigger than ufotable’s, in all honestly.  They churn out gorgeous show after gorgeous show every year and have been doing so for years.  Unfortunately though, recently they’ve just been animating a bunch of subpar light novels or original content, generally slice of life and/or ecchi in nature, which is why as successful and popular as they are, they aren’t usually taken too seriously.

 

Geez, you seriously need a new laptop.  I’m sure for your eighteenth birthday your parents will be okay with letting you buy one, especially considering you’ll be going to college.  It’s for the education, right?  Right??  I actually have the habit of always completely turning off my laptop.  I’m hesitant to put it to sleep, unless I know I’ll be back working on it soon.

 

Physics C as a math course??  Wuuuuut.  And it’s no problem at all.  My PTSD isn’t so bad, and I don’t really like to regret the things that have happened in the past, be they good or bad.  I mean, there’s so much in my life to be grateful for right now, why spend the time getting upset over the things that didn’t work out so well?  Everything until now has shaped me into the person I’ve become, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.  Speaking of my school though, we were somehow featured on CNN.  I… I have no words…  (okay, joking, I do)  I love how this article praises JP for being so competitive, while on Facebook (where I actually found this) all of the people I know from my high school are lamenting how rigid, cutthroat, and miserably judgmental the entire four-year experience was.  Just look at this excerpt from the article, “Social hierarchy was based (in part) on the number of AP classes you took, your SAT score, and how many extracurricular activities you were in -- with one unspoken rule: Participation in clubs didn't count unless you were president or on the executive board.”  W-why are they acting as if this is a good thing??  Goddamnit media, you had one job…

 

Yup, it kinda sucks that science course will eat up an entire summer’s worth of time, but it’s the smartest choice given my weaknesses and my need to take as many classes as I possibly can in order to graduate on time.  As long as you don’t also pursue some dual-degree program, you shouldn’t be under nearly as much time pressure.  I’m just a bit of an odd case, don’t mind me, bleh.  Hopefully I’ll find internship or co-op opportunities later, perhaps the summer between my junior and senior year?  Then I could potentially study abroad the summer between sophomore and junior year, and that would pretty much pack my entire four year schedule right there, hm.  That’s still thinking a bit far ahead though, haven’t even declared my major yet and gotten the groundwork officially laid out, haha.  Those scores on the English and history AP exams aren’t that amazing; I like those subjects and it didn’t require much work or motivation on my end to do well, eheh.

 

Hmm, my alarm clock isn’t obnoxious at first.  Even though I don’t have your app, it naturally starts off kind of soft and then grows into an ear-splittingly loud screech of noise.  If you’re curious as to what exactly I made my phone alarm, it’s this, the famous wombo combo video, hah.  Well, famous in the Smash community and pretty much the father of all those MLG parodies you’ve probably stumbled upon on YouTube.  It definitely gets me up and does its job well enough, so no complaints so far.  Weeeellll, I suppose it’s possible to go to sleep between one and two in the morning, but on bad days with lots of work I stay up pretty late.  So far the latest I stayed up was about four in the morning.  And as for when I wake up, ideally I need two hours between when I wake and when I get to class (I’m sorry, I don’t function correctly in the mornings, okay?).  I never ever get that much time (I could force myself to get to class in 30 minutes if I don’t eat breakfast) but I do try my best.  S-So you want to hear n-nothing lower than s-s-seven hours?  Uhmm, ohh yeah, sure, of course, no way I’ve gotten any less, eheheheheh…… 

 

Yeah, the A/C system in my house works that way too, but the thing is the A/C at Case tricked me!  Instead of turning off when it reached the set temperature, it continued blowing out air… room temperature air.  But there is nothing that signifies that it’s changed from cold to room temperature air.  The low rumble the unit makes doesn’t change and neither does the intensity of the air.  Unless you stand in front of it, you won’t realize anything’s different.  I always just assumed the A/C was inefficient and alternated between cold and room temperature whenever it felt like it, sighhh…  I know, that’s really dumb, but that’s what I thought.  The coldest I can get the room is 70 degrees; doesn’t seem to ever hit 69 no matter how hard I try.  That’s right, I set the limit way down and put the A/C on full blast and froze my fingers off.  I tried this when my roommate was out, though when he came back he screamed and made me turn it back up to a still somewhat unreasonable 73 degrees, where it generally sits around nowadays.  It’s so cold, it’s sometimes uncomfortable.  It’s so cold, when you step outside in the hot and humid hallway it feels like your pant legs are wet because the temperature difference is confusing your sense of touch.  It’s… glorious.  I would have it no other way, ufufufufufu.  I’m using the A/C to condition myself for winter weather.  I keep it nice and cold, so in the mornings it’s already a struggle to get out from under my toasty blanket.  Hopefully I get used to it by the time the really bad weather comes around.  Oh no no, Christmas definitely feels like winter (the temperatures are right) but it doesn’t snow nearly as much in December as it does in the new year.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a white Christmas.  Closest we got was some leftover snow from a previous storm sticking around on the grass, kinda.  Oohhh, negative 25 degree conditions??  Sounds like something I’d love to take on!  Wow though, you have crazy strong words for January and February.  Spring is pretty good, too.  The rain actually irks me because sneakers and water just don’t work (all those days walking back home from school, oh my gosh) though maybe I won’t mind now that I actually have heavy-duty shoes.  And whaaa no fond memories of fall?  No Halloween or Thanksgiving nostalgia??

 

Don’t remember the full details, but my brother convinced her somehow.  She was obviously skeptical at first.  “Japanese?  World War II?  Sons, do you know what the Japanese did to Chi--”  “Yes ma, I took WHAP and my brother is a history buff, we know…”  But once she sat down and started getting into the movie she ended up loving it, ahah.

 

Hahahahahahahah, sorry, I know that was probably and frightening and nerve-wracking experience for you, but I find it funny how easily your parents change their minds. Last week: “Child, you may drive now but only in Troy do you understand?”  This week: “Damn, she’s out of town in an unfamiliar area late at night when it’s illegal for someone with her type of license to be out on the roads?? ……………… Drive yourself back sweetie, your poor parents are old and our eyesight isn’t what it used to be.  Good luck.”  In all seriousness though, I’m glad you’re safe and that things went well, eheh.  I, ummm, really don’t know what I would do if something happened to you…………  The alcohol question is still kind of silly though.  You should never drink and drive, not even a little, so what difference does the alcohol concentration make?  It’s already common knowledge that hard liquor has a higher concentration than wine which has a higher concentration than beer, so why do we need to know the exact conversion rate?  Like seriously, that question was pointless on two different levels (I may or may not be salty because I happened to accidentally skip over the conversion table when I was flipping through the guidebook in re-preparation).  Even the truck stopping question didn’t irk me nearly as much (it’s 25% more, by the way, because that’s tots going to help you out on the road).  Hm, they allow retakes in NJ (they don’t lower the required percentage to get right to pass, though) but they don’t provide a study guide.  Unless you count this 200-page long handbook as a study guide.  It takes quite a while to load, just be patient.

 

(Don’t play dumb with me Kenzi.  I saw how you’re now determined to faze me earlier in the response.  You’re just going to use this new-found information to see what sets me off and try to emotionally break me.  I’m on to you…)  Ehem, seriously though.  Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend Bakuman.  It has its moments but it didn’t blow me away so it’s not worth the time investment.  And don’t worry, I think One Piece’s reactions can be hard to take seriously as well.  But artwork aside, the backstories are fantastically done so it kinda balances out.  The Monster anime is apparently virtually a frame by frame, word for word adaptation of the manga.  The truest kind of adaptation you can find (I can taste the saltiness of the F/sn VN readers from here).  You can’t really go wrong with either, but I’d recommend the manga.  While the Monster anime provides the obvious benefits (color, voice acting, music, and animation), the manga is significantly faster to complete.  Because I know time is probably your biggest concern right now, I’d say go for the manga.  I mean hey, that’s how I experienced it and it’s my favorite manga of all time, so it’s not like you’re missing out on much by choosing to ignore the anime.  Also, I believe it would be in your best interest to read the Battle Royale manga.  The novel costs money (unless you find it in the library I guess) and because it’s the source material it’s longer (600 pages…) and more detailed.  Once again, given you’re short on time, the manga should suffice.  The manga is a very good adaptation of the novel.  Not one-to-one, but damn near to it.  The art style is weird (don’t Google it even though you might be tempted to, there are spoilers all over Google Images, I just checked) but it’s something that will grow on you, trust me.  It’s a really raw story, I’ll warn you about that.  Violent, bloody, grotesque, brutal, sexual at times, this is definitely not something to be taken lightly.  It’s portrayed very graphically and completely uncensored in manga form, so that’s another plus if you’re still hesitant about picking it up over the novel.  The author of the novel actually oversaw the creation of the manga, to make sure they didn’t completely butcher the source material, so rest assured that the manga is equally as good as (if not better than in some cases) the novel.

 

Oh my gosh, that was the final nail in the coffin.  I didn’t actually cry when Rider died, but afterwards when Gilgamesh confronted Waver I completely lost it.  Thank God the episode was pretty much over at that point, because I had to get up and wipe away my tears.  Yay, you’re adding all those anime to your PTW!  Start with the small stuff first (the shorts and movies) before moving on to Penguindrum, just so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming, especially with those solidly lengthed manga you’re also considering.  Eheh, FMA and FMA:B are so daunting with how long they are.  I’ll consider the manga though, since that’ll be faster to get through, unless the anime experience is significantly better than the manga one for some reason.  It’s okay, I know how you feel.  I don’t cry very often when I watch anime (that I could recall and list all the instances where I did or at least got close is evident of that) compared to some people, and it baffles me just as much as it baffles you just how emotional people can get as well.  Maybe not to quite your extent, but I’m also not going to just shed tears willy-nilly for any random character’s death.  It better be some top notch stuff.

 

Hmmm, it seems you’ve already seem a lot of the movies I cried during, and even the ones you haven’t watched I wouldn’t strongly recommend enough for me to want you to go out of my way to watch them (just focus on the anime and manga, that’s plenty to keep you busy for a while).  Aww no no no, don’t get yourself down about it!  Really, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t find what I found that emotional or if you just don’t see how one could care enough about fiction to cry over it.  I can’t even give you a good reason as to why I cried all those times I did.  Sometimes it’s because I just related too much to the characters.  Maybe it was because I saw myself in a character or a character parallels someone I know in real life.  Sometimes it’s the music that fits the mood just right.  Sometimes it’s the directing, the camera angles and cinematography, that brings forth the emotions.  Sometimes it’s the colors or the art.  Sometimes it’s just how invested I’ve gotten myself in a story, even one that’s fictional.  Most times it’s a mix of these.  I don’t know if that makes any sense.  I don’t even feel like that’s a sufficient explanation, but it’s the best I can muster, eheh.  Regardless of what I say though, everyone’s different.  Even if you read all that manga and watch all that anime that I recommended and despise every minute of it, that’s okay.  You’re not a cold, heartless sociopath for being the way you are, haha.

 

Ah yes, there you go with your curiosity again.  I dunno how to describe my voice either.  My voice used to be relatively low when compared to my peers back in middle school, only because I hit puberty early.  But now my voice has settled into a medium range; definitely not high-pitched but not grumbly either.  I can be loud when I’m with people I know and we’re talking about things I’m passionate about (err, pretty much just anime and video games…) but I can also be reserved around strangers and in unfamiliar situations.  I’m not particularly eloquent either, as I fumble my words and stutter quite a bit on my bad days.  Ohh, people tell me I have a bad habit of talking pretty fast as well.  When I don’t dictate my words clear enough and just spew out sentences at a mile a minute, my voice can be a jumble I guess, eheheh.  That’s usually only with friends I can talk about anime and video games with, so they’re used to it.

 

Mhm, I know what you mean.  While I didn’t like my school very much, it’s over-competitiveness prevented people from partying too much.  There were still some people I knew who loved getting high every once in a while and even Ivy League-bound classmates who seemed to take great joy from getting painfully drunk, but they’re a small minority.  But it is pretty scary to think that in some places it’s no big surprise if a girl ends up pregnant in high school and it’s expected that a couple of kids kill themselves (intentionally or not) over the course of the school year.  I’m at least grateful to Edison for providing a safe place to grow up.  There is no college out there that’s going to be like Troy HS or JP Stevens.  Even the most conservative, no-fun campuses out there will be more drunk and high than those two high schools combined.  Case is one of those “no-fun” schools, so it’s the closest you’re really going to get, heh.  To those who went to rowdier high schools and enjoyed it, this is a negative, but I’m sure given your background and upbringing you’ll appreciate it, aha.  The EDM concert was a one-time thing, but yeah it was loud enough to hear muffled cheers and vibrations from my desk, and my desk isn’t even near the windows.  Then again, my windows were directly overlooking the concert sooo…  My roommate paid the price for his indulgence though.  His hangover headache was pretty nasty (had to sleep through nearly all of Saturday to recover) and even afterwards his stomach was feeling cramp-y for the following few days and he could barely eat.  He’s feeling better now though, I think.

 

And no no, I’m fairly certain parties are not for me.  Going completely outside of my comfort zone would be the physical act of attending a party, so even the thought of it is ehhhh.  Ahah, you’re pulling one of those “pleasantly surprised” spiels on me to get me to attend parties.  It’s uncannily like that prom conversation we had a while back…  I think I covered this already, or briefly touched up on it sometime in the past, but I can pretty stubborn for the stupidest of reasons.  When I was younger, I was determined never to get a cellphone, never to get a Facebook, never to get a driver’s license, and never to drink alcohol.  I didn’t think these things were “sinful” per se, but I just… felt a personal need to abstain from these mainstream forms of “living”, for lack of a better way to phrase that.  M-maybe I'm a hipster at heart????  Well, here I am today and I’ve already failed, nearly.  I was forced to get a cellphone and Facebook and begin the process of getting a license (all in the span of one summer, mind you) and now all I have left is alcohol.  I’m going to see this through, silly as it may sound.  People say that alcohol is pretty much a given and necessity at social events and that it’s something you just have to accept once you become an adult, but I say nay.  I’m not alone either; this is apparently a thing.  I guess that makes me a teetotaler.  Lots of famous people out there have proven that you don’t need alcohol to fit in with society or be happy.  So yeah, that’s my stance on all this.  I won’t drink alcohol.  Not now, not when I’m twenty-one, not on the last day of my life.  Now, back on the topic of parties.  The reason I brought this up was because one of my party-savvy friends said it’s no fun being the only sober person in the club.  I won’t have fun if I go, I know I won’t.  The only reason I’d go to a party is if…… umm, you say you wouldn’t mind going to a party in college every once in a while, and, well… if you come to Case and decide to get a little crazy on a Friday night, then…... I’d probably be too worried about you to let you go alone, ya know, in case you run into shady folks there…… so I’d tag along.  Yeahhh, uhh, i-it’s not like I’m saying that because I l-like you or anything b-b-baka!!

 

Oh no no no, don’t apologize for asking this many questions!  I’m actually glad you did; I’d be more than happy to tell you all about college life, hah!  Not everyone has a schedule as nice as mine.  I made sure to choose classes that were as late as I could possibly make them without having them be at unreasonable hours.  But yeah, the extra sleep cramming time is super helpful! Probably the biggest improvement from high school, maybe even better than all the free time I have without my parents yelling at me to do more work.  Hmm, are the classes difficult?  As of now, no (there would be a huge problem if I was already struggling) but I can definitely see them giving me a hard time in the future.  The thing about college classes is that you’re actually learning for the knowledge and not for the grade.  It’s not like in high school where you can BS your way through the things you don’t really like or forget difficult and memory-intensive material once you’ve taken a test.  The things you learn related to your major are important because you’re going to be using that knowledge for the betterment of society in the future.  If you forget everything after you graduate and a company hires you, how are you going to do your job if you can’t remember some chemistry or accounting mumbo jumbo from your junior year?  Because what you learn holds so much more importance and weight, even if the workload itself is no greater than what you’d find in high school, just the pressure of stuffing as much as you can into your brain and retaining it long term is enough to make the experience hard.  That being said, you have to do a lot of outside studying.  The professors won’t give you nearly enough material during the lectures, and even if they do, seeing them as little as twice a week isn’t going to make that information stick.  You have to do a lot of reading and re-reading outside of class in order to truly commit everything to memory.  The workload pretty much relates to what I’ve said before.  How much homework you get for each class is up to the professor.  You could get a semester where they all decided to chuck homework at you like bread crumbs to a stuffed pigeon, or you could get a semester where you have no graded homework at all.  Neither extreme is good, since no homework doesn’t develop very productive study habits, and an excess is just that: excess.  How much of your non-sleeping/eating/classroom/homework time you allot to studying and leisure is up to you.  You’re pretty much the judge of how much work you’re willing to put in, how much of that extra mile you’re willing to go past the bare minimum.

 

Also, when things go wrong, you gotta work things out yourself.  (Story time, so grab the popcorn.)  Just this past Tuesday, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I royally screwed up.  I went to sleep pretty early, but I must have misjudged how tired I was because I woke up late.  Really late.  12:30 in the goddamn afternoon late.  I had woken up to my alarm on time, turned it off, and then got right back in bed to sleep for a few more hours.  My roommate was gone, off to class.  Well crap.  I completely missed my first wellness class as well as my first calc quiz.  Very vulgar thoughts were swirling through my head at that moment.  Accounting would start at 1:15.  In order to get even remotely good seats you need to be in the classroom at least 15 minutes in advanced.  Could I make it?  Knowing how bad I am at getting ready in the morning, I knew I probably couldn’t.  But I did anyway.  What if today was the day my professor decided to give a pop quiz?  Those he specifically said you couldn’t make-up at a later date and you’d just end up with a “zero” in the books.  Blazed through my morning routine, skipped breakfast, practically ran to the Peter B Lewis Building, and made it on time.  Got through the class (no pop quiz, psht) and immediately had to go to SAGES.  After that was over, I was starving so I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Leutner dining hall before settling back in my dorm feeling like crap.  First things first I e-mailed my wellness professor and calc teacher and explained the situation, apologizing profusely.  My wellness professor said no worries, I just used up one of my excused absence days (I would later find out that course is a joke and an easy A anyway, so it’s all good).  My calc teacher said I could take the quiz during his office hours tomorrow.  I flipped through my calc notes and thankfully I had scribbled it down when he put it on the board on the first day of class.  His office was room 265 in Yost Hall and he was free from 1:30 to 3:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I have calc earlier that day that ends at 12:20 and econ that starts at 3.  Perfect, the quiz is 50 minutes long so I just come in at 1:30 which will leave me plenty of down time between obligations.  I e-mailed him saying I’d be there at half past one.  Everything was looking good.  

 

As I started my SAGES homework and checked my syllabus, I realized I had messed up again.  I had a Fourth Hour to attend tomorrow.  Fourth Hours are pretty much an extra hour+ event every week that corresponds to your SAGES class.  They can be presentations by public speakers or outings to public places.  They’re laid back, but there’s a journal entry aspect to it that my professor assigns, so it’s just a day of more homework.  My Fourth Hours fall on Mondays and Wednesday, at random times depending on whenever my professor wants to have them.  On the syllabus it says I need to be at Thwing Center by 12:20.  Well hot damn, that’s exactly when my calc class ends!  And when does the Fourth Hour for tomorrow end?  It didn’t say, but it could potentially interfere with my quiz.  Dammit.  I e-mailed my SAGES professor, explaining I would be slightly late to the Fourth Hour and that I might leave early to take a make-up quiz if the presentation didn’t end early enough.  I e-mailed my calc professor again, explaining that I might be a little late to the 1:30 quiz but that I wouldn’t be too late (after all, I need 15 minutes to get a good seat in my econ class afterwards which starts at 3, and the PBL Building is pretty far away from Yost Hall).  After that, I finally really start my SAGES homework, before I realize that I have to write a three to four paragraph essay.  Looking at the prompt, I’m hit with writer’s block so I decide to start my accounting homework instead.  It’s only multiple choice stuff, so not too hard, right?  I use the textbook and try to answer the questions, but some of them are really difficult.  The answers can’t be found in the text book, and Google isn’t helping.  Holy hell, my stress level is so high right now.  And you get points off your homework grade for getting questions wrong.  I very slowly and very carefully get through it, after texting a friend in that class led me to no substantial help.  At this point it was late and I still didn’t know what to write for SAGES.  This assignment wasn’t due until Thursday, so I still had Wednesday to finish it…  Instead of fruitlessly trying to work on SAGES, I studied some calc for the quiz.  After wasting time on the Interwebs following that, I called it a night early to ensure I didn’t sleep in again.

 

The next day I actually eat breakfast before going to calc.  I sheepishly tell some of the people I was acquainted to in that class how I slept in, but they reassured me the quiz was easy.  After some note taking, I practically run to the Fourth Hour.  I arrive late of course, but not by much.  I watch the presentation, and it’s pretty interesting stuff.  I wish I could have seen the end, but when 1:30 rolled around and they showed no sign of stopping, I quietly took my leave before bolting my way to Yost.  I’ve never been in there before, so I struggled a bit trying to find his office.  I locate it and proceed to take the quiz.  As my peers said, it was easy.  I finish with ample time, so I casually make my way over to PBL to claim an especially early and good spot in my econ class.  When I get there, a girl is already studying at one of the desks.  Geeezz.  I grab a seat and read the econ textbook (which I would have done yesterday if I hadn’t screwed up and stressed myself out).  Bam, out of nowhere, I get a notification on my phone.  My SAGES professor just e-mailed saying for extra credit, we could attend the evening version of the presentation I saw for Fourth Hour, which would be different than the one earlier that day, and write a journal entry on it.  Let’s see, I still had that essay that gave me writer’s block to write which was due the next day as well as the journal entry for the Fourth Hour I had just watched, which was due the next day as well (journal entries are due exactly 24 hours after each Fourth Hour, sent electronically).  Should I do this extra credit?  This would be a third writing assignment, and it’s not like I’m struggling in SAGES or anything…  But I recalled how my mom said to always do extra credit since every point counted in college, so I was like why not.  The evening presentation was at seven that evening.  I got through econ, rushed back to my dorm to drop off my stuff, went to Leutner for dinner again, and went back to my room to rest until the extra credit presentation.  I watch an episode of anime (too damn stressed not to) and write most of my required Fourth Hour journal before I leave once again for Thwing Center.  I sit through the presentation, which is over an hour long, and head back.  At this point in time it’s 8:30.  I finish up the journal entry and jump right into the extra credit journal (I still had writer’s block with the full essay).  I finish the extra credit, submit it, and try my best not to get distracted by the Internet while I work on the essay.  I barely squeeze one out on time, and because I have no self-control, by then it’s nearly three in the morning.  Some time before this I remembered to check DCW and read your reply (thank you for that by the way, it couldn’t have come at a better time).  I take a shower and head to bed at half past three, knowing I need to wake up on time for my second first wellness class.

 

And yeah, that ends my way too long story.  Tl;dr don’t sleep in.  But yeah, as you can see, if things go wrong, they can go very very very wrong and it’s pretty much up to you to pick yourself up and keep going.  I could have cut corners, but I decided not to.  I did the extra credit even though I didn’t have to.  I somehow managed to get a perfect score on my math quiz as well.  It’s as hard as you make it for yourself, and unfortunately you’re going to have to make it hard if you want to succeed.  You have to always be on top of your schedule.  Know when you have class, know when you have assignments due, know when you have events to attend, know when you're free, know when you're busy.  No one but you will be there to say, "Hey, don't you have such and such a thing to attend at such and such a time on such and such a date?"  If you're not constantly looking multiple steps ahead of yourself, you're going to end up tripping.  Ahhh, sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble and I also hope I didn’t scare you.  College really isn’t so bad; I just dun goofed and paid the price for it.

 

My SAGES class is alright.  My professor is really good, but it’s also the source of most of my homework.  However, because it’s an essay/writing/reading based class, I don’t find it innately difficult.  Some SAGES courses aren’t nearly as focused on literature as mine.  You choose four potential SAGES courses, and of those four you’re randomly assigned one depending on how the classes fill up.  There’s a class out there for everyone, hah.

 

Apart from physics and astrology, I’ll be joining the newspaper.  You can write an article whenever you want, be it once a week or once a month or somewhere in between.  I’ll be writing opinion papers, which are pretty easy.  You also get paid for your work, which is awesome!  Only downside is, you can’t really make friends through that club.  You write articles on your own and submit it through e-mail, so there’s very little human to human interaction unless you’re a part of the exec board.  I considered joining the anime club, but I honestly don’t have the time for it.  If I find time in my schedule for fun time, I’d want to spend it watching all that I’ve been meaning to watch, not the first few random episodes of shows that don’t interest me too much.  They’re watching six shows simultaneously, and if I tried to keep up I know I’d majorly fall behind on my academics.  I’m going to try and keep extracurriculars on the down low for now, just so I can put all my effort into maintaining a high GPA.  Once I have that under control and I figure how much time I need to spend studying in order to get good grades, I’ll consider loosening up and working more free time into my schedule.

 

Speaking of anime though, there’s a mini-Internet celebrity attending Case Western.  His name is Shaquille Dent and he was just featured in a BuzzFeed article a few days ago.  You’ll know immediately what makes him stand out.  It says he’s attending the Cleveland Insitute of Art, but he’s pursuing a joint program with both Case and CIA, so I see him on campus.  I got to personally speak to him in the dining hall yesterday while we were waiting in line next to each other.  He’s a super chill guy, seriously.  We spoke for no more than a minute about nothing other than small talk, but he’s really easy to get along with.  He says if I ever see him around campus I should say hi and that he’s always open to hanging out and just chilling.  He’s popular with everyone, it’s like he has F/Z Rider levels of charisma.

 

I can’t even remember what I specifically put on my applications, but I know I mentioned band a lot, haha.  I don’t like my band program, but they did accomplish some pretty amazing things which were good for my application.

 

I haven’t played either Guitar Hero or Audiosurf, but yeah something like that.  And I think that’s either an oboe or an English horn; it’s really hard to tell with the little that it played.  Yes, it’s definitely worth the wait and the minimal cost.  Eheh, gomen Kenzi, for making you feel things…?  I guess??  Also, the game isn’t that dark, not like the lyrics of Nine Point Eight at least.  It’s melancholic and somber, but the atmosphere is also rather beautiful.  The songs don’t even really relate to the plot (for the most part); they’re just a collection of pieces that act as the backdrop for the story.

 

Welp, looks like summer break has pretty much drawn to a close for you!  And are you sure school starts on the 7th?  Isn’t that Labor Day?  CWRU doesn’t have any classes that day (yeeee long weekend!) and I was under the impression most schools wouldn’t.  Whenever school starts for you, I wish you luck!  I want you to tell me all about it.  Hopefully your teachers are nice and your classes are easy, relatively at least.  Time to get the beginning of your last year off to a good start!

 

So no one you've seen so far at Case has an OPO? Most of the people here have iPhones and Samsungs but I'll try to keep my eyes peeled for someone who happens to have one. I've been getting more conscious about it lately, lol.

 

Oh no, I didn't mean it that way, haha. I wasn't fascinated to the point where I would stab myself or hunt for corpses to see more blood if that's what you got from what I typed, lol. It was more like, "whoa, this is so weird, what the..." but yeah I get what you mean. That's why I was hesitant to use it, but I was really running low on steam so I was like, eh, screw it we'll see how it goes. Call me psychotic, but I've never considered myself a sane person, hah. I'm actually a bit relieved to know that I shouldn't be using that introduction. It was nice to hear that since it was a good reality check for me. The only problem is I'm back to square one now. Overall, the body/conclusion is rather stale, however grounded it may have seemed in comparison. To be honest, I disliked it from the beginning because of how unoriginal it felt. I just wanted an opinion to make sure I wasn't being too picky. Thank you for the criticisms and advice! Even though I'm probably going to scrap this again, it truly is relieving to know that I have the freedom to come up with another topic now. I think I'll be scouring the internet for weird essay prompts to help inspire me some more, haha. Less than two months huh... oh geez...

 

Ohh, that's interesting. There were a few creative guesses on your profile feed, and Chek seems like someone who'd be able to figure it out. Was it something you actually wanted people to solve or was it just there for fun, haha. Hmm, you thought you would grow out of DCW before anyone would figure it out? How long were you planning on staying then? Also, you've been here since 2010, so you joined when you were thirteen. You're one of the few DCW veterans who are still active on here. I know you've mentioned something about wanting to donate to the site, but aside from that, what else compelled you to stay on the site for so long when everyone else left? Were you always this active/inactive? (however you want to put it since I wouldn't know, lol). 

 

Well, if this counts as anything, I'm still in awe from fifth gen's pseudo 3D graphics. The Marine Tube was awesome, and the skyline from the Castelia cruise ship was just oomph. N's castle completely blew me away and the cut scenes were just sfsdklfjslka;ggsldfgsdfjg. And then XY came and I was like yooooooooooooooooooooo what the... it was great but something didn't click. I guess the improved graphics just made me feel really old. My favorite attack animation is probably Draco Meteor (it's so beautiful in the new and improved graphics, oh geez). Outrage lost its magic in 6th gen though. And Brave Bird is pretty badass. Honorable mention goes to Gunk Shot for creativity. You should've seen me when I first saw Earthquake though; that was awesomeeeee. I know I've said this before, but one of the main reasons I watch playthroughs is for the commentary, haha (I have a few YouTubers I regularly watch). That, and the fact that many of these games are games that I can't get my hands on (and/or games that I'm reluctant to play, like Ao Oni or Cat Mario). For games like Pokemon of course I want to experience it first-hand; it's just that I didn't have the luxury to play XY or ORAS without a 3DS (that's not a problem now, hehe thanks again, but a couple of years ago it was). And the reason I was planning to watch a 999 playthrough was because I genuinely didn't think you'd go through the trouble of sending me the files. I'm really grateful that you did because I would've missed out on a lot if it weren't for you. So seriously, thank you so much. For everything, haha. Oh man, fingers crossed that the new Pokemon game will have camera angles like that. Maybe I'll plan on only playing the game at night just to take advantage of the nighttime scenery, hehehe......

 

Ahaha, so you're going to end up ditching your Mega starter to focus on the shiny Beldum instead. I still remember when you were debating on which starter to pick from the game, lol good times. Respectable choice though. After all of those run-throughs, I can't imagine you doing anything otherwise. Watson and Flannery might be a problem, so would you resort to Mudkip to get through them? Actually, never mind. That would defeat the purpose of a solo run... I think... Whaa... Jolly nature with a perfect Attack IV? Pshh, Adamant's where it's at. Haha, jk, I don't know anything about ideal natures for solo running. An hour and a half of soft resetting though? Phew, that's quite a while. Was it something you multitasked or did you give it your full attention? And how many times did you run into a Jolly Beldum with a 30 IV in Attack? Hehe, just curious. Even though its other IVs are slightly below average, at least it came out better than the random shiny Beautifly with 0 IVs in sp. attack, lol. Be sure to update me on your progress when you have time!

 

Oh yeahh, I vaguely remember hearing about Hong Kong being under British control in one of my history classes. Very vaguely. I kinda wish I paid more attention to be honest. It would've made some of these trips a bit more meaningful. Geez, you really know your history, though I shouldn't be the least bit surprised, lol. 

 

Ahaha, okay good. Glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't hype about football games as much as others. Extravagant clothes? Something that extreme? I didn't know you were the kind of person to go that far, even if it's for extra credit, haha. Hmm, what would you look like in extravagant clothes... oh don't mind me, eheh. Whaaatt, you don't wear much when you go to sleep? Not even in the winter?? Ehhh??? In the winter, sometimes I'm wearing my hat, jacket, gloves, and an extra layer of socks when I go to sleep (mainly to help me endure the arctic temperatures when wake up though). W-what do you mean you don't wear much when you go to sleep?? Don't you get cold?? Yupyup, I have a clipboard and a checklist prepared and everything. I'm gonna find out the different ways I'll be able to break ya. Ahaha, jkjkjk. Don't worry, I'm just pulling your leg, lol.

 

Wut. It's just attendance-based essay writing? I see you Akazora, taking it easy, hehe. Not enough materal planned for the full semester? What does he teach you anyway, lol. Yes, you did get my hopes up, "CNN actually took a minute to interview some stranger standing next to me" if that isn't leading me to believe that I could catch a glimpse of you, I don't know what is. Hmph, meanie. Haha, kidding. Everyone's attention seems to be on Trump at the moment. People joking about voting for him and others trying to deter these people from voting for him as a joke. Oh and the memes. They are everywhere. And it's hilarious. Ahh, what a time to be alive.

 

Well, actually, the school doesn't pay for our uniforms. We get new ones every year but we have to pay for them ourselves. Oh what... you guys have to reuse uniforms? Uniforms that multiple people have worn down and sweated in? Even though you can wash them, it still seems a bit... unhygienic. Wait, that can't possibly be it. You must mean your school has uniforms that reuse the same design every year, right? Except that your school would still have to pay for them every year... which also doesn't make sense. The only uniforms we're forced to reuse are the band/orchestra uniforms (the velvet concert dresses and tuxes/dress shirts/dress pants/ties/cummerbunds). The people in marching band have to pay for their marching uniforms though. Everything else (sports, clubs, etc.) also requires us to pay out of our own pockets. And I honestly didn't think the school district was that wealthy... until today. Apparently they're giving away iPads to elementary schoolers. Yes. Giving away. As in, they get to keep them. For free. This has been going on for a few years but I didn't know that until today. Uhh???? Why elementary schoolers?? I don't even know why they're doing this. I don't know why they're entrusting iPads to elementary schoolers. Since when did the school district have this much money????? I'm not mad or anything, but this is kinda crazy, I'm not gonna lie. Oh man, I freaking love having a watch. I keep it on at all times (even when I'm sleeping) except for when I shower. The watch is waterproof, but that's just me being paranoid. It's just a generic digital watch so I don't fiddle around with it too often (unless it's daylight savings or something). I always need to know what time it is because it helps me control my life better. Looking at the time is a lot more subtle when you're looking at your wrist as opposed to twisting your body and neck to peek at the clock behind you. You don't have to bother the person sitting next to you and you don't have to whip out your phone either. And my watch doesn't clank on the desk when I'm typing. Maybe it's the way you type or the size of your watch? Nope, I can't survive without my watch. It's a habit ingrained in me to look down at my wrist every once in a while. I have a very bad perception of time so taking away my watch is like handicapping me, eheh... The only flaw I see with having a watch is getting too attached to one before it breaks. I love having a watch, ahah...  

 

I've never seen guys do anything remotely sexual in media. Well, aside from stuff like the generic hip thrusting and crude hand gestures, which really isn't anything to gawk at (but it's sometimes funny. sometimes). I'm not into yaoi, or even yuri for that matter, so I tend to stay away from things like that. Wow, now that I think about it, that's actually really strange. I've never seen guys doing legit sexual acts in anime, or at least I don't think I have (I'm not counting things like implied sex scenes or those PSG Fly Away transformation parodies). It's always just a bunch of girls in skimpy swimsuits flaunting off their physics-defying... bodies. You'll see panty shots left and right and the unsuspecting guy getting thrown under some girl's skirt or accidentally groping her, but aside from that... there's really not much else. It's almost always the girl committing these sexual acts. But eh. I wouldn't watch it if the genre existed. I'm not big on that kind of fanservice though I can imagine a good chunk of the female audience indulging the hell out of it seeing as how successful Free turned out to be. Huh... I guess I never really thought about that since I've just learned to accept it for so long... well that was a bit of an eye-opener. Haha, sorry for rambling on so much. I just needed a place to type out my thoughts, lol. Oh wow, I'm missing out on a lot. I don't think I've watched any legit romance anime. Does Tokyo Mew Mew count. Heyhey, don't judge, this was back in early middle school when I didn't know any better. Also, what do you mean by romance catered toward males? Isn't the romance genre widespread? But yeah, the shoujo-esque romance stuff is just too fanservicey and harem-filled for my taste. I feel like you specifically found a picture of Lelouch dappled with water droplets while holding a water bottle just to mock me. Hrmph, you jerk. loljk. But I don't think my sister would be comfortable hanging that in her apartment or workplace, lol. Hmm... she might give in to a picture of Marth though. Kidding, kidding. She'd murder me. And uh... that's... some nice... water... he has there... Dammit Akazora, don't do this to me. Water is a necessity of life and seeing it animated so nicely is just too much eye candy for me to handle. I can feel you judging me. Uhh, pfft, a report. 3ez5me. Writing a report on world's best animu is just what I need to help enhance my understanding of the intellectual masterpiece that is Free. Ahaha....ha.....ha...................ha...................

 

KyoAni has a budget bigger than ufotable's?? Ah, what a shame! I would've loved to watch some of their works (aside from Free... possibly...). Is there a reason why they abstain from animating some of the better light novels? I mean, I can't see why they would, haha.

 

Part of the reason why it's so laggy might be because I have nearly thirty tabs open on one Chrome window, eheh... but it's not as big of a problem now. I cut off the battery life by changing the power plan from "Balanced" to "High Performance", so the battery life sucks but the laptop is not as laggy anymore (it's still pretty laggy though). Well the thing is, my parents gave me the most expensive laptop in the household so................... I don't have any room to complain. Don't get me wrong, I like the laptop a lot (aside from the crappy power jack), but it's just... kinda slow now (especially YouTube videos; I want to rip my hair out sometimes). I feel like updating to Windows 10 might help fix the problem, but I want to do that after school's over (in case any problems come up). I have until July to catch the Win 10 update, so I'm in no hurry. Because I have so many tabs/windows open (usually not as many as I do currently), I don't feel comfortable shutting down my laptop and having to reopen them every time. I only put the laptop to sleep when I know I'll be returning in a few hours. Otherwise, I let it hibernate. Hibernating is like a mix of shutting down and sleeping. It saves all of your windows and "turns off" in order to minimize battery loss but restores everything you've kept open after turning it back on.

 

I already finished my required science classes after sophomore year, and if I counted Physics C as a science credit, I would've surpassed the science requirement by five credits. So yeah, I'm using Physics C as a math credit since it's a calc oriented class anyway, lol. I'm really glad you have such a positive outlook on things! I'm especially happy that you're not letting your high school experience bog you down, so good on you! I find it quite admirable, actually, haha. What the, JP is a 2.5 billion dollar school? Ehhh?? Still no A/C?? Something doesn't add up. Also, what is up with your yearbook pictures. Everyone's wearing the same thing with the same background and everyone's Asian? Okay maybe not everyone, but a lot. And the social hierarchy is based on APs, SATs, and whether or not you were president of clubs?? Geezus, what kind of school promotes that kind of environment? Academics and extra-curriculars are important, but sheesh, that's insane. Yeah at our school you get "street cred" for taking 895345739489 APs and getting first place in national competitions, but it's nothing that we build our social ladder around. In fact, the one guy at our school who's president of nearly everything gets teased for this very reason (it's all in good fun though since everyone knows he's likely Ivy-bound). Your school is a hellhole. I would be miserable in that kind of competitive atmosphere. How did you get out alive in that every-man-for-himself warzone and come out as well as you did?? What is this I don't even... God bless you.

 

I actually think it's quite ambitious of you to pursue a dual-degree program. Ohh, you're also planning to study abroad? Look at you! Taking a stab at everything! Well, even though you haven't declared your major, at least you know where you're going. I'm still kind of at a loss about where I want to go, eheh... Whaa, it didn't require much work or motivation for you to obtain such scores? O-okay then...

 

Oh my gosh, I haven't seen that video in ages. That's your alarm? Ahahahaha, I might give it a shot after I get sick of my current one. Oh geez, that brings back memories. It's only been a few weeks and already the latest you've slept is four?? And you need two hours between when you wake and when you get to class? Is the dining hall far away? If you want my opinion, sleep > everything else. I will willingly wake up with only 30 minutes to get ready, eat, and go to class if I'm feeling especially tired. 15 minutes to get my butt out of bed and get ready and go to the dining hall (jeans/shorts and t-shirt or something, easy), 10 minutes to eat, and 5 minutes to get to class. I don't wear makeup and combing my hair or putting it up only takes a few minutes, tops. 30 minutes doesn't seem too unreasonable, although it's not something I'd personally recommend since it can leave you kinda absent-minded about things. But if it means savoring an hour and a half's worth of extra sleep, pfft, I'm all for it. Still, my ideal would probably lie around one hour of wakefulness since it would certainly feel less rushed (and my appetite doesn't kick in until around 30 minutes after waking up). On the other hand, two hours would be a bit too much for me. I usually try to finish my assignments before I go to bed, I only take night showers, and I don't have much of a morning routine, so one hour would be best. You know, unless I decide to become a morning person all of a sudden and regularly go for morning jogs or something (I might actually consider that). Back at UMich, 10 minutes was all I needed to eat (barely any lines in the mornings), but I was forced to wake up early on most days since a few friends wanted to socialize and explore the campus after breakfast. So what do you usually do during those two hours?

 

Haha, the A/C tricked you? That's a new way to put it, lol. Glad to hear that you resolved the confusion! And it doesn't hit 69 no matter how hard you try? Now why would you want that, Akazora ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Your roommate screamed and made you turn it up to a "somewhat reasonable" 73? Was it really that cold? The temperature difference confuses your sense of touch, and you even feel uncomfortable, yet you consider it glorious? Oh my gosh what has JP done to you. Y-you poor soul.  So you're using the A/C to condition yourself for winter? icwutudidthar. If it's making you uncomfortable to the point where getting out of bed becomes a struggle, don't you think that's a bit much? Well, if this is your way of spiting the torture JP put you through, best of luck, lol. Like geez, you even ended up with a nasty cold that probably stemmed from setting the A/C at such low temperatures! Joking, I don't believe that kind of stuff, but you're making this too easy, hah. Stay frosting safe and don't get frostbite. But in all seriousness, I'm glad that you're recovering! I didn't get sick from sending you that digital hug, but thank you for your concern, haha. You've never experienced a white Christmas?? Oh geez, you're missing out. You're really missing out. In your 18 years of living you've never had a white Christmas. Psht, impossibru. Ehh?? You'd be fine going to school in -25* conditions? W-why would you want that when you can have a cold day? We had to endure those frigid temperatures at least twice last year. On previous years, -20* conditions were enough to elicit school closings. But if they kept that decree, we'd have more cold days than snow days. Yeahh, I don't like January and February. Glad I managed to get my point across, eheh... Ohh, that's right. You sometimes walk home from school. I used to do that in middle school (sometimes biked when my backpack wasn't too heavy), but it would take me almost an hour to walk to Troy HS. How often did you walk? Didn't you have a school bus or did you have after-school activities that forced you to miss it? Or did you live too close to school for a school bus to come to your area? I don't have many bad experiences with rain (you know, aside from getting soaked from downpours) so I don't mind the rain too much. Walking outside or playing tennis during a gentle drizzle is so relaxing. Sunshowers are also nice, haha. I love watching rain through a window. Yeahh, not many fond memories of fall. Halloween was fun in that I got free candy, I guess. And our family just makes hotpot during Thanksgiving, which is also kinda nice, I suppose. I like stepping on dried leaves though, lol. I love that crinkling feeling and sound of leaves crunching under my shoes.

 

I don't think my mom would care as much about the fact that it was made in Japan as much as the idea that it's a "cartoon". My dad would outright refuse because it's Japanese and a "cartoon". How did you discover the movie? Or rather, what made you want to watch it?

 

LOL, yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I didn't realize how intimidating driving by myself at night was. The drivers ed teacher kept hammering into our heads about incidents of other cars getting completely totaled by drunk drivers driving at 90mph on the main roads. On Fridays. Late at night. Which was when I was driving. Plus I wasn't supposed to drive that late. The instructor even showed us pictures and videos of said cars just to help reinforce the idea!! And it worked. So you can imagine how paranoid I was that night. I flinched every time I saw a police car and kinda ducked behind the steering wheel whenever it looked like I was passing one. Really glad that's over. Still though, it's quite flattering that you care so much about my well-being--more so than my parents in this case. Haha, thank you. It really means a lot to me. Okay, yeah, I'll admit the alcohol question was a bit out there, but hey, if you ever need to know how to convert shots to blood alcohol concentration or to a glass of beer or something, now you will! And while I completely agree that you should never drive under the influence, there will always be people who think they're the exception. And uh, now I know that it takes a truck 25 percent longer to stop in bad weather conditions! The more you know! Haha, maybe they're just sticking these kinds of questions in the test for filler or to make it seem more legit or something. But the thing with retakes is, they give you the exact same test (or at least in Michigan). So if you go to the first test completely blind and fail, you'll know what to study for the retake. It might save you some study time, but then again why bother taking it twice, lol. You had to read through a 200 page handbook for your written test? The instructor just gave us one of those ringed folders with a few sheets of paper hooked to them. If we memorized those word-for-word statements, it's pretty much a guaranteed pass. Because of this, I took advantage of the way he graded the tests to run a small experiment, if you will, hehehe... it's a bit hard to explain in words, but it succeeded and I'm happy. Oh and the 200 page handbook took about four seconds to load on my laptop, which was... a lot faster than I thought it would take considering my laptop's current state. 

 

I'm not planning to get through my PTW list any time soon, actually. It's mainly there for things I can watch during break since I can't invest my time into anime during school nights. I have pretty poor self-control and perception of time so this is just to keep myself in check, ahaha... Would you still recommend the manga over the anime though? I refuse to read/watch anything on school nights so it doesn't make much of a difference to me since I'm saving everything for winter/spring/summer break. Eheh, it'll be a while before I can get through any of them though, gomen. Alright, Battle Royale manga it is! 

 

Admittedly, Waver's confrontation with Gilgamesh that was one of my favorite scenes from F/Z, haha. I really liked how someone as bigoted as Gilgamesh praised Waver on his loyalty. I also loved Caster's monologue after Ryuunosuke was killed. The whole spiel about showing him the greatest cool really got to me. And thanks for the suggestions once again! The voice actors for FMA and FMAB are good. Like really good. Even the dub. The dub is just as good as the sub so you can't go wrong with either of them. Both FMA and FMAB are good anime, but if you want my personal opinion, FMAB beats FMA (except for the introduction; FMA does a better job with that). I'm just really baffled that you haven't read or watched it yet. It was one of my gateway anime and I assumed the same for most others as well. You've been an anime veteran for quite some time so it kinda surprised me--even more so than when I found out you haven't watched Steins;Gate not too long ago. I read a few volumes of the manga a few years ago, but I couldn't find the motivation to finish it since I finished the anime already so I can't encourage or discourage you from reading it. If time is a concern for you, by all means go for the manga! 

 

I know I haven't been exposed to as many anime as a lot of people out there, but I just find it a little disheartening that I can't relate to the ones I've watched as much as others can. Thank you for the kind words and helping me feel a bit more... human, haha.

 

I only have a handful friends who watch anime or play video games (or at least the ones I've watched and played) so I can't be loud to them about it :c Most of them just binge on western shows like Grey's Anatomy and Sherlock (which I've been tempted to watch for quite some time). There was this one guy who I used to rave about everything to, but our interests split paths a while ago. He still gives me recommendations from time to time though. I can also be pretty reserved in certain situations, but I'll try to strike up a conversation whenever I can. Oh geez, I'm not eloquent. I'd make a terrible public speaker. I often have freudian slips and screw up words when I talk too fast. One of my old teachers said that it must be a side effect from living in NYC, but eh. It can be a problem for me, but it can also make situations more light-hearted after laughing it off. I can still be pretty loud when I'm arguing/debating with my friends about certain topics though, haha. 

 

I don't have a single friend who's ever gotten high. I know about friends of friends who have though (apparently, it's a regular thing in band??). There was one suicide that happened at our school when I was a freshman. The girl was terminally ill and was taking painkillers to help cope with it. She ended up hanging herself to rid herself of the pain. That was... kinda scary. Our rival school seems to have problems with drugs, and I think there were some girls who've gotten pregnant over there. Even the assistant director was arrested for being in possession of child pornography, which is... also kinda scary. Ahaah, to think I've lived in this bubble for so long... Thank goodness for Case though. Oh man, was his hangover really that bad? He had to sleep through a Saturday and could barely eat?? But it's good that he's recovering! Hmm, I think I might stalk a few Korean friends on Facebook after they head off to college just to see how legit this tradition is. I'm quite curious, heh.

 

Wha?? It would be out of your comfort zone to even attend a party? So you won't even take a peek? Gosh, you're stubborn, haha. I actually had the same mentality toward cellphones and Facebook back in middle school. I was proud that I managed to "survive" without them for so long (I even told my sister I'd never get a Facebook; she laughed at me). I ended up getting a Facebook after my friend told me something was going on that warranted my attention. That, and peer pressure was the last straw for me before I broke. As for my cellphone, I never asked for one. My parents were sick of me borrowing other people's phones to call them so they shoved one in my hand, and that was that. I survived until sophomore year so it must count as something, lol. And admit it, having a cellphone is damn convenient and useful, hehe. I was never really against getting a license though (being able to drive is actually really liberating). And while I was never open to the idea of getting drunk, I still want to be able to "drink" a little. Just to see how good/bad beer or wine really is. I almost had my first experience in third grade when my uncle jokingly tried to force beer down my throat, but I chickened out (this was in China, so it's legal). My sister claims that alcoholic drinks taste horrible (from her experience in Italy and after she turned twenty-one). And I'm not against the idea of abstinence err... teetotaling either, but if getting drunk is a necessity at social events, then I might have to pass on them. Sure, I'll take a sip out of curiosity, but I want to do everything in my power to avoid hangovers. I already have enough headaches to deal with. I guess if it's no fun being the only sober person at a party, then I'll just have to join you, hah... Plus no one can get their hands on alcohol until they're twenty-one (unless they're audacious enough to create fake ID or something) so I think we're safe... for now... Ahaha, Akazora, you're too much. Pshh, I can totally fend off those supposedly shady people on my own. Not that I would mind if you accompanied me to a party... that's awfully sweet and considerate of you to go out of comfort zone just to look after me, b-but you better not take this the wrong way b-b-baka!! 

 

Waaaaiitt, you can choose the timeslot of your classes?? Like if there was a calc class that started at 11am you could choose that over the calc class at 8am? tfw college sounds like heaven (jk, just watch me eat my words). Then again, all of that extra free time and schedule flexibility seems to be all balanced out by the extra work you need to put into the classes. I've been getting mixed outlooks when I ask whether or not people prefer the college experience over high school. A few of my college friends have been telling me that college is a ton better, but my sister seems to have preferred high school. Maybe it's because she was having a hard time finding a place to live during her junior and senior years in college (she seemed really stressed). Have you been forced to splurge on textbooks yet? Do they actually help for the classes? Haha, I guess the college experience can't be defined as easier or harder than high school then; it's just different and I'll just have to make the most out of it when the time comes. Ahh, so college is the real deal. Thanks for your input!

 

Oh geez, so all of this was caused by oversleeping? Duly noted; I think I'll prepare myself three alarms when I head off to college then. And I'm just curious, but is there a reason why Fourth Hours are called Fourth Hours? Also, what do you mean by getting a "good seat" for econ? Even though it's not your biggest class, how big is it? Geezus, you write your journals and essays quickly (you wrote all three in one night??). It takes me hours just to crank out one essay worthy of a 9. Oh dear, if I'm going to get a crapton of writing assignments in college, I don't think I'm going to last very long... and then you go to bed at 3:30am. Gosh Akazora, you need to treat yourself better than this! I learned a while ago to attempt every point of extra credit (lesson learned in my freshman English class; I'm still really salty about it), even if it becomes overkill. And congrats on your calc quiz! I think I'll finally start making use of one of those planners I have sitting in my closet. I'm not the most organized person in the world, so that'll probably help me a bit. Thanks for sharing your experience with me! Hopefully this ends up being the first and last time you experience this, haha. 

 

SAGES is an... essay/writing/reading based course... Oh geez. As much as I, uh, love English, the idea of the class and those journals is making me feel a bit uncomfortable. I really hope you're right when you say that there's a class out there for everyone...

 

Ohh, so you'll be joining newspaper? Hmm, you'll be writing opinion papers, and you'll be paid?? You landed your first job (it kinda sounds like one, haha) already?? Whoa, that's awesome!! Did you just walk in and ask for the position? Or was it something you had to apply for? What interested you in joining newspaper? Haha, I thought you were going to join the anime club for sure by the looks of it a few months ago, but if it means watching episodes of anime you're reluctant to watch, I can see why you didn't. Oof, they're watching six shows simultaneously? Geez, haha. So as of right now, you're in physics and astronomy and newspaper? Sounds pretty good at the moment! Do you plan on joining a fraternity?

 

What the... when I saw the first picture, I thought he was a Goku cosplayer or something, lol. He has that kind of hair all the time? That's awesome! Aw man, do you think I'll get the chance to see him next year if I go to Case? And damn, I see he's into SnK. According to the article, he has haters?? F/Z Rider levels of charisma, huh... Pfft, he seems like a person I'd want to get to know. And you got to talk to him! Ahhhhh!

 

Wait, what do you mean by you mentioned band a lot? The only area I can mention anything about orchestra is under "Activities" on the Common App. Well, unless you count the one "Honors" tab where I listed the first division placement in MSBOA. Aside from those, I can't see where else I can mention orchestra, lol.

 

Deemo is only two dollars?? Damn, that sounds great. The game also has such a wide array of music ranging from purely instrumental to electro and gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... is it bad that I kinda want my phone to break so I can get a new one to download Deemo on, eheh................

 

Oh, lol, I lied. I meant September 8th, haha. Completely forgot about Labor Day (had an extra day to bs finish my summer reading assignment, huzzah). I'm pretty happy with my schedule for the most part. Just not... anatomy. I didn't receive the teacher I wanted; the teacher I received was my freshman bio teacher. She's nice, I guess, but she's not one of those teachers who I'd want again. And after some thought, I decided that I want to switch into a different class entirely. Our school offers orgo, so... I mean, why not, lol. It's a one semester class so I can use the following semester to take computer science or astronomy. Or vice versa. Ah yes, the beginning of the end. Really looking forward to second semester!!

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFdhd8lly58

 

this one reminds me of something... specifically 1:10 - 1:36 I can't quite put my finger on it...

Beatmania? Scorpion Fire? That one Plain Asia remix? Ughhhhh... this is really bothering me...

 

well, anyways...

 

IT'S SO FREAKING INTENSE

IT'S SO FREAKING GOOD

IS SOMETHING LIKE THIS EVEN HUMANLY POSSIBLE

LIKE WHAT IS THIS EVEN

there's a 0.0000000001 percent chance this is happening but if marasy-senpai makes a cover of this I will die happy

 

I need to stop before I spoil the entire soundtrack for myself

geezus Deemo... my ears.....................

[DRAGON BALL SUPER]

YGO is the abridged series. TFS is also coolio.

YGOTAS and Naruto Abridged are made by the same person though, lol

all hail LittleKuriboh

here, have a sample of Naruto Abridged because it is comedy gold

but yes, YGOTAS is the abridged series, indeed

 

lol anime was never good tch tch nubs

 

manga all the way suckers

wowowow, someone's been drinking too much haterade

haha jk

I'm anime > manga on most occasions, but hey, whatever floats your boat, man!

 

 

--

sorry Balthazar, I haven't been watching it so I can't add anything to the discussion :c

[What's on Your Mind?]

Ha we just talked about him in my Comm class. That 15 year old sure did fool America.

here's to never taking the presidential election seriously ever again!

cheers!

 

OMM: Eyyyyyyyyy I was walking by an open dorm room, and some guy inside was listening to Garnet Crow's "As the Dew".

I just... I don't even.......... whaaaaaaaaa?????

(Hey dude, if you're on DCW, I'm in room 411, your floor.  Just knock and I'll let you in.)

whaaaa?? 

perfect opportunity missed!

you should've barged in and become best friends with the guy!

hehe jk

 

Yeah I would find it disturbing, too. From what I understand, since it wasn't you drowning, it probably doesn't have to do necessarily with your psychological state (like implying you feel like dying or you're drowning or something), but about something different. Again, not that I have enough experience or anything... I don't know.

well, uh, I most certainly feel stressed "drowning" in schoolwork and deadlines, but not to the point where I'd commit suicide or anything, lol

 

OMM: Beginning of my third week of classes in college, and I've already caught a really really nasty cold.  Goddammit.  Doesn't help that I overexerted myself at the gym Saturday night and still feel like a bruised peach.  I'm almost not even in the mood to play Alpha Sapphire.

overexerted yourself at the gym?

pshh, what a try-hard kidding, haha

Get well soon!

 

 

Am I the only one who ships Amuro and Azusa? 

I have no clue why, but I just love them. 

oh shoot, I almost forgot who Azusa was for a second there

geezus, I really need to catch up

 

...and welcome to DCW!

 

 

--

OMM: fellow teachers, have mercy on us

[What's on Your Mind?]

Did you know the girl? Or did you just know it was a girl, but she was a stranger? Not sure that it's important, but I find that dreams that are vivid and I can't stop thinking about are spiritual and mean more than face value. Not that I'm good at interpreting them... but I have them on a fairly regular basis, so I guess at least I can empathize?

Nope, didn't recognize her; it was just some random girl. I haven't been having suicidal thoughts recently so I don't think it's some psychological sign or anything. It just a bit disturbing since the dream came out of nowhere. 

 

That's scary. Mine's even scarier.

that is.. scary O.o

 just a bit

 

 

--

OMM: so uh, apparently Kanye is running for president in 2020

lol

 

OMM2: DEEZ NUTS HAS A WIKIPEDIA PAGE

AHAHAHA, MY INSIDES

[Who is best for Conan/Shinichi???]

I see her as clingy (clingy, not selfish. In fact, she's the opposite of selfish) not because she's worried. It's because she's getting mad at him. Or break in people's house because she thought Shinichi is... 'making love' (someone like that. Need to re watch DC) and many more. Needed to note that she and Shinichi isn't even girlfriend and boyfiriend yet, so I view it as being clingy.

Shinichi needed to go on an urgent case. Or as she thought, urgent AND important case. Yet Shinichi still find time to meet her (although running off halfway, and yes it is fault on Shin's side) and call. She has no right to get mad, or shout and I also can't see any reason for getting emotional (I just can't see it).

Worried is fine, angry isn't.

Seriously? Shinichi liked Ran since preschool? I wasn't aware of that. Didn't he realized his feelings when he shrunk? And really, I never used the 'ShinRan barely interact' argument. I found that stupid, considering they talk just fine during the first episode.

I didn't see any strong will in her. Waiting for a man isn't strong-willed. I know quite a few people who waits for really, really long time or they just chase them in their own. So to me waiting is quite a normal thing to do when you're in love. I don't know about you, but I never saw someone who loved without waiting. But if you're talking about her physical strength... Well, she can bend a pole while smiling. I see her strong enough but not really effective (defense broken, gone. If she's unprepared or panicked, the end. Plus, stability is a must in martial arts and Ran isn't exactly the calm type).

What are we talking about? Which tendencies? Getting angry, worried, crying? In any case, I still held a grudge against her for the 'bomb vengeful brother and the three writers' case. She endangered quite a lot of life's because she thought Shinichi wouldn't do it. Yeah, I particulary remember that one because Sera is one of my favorite characters. Not exactly 'clingy ness' but I still don't like that reckless side of her. And I do not see her as 'weepy', okay? I see her as clingy, or in the past, 'possesive'. Note: In. The. Past.

Well, it's not exactly my argument, so... And I would rather lose Internet than saying that (not literally), since as you can see, I love Ai and don't really like Ran.

Ran would be the clear winner, definitely. Since Gosho said 'happy ending' and everyone knows what his idea of 'happy ending' would be. I don't give a damn. I stuck by my own decision and opinion, not what's decided by the manga from the start. Of course, it was still technically possible, so I can't give up hope, can't I? Not after I defended CoAi for so long. Nice to see someone neutral in the war, but if you truly are neutral, I suggest you to not vote for thread like this.

You're basically saying that she shouldn't care about Shinichi as much as she does.

 

Imagine your best friend--a childhood friend you have over a decade of history with--disappearing off the face of the Earth one day. Suddenly, a person you used to see everyday is now someone you see sparingly. Something doesn't add up. And even worse, Shinichi won't tell her what happened.

Of course she'd be angry as hell; her best friend won't even fill her in on the details. Of course she'd want to find every opportunity to see him. Of course she wants answers. But we know that she's not going to get answers. We know that Shinichi can't tell her. That's the source of her pent-up frustration. Ran isn't aware that his secret is that important.

 

Just look at this realistically.

Her best friend disappeared and he can't tell her why.

 

This isn't like Penelope waiting twenty years for her husband to return lol the irony

Ran is a growing teenager so it's unreasonably harsh to force these adult-like expectations on her.

 

If you want me to be honest, I'm not a fan of Ran. But I still think she deserves to be Shinichi.

[What's on Your Mind?]

Wow, DCW really isn't dank enough.  How could you possibly respond without a bait meme??

Here, I'll do it for you:

+1 for the Fate reference

 

OMM: Smash server maintenance only fixed a few tourney mode things, no DLC or balance patch or anything.  Kinda sucks, but then *bam* I wake up to see Ace Attorney 6 has been announced!!  Yeeeeeeee, now if only I could find enough free time in college to actually get through my backlog of 3DS games......

I'm gonna be broke

and homeless after I throw all of my money at them

 

 

--

OMM: I had a dream about a girl who tried to commit suicide by drowning herself

I woke up before I could see what happened in the end

it was terrifyingly vivid, and well, umm... okay.................. I can't stop thinking about it...

 

OMM2: DOUBLE RAINBOW

 

OMM3: thank goodness for the rain during practice

it was hot and humid af and half of us looked close to passing out

we still had to play in the rain but damn, it was refreshing

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

I-I'm sorry...? <3

 

VK's not the only composer of Deemo's OST (though he's my personal favorite)

There are all kinds of genres and styles of music.  Take a listen to this interesting song by Mili:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le5nXTvNYJc

This song as been growing on me recently, especially after I looked up the lyrics.  

The song may sound bright and upbeat on the surface, but goddamn the lyrics are so dark...

you're forgiven, heh

 

this sounds like something that belongs in RWBY

it sounded like a cute song at surface level

and then I looked at the lyrics

and I... what

clever title though

is the game itself this dark?

 

"Utopiosphere" -- Mili

lol why was there a random baby

interesting though

 

 

--

Dream

haha, thanks again

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

I discovered it sometime during senior year, when I asked one of my friends from physics what phone he had (I was trying to casually scout out good phones at the time, even though I knew I wasn’t going to buy anything until the summertime).  When he replied with “a OnePlus One” confusion obviously arose (it’s not a very good name to first come across spoken to you, haha) but it intrigued me.  I later learned that two other people in my physics class alone also had OnePlus Ones and they all recommended it, and since they’re all techy people (going into engineering and computer science and stuff) I figured I could take their word for it.  It’s not like there was much else to consider that could compete with it price and power wise anyway, so the search for my first phone wrapped up rather nicely right there.  Since then, I’ve noticed it kinda gain popularity.  During graduation, after the ceremony, I heard someone call out in the crowd “Yo, you got a OnePlus One?” to one of his friends.  Though I never got the chance to verify who said this, know it wasn’t one of the three friends from physics class.  Also, one of my favorite YouTubers/livestreamers has an OPO.  He got a call during a livestream and when he reached for his phone to silence it I recognized it immediately as a OnePlus One, and he later verified that that was indeed what it was, as well as saying how hyped he was for the OnePlus 2.  So it’s definitely still underground, but I’d like to think it’s getting more and more popular.

 

Ahh, I guess since the last time I heard from you, that you’ve made at least a little bit of progress is still good!  I really am intrigued though.  You have an intro and a conclusion but not a body?  Hm, that certainly is an odd way of structuring your essay.  Personally, I didn’t have a conclusion for the longest time for my essay and then one night it just came to me and I typed it up all at once.  Hopefully the same happens to you soon, so you can begin the process of proofreading and peer editing as soon as possible.  Good luck and let me know how it goes!

 

Ohhh, I-I actually didn’t know, eheheheh…  That’s an awfully handy trick, I should try it out some time!  And it was still pretty creative of you to figure everything out, so good on you for that!  Really, I thought apart from the obvious relation to musical notes there was very little to base anything off of and it would just be too daunting of a task for anyone to even bother with, ahah.  And there was really no need for you to correct yourself about the Spanish/Portuguese mixup, you didn’t mean any harm by it, hahah.  In fact, I didn’t even realize your mistake because I didn’t click through the video enough to confirm or deny the language.  It’s kinda cute though, how you keep on going back to fix mistakes.  It’s flattering to know you’re trying your best to make your responses are free from errors, but don’t stress out too much about it either!  I’ve made plenty of embarrassing mistakes as well, we’re all human after all.

 

The image source for your avatar?  Well, I only bothered looking for it because I didn’t recognize the character and was honestly expecting some fab hair or at least one of the characters you mentioned as ones you were considering.  I started off by reverse image searching (right clicking on your pic and then selecting “Search Google for this image”).  The fourth result down led directly to the video, and every other result indirectly pointed towards that same video.  I even made the video full screen, took a screen shot, uploaded it to imgur, reverse image searched it again, and still came up with the same video.  I couldn’t for the life of me find the original source material for the image in the video, so the chances were very high that you found that image from the video itself.  So yeah, the coloration didn’t throw me off (you purple-ized your Dark Pit avatar previously, so I assumed you red-ified Aya Shameimaru as well).  Oh yeah, and I only figured out who the girl was after Googling some of the stuff in the description and title of the video and figuring out the song came from the game Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot the Bullet, whose main character is Aya.  So that’s the gist of it, heh.

 

Yup, you really can’t go wrong with your second game, be it Awakening or a new Pokemon game or whatever.  Though, if a new Pokemon main series game comes out, the earlier you get it the better.  There are always time sensitive WiFi events that correspond directly with the initial release of those games (as you probably know) and it would be a pity to miss those.  I’ve downloaded nearly 20 of them and the last one I even bothered to take from the delivery man/girl was the Reshiram in my White version.  I haven’t missed a single WiFi event since then, but likewise haven’t picked up a single WiFi event since then either.  Ohh, and speaking of which, I finished Y!  Kinda, at least.  Got through Victory Road, beat the Elite Four, beat Diantha, beat AZ, saw the credits, and finally got to the “Fin” signifying the end of the game.  Of course, I haven’t done anything after that, so don’t spoil me on post-game stuff just yet!  I actually liked Y quite a bit.  The whole story of AZ and the weapon and the weird magical stuff that pretty much wasn’t even present in previous gens was rather fascinating, and some of the philosophical points brought up were more thought provoking than the much praised ones from the Unova games.  The grey morality was pretty neat (I already explained how Lysandre is like Archer and how the children are like Shirou), and I recall some of the random NPCs bringing up some pretty deep insights on the Pokemon universe, though I can’t remember specifics.  Actually being celebrated by the general populace for your heroic actions was a welcome first.  I think I only liked this game as much as I did because everyone was saying how bad it was compared to BW.  The Kalos region actually has the deepest lore of all the regions (Kings and actual wars?  The intricate details of AZ’s story told through random books that many people wouldn’t bother to read in Team Flare’s hideout?  Damn, there’s actually a lot of stuff to keep track of.)  I had my expectations super low, and so they were exceeded.  I know a big complaint was the lack of post-story content, but I’m rather satisfied with the plot and good god would you look at the gorgeous 3DS models??  Oohhh also, when I versed Serena for the last time on Victory Road, it was during an outdoor area of the maze and before the battle, while the text was rolling, the camera was angled upwards so you could see the sky.  I happened to do this at night, and daaayyumm the starry night sky in Kalos is amazing!  I checked and it doesn’t look like any playthroughs on YouTube did this part at night, so you most likely didn’t see it.  I wish I took a picture, since I can’t seem to find an image online.  The small details like that really amaze me.  So yeahh, while not my favorite Pokemon game (nostalgia goggles on, heh) I think it deserves some credit for being so revolutionary.

 

I think my parents were just under the impression that the rest of America would be relatively boring and the same as New Jersey, and figured a whole new country like Canada would surely provide more entertainment, ahah.  I didn’t do anything too amazing there, but it’s not a bad place either.  Ohh, interesting, and it’s fine, Shanghai can be a pretty ugly place.  I actually haven’t ever been to Hong Kong though.

 

I can only follow what goes on during the Super Bowl because of watching my high school football team fumble around during my freshman year when I was in marching band, aha.  It was pretty fun, sitting with the rest of the alto sax group and trying to understand what was going on on the field and sharing hand warmers and stomping our feet to cheer stay warm and complaining profusely about how freezing it was and nearly dying while waiting in line during halftime to buy some of that sweet sweet hot chocolate.  too bad the rest of the band…………  Y-you actually dress up because you want your class to win??  Whhaaaa, I only dress up if I get extra credit in chem for it.  And even then, I only did it about a third of the time because I didn’t want to be bothered.  Sheesh, you try hard.  Joking; sheesh, my lazy self.  Thank god Case doesn’t care about sports or school spirit very much.  I don’t know if I’d be able to handle something like UMich’s atmosphere.  I guess all the Big Ten schools, Rutgers being one of them, are like that, though it may be even more profound in UMich and OSU’s case because of their rivalry.  And also, don’t underestimate my stolidity.  You claim all these absolutes about how everyone will be cheering and getting hyped during UMich football games, but I’m proud to say that at the FLOW concert I refused to do anything more than clap at the end of every song, despite everyone else jumping up and down and fist pumping and losing their minds the whole time.  Furthermore, during the Hillary Clinton rally, I only politely clapped a few times, but didn’t react in any other way.  If even in the presence of world renowned celebrities I can maintain my composure, nothing can faze me (expect for meeting you in person, I’d probably be overwhelmed with emotions then, eheheheheheh).  The saying goes: there’s an exception to every rule, and I’m that exception for UMich football games!  Ufufufufufufufufufufu!  (I’m sorry for being a no fun party pooper by the way, bleh).  

 

Oh, and speaking of the Clinton rally, I actually didn’t miss class.  My wellness teacher canceled all the classes for this past week and the first day of class will actually be next week, starting with Tuesday, September the 1st.  So yay, my attendance is still perfect!  The rally itself was interesting.  There were some Clinton supporters that creepily tried to force stickers onto you and some counter-ralliers that silently protested from the sidelines with signs and everything.  Nothing too major, but interesting to see in person nonetheless.  There were news cameras set up all in a row in the back and someone from CNN actually took a minute to interview some stranger standing next to me (he only had a voice recorder, not a camera crew, so don’t bother trying to check for a glimpse of me on YouTube, heheh).  The biggest thing I took away from the rally was that Hillary Clinton is a good speaker.  Like, a damn good speaker at that.  There were some people who spoke before her, for introductions and all, and while they were good, none could come close to even matching the finesse and poise that she possessed.  However, I’m not completely for her politically and I need to do more research on other candidates of course, but this was still a good experience.

 

Yeah, your tanning situation does sound rather odd, but it’s good you’re not bothered by it!  There’s no point in getting upset over something you can’t change, haha.  Hmm, did your school get new tennis uniforms or something?  It’s weird how this year you can’t wear anything with your skirt but last year you could.  Oh man, once I discovered the blessing that was a watch back in middle school, I wore one every day.  I thought I would never stop wearing it, but during my junior and senior year the watch I was wearing broke and I just couldn’t be bothered to get a new one, sooo……  I’ve started wearing a watch again in college though.  It’s a lot more convenient than having to check my phone, and it’s more discreet, too.  If a lecture is getting boring and I want to check the time but don’t want to obviously twist my head around to look behind me or reach for my phone, I can just subtly angle my wrist and quickly glance down.  It wouldn’t be good to give my professors the wrong impression or anything, eheh.

 

Ahhh yes, the famous body/hug/love pillows from Japan.  Stay classy, my friends.  Actually, I wasn’t referring to Free specifically, just anime in general, but yeah Free seems to be one of the biggest culprits.  Of course, that series is one of the few shows with female fanservice in it, so that’s understandable.  Girl anime fans have had to settle for just regular shoujo shows, with reverse harems being the only even remotely risqué genre at their disposal outside of straight up BL doujinshi.  Free was the long awaited answer to all the ecchi that guys have been receiving for years, so I can imagine it was quite liberating (ahah “free” and “liberating” ucwutididthar??).  Maybe that’s why your sister just couldn’t resist watching it?  And oohhhhh you’ve been tempted to watch Free as well?  Now now Kenzi, I thought you to be better than that.  Just joking, watch what you want to watch, even if it’s for a reason like that.  I’ve watched tons of fanservicey shows myself, and while most of them are pretty bad and I’ve tried avoiding them nowadays, some of them ended up being fairly entertaining, like in Highschool of the Dead’s case.  And it’s okay, you’re a growing girl and you’re at that age now, aren’t ya? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  okay okay, seriously, I’m done with the jokes, sorry about that, I just couldn’t resist using that gif, it’s too perfect

 

Four years, hm?  I guess that’s not too old, but I can imagine it’s starting to show its age.  When you go off to college next year, you should consider getting a new laptop, just so you can get off to a fresh start.  I don’t have any personal recommendations though, so you’re just going to have to do your own research when the time comes to that, eheh.  And the laptop I have right now is pretty new, a little over a year old I believe.  I just want it to last at least through college, which I think it will.

 

Ohh my, I didn’t expect you to type up a whole two paragraphs in reply to that, ahah.  It’s actually interesting that you experienced something similar when you were younger, though it’s good you were able to test out of it.  So yeah, you can imagine how it felt having to deal with that all of high school.  Did I potentially miss out on opportunities by being in environmental science my freshman year?  Yeah, maybe.  It sucked but it’s behind me now, so whatever.  Ah yes, daily reminder that my high school was terrible.  Yup, if you’re stuck in a lower level class, you pretty much have no chance of skipping up ahead.  There is no waive process and talking to your teacher isn’t going to get you anywhere.  Do recall that they don’t take summer credit for pretty much anything, so you can’t even do that.  You’re forced to take at least three years of science: one year of bio, one year of chem, and one year of physics.  Because environmental science took up a wasted spot in my freshman year, I was fated to take bio and chem and physics (in that order nonetheless, since you can’t take physics until after you take chem and you can’t take chem until after you take bio).  It’s really rigid, though admittedly there aren’t any specifics with it comes to English or math classes; you just need to take four years of whatever with those subjects.  Ohhh, that’s really nice how people don’t care what classes you take in your high school!  I wish things were like that in my school.  It’s not like people openly gave you a hard time for it, generally speaking, but it was hard trying to fit in, especially given I was put in this situation freshman year, which is pretty much the best time to make established friends and when strangers silently judge you the most.  Because there’s such a lack of flexibility with classes, when someone steps out of the “honors and AP classes” mold, it’s easy to misunderstand that as “inability to perform and handle the pressure of college level courses”, as faulty of an assumption as that may be.  Sigh, it’s just what happens when my fellow classmates are too competitive and the district isn’t flexible enough to accommodate everyone’s educational needs.

 

Ah, and speaking of AP classes, I’m actually going to be using all of the AP credits I’ve accumulated these past few years.  Because I’m doing the accelerated accounting dual degree program, I don’t really have the time to spare casually taking courses and exploring my interests, else I risk not graduating in four years (and being disowned by my mother).  I just need to clear out as many prereqs as I can (especially for subjects I’m not a fan of) and get started on classes that count toward my major as soon as possible.  Hmm, I failed to go into detail about this now, but I guess I’ll give you a rundown of my schedule for this year and beyond.  First of all, if you want to major in accounting, you still need to take two semesters of math, natural science, social science, humanities, and phys ed each, as well as the SAGES reqs (required of all Case undergrads regardless of major).  SAGES is a Case specialty and you can’t use AP credit for it, so I can’t do anything about that.  I used the 4 I got on my Calc AB exam to knock out a semester of math, so hopefully the calc class I’m taking right now will be the last true math class I ever take.  I’m able to skip another semester of natural science with the 4 I got for AP Bio, but since I messed up my AP Physics exam with a 3, I’m still one class short of being completely free from a natural science class.  I really dislike either chem or physics, so I wouldn’t be very comfortable taking even intro level courses in those subjects.  Bio is alright, but I don’t want to take a next-level class because then I’d be competing with students who actually want to go into that field of study.  Since it’s only one semester and it’s for a prereq class, the plan for now is to apply to have summer credit transferred over.  I want to take an accepted summer course in Rutgers next summer, and as for the subject I wouldn’t even care if it was chemistry or physics since the grade I’d get in that class wouldn’t affect my Case GPA and just be there as credit.  As for the humanities classes, I have that completely cleared out.  In fact, I’ve overcompensated.  I got 5’s on my Lit, LangComp, and APUSH exams and a 4 on my WHAP exam (why does nobody see the importance of these beautiful classes *sniff*).  I’ll have two of those exams count for the prereqs and the remaining two count toward a minor or something.  I actually haven’t even thought of a minor.  Maybe creative writing?  As for social sciences, I don’t have any AP credit for that, so I’ll just take two semesters of political science or psychology or sociology or whatever sounds interesting.  Unfortunately, economics when taken for your major doesn’t cover the prereqs, which is a bit of a bummer, otherwise I wouldn’t have to worry about it given the micro and macro classes I need to take for accounting anyway are technically social science classes.  There’s no getting out of phys ed, and since I’m not athletically inclined (sports wise at least) I’m just going to be taking some silly classroom classes, kinda like health classes from high school.  You can join a sports team and have that count as credit, so don’t worry, if you come to Case you can just continue playing tennis as you always have and free up your academic schedule that way.  As it stands, I’m taking a SAGES course on inequality, Calc 126, accounting 101, econ (micro), and wellness for phys ed this semester.  Huh, though this may be going a bit out of order, I’ll save how my classes are specifically going for later in this response, just so I don’t bog this area down and make it difficult for you to respond to.

 

Ah, I’m pretty sure there’s an indent on my mattress back at home as well!  Oh dear, poor springs…  I’m sure they’re faring much better now that I’m not there to crush them every night.  I was pretty proud of myself for a while, because I thought I had my sleep schedule under control starting college, but it’s already gotten out of whack.  Even though I set a really obnoxious alarm that wakes me without fail every morning, I always get up, turn it off, and then go back to sleep, rendering the point of an alarm useless.  I still get to classes and breakfast on time, but as each day passes I’m starting to rush more and more each morning…  And to make matters worse, I don’t even feel completely well-rested during the day.  The first time I ever dozed off in Case was during Fall Convocation, when Dr. Steele was giving a speech about the common reading book, Whistling Vivaldi.  He started going on about something that he had already covered extensively in the book, and since I knew what he was going to say I got kinda bored… and the seats in Severance Hall were pretty comfy, sooo…… eheh…  I’m sorry Dr. Steele, please forgive me!  I went and got the copy of my book signed by him, so hopefully that made up for it.  And the first time I fell asleep in class was just this past Thursday, when I nodded off for a minute or two in accounting.  Oh geez, this shouldn’t be happening the first week of class.  So it’s okay, you’re not alone!  We can both work toward fixing up our bad sleeping habits during this upcoming crucial year of our lives, ahahah.

 

Well, it seems God is dead [insert that Nichijou image/video] once again, as it’s cooled down enough in Cleveland where the A/C isn’t even necessary.  Pls, I only had one week of smug satisfaction, this can’t be what I endured four years of JP for……  Right now, I really don’t need to have the A/C on but I have it set to blasting cold just to spite God.  Are my hands white and freezing and am I hugging myself to stay warm?  Yes.  Will I turn off the A/C?  No.  I refuse.  I may be 18, but the immature kid inside of me refuses to let that A/C just sit there and do nothing.  The air will be cooled!  Bwahahahahah-ah-ah-ah-atchoo!!  (my roommate doesn’t mind by the way, so don’t think I’m being cruel or anything, eheh)  Oh, and the A/C in my room is really good, I just wasn’t using it right before, derp.  Even if you set it to Cool/High, it won’t continuously blow out cold air nonstop.  You have to use the arrows to set the lowest temperature that it will eject cold air.  So if I set the temperature to 73 degrees, it will spew out cold air until the temperature in the room reaches 73 degrees, after which it will shut off the cold but the keep the fan blowing room temperature air.  I feel kinda dumb, that was probably common sense to anyone who’s used these types of A/C units before, but since I haven’t in the longest time I didn’t realize that’s what I had to do, heheheh.  I think I had the temperature set really high the first week, which also happened to be the hottest week.  I-I complete blew my chance… what a way to start the year…  Anyway, enough of that A/C talk.  At the rate at which I’m responding back to you, I’m never going to finish in time!  Christmas is amazing, I love the atmosphere of it!  Though, since winter starts December 20th-ish, Christmas is barely a winter holiday and most of the Christmas hype occurs before winter starts.  The biggest chunk of winter is still January and February, grueling and dreary months for high schoolers, heh.  But regardless, winter is still great because of the snow and just getting all warm and snug in thick sweaters and blankets and peering your face into heating vents and drinking hot chocolate and anticipating those snow days and waking up late realizing school is canceled and the sun after a good snowfall and seeing your breath in front of you as you exhale and oh my gosh I can’t wait for it to be winter!!  And yeah, I guess sunny winter days are great, too.  Even if there’s no promise of snow, it’s still fine because it’s never hot or sweat inducing, which is my only gripe of summer.  Fall is my second favorite season, just because of Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Though they may not be as magical as Christmas, there’s a fair amount of nostalgia associated with them, which is good enough to give autumn an edge over the other seasons.  And of course, the transient changing of the leaves, which is always gorgeous despite not lasting very long.

 

Grave of the Fireflies was pretty good.  Didn’t make me cry, but I know many people consider it depressing and whatnot.  I don’t know how it compares to other Ghibli movies (just because I haven’t seen any others) but it’s one of the more well received ones from what I gather, so check it out if you want!  My mom loved it, and it really messed her up despite that she generally prefers live-action movies (because cartoon characters aren’t “real” and are hard to relate to, heh).  She keeps on randomly bringing it up whenever she reads a sad news story about war and she’s told all her colleagues at work about it as well.  Oh my, I’m open to watching Ghibli movies but just haven’t found the motivation or time for it.  Heheheh, if you come to Case I guess I wouldn’t mind watching some of them with you, so work hard on those applications!

 

Yay, congratulations on getting your license!  Driving is no easy feat (or maybe it is, I wouldn’t know) so good on you for passing!  Hm, I have no idea how driving tests work since I can’t be bothered to look that up right now given it’s not relevant to me until at least winter break and I know I’m going to forget all the details by then if I read up on it now.  The point system is interesting, and it’s good they give you a lot of room for error.  My parents would be really close to failing if they try to take a driving test now.  They’re very jerky when they drive, they always (without fail) cross stop bars, and they reposition all the time when parking front-ways-in (I don’t know my terminology very well, sorry).  And the written test in Jersey is really hard… sometimes.  It depends on the version of the test you get.  If it was mainly common sense and road signs and rules questions I wouldn’t have needed to study.  But on occasion they throw in a crazy amount of petty and stupid stuff.  What is your jail sentence for your third offense of driving while suspended?  In regards to alcohol concentration, how much liquor is equal to six ounces of beer??  At what speed should you approach a horse or horse-drawn vehicle???  How much longer percentage-wise does it take a truck to stop in bad weather conditions????  If you get a high enough rate of these questions, just common sense isn’t gonna save ya.  My heart goes out to all those immigrants I saw there attempting to take the test, Godspeed.  You shouldn’t have moved to Jersey, I’m sure Pennsylvania would have been better.  Rejoice in the fact that our road test seems easy enough though.  As I said before, I have zilch idea as to how road tests work.  I even believed until just recently that it occurred on an enclosed practice course, not on actual roads, blehh.  But if the tests don’t last very long, then I can imagine they’re only so difficult, at least in New Jersey.  So unfortunately, I have no idea what they mean by sitting properly.  I guess if you’re slouching heavily and leaning your seat back then obviously you’re going to get marked down for it.  And whaaa, you can fudge your hours?  Psht I take it back, I guess you can cheat the system anywhere in America.  But I’m really happy you managed to overcome your backing-in problem and pass the test!  Haha, yeah, there’s no need to be so anxious.  I haven’t driven before sure, but pretty much everyone is forced to drive in slippery conditions at some point in their lives, so I’ll manage.  It might be a good opportunity for the roads to beat me into shape early on so the test itself seems easy in comparison!  In all seriousness though, I will be careful.  But that won’t be an issue until winter, and my bigger concern is you being safe.  Now that you actually have the power to drive yourself around, do so with utmost caution.  Driving to and from school, driving at night, whenever and where ever, please be careful.  I will be praying each and every day now for your safety.  Ahh, not that I wasn’t worried about you before you got your license or anything, but my thoughts will be going out to you ever more fervently from now on, ehehe.

 

A-a-anime, manga, and movies that made me cry??  O-oh dear, you’re outright asking me to be rather open with you right now, eheh.  I-I’ll do it if you want me to though… b-but it’s not like I’m doing it for you or anything b-b-baka!!  Let’s see, I’ll start with manga since it’s a short list.  The only two that I recall moving me enough to tears was One Piece and Bakuman.  I read these a long time ago, back when my emotions were more easily swayed, so I’m fairly certain crying during Bakuman was a bit of a fluke.  One Piece however is an emotional rollercoaster.  It’s one of the big three shounens so it’s easy to brush off as childish and corny, but one part in particular messed me up real bad.  Like, it was one of those things where I started crying and I couldn’t finish reading the chapter so I had to run off and wipe away my tears, and when I calmed down and came back a wave of sadness hit me again and I had to grab tissues again.  It was got me really really really bad.  It was hard to read the next few chapters for the longest time.  While I do like One Piece a lot, it’s daunting to start and catch up on (I think I’m even starting to fall behind the weekly chapter releases) so don’t feel pressured to read it especially since it shows no sign of ending.  Also, while these didn’t make me cry, I got pretty emotional during Monster and Battle Royale, maybe even a bit in Midori no Hibi, funnily enough.

 

Now on to anime.  Geez, I’m going to be going through my whole list for this one.  I’ll start with what’s on my favorites to ease my way into this.  This is the only thing in the history of everything to make me do this, but I cried during Mawaru Penguindrum… the second time I watched it.  I just didn’t really get what was going on the first time I watched it, but once I rewatched it and everything clicked into place it became really emotional.  Also, this one you’ve already seen, but Fate/Zero got me during Rider’s last stand.  I loved that charismatic little bastard and his interactions with Waver, really hurt to see him go.  For this next part, I’ll be a bit random with my titles since I’ll be going in alphabetical order down my list and will be mentioning those that made me cry as well as ones that got very close to making me cry.  Angel Beats got me close to crying, but after rewatching it I realized it wasn’t as good as I first made it out to be.  5 Centimeters Per Second is a great one-hour movie, and it almost made me cry as well.  Eve no Jikan, another movie, actually made me cry.  Very little, but enough to count.  I can’t remember if Hoshi no Koe made me cry or not, but at the very least it left me with an empty feeling inside.  It’s a quick episode long short, so I recommend you check it out if you have the moment to spare.  One random episode in the second season of Nisekoi actually made me cry.  It was kinda silly in retrospect given how subpar I though the second season was overall, but I can’t deny the fact that that specific episode was admittedly really good.  I also cried during the first episode of Plastic Memories, somehow.  I think I was in an emotionally manipulative mood that day, so it was probably a fluke.  Ahah, and I barely cried during the first episode of Shingeki no Kyojin as well.  Really was not expecting the show to start off so strong.  I don’t know whether or not Summer Wars made me cry, but at the very least it got pretty close.  And finally Tsumiki no Ie, an artistic 12-minute short, got me on the brink of tears though I ultimately didn’t cry.  I think that’s pretty much it, though I may have missed a few things here or there or forgot about how emotional certain anime made me feel.  Of all the ones I listed, the only ones I really would strongly recommend are Penguindrum, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Eve no Jikan, and Hoshi no Koe.  While Penguindrum is my favorite anime of all time, it’s 24 episodes and may be difficult to fit in your schedule.  The other three are all movie-length or shorter, so you’d probably have more luck finding time for them.

 

Oh geez, trying to remember all the movies that made me cry is impossible, so I’ll just list the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  First off, I have to admit Inside Out got me good during Bing Bong’s sacrifice.  I knew it was coming, I could see it from a mile away, but dammit when it actually happened I couldn’t help myself.  Other Pixar movies that got me were Up and Toy Story 3.  The Lion King got me really emotional when I watched it over and over and over again as a kid, as did the lesser known The Land Before Time (the first movie, not the spin-off sequels).  I probably cried at least once during those many rewatches.  Wow, it seems I might just have an affinity for animated things, eheheh.  Let’s see, as for non-animated movies, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes made me tear up at one point.  As with Plastic Memories, I think I was just having an emotional day, so it was probably a fluke.  I can’t actually recall any other movies that brought me to tears or at least brought me to the verge of them.  Hmm, I don’t keep a very extensive database on them so that’s probably why, but if I remember anything later I’ll let you know.

 

(oh my gosh, I keep on getting hung up on certain parts of this reply, sorry for rambling, I’ll get back on topic now…)

Awww gee Kenzi, there you go again, making me blush, eheh.  I’m just awfully glad you liked my gift since I was a bit worried that it would come off as “oh, just more text to read” instead of something more personal.  And I’m also really happy my feelings got across to you.  I mean, I couldn’t imagine I’d bring you to tears nor was that my intention in the slightest, but since it means my words touched you then I’m satisfied, ahah.  And if it weren’t for you being such an amazing person, I never would have been able to type up something so genuine either.  You’re at least half the reason my birthday present to you came out as it did.  It wouldn’t be right to give me all the credit.  And as for what you experienced, all those overwhelming emotions… I guess I don’t know either, hah.  Perhaps… I dunno, you know you better than I know you.  It’s fine that the mods are ignoring this thread I guess, since it doesn’t look like we’re really bothering anyone too much, though you’d think at least someone would find the row of consecutive rep points kinda suspicious and report it, heh.

 

Oh, you aren’t applying to many schools then.  Three you’ll definitely apply to and a few you might.  Of course, you do have a dream school and you’re going to be hoping for the best with that.  I applied to sixteen, but only because I really had no idea where I wanted to go, not until later.  I’m confident in your abilities, so there’s no need to over-apply.  Still though, I wish you the best of luck in the coming months!

 

Ahhhh, actually, I felt something similar when I moved into Case!  You had been there not too long and it was the closest we had come to actually meeting and well, as you say, it was a kind of magical feeling of sorts.  Not just the Weatherhead School of Management, but also the descendant of Newton’s apple tree.  I just imagined you posing there and how you had stood at that very spot, eheheh.  While I’m not entirely sure how well that would have worked, it definitely would have been worth a try.  It’s okay though, if all goes well then we’ll be able to meet each other in person soon enough and then you can say whatever you want to me directly.  Hmm, speaking of which, I wonder what your voice sounds like…?  Ah, I’m getting carried away again.

 

Hold the mayo, did I say psychics and astrology club???  I-I-I made a big mistake, whoops.  I’m so sorry, there’s no need for you to be embarrassed.  I actually meant physics and astronomy club, not psychics and astrology.  H-How did I mess that up??  Oh my, maybe when I typed that up I still wasn’t quite accustomed to being in college and flubbed my words.  I apologize for the confusion, and I’m sorry you deleted that entire part of your response because… you were actually right the first time, eheheheh………  Welp, uhh regarding your confusion as to why I’d be interested in that club despite disliking physics, I guess it’s because it’s actually focused more on astronomy than physics.  It only meets once every month or so.  There’s like a science talk/lecture as well as free pizza, and on occasion they take little trips to physics and astronomy related places.  I’m pretty sure that at least once they’ll take everyone to a stargazing location, so that’s what I’m pinning my hopes on.  And if the physics stuff is kinda related to astronomy, then maybe I’ll come to like it.  This isn’t a class and is more of just a way to explore and broaden my horizons, so I probably won’t harbor any negative feelings toward it.  But to address the psychics and astrology side of things, I actually don’t think I’m a “metaphysical kind of person”.  I mean, I guess horoscopes are kind of interesting to think about but I wouldn’t say I truly believe in any of that stuff either.  I dunno though, haven’t really given it a ton of thought.

 

Yeah, all college campuses are breeding grounds for parties and illegal substance use, but Case is definitely on the quieter side, unlike public schools and such.  Case loves accepting tons of international students, most of them Chinese, so their general conservative attitude (with everything save for smoking) rubs off on others and makes the overall feel of the campus less party-oriented.  If you’re really craving a party though, I can imagine it won’t be very difficult finding once given you know where to look.  All in all though, studies are put before parties which is good.  And yeah, the ruckus pretty much stopped during this past school week though it picked up again just last night.  It was the first weekend of college that wasn’t part of orientation, so a lot of people went crazy.  It sounded like a raid was happening on my floor and there was a mini EDM concert going on outside that I could hear from my room.  A bit distracting, but I know this isn’t going to be a recurring thing, so it should be fine… I think.  My roommate even disappeared for a bit.  Well, not just a bit, but quite a while.  He left on Friday at around six in the afternoon and only just came back today at noon.  When I asked him where he went, he said he attended some Korean Students Alliance event.  They went to same campsite, had a barbeque, and then… got completely wasted.  Apparently it’s a tradition in Korea to get drunk on the first day at university or something, since the legal drinking age over there is 19 and Koreans generally start college after that.  So yeahhh, that was an interesting thing to contemplate today over dinner……  It’s the reality of college life I guess, but still…  It still bothered me, heh.  Maybe I’m just too uptight about things but I feel it wouldn’t hurt to show some decency and restraint, you know?  There are much better things to be doing than getting drunk and high and confused for one night and then waking up hungover with a headache, right?  That’s just dangerous and unpleasant.  There’s so much more life has to offer, why settle for such temporary and double-edged pleasures?  Is the way I think outdated?  Am I just crazy?  I dunno, I’m rambling again, and there’s still quite a bit I have to type, so moving on…

 

Enough about the dark underbelly of American universities and more about the education!  My classes are alright, but what I’m really pleased about is my overall schedule.  On Mondays I have calc at 11:30 and econ at three.  On Tuesdays, my most packed days, I have wellness at ten in the morning, calc at 11:35, accounting at 1:15, and SAGES at 2:45.  Wednesdays are identical to Mondays.  Thursdays are the same as Tuesdays, except I don’t have any calc class.  Friday is my easiest day, with just a quick calc class at 11:30.  The classes are around an hour long, I believe ranging from 50 minutes to an hour and a quarter.  My earliest class is only 10 am, and that’s only on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it’s phys ed of all things.  The latest any of my classes goes is 4:15, which is on Mondays and Wednesdays for econ.  Nice, easy, and stress-free.  My calc professor is alright.  He’s actually a grad student and from Ghana, so he’s young and has a bit of an accent.  He’s not the most engaging instructor, but it’s only calculus and I just need to quickly take care of this semester, nab a good grade, and leave high level math behind me.  He gives a quiz every Tuesday and three exams over the course of the semester.  He assigns recommended homework but doesn’t check it nor does he grade participation.  I’m just hoping his quizzes and exams aren’t too difficult.  I guess I’ll find out on the first of September.  My econ teacher is an old man.  He’s not very engaging either, though econ as a subject is surprisingly kind of interesting.  He’s a classic kind of college professor as he doesn’t take attendance or give out homework and only has exams with which to base your final grade off of.  The good thing is, he has five exams but only three of them are counted so it gives you room for error.  I have a pretty good feeling about that class.  Accounting is my biggest class, but even then it only consists of barely over 50 students.  Intro level bio and chem classes are well into the hundreds.  My professor is new to Case though he’s already in his forties.  He gives pop quizzes and electronic homework based on reading checks as well as big exams.  He doesn’t grade on attendance or participation, but the pop quizzes are pretty good incentives to show up.  My SAGES professor is a nice old lady, who’s a really enthralling speaker.  She’s one of those “speaks softly so you have to be quiet and lean in to hear what she says” kind of teachers.  Helps that the class consists of only 17 people, my smallest class yet.  It’s also the class with the most work.  She gives tons of homework, takes attendance, and grades for participation.  Of course, since it’s an essay based class, there’s not a ton of studying involved but the homework makes up for it.  My wellness class… hasn’t started yet.  As I mentioned before, the classes last week were canceled and my first class will be on this coming Tuesday.  I’m hoping it’s an easy A; it would be silly to have my GPA lowered by a phys ed class after all, eheheh.

 

My favorite part of orientation was probably the class picture.  I believe it occurred on the night of the second day of orientation.  I wish I could say more, but I feel like if I did that might spoil it a bit.  Hopefully if you come to Case, you can experience it firsthand yourself (so don’t ruin it by looking it up!).  But yes, that part was pretty exciting.  Everything else was a tad bit bland, and after a while some of the events got a bit repetitive, but it was a good way to meet new people.

 

Speaking of meeting new people, I guess I’ve made some “friends” at Case.  My Facebook friend list has increased dramatically (a whole 33% percent!) and my phone contact list is seeing some activity.  I haven’t really hit it off with anyone though.  Sometimes I bond with someone rather well one day, but then after that we’re doing our own thing and have trouble finding time to just hang out, so we kinda stop talking.  I guess that’s the thing with orientation; though you may meet a ton of new people, you most likely won’t be seeing them in your classes and therefore won’t be seeing each other every day.  Unless you’re living in the same dorm or hall or unless you make an effort to coordinate your dining times and club participation, they’ll just end up just being a friendly face that you can wave to if you happen to walk past them between classes.  Friends made in your classes last longer, but even then I haven’t gotten too close with anyone.  You only really have time to chat a bit before and after class anyway, not during.  Hmm, I should try to establish some study groups soon though since quizzes and exams will be upon me before I know it.

 

Oh no, you’re actually pretty far behind!  Well, as you say, I guess you don’t really have to read all those books so seriously, and a little over a week is still a pretty substantial amount of time to get through all of them.  If you find you’re having trouble getting your reading done, then you don’t have to reply back to this on time if that would make your life a bit easier.  Especially since I believe I wrote quite a bit more than usual this week, eheheh...

 

Woah, forget the Grammy thing; one of my classmates placed in the top 10 at the US National Video Game Championship Series?!  Dayum, we e-sports now!  I’m gonna track this guy down and have him train me in Smash 4.

 

And phew, barely got this reply out on time!  Sorry it’s such a long read, I didn’t expect to go out on so many tangents…

 

EDIT:

In case you've kinda taken a fancy to Deemo (or its OST at least) I'll give you a quick rundown.  It's a really artsy, plot-driven rhythm tap game.  A girl falls from an open window in the sky and into Deemo's world.  Deemo is a tall, black, silent figure who decides to help the girl return to the world she came from by playing the piano, which in turn grows a tree ever taller, slowly but surely.  It's available for both Android and iOS devices, and you get the first few songs and parts of the story for free, though after some point you're asked to pay $1.99 for the full experience (I couldn't resist, I paid up).  The songs used in the game are all composed by different artists, many of which have a name and reputation outside of Deemo.  My favorite composer of the lot is VK, the man behind the piano/orchestral pieces you completely fell for in the song thread, ahah.  I adore this game.  I haven't finished it yet, but I will in a couple days (the plot at least).  I came in completely blind.  I only learned about this game because I was browsing the Android Play Store for fun after a day of orientation.  I didn't want to download the boring, mainstream games so I just scrolled through the popular stuff in other categories.  In the music genre, Deemo was one of the most popular ones.  The art style look interesting, and the reviews looked good, so I just downloaded it on a whim.  It was free and if I didn't like it I could just uninstall it, so why not?  Gosh, a video game hasn't swept me away so fast before.  If you listen to the music directly from the source material, with headphones, you'll know what I mean.  The very first song I played, Dream, completely amazed me.  It was gorgeous and I flubbed the very first round so bad because the music completely took me off guard.  I couldn't stop playing.  Just unlocking more and more songs and finding more and more beautiful pieces... it was magical.  When the music swelled I couldn't help but grin like an absolute fool.  When the free trial ran out I threw money at Rayark Games immediately.  They deserve it, seriously.  I highly recommend you get the game, though you should wait until you get a new phone to buy it since it'd be best to play the game on a crisp, clean device (like a OnePlus!).

 

Oh dang, so I guess the OPO is fairly popular at your school. Only one person I've talked to so far recognized the name. No one in my family knew what it was, which I thought was surprising since both my dad and sister are techy people. The only person who knew about it was a classmate from the UMich summer program. He was the one who told me that you'd only be able to get one through invite, which is probably why he had a Samsung. I have a few more techy friends at school, so I might ask them about it once school starts. 

 

I'm not even quite sure how I came up with my conclusion before the body. I was just gazing at the corner of the ceiling and I was casually thinking to myself, "what do I find meaningful" and then it hit me. My introduction paragraph feels a bit too... forward. Yeah, I guess it's attention-getting, but it almost seems kinda sudden? It felt like a solid idea when I first started, but now it just... argh. It's about an incident when I fell ill, and goes into detail about what the experience was like. Coughing up blood on a school morning and watching buckets of it come out. I was planning to use that introduction to lead into my fascination with biology because I was not horrified by the incident; rather, I was intrigued. What kind of sane person would be fascinated from watching blood surge out from his/her innards. I figured that would be enough to catch the admissions officer's attention. So here's a synopsis of the remaining paragraphs: I thoroughly enjoy learning about the processes around me. Ever since I was a kid my favorite kinds of questions were the why/how questions. With each passing year these questions I'd ask would become more elaborate; there's never an end to the why/how questions since they're always multi-layered. No matter how trivial the question starts off as, there will always be deeper answers. "Why do oranges and lemons have different scents?" Although they both contain limonene, oranges and lemons each harbor different forms of limonene because limonene is a chiral molecule (and therefore has enantiomers/left and right handed structures). "Why does that contribute to what oranges and lemons smell like?" Because the chirality (or the "handedness") of the molecule affects how the it interacts with the olfactory receptor neurons in our noses. "How does that allow us to interpret the smells?" The S-enantiomer (or the left-handed structure) will bind to different receptors than the R-enantiomer (or the right-handed structure), allowing us to distinguish the two smells. And so on. I'm not okay with just "accepting" that it happens. Everything feels meaningless to me when I'm kept in the dark. As I've grown, I've noticed myself craving for more answers. Why does this happen? How does this happen? As I find more answers, more questions will come up. In other words, I'll never be bored because I feel gratified in finding the answers. I find meaning in life in knowing and understanding the processes that occur around me. Any step closer to this goal makes life more fulfilling; more meaningful to me. And that just about sums it up. It obviously needs work since this is just a summary, but that's what I'm planning to build my essay around. I'm open to any criticisms, suggestions, and even new ideas/topics because this is rough. 

 

The quoting trick is really helpful when you need to hunt down a phrase from a book or movie, check idioms, or even look for homework help. It has quite a few uses so be sure to take advantage of it when you can! When I first saw your puzzle, I was thinking to myself that there was no way I'd ever be able to figure that out, and as you said, I didn't have anything to go off of either, haha. Heck, I was doubting whether the hints were even notes, lol. And I guess I didn't have much of a reason or ambition to want to decipher your first name at the time since we didn't start talking to each other until a bit later. Was there any reason why you left the puzzle there for people to solve? And about the Spanish/Portuguese mixup, my pride and dignity were at stake so I felt the need to fix my slip-up, is all. It's not like I fixed it for you, b-b-baka!

 

I also did the same with your avatar when you changed it to Kino! Ever since I discovered it a few months ago, I've been reverse image searching everyone's avatars that I can't recognize--so it's a habit now, ahahaha. I also do the same when I highlight a few words and right-click "Search Google for 'insert whatever I highlighted here'" instead of typing it all out or copy/pasting in the search bar. It's so convenient! I originally had a picture of Gilgamesh I wanted to use, and I actually used it for a few minutes, but then I decided nah and switched it back to Dark Pit and then changed it to Aya a week or two later. Oh, and the reason that video was the only source of the image is because it's art made exclusive for marasy8 (may or may not have been for one of his albums; I'm not too sure). You can tell from the pink monkey hanging off of Aya's arm--which is marasy's icon/mascot. Also, here's another handy trick you can use: if you ever need to find the original source image for a YouTube thumbnail, click on the video and then press Ctrl+U. You might encounter a random wall of gibberish that's supposedly a code. But do not be deterred! Press Ctrl+F and type in ".jpg". The URL it leads you to will be the original image. Try it! This way, you can reverse image search from there instead of going through the trouble of screen-shotting again. Not sure what you'll need it for, but I've used this a few times (mostly for tracking down wallpapers though, lol). 

 

Nothing's been said about the new Pokemon game yet, but I'll keep it at the back of my head, heh. BW was fine, but I didn't think it wasn't much better than XY (aside from the difficulty, because Ghetsis was a pain to beat; I was almost forced to use a max revive). N's Castle was definitely a nice plot twist after reaching the champion. I loved the idea behind AZ's Floette, but the overall story seemed really farfetched. I know Pokemon isn't supposed to be realistic, but AZ built some contraption that brought Floette back to life then turned it into some "ultimate weapon" that brought destruction on the world? I feel like that could've been developed better. I guess what bothered me was just that he built some machine that caused this (kinda funny since I think it would've been more believable/fitting if it was a Pokemon that caused the destruction instead). Then again, the playthrough I watched didn't go through any of the books in the hideout, so I missed out on that. And it also wouldn't have hurt if the games provided some text on the legendaries' history. I'm guessing the new Pokemon game is going to fill us in on that then. Otherwise, I don't have many other complaints. It's a solid game, and the backlash is probably just coming from a bunch of genwunners who are complaining for the sake of complaining. The graphics and music were top-notch. Ohh, the Kalos night sky? I tried looking it up after you mentioned it, but the only thing I could find was the Pokemon league while it was nighttime. Still looks nice though, haha. 

 

My parents actually had my sister in Canada before they realized that everything over there's kinda overpriced and then moved down to NYC. It's an interesting place, I guess, haha. Hong Kong is really different compared to the other Chinese cities I've visited. For starters, the driver sits on the right side--which completely blew me away. The overall vibe feels downtown-esque around the inner portion of the city and the shoreline during the nighttime is gorgeous. And the Hong Kong ten-dollar note looks really nice, so I kept one for myself, heh.

 

Haha, I don't think I'll ever be able to follow a football game. I've never watched the Super Bowl, and I don't really plan to either. I'm not a big sports fan, but I wish I knew what the hype was all about. It seems like you had a good time during marching band for the most part! Aw geez, you're poking at my curiosity again. jkjkjk, it's cool. Well, uh, what I mean by "dress up" is wearing specific color schemes during spirit week. Maybe one day everyone's supposed to wear red, white, and blue. And maybe pajamas the next day. I'm not wearing pajamas to school, lol. I won't go that extreme. Whaa, you get extra credit for dressing up? You lucky duck, haha. I'm on the fence on school spirit. I'm not one of those people who'll paint their faces for a football game or wear all attire associated with the school. Free t-shirts are always nice though, lol. You only clapped during the FLOW concert? Wait no, you refused to do anything more than clap at the end of every song? I probably would've been one of those people jumping and cheering, heh. So nothing can faze you, hm? Challenge accepted, hah...

 

Whaaaaa?? Your wellness teacher cancelled your classes last week? Haha, was it because of the Clinton's campaign? And uh, wow you party pooper. I was just about to open a new tab in hopes that I could see what you look like. That was cruel of you to tease me like that :c hehe, jk. It must've been awesome to see her in person though. Lucky you!

 

Oh, I had new uniforms every year, lol. I had a plain white skirt and a white/gray/black skirt during my freshman and sophomore years on JV. The skirt I was forced to wear this year on varsity was... I don't know how to explain it, haha. The pattern resembled scribbles, I guess, but it actually looked nice. Most sports teams at our school also have new uniforms every year. Did your school reuse uniforms? Ohh, you have a new watch now! It's seriously one of the best things I've ever used. I don't know how you managed to live without one for two years. For some reason, I always feel really exposed and vulnerable whenever I'm not wearing a watch. On those occasions, whenever I need to check the time I'd be staring at my blank wrist, and it bothers me so much. It almost feels as essential as glasses for some people. Except that I don't wear glasses, so I wouldn't know. I guess I always have my phone, but it's so much more convenient having the time on your wrist! I don't know why I feel so strongly about this, haha. And now that you have a watch again, hopefully you'll understand what I'm getting at, lol.

 

Erm, there's a "wife" mode on those pillows? Good ol' Japan, never failing to make some of the strangest products around. Hmm, wow, I don't think I've ever thought about fanservice for girls. I always thought the anime industry just cranked out more shoujo in order to satisfy the female audience. I guess it was quite liberating for some (icwutudidthar, hehe). When my sister was still in the anime craze, she seemed pretty caught up with Lelouch, so I guess it's not too surprising that she eventually got exposed to Free. And, uh, pfft, w-what are you talking about. I told you I-I was only tempted to watch it for the friendship, ahahahaha.................... A few of my friends wouldn't stop talking about it and I just want to see what the hype was about! Fanservice, psh... what a ridiculous reason... to watch... an anime...b-but the art is so pretty...why is the water animated so nicely???? Okay, yeah you caught me, lol. But that Nichijou gif almost made me jump out of my chair, haha (I'm also adding that gif to my library; the thing is too darn perfect). Oh, and Gigguk's reactions to the anime are solid. It might be a good anime to watch come next summer, for uh, scientific research, ahaah.........

 

Yuup, the laptop is definitely starting to show its age. Recently, it's been really laggy and unresponsive. I don't even know why. I haven't downloaded anything in a while, but the darn laptop is really slowing down. I can't even have three Chrome windows open anymore since it can barely operate with two (but to be more specific, I typically have two Chrome windows, one Firefox window, and two Word documents open on the average day). Maybe it's because I always force it to hibernate instead of shutting it down completely, but I've been doing that for years without a problem. I'll shut it down after a few months but whenever I'm not using it, it's usually hibernating. I don't think my parents will let me get a new laptop though. It's still fully functional; it's just that it's not as good as it used to be. Unless the laptop completely breaks down, I'm probably not getting a new one, haha. 

 

Ack, I really dislike thinking about how rigid your high school schedules are. I'm not even taking an actual math class this year. I'm counting Physics C as a math credit so I don't have to take AP stats. There are quite a few people around here who've dropped to regular English and regular math in order to lighten their course load, so barely anyone judges based on the classes you take (unless you're one of those people who doesn't take a single AP class, then it's a bit hard to "fit in"). I can't imagine how different my life would've been if I attended your high school. I don't want to bring back any more bad memories for you, so I'll stop here. Ehehe, sorry about that.

 

Ohh, you're planning on transferring over credits from Rutgers for classes you don't like? I might consider doing something like that. Except I want to pursue a volunteering opportunity or a way for me to shadow someone over the summer. Or perhaps I'll research or intern for someone... which might not leave me any time to take a summer course. Hrm... I'll be keeping the idea in the back of my head though since I might need it for classes I don't want to take during the school year. Geezus, 5's on your Lit, Lang, and APUSH exams, and a 4 on WHAP?? Damn, that's really impressive. I honestly had no idea what I was doing in Lang, and those in class essays were such a pain. English and History are my worst/least liked subjects so I wouldn't dare attempt what you managed to accomplish, eheh. That's pretty awesome of you, haha. And congrats on the 4 in bio! I'm not going to major in accounting, so when I head off to college my schedule's going to look a bit different from yours. It's nice to see the schedule of a typical college student, so thanks for sharing with me! And I can free up my academic schedule by playing tennis if I go to Case? Ahaha, that's great! 

 

Personally, I think obnoxious alarms are the worst. I absolutely hated being jump-scared every morning by this blaring, abhorrent screeching that sounded like a dysfunctional fire alarm. And waking up at the hour of satan's buttcrack didn't exactly give me better outlook on the morning either. So I downloaded this app on my phone that sets up a more easy-on-the-ear alarm that gradually increases in volume. A lot better than my previous alarm that gave me a heart attack and/or near death experience every time it woke me up. It's an improvement, or at least I think so. It made waking up a bit more pleasant, and that was enough for me. A phone alarm can be a bit unreliable, I'll admit (since there will, inevitably, be days when you forget that your phone is still on silent), but I'll take this over some obnoxious alarm clock any day. Or maybe I just need to get a better alarm clock... but enough of that, lol. While I was at UMich, I also felt more rushed with each passing day. On the first day, I woke up at 7:30am for my 9am class. Then I'd wake up a 7:45. Then 7:50. Then 8:00... and the latest I've woken up during the program was 8:15--45 minutes to brush my teeth, get ready, go to breakfast, and rush to class. And while I wasn't sleep-deprived, I didn't feel well-rested either. So yeahh, I know that feel, haha. You're only just starting college though, so be sure you get enough sleep! Assuming you sleep around 1-2am and wake up around 9am for your 10am class, you should be getting at least 7 hours every day. I better not be hearing anything lower, heh. Ohh, it must've been exciting to have Dr. Steele give a speech about his book. And you even got your book signed! 

 

In all honesty, I probably would've done the same, lol. If A/C is such a luxury, I'd also hate for it to go to waste, heh. Oh, and don't most A/C's work like that? The one I have at home is the same. Set it to a certain temperature and it'll keep heating/cooling the air until it reaches that temperature (despite living in this house for nearly half of my life, I didn't realize this until a few years ago, haha). What kind of A/C do you have at home then? Nope, winter hits the moment December starts for the people in Michigan. We might see a few flakes in November, but we'll see a good amount of snowfall in December. Christmas is barely a winter holiday for you guys? What the... oh geez, if Ohio gets as much snow as Michigan, you're absolutely going to love December (not that you don't already, lol). It usually takes at least 6 inches of snow before schools close around here, otherwise we'd have at least 10 snow days every year. And sometimes, we'll be forced to go to school in -25* conditions because stubborn school districts are stubborn. I love December; it's my favorite month--there's no doubt about that. But I really dislike January and February. January is like the Monday of the year and February isn't any better. They're just downright depressing. Maybe if I wasn't forced to wake up while it still looked like the middle of the night, I might've had a better impression. And it's really, really, really hard to get out of bed during January and February--more so than usual, because it's cold and dark. And I'm snug in my blanket where I'm warm and toasty. And I can't turn on the heater without my guilt tugging at me. It's just a really depressing time for me. I don't like January. I don't like February. The festivities are gone, and all that's left is a wasteland of polluted slush and tarnished snow. The roads are saturated with salt, and everything is lined with salt stains. That's pretty much all I associate with January and February. Salt. And lots of it, because that's all I feel during those two dreadful months. My second favorite season is spring because all of that salt goes away. Everything regains color, and the rain! I love the soothing sound of rain lightly tapping on the windows and roof. I love seeing the tulips sprout, and waking up becomes a bit easier since it's brighter and warmer. I really dislike the humidity though. Everything feels sticky and walking outside feels like walking into a stuffy shower room. Fall is all right and all, but I don't have any fond memories I associate with the season, so overall it's kind of meh. The cascade of prismatic yellows, oranges, and reds being gently wafted around is gorgeous though--I won't deny that.

 

The only reason I didn't watch Grave of the Fireflies was because it wasn't a Miyazaki movie, ahaha... I was only digging through Miyazaki movies at the time, and uh, they're the only Ghibli movies I've watched, eheh. Phew, I'm going to have to catch up on a lot of movies and anime when I have the time. Ohh, how did you get your mom to watch it then? My mom rarely finds the motivation to watch "cartoons". Ahh, yes. More motivation for me to want to get into Case. I'm going to make sure you at least watch Spirited Away, one way or another, heh.

 

The mechanics of driving aren't bad (I may or may not have struggled with learning how to turn when I first started...). It's just the anxiety of not knowing what to do in certain situations. Let's say you're in a construction zone where all of the traffic lights on the right side are null because of all of the cones underneath them. Perhaps you're the first car to stop at the traffic light, and the only thing to guide you is a green arrow pointing left. Except that you don't want to go left, you want to go forward, but there are no traffic lights telling you that it's safe to go forward. For an old-time driver, common sense might take over. For a newbie, well, uh, what are you supposed to do? There's a string of cars behind you and you're anxiously waiting for some surefire sign to indicate that you can proceed. And you can't follow the example of any cars because you were the first to approach the traffic light. But you're afraid you're going to hold up the traffic if you do. And so you zoom forward, completely ignoring the green arrow while crossing your fingers and praying to God in hopes that you don't cause road rage or get into a car crash... and that just about sums up my first experience driving at 10:30pm without parental supervision on nearby unfamiliar roads outside of Troy (my parents were too lazy to send me to/pick me up from a friend's birthday party). Best part is, by law, my license didn't even permit me to drive that late at night. But my parents didn't care. They just threw a GPS into the car in case I got lost and bid me adieu (which, by the way, I did end up using after getting lost on the way back, so thank goodness for that). I guess they were just sick of driving me to places, and maybe they trusted me enough to allow me to drive by myself. Still though, driving in unfamiliar construction zones is the worst. What an adventure. 10/10 would not experience again. Geezus, what kind of questions are those? What speed should you approach a horse?? The beer/liquor question seems a bit more reasonable, but you need to know how much longer it takes for a truck to stop in certain weather conditions?? What the... do they at least give you a study guide or allow retakes? Aww you. I'll try my best to avoid driving recklessly, and I'll pray for your safety as well when you get out on the road!

 

Gosh, I'm sorry for poking at your personal bubble like that, ehehe..... I-I just wanted to see if I could be moved as much as you were. Bakuman seems to have a relatively simple plot. I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get through 20 volumes so I might skip that for now. The character reactions in One Piece seem kinda overdone. A lot of the scenes I've come across are hard to take seriously for this reason. Call me heartless, but I honestly can't take panels like this seriously. Then again, I've never read One Piece before so I can't say much. Oh yeahh, I actually added Monster to my list of PTW on MAL not too long ago. Would you recommend the manga or anime? And funny thing about Battle Royale... a friend actually recommended it to me a few years ago. He was going on about how the Hunger Games was ripped off from it and how Battle Royale was loads better. So I placed a hold on it while I was in the library. But I was really confused because what I received was a manga. And so I returned it. Granted this was back in middle school so my idiot self never bothered to look up that Battle Royale came in both the novel and manga formats. I still don't know which one my friend was referring to since this was such a long time ago, but maybe I'll take a look at it sometime soon. Do you think I should go for the manga or the novel?

 

Ahaha, sorry for giving you so much trouble. I'll add Mawaru Penguindrum to my PTW list. As for that scene with Rider, what got me was when Waver collapsed after saying that he was Rider's loyal subject. I didn't cry, but I definitely felt something welling up and I wanted to yell at my computer screen (had the same reaction after the Desperate Revival arc out of rage that Gosho never bothered to build on it afterwards). I've never considered Angel Beats as something I'd watch, so I'll pass on that. I'll add 5 Centimeters Per Second, Eve no Jikan, and Hoshi no Koe to my PTW though (thanks for the recommendations!). SnK didn't get to me for the most part. I wasn't attached to many of the characters and so seeing them die didn't affect me much; maybe a little angry at most (dammit Petra). But that one bit with Eren's mom was just so grotesque and shocking. I felt something there for sure. That episode was really solid. There were a lot of scenes in FMA and FMAB that were apparently cry-worthy. I was really hard to move back when I first watched them. Yeah, I felt something when sddfgdfkjghsdfkghk happened (I couldn't help but notice you haven't watched them yet?? O:). I keep seeing these comments about how these scenes were oh, so sad and how these people cry every. single. time they watch them? At first I just thought the people who posted those comments didn't literally mean what they typed and were just exaggerating for some literary effect or something (kinda like when someone posts "omg lol im dying" when they're not actually dying). Like those instances when Mayuri kept dying and that one scene when Okabe and Kurisu kissed. I don't know, I felt something, but I didn't shed any tears. And for the Steins;Gate movie, I think I was forcing myself to cry so I could understand what people were feeling? I guess that's why I didn't have as strong of a reaction after watching that scene again (it was actually kinda cheesy now that I think about it). Yes, I understand how some of these scenes are moving, and of course I get feels from watching some of them. It's just that I... I don't know why I should cry over fictional characters. Maybe I'd go on a rant on how so-and-so shouldn't have died, or maybe how badly carried out the death was. Maybe I need to watch some shoujo or some dramas? Wolf Children also has a few scenes that were touching, I guess.

 

Bing Bong's sacrifice was really obvious, but I also felt kinda sad when I saw it. I haven't watched Up yet, and I watched Toy Story such a long time ago (back when I didn't even feel anything whenever something tragic happened onscreen). Okay, I'm afraid to admit that I haven't watched The Lion King before because now I feel like there's going to be a mob of people hunting me down for not having watched such a Disney classic. I've watched The Land Before Time movie loads of times as a little kid and I don't remember ever being close to shedding a tear. This was probably back in kindergarten and first grade--back when I didn't have any sympathy or empathy for anyone or anything. I haven't watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, so I can't say anything about that. And wow, now I feel... like a cold, heartless sociopath after typing all of that out, sigh.

 

O-oh gosh, y-you're complimenting me and giving me credit for being the reason you were able to come up with such a genuine birthday message? I-I don't know what to say, ahah... you're quite the flatterer, I'll say that much. I don't see why anyone would bother reporting our responses, though I'll admit the string of rep points might look suspicious, haha.

 

I'm kinda relieved that I'm not planning on over-applying. I'll only have to write supplements for a few schools, and for the rest I'll just turn in the Common App essay and be done with it. I'm still kind of nervous though, so I'm afraid your confidence in me might be misplaced, eheh... I appreciate the sentiment though!

 

Ahaha, I'm glad it wasn't just me. And the more I think about the note, the more I wish I could've done it. But as you said, if all goes well we can meet each other in person! Hmm, my voice? I'm not too sure, lol. It's not high-pitched, but I guess it isn't masculine? I wouldn't call myself soft-spoken (mainly depends on who I'm around though). I don't know how I'd describe my own voice; I've never really thought about it before. Now, you can't ask me about my voice without triggering my curiosity about what your voice sounds like, heh.

 

That's actually pretty funny, haha. You didn't seem like the kind of person who'd rely on horoscope readings so the psychics and astrology caught me by surprise. I think it's kind of funny how they base your personality on the months you were born in; as if everything's set in stone. And the descriptions they give about your readings and personalities are so vague that they can be applied to anyone, really. I guess it's kind of interesting how they came up with that kind of stuff, and it's always fun reading about your "future" I guess, haha. But back to the physics and astronomy, it's great to hear/read that you're into astronomy! It definitely sounds like a club I would join if it was offered at our school. I'd also love to hear about the stargazing places they'll take you to! And hopefully the lectures will be engaging as well!

 

I was actually a bit concerned about what the college environment would be like. Troy High School is a really safe school in a really safe city. I've heard about neighboring schools regularly inviting drug dogs to sniff out weed and crack and stuff around lockers and in people's backpacks. I never even knew drug dogs existed until some people from the summer program told me about their experience with them. I thought our district was just really strict about substance abuse and sexting since none of it ever happens around here. But it turns out that it can be a recurring problem in many schools, which I guess kinda scared me. For the longest time, I lived in a bubble where I thought most teenagers had enough common sense not to do things like drinking or smoking, and that schools were just being overbearing and too uptight about everything and just didn't trust us enough. And yeah, I guess college is different. Lots of freedom means lots of opportunities to try new things. Party like crazy, drink like crazy, smoke like crazy. And while I have no say in what people should or should not do, I don't think I'd ever be comfortable in that kind of environment where those activities are commonplace. It's nice to hear that Case is on the quieter side. I wouldn't mind a party once in a while, I suppose, but it really is relieving to know that it's not something that's ingrained in the community. College freedom is one of the main things I'm looking forward to, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere, haha. A mini EDM concert? Geezus, was it really that noisy? And, uh, your roommate got completely wasted even though he's still underage? (well, in America at least). I mean, I guess if it's part of Korean tradition... (TIL Koreans get drunk af when they start college).

 

What on earth... your earliest class starts at... 10am? Oh man, I'm really looking forward to college now. A-and your schedule is so spread out... not like in high school where it's just one class after another... this is unreal. The classes must be really difficult then. To have up to only four classes in one day, and as little as one on another. Are the classes really tough and do they require a lot of outside studying? How would you compare the workload between high school and college? Sorry for bombarding you with these questions, but I'm really curious. Also, how is SAGES going for you so far?

 

The class picture was your favorite part of orientation? That's pretty interesting, haha. I would ask you more about it, but if it means spoiling one of the best parts of orientation then I'll wait, heh.

 

Even though you seem to be against the ruckus, maybe try going to one of those parties? You never know, haha. I'm not saying that you have to go completely out of your comfort zone and party hard, but perhaps you'll encounter a person there who was forced to tag along with friends; someone who was reluctant to go. Maybe you'll have something in common with him/her. Maybe he/she is wearing a FE graphic tee and you think to yourself, "I have to get to know this person!" This is pretty situational, but hey, you never know! Hmm, you might be able to find some people in that physics and astronomy club. What other clubs have you joined? It's good to know that you've added some people to your contacts and upped your fb friend list, and that you've also bonded rather well with some!

 

Nah man, I'm still on summer vacation so I'm not having much trouble typing these out... or at least at the moment, ahaha... I'm a bit worried about you though. Since you've started college already, don't hesitate to take a break yourself!

 

Haha, I just thought it was interesting that the email was probably alluding to you. Was it something you just casually mentioned on your application? And the thing about someone placing top 10 in the US National VGC series, I know right????!!

 

A plot-driven rhythm tap game? Kinda like Guitar Hero or Audiosurf? ...and from that description, Deemo sounds like Slenderman, lol. Interesting plot though. I seriously love the music so I might get the game just for that. T-t-the piano in Dream... t-the strings the cello...... and ohhhh is that an oboe? kdfjgfklgsfldghfdgsdkjfhlskj. But I have to wait until I get a new phone?? It'll be worth it though. Dammit Akazora, making me feel things.............