"Happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time." Anime List | Manga List | MyDramaList | MFC | Letterboxd
University graduate. Sports fan. Avid gamer. Addicted to music. Closeted nerd.
- How I Got Started On Anime - "It was so sudden. There's always something wonderful happening everyday."
After watching Pokémon and other animated shows all of my childhood I pretty much abandoned the medium altogether pretty early on because of my family's taste in TV and movies. At the age of ten my favourite movie was Good Will Hunting and I gave in to the misconception that anime is childish.
In the summer of 2013, I visited my family in Texas. My cousin, who I'm close to, introduced me to her best friend. I hit it off really well with him and the three of us began watching Ouran Host Club, which I now consider my 'first' anime. To keep in contact with them, I took up watching anime with them via Skype calls, starting with Shingeki no Kyojin and EVA. Amazed by both the depth in artwork and storytelling of these two titles, I decided to watch one on my own: Clannad.
Some tears later, here I am now: hopelessly captured by the many colours and stories of anime.
- Regarding Friend Requests - "People meeting other people is a wonderful miracle--treasure that moment."
Comment on my profile if you want to discuss any show or anything really! I don't accept random friend requests, but if we've talked before or have some mutual friends then I might. I don't bite. If you're shy or want to talk about something private, just PM me.
- About Me - "I don't want to say: I was happy at that time.
I would say: I was happy at that time too, just like I am now."
☆ I share a birthday with Kurisu Makise. ☆I'm a university graduate that studied computer science and biology. ☆My personality type is ENFP ☆I like FPS games! ☆I used to be a moderator on the EA UK FIFA Forum, but it is a rarity I dust off my console. ☆My favourite games are FIFA, Apex Legends, FGO, Genshin Impact, Halo, Pokémon, and Super Smash Bros. ☆I play soccer regularly and my favourite team is Manchester United. ☆I also used to run XC and play basketball competitively in HS. My favourite team is the Dallas Mavericks. ☆I listen to just about anything except for things with screaming. These days, I mostly listen to Japanese and Korean music. ☆I love Taylor Swift and oldies (80's and 90's pop/rock). ☆I love movies, but, lately, I don't watch as many as I feel like the quality is going downhill (Letterboxd). ☆Favourites include Good Will Hunting, 50/50, Pretty Woman, The Departed, Four Weddings and a Funeral. ☆My taste in TV is greatly influenced by my parents. I like watching kdrama with them as bonding time. :) ☆I used to read far too fast and I burned through books at an unsustainable rate. ☆My favourite books include: The Art of Racing in the Rain, Kite Runner, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Kingkiller Chronicle, An Abundance of Katherines, Lioness Quartet, Millenium Trilogy, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Hamlet, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, The Alchemist, Pride and Prejudice, and The Great Gatsby. ☆I love to draw and paint. I failed art in grade three and was forced to stay after-school to trace lines and do colouring pages to work on my fine motor skills. It still is kind of a funny and embarrassing story. ☆Here's an album of some of my better recent drawings.
A birthday gift from Chieri. <3
A birthday gift from Rinarin. <3
- My Rating Scale - “The world appears wonderful in the eyes of wonderful people.”
9+: Exceptional 8: Very good (this is very enjoyable and may include some favourites) 7: Good (has some standout characteristics, even if it doesn't reach higher) 6: Above average (has faults in it that hold it back from being good, for example writing or pacing) 5: Average (meets expectations for watching, i.e. very standard show) 4: Below average (bad watchable - may have *head in hands* inducing qualities and lead to blindness) 3: Bad (results in adverse feelings and would not recommend to anyone, I may have even dropped the show) 2: Very bad (even worse) 1: No words needed (the worst)
Oh no! That must've been scary living in the city most affected by the smoke, especially since you could even see particles in the air and a yellow tint and there was a smell of ash :'( I'm glad it didn't seem too bad in spite of that though and that it eventually cleared up thanks to the rain and wind! Also, props to you for trying to visit your high school every year! It's been years since I last did that even though some of my teachers still work there, so this is an important reminder for me to pay a visit sometime too haha. You're right that it couldn't have been too bad if school was still going on then, but I also feel for the poor students who probably felt cooped up inside when all they wanted to do was go out and play!
I thought of you right away when I heard the news and wanted to make sure you were doing alright! Especially since I've lived in SoCal for most of my life, I'm no stranger to wildfires haha. They've never directly affected me either, but I still have vivid memories of a wildfire that took place during the finals week of my first year in my doctoral program. The fire was actually pretty close to my school and I was basically driving towards it, so I waited a bit first to see if class would get canceled. I didn't hear anything, so I ended up heading out anyway. When I was only two freeway exits away, I got an email that all on-campus operations were suspended immediately, but I was already so close that I decided to just park anyway and study with a couple classmates in the lounge for an hour before heading back LOL. I remember finding it eerie that the campus was so empty, and they were handing out free N95 masks even though this was years before the pandemic began.
I feel that!! I've been wanting to squeeze in an episode or two before bed when I come home from work, but I always end up feeling too tired and just spend the time lazing around instead haha. But omg! Congratulations on getting promoted to your first managerial role and being in a tech role now!! How exciting!! ☆ I'm sure there must be a learning curve, especially since your supervisor left shortly after you joined, but hopefully you've started getting the hang of things and I'm glad it sounds like you felt more comfortable a month in! How has the role been going for you?
Having a noticeable age gap with the people you work with must feel quite jarring, especially since you're managing them on top of it all! Meanwhile for me, I definitely seem to be above the average age in the main counseling program I work at haha. The director of our program is a professor in the master's program I graduated from and usually hires graduates straight out of the program, so the average age in our office tends to skew around the mid-20s. Everyone is really nice though! They work out at our school gym after work most days and have been trying to drag me along, but I usually get too lazy since I have an exercise bike at home haha. Hopefully I can join one of these days though! We actually had a work outing to a Dodgers game last month, but we missed the first five innings because everyone met at a brewery beforehand and had too much fun there and didn't want to leave LOL. There were fireworks after the game though, which was a really nice touch and way to end the night!
Thank you!! Fortunately, the school year ended without a hitch and one of my classes even put together a card and a Starbucks gift card for me on the last day, which was a super sweet gesture! I've mostly just been counseling since then, but I teach a summer class for incoming freshmen that starts in about a week. I'm not sure if it's the same for you, but the past month or so has been flying by for me! I can't believe it's almost August. I'll be sure to reply back to our main convo next month, and I appreciate your endless patience with that as always! I've missed you a lot and I hope you had a wonderful birthday this week!! I can't wait to catch up with you again soon! ♥
I wanted to greet you a little earlier, but work seemed to keep me on my toes today! I hope you've been having a wonderful day, and I'm wishing you nothing but joy and good times in the year ahead! Exchanging messages and being pen pals with you has been a constant highlight for me over the past two years, and I can't wait for all the fun convos in store for us in the future :')
Work has been keeping me a little busy since last month, but things have finally started calming down a bit, so I'm going to reply back to our most recent convo this week! I can't wait to catch up some more and hear all about what you've been up to! I hope you got to treat yourself to something nice today even if you had to work and that you've been enjoying your summer so far ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm not sure how close you are to the wildfires, but I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing! I hope you and your loved ones are safe and doing alright at this time ;___;
Also, thank you so much for your never-ending patience with my late messages!! I teach my last class in about an hour, so once I wrap up some end-of-the-year stuff and finish grading (nearly!) 100 final projects/papers, I'll finally write to you later this month haha. I hope you've been doing well and I can't wait to catch up with you soon!! ♡
Sara!!! I've missed youuu! Omg wait, I'm so excited to hear about all your life updates!! I'm sorry I haven't replied back to you yet btw ;___; I don't have much of an excuse, but teaching has been keeping me a little busy, and I traveled during my break for a friend's wedding (I'll talk a bit more about this when I properly reply back to you!). I also feel like I've been tired 24/7 lately so my dad actually bought me red ginseng that I started taking yesterday, and maybe it's the placebo effect but I feel better already haha.
There are still a few weeks left until the school year ends in June, so I'll for sure try to reply back to our main convo before then!! But just in case I can't, I remember the last time I took forever to reply back, we had a few shorter messages going back and forth in the meantime. We can do that again, or just wait until we can have a longer convo! Maybe that will be the dangling carrot that motivates me to reply back faster haha.
Thank you for your endless patience with my replies!! I hope you've been doing well and I'm wishing you lots of May blessings in the month ahead! Let's catch up soon <3
You may have listened to this already, but Twice's latest English single Moonlight Sunrise reminded me of you right away since we couldn't get The Feels out of our heads for the longest time after it came out! This seems to be just as catchy and an earworm haha. I've had it on repeat the past couple days. As Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung sing, it's definitely on my playlist!
I hope you've been having a wonderful start to the year so far, Sara! I can't believe January is almost over already. I miss you lots and I'll be in touch again soon! ♡
Sara!!! I hope you had a very merry Christmas, and I'm so sorry this is late! I was planning to greet you the day of, but I had a bunch of family stuff going on that day and the next, and then I went to a friend's birthday party last night and finally had a chance to catch my breath today haha. I read your entire message though and I've missed you a lot, so it made me really happy to hear from you! No need to apologize because your messages are always worth the wait! There's no better Christmas gift than a message from Sara (it looks like I need to add hazukashii serifu kinshi to my list of new year's resolutions LOL) ♡
I'm going to properly reply back a little later, but I wanted to reply back to a couple things quickly here at least!
First of all, thank you so much for the amazing Christmas gifts!!! I know I always say this, but they truly make my day! ♥♥♥♥ I would definitely stay awake and leave cookies and milk for Santa Tomoyo (and Sakura as a reindeer is too cute for words!). All the Sakura and Tomoyo fanart showcasing their different outfits and hairstyles is such a treat! Thank you again <3
I'll respond properly next time, but it sounds like you had a challenging year that pushed you to your limits at times, and I'm sending you loads of big hugs and love ;___; I hope it's only up for you from here and the rough patches this year laid the groundwork for many blessings to come, more than you can even count! I'm wishing you nothing but the best and a year ahead that is much gentler and kinder <3 it's great that you're trying out less intensive exercise, and I really feel you about the winter! I lose motivation to do a lot of things due to the weather and it definitely doesn't get nearly as cold here as it does in other places haha.
Thank you for sharing some of the music you've been into lately!! I've heard great things about both Paripi Koumei and Bocchi The Rock (and noticed that the former is already in my ptw list, but I'll add the latter now!) but hadn't actually listened to or watched anything from either, so I loved both songs you shared! They're so catchy! I missed so many airing anime over the past year so I was almost at a loss for where to start, but I'll make sure to prioritize those two and can't wait to get to them :') and omg, it's awesome that 96neko provided the singing voice of the female lead singer in Paripi Koumei! I used to listen to her many years ago as well (probably around 2010, just like you!), so I'm really curious now about what she's been up to lately. She has a beautiful and unique voice and range <3 I'm totally in the same boat as you when it comes to getting more into jpop/jrock lately, especially things that lean a bit into vocaloid and utaite! I actually hadn't kept up much with vocaloid for probably over a decade now, but I've been doing lots of catching up lately thanks to a mobile gacha/rhythm game called Project Sekai, which I've been super into over the past year haha. Ado and Yoasobi are both fantastic!
Okay, this is already getting too long, but one last thing kind of (but not really!) tangentially related. I'm still not dating, but speaking of Project Sekai, one of the guys who seemed interested in me (I think I mentioned him before, he's the workout buddy of my HS best friend and her fiance) actually started playing it because of me haha. We all went to an arcade the day after our Thanksgiving (and I think I got sick there! I remember you mentioning you got sick too and there does seem to be something floating around these days </3) and they had a few rhythm games, so we played together and I kept outscoring him by quite a bit, which I think surprised him because he plays a lot more games than I do haha. I think he may have been trying to impress me, but rather than caring about someone's skill level, I find it a lot more impressive when someone is fun to play with and has good sportsmanship (which he did! He was a good sport the whole time). I told him there was a rhythm game I played a lot over the past year, so he texted me the next day asking the name of the game, then a couple days later sent me a screenshot of his first full combo in the game LOL. My friend had a kickback at her place a few days later (they live a little over 100 miles away so I couldn't make it) and she sent me a picture of him playing the game and said she thinks I got him addicted to it. It made me happy to see him enjoying something so near and dear to my heart! I'm still not sure I want to pursue anything beyond friendship with him, but he's a nice person and I definitely would like to be better friends with him!
I hope you've been enjoying the holidays and taking it easy as much as possible during these busy times!! I'm glad work slowed down for now at least and I'm cheering you on as you work towards a promotion! Ganba~! It's admirable that you've been spending your evenings studying French despite how hectic this year was for you. I actually did a little traveling the past couple months, I went to Portland in September for the wedding of my realtor/project manager childhood friend's younger sister, Nashville in October and Las Vegas this month for conferences, and then Mexico next week for a bachelorette party! So many flights here have been getting canceled lately though so we're a little worried about how next week will pan out. Once things start winding down for me, I'll definitely reply back to your message! I've missed you a lot and I hope we can talk even more in the new year <3
Btw, Lilac came on my shuffle just now! It's a song that reminds me a lot of you since we talked about the album when we first started chatting :')
Wishing you a warm, peaceful, and relaxing end of the year and an amazing 2023, Sara!!! Take care and talk to you soon! ♥
All Comments (2458) Comments
you were more than that.
Oh no! That must've been scary living in the city most affected by the smoke, especially since you could even see particles in the air and a yellow tint and there was a smell of ash :'( I'm glad it didn't seem too bad in spite of that though and that it eventually cleared up thanks to the rain and wind! Also, props to you for trying to visit your high school every year! It's been years since I last did that even though some of my teachers still work there, so this is an important reminder for me to pay a visit sometime too haha. You're right that it couldn't have been too bad if school was still going on then, but I also feel for the poor students who probably felt cooped up inside when all they wanted to do was go out and play!
I thought of you right away when I heard the news and wanted to make sure you were doing alright! Especially since I've lived in SoCal for most of my life, I'm no stranger to wildfires haha. They've never directly affected me either, but I still have vivid memories of a wildfire that took place during the finals week of my first year in my doctoral program. The fire was actually pretty close to my school and I was basically driving towards it, so I waited a bit first to see if class would get canceled. I didn't hear anything, so I ended up heading out anyway. When I was only two freeway exits away, I got an email that all on-campus operations were suspended immediately, but I was already so close that I decided to just park anyway and study with a couple classmates in the lounge for an hour before heading back LOL. I remember finding it eerie that the campus was so empty, and they were handing out free N95 masks even though this was years before the pandemic began.
I feel that!! I've been wanting to squeeze in an episode or two before bed when I come home from work, but I always end up feeling too tired and just spend the time lazing around instead haha. But omg! Congratulations on getting promoted to your first managerial role and being in a tech role now!! How exciting!! ☆ I'm sure there must be a learning curve, especially since your supervisor left shortly after you joined, but hopefully you've started getting the hang of things and I'm glad it sounds like you felt more comfortable a month in! How has the role been going for you?
Having a noticeable age gap with the people you work with must feel quite jarring, especially since you're managing them on top of it all! Meanwhile for me, I definitely seem to be above the average age in the main counseling program I work at haha. The director of our program is a professor in the master's program I graduated from and usually hires graduates straight out of the program, so the average age in our office tends to skew around the mid-20s. Everyone is really nice though! They work out at our school gym after work most days and have been trying to drag me along, but I usually get too lazy since I have an exercise bike at home haha. Hopefully I can join one of these days though! We actually had a work outing to a Dodgers game last month, but we missed the first five innings because everyone met at a brewery beforehand and had too much fun there and didn't want to leave LOL. There were fireworks after the game though, which was a really nice touch and way to end the night!
Thank you!! Fortunately, the school year ended without a hitch and one of my classes even put together a card and a Starbucks gift card for me on the last day, which was a super sweet gesture! I've mostly just been counseling since then, but I teach a summer class for incoming freshmen that starts in about a week. I'm not sure if it's the same for you, but the past month or so has been flying by for me! I can't believe it's almost August. I'll be sure to reply back to our main convo next month, and I appreciate your endless patience with that as always! I've missed you a lot and I hope you had a wonderful birthday this week!! I can't wait to catch up with you again soon! ♥
Happy Birthday Sara!!!! ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡
I wanted to greet you a little earlier, but work seemed to keep me on my toes today! I hope you've been having a wonderful day, and I'm wishing you nothing but joy and good times in the year ahead! Exchanging messages and being pen pals with you has been a constant highlight for me over the past two years, and I can't wait for all the fun convos in store for us in the future :')
Work has been keeping me a little busy since last month, but things have finally started calming down a bit, so I'm going to reply back to our most recent convo this week! I can't wait to catch up some more and hear all about what you've been up to! I hope you got to treat yourself to something nice today even if you had to work and that you've been enjoying your summer so far ♥ ♥ ♥
First one hype.
You have nice taste. You have seen Uma Musume? Thats such a underrated series, who was your favorite?
Also, thank you so much for your never-ending patience with my late messages!! I teach my last class in about an hour, so once I wrap up some end-of-the-year stuff and finish grading (nearly!) 100 final projects/papers, I'll finally write to you later this month haha. I hope you've been doing well and I can't wait to catch up with you soon!! ♡
There are still a few weeks left until the school year ends in June, so I'll for sure try to reply back to our main convo before then!! But just in case I can't, I remember the last time I took forever to reply back, we had a few shorter messages going back and forth in the meantime. We can do that again, or just wait until we can have a longer convo! Maybe that will be the dangling carrot that motivates me to reply back faster haha.
Thank you for your endless patience with my replies!! I hope you've been doing well and I'm wishing you lots of May blessings in the month ahead! Let's catch up soon <3
I hope you've been having a wonderful start to the year so far, Sara! I can't believe January is almost over already. I miss you lots and I'll be in touch again soon! ♡
I'm going to properly reply back a little later, but I wanted to reply back to a couple things quickly here at least!
Btw, Lilac came on my shuffle just now! It's a song that reminds me a lot of you since we talked about the album when we first started chatting :')
Wishing you a warm, peaceful, and relaxing end of the year and an amazing 2023, Sara!!! Take care and talk to you soon! ♥