Share A Fact About You

[Share A Fact About You]

I am willing to do anything to find out and break codes/riddles. ANYTHING, literally, unless killing. That's a sin

geezus, then what would you do for a Klondike Bar.

 

[What was the recent Anime you watched?]

Steins;Gate

I've been meaning to get around to this, and after Kenzi recommended it and spring break rolled around I finally found the time for it.  This anime is really good and should be watched by everyone.  It has a perfect amount of global appeal and can be watched and  enjoyed by new and veteran anime fans alike.  The music is good, the atmosphere is nice, and the plot, for a time travel story, manages to be fresh.  While I'm personally not the biggest fan of the characters, and the animation can be underwhelming, the execution of everything else sets this apart.  Definitely worth the time and I'm anticipating the sequel.

hell yeah everyone should watch it, heh.

Aww man, I loved the characters, haha. They all provided some form of comedic spin on the show and it really helped lift the spirits of the dismal atmosphere at times. Oh, and speaking of which: “Going to hell for laughing at this. Saved you guys a spot.” (spoiler)

Any particular reason why you didn't like the characters? I'll admit that Feyris was a bit much, lol.

 

 

I recently finished the first season of F/SN and I’m following the second season now. I’ll have to say, I enjoyed it a lot more than F/Z. Actually, it’s probably the background info from F/Z that boosted my enjoyment. Otherwise, I would have been wayyy too confused trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m loving the characters so far, and the art and animation is still jaw-droppingly amazing. I’m really glad you told me to watch F/Z before F/SN because I was considering going the other way around since F/Z is the prequel (meant to be watched after F/SN from what I’ve read). Still a few holes here and there, but I’m definitely enjoying myself so far. Now I’m just hoping the ending will be just as good, if not better, heh.

 

However, I still have one complaint I would like to point out (and this goes to the series as a whole): I think it's unnecessary and rather tacky to let a battle go unfinished for the sake of plot progression--especially when there is no explanation to support it.

[hypothetical situation-ish] Okay, so an enemy/enemies (this pertains to both masters and servants) is on the brink of death and your servant is one slash away from killing them and eliminating another potential threat. Why on earth would you just let them roam around freely once more? What could you possibly gain from this? Entertainment? When there's no explanation backing up a decision like this, it makes the battle seem rather wasteful and once again, tacky. I understand the whole concept of chivalry when it comes to servants like Saber (so I'll let those instances slide), but the former is just... it's a bit frustrating to watch, haha.

 

Nonetheless, I still thoroughly enjoyed watching F/SN and I'll be looking forward to the upcoming episodes.

 

 

--

I’ve also recently started on Tatami Galaxy after a friend recommended it to me. Very unique layout and the way it personifies emotions and life events is ingenious. It has its fair share of comedic moments, yet it’s also able to present its point so clearly by intertwining distinctive characters into its captivating story. The show sets itself apart not only in art style, but in music and outline as well. Don’t be fooled by turning away after the first episode. It won’t make sense at first, but pieces of it will fall into place as more insight on the main character is presented. It’s definitely not your typical action-packed anime so it’s understandable that it won't have universal appeal. However, those of you willing to undergo this thought-provoking journey ought to do it as soon as possible--it's definitely worth a chance. Actually, it's pretty straight-forward in its conveying its message (it will clobber it into your head), but Tatami Galaxy is still something I do not regret investing my time in.

edit: jk it's actually a really weird show venture at your own risk

[Anime-This-Season Chat/Discussion]

This is the first time I've been actively following an airing anime since SnK, haha.

I recently finished the first season of F/SN so it's only natural for me to continue onto the next season, especially with that disgustingly good cliffhanger they dropped on us.

 

Only one episode has aired so far, so I really don't have much to add to the discussion.

Well damn, that plot twist got to me.

Also, wtf Saber scene.

That is all.

[What's on Your Mind?]

Ehhhhhhh?!  What are you blaming me for?  You should be blaming Nintendo for allowing people to vote on any video game character, regardless of third party status.

Hm, speaking of which, visual novels are video games too, right?

#SaberForSmash

 

And thanks, I've been feeling a lot better.  Ricola has helped, haha.

--

OMM: Whooo!  I'm going to be grinding for custom moves in Smash 4 tomorrow, and maybe even playing a bit of that freely acquired Tropical Freeze.  Geez, it sucks Mewtwo's DLC comes out after spring break.

yes, blaming you for needlessly increasing my stress levels because how conflicted I am about which character to vote on :c

also, pls Akazora.

Archer ftw, heh.

 

OMM: Goddamn, my cold is getting worse.  I'm probably going to sleep the entire car trip tomorrow then.  Oh, and I guess I'm 18 now.  I spent my whole day grinding for custom moves in Smash 4, because priorities, ya know?

 

(And I really need someone to say something in this thread so I can post my first episode impressions in a few days...)

ah yes, got those college visits on your plate?

I usually eat/drink a lot of spicy food to distract me from the sore throat when I have a cold. It's only temporary relief (though it can be longer lasting depending on what you consume), but it's still a lot better than nothing at all in my opinion, haha.

 

hope everything goes well for you!

 

 

A Goofy Movie turned 20 today....

I'm feeling old already.

geezus, where did the time go.

 

 

OMM1: It's this time of the year already, but the cherry blossom tree in my front yard hasn't started blooming yet.  It's about 1-2 weeks late, sigh...

OMM2: Hot damn, Assimofirst is actually viewing the "What's on Your Mind?" thread with me!  I feel blessed.

lol, none of the tress in my front yard have blossomed either, join the club, haha.

 

senpai noticed you?? O:

[Quote Factory]

because the door's locked

I thought you were smart Kenzi

in my world they can

what is this door that

you speak of can I eat it

your world is bizarre

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

I see, it does sound like it would be fun.  Unfortunately for me, my parents only ever gave me the opportunity to travel with my immediate family.  Even though a lot of their friends have children my age, they’ve never even considered traveling together with them.  And even if they did, I don’t know those kids well enough to perhaps enjoy myself as much as I would like.  My friends who I’d love to travel with all have parents who aren’t acquainted with my parents, and my folks would never let that fly.  However, I know some seniors right now who have been planning a NYC outing, over this spring break in fact.  Haha, that’s pretty awesome I think and it makes me a bit envious.

 

Yup, even though I only watch what’s promising with a few wild cards thrown in there, most unaired anime are rather bad.  It’s a waste of time, but part of me enjoys it.  Not to mention, I don’t want to become numb to what’s good.  If I watch only good anime, then I won’t appreciate things that deserve more credit given the saturated nature of the anime industry right now.  It’s a bit of an inefficient and time consuming and risky way to maintain a status quo and a true “average”, but it’s worth it, haha.  My relatives in China all pretty much know about SnK, since it took China by storm while it was airing just as much as it caused waves in the States.  In fact, since I visited China two summers ago while SnK was still airing, one of my cousins there actually brought it up in conversation before I could.  My parents know I watch a lot of anime, and while they rag on me about it a lot they don’t really do too much about it since I’m doing fine in school. The only anime they like is Detective Conan on occasion, and Studio Ghibli stuff.  I have heard about some really chill parents who actually watch anime with their children, which is awesome.  My older sister doesn’t watch anime much, but I’ve shown her things like Death Note, Code Geass, and Fate/Zero to sort of familiarize herself with what it has to offer and I think she’s liked what she’s seen so far.  My younger brother on the other hand watches a lot of anime, maybe not four episodes a day like me but quite a bit regardless.  I used to think the 5=average system was rather harsh myself, but I’ve slowly shifted from giving out a lot of 7s and 8s to given mostly 7s to giving a lot of 6s to giving 5s.  It’s taken nearly three years, but I’m content with how I rate now.  It was a bit annoying to go through my whole list, but it’s only getting longer from here on out, so I might as well get it done, right?  Oh, and another thing, I also don’t give out 10s because I think it looks bad on MAL, haha.  When scrolling down someone’s list with 10s, the 10s stick out so much from all the other single digits and my OCD starts kicking in.

 

Geez, the way your school does things make so much sense.  It’s nearly impossible to not take phys ed in my school.  Because my school doesn’t really offer summer credit of any kind, I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around how much freedom you guys have, heh.  I’m used to the conformity of my school now, but sometimes I’m reminded of just how stale and wasteful things are.  My friend was actually recruited, haha.  I asked him, and in his age group he’s ranked among the top ten swimmers nationwide.  If he continues to work at it, I’m fairly certain he’d end up being a pro, no joke.  I think even Princeton approached him with an offer.  Only thing is, his academics are rather subpar.  He got a 2030 on his SATs and doesn’t take very intense classes and manages straight Bs, so definitely far from your average Ivy Leaguer.  But hey, he’s a great guy to hang around with and if he becomes famous I’d be proud to have known him, haha.  Oh, the season’s already started!  How has it been going?  Do you have games over spring break as well?

 

All of my college decisions have come in now, so I’ll be listing them all with details in the spoilers, because God knows how much I’m going to end up typing…

Acceptances:

 

1. Case Western Reserve University: This was one of the schools I applied to last second.  After Early Action deadlines passed, CWRU sent me an e-mail on November 2nd saying they never got an application from me and that they would be extending the deadline for another 24 hours.  A lot of low ranked schools do this to try and get your attention, so I almost brushed it off as spam before I realized that Case Western isn’t too shabby of a school.  I asked my parents about it and they said I should apply.  CWRU was one of the few (if not only) Common App school that doesn’t have any supplemental essays, so within a few minutes I sent the app out, and I got in, despite me showing absolutely no demonstrated interest.  This is actually one of my top choices, since they’re giving me $15,000 a year and their Weatherhead School of Management seems pretty good.  They also said most of their students get a master’s degree in tandem with their bachelor’s within their four years there, and if I need a fifth year they’ll give me $20,000 to get that diploma.  Public schools don’t ever offer this, and other private schools require five years instead of letting you get it all done in four.  The only real downside to this school is its location, and it’s in Cleveland, Ohio.  It’s a ways away from home, but it’s not all that bad since it’s closer to where you are, hahah…  I still need to do more research, so I’ll be visiting the school sometime in the coming week.

 

2. University of Maryland, College Park: This public school located only a few miles from Washington, DC has impressed me so far.  They’ve given me a bit of money, and since it’s a public university it’s overall pretty cheap.  It’s location is ideal for internships and job opportunities, the campus is nice (just visited it yesterday) and it’s not too far from home.  I’ve been considering UMD for a while now, and my parents think favorably about it.  It’s definitely one of the ones at the top of my list, right up there with CWRU and Rutgers.

 

3. Rutgers University, New Brunswick: I’ve already talked about this, so I’ll keep it short.  I’ll be visiting the school again in a few days, specifically for the business program that they have.  Once I do more research on this and CWRU, I guess I’ll be choosing between the three.

 

4. Brandeis University: This is a really new school near Boston that’s trying to make a name for itself.  While I really like the campus and vibe and they did give me $12,000 per year, their business school isn’t very impressive, mainly because it’s so new.  My parents are somewhat against this school, and while I’ll keep it in mind I doubt they’ll be able to change my opinion of them when I visit them on Monday.  I just don’t feel like it’ll be a good investment, financially speaking.  It’s a pity too, because their mascot is the Judges, which is unique and honestly really cool, haha.

 

5. University of Pittsburgh: This is a public school that gave me a bit of money so it’s not that expensive, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to like the campus enough to want to attend.  Their business school is alright, but nothing that great.  It’s located, obviously, in Pittsburgh and really close to Carnegie Mellon.  I haven’t visited it in a while, but will be going back there on Wednesday, if I recall, to see if I change my mind.

 

6. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: This school’s case is much like Pittsburgh’s.  While it doesn’t seem too bad on paper, the campus doesn’t attract me for whatever reason and the scholarship money they’re throwing at me it’s doing anything to change my mind.  They’re more famous for their engineering than their business anyway.  It’s located in Troy, NY, so it’s not too far away, but I doubt I’ll be going there.

 

7. Lehigh University: My dad really liked this school, but I’m definitely not going because we received no scholarship money from them at all.  That was probably the only breaking factor, unfortunately, since I would have considered it otherwise.  It’s just over the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania so it’s super close, and my cousin is currently enrolled there, but the price it just too much.  It was nice to get accepted, but it’s too bad I won’t be attending.

 

8. Boston University: Same story as Lehigh; no scholarship money.  This was actually a last second school as well, and I’ve never visited it so I don’t have any emotional connection to it and it doesn’t feel like much of a loss.

 

Rejections:

 

1. Amherst College: This was a reach school I applied to because I wanted to apply to a liberal arts school and not regret it later, but I wouldn’t have gone anyway since it would have been all sorts of expensive.

 

2. Brown University: Aw jeez, looks like hitting it up with the interviewer about LoZ didn’t really help, haha.  Whatever, another reach school that I applied to mainly because it was an Ivy League and I wanted to try my luck.

 

3. Carnegie Mellon University: I didn’t really like this school when I visited it, but applied for the heck of it anyway.  I doubt I would have gone if I were acceptance, because they wouldn’t have given me any money.  In fact, all high ranked schools after a certain point are really stingy.

 

4. Dartmouth College: Same story as Brown, with the added aspect of it being the school my sister attended.  If I had gotten accepted, it would have been an insult to her since she’s far more ambitious than I am.

 

5. Haverford College: Same story as Amherst, except this was a last second application and I had at least visited Amherst for fun.

 

6. New York University: This was my Early Decision school.  The Stern School of Business is crazy hard to get into; it’s like an Ivy League even though the rest of NYU isn’t too impressive.  If I had applied to the College of Arts and Science, I probably would have been accepted.  I wouldn’t have gone though, since the only thing worthwhile about NYU is its business school.

 

7. University of Notre Dame: Their business school is really good, so I was really pushing my luck applying to them.  I had no demonstrated interest, which probably hurt a bit, but this was actually a last second school so a rejection doesn’t bother me at all.

 

Waitlisted:

 

1. Wake Forest University: Believe it or not, I’m really happy I was waitlisted.  I know a lot of people are waitlisted from schools and I wanted to know how it felt, hehe.  Up until that point, all I got were straight up acceptances or rejections.  If I had demonstrated interest, I might have gotten in; much like Notre Dame this was a last second school.  Their campus looks great from Google Images, but even if they contact me later saying they’ve ultimately accepted me I won’t attend.  Any school that waitlists you won’t be giving you a penny, so unless it’s your dream school it’s not worth it.

 

Aaand that’s it!  All 16 of the schools I’ve applied to, laid out nice and neat.  Phew, the college application process was crazy but it was kind of fun as well.  There weren’t any surprises; I got into literally all of my safety schools and got rejected from literally all of my reach schools.  Huh, it seems my star gazing essay canceled out my atrocious math grades sophomore and junior year then.  All in all though I think I did well.  If I consider Wake Forest a rejection, I have a 50% success rate.  I’m getting really close to making a decision, but I must ask you a question.  I know this is probably silly and irresponsible and selfish of me, but I’ll ask anyway: Which school do you think I should attend?  I’d bet my rare amiibos that you’d say something along the lines of “whatever you want/whatever you’re happy with” and “my opinion wouldn’t really mean much” but whatever, haha.  Also, as for that summer program you got into, may I ask what school that was for?  You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’m curious to know.

 

Speaking of amiibo, future waves of them were announced and wave 4 was up for preorder in some places.  Oh God, to keep a long story short it’s been a mess.  All wave 4 amiibo preorders (the previously announced Wario, Pac Man, Charizard, Robin, Lucina, and Ness as well as the Nintendo Direct announced Greninja, Jigglypuff, and three Inking amiibo) sold out in literally 5-7 minutes on Target’s and Best Buy’s websites on Thursday (and yes, I’m using “literally” right).  GameStop has in-store pre-orders, but then the servers nationwide all crash.  No one can preorder anything.  People who have been waiting in line all across the country begin to freak out.  Nearly an hour later, preorders start to go through.  But then Robin and Lucina sell out in 0 minutes.  That’s right, 0 minutes.  Many people who were first in line were unable to order either of them.  This is because they had a set number in warehouses, and if you were unlucky and had poor service, people ordering at the same time elsewhere with good service ordered Robin and Lucina before you did.  To make things simple to understand, let’s assume there are 5,000 GameStops in the US.  Every store has exactly one first person in line, so 5,000 first persons in lines.  Let’s say there are 5,000 Robins and Lucinas in the warehouses.  In an ideal situation, everyone first in line gets one Robin and Lucina and they’re all happy, right?  Unfortunately, with the server crash, people came back online at different times.  Let’s say 2,500 GameStops come back online at 4:00 pm EST while the other 2,500 come back online at 4:05 pm EST.  The first people in lines at the first 2,500 GameStops get their preorder through, and in the 5 minutes the other 2,500 people are waiting the people second in line at the first GameStops order a Robin and Lucina.  Now the 4:05 first in lines order, and lo and behold: sold out.  You can imagine the salt and rage that flowed through the amiibo subreddit that day.  But wait, there’s more!  Like a nightmare that never ends, the preorder shenanigans were not over.  A Toys R Us employee announces that preorders or wave 4 were to go up at 7:00 am EST on Friday.  After the majority of people had missed out on, well, everything, they set their alarm clocks and go to sleep early, in order to not miss out a fourth time.  But then then working preorder links were leaked at 3:00 am EST.  While those well informed are sleeping peacefully, those who have for whatever reason stayed up late snag up all the preorder and within half an hour: sold out.  Salty cannot even begin to describe how bad the situation was on Friday morning when amiibo hunters woke up, credit card ready.  After the embarrassment that was the 4/2 amiibo in-store preorders, GameStop still hasn’t allowed online preorders yet.  Walmart and Amazon also haven’t made their moves.  All in all, the amiibo wars are a mess.  All I want is a Lucina amiibo, and while I’m telling myself I’ll somehow manage I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried or stressed about my chances.  On the bright side, Dark Pit and Palutena have been announced to be released in July and Ganondorf for September. The Marth restock has been pushed back to May instead of late April.  Just be thankful you haven’t gotten caught up in the amiibo situation; it’s so stressful once I get the ones I want I’m out.

 

My parents are rather concerned with how far away a college is, and most of the better colleges tend to be in coastal states so via indirect influence those were the only ones I’ve applied to.  CWRU is an exception though of course, haha.  For whatever reasons, counties aren’t very important in New Jersey, or at least in Edison.  If you told me to name the townships in Middlesex, I wouldn’t be able to.  If you told me to name all the counties bordering Middlesex, I wouldn’t be able to.  Just a town’s name and general things like northern, central, and southern Jersey are enough to explain where things are.  Maybe it’s because New Jersey is just significantly smaller than Michigan?  Oh woah, that’s pretty cool!  I wonder if I know your former friend?  Haha, I actually don’t really know many people in my school or even my grade (not having a Facebook doesn’t really help), so I probably wouldn’t even recognize his name if he goes to my high school.

 

Oh gosh, given how similar we are, it’s interesting how we’re so different when it comes to school subjects.  Because I have a tendency to make so many careless mistakes, math has just been feeling worse and worse as the years go one.  I actually really like analyzing texts.  There’s just something magical about finding a hidden meaning in something.  Of course, I still like English mainly because of the beauty of language.  Not many things beat a wonderfully written poem or novel.  Heh, my English teacher, after reading my Common App essay, said I should have been born in the Romantic era.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have video games and anime back then, so I’m not too sure how happy I’d be living during that time period, haha.  Hmmm, generally I’d agree that your school system is better than mine, but goodness when it comes to American history my township may have yours beat.  I don’t know what kind of history you learned over the summer and stuff, but the text book and teacher I had for APUSH were very moderate and unbiased.  The text book I had was really good, it showed both the good and the bad to everything regarding American history.  My teacher was really cool, too.  Maybe you’d like American history more if you learned it in my school?  I look at history like a story.  Learning about American history is like reading a really nice adventure book.  Sure, America isn’t perfect but that’s what makes its story so interesting.  I’d hate a story where the main character only ever wins.  Some of my favorite parts of American history are at its lowest, darkest, and most corrupt and twisted years.

 

Ohh, you think a lot like I do!  In general, I find a person’s smile and laugh as well as eyes to be their most attractive features, physically at least.  Of course, a beautiful personality beats a beautiful figure any day, but I had to judge someone based on looks alone I’d go straight for the smile, laugh, and eyes.  They say eyes are the window to the soul, so I’ve always seen the mouth as the door.  A smile is like a peak into one’s heart and a laugh is like a burst of soul escaping.  Eh, I hope that makes sense, haha.

 

I’m started to hear about a few more promposals now.  Info’s traveling slowly to me, but I imagine a lot is happening without my knowledge.  Not to mention, it would be weird for my guy friends to brag about a promposal success, especially in person.  Also, does your school have a junior prom?  Since you haven’t mentioned it, I’m guessing not.  I know my high school used to have one, but they stopped a long time ago, even before my sister was going there.  I don’t really know why.  It doesn’t seem all that bad though, since a ton of underclassmen, juniors in particular, are asked to prom by seniors and end up going anyway. 

 

I finished Steins;Gate right on time, just I had predicted, the day before you sent your response on Wednesday, haha.  I really liked it!  Time travel has been done to death, but the way it was handled was very impressive.  The characters weren’t all too great, but the execution, atmosphere, music and plot made up for it.  I must say though, the beginning of the Gate of Steiner OST sounds suspiciously similar Great Fairy’s Fountain in OoT…  I’ll definitely check out the OVA and movie when I have the time.  I actually have a separate backlog of anime OVAs and movies to watch, apart from the full shows.  When I have the time and the urge for some more Steins;Gate though, I’ll get around to them.  Also, since you’ve been busy, I guess you haven’t heard the news.  Steins;Gate is getting a sequel.  A sequel in the form of both a visual novel and anime was announced while I was in the middle of watching the series, no joke.  It’ll be called Steins;Gate 0 and will take place on the beta world line.  I’m sure you’d be super stoked to hear about this, so I wanted to let you know, haha.

 

It looks like a typed a bit too much again, eheh.  Sorry, I know most of what I’ve written just pertains to college and amiibo.  Hope it isn’t too much of a bother.  Regardless, spring break has started for you, right?  I hope you enjoy it and catch up on sleep! 

 

It’s not much, but I wanted to post this a little early in time for your birthday, heh.

 

I’m really close to the friends my parents are familiar with—same with my sister. My parents can be pretty social people if you put them in any environment that has Chinese people so it’s easy for me to introduce them to my Chinese friends. Even if your parents decided to travel with people you don’t know too well, you could always make friends with them, haha. One of our family trips had only my sister’s friends and the only person who was closest to my age was my sister’s best friend’s brother. Her other friends still accepted me into their group so I still had fun regardless. Just having anyone to talk to around your age is a blast! Heck, sometimes I’d have small talk with random strangers around my age while waiting in line for something, haha. Maybe introduce some of your friends to your parents, or maybe invite them over to your place sometime. Have their parents chat with yours for a while, and who knows, maybe they’ll become good friends! 

 

Gosh, I don’t think I’d be able to handle being bogged down by awful anime. I’ve encountered a few, and needless to say, I almost wanted to pull my eye sockets out. I could write an essay’s worth of complaints about these anime because they were just awful. Just… awful. However, a lot of the anime that I’ve encountered turned out to be great sources of entertainment for me despite them being the vast majority of what I’ve watched. So I’d have to disagree with your statement of becoming numb to what’s good--I haven’t gotten sick of watching good anime yet, haha. Aw geez, I haven’t visited China since the summer after 7th grade, so I wasn’t able to witness the SnK hype. If my parents found out how much time I “waste” on the internet (including watching anime), they’d scold me by listing a bunch of other things that’d be much more “worthwhile”. At the moment, they trust me and usually don’t question me much, so I guess I must be doing a decent job hiding it all. Haha, my parents have never heard of Detective Conan or Studio Ghibli. My sister doesn’t watch anime anymore, though one of her friends managed to persuade her to watch SnK. I tried to get her to watch Steins;Gate, but why trust an opinion of a younger sibling, haha. I’m still going to keep my ratings from 6 through 9. Everything else below can be considered trash and the number rating becomes arbitrary afterwards. I’ll admit that it’s not the best way to rate shows, but it’s worked for me so far, lol. I’ve never been OCD about 10s sticking out too much since the double digits do make scrolling through/finding potential recommendations easier, haha.

 

Honestly, summer school was the only reason I’m able to take the classes I’m taking right now. If it weren’t for summer school, I’d be stuck taking all my history/social studies classes during the school year along with gym and health. To be frank, those classes would’ve taken up way too much space in my schedule and I would have been bored out of my mind during the school year. I’m actually quite surprised that your school hasn’t adopted some form of summer credit yet. And likewise, I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the lack of freedom you guys have, haha. Are you guys allowed to take online classes then? Being a nationally ranked swimmer is pretty insane. I guess it’s self-explanatory considering the offers from colleges he got, lol. We also have private schools around here that offer a free ride if your athletic record is really good, but it’s not nearly as impressive as getting approached by Ivy Leagues though, haha. The season’s been pretty good so far, except that I got chewed out by the coach for being late to one of our practices, ehehe… I don’t think he’s planning to have us play any matches over spring break, but rather, use the time to make room for more practices. I also broke my racquet strings not too long ago, so I’m pretty pleased about that, haha.

 

Oh my gosh, wow. You’re so open about everything, I’m really shocked, haha. I don’t think I’d ever have the guts to openly state all my acceptances or rejections, lol. You applied to many of the same colleges my sister applied to, and that also took me by surprise. You’re similar to my sister a lot more than I originally thought. Well, it could have been a coincidence, but still, heh. Hmm, I don’t think I have much say in this since I’m only a junior and since I haven’t visited many colleges yet. In all honesty, I think you should base your decisions off of what impressions those colleges give you when you visit them. You’re going to spend at least four years of your life there (unless you transfer), so you’re going to want to take advantage of everything the school has to offer. It’s not much, but I really don’t have other “advice” to give you since I’m still a bit new to the process, haha. It’s great how you have so many choices to choose from though! It might be harder to narrow it down, but having variety is always nice! Oh, and the summer program I applied to was for the University of Michigan—shouldn’t be too shocking, lol.

 

Geezus, I never thought that collecting amiibos was that competitive. 0 minutes? Gosh, I just can’t wrap my head around this, haha. And wow, whoever released those preorder links was really careless. Geez, I can only imagine how much rage that must’ve occurred in the amiibo subreddit. I mean, I’d probably be pretty salty about it. My F5 key would probably need a replacement if I was caught up in all this amiibo stress. Nah, that’d be an understatement. My entire laptop would probably need to be replaced. Walking into this amiibo situation would be like walking into a war zone. I’m just… I have no words, ahaha……….. 

 

My parents aren’t too concerned about how far away a college is. They’re much more focused on the tuition, lol. I suppose it is true that out of state colleges tend to have higher tuitions, but if I manage to get scholarship money, my parents would probably be okay with it. Our county name is mentioned often in stuff like newspapers and when referring to schools and event locations. Like “Oakland County schools are…” If you asked me to name the townships or surrounding counties, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it either, haha. I mentioned before that I barely remember this old friend. I know his first name is Brandon, but I can’t even remember what his last name was. He’s younger than me, so he’s definitely an underclassman. If it helps, I think he was uncharacteristically good at math, haha. 

 

I usually don’t let my silly mistakes in math bog me down, though I’ll admit that they have made the class a bit more stressful. I especially love a geometry problem where there are multiple ways to approach it, and I can use whatever creative method I want to solve it. Math is so much fun once you get the hang of it, and it makes me so happy knowing that I’ve done something correctly. The end result, the reward, makes it all worthwhile. You know those problems that you can visualize or can make sense of? Those are the best! Like finding volumes of solids using the washer or disk method—all you have to do is imagine the solid being composed of an infinite amount of those disks or rings of varying sizes. Just being able to visualize what’s happening makes solving those problems so much fun, so much easier, so much more meaningful. It was arguably one of my favorite units in calc so far, haha. Whoops, strayed off too much again, gomen, gomen. Likewise, I also enjoy analyzing texts. But there comes a point when it turns into overkill. Suddenly, I find myself digging through essays trying to decipher author’s purpose when I’d much rather enjoy the piece for what it is. Other times, I’m off-mark when analyzing something even though I have sufficient evidence that proves my point (or at least I think I do). English can sometimes become a jumbled mess for me. It certainly has helped change the way I watch movies or read books in a way that helps me appreciate them more, but gosh, this overanalyzing stuff can be a huge turn-off for me. Sometimes, I swear that my English teacher can write a rhetorical analysis essay on a dictionary definition of buttock. Heck, I could probably bs an essay by analyzing how a deformed carrot symbolizes racism. But back on topic, you always struck me as the kind of person who’d enjoy romanticism—especially given how much you enjoy nature. Maybe even transcendentalism, lol. I agree with the ideas of romanticism, transcendentalism, and dark romanticism, though it feels a bit conflicting to say the least, haha. Ah, yes, when I was talking about the biased American history textbooks we had, it was for regular summer school American history. I heard that there’s a huge difference between what regular American history taught versus what APUSH taught in that APUSH is a lot less biased. I still wasn’t willing to take my chances since history was never a subject that resonated with me. Some of my favorite parts of history deal with the downfalls of empires and the like, and how/why it happened. The American history we were taught barely touched on the depression and kinda glazed over the events dealing with conflicts.

 

Ahaha, I’m glad we’ve found another subject we see eye to eye on! I couldn’t care less about someone’s figure since it’s the person’s personality that stands out to me the most. Genetics is a lottery and it’s unfair to judge someone based on what they have no control over, though I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have my fair share of thinking “mother nature dun you good” moments. If you have good genetics, embrace them, haha. Facial features give away a lot about a person, but I’ve never been able to put it into words as well as you just did.

 

Promposals spread like wildfire around here. “Oh, hey, did you hear _____ just got asked??” or “omg, did you hear what _____ did for his promposal??” It’s not hard for me to get all “caught up” even with a Facebook, lol. Most guys tend to shy away when they’re teased about their promposal, so I can imagine that they wouldn’t be comfortable bragging about it, haha. Nope, our school doesn’t have a junior prom, and I didn’t even know that they existed until I read your response. There are a ton of underclassmen who get asked every year, though it’s probably never enough to generate a junior prom, lol.

 

I’m really glad that you enjoyed Steins;Gate! Haha yeah, Steins;Gate is one of the few shows that manages not to completely screw up the time travel concept, which I was quite pleased about. Yeah, the banana goo and the vegetable changing someone’s gender bothered me a bit, but the anime was still really well thought out. The only other thing that bothered me is that the subject of time travel is very, very delicate. A simple event that was triggered in the past (even something as simple as being there), can cause an immeasurable number of kinds of events following it—the butterfly effect. In other words, Okabe shouldn’t have been able to reverse the damage he did that easily. In fact, considering the degree of change he caused to the timelines, he shouldn’t have been able to fix it at all. But of course, Steins;Gate is one of my favorite anime, and because time travel is such a touchy concept, it’s something I can overlook—especially since it was needed to progress the plot. Holy hell, Gate of Steiner sounds… way too similar to Great Fairy’s Fountain. And Gate of Steiner was one of my favorite OSTs too :c Also…. what what what what Steins;Gate is getting a sequel whaaaaaaattt. Damn right I’m stoked about this now. You should have seen me when I first discovered that a movie was coming out a while ago, ahahaha. I just watched the trailer and ermahgerd. Ahhhhhhhhh sdflkdsfdsklhsdf. What a beautiful way to start spring break! Thank you informing me about this! Akazora, you are a god.

 

Ahaha, it's not a bother at all! As always, I love reading what you have to say. Yup, yup, I’ve been averaging ~10 hours of sleep ever since spring break started. I’ve never felt better, haha. Reminds me of the time back in middle school when I’d force myself up early because I thought sleep was a waste of time. Nope, never again. Oh, and thank you once again for allowing my previous response to be a little late! If you ever find yourself too busy to respond, please don’t hesitate to take a break as well!

[What's on Your Mind?]

Ice Climbers still need to kick the 3DS limitations to the curb before they can even be considered, unfortunately.  Along those same lines, Snake doesn't have a very good chance despite being highly requested just because of his 3rd party character status.  Wolf probably has the highest chance of any character at the moment.  I can't see Pichu making a return, though Young Link might make it back if they Falco-fy him and/or focus his move set on the mask system from Majora's Mask.  I actually don't see Roy returning, unfortunately, since we already have Lucina and the FE fanbase dislikes Roy for being arguably the worst Lord stat wise in the entire franchise.

 

I considered trying to cheat the system, but if they somehow suspect or catch me voting more than once and delete all my votes I'd feel terrible...

ahaha, I realized the 3DS limitations after our discussion on it a while ago, but hey, it doesn't hurt to hope, heh.

 

OMM: Yooooooooooooooo!  This made it to the front page of reddit yesterday!

I thought 8 player smash was big news.  I thought Mewtwo and Lucas DLC was big news.  But this new fighter ballot... even my friends who don't know jack about Smash are talking about it.

Getting your video game character in smash is like winning the holy grail, every third party company is vying for their character:

Nicalis wants Quote.

WayForward wants Shantae.

Yacht Club wants Shovel Knight.

The CEO of Xbox says he’s OK with Banjo as DLC.

This is going to be bigger than the presidential election of 2016...

 

(in other news, I'm sick and my throat is killing me...)

(put in spoilers to save space)

Holy hell, I never even considered Quote or Shovel Knight. 

Heck, I might even think about casting a vote for Meat Boy now.

so much conflict...can't decide...

Akazora, y u do dis to me ;-;

 

also, LOL Reckless Safety Notice Man.

I'm surprised that received so much attention since it seemed like a troll attempt at first.

But now that I think about it, ahahahaha...

the possibilities are endless

 

And get well soon!

 

--

OMM: so I recently watched The Interview

I get why it's all "controversial" and stuff, but that still doesn't change the fact that it's freaking hilarious

it sucks how the movie got banned in some places, haha

 

I've also never played Xenoblade Chronicles before but damn the music is good.

"I'M REALLY FEELING IT"

[Quote Factory]

there is no escape

from the haiku factory

floating elephants

why can't I escape

from this haiku factory

elephants can float?

[What Gets on Your Nerves?]

 

less than 8 hour sleep

 

Dude, I think my life gets on your nerves.

 

I second this

been averaging ~4hrs of sleep during most school nights, usually less

my resolve to fix my sleep schedule isn't working.

[What's on Your Mind?]

With this whole character vote thing going on for the next DLC, I'm torn with who to vote on.

I can't decide between Roy, Phoenix Wright, and Inkling.  

 

I'm still crossing my fingers for the Ice Climbers, ehehehe...

Wolf also sounds awesome

 

and who says you can only vote once?

ahaha....

[Quote Factory]

"help me, i am trapped

in a haiku factory

save me, before they"

[Official Magic Kaito 1412 News and Discussion Thread]

MK1412 ended already?

 

I guess I'm pretty behind then.

 

I've never been so discouraged about watching an anime.

welp, there's a first for everything.

[Everyone vote for Conan Edogawa to be in Super Smash Bros!]

The ballot itself is short, as all you need to do is fill out your gender (who knows why), the name of the character you’d like to see, the title of the game they appear in, and up to 500 characters explaining why they deserve to make it into the game. You have until October 3rd to do this with Nintendo presumably considering the most popular entries for inclusion in future Smash DLC.

 

 

Despite DC's popularity, Conan is probably not going to make his way into the ballot for a few reasons:

 

-DC is not known as a game series, so Conan really hasn't made his niche in the gaming realm enough for others to recognize him

-There really isn't much Conan has to offer for Smash. His gadgets aren't very fitting to the game either

-This event is mainly for fanservice. In all honesty, not many people are going to be excited seeing some random anime character appear on a roster--especially when there are loads of other characters with much more potential (Ice Climbers, Snake, etc.)

 

...and while Pokemon is a TV series, it's also a well recognized game series.

 

 

 

---

 

 

These are the main problems. Barely anyone has ever heard of games like Detective Conan: The Mirage of Remembrance or Detective Conan: Legacy of the British Empire (I pulled these from the wiki by the way because I've never heard of them either).

 

As for "Why should this character become a fighter?" the only justification is probably his gadgets ("crime-fighting techniques" isn't fitting for a game like Smash). You could justify his soccer skills, but it's still a relatively weak argument.

 

Conan is a bit of an anomaly compared to the other Smash characters.

And to be frank, he's probably not going to make it in.

[What was the recent Anime you watched?]

yes, yes.

spring break has yet to start

but I finally broke

gonna binge the crap outta F/SN and another recommendation a friend had for me

 

...but back on topic

the most recent anime I watched was probably random FMAB clips.

haha, I almost forgot how much I loved that show.

[What's on Your Mind?]

so my friend played this in the middle of class today

and I almost burst out laughing

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpGXY5hLR7k

 

 

oh, and yay

I don't have smash 4, but this made me unreasonably happy

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

I know you briefly mentioned this before, but you went on a cruise with friends?  That’s really awesome, I’ve only ever been on one with my family.  I’m sure it was a lot of fun.  In fact, I’ve only ever really vacationed with my immediate family.  The only other times I’ve “traveled” was with my band program to Universal Studios in freshman year and Disney Word in junior year.  And you know, those don’t really count, since I wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I should have.  Do you travel with friends often or was the cruise a one-time thing?  

 

Oh thank goodness you didn’t watch SAO, it really wasn’t very good at all.  I may not have minded it that much if I had walked in expecting a harem, but I watched it on a whim when the first episode came out, not realizing what a mess I was getting myself into.  The premise was terribly misleading, heh.  The thing is, I actually plan to watch a lot of new, unaired shows, even if they risk being bad.  It’s a gamble, a bad one at that, but sometimes it’s worth it.  Watching an anime grow from a simple announcement/teaser to a full blown trailer to a weekly airing show to something people really started hyping to something everyone and their grandmother was watching is really amazing *ahem* SnK *ahem*.  I still remember the day I first watched the SnK trailer the day it was revealed.  No one had any idea how much it would shake up the anime community or could have guessed how popular it would end up being.  Shows like SnK don’t come around very often, but I like to keep my eyes peeled for that next big one.  I’m a bit of a hard grader as I rate my anime on a 3 to 9 scale, with 6 as average.  4/5 are between terrible (3) and average while 7/8 are between amazing (9) and average.  I’m actually planning on adjusting my rating system to make it even harder: a 1 to 9 scale with 5 as average.  Having two increments between terrible/amazing and average just isn’t cutting it for me with all the anime I’ve been watching, and MAL itself lists a 5 as “average”.  It’s going to take a huge overall, since this whole time I’ve been keeping everything on my Completed List at a flat 6.0, and if it starts riding either up or down I adjust a few entries to bring it back to average. Now I’m going to try and somehow make everything average out to a 5.0.  Call me OCD, but that’s just how I rate, eheheh.  As much as I like anime, Sturgeon’s law still applies to it, which is why I guess I grade so strictly.  Of course, for the same reason you probably don’t rate 10s, I never give anything a 10/10 because that implies perfection, and nothing’s perfect, haha.

 

Ah, your school’s system makes sense.  My high school requires phys ed for pretty much everyone, even those who participate in the athletic program.  The only people who are waived are those with medical conditions and super athletes, haha.  I know this one person with some kind of heart problem, so she doesn’t have to take any phys ed classes and there’s this friend of mine who’s apparently a nationally ranked swimmer.  He’s so good, he was recruited (actually recruited) by Columbia University.  If you’re not like either of them, then you’re out of luck and have to take gym.  Ah well, as much I feel like phys ed is a waste of school time, it’s not particularly difficult of course and I’ve met and made a handful of friends through the classes.  There’s always a good side to a bad situation I guess.  In my high school, girls tennis is actually during the fall while boys tennis is during the spring.  When do your games start?

 

It’s still far too early for me to really settle on a school (well, maybe not that early considering how I only have until May 1st).  I think as of now I’ve gotten back 7 decisions and am waiting on 9 more.  I have a really good success rate, but it’s nothing that impressive since the schools that have contacted me already are nearly all safety schools.  The reach schools are among the 9 I’m still waiting on, and I’m preparing for a wave of rejections, haha.  It might have seemed I was set on Rutgers, but I’m actually still completely undecided.  I may have praised the Honors College a lot, but it was just because I was pleasantly surprised.

 

I’ve never played the Minish Cap, but it seems like a fun little game.  Top-down Zelda games aren’t too bad, and Spirit Tracks had its fair share of interesting puzzles, but in my opinion nothing can beat a 3D Zelda game.  There’s just so much potential for the puzzles and dungeons.  3D Zelda games tend to me the more popular ones: OoT and MM, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and potentially the new Wii U game that’s been previewed.  Haha, if it were possible I would have sent some games and a 3DS or something your way, but alas I’m broke and just freeloading off of my parents.  The thing about amiibos is that no one knew there would be a shortage of a lot of the characters.  When they were first put on shelves, everyone naively bought their favorite character (Link, Peach), ignoring unicorns like Villager and Wii Fit Trainer because who would want those, right?  Those that did buy the to-be rares tore opened the packaging and played with them the way they were meant to be played, no worries in the world.  Then, people started claiming they couldn’t find things like Marth.  They became unavailable online, stores started running out, and people started to realize not all amiibos were treated equally.  Some people had the bright idea of purchasing these amiibos in bulk to individually sell at exorbitant prices on eBay or Amazon.  These people soon became known as scalpers, and they’re hated by amiibo collected and get no respect.  Marth, Villager, and Wii Fit Trainer became known as the “Holy Trinity” and the craze of amiibos began.  A lot of people want to catch ‘em all, some others even want to keep them in mint condition in the box.  Others are in the unfortunate situation of wanting only character, and that one happens to be a unicorn.  The collectors and OCD people are the ones who have made NIB (new in box) NA (North American) amiibos so sought after.  Anything taken out of its original packaging lessens in value, not just amiibos.  But some things are nearly impossible to find now.  A NIB NA Villager is extremely rare, the unicorn of all unicorns, as he flew off the shelves in less than a week and since most people didn’t realize amiibos would be rare they all opened him up unsuspectingly.  NIB collectors are having a really rough time finding him without stooping low enough to buy him from a scalper, and there’s no sign of him being restocked.  Why not import?  There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re not a NIB NA collector.  Japan and Europe have a somewhat better stock than North America, so NIB JP and NIB EU unicorns are worth less than NIB NA unicorns.  Of course, it’s still a hefty price regardless, and most Japanese and European sellers are still scalpers so you’re just encouraging an unfair and crooked practice, even if it’s not in America.  The reason why my Rosalina and Shulk can’t hold a candle to a Villager is because now everyone knows some amiibos will be rare.  When people get an amiibo, they don’t open it and instead hold on to it to either sell or trade.  When Villager came out, everyone opened him.  That’s why there are more NIB NA Shulks in circulation than NIB NA Villagers.  As for uncommons, though Kirby and Sonic are both listed as uncommon, Kirby’s been around since November and he’s almost always on shelves. Sonic’s been out only for a month.  Though they may both appear on shelves equally as often, just because of their different release dates more people would be looking for a Sonic than a Kirby thus making Sonic somewhat more in demand than Kirby.  Also, a new wave of Super Mario Bros amiibos were just released yesterday, consisting of redone versions of Mario, Yoshi, Luigi, Bowser, and Peach.  In order to make room for these new guys, sores have been clearing their inventory of the old Smash variants of these characters, which is why SSB Yoshi, once an everyday sight, is now considered semi-rare as of just a few hours ago.  Does that mean people want SSB Yoshi nearly as much as Fox or DDD now?  Nope, because those that really wanted a Yoshi would have already gotten one by now, given he was part of wave one and was even discounted at every store by three dollars for a few weeks to clear out the inventory.  Sorry, I might have typed more than you expected or wanted me to.  There’s so much I still haven’t told you and I could honestly lecture about amiibos all day, but I wouldn’t want to bore you.  I hope this gives you a better perspective of just how crazy (and not all in very good ways) amiibos have gotten, haha.

 

Yeah, I thought you were either still pretty close or somewhere along the east coast.  I actually haven’t really traveled in-land that much.  Most of the colleges I’ve applied to run along the coast, and whenever my family travels it’s either a road trip north and south or involves a cruise or plane to cover longer distances.  I can only recall driving to Chicago once, when I was younger, and that’s pretty much it.  (Though, I guess I’ll be visiting Cleveland soon to visit a college…)  I’m surprised you even narrowed it down to Middlesex County though, since county lines are usually forgotten about until political elections come up, haha.

 

Gosh, there’s no need to apologize just because we don’t see perfectly eye to eye about some things.  I’m the kind of guy who would rate the four main subjects groups as English first, history second, sciences next, and math last.  In other words, the farther away I get from numbers the better, haha.  And I agree that history isn’t really all that fun to learn about.  American history is my favorite, and world history is just kind of bleh, though that may be in part due to my horridly biased teacher (not the hot pedophilic one, but the chronically PMS-ing that hates boys).  In general, I’ve found the Gilded Age, the conformist society of the 1950s, and presidents in general to be the most fascinating parts of American history.  For world history, nothing really stands out apart from the French Revolution.  I agree though, being forced to pose next to something for a picture never really resonated with me either, and not just because I’m not vey photogenic.  History is best experienced and observed in silence and contemplation I feel.  It should be treated like a good book or a movie, if that makes any sense.  Getting your face all up in some grainy, filtered out picture ruins the atmosphere, especially if you’re visiting some place not very well-known and no one else is there.

 

Aw, that’s really sweet of you to think I have a “fantastic” smile, even if you don’t really have anything to base that off of, haha.  I’d venture to guess you have a really nice smile as well; someone who laughs as much and who has as good a sense of humor as you do must have a smile to match.

 

My class is actually kind of on shaky terms.  I used to think all seniors were friendly and tight-knit, but there are definitely quite a few folks who are causing ripples.  Since I don’t have a Facebook, I’m not really sure of the details, but I’ve heard my fair share of rumors in school and all that.  You know, petty stuff, like people with rotten personalities and homewreckers trying to stir up some trouble before high school ends.  Since these are all rumors I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and I’d rather not get myself tangled up in messy dramas, especially since I've been in a great mood the past few months.  I don’t think I know of any rejections either, but then again what would I know, haha.

 

I’m glad I was able to put your mind at ease and that things are looking up for you!  I don’t think you’re going to fix your sleep schedule until at least the summer time, possibly senior year, though I sometimes doze off in class so I’m not exactly a good example, eheh.  And procrastination is really hard to beat down.  I push things back all the time.  But that’s just human nature, it doesn’t mean you’re the dud child or anything.  Still though, I guess it’s not good to have a wacked up sleep schedule.  That’s something we’re both going to be working to fix.  If your friends can tell you look groggy, you must be in pretty bad shape.  I hope you manage to work things out soon!  While it’s a shame you won’t be posting on DCW that often anymore, if it’s for the sake of your sleep schedule then take off as much as you want.  I know you said that our exchanges don’t give you much trouble, but don’t feel the need to respond every week if you happen to have an especially busy few days or so.  I’ll admit myself that I had somewhat of a hectic past few days, otherwise I would have typed up more than I did for this response to you.

 

My anime watch schedule is very strict.  I watch at least four episodes of anime each day without fail, and thus I’m able to predict when I will finish things in advance.  That being said, if everything goes as planned I’ll actually be able to start Steins;Gate on Monday.  My new plan is to hopefully finish it before the new spring season of anime starts.  While I do have a backlog of anime to catch up on, as I said before I’ve been clearing out my dropped and on-hold lists so I’ve been watching some pretty subpar stuff recently and it’s wearing me out.  I think now’s a better time than ever to watch Steins;Gate, ahaha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

loljk happy april fools c:

Traveling with friends is a blast, so definitely try it sometime! My dad's always in a better mood when he's around people he knows, there's another plus, haha. Most of the time I only travel with my family, and although that's also fun, nothing can beat traveling with friends. We also have band/orchestra trips around here. Freshman year was NYC, sophomore year was Disney World, and this year is going to be some place in Tennessee, lol. It's a shame that you weren't able to enjoy yourself during the trips since those trips are all about having fun. I don't travel with friends often unless their families are people my parents know really well. My parents like bringing people with them on certain occasions, so if they're not bringing families of my friends, they're bringing families of my sister's friends, haha.

 

I really hate being disappointed from something I had high hopes for, which is why I usually avoid unaired shows. And from what I've seen, most of the shows on MAL get ratings lower than 8, so I feel that it's safe to assume that most unaired shows receive similar ratings as well. Actually, I trust the user reviews more than the ratings. Heck, even Mirai Nikki got a score higher than 8 and I thought that show was deserving of a 6 at best. The entire rating system is kinda misleading at times so most of the stuff I watch are shows that my friends recommend--most of which I do end up enjoying. Mirai Nikki is the exception since my friend recommended it to me before he finished it, haha. I think it's awesome that you managed to get your grandmother to watch SnK! I have to hide my anime watching from my parents, so I only watch when they're sleeping or when they're not around. Gosh, they'd murder me if they found out how much time I "waste" watching anime, although to be honest, I don't think I've watched that many. I have a few friends who also managed to get their parents to watch anime and other shows with them, and frankly, I'm a bit envious. But back on topic-ish, sometimes, I feel that I should also adopt MAL's rating system with 5 as average, but giving shows like DC a 5 or Mirai Nikki a 3-4 seems a bit harsh, doesn't it? Also, I haven't watched enough anime to have a good grasp of what is considered average. I tend to keep my ratings above 5 for this reason and save the lower ratings for shows that really deserve it *cough Lucky Star and MK1412 *cough*. I haven't encountered many shows that are that terrible either since I rely on recommendations and reviews most of the time. But to make up for this, I always round down. Shows that might get a 8.7 from me will get an 8 instead of a 9. You've been an anime veteran for quite a while so if I were you, I'd probably be too lazy to adjust all of my ratings on MAL--especially for those I haven't watched in years. Plus, impressions constantly change so a show you gave a 7 today might end up getting a 5, years later. I wouldn't be willing to go through all of that, lol. I don't think I'll ever give a show a 10. My enjoyment might be a 10, but like you said, there is no anime without flaws.

 

We need phys ed as a prerequisite for participating in athletics, so most people end up taking it the summer before freshman year. However, we also need to take a second phys ed class if we're not going to do at least two seasons worth of athletics or if we don't get a waiver. Most people at our school end up taking track or cross country for this reason. The lazier people just take on sports that have no competition at our school, like lacrosse. I know a few people at our school who've been accepted (not sure if actually recruited though) by colleges mainly based on their athletic record. I know this one guy who got accepted into Yale to play on their soccer team, but he also had the grades to back him up. Of course, he also played varsity soccer at our school as well. So this friend of yours didn't join your school's swim team? I think it's nice how he didn't have to, but still, haha. Nearly all of my friends took phys ed over the summer to leave space for other classes (and for the prerequisite) since it's a pointless class to waste an entire semester for. Girls tennis is in the spring while boys tennis is in the fall. It used to be the other way around quite a while ago, but I kinda like this current system. Our games have already started, and we even had our first tournament of the season not too long ago.

 

I think it's great how you have a lot of schools to fall back on! I've heard surprising stories about students getting accepted mainly because of their essays and letters of rec into schools that no one expected. You wrote a pretty awesome essay, plus you already have a bunch of acceptances behind you, so I think you're in a pretty good position at the moment! Then again, I'm only a junior, so what would I know, haha. You're getting quite a bargain with Rutgers, so going there probably wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

 

I’m definitely going to take the Zelda games into consideration once I get a 3DS—they look awesome from the playthroughs I’ve seen so far. Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize how much more value certain amiibos have over others. I think it’s awesome how they’re like collectibles! It’s also interesting how the “less popular” characters tend to be ones with the most value (with exceptions, of course). Once again, I apologize for not being able to contribute to discussion much. However, this was still a fascinating read for me, so I’d love to read more if you don’t mind writing about it, haha.

 

The places I've been are really wide-spread. I've been to many corners of this country just through random vacations, lol. Most of these trips occurred when I was little though, so I can't recall much from them. Is there a reason why you developed a preference for coastal colleges? Since I already knew your state location, I figured my next best bet would be to figure out your county location. I just assumed that narrowing it down to a county would make pinpointing a city location easier. Our county name is mentioned a lot around here, so I was a bit surprised when you implied that mentioning it was a bit out of the ordinary where you live. Also, I'm going to trail a bit off topic again because I recently discovered that I may or may not have visited Edison before. I think I heard my mom mention that one of our road trips a few years ago might have crossed paths with the town when we were heading back to NYC for a bit. One of my old friends back in NYC also moved there a while ago. I barely remember him since we never kept contact, but he was a relatively good friend of mine back then. My parents even planned to visit his family in Edison at one point but never got around to it. Haha, I just found that interesting.

 

For me, it would be science first, then math (math used to be first, haha). English would be third and history would be last. Actually, if I could, I would bundle the entire social studies package under history. I never liked learning about the government and "global studies". It just wasn't very interesting and never appealed to me. I love learning about the world around me. I also love numbers because everything falls into place once you make sense of them. I used to struggle in English quite a bit since I used to be so math-oriented, but it's kinda growing on me. Sometimes, I feel that our teacher is going overboard with all this analysis stuff though. What if the author just wanted to write it like that? What if the conch shell in Lord of the Flies was never meant to represent democracy? (okay, yeah, there's a lot of backing that disproves this, but you get the gist, haha). My teacher would slap me for this. Hmm, that's interesting. I've always found world history to be a lot more fascinating than American history. It's probably because the American history that schools force us to regurgitate is way too over-glorified. Everything they've taught us seems so subjective and it just doesn't feel like they give us the overall picture. In other words, the American history curriculum just feels like it's loaded with white-washed pro American propaganda. They antagonize the British, treat most wars as if we managed to rise to the top single-handedly, and exhibit a martyr complex towards wars we lost. How about giving us an outsider's perspective of these colonizations and revolutions rather than playing the victim and brainwashing us into idolizing America more than we should? I guess I'm not really in any position to say this since I've kinda given up on learning any history at this point. If I could add anything more, the witch trials in Europe and people like Joan of Arc are subjects of history that seem a lot more intriguing than American history in my opinion.

 

Ahaha, you're far too kind. I think smiles in general are one of the best aspects of people. In fact, a person's smile is one of the first things I look at when I meet someone--it can say quite a bit about the person. Not to mention, I just love seeing people smile in general. Kinda sucks that I don’t smile as often as I should though, haha..

 

The seniors at our school usually don't gossip about anyone unless it's about promposals or college acceptances. But even then, I wouldn't call it "gossiping" since they're typically congratulating those people most of the time, lol. I never liked getting into drama, and there's not a lot of it around here--thank goodness. Most of the "drama" is about grades and complaints about certain teachers, but usually never any trash-talking. I guess it mainly depends on what kind of friend group you have since our school can be quite divided in terms of social groups.

 

I’ll definitely be able to catch on sleep during spring break. I doze off in class far too often, and not because the class is boring, but because I’m just so gosh darn tired. My procrastination tendencies definitely contribute to this issue, or maybe it’s because I can’t manage my time as well as others. I appreciate your concern though, so thank you for that, haha.

 

Four episodes a day? Phew, I don’t think I’ll ever have that much commitment for watching anime. That’s pretty impressive, haha. I’m glad you’ve decided on starting Steins;Gate! Let me know what you think of it when you’re finished! I also suggest for you to watch the OVA and movie afterwards. The OVA had a nice comic spin on the show and the movie is also a good supplement. Both provide for some pretty decent closure.

[Cute Culprits]

Reading this topic reminds me of the moronic facebook posts made by some girls who thought the Boston Bomber brothers were innocent because one of them was cute. Yes, that was a thing. Justice is blind for a good reason.

 

---

 

I find Shinichi and Ran idealistic when it comes to their principles about murder. One way to look at ethics is to measure how much someone values sticking to good principles versus good outcomes. A principle-driven person would not support bad means even if it led to a very good end, while an outcome-driven person would be upset when good principles prevented good ends. Shinichi and Ran are both very principled, and that works well in places like Japan which is attentive to crime. 

It is hard to be principled in places that are unfair. For instance, there have been lots of cases in India where repeat rapists and killers who kept getting away because of connections or threats were then killed by mobs. (Akku Yadav was a famous one.) Is it worth standing by your principle not to murder when a rapist will keep attacking the women and children in your community with no hope of justice? That's the sort of decisions some people have to face. Even though I live in a nice country, I can recognize adherence to principles is a luxury rather than universal law that will work well for everyone. That's why I think that Shinichi and Ran are idealistic - they are inexperienced when it comes to struggles others have to face in unfair places.

 

Mostly I hate it when Gosho tries to say one side of the ethics measure I mentioned above is the right one. There was a moment of really strong  values dissonance in the fandom when Sera tried to get that hostage taker shot in Mouri agency hostage case but Ran stopped her because she didn't want him to be killed. Gosho made it seem like Sera was worse than Ran for trying to put a good outcome ahead of good principles. I don't like that sort of simplistic thinking about ethics. Both sides have their merits.

In those instances, the killing would be done as an act of self-defense, and not necessarily as an act revenge--which differs greatly from the average DC case where someone is murdered for the sake of "getting even"

 

I know this isn't the time to mention linguistics (just wanted to clarify one of my previous posts), but I don't think "murder" would be the right term to use for what happened to Akku Yaday. "Killing" through acts of self-defense is more fitting in my opinion.

 

Most DC cases are clear-cut and formulaic in telling us morals like "you shouldn't murder someone for inheritance" so they fail to address the ethics behind situations such as what happened to the rapist you mentioned. I remember reading a similar article a while ago and I do, in fact, agree with what those women did.

 

Also, you brought up a good point with the Mouri agency hostage case.

I've always considered myself as an outcome driven person rather than a principle driven person. In the Mouri agency hostage case, Ran's ideal was "all or nothing". Anything further provoking the hostage taker would have meant putting everyone's lives on the line (or at least more so), versus just one-- the hostage taker. If anything, I thought it made Ran look more rash and naive for not assessing the extra risks that came with her notion.

 

 

i hope when they're released they will be different persons to regain respect and sympathy.

because one day i stoled 50 € from my brother to buy a videogame, but when they noticed that the person who stoled this bill was me, i felled in sorrow and regret and i never did it again

so you're saying that you didn't regret taking the money until after you were caught, and you're using this to defend the murderers because they "felt bad" after murdering someone?

 

bias is littered in every response you've posted so far.

and from what I've gathered, your argument looks something like this:

-they're "cuties"

-they're sorry for murdering someone

therefore they shouldn't be punished

 

also, these are minor characters.

DC isn't focused on the ethics of determining what punishment these people receive.

[Cute Culprits]

I understand, but I feel too sorry for all of them, I can't help it. And in many cases they have nothing to lose (the family has been killed for example) so they at least take revenge. If Conan at least criticized the crimes of the "victims" too, he wouldn't seem so hypocritical to me. Instead, they get a pass. Why? Just because they're dead?

it's rather repetitive to have Conan state what the victim did wrong since it's assumed that the audience already knows the degree of atrocity of the victim's actions, lol

[What's on Your Mind?]

Getting scolded is a really big problem for me and I hate that.

My after school is just more work and it's so boring...

Nah, my friend is probably gonna move, but maybe we'll go to the same high school...

 

My friends are planning their future already? Whoa, they're taking this waaay too far

I've gotten scolded plenty of times in elementary school. 

Still loved school.

Can't let that bring you down.

 

Nah, after school activities are fun. I'm not sure what you're doing then, lol.

I also had a friend that I got separated from after elementary school. We're practically best friends now, haha. You'll be fine!

 

 

Haha, yeah.

I know. I know. I'm okay with the being 'corrected' thingy. But it's still a bit off when you go claiming stuffs that you aren't sure about.

the wiki is usually a good place to confirm the "stuffs" you aren't sure about.

nothing wrong with asking questions either, haha.

[Cute Culprits]

I agree completely, almost all culprits in DC are basically good people who were brought to crime by despair and the impunity of the real villains who later play the role of the "victims". Murder may be wrong, but they kill one evil person, while the victims just spread evil ariund them and ruin many lives, often even kill innocents. In my opinion, there is absolutely no need to be harsh on them like Conan is. They are going to jail and he should be satisfied with that. When he is not and starts crushing them morally with his hypocritical robotic preachings, he doesn't seem like a "good guy" at all. Where was his "justice" when the "victims" wreaked havoc with impunity?

 

I don't know about you, but these people should have enough common sense to realize that murdering people is never the answer. Never.

Self-defense is a different story, but we're talking about people who do it just to experience the satisfaction of being purged from some petty history they had with the victim.

 

Yeah, I agree that Conan's "preachings" gets repetitive--even a bit arrogant and distasteful a times--though never hypocritical.

Yeah, I also sympathize with the murderers at times, but these people have lost all self-control and resorted to murder to resolve their problems. They need a step back into reality--what exactly are they accomplishing from killing someone? For their own peace of mind? What about the victim's family and friends? It's plain selfish.

 

You can't just concoct some elaborate murder plan without having solid intentions. In other words, these people knew exactly what they were doing, these people knew the consequences, and knowing so means that these people were prepared to face whatever punishment awaited them if they were to be found out.

 

You can't justify murder. It's flat out wrong--no matter how much the murderer has been victimized.

[FOUND OUT!]

I found out that DCW might slowly be dying again. Domino effect, it is. D:

it's one of the busiest times of the year for us schoolkids.

-trips

-competitions

-sports

-APs

-etc.

 

heck, even I'm trying to limit how much time I spend on here nowadays, haha.

[What's on Your Mind?]

I ain't :V

Well that's what I feel doing.

I really wanna skip some episodes but I might miss something though. Sadly, I contributed something not quite updated and right before. So, it fruited there.

the majority of the series is filler, lol.

if you're that worried about skipping important episodes, it might not be a bad idea to consult the wiki.

It's a learning process. There's nothing wrong about being corrected. As long as your posts don't come off as ignorant (ex. "wow i hate ran bc shes dum fr not being able to figur out that conan is sinichi), no one's gonna flame you for having "outdated" ideas, haha.

 

 

What a great time that was. My homeroom teacher is nice, but I receive hatred from my 2 other teachers. I have to go to an after school (so jealous of the walkers and bus riders) I don't get home until 8 D: My dad isn't as hard as me as he was before, though. Well, I'll be going to middle school in August... Gonna miss my friend...:'(

Yeah, you're going to run into crappy teachers, but don't let that ruin your perception of school.

I used to love after school activities back in elementary school--home was the last place I wanted to be, haha.

Middle school isn't bad either. Is your friend not going to the same school as you?

[What Was the Last Video Game You Played?]

 

[removing these extra spoiler tags because I realize I've strayed this conversation too far off topic again...]

Oh no, that doesn’t sound weird at all; I’m grateful for it as well.  I went back looking for it, and it was that offhanded post about playing a little bit of Pokemon Y way back at the end of October, right?  We’ve come such a long way, it’s crazy, haha.  I wonder how far this conversation will take us?  Woah, you had the guts to sneak into a casino and gamble?  Goodness me, I wouldn’t have dared to do something like that.  That might be because my parents always had an eye on my brother and I whenever we were in casinos, be they on cruises or in Las Vegas.  I’ve done some illegal things with my brother myself, but only stuff like stealing Pokemon card booster packs from Target.  (It was actually pretty legit with us using the security camera’s blind spot to unwrap the packs and walk out with the cards alone, leaving the wrappers buried somewhere random in the store.)  I didn’t even know how to play the trading card game and only liked the art, eheh.

 

Hm, the whole snowflakes things only vaguely rings a bell.  I think I remember stumbling upon it and thinking it was cool but quickly forgot about it.  Either that or I read about it somewhere?  Aha, since I’ve always just lurked around YouTube I didn’t (and kind of still don’t) check in every day to see what’s new.  The only reason I even found Seven Swords was because of Sword Art Online, bleh.  It’s a pretty bad anime that I’m sure you’ve heard about, though since I hadn’t ever experienced an MMORPG I was fascinated by the very base concept of the show, or at least the gaming aspect of it.  I think I was just looking for MMOs on the App Shop and found this that looked pretty promising: Japanese based, 3D models, classes, leveling up, monster hunting, item collecting, events, faction, etc.  Nothing special in hindsight, but it was still fun in its own right.  Even the struggle of figuring out the way the game worked and which sets worked bet had its charms.  Ehh, not sure if that makes sense, haha.

 

I guess I don’t really see video games and anime as a waste of time, but more so as things I can’t really be recognized for investing time in regardless of the benefits I reap.  Ah well, I’m not going to be stopping any time soon either so it must not bother me all that much.  Though, I will admit I’ve wasted countless hours on terrible anime because stupid me doesn’t recognize a bad anime when I see one and stubborn me must finish what I start.  Right now, because I have the time, I’ve been going through my dropped and on-hold lists clearing them out to the best of my abilities, since they’ve been bothering me, eheh.  As a junior, you’re definitely pressed for time.  You don’t even stop by DCW nearly as much as you did earlier in the year.  That’s probably for the better though, since you say you struggled last semester.  (I hope these exchanges between us aren’t getting in the way of your schoolwork.)  And it’s not just orchestra you’re worrying about now, since it looks like tennis season has started up for you.  I’ve never participated in school athletics before; the closest I got was joining marching band as a freshman.  Good luck with that!  Let me know how things go, once things really start getting underway.  I only know the basics of tennis, but even if it’s just to complain about grueling practice sessions or something I wouldn’t mind reading about it, haha.  Ah, I never knew what those people were!  So they have a name: RPers.  Hmm, Google is providing some interesting info, to say the least…  And I guess it’s better to be desensitized than always upset and disturbed by things on the Internet.

 

I guess you do bring up a good point.  I may not have many friends I truly share interests with, but those that I do are the ones I like most and the ones I most enough talking to, like you.  And having a few really close friends definitely beats having a thousand “friends” who won’t be there when you really need them.  The thing is, I actually have this habit of being pretty selective when it comes to calling people “friends” since I feel the overuse of the word “friend” in the Internet age (probably stemming from my abstinence from Facebook) dilutes its meaning.  I consider most people acquaintances or just people I know.  (I think this might rub some people the wrong way, eh.) 

 

It’s really great you’ve found a school you like so much!  Part of me wishes I had a dream college I was aiming for throughout high school; I might have worked harder and done better junior year, bleh.  But I’m still really happy with where I am now.  After all, there are definitely pros to behind emotionally detached from schools, too.  I won’t be completely crushed or heartbroken if I receive a rejection.  There are quite a few people I know who haven’t taken rejections very well, and I was thankful for not having been put through that ordeal.  On the other hand, I don’t get very happy when I am accepted, so I miss out on that high.  Also, instead of an acceptance being a “Yes!  I know where I’m going now!  I can kick back and relax!” it’s more like a “Hm, I still have about a month to stress over which college I’ll be going to for the next four years of my life…”  I guess there’s a give and take, either way.  Regardless, I’ll be rooting for you when you start to college application process!

 

Aw, thanks, it’s nice to know all my rambling about RNG abuse isn’t boring you.  I don’t have anything to report this week, since I had a pretty busy school week and didn’t find any time (or snow days) to nab that shiny Latios, or even play Spirit Tracks.  I’m going to have a hectic week next week as well, if my calc schedule is anything to go by, so I don’t think I’ll get much done any time soon.  I wouldn’t say Spirit Tracks is a bad game, but just relatively weak when it comes to Zelda games.  The only other Zelda game that I’ve played is actually Ocarina of Time, the 3DS version.  It’s generally considered the best Zelda game by far and one of the best video games of all time by some.  I’ll be honest, it completely blew me away even with all the hype behind it.  If you ever want to get into the large Zelda series, I suggest starting with OoT.  Spirit Tracks in comparison wasn’t all that great.  While it wasn’t a letdown since I had kept my expectations in check, it didn’t do anything to surprise me either.  My biggest complaint is with the controls, since you control Link using the stylus.  You just drag it across the touch screen and he follows along.  It feels really weird, and the D-pad almost sees no use, which is kind of strange.  It just toggles a few things in the menu and with the maps.  Yeah, something the like the D-pad is reduced to a back shelf control.  I’m always holding my DS weird and still haven’t really gotten too used to it yet, and I’m already one more dungeon and a final boss battle away from beating the whole game, sans side quests.  Ah well, at least now I can relate to Toon Link in Smash, haha.  Speaking of Zelda, I just got Majora’s Mask 3D (sequel to OoT) and Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward in the mail today as an early birthday present.  Of course, I won’t be able to play either of them until I’m off to college and have full reign over my 3DS, and even then Pokemon Y and Alpha Sapphire have priority.  Oh, and Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies went on sale in the eShop for a few weeks (download only; physical versions don’t exist in America), so I’ll be picking that up when I can.  Sigh, looks like the last 3DS game on my radar is Fire Emblem: if, which won’t be out for a long while now anyway.  I have so many games I’ll be binging on after summer break, not even including Awakening’s Lunatic mode that I am determined to beat and OoT’s Master Quest mode I want to try my hand at.  I think the other guy was collecting out-of-box amiibos, and since amiibos all look identical once out of their boxes (there’s nothing to differentiate a Japanese from a North American Marth, not even all the text and numbers on the bottom of the stand) he was fine with settling for an imported Marth.  He said Marth and Villager were the only ones he needed to complete his collection, so I guess the Rosalina and Sonic I got were extras he had.  Rarity values for amiibos are always changing.  I was surprised to check and find that my Ike is now considered a unicorn.  While that’s great and all, he’s not nearly as valuable as Villager, who was rare before people knew certain amiibos would be rare.  Not all unicorns are created equal, in the same way not all uncommons are created equal.  In NJ at least, Mega Man is significantly harder to find than a Kirby.  Looking at the chart now, amiibos are becoming more and more polarized.  Either they’re relatively easy to find or absolutely impossible to find.  There’s not really any middle ground anymore (semi-rares have gone extinct).

 

Haha, well I’m rather happy I guessed right, though I think you’re giving me a bit too much credit.  You may not have meant to give out so much information, but what you did disclose was all very useful in figuring out where you live.  Not to mention, I did get pretty lucky with the article since it happened to be the first one I clicked on.  While I might be able to deduce which high school you attend, there’s no way for me to figure out your address.  Unless of course, you start describing in detail what you can see from your doorstep and I pore hours into Google Maps.  But that would be crazy and I know you like your privacy so I’d feel guilty for doing something like that anyway, eheh.  Hm, there wasn’t anything specifically that made me want to piece everything together, at least I don’t think so.  I was just curious, though I was a bit hesitant because I didn’t want to come off as some kind of creepy stalker.  Well actually, I think it might have been the whole soda vs pop thing.  Since we had so much in common, I guess realizing you live in a place far enough away that people said “pop” instead of “soda” threw me off.  It made me even more curious than I usually was, so I consulted Google-senpai and everything just sort of fell into place.  If anything, you’re just as impressive as I am if not more so; I do indeed live in Edison, haha.  I guess the whole Edison Tower thing can be a bit of a giveaway.  And yup, Rutgers is the ugly university that requires bus travel that’s offering me a lot of money, heh.  The faint glow from NYC while stargazing is really really faint.  I only noticed it because I happened to be looking for a constellation in that direction one night.  I was looking for Cassiopeia, the star formation my friend who grew up too fast wanted to find, and searched around mid-November, which is if I recall when Cassiopeia is most visible in the sky.  After taking far too long deciphering star maps, I learned it was positioned a certain direction away from Polaris (actually can’t remember now, since it’s been over a year).  I found Cassiopeia relatively fast since I had the star map engraved in my head for that night, but I realized that the patch of sky near it was kind of light.  I remembering thinking that was odd since it was already one in the morning, and wondering why the sun was taking so long to set.  Then I facepalmed realizing that the sun didn’t set to the north east and deduced that it was actually light pollution from NYC.  I was surprised myself as to how much leaked all the way over to Edison.  I actually just attended an event at Rutgers one more time yesterday.  I was accepted into their Honors College, and I’ll be part of their first class if I attend.  They’ve had honors programs and the like before, but this is their first honors college, for Rutgers-New Brunswick at least.  They’re building a new dorm exclusively for those in the Honors College.  It’s not even finished yet; we drove by it and it’s in the process of being constructed.  Ehh, as much as I hate to admit it, Rutgers is growing on me.  Maybe it’s only because of the Honors College though, since it would feel pretty good to be the first of anything, especially something like this, since upperclassmen aren’t eligible for the Honors College, only rising non-international freshmen.  But maybe it’s just my bias getting the best of me, since the to-be academic dean of New Brunswick’s Honors College is Japanese and he’s a pretty chill guy from what I could gather.  Not to mention, at the event I had lunch with a professor who grew up in Edison and attended the same high school I’m in. Grrr, it’s like the heavens are determined to get me to attend Rutgers no matter what.  Heh, I have a better impression of the school now, and while it has its faults I may be able to get used to them considering all the good the school has to offer.

 

I’m going to stray a bit off topic; I hope you don’t mind.  Since you (and anyone else reading this I’m watching you) know I live in Edison now, I felt like I need to say a few things, regarding the Edison Tower specifically.  I was thinking of putting this in the paragraph above, but then it would have been even fatter than it already is.  As you might be able to figure out from research, Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb in a laboratory where the Tower is now located.  While I’m not the biggest fan of Edison (more of a Tesla supporter in the War of Currents), it’s kind of interesting how such a historically significant event is reduced to a something residents don’t think about more than once every other month, if even.  All of the big info on Edison can be found at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange which, unlike the laboratories in Edison, is well preserved (I visited it once, and I must say it’s impressive).  Everything in Edison burned down or was relocated because the location just wasn’t profitable enough for anything more than a memorial tower and a two-room museum.  Even the tower has been falling into disrepair.  The ball at the top is apparently considered “the world’s largest light bulb” though I think it’s a bit of a misnomer since there are multiple bulbs inside.  They had to repair and renovate everything recently, though it still hasn’t seen many visitors.  You still can’t go inside the tower itself, which is a pity.  The museum used to be in there I think, but they permanently closed it off to the public ever since the tower started to literally fall apart.  I feel kind of bad for the “curator” of the small museum/gift shop since he really seemed to enjoy and care about the history of the place last time I visited.  Edison does have a lot of history, though a lot of it is forgotten or lost.  Oak Tree Pond Park is dedicated to the Oak Tree Engagement of the Battle of Short Hills of the American Revolution, and is just down the road from my middle school which isn’t very far from my high school (ah, you’ll easily be able to figure out my high school from this…).  The battle took place right at the intersection of two roads I’ve crossed thousands of times in my life.  Old Post Road is a street that Washington allegedly traveled along as he made his way to his inauguration in NYC.  There’s this one church that’s still around that apparently housed wounded British soldiers, and of course if you look hard enough you may be able to find some cemeteries with pre-Revolutionary headstones.  Haha, sorry for rambling, but history fascinates me.  Not so much the memorization of textbooks, unless the text is really good, but more so the discovery and exploration of old and forgotten places.  For APUSH two years ago, we were given extra credit for visiting a bunch of historical sites, and while at first I only went around for the extra credit, I soon realized I was having a ton of fun making out faded writing on old tombstones and creeping through creaky old buildings.  My parents weren’t very happy with me “wasting” my time like that, but I’ll always think it was worth it.  Alright, I need to get myself back on topic before this gets out of hand.  Sorry, I realize most of the time we stray onto different trains of thought it’s my fault.  Gomen, gomen…

 

Aw, there’s nothing wrong with laughing too much, even if you come off as derpy.  It’s a lot better than moping around all unhappy and serious like.  And I wouldn’t say it’s because you’re simpleminded.  If anything, it means you have a god sense of humor.  You’d be a lot of fun hanging around with in real life, I can tell.  There’s no way I’d have been able to keep a conversation going with you for so long otherwise. I get along a lot better with people who smile and explode with laughter, which is actually kind of ironic given that doesn’t really describe me.  I don’t smile all that much, nor laugh as often as I should.  I think I have a disagreeable “resting” face, too.  Hm, maybe unlike you I have a poor sense of humor?  Goodness, what if I grow into one of those old men with stern and unhappy faces but who aren’t really so bad when you get to know them?  That’s kind of like my grandpa.  He always has this serious look, and when I tell him to smile he claims he doesn’t have a good smile.  With enough provoking, I’m able to get him to chuckle and if I’m lucky I can get a picture of it, which I show him to prove he does indeed have a nice smile.  Funny thing is, I used to smile and laugh a lot when I was a baby, according to old pictures and videos and my mom’s stories.

 

Huh, either last year’s seniors were super creative with promposals, or my class really is a dull group of people.  Or maybe even both, heh.  I haven’t heard of any promposals yet, and while I guess not having a Facebook doesn’t help you’d think that at least the very creative ones would make their way around the school, right?  Oh well, maybe all the couples are putting it off to the end since they’re guaranteed success.  Perhaps there are just more people riding solo this year than last year?  I guess that’s a possibility, too.  It’s good your school seems to have so much spirit though!  To put that much effort into something you know you can’t really fail at (for guys with girlfriends at least) is really impressive.  Haha, it’s sweet though, what young people will do for love.  (Okay, I sounded old for a second there.)  Have you heard of any promposal rejections at your school yet?

 

Oh no no, you didn’t give the wrong impression at all.  I know where you’re coming from.  My mom is the overbearing and occasionally frightening one, and sometimes I regret the way I treat her as well.  Or rather, I used to regret the way I’ve been to her.  Before, when my parents were making a huge stink over my grades, especially in sophomore and junior year, my mom would rag on me all the time and I retaliated a lot more than I should have.  We had a lot of heated arguments over my future and looking back on it I was being a really inconsiderate person.  I should have understood why my mom was losing her cool over my grades, given how successful she was when she was younger and how driven my sister was.  I probably did look like the lazy, dud child that wouldn’t amount to anything more than a hall sweeper in her eyes.  If it’s any reassurance, my relationship with both of my parents, but my mom in particular, has drastically improved since the college decisions have rolled in.  I guess they can rest easy now knowing my atrocious grades are somehow not ruining my chances of being an eldest son they can be proud of.  They’ve given me a lot more freedom; my grades are actually better this year than last year for the sole reason that my classes are just overall a lot easier and I’m allowed on the computer for hours every day.  I’ve been watching significantly more anime and I’ve been having the time of my life, I’m not going to lie.  My mom isn’t bawling he eyes out over my idiocy and I’m not losing my temper over her nagging.  I have nearly everything I could want from life at my age, even if a lot of it is still off limits like my 3DS and Wii U.  I have faith that things will start looking up for you once the ordeal that is junior year has ended.  The fact that you’re recognizing your faults is evidence enough that you’re going to end up on top of things once all is said and done.  And there’s no need to apologize.  I’ve offered to listen to whatever you throw at me, so feel free to unload your feelings as much as you want.  Also, that last line is my life in a sentence, haha: “I didn't even realize how much I typed until after reading over this.”

 

Oh gosh, thanks, you’re really sweet yourself.  I’m just unspeakably grateful there’s someone who’s willing to listen to my long winded-ness and off topic-ness and fat paragraph-ness.  It appears my teachers are also going wild right before spring break, so I’m also going to be having a rough two or three weeks myself before I can “relax” during spring break, haha.  And since college decisions are coming in, things are going to get hectic soon.  Hopefully I can still manage some time for Steins;Gate (don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten) over spring break.   

Oh an unrelated note, has anyone played Never Alone?  I think it's already released for PS4, Xbox One and PC, but I only discovered it when Nintendo revealed it would be available on the eShop for the Wii U in June of this year.  There have been a few indie games on the eShop that piqued my interest, but this is on a whole new level of wow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGlbdC9i8t4

 

 

Ahaha, the closest I've ever got to legit gambling was when I was playing Texas Hold'em with a bunch of friends late at night on the cruise ship (not in the casino, of course). Neither my sister nor I knew how to gamble, so we only tested our luck with the machines that looked easy to operate, lol. My parents don't keep as close of an eye on me when my sister's around, so I didn't have to worry about their supervision at the time. Haha, I also used to collect Pokemon cards because of the art. I didn't pay attention to any other aspect of the cards except for the HP number. I can't remember times when I've stolen anything other than that one time I took a pebble from Michael's because I thought it looked nice, lol. Though I must say (I'm not trying to advocate for stealing or anything), what you did at Target was pretty legit, haha.

 

I mainly use YouTube to catch up on my subscriptions nowadays, but it's always nice to run into those Easter Eggs every once in a while. Yeah, I've heard of SAO. I was actually considering watching it until a friend of mine started ranting about how bad it was a few years ago. I'm not a fan of harems (DC is beginning to turn into one, and it's kinda ticking me off), and after reading a few reviews on MAL, I decided to stay away from it. The concept of SAO is pretty cool, I'll give you that much. Haha, that actually makes total sense. Perhaps it was the blend of those aspects that made the game appealing? I've watched playthroughs of a few games that implemented some pretty strange features, but ended up having a great premise anyway, so I know what you mean.

 

Most of the anime I've watched branched off of recommendations from friends. I don't want to dive into a series that isn't worth my time so I almost always wait for reviews to come out before I consider watching a show. One of the primary reasons is because I also have trouble dropping what I start, regardless of whether the show is good or not. It's probably why I usually avoid watching shows with ratings lower than 8 on MAL. Everyone's rating system is different, but mine tends to be as follows: 9 = definitely recommend, 8 = would recommend in certain circumstances, 7 = my guilty pleasures, 6 = wouldn't recommend, and everything else below 6 is pretty much nonexistent since I've only encountered a handful of shows worthy of those ratings (MK1412 is starting to get real close to being one of them though). These DCW posts are beginning to look like a Twitter feed (ex. "I ate breakfast"), so it's rather difficult to find points of discussion these days, haha. I'm also trying to limit myself so I can focus on my schoolwork more, though our exchanges isn't much of a problem at all. Joining athletics is a requirement around here (everyone needs at least two seasons worth in order to graduate). The only exceptions are for people who manage to get a waiver (not sure how) and for people who decide to take another phys ed class instead. Despite how much I love tennis, going to practice sessions is a pain because of how much time it takes away from schoolwork. But at the same time, I also love it since the team is like a second family to me.

 

People who I refer to as true "friends" tend to be people I talk to often, or people I'm not afraid to rely on. They don't necessarily have to be people I share interests with--that's just icing on the cake, haha. Nothing on Facebook will ever compare to having actual friends. It's still a good way to keep in contact with old friends though. Hmm, I don't think I have a very solid definition of a "friend". I guess I just know one when I see one then? I agree that the "friend" is overused with the rise of social media, though most have enough common sense to differentiate between an actual friend and an acquaintance, lol.

 

Haha, the stress of getting rejected from a dream college is something I dread. It has certainly motivated me to work harder since even the thought of getting rejected is something I'd rather not dwell on. I love the high I get from hard work that has paid off. Motivation is key for me, so how much work I get done depends on how motivated I am. Funny thing is, I still haven't found many colleges that I've become emotionally attached to. But after reading that paragraph of yours, I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, haha. I'd rather have to deal with the stress of deciding on a college than the stress coming from a rejection. 

 

I've only played one Zelda game. It was Minish Cap, and it was loads of fun. I regret not diving into more Zelda games since that one gave me a pretty good impression, and since I've heard so many positive things on the series. Haha, once again, my lack of a 3DS is limiting me from playing some of the more recent ones. I'll be sure to check out OoT if I ever get the chance. If not, I might just end up watching a playthrough of it. Gosh, I envy you so much, haha. Hmm, I still don't have a good grasp that all unicorns or uncommons aren't created equal. Are you saying that in the sense that they have different rarity values depending on where you live? Also, what causes the sudden shifts in value? Please excuse my ignorance on this subject, I'm still a newbie, ehehe...

 

I'm still rather taken aback that you've managed to deduce my location, haha. To think that you've narrowed it down so thoroughly based on mainly linguistics, a minor detail of a mall, and a petty description of a surrounding city is crazy. It's mind-blowing, and you deserve every little bit of credit for utilizing such general information. Hmm, so the soda vs. pop was what piqued your curiosity? Was it because you expected me to reside near NYC? I guess that's understandable since it would have been more likely for me to make a small move instead of one hundreds of miles away, haha. The tower and the museum was what gave it away, lol. I could only narrow it down to Middlesex County without it, and I probably never would have figured it out if it weren't for that detail you happened to drop--definitely not nearly as impressive as your deduction, to be honest. Although Edison is relatively close to NYC, I was doubting my guess since I didn't think NYC's light pollution had the capability to be that far-reaching. I stand corrected, lol (though it still comes as a surprise to me). Congrats on getting accepted into their Honors College! I'd also probably have a difficult time deciding on whether to pass on this offer or not, but it's great that you're getting a better impression of the school now! If you decide to go, I'll wish you good luck! Maybe tell me how it goes, haha.

 

I was never a fan of history, but it's a real shame that these historical monuments aren't holding themselves up anymore. I've always liked the idea of the history associated with an object as well as what it had to go through to be where it is today. But at the same time, what the delegates did in the Constitutional Convention doesn't interest me at all. History is a very broad subject, so I don't see myself as ignorant enough to hate every aspect of it with a passion. The history I enjoy reading or learning are like plagues or WWII ethics (can't think of a category for those). But the kinds of history that schools have shoved down our throats were bland enough to discourage me from investing time in most social studies classes (by taking them over the summer) as well as APUSH. I know how much you love history, so I apologize for coming off this way. But with that said, your paragraph was most certainly a fascinating read for me. I think it's awesome to be able to live near a historic site--especially one you can visit regularly. Most of the places I've been were very easily forgotten, and my parents cared more about taking pictures than actually enjoying it for what it was--which probably contributed a bit to why I don't like history as much as I should. To be able to visit historic monuments without being interrupted for a picture is a near impossible feat for me, and I always end up leaving the site with a bad aftertaste. I'm glad that you have found a passion for history! I also find it a bit strange that the people around there don't think much about the tower. Edison is a pretty big name, and I'm rather surprised that they don't treat the monuments as such. I think it's really cool that you cross paths with so much history on a near daily basis. Troy doesn't have much to offer in these aspects, which is a shame since I'd love to visit some sites one day (without being pestered for pictures).

 

A poor sense of humor? Nonsense! Many of your posts in the other parts of the forum are absolutely golden. Some of them make me laugh a bit, and a lot of them make me smile. It really helps for me to have a spontaneous spark of joy once in a while, so I thought I'd just point that out. You're a lot more fun than you make yourself out to be, haha. I'm sure you have a fantastic smile as well--I'd prove it to you if we ever met in real life, heh.

 

Maybe our class of seniors is just really audacious, lol. Our class of seniors is a really tight-knit group of people, so everyone is good friends with each other. It's probably why I've been seeing a lot of promposals lately, because that means there's little to no chance that anyone's going to get rejected. And with that said, I haven't seen a single person getting rejected for prom this year. Most of these people are also single so I've only seen one promposal so far that's relationship-based. 

 

Oh gosh, reading that felt really reassuring. Things have begun looking up so far even though my habits have stayed relatively the same. I'm still trying to break my procrastinating tendencies and fix my sleep schedule, haha. My sister also struggled a bit in her junior year. I can remember how stressed she was even though she had better study habits than me. My parents always ask her to give me advice since they still think that I need someone to hold my hand. However, my sister and I differ in many ways so it's a bit hard to see eye to eye with her at times. But the thing is, I care about my grades just as much as my parents do. Yeah, I'll get pissed when I receive a crappy grade on a calc test, but it's almost as if my parents don't realize that. They yell at me thinking I'm just this incompetent child who's going to end up turning into some shady drug dealer after I drop out of high school. I can't explain to them my problems either since they won't be able to empathize with me at all. My grades are improving a bit, so that's a plus, I guess. I'm still feeling pretty mentally drained, and a lot of my friends have been noticing how tired I've looked lately. I fall asleep in class way too often because I'm having trouble staying awake. This just means I have to cram a lot harder when I go home--it's a vicious cycle I've been in for far too long now. Maybe I am the dud child of the family, ahahaha... My schedule for next year isn't looking so great either. I want to drop a few APs, but I also want to take them. I know my senioritis is going to kick into overdrive next year, so I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up biting me back.

 

Likewise, I'm glad that we've been able to hold up this conversation for so long! Haha, I honestly can't wait for spring break to come. It's only a few weeks away, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll leave school on a happy note when the time comes. Even though it seems that you already have your mind set on Rutgers, I hope decisions still go well for you! I know you have a huge backlog of anime to catch up on, so it's fine if you want to push back Steins;Gate for later. I'm glad you haven't forgotten about it though, haha.

 

I've never heard of Never Alone until now, but geez, I'm impressed. I'll definitely keep an eye out for it--maybe watch a playthrough of it if I have time, haha.

[What's on Your Mind?]

Tell me why, maybe it'll help me to like school a bit more. I hope.

The material was relatively easy for me to absorb and the teachers were super friendly.

I'm not afraid to admit that I often got in trouble for talking and going off on tangents. Teachers would sometimes force me to stay in the classroom during recess as punishment. Despite this, I remember I was a super affectionate person back in elementary school; I wouldn't let that affect how much I loved school. I would frequently give my teachers hugs, and I loved everyone and everything--no matter how much I got scolded. 

Because the workload wasn't as tough, I often went outside to play with the neighborhood kids as well. I didn't mind getting dirty so it didn't matter to me whether or not my clothes got muddy or not. I'm sure my parents were annoyed to some extent though, lol.

 

My dad still forced me to work on math packets so I could get "ahead of the game"--it really helped me jump a few levels even though doing them felt like torture. I was working on systems of equations algebra around fifth grade, but it was still a lot of fun for me. A bit contradictory isn't it? Well, I loved math, haha. It was just the gruesome homework that bothered me, even though that was what ultimately sparked my love for math. So don't complain about your homework too much, because you never know!

 

Elementary and middle school are times when you discover yourself. You have a lot of freedom--more than you think. Do what you want to do. Immerse yourself in a good book, play outside once in a while, try something new. If there was one thing I could tell my past self, it would be to stop complaining. Enjoy what you have to the fullest, because you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

 

Feed into your passions. Try to discover who you really are. If you like math, do math. If you like science, toy around with science kits. Wanna play guitar? Go for it. When you look back on yourself and the only thing you've done was complain, lock yourself indoors, and surf the internet, how fulfilling is that going to feel? Even to this day, I feel like I still haven't accomplished as much as I would have liked. So make sure you enjoy what you have. Don't be so hard on yourself and smile once in a while! Don't focus too much on the workload either, because school is only as fun as you make it out to be

 

 

Yo, speaking of calc, I think I nailed the makeup calc test I had to take today.  I feel super accomplished!

What's that?  Quiz on Friday, too?!  Bloody hell...

It seems like everything's getting piled on Friday this week, whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

this series and sequences stuff is going to end up being the death of me.

 

 

On My Mind: Welp. Since I'm already here...

This. I wanna reach the most recent episode first before I go posting in the DC sub forum coz I might look like an idiot again... I mean posting stuffs that isn't just right or updated. But seems like it's not gonna happen very soon since I haven't had the motivation to continue watching it in marathons as of lately.

 

Haha, I originally came back on this site last September becoz I started watching DC again and I wanna talk about it and stuffs but oh well...

haha, are you kidding me?

you'd have to be insane to marathon all 700+ episodes.

I've only watched the plot-based episodes (cherry-picked the rest), and I still post in there whenever there's a topic of discussion open. You don't need to watch all of the episodes to get caught up or contribute to discussion, lol.

[What's on Your Mind?]

Woah, another Vi Hart video?!

Watching her make that pie made me hungry, so thank God dinner's ready...

 

OMM: Miss one damn day of school and look at all this homework I have to make up...

I love watching her YouTube videos! I first stumbled across her channel when my sister showed me that pi video when she was still in high school. Ahh, the good ol' days.

I got trolled real hard on this one though.

 

 

 

Too many work, too less time, too much pressure. Hope it ends soon

 

I can't sleep, I don't wanna go to school...

geez, I used to love going to school when I was your age.

I loved both elementary school and middle school.

Even when times seem rough, try to make the most out of it!

 

 

OMM: I had a dream that today was a snowday and that I had more time to study for my calc quiz

well...

calc quiz was pushed back to Friday

today is a good day.