I Guess I’m Neat? Real Neat Blog Award

Thank you, magicconan14 and Chizurue, for nominating me! They’re both neat individuals who come up with wonderful questions, so please do check their blogs out if you haven’t already!

Rules for the Award:

• Display the award logo.
• Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog.
• Answer the questions of the one who nominated you.
• Nominate 5-10 bloggers.
• Ask them 7 questions.

MagicConan14’s Questions:

1. Why do you think Amazon’s Anime Strike failed? (If you want to dedicate a post to it later, feel free to summarise your ideas.)

Not particularly familiar with this topic, so I’ll reserve my opinion on it.

2. If you see a spider, what’s your first reaction to it?

Find a bag or a sheet of paper and take it outside. Or use my bare hands if I have to. If it’s tiny, I might just leave it alone. Spiders are good creatures and they don’t deserve the hate~

3. Do you have a favourite anime studio/mangaka, and if so, why do you like them?

That’s very difficult for me to decide on, but I’ve always liked Rumiko Takahashi (author of Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, Mermaid Saga, etc.) as a mangaka. Her art style feels refreshing and effortless, and her stories are always well-crafted. I wouldn’t call any of her works my favourite, but growing up reading those, I feel like my sense of humour and even certain worldviews have been greatly influenced by her.

4. If you could reinvent yourself as a magical girl/boy, what would you call yourself and what would your theme/s be? (e.g. Sailor Moon‘s themes involve love, justice and the universe)

Oh dear…Are magical girls supposed to have cool names? Something myth-inspired, possibly. I dig Greek mythology, and I think epithets are cool. Is that too much for a magical girl though? If my show (?) is meant for a younger audience and I must have inspirational themes for it, my themes would probably be things like “tolerance” or “sincerity”. Hmm…am I allowed to add “tragedy” to that? I really like to put tragic elements in things – tragedies make stories beautiful.

5. What is your favourite dessert?

Dammit, you’re not allowed to ask such a difficult question!!! I reject. There’s nothing sweet that I wouldn’t eat. Well…my most recent dream involved food (as it often happens), and in it I was in an assembly line that produced lemon-flavoured mille feuilles (though I didn’t get to eat any!!). So I guess I’ll say mille feuilles. It’s also one thing I haven’t tried making yet.

6. If you could end a long-running anime/manga series (with it getting an ending that ties up all loose ends), which series would you end and why?

Nana…(T_T) It went on hiatus in 2009, and I’m losing hope. I feel like the series is so close to being wrapped up already too…just a little bit further to go.

7. Hmm…weren’t there supposed to be 7?

Chizurue’s Questions

1.When did you screw everything up, but no one ever found out it was you?

I’m sure it’s happened before, but I can’t seem to recall an instance (probably repressed this memory…). In compensation, I can tell you about one time I screwed everything up and everybody knew it was me. I was working part-time at a Cantonese-run bakery where everybody spoke Canto except me. I could only guess a few words with context. I was told to handle a special cake order (an enormous birthday cake), and I misunderstood instructions and started slicing it up like I usually do with cakes that come my way. Much buttercream and many apologies were required to “fix” it. It was very sad…*cringe*.

2. What are some things that sound like compliments but are actually insults to you?

“You’re so skinny!” “I wish I could eat as little as you!” I’ve been sick with a mysterious stomach condition since years ago, and due to the lack of an adequate diagnosis, I’ve never been able to explain it to people properly. I’m recovering slowly, but there were times when I could only eat very little and was consequently quite skinny. Whenever I hear people compliment me for my eating habits or body shape even after I try explaining, I secretly get a little triggered. I’ve been in a love affair with food ever since this illness happened and would gladly accept 10 kg of weight from anybody to be able to eat good food without restrictions.

3. What’s the closest thing to real magic in your opinion?

What a fun question! Since I started thinking about food just now, I want to say “food rising in the oven”. Especially macarons. Have you ever seen how those little things grow feet while they rise in the oven? Or poke-tested their shells before sending them into the oven? Baking those is a magical process.

4. What’s something your brain tries to make you do and you have to will yourself not to do it?

Eat food when watching anime. Cereal, popcorn, or chips or anything that encourages you to eat a lot before you feel satisfied are the most dangerous. Oops, food somehow found its way into another one of my answers.

5. If you could know the absolute and total truth to one question, what question would you ask?

“Where do people go after they die?” Knowing the answer to this could greatly affect how I live. Or whether I need to convert to any religion to guarantee my posthumous well-being.

6. What ridiculous thing has someone tricked you into doing or believing?

That Santa Claus was real… To read more about how bitter I am about this, check out this all-inclusive post.

7. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this week? (Time to promote some great blogs, people!)

Ah…there are too many! I really love this post by Rinedex: Made in Abyss: Food and Family, in which she analyzes all the scenes that involve food in the anime and how people bond over them and come to different realizations. Oh my, I can’t believe I talked about food again. This was definitely not intentional.

And for a bonus, my mind was really blown by Remy‘s post that I read this morning: My Thoughts on Deconstruction in Anime. It’s a super insightful post that gives a cohesive definition to the word “deconstruction” and examines what it can and should do in anime.

Now I Nominate Some Honourable Victims

• Angelica Destler
• Rinedex
• rossiroad
• Mirrorpurple, 紫鏡
• edgyanimeteen
• It’s An Anime Thing
• Aldael
• dreamlanddrifter
• atelier emily
• OOCentral

My Questions

Yay, this is my favourite part. (Ponders about whether to make everything food-related…)

1. When a blogger with an avatar of a character you know comments on your post, do you automatically read it in your head with that character’s voice? (Please tell me it’s not just me) Care to share some examples?
2. Do you like your curry mild, medium, or spicy? Japanese, Thai, Indian, or…*gasp* do you not like curry?
3. What was the worst class you have ever taken?
4. My mom used to say that where you grip your chopsticks shows how far away from home you’ll find your future spouse. If you hold it close to the tips (where you pick up food), you’re supposed to marry someone in the same city. Close to the other end = someone from a foreign country. So where do you hold your chopsticks? XD (Or whichever utensil you use, if you never use chopsticks)
5. What’s the ideal colour for painting the exterior of a house?
6. What do you like to put on your toast?
7. I’m out of questions…do this Buzzfeed quiz that tells you which Teletubby you are and tell me your results.

Heh…I considered making up more thoughtful questions than this, but this is what it ended up being. Have fun.