What Was the Last Video Game You Played?

[machine 52]

Harvest Moon A New Beginning 

[Akazora 293]

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Edit: Added a bit to the end.

Edited September 20, 2015 by Akazora

[Kenzi 146]

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Edit: Added a bit to the end.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

Harvest Moon A New Beginning 

I miss Harvest Moon ;___; Wish there was a PC version of it.

 

===

 

Plague Inc.

[Akazora 293]

I miss Harvest Moon ;___; Wish there was a PC version of it.

Buy a 3DS, you know you want it!

[machine 52]

Animal Crossing New Leaf

 

I miss Harvest Moon ;___; Wish there was a PC version of it.

 

I'm not saying it's the right thing to do but, emulators are a thing if the need to scratch that HM itch gets bad enough

Also just getting a 3DS is an option too. They're pretty neat, especially since the new ones are amiibo compatible 

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

Buy a 3DS, you know you want it!

Stahpppp Nintendo Fanboy. You can't tease me.

Plus, I'm livin' in a 3rd World Country

 

Animal Crossing New Leaf

 

 

I'm not saying it's the right thing to do but, emulators are a thing if the need to scratch that HM itch gets bad enough

Also just getting a 3DS is an option too. They're pretty neat, especially since the new ones are amiibo compatible 

I'm livin' in a 3rd World Country.

And, I hate Emus. Dunno why.

[Akazora 293]

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

Edited September 28, 2015 by Akazora

[Kenzi 146]

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

[Akazora 293]

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Ahahah, I find it interesting how you can formulate an intro and conclusion before the body.  I’m the exact opposite: starting and ending essays are always the hardest parts for me.  E-experiment you say?  Just… don’t do anything crazy like these guys did.  You don’t have to go that far just to prove you like science, eheh.

 

Aw, it’s nice that you’re not charging for graphics anymore.  Not implying that it was bad of you to have charged people at all back when you were busier, hah.  But yeah, I can imagine if you’re not actively advertising or growing your fanbase and whatnot that you’d have much less requests than before.  Oh geez, all of the DC episodes?  Yeahhh, I don’t know what you were thinking either.  Even if you’re watching the plot related episodes and still behind, don’t worry about it.  The manga’s just raising more questions and not resolving them, so not a lot has changed.  If you ever get frustrated enough, you could always just read the manga instead.  It’s faster and you can just sort of skim over the mystery parts if you’re not too invested in the cases.

 

Wut, Ash doesn’t have a Greninja yet??  Is there even a logical plot in the anime???  Geez, this whole thing is turning into a mess.  Then again, it’s just the Pokemon anime.  So long as it doesn’t influence the games too negatively then it should be okay (inb4 your starter in “Pokemon Z” receives the customized design of your avatar when it’s fully evolved).  Oh my gosh, that Pikachu and the others… kill them quick before they procreate…  I’m pretty sure Pokemon Go will be a bit of a gimmick and relatively underwhelming, but I’m still really looking forward to it.  As you say, there’s the nostalgia factor to consider, and that trailer was just too damn hype.  I think I watched it at least five times the day it was revealed.  It was like when the second season of UBW first started airing and the new opening was so good I couldn’t resist watching it sporadically throughout the day, hehe.

 

Hmm, I guess you’re right in saying accuracy is more important in a speed run.  My Metang (one level off from being a Metagross) is just OHKOing even things that resist it, what a savage.  I should also watch out for PP.  I just replaced Iron Head with Meteor Mash, and while I felt like it was a good idea at the time I’m starting to think maybe the extra PP that the former has over the latter would have been more useful in the long run.  Ehhhh, since Iron Head is a tutor move that came automatically with Beldum, I don’t think the move reminder will be able to bring it back.  Whatever, I’ll make do with what I have, and since I’m probably going to use Brick Break when I get it that will help with maintaining my PP.  I didn’t make much progress from before.  I got through Flannery’s gym rather easily (Metang listened to me almost all the time, which was nice) and then was taken automatically by May to Petalburg to beat my dad.  I was then whisked off to Mauville by Wally.  Why does ORAS love automatically taking you places?  Was walking around really that much of an inconvenience in RSE?  I didn’t feel it was, hm.  Anyway, my level cap is now 60 (yay for back-to-back gyms!), I have Strength and Surf under my belt, and I have a lot to explore.  I’m probably going to hit up the Trick House first (now that I have Strength), then move up to check out the desert and that one little area in Fiery Path that also required Strength to access.  Then I’ll Surf along Routes 105, 106, 107, 108 (and the Abandoned Ship!), and finally 109.  After I’ve experienced everything there is to experience on the west, I’ll Surf across the small body of water on Route 118 and continue on the with plot.  Heheh, can’t wait to get started!

 

B-But you were the one who described how you dressed for sleep; I-I never asked you for that!  Pfft, you’re still the instigator…  I was just so surprised because I thought no one ever slept with clothes on.  Like, pajamas sure, I’ve seen enough stock photos to know pajamas are probably the norm, but wearing everything down to socks just seems excessive.  Don’t you ever want your skin to air out a bit?  I dunno, if it’s really that cold and if you’re used to it then there’s nothing wrong with that, haha.

 

Oho, yeah, Trump is really hot headed and a lot of what he says makes it sound like he’s looking to pick a fight.  It kind of reminds of a rebellious teenager who just spouts out stuff to his parents in an attempt to rustle jimmies.  It’s funny, and while I know I shouldn’t be making light of politics, I still feel he adds a very interesting personality to this battle royale election, at the very least.  He’s kinda like the Gilgamesh of this fight!  Haha, Sanders is making waves.  There’s even a Bernie Sanders club in Case.  I have no idea how that got approved.  Welp, might as well try my hand at establishing a Pokemon club now.  He’s interesting because he’s actually an independent as Vermont’s senator, and a self-described democratic socialist.  Kinda like Trump, he’s someone who I guess doesn’t fully fit in a political party but leans left enough that he’s tagging along with the Democrats.  He’s holding himself rather well against Clinton.  Unfortunately, none of the other candidates are really standing much of a chance at this point (except for Biden, if he runs), and there almost doesn’t seem to be a need for a debate since very few people are willing to commit political suicide and run against Hillary.  Is the debate in a few days seriously going to only have five participants?  Bleh, bit of a buzz kill, it would have been far more interesting to see a larger starting number whittle its way down.

 

Likewise, you guys have surnames on the back of your sports attire?  I thought it was a thing that no schools did…  And uh, yeah, what made you think color guard would be different from all the other sports?  I-Is it customary for color guard to change uniforms all the time?  Oh my goodness, who would pay for a high school like that?  That’s honestly just like a college.  From the museums to gardens, it sounds like Case Western (technically the museum and garden are off campus but they’re free for students and literally right across the street, so shhhhh).  You have to be a millionaire with only one child to safety afford both Cranbrook and a private university.  I don’t really see the point of going to a very good high school though.  As long as it’s not an inner city drug and violence ridden school, it’s good enough (I say as I have a dramatic PTSD flashback of JP Stevens).  I can’t believe your parents urged you to attend.  That’s just… insane.  My parents were against me coming to Case and wanted me to go to Rutgers, that’s how tight they are with their money.  Ohh, and I read your OMM post.  If I’m deducing this right, that old friend you ran into attends Cranbrook and that’s also where you took the SAT IIs?  You mentioned “campus” instead of “school” and also said that you guys “ate lunch together”, so I figured it wasn’t just some random nearby public high school.  I’m guessing you haven’t seen him in years because you parted ways after middle school?  He could potentially be one of the friends who was going to go to Cranbrook that kinda made you tempted to attend as well.  It’s nice to hear that you happened to run into a friend after so many years!  That kind of happened to me a while back when I was also a junior in high school.  I had an SAT tutoring mini-session, and one of the girls there was someone I had met, ironically, way back in middle school in a completely unrelated tutor class.  We weren’t that close back then, but we still both recognized each other, and it was weird, hahah. 

 

Before my old watch broke I still didn’t keep in on all the time.  As of now, I’m in the same position that I was in when I had my old watch: I like wearing it in public and when I’m not on the computer, but once I hunker down to type up a long essay, browse the Interwebs, watch anime, etc. then I take it off.  The time is right there on the screen anyway, rendering the point of a watch moot, so it’s not inconvenient or anything.

 

Honestly, the best thing we can do at this point is support those that make quality anime.  If you liked Ping Pong, even if you can’t get yourself an official poster or figurine (because they don’t exist), then buy the DVDs.  You don’t plan on rewatching it?  That’s fine; buy it so you can display it on your shelf and gaze upon it fondly every once in a while.  If enough people did this, maybe those who want to try something daring but are unsure of how it’s going to sell will be more willing to abandon the ecchi formula.  Let the creators know that there’s an audience for these kinds of shows and convince them that it can be profitable.  Now, I say all this, but realistically speaking I understand that other factors come into play.  You and I aren’t exactly in any financial position to throw cash out willy-nilly in an attempt to make a “difference” in an industry already neck deep in a problem.  And just buying DVDs isn’t going to hold up against those who buy figurines, posters, and body pillows in addition to the DVDs of their favorite harem show.  Still though, it’s not a bad idea to at least be aware of the situation and keep in the back of our minds what needs to be done to turn things around.

 

Ahh, I’m freer with my language and how I express myself now?  Huh… did I change that much?  Or maybe, I could just be more relaxed and comfortable conversing with you now than when we first met almost a year ago.  Oh dear, how embarrassing, I hope I haven’t given off the wrong impression and made you think I’m weird now or something.  Rather, since you’ve probably already come to terms with my existing quirks, I hope you don’t think I’m even weirder than I was before, hahah.  Even though I enjoy crude humor, in person I don’t make perverted jokes or anything like that.  This probably sounds hypocritical, but saying vulgar things in person makes me feel uncomfortable so I very rarely do.  I’m actually rather conservative when I talk in person.  If an opportunity presents itself to say a witty sex joke in real life, I won’t take it.  But if I read something online that’s just asking to be replied to with a Lenny face, I’m more willing to go for it, eheh.  Hmm, I don’t know if that makes much sense, ahaha.

 

Mhm, harems of any kind can be very off-putting.  I’m glad you’re looking forward to what I’ve recommended!  Actually, I found some time to rewatch Hoshi no Koe the other day, and unfortunately it wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered it being.  It’s clearly just a “prototype” of 5 Centimeters Per Second, as they were made by the same person, but it’s inferior in pretty much every way.  However, the interesting thing to note is that it was made almost entirely by a single man, Makoto Shinkai, on his Mac in the early 2000s.  The plot and animation and art are all done by him, occasionally crude as it may be.  It’s only 24 minutes, so I don’t think you’d lose much watching it regardless, just so long as you see it before 5 Centimeters Per Second.  But on the other hand, if you decide not to watch it, then I don't think you'll be missing out on much.  It's up to you, in the end.  I also got around to “rewatching” Even no Jikan.  I originally watched the OVA version, which was the first version to come out before it was made into a movie.  They’re identical, with just a few extra scenes in the movie to make the transitions between the six parts more streamline.  Thankfully, that one’s still just as good as I remembered it being, hahah.  Yeah, there’s really no need to watch Shigatsu.  Look up a few AMVs if you want; it’ll be far more entertaining and you’ll pretty much get the gist of it.

 

It’s just speculation at this point, since there’s no hard release date for HF.  ufotable likes to give themselves at least a one season break between works, which is why both Fate/Zero and UBW were split cour.  When they tried to animate two seasons back to back (UBW second season and God Eater), they ran into major problems.  God Eater was plagued with delays and the last four episodes are going to be aired in the winter because they ran out of booked television time.  They had to outsource a lot of their work, which they tried to avoid in the past, just to get out nine episodes in one season.  They’re going to lay low this fall as they recuperate from their losses.  UBW’s second season Blu-ray is released in a few days on the 7th, and hopefully it sells well enough to make up for the flop that was God Eater (and I’m also looking forward to the animation changes and extra scenes, heheh).  The Tales anime is only confirmed for 2016 as of now.  It will mostly air this winter (starting January) or this spring (starting April), though I’m leaning toward the latter.  When the “new” F/sn was announced, before it was even confirmed which route would be adapted, it was early winter of 2014.  It ultimately aired in fall of 2014, which means there were about three seasons between the announcement and the ultimate start.  If they treat Tales the same way and leave just under three seasons for them to air it, then it will start April 2016 as it was revealed early summer.  They will then most likely take at least a one season break during the summer and release the HF movie in fall, which will be late 2016.  I know, that’s an entire year of waiting, but that’s how it’s shaping up to be unfortunately.  And we don’t even know how many movies it will be.  It will probably boil down to either two 3 hour or three 2 hour movies, with a few months between each.  The Kara no Kyoukai movies varied from one to two hours in length with gaps between each ranging from a few weeks to up to eight months.  HF is in a really rough place right now, but all we can hope is that with the time they’re taking they’re going to learn from mistakes made in UBW and produce the highest quality work they possibly can, however long it takes.  If you ever have the time and urge to binge rewatch F/Z before HF comes out, then you can.  You’ll definitely enjoy it more now that you know how part of F/sn plays out.  You might have to watch it an additonal third time though, after HF finally finishes, before you get all the references, but hopefully that isn’t much of a hassle.  I’ve already seen it four times through entirely and plan on seeing it one last time after HF, eheheh.

 

I’d say hold off on the Tales anime until at least the first few episodes come out, or maybe until the whole thing's finishes.  It could just end up being a generic RPG styled anime that’s being hyped up by the diehard fans.  I really hope it does well though, for HF’s sake.  ufotable needs all the money it can get.  Ohh, hahah, I call myself a loser all the time and truly believe I’m a huge dork, but I don’t get myself down about it.  I’ve pretty much accepted the weird side of me and say these things lightly; I don’t mean anything by it.  I’m more than content with my life and with who I am.  I do appreciate the concern though!  So rest assured, I’m perfectly fine; there are others out there in need of far for compassion than me.  I will say though, sometimes I do wonder what my life would be like if I did what the “cool” and “normal” kids did.  What if I listened to EDM and whatever’s popular on the radio instead of J-Pop, C-Pop, and video game OST?  What if I spent hours binging Netflix instead of hours binging anime?  What if I didn’t shut myself in and play video games all the time?  What if I actually went out with friends?  Perhaps go to the mall or movies together?  Maybe even just hang out at a friend’s house?  What if I had more friends in general?  What if I studied with others instead of by myself?  What if I ate with people I know instead of alone?  What if I was more open with others?  What if I smiled more?  What if I spoke my mind more often?  What if I had gone to prom?  What if I actually went to parties?  What if I was open to alcohol and drugs?  I sometimes wonder these things, but every time I do, I realize I don’t crave any of it.  There is no regret.  I never wish I had done things differently.  Would I be happy if I did what’s “popular” to do?  Maybe, but I wouldn’t be me.  There are plenty of people out there who live life completely different from me, and they’re probably happy.  I’m not trying to imply that my way of living leads to a happier life.  But I do think that the way I’ve lived is best for me.  Every decision I’ve ever made in my entire life was done with the intention of making me the happiest I could be.  Happiness is what we live for after all.  Have I made mistakes?  Sure, of course I have.  I can’t predict the future.  I’ve cried, I’ve gotten upset, and I’ve been bitter, but I don’t regret anything I’ve done.  I made the best decisions with what I knew at the time, and if things still didn’t work out, then that’s just how life is going to be.  I’m unbelievably happy.  I love my life and I’m excited for each new day.  My mom said that of all her children, I was the happiest.  I smiled earlier and more than either my brother or my sister did.  I was a giggling, curious little toddler.  Now that I’m 18, she wonders what happened.  I don’t smile as much as I used to, I don’t appear to be very energetic, and I’m not outspoken.  She wonders where that happy little baby went.  In truth, he never left.  He’s always been here, inside of me.  I’m still just as happy as I was when I was little, perhaps even more so, but I don’t always express it.  I’m happy, I know it, but I don’t always choose to show it, so I will not clap my hands.

 

(Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry for rambling!  I got kind of carried away and the words sort of just poured out.  Hmm, looking back at this, this would make for a decent standalone introspective essay if I brushed it up a bit, hahah.)

 

Hah, well, I can’t disagree with you there.  I’m a Windows person all the way; could never figure out Macs.  I don’t even remember why my parents got a Mac Book in the first place.  Guess they just wanted to see what the hype was all about?  There are still a ton of people who use Macs, at least if my accounting class is anything to go by.  If you grow up with it then I guess you’ll probably prefer it over Windows.  Oh wow, you haven’t updated your laptop in that long and you're still doing fine?  I guess updating doesn’t really make much of a difference, but it’s still nice to always have the newest version of something.  Haha, probably just the OCD side of me talking.

 

Yup, the food smuggling continued in high school.  Most teachers are pretty strict in class.  You know the whole “you can have a drink but only if it’s water because sugared beverages when spilled attract ants” spiel.  I didn’t mind, since my metabolism is pretty slow and I’m not much of a snacker.  People found a way around the system for the most part though.  Girls used their purses and guys just… I dunno, shoved whatever they could in their pockets I guess?  Oh wait, I guess they used drawstring bags (because we had to change for gym class of course) to conceal their goods as well.  If you were lucky you could get a teacher that was pretty lenient with the food rules, but even the nice ones didn’t have tolerance for a full blown lunch on your desk.  In fact, you aren’t even allowed to take food out of the cafeteria (not even drinks), so it was a process just to get the food circulating the hallways since the lunch ladies stood guard at the doors to make sure nothing suspiciously scrumptious left the cafeteria.  All for the sake of pest control, heh.  Was the lunch they served at Troy good?  At JP I heard it was okay; at the very least people didn't complain too much.  Wha— only lunch and dinner?  B-But breakfast is the most important……  I’ve gotten into the habit of eating a brunch right before I leave for class and then a dinner at 5 pm on the dime.  My brunch is either more breakfast or more lunch depending on how late I wake up, and I eat dinner so early because Leutner opens at exactly 5 on the weekdays and if you go in at 6 or 7 the lines are significantly longer.  I’m the kind of person who grabs something quick, finds a quiet place alone to wolf down my food, and runs back to my dorm to continue watching anime studying.  If I oversleep and miss my brunch, then whatever.  I can survive with just a dinner, literally no snacks at all.  For dinner, I always eat just enough so that at two in morning I’m not craving Chinese takeout, but not so much that when I go to the gym at 10 my stomach is too full to work out my abs, heh.

 

Pfft, I see what you’re trying to pull Kenzi.  You’re feigning innocence and insinuating that I’m the pervert, hm?  The whole “smelt it, dealt it” tactic eh?  I see right through you Curious Kenzi, don’t think you can fool me!  Ehem, but in all seriousness, my fingers always look like prunes after a shower…  Yup, my eyesight is terrible and I use night contacts.  Poor eyesight runs in the family.  My parents both had glasses before having LASIK to correct their vision.  However, since they’re getting older, they’ve gotten glasses again to help them read small print.  My sister never wore glasses, but her eyesight is below average.  My brother also has night contacts like me.  My uncle, aunt, and cousin (the ones that live in America) all wear glasses to an extent.  Errr, I think you’re mistaken Kenzi.  To my knowledge the smaller the second number is the better your eyesight is.  20/20 means that at 20 ft away you can see what the average person sees at 20 ft.  20/15 on the other hand means that at 20 ft you can see what an average person sees at 15 ft.  In other words, your eyesight is better.  If your eyesight is 5 meters worse, then you should be 20/25, or only able to see what an average person sees at 25 ft when you’re at 20 ft.  My night contacts when I wear them are pretty amazing; they bring my eyesight to about 20/10 or 20/15 when I have them in.  Of course, when they’re not in, my eyesight varies from 20/20 to 20/40 depending on how long it’s been since I last had them in and how long I slept with them in.  I experience huge fluctuations in vision on a daily basis, heh.  But it's still pretty cool your eyesight is relatively good even after all the abuse!  Is it safe to assume your sister wears contacts?  Also, do your parents have good or poor eyesight?  Oh yeah, and now if you ever catch me online really late, you’ll know that the earliest I’ll be going to sleep that night is whenever I was last online plus an extra hour for my “going to bed” routine.  Ehhhh, probably not the most reassuring thing to know, but now you have a better idea of just how rekt my sleep schedule is!

 

Whah, you’ve never had two colds back-to-back?  Either you’re a lot healthier than I’ve been giving you credit for or I’m far sicklier than I thought.  I might be wrong, but isn’t your immune system most vulnerable right at the end of fighting off another sickness?  That would imply you have the highest chance of getting sick when you’re recuperating from a previous illness.  I’m surprised it’s never happened to you before; I catch back-to-back sicknesses relatively often.  D’awww just imagining you as a little kid going trick-or-treating is the cutest thing, ahahah.  And I’m glad that you at least have fond memories of Halloween and Thanksgiving from years gone by.  It’s a pity that Halloweens and Thanksgivings don’t hold nearly as much excitement as they did back in the day; even I feel that way.  Most of my love for those holidays is rooted in nostalgia.  I haven’t really done much for Halloween the past few years and as great as Thanksgiving still is, my cousin has been growing out of video games for a while now and doesn’t really feel the hype of Smash 4 as he did with Melee (he’s two years my senior by the way).

 

Oh my gosh, your family does exactly what my family does.  They have it playing as they prepare dinner, and when I go down to eat I mindlessly watch only understanding about half, and when I head back up to do my homework I can still hear it going on in the background.  Hrm, I don’t think I’ve ever watched that drama before.  My parents don’t really watch dramas like they used to.  They’re more fascinated with Chinese reality television or game shows, since you can just watch a bunch of stuff kinda out of order and still follow it well enough.  I didn’t mean to get into The Voice of China as much as I did.  But the dynamic of the show is pretty addicting and it exposes me to a ton of Chinese music, so that’s a plus.  I’ve complied a bunch of songs I like from watching that show; it’s a nice change of pace from the hundreds of Japanese songs that I have, eheh.

 

Ufufufufufufu, ridiculously difficult quizzes on anime are what I live for!  Seriously, I gave crazy hard tests.  They generally consisted of matching, multiple choice, quotes, and an extra credit question.  If you’re curious, I’d be willing to share some of the Fate quizzes from last year.  I believe the current exec board has completely overhauled the system and isn’t giving out quizzes anymore.  Admittedly, I think those quizzes scared people from coming to meetings, eheh.  Oh well, I had a ton of fun making them so it’s fine.

 

Ah, though my parents used to watch the DC movies with us, they’ve come to regret that decision.  At least, my mom does.  They only showed it to us because they thought it would be a fun way to learn some Chinese, but that plan quickly backfired when my brother and I starting watching a bunch of other anime (obviously not in Chinese).  So now my mom thinks she was the cause for our downward spiral into cartoon addiction.  Same with video games.  She only bought us a GameCube and Game Boy because she wanted us to fit in with the other cool kids, not knowing how much of an “addiction” my brother and I would develop.  Heheh, it’s kind of funny, but I do reassure her that my life is significantly better for these introductions.  She doesn’t believe me of course, bleh.

 

Oof, even my parents would never snoop around like that.  Your mom must have taken all those cyberbullying PSAs way too seriously (not making light of cyberbullying or anything, it’s still a problem).  Hopefully there wasn’t anything embarrassing you had up there.  Woah, you use your cellphone for a lot!  Are you sure you aren’t addicted?  I never get any messages on Facebook or even text messages (something something forever alone).  In fact, I haven’t checked my Facebook in three days, and it’s only been that recent because it wouldn’t stop bothering me with the whole “you have 1 new notification” thing.  Whenever I check it’s something really stupid, so I just logout without even bothering to check my home feed or wall or whatever that thing is.  It’s quite the bother, maybe I should disable notifications all together?  I also almost never use my web browser.  What’s there to look up anyway?  I’ve never been put in the position where I had to urgently Google something.  It’s a lot easier to do on your computer anyway.  Same with checking the weather.  And I never remember to actually utilize the helpful features.  Wow, that’s a lot of homework to remember!  Man, I need to organize my schedule to make sure I have time for it.  [after I get back to my dorm]  … Wait, couldn’t I have just used my phone?  Ohh, that’s really cool, I wish I could take a picture of it!  [10 minutes after I experience a Kodak moment]  … Hold on, there’s a camera on my phone isn’t there?  I’m so used to not having a phone, that I forget the weight in my pocket is good for more than just pretending I'm busy and have something to do when I'm awkwardly sitting around.  If my OPO just up and disappeared tomorrow, my life wouldn’t be that much different.  The usefulness of a cellphone is something I can conceptually understand but not something I can personally relate to, eheh.  I’m not the biggest fan of the way alcohol smells either.  Since alcohol is a depressant, I guess it helps to calm people down and forget their worries?  People drink to escape reality a lot of the time.  I’m sure it makes you feel better, so I’ve always imagined being drunk like being tired out of your senses, but in a comfortable way instead of an exhausted way.  It doesn’t make much sense, I know, but then again the idea of getting drunk never really made much sense to start.  Might as well just explain nonsense with nonsense!  If you want to take a break from life for a bit and let your worries go, why not play video games or watch a movie?

 

Ohh same same, when I say it’s good to sit in the front, I don’t mean the very first row.  As you say, the second and third rows are the best, haha.  My classes are only small because I’m not taking intro level natural science classes.  Bio, chem, and physics classes take place in legit auditoriums (not enough room in a single lecture hall) and are hundreds of people large.  You’re required to buy an i>Clicker to participant in the occasional multiple choice questions they put on the projector, since taking attendance isn’t feasible.  They know which clicker you’re registered to, and if you don’t answer questions when you’re supposed to then they know to take off participation/attendance points.  Regardless though, these classes are the minority even though the majority of people at some point take them.

 

Eheheh, yeahh, I was a bit of a mess.  I didn’t start falling asleep during tests until senior year.  I don’t even know what happened, it’s as if a switch went off in my body and now tests take far more physical effort than they used to.  Or may my sleep schedule has been getting progressively worse over the years and it’s finally come the point where an exam can’t even keep me awake.  Ahaha, nearly pulling an all-nighter the night before senior year reminds me of when I stayed up super late on the night right before my first day of middle school, ironically enough getting my summer reading done.  I had an excuse though: being the nerdy little bookworm I was back then, I was determined to read every single summer reading book for every single grade.  We got a list at the beginning of summer break with all the books.  I believe we were required to pick just two, obviously from the sixth grade list, but I was a fool and thought it was a good idea to read every single book.  What a summer.  It was absolutely amazing, haha.  I wish I still had the list with me so I could reflect on just how much reading I got done in such a short period of time.  It must have been at least 20 novels in total, many of which were pretty good.  The Physics and Astronomy Club lecture was okay.  The professor who gave the talk on dark matter was probably more engaging than any of the teachers I have; it’s a shame I was so tired though, heh.

 

From what I’ve heard, like the rest of Case, the Greek life here is pretty tame.  Of course, I also thought Case was going to be completely full of nerdy kids, and I end up on the floor with partiers; just my luck.  When you rush sororities, you’ll have plenty of time to get to know the members and get a feel for the kind of atmosphere they have going on there.  You’ll probably be able to identify the rowdier groups pretty easily and avoid them.  It’s like a club as well, so also keep in mind that there’s a time commitment involved.  It’s ultimately up to you whether or not you want to join a sorority, and it’s hard to really commit to an opinion until you actually get on campus anyway.  Still plenty of time to think it over!

 

Hm, so they’ll probably get you a new phone around graduation?  Haha, that’s good to know!

 

Whaa, your parents would think you’d be wasting time at the gym?  Geez, my parents have been urging me to get physically active.  Something about how if I'm not fit guys won't respect me and girls won't like me, or some twisted fallacy along those lines, haha.  It’s definitely a lot easier to go to the gym in college because of the convenient location and whatnot, so I’m glad you’re considering it!

 

Last time I played Super Smash Flash was in freshman year of high school.  Apart from the controls, the pixels actually bothered me as well.  Like, I know how pixelated games can have a nice nostalgic style to them, but Smash was never meant to be pixelated.  It was always supposed to be polygonal.  That’s also why the Smash-inspired indie game Rivals of Aether feels off to me.  It looks like it could be fun but… it’s pixelated.  I don’t know why I get so hung up over that fact, ahah.

 

I’m glad my good luck managed to reach you on time!  Now that those tests are out of the way, I hope at least a bit of stress has cleared away.  How well do you think you did on the SAT IIs?

 

If it’s on the other side of the world, I will chase it down!  If it’s overcast, I will go off into the horizon until I find somewhere that isn’t!  Nothing can stop a man with a mission!  Ahah, I actually won’t try that hard if that’s what the situation boils down to.  There are plenty of gorgeous things right here on Earth to gaze at; missing an event like that is small in the grand scheme of things.

 

Oh no no, there’s no need to apologize!  I believe the average length of our responses has increased since before summer break started, so you’ve been writing more than you usually do.  And as for being kinda late, I don’t mind.  It was awfully nice of you to have reserved that Wednesday spot (ahah, yeah, I saw that), though don’t feel pressured to do that every time you’re a bit behind schedule, hahaha.

Fixed a few typos, heheh...

Edited October 6, 2015 by Akazora

[Metantei Kiddo 147]

FM2015

Fun game until your freaking lose an easily winnable match :V

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ahahah, I find it interesting how you can formulate an intro and conclusion before the body.  I’m the exact opposite: starting and ending essays are always the hardest parts for me.  E-experiment you say?  Just… don’t do anything crazy like these guys did.  You don’t have to go that far just to prove you like science, eheh.

 

Aw, it’s nice that you’re not charging for graphics anymore.  Not implying that it was bad of you to have charged people at all back when you were busier, hah.  But yeah, I can imagine if you’re not actively advertising or growing your fanbase and whatnot that you’d have much less requests than before.  Oh geez, all of the DC episodes?  Yeahhh, I don’t know what you were thinking either.  Even if you’re watching the plot related episodes and still behind, don’t worry about it.  The manga’s just raising more questions and not resolving them, so not a lot has changed.  If you ever get frustrated enough, you could always just read the manga instead.  It’s faster and you can just sort of skim over the mystery parts if you’re not too invested in the cases.

 

Wut, Ash doesn’t have a Greninja yet??  Is there even a logical plot in the anime???  Geez, this whole thing is turning into a mess.  Then again, it’s just the Pokemon anime.  So long as it doesn’t influence the games too negatively then it should be okay (inb4 your starter in “Pokemon Z” receives the customized design of your avatar when it’s fully evolved).  Oh my gosh, that Pikachu and the others… kill them quick before they procreate…  I’m pretty sure Pokemon Go will be a bit of a gimmick and relatively underwhelming, but I’m still really looking forward to it.  As you say, there’s the nostalgia factor to consider, and that trailer was just too damn hype.  I think I watched it at least five times the day it was revealed.  It was like when the second season of UBW first started airing and the new opening was so good I couldn’t resist watching it sporadically throughout the day, hehe.

 

Hmm, I guess you’re right in saying accuracy is more important in a speed run.  My Metang (one level off from being a Metagross) is just OHKOing even things that resist it, what a savage.  I should also watch out for PP.  I just replaced Iron Head with Meteor Mash, and while I felt like it was a good idea at the time I’m starting to think maybe the extra PP that the former has over the latter would have been more useful in the long run.  Ehhhh, since Iron Head is a tutor move that came automatically with Beldum, I don’t think the move reminder will be able to bring it back.  Whatever, I’ll make do with what I have, and since I’m probably going to use Brick Break when I get it that will help with maintaining my PP.  I didn’t make much progress from before.  I got through Flannery’s gym rather easily (Metang listened to me almost all the time, which was nice) and then was taken automatically by May to Petalburg to beat my dad.  I was then whisked off to Mauville by Wally.  Why does ORAS love automatically taking you places?  Was walking around really that much of an inconvenience in RSE?  I didn’t feel it was, hm.  Anyway, my level cap is now 60 (yay for back-to-back gyms!), I have Strength and Surf under my belt, and I have a lot to explore.  I’m probably going to hit up the Trick House first (now that I have Strength), then move up to check out the desert and that one little area in Fiery Path that also required Strength to access.  Then I’ll Surf along Routes 105, 106, 107, 108 (and the Abandoned Ship!), and finally 109.  After I’ve experienced everything there is to experience on the west, I’ll Surf across the small body of water on Route 118 and continue on the with plot.  Heheh, can’t wait to get started!

 

B-But you were the one who described how you dressed for sleep; I-I never asked you for that!  Pfft, you’re still the instigator…  I was just so surprised because I thought no one ever slept with clothes on.  Like, pajamas sure, I’ve seen enough stock photos to know pajamas are probably the norm, but wearing everything down to socks just seems excessive.  Don’t you ever want your skin to air out a bit?  I dunno, if it’s really that cold and if you’re used to it then there’s nothing wrong with that, haha.

 

Oho, yeah, Trump is really hot headed and a lot of what he says makes it sound like he’s looking to pick a fight.  It kind of reminds of a rebellious teenager who just spouts out stuff to his parents in an attempt to rustle jimmies.  It’s funny, and while I know I shouldn’t be making light of politics, I still feel he adds a very interesting personality to this battle royale election, at the very least.  He’s kinda like the Gilgamesh of this fight!  Haha, Sanders is making waves.  There’s even a Bernie Sanders club in Case.  I have no idea how that got approved.  Welp, might as well try my hand at establishing a Pokemon club now.  He’s interesting because he’s actually an independent as Vermont’s senator, and a self-described democratic socialist.  Kinda like Trump, he’s someone who I guess doesn’t fully fit in a political party but leans left enough that he’s tagging along with the Democrats.  He’s holding himself rather well against Clinton.  Unfortunately, none of the other candidates are really standing much of a chance at this point (except for Biden, if he runs), and there almost doesn’t seem to be a need for a debate since very few people are willing to commit political suicide and run against Hillary.  Is the debate in a few days seriously going to only have five participants?  Bleh, bit of a buzz kill, it would have been far more interesting to see a larger starting number whittle its way down.

 

Likewise, you guys have surnames on the back of your sports attire?  I thought it was a thing that no schools did…  And uh, yeah, what made you think color guard would be different from all the other sports?  I-Is it customary for color guard to change uniforms all the time?  Oh my goodness, who would pay for a high school like that?  That’s honestly just like a college.  From the museums to gardens, it sounds like Case Western (technically the museum and garden are off campus but they’re free for students and literally right across the street, so shhhhh).  You have to be a millionaire with only one child to safety afford both Cranbrook and a private university.  I don’t really see the point of going to a very good high school though.  As long as it’s not an inner city drug and violence ridden school, it’s good enough (I say as I have a dramatic PTSD flashback of JP Stevens).  I can’t believe your parents urged you to attend.  That’s just… insane.  My parents were against me coming to Case and wanted me to go to Rutgers, that’s how tight they are with their money.  Ohh, and I read your OMM post.  If I’m deducing this right, that old friend you ran into attends Cranbrook and that’s also where you took the SAT IIs?  You mentioned “campus” instead of “school” and also said that you guys “ate lunch together”, so I figured it wasn’t just some random nearby public high school.  I’m guessing you haven’t seen him in years because you parted ways after middle school?  He could potentially be one of the friends who was going to go to Cranbrook that kinda made you tempted to attend as well.  It’s nice to hear that you happened to run into a friend after so many years!  That kind of happened to me a while back when I was also a junior in high school.  I had an SAT tutoring mini-session, and one of the girls there was someone I had met, ironically, way back in middle school in a completely unrelated tutor class.  We weren’t that close back then, but we still both recognized each other, and it was weird, hahah. 

 

Before my old watch broke I still didn’t keep in on all the time.  As of now, I’m in the same position that I was in when I had my old watch: I like wearing it in public and when I’m not on the computer, but once I hunker down to type up a long essay, browse the Interwebs, watch anime, etc. then I take it off.  The time is right there on the screen anyway, rendering the point of a watch moot, so it’s not inconvenient or anything.

 

Honestly, the best thing we can do at this point is support those that make quality anime.  If you liked Ping Pong, even if you can’t get yourself an official poster or figurine (because they don’t exist), then buy the DVDs.  You don’t plan on rewatching it?  That’s fine; buy it so you can display it on your shelf and gaze upon it fondly every once in a while.  If enough people did this, maybe those who want to try something daring but are unsure of how it’s going to sell will be more willing to abandon the ecchi formula.  Let the creators know that there’s an audience for these kinds of shows and convince them that it can be profitable.  Now, I say all this, but realistically speaking I understand that other factors come into play.  You and I aren’t exactly in any financial position to throw cash out willy-nilly in an attempt to make a “difference” in an industry already neck deep in a problem.  And just buying DVDs isn’t going to hold up against those who buy figurines, posters, and body pillows in addition to the DVDs of their favorite harem show.  Still though, it’s not a bad idea to at least be aware of the situation and keep in the back of our minds what needs to be done to turn things around.

 

Ahh, I’m freer with my language and how I express myself now?  Huh… did I change that much?  Or maybe, I could just be more relaxed and comfortable conversing with you now than when we first met almost a year ago.  Oh dear, how embarrassing, I hope I haven’t given off the wrong impression and made you think I’m weird now or something.  Rather, since you’ve probably already come to terms with my existing quirks, I hope you don’t think I’m even weirder than I was before, hahah.  Even though I enjoy crude humor, in person I don’t make perverted jokes or anything like that.  This probably sounds hypocritical, but saying vulgar things in person makes me feel uncomfortable so I very rarely do.  I’m actually rather conservative when I talk in person.  If an opportunity presents itself to say a witty sex joke in real life, I won’t take it.  But if I read something online that’s just asking to be replied to with a Lenny face, I’m more willing to go for it, eheh.  Hmm, I don’t know if that makes much sense, ahaha.

 

Mhm, harems of any kind can be very off-putting.  I’m glad you’re looking forward to what I’ve recommended!  Actually, I found some time to rewatch Hoshi no Koe the other day, and unfortunately it wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered it being.  It’s clearly just a “prototype” of 5 Centimeters Per Second, as they were made by the same person, but it’s inferior in pretty much every way.  However, the interesting thing to note is that it was made almost entirely by a single man, Makoto Shinkai, on his Mac in the early 2000s.  The plot and animation and art are all done by him, occasionally crude as it may be.  It’s only 24 minutes, so I don’t think you’d lose much watching it regardless, just so long as you see it before 5 Centimeters Per Second.  But on the other hand, if you decide not to watch it, then I don't think you'll be missing out on much.  It's up to you, in the end.  I also got around to “rewatching” Even no Jikan.  I originally watched the OVA version, which was the first version to come out before it was made into a movie.  They’re identical, with just a few extra scenes in the movie to make the transitions between the six parts more streamline.  Thankfully, that one’s still just as good as I remembered it being, hahah.  Yeah, there’s really no need to watch Shigatsu.  Look up a few AMVs if you want; it’ll be far more entertaining and you’ll pretty much get the gist of it.

 

It’s just speculation at this point, since there’s no hard release date for HF.  ufotable likes to give themselves at least a one season break between works, which is why both Fate/Zero and UBW were split cour.  When they tried to animate two seasons back to back (UBW second season and God Eater), they ran into major problems.  God Eater was plagued with delays and the last four episodes are going to be aired in the winter because they ran out of booked television time.  They had to outsource a lot of their work, which they tried to avoid in the past, just to get out nine episodes in one season.  They’re going to lay low this fall as they recuperate from their losses.  UBW’s second season Blu-ray is released in a few days on the 7th, and hopefully it sells well enough to make up for the flop that was God Eater (and I’m also looking forward to the animation changes and extra scenes, heheh).  The Tales anime is only confirmed for 2016 as of now.  It will mostly air this winter (starting January) or this spring (starting April), though I’m leaning toward the latter.  When the “new” F/sn was announced, before it was even confirmed which route would be adapted, it was early winter of 2014.  It ultimately aired in fall of 2014, which means there were about three seasons between the announcement and the ultimate start.  If they treat Tales the same way and leave just under three seasons for them to air it, then it will start April 2016 as it was revealed early summer.  They will then most likely take at least a one season break during the summer and release the HF movie in fall, which will be late 2016.  I know, that’s an entire year of waiting, but that’s how it’s shaping up to be unfortunately.  And we don’t even know how many movies it will be.  It will probably boil down to either two 3 hour or three 2 hour movies, with a few months between each.  The Kara no Kyoukai movies varied from one to two hours in length with gaps between each ranging from a few weeks to up to eight months.  HF is in a really rough place right now, but all we can hope is that with the time they’re taking they’re going to learn from mistakes made in UBW and produce the highest quality work they possibly can, however long it takes.  If you ever have the time and urge to binge rewatch F/Z before HF comes out, then you can.  You’ll definitely enjoy it more now that you know how part of F/sn plays out.  You might have to watch it an additonal third time though, after HF finally finishes, before you get all the references, but hopefully that isn’t much of a hassle.  I’ve already seen it four times through entirely and plan on seeing it one last time after HF, eheheh.

 

I’d say hold off on the Tales anime until at least the first few episodes come out, or maybe until the whole thing's finishes.  It could just end up being a generic RPG styled anime that’s being hyped up by the diehard fans.  I really hope it does well though, for HF’s sake.  ufotable needs all the money it can get.  Ohh, hahah, I call myself a loser all the time and truly believe I’m a huge dork, but I don’t get myself down about it.  I’ve pretty much accepted the weird side of me and say these things lightly; I don’t mean anything by it.  I’m more than content with my life and with who I am.  I do appreciate the concern though!  So rest assured, I’m perfectly fine; there are others out there in need of far for compassion than me.  I will say though, sometimes I do wonder what my life would be like if I did what the “cool” and “normal” kids did.  What if I listened to EDM and whatever’s popular on the radio instead of J-Pop, C-Pop, and video game OST?  What if I spent hours binging Netflix instead of hours binging anime?  What if I didn’t shut myself in and play video games all the time?  What if I actually went out with friends?  Perhaps go to the mall or movies together?  Maybe even just hang out at a friend’s house?  What if I had more friends in general?  What if I studied with others instead of by myself?  What if I ate with people I know instead of alone?  What if I was more open with others?  What if I smiled more?  What if I spoke my mind more often?  What if I had gone to prom?  What if I actually went to parties?  What if I was open to alcohol and drugs?  I sometimes wonder these things, but every time I do, I realize I don’t crave any of it.  There is no regret.  I never wish I had done things differently.  Would I be happy if I did what’s “popular” to do?  Maybe, but I wouldn’t be me.  There are plenty of people out there who live life completely different from me, and they’re probably happy.  I’m not trying to imply that my way of living leads to a happier life.  But I do think that the way I’ve lived is best for me.  Every decision I’ve ever made in my entire life was done with the intention of making me the happiest I could be.  Happiness is what we live for after all.  Have I made mistakes?  Sure, of course I have.  I can’t predict the future.  I’ve cried, I’ve gotten upset, and I’ve been bitter, but I don’t regret anything I’ve done.  I made the best decisions with what I knew at the time, and if things still didn’t work out, then that’s just how life is going to be.  I’m unbelievably happy.  I love my life and I’m excited for each new day.  My mom said that of all her children, I was the happiest.  I smiled earlier and more than either my brother or my sister did.  I was a giggling, curious little toddler.  Now that I’m 18, she wonders what happened.  I don’t smile as much as I used to, I don’t appear to be very energetic, and I’m not outspoken.  She wonders where that happy little baby went.  In truth, he never left.  He’s always been here, inside of me.  I’m still just as happy as I was when I was little, perhaps even more so, but I don’t always express it.  I’m happy, I know it, but I don’t always choose to show it, so I will not clap my hands.

 

(Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry for rambling!  I got kind of carried away and the words sort of just poured out.  Hmm, looking back at this, this would make for a decent standalone introspective essay if I brushed it up a bit, hahah.)

 

Hah, well, I can’t disagree with you there.  I’m a Windows person all the way; could never figure out Macs.  I don’t even remember why my parents got a Mac Book in the first place.  Guess they just wanted to see what the hype was all about?  There are still a ton of people who use Macs, at least if my accounting class is anything to go by.  If you grow up with it then I guess you’ll probably prefer it over Windows.  Oh wow, you haven’t updated your laptop in that long and you're still doing fine?  I guess updating doesn’t really make much of a difference, but it’s still nice to always have the newest version of something.  Haha, probably just the OCD side of me talking.

 

Yup, the food smuggling continued in high school.  Most teachers are pretty strict in class.  You know the whole “you can have a drink but only if it’s water because sugared beverages when spilled attract ants” spiel.  I didn’t mind, since my metabolism is pretty slow and I’m not much of a snacker.  People found a way around the system for the most part though.  Girls used their purses and guys just… I dunno, shoved whatever they could in their pockets I guess?  Oh wait, I guess they used drawstring bags (because we had to change for gym class of course) to conceal their goods as well.  If you were lucky you could get a teacher that was pretty lenient with the food rules, but even the nice ones didn’t have tolerance for a full blown lunch on your desk.  In fact, you aren’t even allowed to take food out of the cafeteria (not even drinks), so it was a process just to get the food circulating the hallways since the lunch ladies stood guard at the doors to make sure nothing suspiciously scrumptious left the cafeteria.  All for the sake of pest control, heh.  Was the lunch they served at Troy good?  At JP I heard it was okay; at the very least people didn't complain too much.  Wha— only lunch and dinner?  B-But breakfast is the most important……  I’ve gotten into the habit of eating a brunch right before I leave for class and then a dinner at 5 pm on the dime.  My brunch is either more breakfast or more lunch depending on how late I wake up, and I eat dinner so early because Leutner opens at exactly 5 on the weekdays and if you go in at 6 or 7 the lines are significantly longer.  I’m the kind of person who grabs something quick, finds a quiet place alone to wolf down my food, and runs back to my dorm to continue watching anime studying.  If I oversleep and miss my brunch, then whatever.  I can survive with just a dinner, literally no snacks at all.  For dinner, I always eat just enough so that at two in morning I’m not craving Chinese takeout, but not so much that when I go to the gym at 10 my stomach is too full to work out my abs, heh.

 

Pfft, I see what you’re trying to pull Kenzi.  You’re feigning innocence and insinuating that I’m the pervert, hm?  The whole “smelt it, dealt it” tactic eh?  I see right through you Curious Kenzi, don’t think you can fool me!  Ehem, but in all seriousness, my fingers always look like prunes after a shower…  Yup, my eyesight is terrible and I use night contacts.  Poor eyesight runs in the family.  My parents both had glasses before having LASIK to correct their vision.  However, since they’re getting older, they’ve gotten glasses again to help them read small print.  My sister never wore glasses, but her eyesight is below average.  My brother also has night contacts like me.  My uncle, aunt, and cousin (the ones that live in America) all wear glasses to an extent.  Errr, I think you’re mistaken Kenzi.  To my knowledge the smaller the second number is the better your eyesight is.  20/20 means that at 20 ft away you can see what the average person sees at 20 ft.  20/15 on the other hand means that at 20 ft you can see what an average person sees at 15 ft.  In other words, your eyesight is better.  If your eyesight is 5 meters worse, then you should be 20/25, or only able to see what an average person sees at 25 ft when you’re at 20 ft.  My night contacts when I wear them are pretty amazing; they bring my eyesight to about 20/10 or 20/15 when I have them in.  Of course, when they’re not in, my eyesight varies from 20/20 to 20/40 depending on how long it’s been since I last had them in and how long I slept with them in.  I experience huge fluctuations in vision on a daily basis, heh.  But it's still pretty cool your eyesight is relatively good even after all the abuse!  Is it safe to assume your sister wears contacts?  Also, do your parents have good or poor eyesight?  Oh yeah, and now if you ever catch me online really late, you’ll know that the earliest I’ll be going to sleep that night is whenever I was last online plus an extra hour for my “going to bed” routine.  Ehhhh, probably not the most reassuring thing to know, but now you have a better idea of just how rekt my sleep schedule is!

 

Whah, you’ve never had two colds back-to-back?  Either you’re a lot healthier than I’ve been giving you credit for or I’m far sicklier than I thought.  I might be wrong, but isn’t your immune system most vulnerable right at the end of fighting off another sickness?  That would imply you have the highest chance of getting sick when you’re recuperating from a previous illness.  I’m surprised it’s never happened to you before; I catch back-to-back sicknesses relatively often.  D’awww just imagining you as a little kid going trick-or-treating is the cutest thing, ahahah.  And I’m glad that you at least have fond memories of Halloween and Thanksgiving from years gone by.  It’s a pity that Halloweens and Thanksgivings don’t hold nearly as much excitement as they did back in the day; even I feel that way.  Most of my love for those holidays is rooted in nostalgia.  I haven’t really done much for Halloween the past few years and as great as Thanksgiving still is, my cousin has been growing out of video games for a while now and doesn’t really feel the hype of Smash 4 as he did with Melee (he’s two years my senior by the way).

 

Oh my gosh, your family does exactly what my family does.  They have it playing as they prepare dinner, and when I go down to eat I mindlessly watch only understanding about half, and when I head back up to do my homework I can still hear it going on in the background.  Hrm, I don’t think I’ve ever watched that drama before.  My parents don’t really watch dramas like they used to.  They’re more fascinated with Chinese reality television or game shows, since you can just watch a bunch of stuff kinda out of order and still follow it well enough.  I didn’t mean to get into The Voice of China as much as I did.  But the dynamic of the show is pretty addicting and it exposes me to a ton of Chinese music, so that’s a plus.  I’ve complied a bunch of songs I like from watching that show; it’s a nice change of pace from the hundreds of Japanese songs that I have, eheh.

 

Ufufufufufufu, ridiculously difficult quizzes on anime are what I live for!  Seriously, I gave crazy hard tests.  They generally consisted of matching, multiple choice, quotes, and an extra credit question.  If you’re curious, I’d be willing to share some of the Fate quizzes from last year.  I believe the current exec board has completely overhauled the system and isn’t giving out quizzes anymore.  Admittedly, I think those quizzes scared people from coming to meetings, eheh.  Oh well, I had a ton of fun making them so it’s fine.

 

Ah, though my parents used to watch the DC movies with us, they’ve come to regret that decision.  At least, my mom does.  They only showed it to us because they thought it would be a fun way to learn some Chinese, but that plan quickly backfired when my brother and I starting watching a bunch of other anime (obviously not in Chinese).  So now my mom thinks she was the cause for our downward spiral into cartoon addiction.  Same with video games.  She only bought us a GameCube and Game Boy because she wanted us to fit in with the other cool kids, not knowing how much of an “addiction” my brother and I would develop.  Heheh, it’s kind of funny, but I do reassure her that my life is significantly better for these introductions.  She doesn’t believe me of course, bleh.

 

Oof, even my parents would never snoop around like that.  Your mom must have taken all those cyberbullying PSAs way too seriously (not making light of cyberbullying or anything, it’s still a problem).  Hopefully there wasn’t anything embarrassing you had up there.  Woah, you use your cellphone for a lot!  Are you sure you aren’t addicted?  I never get any messages on Facebook or even text messages (something something forever alone).  In fact, I haven’t checked my Facebook in three days, and it’s only been that recent because it wouldn’t stop bothering me with the whole “you have 1 new notification” thing.  Whenever I check it’s something really stupid, so I just logout without even bothering to check my home feed or wall or whatever that thing is.  It’s quite the bother, maybe I should disable notifications all together?  I also almost never use my web browser.  What’s there to look up anyway?  I’ve never been put in the position where I had to urgently Google something.  It’s a lot easier to do on your computer anyway.  Same with checking the weather.  And I never remember to actually utilize the helpful features.  Wow, that’s a lot of homework to remember!  Man, I need to organize my schedule to make sure I have time for it.  [after I get back to my dorm]  … Wait, couldn’t I have just used my phone?  Ohh, that’s really cool, I wish I could take a picture of it!  [10 minutes after I experience a Kodak moment]  … Hold on, there’s a camera on my phone isn’t there?  I’m so used to not having a phone, that I forget the weight in my pocket is good for more than just pretending I'm busy and have something to do when I'm awkwardly sitting around.  If my OPO just up and disappeared tomorrow, my life wouldn’t be that much different.  The usefulness of a cellphone is something I can conceptually understand but not something I can personally relate to, eheh.  I’m not the biggest fan of the way alcohol smells either.  Since alcohol is a depressant, I guess it helps to calm people down and forget their worries?  People drink to escape reality a lot of the time.  I’m sure it makes you feel better, so I’ve always imagined being drunk like being tired out of your senses, but in a comfortable way instead of an exhausted way.  It doesn’t make much sense, I know, but then again the idea of getting drunk never really made much sense to start.  Might as well just explain nonsense with nonsense!  If you want to take a break from life for a bit and let your worries go, why not play video games or watch a movie?

 

Ohh same same, when I say it’s good to sit in the front, I don’t mean the very first row.  As you say, the second and third rows are the best, haha.  My classes are only small because I’m not taking intro level natural science classes.  Bio, chem, and physics classes take place in legit auditoriums (not enough room in a single lecture hall) and are hundreds of people large.  You’re required to buy an i>Clicker to participant in the occasional multiple choice questions they put on the projector, since taking attendance isn’t feasible.  They know which clicker you’re registered to, and if you don’t answer questions when you’re supposed to then they know to take off participation/attendance points.  Regardless though, these classes are the minority even though the majority of people at some point take them.

 

Eheheh, yeahh, I was a bit of a mess.  I didn’t start falling asleep during tests until senior year.  I don’t even know what happened, it’s as if a switch went off in my body and now tests take far more physical effort than they used to.  Or may my sleep schedule has been getting progressively worse over the years and it’s finally come the point where an exam can’t even keep me awake.  Ahaha, nearly pulling an all-nighter the night before senior year reminds me of when I stayed up super late on the night right before my first day of middle school, ironically enough getting my summer reading done.  I had an excuse though: being the nerdy little bookworm I was back then, I was determined to read every single summer reading book for every single grade.  We got a list at the beginning of summer break with all the books.  I believe we were required to pick just two, obviously from the sixth grade list, but I was a fool and thought it was a good idea to read every single book.  What a summer.  It was absolutely amazing, haha.  I wish I still had the list with me so I could reflect on just how much reading I got done in such a short period of time.  It must have been at least 20 novels in total, many of which were pretty good.  The Physics and Astronomy Club lecture was okay.  The professor who gave the talk on dark matter was probably more engaging than any of the teachers I have; it’s a shame I was so tired though, heh.

 

From what I’ve heard, like the rest of Case, the Greek life here is pretty tame.  Of course, I also thought Case was going to be completely full of nerdy kids, and I end up on the floor with partiers; just my luck.  When you rush sororities, you’ll have plenty of time to get to know the members and get a feel for the kind of atmosphere they have going on there.  You’ll probably be able to identify the rowdier groups pretty easily and avoid them.  It’s like a club as well, so also keep in mind that there’s a time commitment involved.  It’s ultimately up to you whether or not you want to join a sorority, and it’s hard to really commit to an opinion until you actually get on campus anyway.  Still plenty of time to think it over!

 

Hm, so they’ll probably get you a new phone around graduation?  Haha, that’s good to know!

 

Whaa, your parents would think you’d be wasting time at the gym?  Geez, my parents have been urging me to get physically active.  Something about how if I'm not fit guys won't respect me and girls won't like me, or some twisted fallacy along those lines, haha.  It’s definitely a lot easier to go to the gym in college because of the convenient location and whatnot, so I’m glad you’re considering it!

 

Last time I played Super Smash Flash was in freshman year of high school.  Apart from the controls, the pixels actually bothered me as well.  Like, I know how pixelated games can have a nice nostalgic style to them, but Smash was never meant to be pixelated.  It was always supposed to be polygonal.  That’s also why the Smash-inspired indie game Rivals of Aether feels off to me.  It looks like it could be fun but… it’s pixelated.  I don’t know why I get so hung up over that fact, ahah.

 

I’m glad my good luck managed to reach you on time!  Now that those tests are out of the way, I hope at least a bit of stress has cleared away.  How well do you think you did on the SAT IIs?

 

If it’s on the other side of the world, I will chase it down!  If it’s overcast, I will go off into the horizon until I find somewhere that isn’t!  Nothing can stop a man with a mission!  Ahah, I actually won’t try that hard if that’s what the situation boils down to.  There are plenty of gorgeous things right here on Earth to gaze at; missing an event like that is small in the grand scheme of things.

 

Oh no no, there’s no need to apologize!  I believe the average length of our responses has increased since before summer break started, so you’ve been writing more than you usually do.  And as for being kinda late, I don’t mind.  It was awfully nice of you to have reserved that Wednesday spot (ahah, yeah, I saw that), though don’t feel pressured to do that every time you’re a bit behind schedule, hahaha.

Fixed a few typos, heheh...

 

The intro and conclusion are normally the hardest for me, but I dunno, haha. Maybe it's because a personal narrative essay is so different than what I'm used to writing. Nah, don't worry. I'm not trying to kill myself or anything. And the experiment doesn't have much to do with science, lol.

 

Yeahh, I was going through a "phase" ahah... The last anime I watched before I re-discovered DC was SnK, which was well over a year earlier. So yeah, you can imagine how skewed my opinion of DC was. "Oh hey, I just unearthed a part of my childhood. I also didn't watch enough anime to give it a point of comparison so it's not like I feel biased towards DC or anything, pfft." After watching anime like F/Z, Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong, LWA, etc., I suddenly realized that DC is a pretty subpar anime at best (or at least compared the anime I just listed). It has little to no plot progression and it's basically a cash cow. It's not something worth investing in since I can easily lose interest and/or drop it completely without missing much. And the worst part is, I was legit planning to see through to watching all of the DC episodes. So uh, thanks for helping me snap out of that mentality, lol. The cases also get a lot more stale and obscure in the later episodes/chapters so I don't know how long I would've lasted before cracking. And for this reason, I don't see the point in catching up on the anime/manga at the moment, even if I could just as easily skip over the mystery parts. I'm also really sick of how definitive Conan is in his deductions because all of the characters treat what he says as the be all and end all. Uh, like, you don't have to be left-handed to use your left hand to spray paint. If the particular situation called for using a left hand, why would someone go out of their way to use their right hand just because they're right-handed? If the cup holder is on my right side, would I avoid using my right hand to pick up my drink because I'm left-handed?? Stuff like this irritates me in his deductions. The officers and DB and other tagalongs/company just praise him for the "godly" deduction and arrest the culprit. And don't get me started on how bland the majority of the characters are, ugh. I understand Gosho has been writing these for over twenty years so there's bound to be a few bumps in the road, but it's the little things like this that make watching DC a chore nowadays. I also get that DC is supposed to be a whodunit and not something that's focused on plot, but the practically nonexistent plot is the only incentive for me to watch it right now. The fact that it drags on so much is kinda discouraging. The last episodes I watched were in the Scarlet Arc, and I got so bored that I just opened a new tab to read some online articles. I flipped back and forth so I could catch enough dialogue to understand what was going on, but yeah. My interest in DC has been dwindling. It's also funny how invested and worked up Conan is in every case he encounters, I guess. 

 

Haha, as far as I know, Ash is still ten years old, lol. If the starters in the new Pokemon game can receive customized designs of your avatar, I will cry. And not the good kind of cry. I wouldn't mind if it could wear a hat or something though, heh. I still have mixed feelings about Pokemon Go. I honestly don't think the actual app is going to be as dramatic as the trailer makes it out to be--especially that scene with Mewtwo (I know; it's just for marketing purposes, but still). The only "practical" use I see for it is encouraging people to travel to new places. That, and the ability to interact with others (or lack thereof). And the accessory looks like it's going to be a huge distraction for some people. It buzzes, you see a rare Pokemon, you direct your attention to the Pokemon instead of whatever you were doing before. Don't mind me; I'm just rambling at this point, lol. The accessory also reminds me of the Pokewalker for some reason. Ahh, good times. Even though the darn thing rarely worked, I still had loads of fun derping around with it. The app still looks pretty polished, so I'll probably check it out.  

 

It's fine if you deleted Iron Head for Meteor Mash. Even though you wouldn't be able to go to the move relearner, I'm fairly certain the move tutor can fix that. Haha, I actually thought it was kinda neat that they gave you the convenience of getting whisked away instead of having to bike there. Also, this is a random question, but what did you think of the grunts? Like how they're just flat Sugimori art instead of polygonal in the battle cutscenes. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's just a minor complaint I saw floating around. Ohh, it's good to hear that you're holding your ground relatively well against these gym leaders! Then again, it shouldn't be too surprising since you're basically twenty levels ahead of them, lol.  

 

I-I only described how I dressed for bed because I figured you wanted an explanation after explaining how surprised you were. A-And it's not like describing what I wore to sleep was that big of a deal anyway, hmph. Haha, and likewise, I knew that wearing pajamas was normal, but didn't think that sleeping bare was that common. Sleeping bare is just a little bit out of my comfort zone since it makes me feel kinda vulnerable and exposed, eheh. Airing out my skin never felt like a problem for me. I'll take off my socks in the spring/summer, but I'll wear them during fall/winter when it gets a little colder. And ehh?? You thought no one ever slept with clothes on?? Everyone in my family sleeps with clothes on... and it's not like we're wearing jeans to sleep..........

 

I guess the reason Trump has been getting so much backlash lately is because a lot of people genuinely believe that he could win the election. If you want my opinion, I don't think it's going to happen. He already angered a huge chunk of the country. I'm just laughing at the memes circulating the internet. And you're right; he does add a pretty interesting personality to the election. But at the same time I don't know jack about politics so maybe I'm being overly nonchalant here. What the... there's a Bernie Sanders club at Case?? Sounds kinda cultish, but um... Sanders seems like a good guy, so uh... Dang, only five participants for the next debate? Yeahh, most of the other candidates have been left in the dust so it kinda defeats the purpose of holding one if there are so few participants. Not as many options for a Bad Lip Reading as the first Republican debate had, but it could still potentially turn into something good. Oh geez, lol, what am I even saying. 

 

Whaa, you've never seen people surnames on the back of their sports attire? That can't be. Surely there must've been some people roaming around NJ with these kinds of clothing. And uh, we do have different color guard uniforms every year, eheh. Oh, and about the whole iPad thing I mentioned earlier... apparently the students have to return it by the time they reach high school. Phew, really glad a friend cleared that up for me because there's no way in hell the school district had that much money. I still think investing in those iPads is a ridiculous idea though. Also, I read the school newspaper yesterday, and the school district received a huge bond last year. So I guess that explains all of the renovations we've been getting lately. Yeahh, if you walked on the campus of Cranbrook, you'd notice it resembles a college campus. Dining halls, fountains, infrastructures, it's freaking gigantic. You have to drive to get to some places. The tuition is also comparable to most colleges and it's insane. I'm not sure what my parents were thinking either when they urged to send me there. Troy's far from a bad school, and I also didn't want the whole "you better not eff up cuz we're coughing up 30k for you to get a solid education so you can get into a good college" hanging over me. Also, it's possible to go to Cranbrook on a scholarship. You'd have to be an inherent genius though or have some attribute that really sticks out. Ohh, you managed to get all of that from a simple OMM post? You're quite perceptive, I'll give you that much. I didn't expect the connection to have been so easily discernible since I could just as easily have been referring to a college campus and not necessarily Cranbrook's. For all you know, the friend I was referring to could've been a college friend or something. But nonetheless, good eye. You hit the nail on the head, except for the middle school part. But I can't hold that against you since there's no way you would've been able to know that. Plus, it's already pretty impressive that you managed to get everything else right, haha. The guy actually went to middle school in Cranbrook. He could've potentially gone to Troy HS, so he's a traitor, ahah. Seeing him for the first time in years so unexpectedly was just... it really brought me back. Derping around with our silly antics and making light out of pretty much everything you can imagine with accents and imitations, raving about how good some of our friends are at tennis, complaining about the lack of sleep we get, catching up on each other's lives... good times. Heh, really glad to see that he hasn't changed a bit. But it's a bit silly to go to this school (especially since it's so expensive) solely because a friend went there, so I didn't. Ohh, isn't running into old friends just a grand ol' time? I've actually had this happen to me quite a few times. There was this one girl I recognized during a Science Olympiad competition in middle school, and there was another girl who approached me while I was playing tennis but I couldn't remember her face for the life of me (so it was kinda awkward), but it was still fun talking to her. Haha, glad to see that you had the experience yourself! It's a pretty weird feeling for sure, but ya gotta admit it's also kinda fun, heh.

 

I actually think it's kinda inconvenient putting it on and taking it off all the time. Maybe this is just my laziness speaking for me, but why not keep your watch on the whole time? I've worn it for so long that it doesn't make a difference to me weight-wise. And I don't see anything wrong with having a second clock on your wrist; the more the merrier, eheh... But if you say keeping it on bothers you that much, then whatever floats your boat man, haha.

 

You do make a good point since I barely have any anime merchandise. For starters, you're right; I can't just toss around money I don't have, and it's not like my parents would let me use their money to support the Japanese "cartoons" they're so against. I haven't shown much support (in terms of purchases, I suppose) and beggars can't be choosers, after all. But at the same time, I feel like part of the reason anime like Ping Pong don't garner much support is because a lot of outsiders tend to turn away from anime as a whole because of the ecchi label. When they think of anime, they don't think of quality entertainment. Of course they don't. Much of what floats around on the internet is basically ecchi. I'm saying this with rule 34 in mind. The fanart that people see? Even if the anime doesn't have a smidgen of fanservice--something like SnK is a prime example--there will be, without doubt, fanart that give off the wrong idea. The same can apply to video games or anything really, but we're talking about what outsiders see. Half of the problem is just how anime is portrayed and perceived in general; the misconstrued idea that anime is just mindless fanservice. Why would any outsiders who're looking for quality entertainment want to invest in something so shallow? Of course they wouldn't. So why bother targeting these people in an attempt to set things straight when the anime industry can just continue on in enormous the hole they dug themselves in? A hole that much of the internet also helped dig? There would be little to no progress, it's not terribly profitable either, and it's not like they can fix the mess they're in right now. I doubt any of this will change in the near future, but this is also something else to keep in mind. Perhaps if enough people showed support, a difference could be made. But part of me still believes it's wishful thinking.

 

Ahaha, not at all! Your quirks is one of the main reasons I've taken such a liking to you, lol. I don't find myself cracking perverted jokes in person to and fro either, and I definitely won't be obnoxiously shouting "that's what she said" every other minute for the sake of my entertainment, but I might say something every once in a blue moon just to lighten up the atmosphere a bit.  If a friend says something that can blatantly be taken as a sexual innuendo, then... pshh, how can I resist. Online though? I guess you could say I do enjoy crude humor, hah.

 

I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get through my backlog over break, so 24 minutes doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for the heads up! Okay, so I took your advice and watched a few AMVs of Shigatsu. First of all, holy geezus they had a huge budget for the art. If it weren't for your negative impressions, I might've actually ended up watching this. Just the idea that the main protagonists are so young still annoys me quite a bit. Why not college students? That was one of the main thoughts while watching the AMVs. Also, why is it that a portion of Arima's glasses is cut off of his face in some scenes (typically the ones that feature a side view of his face). I'd assume it's so the audience can see his eyes and expressions, but it still bugs me. It's so distracting. If they didn't want the hinges of the glasses blocking his eyes, why didn't they just draw his glasses with a thinner frame. And a lot of the supposedly heartwarming exchanges between the two seemed really underwhelming and overdone. They're middle schoolers for fduck's sake.

 

I appreciate you writing out your speculations for the release dates, but man, I can't wait that long, ahaha... Fall 2016? With a few months worth of gaps between each release? Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if I cracked before then. I still have that backlog of anime to watch but I don't think it'll last me until the HF movies are released. Not that I mind rewatching F/Z early or anything since I'm actually looking forward to it, lol. Oh sheesh, you've already watched it four times?? I'm assuming the first time you watched it you only intended to get your feet wet. And the second time was either for pleasure or to familiarize yourself more. Or I could be completely wrong. Perhaps the third time was to prep yourself for the release of UBW, but what was the fourth time for? And then you'll be watching it once more after HF? Geez you're dedicated, haha.

 

Hah, I've never considered myself a "normal" person either. In terms of my interests, at least. I'm not too caught up with singers like Taylor Swift and I haven't watched western shows like Grey's Anatomy. I'm far too obsessed with instrumentals and OSTs to care or complain about what plays on the radio. I rarely go to the movie theater either. But who cares. Being "normal" is boring. Most of my friends don't know about this side of me though. On the outside I'm just like any other kid. I don't consider myself as someone who's popular, but I hang out with friends regularly, eat lunch with them, study with them on occasion, you know, "normal" kid stuff. If I hear any mention of games I've played, anime I've watched, music I've listened to, I will pipe up without fail. It's just so rare to find people out there who share my interests. Or just someone to talk about them to. I love being different. It's just so easy and so much fun to click with like-minded people. It's really hard to find that kind of compatibility, but it's honestly so exciting to find these kinds of people as well. Not necessarily the waifu extremists though. But sometimes I do wonder how I would've turned out if I hung out with the "popular" people, or if I was more "normal", and it sounds like a nightmarish hellhole. I wouldn't be the weird, crazy, spontaneous idiot I am today if I happened to take on that persona. My character and everything I am today stemmed from my interests. My YouTube channel, one of the biggest parts of my life, was only created because of my obsession with Pokemon. The internet culture I'm so familiar with today built a bit of my personality. I've learned a lot from observing the normal people that would've never come from being one of them. Why get worked up about all the drama and gossip that ensues from the cliques that form all around school? Why is that "normal"? Why get hung up on something so ephemeral? I've had some ups and downs--especially in middle school and early high school when I was likely more cynical than I'd ever been. But after coming to terms with my weirdness, I'm now happier than I've ever been. Actually, that's an understatement. I didn't just "come to terms" with my weirdness; I grabbed it by the collar and embraced it. 

 

You want know who I am? What I am? Well, to be frank, I still have no clue, but I am most certainly not "normal"--I can tell you that much. I'm very much content with how I turned out and how my life turned out. Every single one of the experiences I've had were meaningful in building myself up as a person, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Haha, I was actually planning to type up an essay about my quirks a few months ago, but it didn't work out since I kept jumping all over the place. It was rather difficult to hone in on one aspect of my life since I could potentially write about all of them. It's also such a general topic that I figured there'd also be a bunch of other people who'd also want to attempt it or have tackled it before. And I absolutely loved reading your little tangent about your dorky side. It's always so inspiring to read about someone who's found their place, ahah...  

 

Yeah, a lot of my friends use Macs and I just can't seem to find my way around them. I read somewhere that updating actually makes your PC slower. That, plus the sporadic restarting, was enough for me to want to disable the automatic updates. 

 

I think it mainly depends on the teacher you have. The teachers who teach regular classes tend to be more strict about what happens in their classrooms, and most of the AP teachers tend to be lax about eating and drinking so long as it doesn't cause a mess. Food is allowed to leave the cafeteria since we have a school store that's loaded with snacks and candy. I can even eat my lunch in comp sci as long as I finish my work beforehand, lol. Sheesh, your school was that strict about food circulating the building? We've never had a problem with pests even with the somewhat lenient system we have. I almost always bring food from home, so I rarely eat the school lunch. I've seen it and it doesn't look bad. We have a ton of variety though, so not liking a certain option was never a problem. Don't like pasta or whatever else is on the "special" menu? Not a problem. Go load yourself with pizza or salad. Maybe you're sick of pizza. Grab a parfait or on-the-spot handmade sandwich or wrap or something. Worst comes to worst, just cough up a few bucks for some chicken. Perhaps you're sick of eating solid foods. Okay, then buy a cup of soup. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few menu options, but that just about sums it up. I'm not sure how good the stuff is though. Yeahh, I really don't like breakfast. It is by no means the most important meal of the day. I can verify that from experience. As long as I have brunch/lunch and dinner, I'm good for the day. Haha yeah, the same happened at UMich. The dining hall would be open around 5pm, but the lines would only build up around 6-7pm. Oh dang, you just grab something quick and rush back to your dorm? Don't you like taking a leisurely walk around campus after a meal? I know I did that on occasion during my time at UMich, but maybe it's because I didn't have much work to do. And oh my gosh, how is it possible to survive on only dinner?? I can sometimes go without meals if I bring a few snacks with me, but sheesh, what are you doing to yourself :c

 

Feigning innocence, hmm? Heyhey, don't play victim with me just because you happened to interpret my perfectly respectable question into this sick, twisted, perverted tale of yours. Heh, Accusatory Akuzatory Akazora strikes again. Haha, when my fingers look like prunes, that's when I know I've stayed in the shower too long, lol. I probably got my eyes from my dad since my mom has pretty bad eyes. My sister probably got hers from our mom. Oh shoot, both of your parents had to get eye surgery? Phew. I still think it's funny how a lot of people in your family wear glasses/contacts but your sister doesn't, haha. Oh whoops, you're right. Waitttt... I could've sworn my eye doctor told me I was 20/15. But I know my vision's gotten worse (and I don't think it's as great as 20/15 either) so that can't possibly be it... you know, I should probably consult him sometime soon. I usually have my appointments towards the end of the school year so I'll have to ask him about that when the time comes. Yeahh, I'm relatively surprised myself that I've lasted this long without needing any vision correctors. I really hope it doesn't catch up with me though, eheh... I've taken my eyes for granted for far too long and admittedly, I need to take better care of them, but I don't think I can, honestly. Staring at my laptop screen for a good chunk of my day is vital to my well-being, after all. I know, I know, I don't set a very good example. Yup, my sister wears contacts. She used to wear glasses all the time, but now she interchanges between contacts and glasses. So the next time I see you post something at 4am... the earliest you'd be going to bed is 5am, huh... not helping, man :c 

 

Oh hm, I always assumed that most people didn't get two colds back-to-back because the immune system was already primed from fighting off the previous one. If anything, the second cold is probably just a different strain of the virus, but the interferons the cells already produced in response to the previous cold should've been enough to fight off the following cold before symptoms arose. I guess the fact that your second cold wasn't as severe as your first one also shows that your immune system wasn't necessarily weakened. If the first bug you caught gave you symptoms on par with the severity of certain infections like the flu or pneumonia, I'd imagine that it could've potentially depleted your body's energy reserves even if your immune system was heightened from the previous infection--so you're not wrong in that respect. I've never had that happen to me so I can't attest for it though. I also can't remember the last time I ended up sick from stuff other than the common cold or fever, so I can't serve as a point of comparison for you either. Hmm, is it just back-to-back colds or do you also regularly catch stuff like the flu? Yeahh, it's a shame that Halloweens and Thanksgivings don't have as strong of an impression nowadays. Most of my cousins are back in China so I can't exactly play any video games with anyone during Thanksgiving outside of family friends. My sister's up in Boston but even she's not feeling the hype of these games anymore. It's scary imagining that this might be me one day, ughhh pls nooooooo..... Gosh, I feel old.  

 

Nowadays, I mainly hear a bunch of gunshots and screaming going off in the background when I'm up in my room. They don't watch reality television shows as often anymore. They seem to like the action stuff. Or at least my dad does. I'm not too familiar with most Chinese songs unless you count the anthem, which used to go off like every other day in this household, or some of the more well-known ones like Tong Hua. I'm sure you've heard of it. It's a depressing song, so uh, click at your own risk. I'm fairly familiar with Jay Chou since my sister was pretty obsessed with him at one point. J-pop, C-pop, and K-pop are all cool in my opinion. Can't understand the majority of what they're saying, but you know, there's this sort of magic in being left in the dark about that.

 

Oh my gosh, you're awful. What kind of sick man would give out crazy hard tests and reap pleasure from watching kids groaning and wallowing in their own misery. I'm experiencing anxiety from just the thought of something as abhorrent as this so-called "test" you gave. You are the strict definition of a sadist. I can't believe I'm friends with a monster like you :c Ahahaha, jkjkjkjk, couldn't resist. Hehe, I'm curious to know why you included an extra credit question. Is it like an added insult to injury to the already near impossible test you distributed? Okayokay, now I'm done. Just messin' with ya, ahah. But sure, I wouldn't mind seeing some of the tests you made, heh.

 

What on Earth... your mom willingly bought a GameCube and Game Boy just to help you guys fit in?? My parents are so out of touch with what's "cool" lol. They care far more about my outward appearance. "Oh hey, look at that girl's boots, you should wear something like that." "Why can't you dress like that girl. Look at how pretty her dress is." "Don't worry about how much it costs, don't you want to fit in?" It's hilarious how much money they're willing to splurge on me just so I can fit into their idea of some "normal", soft-spoken girl. I rarely accept their offers though since part of me is hoping they're joking. I don't mind looking nice, but c'mon, haha. Still though, they would never buy me any game consoles for no reason. I almost always have to fork over half of my soul for a game or a console, lol.    

 

Yeeahh, my mom's concern about cyberbullying just came out of nowhere. When I found out that she snooped through my Facebook because of that, I couldn't just sit there and not confront her about it. I do have some rather embarrassing stuff I posted in middle school and early high school, so uh... I dunno. I guess I just wanted to reassure her I wasn't getting bullied or anything. Eheheh... I wouldn't say I'm "addicted" to my phone since I can reluctantly live without it, but it's definitely a bigger part of my life than I would like to admit. I can't just outright ignore text messages or phone calls since that's kinda rude. Plus, I need to confirm with my coach whether or not I'm coming to practice every week, and this phone is the only way I can notify him. Otherwise, yeah, I could go without a phone. I actually went without using my phone for the majority of sophomore year and I only used it to call my parents. It just sat like dead weight in my backpack, and most of the time I only took it out to charge it. Then junior year came along and I started adding some more people on my phone and downloading the Facebook apps, and I finally acknowledged that my phone could send and receive emails. Then for tennis, the team added me to this app that allows everyone to send and receive messages through a group chat. I started using the weather widget more often, I got lazy about writing down assignments and just took pictures of them with my phone, and uh, my reliance on my phone just skyrocketed. Yeah, it doesn't have as much capability as a computer, but having a phone is hella convenient. Perhaps someone sends you an urgent text or message through Facebook, and bam, you can reply instantly. One thing I did find rather annoying was the little ping it made every time someone texted/messaged me. I turned off the sound effects so it wouldn't disturb anyone if I ever forgot to put my phone on silent. And for this reason, I never became a compulsive texter. I never impulsively pick up my phone whenever I hear a notification ping from someone else's phone because I know I turned off the sound effects of my phone. But it's still funny observing the hoards of people who do, ahahaha... I guess playing video games or watching a movie doesn't exactly have the same effect as "escaping" through alcohol. Even if video games and movies can serve as distractions, you still have the constant tug of "I should really be getting around to paying my bills..." in the back of your higher mind. Drinking serves as a way to suppress that. Or at least that's what I thought. Drinking out of your senses shuts off your higher mind and offers true escapism in that you're unable to properly assess your situation anymore. In other words, you become less conscious about your responsibilities. Playing video games and watching movies simply doesn't offer the same kind of escapism--especially if you're grieving over death of a loved one or your financial situation. Not that I'm trying to advocate drinking your worries away or anything. You're going to have to pay your bills eventually, lol. Sure, it sounds like nonsense, but in a way, drinking is like a more extreme form of the procrastination we deal with on a daily basis. But yeah, just the stench of alcohol is enough for me to turn my head away from drinking. I've also seen far too many lives ruined to want to follow that path. 

 

Damn... the bio, chem, and physics classes are hundreds of people large? Ahaha, well then... Ohh, that's funny. My physics teacher got around to using plickers to ensure that everyone is participating in the multiple choice question he posts on the board everyday. It's kinda fun, haha. Oh wut, you get participation/attendance points in college classes? I thought it was if you didn't show up enough times you flunk the class. 

 

Hehe, I do love reading a good book, but I haven't gone through enough books to call myself a bookworm. I'm often reluctant to get through summer reading, and I don't read as many books for leisure as I did back in middle school. Most of the books I read in elementary school were those astronomy and anatomy books with loads of descriptions and pictures in them--none of which I can remember the names of since I always borrowed them from the library hoards at a time. Planets, stars, parasites, up-close pictures and diagrams of everything--I was so fascinated for some reason. I'd try to make sense of the jargon and I felt so cool being able to list off all of the planets by heart in first grade. And I just went on and on about my favorite planets and what would've happened if Earth got sucked into a black hole, and I drew and scribbled pictures and attempted to turn my silly theories into books with markers and crayons, ahahahah... Most of the novels I read leisurely were in middle school. High school didn't leave me any room to snuggle with a good book, and most of the summer reading I did was kinda meh. Actually, being forced to read any book makes the book feel kinda meh. There were only a few that made an impression on me, and the only ones I can name off of the top of my head are 1984 and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's just really hard to look forward to doing any forced reading after getting through revolting shams of literature like Treasure Island. Damn though, you read all 20 books off of your sixth grade list? You were quite the determined bookworm, haha. 

 

I figured Case was one of the nerdier schools, but ahaha, what are the chances you'd end up with the partiers when you're the very person who tries his best to avoid them. I thought that was pretty funny, hehe... Yeahh, there's no point in getting worked up about whether or not to join a sorority when I should be more worried about getting my college apps done, eheh. 

 

I guess the fact that I already play tennis is enough for them. Anything I do outside of academics is considered a waste of time in their eyes. They made me quit piano (only had half a year of experience though), figure skating, drawing, swimming (jk, I quit swimming on my own). But recently, they've finally let up and just accepted the fact that I'm a stubborn little girl who refuses to quit tennis and orchestra. They were really against me when I was a freshman. "Geezus, why won't you quit already!" something like that in Chinese. But they kinda got off my back this past year. As long as the activities don't interfere with school too often, they seem to be okay with it. So yeah, joining the gym at this time is a nono. But I still get my dose of tennis at least twice a week, which should be enough to counterbalance my crappy eating habits, eheh... Haha, my parents pull that line on me all the time. Something along the lines of if you don't do this, guys won't like you and no one will ever want to be your friend, lol. 

 

I wasn't too bothered by the pixelated graphics since I thought it was an interesting spin on the game. But I definitely agree that Smash looks better polygonal. Games like Cave Story are the complete opposite. In my opinion, Cave Story looks better pixelated, but maybe it's because it never looked like something that should be 3D. It could be just me though, haha.

 

The SAT IIs weren't so bad, but it sucks to know that 90 percent of the material I went over wasn't on either of the tests, sooo... it kinda felt like wasted effort. You know, that feeling of getting tricked when you get a study guide from a teacher but none of the stuff happens to be on the test, lol. 

 

Haha yup, plus there are places like the glowworm caves that are worth visiting, so missing out on a phenomenon that's out of your control shouldn't be a big deal.

 

Oh dear, you caught that little message? Well, I figured you would since I posted it so late, but still...eheheh... I hope I didn't make you stay up too late that night. And it's awfully sweet that you keep going back to add more or to fix your typos, ahaah...

 

EDIT: Oh, and an admissions officer from Case visited our school a few days ago. I've already stalked Case enough, but I figured I'd go anyway. I had a good chat with her too, so maybe I'll send her a followup email soon. I'm hoping everything I'm doing isn't overkill, lol.

added to the end, if you don't mind

Edited October 9, 2015 by Kenzi

[Akazora 293]

The intro and conclusion are normally the hardest for me, but I dunno, haha. Maybe it's because a personal narrative essay is so different than what I'm used to writing. Nah, don't worry. I'm not trying to kill myself or anything. And the experiment doesn't have much to do with science, lol.

 

Yeahh, I was going through a "phase" ahah... The last anime I watched before I re-discovered DC was SnK, which was well over a year earlier. So yeah, you can imagine how skewed my opinion of DC was. "Oh hey, I just unearthed a part of my childhood. I also didn't watch enough anime to give it a point of comparison so it's not like I feel biased towards DC or anything, pfft." After watching anime like F/Z, Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong, LWA, etc., I suddenly realized that DC is a pretty subpar anime at best (or at least compared the anime I just listed). It has little to no plot progression and it's basically a cash cow. It's not something worth investing in since I can easily lose interest and/or drop it completely without missing much. And the worst part is, I was legit planning to see through to watching all of the DC episodes. So uh, thanks for helping me snap out of that mentality, lol. The cases also get a lot more stale and obscure in the later episodes/chapters so I don't know how long I would've lasted before cracking. And for this reason, I don't see the point in catching up on the anime/manga at the moment, even if I could just as easily skip over the mystery parts. I'm also really sick of how definitive Conan is in his deductions because all of the characters treat what he says as the be all and end all. Uh, like, you don't have to be left-handed to use your left hand to spray paint. If the particular situation called for using a left hand, why would someone go out of their way to use their right hand just because they're right-handed? If the cup holder is on my right side, would I avoid using my right hand to pick up my drink because I'm left-handed?? Stuff like this irritates me in his deductions. The officers and DB and other tagalongs/company just praise him for the "godly" deduction and arrest the culprit. And don't get me started on how bland the majority of the characters are, ugh. I understand Gosho has been writing these for over twenty years so there's bound to be a few bumps in the road, but it's the little things like this that make watching DC a chore nowadays. I also get that DC is supposed to be a whodunit and not something that's focused on plot, but the practically nonexistent plot is the only incentive for me to watch it right now. The fact that it drags on so much is kinda discouraging. The last episodes I watched were in the Scarlet Arc, and I got so bored that I just opened a new tab to read some online articles. I flipped back and forth so I could catch enough dialogue to understand what was going on, but yeah. My interest in DC has been dwindling. It's also funny how invested and worked up Conan is in every case he encounters, I guess. 

 

Haha, as far as I know, Ash is still ten years old, lol. If the starters in the new Pokemon game can receive customized designs of your avatar, I will cry. And not the good kind of cry. I wouldn't mind if it could wear a hat or something though, heh. I still have mixed feelings about Pokemon Go. I honestly don't think the actual app is going to be as dramatic as the trailer makes it out to be--especially that scene with Mewtwo (I know; it's just for marketing purposes, but still). The only "practical" use I see for it is encouraging people to travel to new places. That, and the ability to interact with others (or lack thereof). And the accessory looks like it's going to be a huge distraction for some people. It buzzes, you see a rare Pokemon, you direct your attention to the Pokemon instead of whatever you were doing before. Don't mind me; I'm just rambling at this point, lol. The accessory also reminds me of the Pokewalker for some reason. Ahh, good times. Even though the darn thing rarely worked, I still had loads of fun derping around with it. The app still looks pretty polished, so I'll probably check it out.  

 

It's fine if you deleted Iron Head for Meteor Mash. Even though you wouldn't be able to go to the move relearner, I'm fairly certain the move tutor can fix that. Haha, I actually thought it was kinda neat that they gave you the convenience of getting whisked away instead of having to bike there. Also, this is a random question, but what did you think of the grunts? Like how they're just flat Sugimori art instead of polygonal in the battle cutscenes. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's just a minor complaint I saw floating around. Ohh, it's good to hear that you're holding your ground relatively well against these gym leaders! Then again, it shouldn't be too surprising since you're basically twenty levels ahead of them, lol.  

 

I-I only described how I dressed for bed because I figured you wanted an explanation after explaining how surprised you were. A-And it's not like describing what I wore to sleep was that big of a deal anyway, hmph. Haha, and likewise, I knew that wearing pajamas was normal, but didn't think that sleeping bare was that common. Sleeping bare is just a little bit out of my comfort zone since it makes me feel kinda vulnerable and exposed, eheh. Airing out my skin never felt like a problem for me. I'll take off my socks in the spring/summer, but I'll wear them during fall/winter when it gets a little colder. And ehh?? You thought no one ever slept with clothes on?? Everyone in my family sleeps with clothes on... and it's not like we're wearing jeans to sleep..........

 

I guess the reason Trump has been getting so much backlash lately is because a lot of people genuinely believe that he could win the election. If you want my opinion, I don't think it's going to happen. He already angered a huge chunk of the country. I'm just laughing at the memes circulating the internet. And you're right; he does add a pretty interesting personality to the election. But at the same time I don't know jack about politics so maybe I'm being overly nonchalant here. What the... there's a Bernie Sanders club at Case?? Sounds kinda cultish, but um... Sanders seems like a good guy, so uh... Dang, only five participants for the next debate? Yeahh, most of the other candidates have been left in the dust so it kinda defeats the purpose of holding one if there are so few participants. Not as many options for a Bad Lip Reading as the first Republican debate had, but it could still potentially turn into something good. Oh geez, lol, what am I even saying. 

 

Whaa, you've never seen people surnames on the back of their sports attire? That can't be. Surely there must've been some people roaming around NJ with these kinds of clothing. And uh, we do have different color guard uniforms every year, eheh. Oh, and about the whole iPad thing I mentioned earlier... apparently the students have to return it by the time they reach high school. Phew, really glad a friend cleared that up for me because there's no way in hell the school district had that much money. I still think investing in those iPads is a ridiculous idea though. Also, I read the school newspaper yesterday, and the school district received a huge bond last year. So I guess that explains all of the renovations we've been getting lately. Yeahh, if you walked on the campus of Cranbrook, you'd notice it resembles a college campus. Dining halls, fountains, infrastructures, it's freaking gigantic. You have to drive to get to some places. The tuition is also comparable to most colleges and it's insane. I'm not sure what my parents were thinking either when they urged to send me there. Troy's far from a bad school, and I also didn't want the whole "you better not eff up cuz we're coughing up 30k for you to get a solid education so you can get into a good college" hanging over me. Also, it's possible to go to Cranbrook on a scholarship. You'd have to be an inherent genius though or have some attribute that really sticks out. Ohh, you managed to get all of that from a simple OMM post? You're quite perceptive, I'll give you that much. I didn't expect the connection to have been so easily discernible since I could just as easily have been referring to a college campus and not necessarily Cranbrook's. For all you know, the friend I was referring to could've been a college friend or something. But nonetheless, good eye. You hit the nail on the head, except for the middle school part. But I can't hold that against you since there's no way you would've been able to know that. Plus, it's already pretty impressive that you managed to get everything else right, haha. The guy actually went to middle school in Cranbrook. He could've potentially gone to Troy HS, so he's a traitor, ahah. Seeing him for the first time in years so unexpectedly was just... it really brought me back. Derping around with our silly antics and making light out of pretty much everything you can imagine with accents and imitations, raving about how good some of our friends are at tennis, complaining about the lack of sleep we get, catching up on each other's lives... good times. Heh, really glad to see that he hasn't changed a bit. But it's a bit silly to go to this school (especially since it's so expensive) solely because a friend went there, so I didn't. Ohh, isn't running into old friends just a grand ol' time? I've actually had this happen to me quite a few times. There was this one girl I recognized during a Science Olympiad competition in middle school, and there was another girl who approached me while I was playing tennis but I couldn't remember her face for the life of me (so it was kinda awkward), but it was still fun talking to her. Haha, glad to see that you had the experience yourself! It's a pretty weird feeling for sure, but ya gotta admit it's also kinda fun, heh.

 

I actually think it's kinda inconvenient putting it on and taking it off all the time. Maybe this is just my laziness speaking for me, but why not keep your watch on the whole time? I've worn it for so long that it doesn't make a difference to me weight-wise. And I don't see anything wrong with having a second clock on your wrist; the more the merrier, eheh... But if you say keeping it on bothers you that much, then whatever floats your boat man, haha.

 

You do make a good point since I barely have any anime merchandise. For starters, you're right; I can't just toss around money I don't have, and it's not like my parents would let me use their money to support the Japanese "cartoons" they're so against. I haven't shown much support (in terms of purchases, I suppose) and beggars can't be choosers, after all. But at the same time, I feel like part of the reason anime like Ping Pong don't garner much support is because a lot of outsiders tend to turn away from anime as a whole because of the ecchi label. When they think of anime, they don't think of quality entertainment. Of course they don't. Much of what floats around on the internet is basically ecchi. I'm saying this with rule 34 in mind. The fanart that people see? Even if the anime doesn't have a smidgen of fanservice--something like SnK is a prime example--there will be, without doubt, fanart that give off the wrong idea. The same can apply to video games or anything really, but we're talking about what outsiders see. Half of the problem is just how anime is portrayed and perceived in general; the misconstrued idea that anime is just mindless fanservice. Why would any outsiders who're looking for quality entertainment want to invest in something so shallow? Of course they wouldn't. So why bother targeting these people in an attempt to set things straight when the anime industry can just continue on in enormous the hole they dug themselves in? A hole that much of the internet also helped dig? There would be little to no progress, it's not terribly profitable either, and it's not like they can fix the mess they're in right now. I doubt any of this will change in the near future, but this is also something else to keep in mind. Perhaps if enough people showed support, a difference could be made. But part of me still believes it's wishful thinking.

 

Ahaha, not at all! Your quirks is one of the main reasons I've taken such a liking to you, lol. I don't find myself cracking perverted jokes in person to and fro either, and I definitely won't be obnoxiously shouting "that's what she said" every other minute for the sake of my entertainment, but I might say something every once in a blue moon just to lighten up the atmosphere a bit.  If a friend says something that can blatantly be taken as a sexual innuendo, then... pshh, how can I resist. Online though? I guess you could say I do enjoy crude humor, hah.

 

I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get through my backlog over break, so 24 minutes doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for the heads up! Okay, so I took your advice and watched a few AMVs of Shigatsu. First of all, holy geezus they had a huge budget for the art. If it weren't for your negative impressions, I might've actually ended up watching this. Just the idea that the main protagonists are so young still annoys me quite a bit. Why not college students? That was one of the main thoughts while watching the AMVs. Also, why is it that a portion of Arima's glasses is cut off of his face in some scenes (typically the ones that feature a side view of his face). I'd assume it's so the audience can see his eyes and expressions, but it still bugs me. It's so distracting. If they didn't want the hinges of the glasses blocking his eyes, why didn't they just draw his glasses with a thinner frame. And a lot of the supposedly heartwarming exchanges between the two seemed really underwhelming and overdone. They're middle schoolers for fduck's sake.

 

I appreciate you writing out your speculations for the release dates, but man, I can't wait that long, ahaha... Fall 2016? With a few months worth of gaps between each release? Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if I cracked before then. I still have that backlog of anime to watch but I don't think it'll last me until the HF movies are released. Not that I mind rewatching F/Z early or anything since I'm actually looking forward to it, lol. Oh sheesh, you've already watched it four times?? I'm assuming the first time you watched it you only intended to get your feet wet. And the second time was either for pleasure or to familiarize yourself more. Or I could be completely wrong. Perhaps the third time was to prep yourself for the release of UBW, but what was the fourth time for? And then you'll be watching it once more after HF? Geez you're dedicated, haha.

 

Hah, I've never considered myself a "normal" person either. In terms of my interests, at least. I'm not too caught up with singers like Taylor Swift and I haven't watched western shows like Grey's Anatomy. I'm far too obsessed with instrumentals and OSTs to care or complain about what plays on the radio. I rarely go to the movie theater either. But who cares. Being "normal" is boring. Most of my friends don't know about this side of me though. On the outside I'm just like any other kid. I don't consider myself as someone who's popular, but I hang out with friends regularly, eat lunch with them, study with them on occasion, you know, "normal" kid stuff. If I hear any mention of games I've played, anime I've watched, music I've listened to, I will pipe up without fail. It's just so rare to find people out there who share my interests. Or just someone to talk about them to. I love being different. It's just so easy and so much fun to click with like-minded people. It's really hard to find that kind of compatibility, but it's honestly so exciting to find these kinds of people as well. Not necessarily the waifu extremists though. But sometimes I do wonder how I would've turned out if I hung out with the "popular" people, or if I was more "normal", and it sounds like a nightmarish hellhole. I wouldn't be the weird, crazy, spontaneous idiot I am today if I happened to take on that persona. My character and everything I am today stemmed from my interests. My YouTube channel, one of the biggest parts of my life, was only created because of my obsession with Pokemon. The internet culture I'm so familiar with today built a bit of my personality. I've learned a lot from observing the normal people that would've never come from being one of them. Why get worked up about all the drama and gossip that ensues from the cliques that form all around school? Why is that "normal"? Why get hung up on something so ephemeral? I've had some ups and downs--especially in middle school and early high school when I was likely more cynical than I'd ever been. But after coming to terms with my weirdness, I'm now happier than I've ever been. Actually, that's an understatement. I didn't just "come to terms" with my weirdness; I grabbed it by the collar and embraced it. 

 

You want know who I am? What I am? Well, to be frank, I still have no clue, but I am most certainly not "normal"--I can tell you that much. I'm very much content with how I turned out and how my life turned out. Every single one of the experiences I've had were meaningful in building myself up as a person, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Haha, I was actually planning to type up an essay about my quirks a few months ago, but it didn't work out since I kept jumping all over the place. It was rather difficult to hone in on one aspect of my life since I could potentially write about all of them. It's also such a general topic that I figured there'd also be a bunch of other people who'd also want to attempt it or have tackled it before. And I absolutely loved reading your little tangent about your dorky side. It's always so inspiring to read about someone who's found their place, ahah...  

 

Yeah, a lot of my friends use Macs and I just can't seem to find my way around them. I read somewhere that updating actually makes your PC slower. That, plus the sporadic restarting, was enough for me to want to disable the automatic updates. 

 

I think it mainly depends on the teacher you have. The teachers who teach regular classes tend to be more strict about what happens in their classrooms, and most of the AP teachers tend to be lax about eating and drinking so long as it doesn't cause a mess. Food is allowed to leave the cafeteria since we have a school store that's loaded with snacks and candy. I can even eat my lunch in comp sci as long as I finish my work beforehand, lol. Sheesh, your school was that strict about food circulating the building? We've never had a problem with pests even with the somewhat lenient system we have. I almost always bring food from home, so I rarely eat the school lunch. I've seen it and it doesn't look bad. We have a ton of variety though, so not liking a certain option was never a problem. Don't like pasta or whatever else is on the "special" menu? Not a problem. Go load yourself with pizza or salad. Maybe you're sick of pizza. Grab a parfait or on-the-spot handmade sandwich or wrap or something. Worst comes to worst, just cough up a few bucks for some chicken. Perhaps you're sick of eating solid foods. Okay, then buy a cup of soup. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few menu options, but that just about sums it up. I'm not sure how good the stuff is though. Yeahh, I really don't like breakfast. It is by no means the most important meal of the day. I can verify that from experience. As long as I have brunch/lunch and dinner, I'm good for the day. Haha yeah, the same happened at UMich. The dining hall would be open around 5pm, but the lines would only build up around 6-7pm. Oh dang, you just grab something quick and rush back to your dorm? Don't you like taking a leisurely walk around campus after a meal? I know I did that on occasion during my time at UMich, but maybe it's because I didn't have much work to do. And oh my gosh, how is it possible to survive on only dinner?? I can sometimes go without meals if I bring a few snacks with me, but sheesh, what are you doing to yourself :c

 

Feigning innocence, hmm? Heyhey, don't play victim with me just because you happened to interpret my perfectly respectable question into this sick, twisted, perverted tale of yours. Heh, Accusatory Akuzatory Akazora strikes again. Haha, when my fingers look like prunes, that's when I know I've stayed in the shower too long, lol. I probably got my eyes from my dad since my mom has pretty bad eyes. My sister probably got hers from our mom. Oh shoot, both of your parents had to get eye surgery? Phew. I still think it's funny how a lot of people in your family wear glasses/contacts but your sister doesn't, haha. Oh whoops, you're right. Waitttt... I could've sworn my eye doctor told me I was 20/15. But I know my vision's gotten worse (and I don't think it's as great as 20/15 either) so that can't possibly be it... you know, I should probably consult him sometime soon. I usually have my appointments towards the end of the school year so I'll have to ask him about that when the time comes. Yeahh, I'm relatively surprised myself that I've lasted this long without needing any vision correctors. I really hope it doesn't catch up with me though, eheh... I've taken my eyes for granted for far too long and admittedly, I need to take better care of them, but I don't think I can, honestly. Staring at my laptop screen for a good chunk of my day is vital to my well-being, after all. I know, I know, I don't set a very good example. Yup, my sister wears contacts. She used to wear glasses all the time, but now she interchanges between contacts and glasses. So the next time I see you post something at 4am... the earliest you'd be going to bed is 5am, huh... not helping, man :c 

 

Oh hm, I always assumed that most people didn't get two colds back-to-back because the immune system was already primed from fighting off the previous one. If anything, the second cold is probably just a different strain of the virus, but the interferons the cells already produced in response to the previous cold should've been enough to fight off the following cold before symptoms arose. I guess the fact that your second cold wasn't as severe as your first one also shows that your immune system wasn't necessarily weakened. If the first bug you caught gave you symptoms on par with the severity of certain infections like the flu or pneumonia, I'd imagine that it could've potentially depleted your body's energy reserves even if your immune system was heightened from the previous infection--so you're not wrong in that respect. I've never had that happen to me so I can't attest for it though. I also can't remember the last time I ended up sick from stuff other than the common cold or fever, so I can't serve as a point of comparison for you either. Hmm, is it just back-to-back colds or do you also regularly catch stuff like the flu? Yeahh, it's a shame that Halloweens and Thanksgivings don't have as strong of an impression nowadays. Most of my cousins are back in China so I can't exactly play any video games with anyone during Thanksgiving outside of family friends. My sister's up in Boston but even she's not feeling the hype of these games anymore. It's scary imagining that this might be me one day, ughhh pls nooooooo..... Gosh, I feel old.  

 

Nowadays, I mainly hear a bunch of gunshots and screaming going off in the background when I'm up in my room. They don't watch reality television shows as often anymore. They seem to like the action stuff. Or at least my dad does. I'm not too familiar with most Chinese songs unless you count the anthem, which used to go off like every other day in this household, or some of the more well-known ones like Tong Hua. I'm sure you've heard of it. It's a depressing song, so uh, click at your own risk. I'm fairly familiar with Jay Chou since my sister was pretty obsessed with him at one point. J-pop, C-pop, and K-pop are all cool in my opinion. Can't understand the majority of what they're saying, but you know, there's this sort of magic in being left in the dark about that.

 

Oh my gosh, you're awful. What kind of sick man would give out crazy hard tests and reap pleasure from watching kids groaning and wallowing in their own misery. I'm experiencing anxiety from just the thought of something as abhorrent as this so-called "test" you gave. You are the strict definition of a sadist. I can't believe I'm friends with a monster like you :c Ahahaha, jkjkjkjk, couldn't resist. Hehe, I'm curious to know why you included an extra credit question. Is it like an added insult to injury to the already near impossible test you distributed? Okayokay, now I'm done. Just messin' with ya, ahah. But sure, I wouldn't mind seeing some of the tests you made, heh.

 

What on Earth... your mom willingly bought a GameCube and Game Boy just to help you guys fit in?? My parents are so out of touch with what's "cool" lol. They care far more about my outward appearance. "Oh hey, look at that girl's boots, you should wear something like that." "Why can't you dress like that girl. Look at how pretty her dress is." "Don't worry about how much it costs, don't you want to fit in?" It's hilarious how much money they're willing to splurge on me just so I can fit into their idea of some "normal", soft-spoken girl. I rarely accept their offers though since part of me is hoping they're joking. I don't mind looking nice, but c'mon, haha. Still though, they would never buy me any game consoles for no reason. I almost always have to fork over half of my soul for a game or a console, lol.    

 

Yeeahh, my mom's concern about cyberbullying just came out of nowhere. When I found out that she snooped through my Facebook because of that, I couldn't just sit there and not confront her about it. I do have some rather embarrassing stuff I posted in middle school and early high school, so uh... I dunno. I guess I just wanted to reassure her I wasn't getting bullied or anything. Eheheh... I wouldn't say I'm "addicted" to my phone since I can reluctantly live without it, but it's definitely a bigger part of my life than I would like to admit. I can't just outright ignore text messages or phone calls since that's kinda rude. Plus, I need to confirm with my coach whether or not I'm coming to practice every week, and this phone is the only way I can notify him. Otherwise, yeah, I could go without a phone. I actually went without using my phone for the majority of sophomore year and I only used it to call my parents. It just sat like dead weight in my backpack, and most of the time I only took it out to charge it. Then junior year came along and I started adding some more people on my phone and downloading the Facebook apps, and I finally acknowledged that my phone could send and receive emails. Then for tennis, the team added me to this app that allows everyone to send and receive messages through a group chat. I started using the weather widget more often, I got lazy about writing down assignments and just took pictures of them with my phone, and uh, my reliance on my phone just skyrocketed. Yeah, it doesn't have as much capability as a computer, but having a phone is hella convenient. Perhaps someone sends you an urgent text or message through Facebook, and bam, you can reply instantly. One thing I did find rather annoying was the little ping it made every time someone texted/messaged me. I turned off the sound effects so it wouldn't disturb anyone if I ever forgot to put my phone on silent. And for this reason, I never became a compulsive texter. I never impulsively pick up my phone whenever I hear a notification ping from someone else's phone because I know I turned off the sound effects of my phone. But it's still funny observing the hoards of people who do, ahahaha... I guess playing video games or watching a movie doesn't exactly have the same effect as "escaping" through alcohol. Even if video games and movies can serve as distractions, you still have the constant tug of "I should really be getting around to paying my bills..." in the back of your higher mind. Drinking serves as a way to suppress that. Or at least that's what I thought. Drinking out of your senses shuts off your higher mind and offers true escapism in that you're unable to properly assess your situation anymore. In other words, you become less conscious about your responsibilities. Playing video games and watching movies simply doesn't offer the same kind of escapism--especially if you're grieving over death of a loved one or your financial situation. Not that I'm trying to advocate drinking your worries away or anything. You're going to have to pay your bills eventually, lol. Sure, it sounds like nonsense, but in a way, drinking is like a more extreme form of the procrastination we deal with on a daily basis. But yeah, just the stench of alcohol is enough for me to turn my head away from drinking. I've also seen far too many lives ruined to want to follow that path. 

 

Damn... the bio, chem, and physics classes are hundreds of people large? Ahaha, well then... Ohh, that's funny. My physics teacher got around to using plickers to ensure that everyone is participating in the multiple choice question he posts on the board everyday. It's kinda fun, haha. Oh wut, you get participation/attendance points in college classes? I thought it was if you didn't show up enough times you flunk the class. 

 

Hehe, I do love reading a good book, but I haven't gone through enough books to call myself a bookworm. I'm often reluctant to get through summer reading, and I don't read as many books for leisure as I did back in middle school. Most of the books I read in elementary school were those astronomy and anatomy books with loads of descriptions and pictures in them--none of which I can remember the names of since I always borrowed them from the library hoards at a time. Planets, stars, parasites, up-close pictures and diagrams of everything--I was so fascinated for some reason. I'd try to make sense of the jargon and I felt so cool being able to list off all of the planets by heart in first grade. And I just went on and on about my favorite planets and what would've happened if Earth got sucked into a black hole, and I drew and scribbled pictures and attempted to turn my silly theories into books with markers and crayons, ahahahah... Most of the novels I read leisurely were in middle school. High school didn't leave me any room to snuggle with a good book, and most of the summer reading I did was kinda meh. Actually, being forced to read any book makes the book feel kinda meh. There were only a few that made an impression on me, and the only ones I can name off of the top of my head are 1984 and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's just really hard to look forward to doing any forced reading after getting through revolting shams of literature like Treasure Island. Damn though, you read all 20 books off of your sixth grade list? You were quite the determined bookworm, haha. 

 

I figured Case was one of the nerdier schools, but ahaha, what are the chances you'd end up with the partiers when you're the very person who tries his best to avoid them. I thought that was pretty funny, hehe... Yeahh, there's no point in getting worked up about whether or not to join a sorority when I should be more worried about getting my college apps done, eheh. 

 

I guess the fact that I already play tennis is enough for them. Anything I do outside of academics is considered a waste of time in their eyes. They made me quit piano (only had half a year of experience though), figure skating, drawing, swimming (jk, I quit swimming on my own). But recently, they've finally let up and just accepted the fact that I'm a stubborn little girl who refuses to quit tennis and orchestra. They were really against me when I was a freshman. "Geezus, why won't you quit already!" something like that in Chinese. But they kinda got off my back this past year. As long as the activities don't interfere with school too often, they seem to be okay with it. So yeah, joining the gym at this time is a nono. But I still get my dose of tennis at least twice a week, which should be enough to counterbalance my crappy eating habits, eheh... Haha, my parents pull that line on me all the time. Something along the lines of if you don't do this, guys won't like you and no one will ever want to be your friend, lol. 

 

I wasn't too bothered by the pixelated graphics since I thought it was an interesting spin on the game. But I definitely agree that Smash looks better polygonal. Games like Cave Story are the complete opposite. In my opinion, Cave Story looks better pixelated, but maybe it's because it never looked like something that should be 3D. It could be just me though, haha.

 

The SAT IIs weren't so bad, but it sucks to know that 90 percent of the material I went over wasn't on either of the tests, sooo... it kinda felt like wasted effort. You know, that feeling of getting tricked when you get a study guide from a teacher but none of the stuff happens to be on the test, lol. 

 

Haha yup, plus there are places like the glowworm caves that are worth visiting, so missing out on a phenomenon that's out of your control shouldn't be a big deal.

 

Oh dear, you caught that little message? Well, I figured you would since I posted it so late, but still...eheheh... I hope I didn't make you stay up too late that night. And it's awfully sweet that you keep going back to add more or to fix your typos, ahaah...

 

EDIT: Oh, and an admissions officer from Case visited our school a few days ago. I've already stalked Case enough, but I figured I'd go anyway. I had a good chat with her too, so maybe I'll send her a followup email soon. I'm hoping everything I'm doing isn't overkill, lol.

added to the end, if you don't mind

Yup, you summed up why I really don’t like Detective Conan anymore pretty well.  I’ve seen a lot of anime, and while it’s still hard to make comparisons because most of what I watch are short and have “read the source material” type conclusions, I still feel DC is pretty subpar in general.  The animation is nothing to praise, the music is only nostalgic, the characters are bland, the mysteries are many times unrealistic and formulaic, and the plot, which is the only decent thing about the whole package, is taking so long to develop it’s not even worth it.  Granted, because it’s a case-based detective anime, a lot of these things are to be expected.  Tons of other mystery shows suffer from monotony to an extent.  House, which is a medical drama that actually feels more like a detective show, gets predictable after a while.  It always starts off with some random person collapsing or falling ill in a dramatic fashion before transition to the opening credits.  Then the doctors talk about possible causes, but it’s never the obvious suspect (duh, it’d be boring that way).  As they try tests to determine what’s wrong with the patient, they’re faced with contradictions and unexpected results, leaving everyone stumped.  Except for Dr. House.  He always perseveres in the end, usually at the last second, due to some revelation he receives when someone makes an off-handed comment.  He’s eccentric and hard to deal with, which causes tension, but because he’s always right by the very end of the episode, it’s all good.  Occasionally there’s plot and humor thrown in the mix.  Honestly, House is just the live-action medical version of DC.  It may be impressive for two or three episodes, but after watching about ten in AP Bio it got really stale.  Those CSI shows probably follow the same pattern.  I haven’t seen enough of Sherlock to come to any definitive conclusions, but since it’s more plot focused and doesn’t air as often, it might not suffer from predictability.  Of course, there are still the clichés of main detective character who makes amazing deductions on-the-spot (that are unrealistic because too many assumptions are made, but whatever), the sidekick who is not nearly as smart, the fact that the detective runs into mysteries far too often to be plausible, and the incompetent police and law enforcement to tie everything together.  Sigh… of course, going into a detective show, whether it be anime or live action, and not expecting to find these tropes would be foolish, eheh.

 

Pfft, it’s an official Pokemon app, there need not be any practical reasons for it, ufufufu!  You’re right about it possibly being a distraction though.  When I get it, I hope it doesn’t make me addicted to my phone.  I hope we get some more info on it soon.  They just dropped the bomb with the announcement but haven’t followed up with anything substantial since then.  I know it’s going to be out in 2016, but I’m afraid it might end up being a late 2016 release.  I’d probably cry if that were the case.  And I’m totally going to get the Pokemon Go Plus accessory.  It’ll make me look like even more of a dork, but I just can’t resist, haha.  I never used the Pokewalker, actually.  I had purchased my HG version from a friend for cheap since he just didn’t want it anymore (maybe he was saving up for some new games, I’m not too sure) but he had lost his Pokewalker so I wasn’t able to inherent that.  I only needed HG for my Pearl Pokedex anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.  It seems like a cool concept though, one that they hopefully really expand upon and perfect with Pokemon Go.  What did you think of the Pokewalker?

 

*sniff* But the move tutor is post-game and requires Battle Points… at that point I’ll probably consider myself done with the game and won’t have any need for extra PP.  Oh well, no point crying over spilled milk; at least Meteor Mash’s animation looks a bit better than Iron Head’s.  Now that you mention it, you’re right, the grunts aren’t polygonal like Team Flare’s are.  In fact, if you didn’t bring it up, I wouldn’t even have noticed.  I don’t mind that they just used their regular artwork.  It’s not readily noticeable and doesn’t take away from the experience.  Oh geez, I didn’t have any time to play Alpha Sapphire this past week, and I don’t think I’ll have any time later this weekend either.  Midterms are pretty much already here and it doesn’t help that my SAGES and accounting professors are going ham with the homework.  During fall break (October 19th and 20th as well as the preceding weekend) I’ll try to blaze through as much as I can to make up for lost time, heh.

 

Even if you don’t wear jeans, I still think it would feel kinda restrictive.  I could still go to bed with clothes on if I tried (I’ve fallen asleep during tests and in the shower before), but I’d have to be pretty tired.  I guess I know what you mean by feeling vulnerable and exposed.  I wouldn’t be comfortable roaming the halls of my dorm in just my boxers, even if there are pretty much only guys up there.  And sometimes I do wonder what I’d do if I had to get out of bed and run outside because the building was on fire or something.  I imagine either I’d have enough time to throw on clothes of some kind, or at least grab my robe, or at the very worst hug blankets over myself and make a mad and silly dash for the exit.

 

I feel like all the Republicans have some chance of winning the primaries, especially Trump.  He’s been leading the polls ever since he shot up in the rankings during the summer.  Despite losing a bit of support after the second debate as people began rallying behind Carson and Fiorina, no one can come close to where he ranks.  Of course, there’s still quite a bit of time before Super Tuesday, so anything can change.  If Democrats really don’t want Trump getting the nomination, they might be able to throw their support behind one of the other leading contenders.  Whether they choose Carson or Fiorina or even Rubio, it’s going to have to be a focused effort.  If their Republican primary votes splinter, then there’s a very high chance Trump will move on to the final round against either Clinton or Sanders or possibly Biden.  The thing is, I think Democrats are already trying to support the others.  Months ago Carson and Fiorina were nobodies and now they’re rising above the pack.  Now, I know I might be generalizing, but I can’t help but think the left wing is supporting Carson because he’s black and Fiorina because she’s female.  Even the next most popular candidate in most polls, Marco Rubio, is Cuban American.  They are all part of “minority” groups.  Meanwhile, the white male candidates (Bush, Cruz, Paul, Christie, Kasich, Huckabee) are faltering in the polls.  From the looks of it, Carson, Fiorina, and Rubio are getting support because of the fact that they’re of the minority and just seem to be more liberal.  I really hope this isn’t the case.  Voting based on race or gender is a terribly shallow reason for making a decision.  Oh, he’s black!  As a Democrat I’ll probably like him.  Ah, a female?  Sweet, more chances for a woman in the White House!  A Hispanic as President?  History in the making!  Like… seriously?  Please please please let me be wrong.  I want people to back a candidate who can lead our nation, not some minority for the sake of a petty “look, we’re a diverse and forward-thinking country” message to the world.  I’m not saying Carson, Fiorina, or Rubio would make poor Presidents (Fiornia’s my favorite Republican so far).  I just don’t want any of them to be elected because of their minority status.  That would only serve to prove that this country is just a self-gratifying hive mind, as opposed to one that has actually overcome its racial and gender problems.

 

Ah, so those kiddies are only just borrowing the iPads.  I still think that’s kind of crazy though.  What if they download a bunch of games on there and get emotionally attached to it?  Then their parents are going to have to go out of their way to buy their child an iPad to actually own and transfer over the data, or whatnot.  I guess they wouldn’t have to, but if that iPad awakens an addiction in their kid then they don’t have much of a choice.  Eheheh, my mom is pulling that whole “don’t screw things up at Case otherwise we’re going to throw away your video games” stint on me.  I don’t think she’s ever going to forgive me for not going to Rutgers.  At least getting a good grade is easier here than in JP Stevens, for this first semester at least.  They could just be going easy on us freshman, heh.  Aw thanks, but it was far from the most impressive deduction I made.  Cranbrook was just fresh in my mind when I saw your post, which is how I made the connection, and I assumed a bit too much which is why I had a feeling I was mistaken somewhere, which I was.  But it makes sense that such a posh school would be capable of accommodating middle school as well as high school.  I can’t even imagine why someone would attend for seven years, financially speaking, but then again I wouldn’t know how rich people think.  Hm, I guess running into a really good friend from your childhood would be nice, but that’s never happened to me.  I’ve never had a close friend move away before.  Not a really close one at least, which is why I’ve never had the experience that you did.  I only “lost” my close friends because they just ended up in different classes than me and we slowly stopped talking.  They all stuck with JP though; it’s not like we have very good private school substitutes.  The girl I ran into at the tutor place was just as reserved as I was, so we both recognized and acknowledged each other but didn’t really talk aside from that.  It’s nice that your friend hasn’t changed though!  I know someone who… really changed over the years.  And not in a good way.  Eh, it’s a bit of a shame, but life is what it is and people will do what they do.  There’s no helping it.

 

Yeah, realistically speaking I’ve come to terms with the anime industry and just go with the flow.  There will always be shows out there who take themselves seriously and dare to be different, few and far between as they may be.  I’ll keep my eyes peeled for those and keep myself mildly entertained frustrated with some run of the mill shows in the meantime.  I’ve weathered it out for so long, and it’s not like I have anything better to do with my free time.  Perhaps when I’m older and earning more than random newspaper and Swagbucks money I’ll support the people behind the anime I like, even if it ends up being more of just a gesture.

 

Hahah, that’s really nice of you to say!  And I guess you never really struck me as someone who’d enjoy crude humor much either, at least not when I first met you a year ago and all I knew about you was your avid interest in Pokemon games and love for Nichijou.  Not that I mind of course.  This is yet another thing I guess we have in common!

 

If you’re really bothered by their age, Nodame Cantabile is something you might want to check out.  It’s also a romance anime between two musicians, except they’re actually college students.  I know, even a step above high school, woot.  I haven’t personally seen it myself but plan on watching it eventually.  It’s 23 episodes long and rated an 8.52 on MAL, so from the looks of it it’s a very solid series, even if its animation won’t be able to match Shigatsu’s.  Even from the beginning, dissenters have been calling Shigatsu an adolescent’s version of Nodame, haha.  Arima’s glasses bothered me too at first, but I got used to it.  I don’t know how I did, but I almost forgot that was even an issue for me as well until you brought it up.  There are more glaring issues with the anime than the character designs, so I must have learned to ignore it.

 

Ooh, it’s good to hear you’re looking forward to watching it!  I only watched Fate/Zero a total of four times because I wanted to be as knowledgeable about the series as I could for the club.  The first time I watched it last summer I only watched it for fun.  I was looking for anime to show the club but hadn’t settled on anything yet.  I knew UBW was going to start airing in October, and going against what most people recommended at the time (though the tables have completely flipped now), I decided to watch F/Z in celebration of that.  Watched it, loved it, and knew it was going to be the club’s anime, along with UBW.  The second and third times I watch it were technically over the course of the entire school year.  A week in advance, I rewatched the episodes that I would be showing to the club, and when the meeting actually occurred, I was always in the room so I watched it again.  For example, let’s say on October 15th I planned to show episodes four and five of F/Z to the club.  To prepare, on October 9th, the Friday prior, I rewatched episodes four and five to ensure I knew what to expect and was ready for any questions or concerns at the end of the meeting.  On October 15th though, since I was in charge of setting up the technology and I never had anything better to do, I’d watch the two episodes a third time in the company of the club members.  This repeated weekly, so the next step would have been to watch episodes six and seven on October 16th to prep for the actually meeting on October 22nd.  As for why I watched it a fourth time, it was to show my sister during winter break.  She’s not really into anime, so we (my brother, my sister, and I) watched it dubbed since she said she can’t read subtitles.  We finished it in five days I believe, and I think she enjoyed it.  At this point, I know how the story plays out episode by episode, eheh.  I don’t think I need to watch it a fifth time, but since Heaven’s Feel doesn’t look like it’s going to be out for a while, I’ll most definitely forget some things by the time the movies are all released and might as well watch it one last time at the very end to cap off my Fate experience.

 

Hahaha, pipe up indeed.  I make one off-handed comment about Pokemon Y back on October 25th 2014, a few hours later you reply, and now after nearly a year we’re still talking about it!  (*ahem* because that’s totally what we have going on here underneath the spoilers, eheheh)  It wasn’t until the New Year that we got into a weekly pattern we keep even now, however that happened, but from the looks of it October 25th was the day we first met, kinda.  We definitely saw each other around the forums prior to then, but I don’t believe we ever really interacted.  Starting a conversation with a stranger online might not seem like much, but look how far we two idiots have taken it.  Ahh, I really hope we can meet for the first time again, in person though.  Perhaps next year, heehee...  Uhm, well anyway, back on topic.  Aww, I’m really happy to hear that my little ramble didn’t bother you.  Likewise, it’s good to see that you’ve taken up your quirks in stride as well!  Considering how positive you are as a person, I guess that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, haha.  And we’ve all had those dark times.  Same as you, I was riding some rough waves in late middle school and early high school.  But we have both seen the light and grown from our formerly immature selves, which is great!  You just keep being you.  As you say, though you may not be normal, I wouldn’t want you any other way.  I’ve come to absolutely adore everything about you, from your attributes to your faults.  You can find normal things anywhere, but best friends aren’t supposed to be just things you can readily find on the side of the road.

 

Oh hey, your lunches don’t actually sound too different from ours!  Pizzas, salads, and sandwiches were the four mainstays of JP’s lunches.  There was of course the “main” menu, which rotated a various amount of random stuff.  We didn’t have soup though, unless it happened to be part of the main menu, and our parfaits are these cheap little double-layered things.  The food didn’t actually look to bad there.  Of course, I was always a teensy bit hungry while I sat there watching everyone else eat, so it’s possible that the food wasn’t very good at all.  Some people tried forcing me to eat the cafeteria food, to break my fast.  I didn’t budge, not even for a single French fry, all four years.  Without a doubt, one of the greatest accomplishments of my life, heehee.  You brought lunch from home?  What did you usually bring?  And was it prepared in advance the night before or something that was made the morning of?  Ehehe, I’ve actually come to the realization that lines begin forming immediately at Leutner.  Like, by the time I’m done eating at 5:15, the cafeteria has filled up substantially and the lines are decently long, except for Fridays and the weekend.  Seems like everyone is catching on that there’s significantly less headache if you eat dinner as early as possible.  K-Kenzi, I think you’re underestimating the amount of homework you can get in college, eheheh.  I barely have time for my own interests, let alone leisurely exploring the campus after dinner.  It’s a small and cozy place anyway, nothing big like UMich, so I know that by the time I’m done with my four years here I’ll know the place inside and out.  If you really want to go exploring, do that during orientation week, more specifically the days when orientation events are winding down but classes haven’t started yet.  You have hours on end to kill, so grabbing some acquaintances you’ve made and walking around to familiarize yourself with the location and layout of places wouldn’t be a bad idea.  But once the workload really kicks in, you won’t have time or be in the mood to explore.  Ah, only one meal a day is perfectly manageable, for me at least.  My metabolism is pretty slow, so I’m never keeling over in hunger even if I haven’t eaten a bite in 24 hours.  I’m hungry of course, but not to the point of distraction.  My brother’s the opposite; he needs to eat small portions of food regularly over the course of the day, since he gets hungry fast and gets stuffed fast.  And rest assured, I make sure to fill up when I do get the chance to eat, I don’t want you to think I’m living off of a salad a day (even that I can’t handle, oh my gosh).

 

Ayyy, very creative nickname of a nickname.  Clever girl…  My sister doesn’t wear glasses, but her eyesight is apparently in pretty bad shape, and I believe my mom’s been bugging her to get surgery or something for a while now.  She manages fine enough for now, though I’m not too sure why she isn’t investing in vision correction of some kind.  You should be grateful you got your dad’s eyes!  Your sister’s probably envious; glasses and contacts can be a bit of a hassle.  I never wore glasses long enough to truly get used to them, though putting in and taking out my night contacts has become second nature to me.  W-What if your doctor mistakenly has it backward but all of his patients are too embarrassed to correct him??  W-W-Wh-What if you were born with 20/10 vision which has since deteriorated to 20/15 and you think the “normal” eyesight of plebs is too poor for your high class tastes????  Well then princess, you better mind how late you stay up gazing into your computer screen else your eyesight plummets to 20/20!  Can you imagine?  Stooping so low as to settle for 20/20 vision?  Oh, the horror, absolutely unthinkable, we cannot have any of that talk around here, it’s making be feel dirty, making me feel like a poor commoner.  Heheheh, just joking of course!

 

Ohh, I’m not very good at this science-y immune system stuff, so you’re probably right.  I still have trouble keeping all the terminology straight, but from what I gather, what you’re saying makes sense.  Hrm, I believe it’s just normal colds I catch.  In truth, whenever I’m sick, I never know what it is I’ve caught.  It’s always similar symptoms though, like a congested or runny nose, a sore throat, nasty coughs, disgusting sneezes, a mild headache, etc.  It’s rarely all of these at once, but rather a random mixture.  I’m assuming it’s just regular colds and not something like the flu, though truth be told I really have no idea, eheheh.  I can’t imagine you as the type who loses interest in anime and video games especially.  I know you have your whole life ahead of you and a lot can change, but still, hah.  We sort of talked about this before, right?  Didn’t we both promise each other never to forget the kid inside of us?  Growing up and living a monotonous life as an “adult” sounds terrible.  While it wouldn’t be right to just ignore our responsibilities and be immature for the rest of our lives, it would also be a shame to forget what life is all about.  To forget what it’s like to genuinely laugh and be happy, you know?

 

Wow, Tong Hua brings me way back.  I haven’t heard that song in years.  It’s not nearly as popular today as it was a while back, since music trends obviously change all the time.  And don’t worry, I love sad songs, though I appreciate the warning in advance anyway.  It’s kind of interesting that you’re affected by sad songs so much, despite never really being moved to tears when watching movies or anime.  I’ve cried a fair amount watching the silver screen but my mood isn’t adversely affected whenever I listen to melancholic songs.  Jay Chou is somehow everyone’s gateway into C-pop, or at least was back in his prime.  My sister went through a phase as well, back when she was younger, hahah.  I’ve gotten better at recognizing Chinese singers by their faces, voices, names, style, and songs, but I wouldn’t say I’m too knowledgeable on the subject yet.  And as far as J-pop is concerned, I’m only well versed in those that are part of the anime community.  There’s a huge difference between anime singers and just regular Japanese singers, so the scope of my knowledge is limited in that sense.  I haven’t really gotten into K-pop.  Occasionally if I’m craving a different change of pace, I just YouTube “kpop” like a newb and click on the “Top Tracks” playlist YouTube automatically generates on the right hand side.  It seems to be more dance-orientated and upbeat than either C-pop or J-pop, but it’s not too bad and can help give me a kick of energy if I find that I’m sluggishly getting through my work.  And foreign songs are the best for when I’m reading text books or articles for the sake of absorbing complex information, since I’m not usually distracted by the lyrics.

 

Ohohohoho, I know, if I’m not going to hell for purchasing and playing video games behind my parents’ back, then I’m totally going to hell for giving out those quizzes.  I’m probably on a blacklist somewhere and am not allowed within a ten meter radius from children.  Hah, but seriously, the extra credit questions were there either because I stumbled upon a fun trivia fact and wanted to share it or because I wanted to ask a question but it was something even I wouldn’t have been able to figure out without looking it up.  And though I said I would share the Fate quizzes with you, upon reconsideration a lot of the questions (the quotes especially) I chose covered topics you might not have noticed in your first run.  I want you to rewatch Fate/Zero and have those “ohhhh I didn’t see that the first time!” kind of reactions, and I feel that a lot of the questions on all my quizzes would tip you off to those in advance, ehehe.  Once you watch F/Z again, whether it be before or after HF, I’ll share the quizzes with you and we can see how well you fare then, hahah.

 

Naw, this was way back when we were still wee lads.  My parents figured a little bit of video gaming here and there couldn’t hurt, especially if they limited it.  Once they realized how attached we got to video games and caught us playing when they didn’t allow it, they were more and more hesitant to buy whatever games we asked for.  From what I can tell they’re not nearly as strict about this as your parents are though, since they’ve purchased a ton of video games and consoles and accessories for my me and my brother over the years.  We had to coerce them and they still don’t willingly let us play, but it’s better than nothing, ahah.  Huh, your parents actually care about your outward appearance?  That’s kind of funny, usually you’d think it’s the other way around.  Like, a girl would more likely be the one nagging her parents to buy the latest in fashion, not so much the other way around.  But as you say, the way you dress really isn’t that important.  As long as you like, shower reasonably often and look self-respecting then you’re fine.

 

Hmph, okeey Kenzi, trying to justify an addiction by insisting you’re not that reliant on your cellphone, I see how it is…  But in all seriousness, I guess it’s good that you’re not one of those compulsive texters.  I still have yet to receive a Facebook message or text that isn’t related to school work though.  Hmm, maybe building a reliance on phones takes time?  Maybe Pokemon Go and those Nintendo apps that are going to be coming out will help with that, heheheh.  I don’t see it ever being useful like my computer is useful, but I can see it becoming something I choose to play over my 3DS whenever I have a few minutes to spare, so there’s that.  Huh, an extreme form of procrastination?  Geezus, what a frightening thought.  Time management is my biggest struggle right now in college, more so than the workload and exams.  There’s a lot of homework for sure, but it’s only bogged me down as much as it has so far because I waste so much time, heh.  Completely shutting down my senses with alcohol sounds like a horrid business, whether for recreation or for counteracting depression.  And I’m perfectly content with my life right now, so it’s not like I have any need to escape reality.  And I watch anime and play video games for entertainment, not to ignore my responsibilities.

 

Ah, so your physics teacher is using clickers too?  I can imagine it’d be pretty fun, but none of my classes are large enough to use them.  Participation is really up to the professor.  Some of them don’t care if you show up so long as you do well on exams.  My econ and math teachers are like that.  Realistically speaking though, there’s no way you can skip class all the time and still do well on tests.  Others like my SAGES professor take attendance every day.  If you’re late or absent, regardless of the reason, you get points off.  It affects your grade enough to give you the incentive to be in class, but not enough that your grade is ruined if you absolutely have to miss class for whatever reason.  And then there’s my accounting professor, who doesn’t technically take attendance but occasionally gives little pop quizzes or small in-class assignments randomly that count for a few points.  If you’re not in class that day, then you get a zero for those assignments.  There are many different ways of making sure that students show up to class.  So though I don’t think any professor will out-right flunk you for not showing up enough, you’re most likely going to fail yourself if you don’t do yourself the favor of going to class.

 

Ooh, look at you, you little scientist, prepping yourself up for success from such an early age, hahah.  That’s really impressive that you read all those anatomy and astronomy books when you were so young.  And just imagining you scribbling out those crazy theories of yours as a child is really cute, heheh.  Nonfiction was never really my thing.  I think we did have some for-children science books at home, but I was more interested in looking at the pictures than actually reading and absorbing the information.  Even in elementary school, I liked reading stories.  I don’t think I read nearly as much as I did in middle school, but given that I read everything on that summer reading list right after fifth grade shows that I practically inhaled novels even at that age.  And it wasn’t actually the sixth grade summer reading list, it was the entire middle school summer reading list.  So fifth to sixth grade, sixth to seventh grade, and seventh to eighth grade books were all on there.  Technically some of them were above my reading level, but the only one I remember giving me a hard time was a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, which consisted of multiple novels and a few short stories.  I loved the heck out of it though, even if it wasn’t the easiest read.

 

Hmph, look at you, mocking the irony of my dorm situation…

 

Woah, I never would have guessed that you ever did figure skating, even if it may not have been for very long, when you were younger.  That’s certainly not the most common recreational activity for kids.  My parents made me try a bunch of stuff when I was younger, but it was me rather than them who didn’t feel like continuing with all those activities.  Let’s see, there was violin, piano, basketball, soccer, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, and table tennis.  My parents were hoping that I would take a passion to at least one of those, but I never really did.  The oboe is what I gravitated to for the majority of my life, but I’ve since dropped that as well.  Ehhh, I feel kind of bad for wasting all their time and money like that, but I guess it’s still better to try something and realize you don’t like it than not try anything at all. 

 

I’m glad to hear that the SAT IIs went well!  Or at least, that you believe you did well!  It always sucks when the actual test is nothing like the practice.  Happens a lot with the SATs it seems.  Practice tests and reality can very so drastically from each other.  Regardless, here’s hoping for perfect scores!

 

Oh nahh, you didn’t make me stay up late at all.  It’s not like I was staying up procrastinating on my homework or anything of course not do you really think I’d do something like that ohohohoho…………  *ahem* And as for fixing the typos, I don’t really know why I did.  I just had a random urge to skim over what I wrote and caught a few errors, so I decided heck might as well fix them, eheheh.  Aww, thanks, and likewise regarding your little addition…

 

I’m glad to see that you’re going out of your way to show demonstrated interest in Case!  I don’t think it’s overkill at all, since they’re probably really happy to see such a good student take such a liking to them.  The Early Action deadline is in just about three weeks now, so I hope your essay and application in general are coming along nicely!  I may be busy with midterms this week (which is why I couldn’t afford to type up nearly as much as I usually do, something I deeply apologize for) but I’ll be rooting for you all the way!  Best of luck in this last stretch!

[Kid the Phantom Thief 252]

Crusader Kings 2

Awesome game, but extremely time-consuming.

 

Just like a very thick novel.

[Kenzi 146]

 

Yup, you summed up why I really don’t like Detective Conan anymore pretty well.  I’ve seen a lot of anime, and while it’s still hard to make comparisons because most of what I watch are short and have “read the source material” type conclusions, I still feel DC is pretty subpar in general.  The animation is nothing to praise, the music is only nostalgic, the characters are bland, the mysteries are many times unrealistic and formulaic, and the plot, which is the only decent thing about the whole package, is taking so long to develop it’s not even worth it.  Granted, because it’s a case-based detective anime, a lot of these things are to be expected.  Tons of other mystery shows suffer from monotony to an extent.  House, which is a medical drama that actually feels more like a detective show, gets predictable after a while.  It always starts off with some random person collapsing or falling ill in a dramatic fashion before transition to the opening credits.  Then the doctors talk about possible causes, but it’s never the obvious suspect (duh, it’d be boring that way).  As they try tests to determine what’s wrong with the patient, they’re faced with contradictions and unexpected results, leaving everyone stumped.  Except for Dr. House.  He always perseveres in the end, usually at the last second, due to some revelation he receives when someone makes an off-handed comment.  He’s eccentric and hard to deal with, which causes tension, but because he’s always right by the very end of the episode, it’s all good.  Occasionally there’s plot and humor thrown in the mix.  Honestly, House is just the live-action medical version of DC.  It may be impressive for two or three episodes, but after watching about ten in AP Bio it got really stale.  Those CSI shows probably follow the same pattern.  I haven’t seen enough of Sherlock to come to any definitive conclusions, but since it’s more plot focused and doesn’t air as often, it might not suffer from predictability.  Of course, there are still the clichés of main detective character who makes amazing deductions on-the-spot (that are unrealistic because too many assumptions are made, but whatever), the sidekick who is not nearly as smart, the fact that the detective runs into mysteries far too often to be plausible, and the incompetent police and law enforcement to tie everything together.  Sigh… of course, going into a detective show, whether it be anime or live action, and not expecting to find these tropes would be foolish, eheh.

 

Pfft, it’s an official Pokemon app, there need not be any practical reasons for it, ufufufu!  You’re right about it possibly being a distraction though.  When I get it, I hope it doesn’t make me addicted to my phone.  I hope we get some more info on it soon.  They just dropped the bomb with the announcement but haven’t followed up with anything substantial since then.  I know it’s going to be out in 2016, but I’m afraid it might end up being a late 2016 release.  I’d probably cry if that were the case.  And I’m totally going to get the Pokemon Go Plus accessory.  It’ll make me look like even more of a dork, but I just can’t resist, haha.  I never used the Pokewalker, actually.  I had purchased my HG version from a friend for cheap since he just didn’t want it anymore (maybe he was saving up for some new games, I’m not too sure) but he had lost his Pokewalker so I wasn’t able to inherent that.  I only needed HG for my Pearl Pokedex anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.  It seems like a cool concept though, one that they hopefully really expand upon and perfect with Pokemon Go.  What did you think of the Pokewalker?

 

*sniff* But the move tutor is post-game and requires Battle Points… at that point I’ll probably consider myself done with the game and won’t have any need for extra PP.  Oh well, no point crying over spilled milk; at least Meteor Mash’s animation looks a bit better than Iron Head’s.  Now that you mention it, you’re right, the grunts aren’t polygonal like Team Flare’s are.  In fact, if you didn’t bring it up, I wouldn’t even have noticed.  I don’t mind that they just used their regular artwork.  It’s not readily noticeable and doesn’t take away from the experience.  Oh geez, I didn’t have any time to play Alpha Sapphire this past week, and I don’t think I’ll have any time later this weekend either.  Midterms are pretty much already here and it doesn’t help that my SAGES and accounting professors are going ham with the homework.  During fall break (October 19th and 20th as well as the preceding weekend) I’ll try to blaze through as much as I can to make up for lost time, heh.

 

Even if you don’t wear jeans, I still think it would feel kinda restrictive.  I could still go to bed with clothes on if I tried (I’ve fallen asleep during tests and in the shower before), but I’d have to be pretty tired.  I guess I know what you mean by feeling vulnerable and exposed.  I wouldn’t be comfortable roaming the halls of my dorm in just my boxers, even if there are pretty much only guys up there.  And sometimes I do wonder what I’d do if I had to get out of bed and run outside because the building was on fire or something.  I imagine either I’d have enough time to throw on clothes of some kind, or at least grab my robe, or at the very worst hug blankets over myself and make a mad and silly dash for the exit.

 

I feel like all the Republicans have some chance of winning the primaries, especially Trump.  He’s been leading the polls ever since he shot up in the rankings during the summer.  Despite losing a bit of support after the second debate as people began rallying behind Carson and Fiorina, no one can come close to where he ranks.  Of course, there’s still quite a bit of time before Super Tuesday, so anything can change.  If Democrats really don’t want Trump getting the nomination, they might be able to throw their support behind one of the other leading contenders.  Whether they choose Carson or Fiorina or even Rubio, it’s going to have to be a focused effort.  If their Republican primary votes splinter, then there’s a very high chance Trump will move on to the final round against either Clinton or Sanders or possibly Biden.  The thing is, I think Democrats are already trying to support the others.  Months ago Carson and Fiorina were nobodies and now they’re rising above the pack.  Now, I know I might be generalizing, but I can’t help but think the left wing is supporting Carson because he’s black and Fiorina because she’s female.  Even the next most popular candidate in most polls, Marco Rubio, is Cuban American.  They are all part of “minority” groups.  Meanwhile, the white male candidates (Bush, Cruz, Paul, Christie, Kasich, Huckabee) are faltering in the polls.  From the looks of it, Carson, Fiorina, and Rubio are getting support because of the fact that they’re of the minority and just seem to be more liberal.  I really hope this isn’t the case.  Voting based on race or gender is a terribly shallow reason for making a decision.  Oh, he’s black!  As a Democrat I’ll probably like him.  Ah, a female?  Sweet, more chances for a woman in the White House!  A Hispanic as President?  History in the making!  Like… seriously?  Please please please let me be wrong.  I want people to back a candidate who can lead our nation, not some minority for the sake of a petty “look, we’re a diverse and forward-thinking country” message to the world.  I’m not saying Carson, Fiorina, or Rubio would make poor Presidents (Fiornia’s my favorite Republican so far).  I just don’t want any of them to be elected because of their minority status.  That would only serve to prove that this country is just a self-gratifying hive mind, as opposed to one that has actually overcome its racial and gender problems.

 

Ah, so those kiddies are only just borrowing the iPads.  I still think that’s kind of crazy though.  What if they download a bunch of games on there and get emotionally attached to it?  Then their parents are going to have to go out of their way to buy their child an iPad to actually own and transfer over the data, or whatnot.  I guess they wouldn’t have to, but if that iPad awakens an addiction in their kid then they don’t have much of a choice.  Eheheh, my mom is pulling that whole “don’t screw things up at Case otherwise we’re going to throw away your video games” stint on me.  I don’t think she’s ever going to forgive me for not going to Rutgers.  At least getting a good grade is easier here than in JP Stevens, for this first semester at least.  They could just be going easy on us freshman, heh.  Aw thanks, but it was far from the most impressive deduction I made.  Cranbrook was just fresh in my mind when I saw your post, which is how I made the connection, and I assumed a bit too much which is why I had a feeling I was mistaken somewhere, which I was.  But it makes sense that such a posh school would be capable of accommodating middle school as well as high school.  I can’t even imagine why someone would attend for seven years, financially speaking, but then again I wouldn’t know how rich people think.  Hm, I guess running into a really good friend from your childhood would be nice, but that’s never happened to me.  I’ve never had a close friend move away before.  Not a really close one at least, which is why I’ve never had the experience that you did.  I only “lost” my close friends because they just ended up in different classes than me and we slowly stopped talking.  They all stuck with JP though; it’s not like we have very good private school substitutes.  The girl I ran into at the tutor place was just as reserved as I was, so we both recognized and acknowledged each other but didn’t really talk aside from that.  It’s nice that your friend hasn’t changed though!  I know someone who… really changed over the years.  And not in a good way.  Eh, it’s a bit of a shame, but life is what it is and people will do what they do.  There’s no helping it.

 

Yeah, realistically speaking I’ve come to terms with the anime industry and just go with the flow.  There will always be shows out there who take themselves seriously and dare to be different, few and far between as they may be.  I’ll keep my eyes peeled for those and keep myself mildly entertained frustrated with some run of the mill shows in the meantime.  I’ve weathered it out for so long, and it’s not like I have anything better to do with my free time.  Perhaps when I’m older and earning more than random newspaper and Swagbucks money I’ll support the people behind the anime I like, even if it ends up being more of just a gesture.

 

Hahah, that’s really nice of you to say!  And I guess you never really struck me as someone who’d enjoy crude humor much either, at least not when I first met you a year ago and all I knew about you was your avid interest in Pokemon games and love for Nichijou.  Not that I mind of course.  This is yet another thing I guess we have in common!

 

If you’re really bothered by their age, Nodame Cantabile is something you might want to check out.  It’s also a romance anime between two musicians, except they’re actually college students.  I know, even a step above high school, woot.  I haven’t personally seen it myself but plan on watching it eventually.  It’s 23 episodes long and rated an 8.52 on MAL, so from the looks of it it’s a very solid series, even if its animation won’t be able to match Shigatsu’s.  Even from the beginning, dissenters have been calling Shigatsu an adolescent’s version of Nodame, haha.  Arima’s glasses bothered me too at first, but I got used to it.  I don’t know how I did, but I almost forgot that was even an issue for me as well until you brought it up.  There are more glaring issues with the anime than the character designs, so I must have learned to ignore it.

 

Ooh, it’s good to hear you’re looking forward to watching it!  I only watched Fate/Zero a total of four times because I wanted to be as knowledgeable about the series as I could for the club.  The first time I watched it last summer I only watched it for fun.  I was looking for anime to show the club but hadn’t settled on anything yet.  I knew UBW was going to start airing in October, and going against what most people recommended at the time (though the tables have completely flipped now), I decided to watch F/Z in celebration of that.  Watched it, loved it, and knew it was going to be the club’s anime, along with UBW.  The second and third times I watch it were technically over the course of the entire school year.  A week in advance, I rewatched the episodes that I would be showing to the club, and when the meeting actually occurred, I was always in the room so I watched it again.  For example, let’s say on October 15th I planned to show episodes four and five of F/Z to the club.  To prepare, on October 9th, the Friday prior, I rewatched episodes four and five to ensure I knew what to expect and was ready for any questions or concerns at the end of the meeting.  On October 15th though, since I was in charge of setting up the technology and I never had anything better to do, I’d watch the two episodes a third time in the company of the club members.  This repeated weekly, so the next step would have been to watch episodes six and seven on October 16th to prep for the actually meeting on October 22nd.  As for why I watched it a fourth time, it was to show my sister during winter break.  She’s not really into anime, so we (my brother, my sister, and I) watched it dubbed since she said she can’t read subtitles.  We finished it in five days I believe, and I think she enjoyed it.  At this point, I know how the story plays out episode by episode, eheh.  I don’t think I need to watch it a fifth time, but since Heaven’s Feel doesn’t look like it’s going to be out for a while, I’ll most definitely forget some things by the time the movies are all released and might as well watch it one last time at the very end to cap off my Fate experience.

 

Hahaha, pipe up indeed.  I make one off-handed comment about Pokemon Y back on October 25th 2014, a few hours later you reply, and now after nearly a year we’re still talking about it!  (*ahem* because that’s totally what we have going on here underneath the spoilers, eheheh)  It wasn’t until the New Year that we got into a weekly pattern we keep even now, however that happened, but from the looks of it October 25th was the day we first met, kinda.  We definitely saw each other around the forums prior to then, but I don’t believe we ever really interacted.  Starting a conversation with a stranger online might not seem like much, but look how far we two idiots have taken it.  Ahh, I really hope we can meet for the first time again, in person though.  Perhaps next year, heehee...  Uhm, well anyway, back on topic.  Aww, I’m really happy to hear that my little ramble didn’t bother you.  Likewise, it’s good to see that you’ve taken up your quirks in stride as well!  Considering how positive you are as a person, I guess that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, haha.  And we’ve all had those dark times.  Same as you, I was riding some rough waves in late middle school and early high school.  But we have both seen the light and grown from our formerly immature selves, which is great!  You just keep being you.  As you say, though you may not be normal, I wouldn’t want you any other way.  I’ve come to absolutely adore everything about you, from your attributes to your faults.  You can find normal things anywhere, but best friends aren’t supposed to be just things you can readily find on the side of the road.

 

Oh hey, your lunches don’t actually sound too different from ours!  Pizzas, salads, and sandwiches were the four mainstays of JP’s lunches.  There was of course the “main” menu, which rotated a various amount of random stuff.  We didn’t have soup though, unless it happened to be part of the main menu, and our parfaits are these cheap little double-layered things.  The food didn’t actually look to bad there.  Of course, I was always a teensy bit hungry while I sat there watching everyone else eat, so it’s possible that the food wasn’t very good at all.  Some people tried forcing me to eat the cafeteria food, to break my fast.  I didn’t budge, not even for a single French fry, all four years.  Without a doubt, one of the greatest accomplishments of my life, heehee.  You brought lunch from home?  What did you usually bring?  And was it prepared in advance the night before or something that was made the morning of?  Ehehe, I’ve actually come to the realization that lines begin forming immediately at Leutner.  Like, by the time I’m done eating at 5:15, the cafeteria has filled up substantially and the lines are decently long, except for Fridays and the weekend.  Seems like everyone is catching on that there’s significantly less headache if you eat dinner as early as possible.  K-Kenzi, I think you’re underestimating the amount of homework you can get in college, eheheh.  I barely have time for my own interests, let alone leisurely exploring the campus after dinner.  It’s a small and cozy place anyway, nothing big like UMich, so I know that by the time I’m done with my four years here I’ll know the place inside and out.  If you really want to go exploring, do that during orientation week, more specifically the days when orientation events are winding down but classes haven’t started yet.  You have hours on end to kill, so grabbing some acquaintances you’ve made and walking around to familiarize yourself with the location and layout of places wouldn’t be a bad idea.  But once the workload really kicks in, you won’t have time or be in the mood to explore.  Ah, only one meal a day is perfectly manageable, for me at least.  My metabolism is pretty slow, so I’m never keeling over in hunger even if I haven’t eaten a bite in 24 hours.  I’m hungry of course, but not to the point of distraction.  My brother’s the opposite; he needs to eat small portions of food regularly over the course of the day, since he gets hungry fast and gets stuffed fast.  And rest assured, I make sure to fill up when I do get the chance to eat, I don’t want you to think I’m living off of a salad a day (even that I can’t handle, oh my gosh).

 

Ayyy, very creative nickname of a nickname.  Clever girl…  My sister doesn’t wear glasses, but her eyesight is apparently in pretty bad shape, and I believe my mom’s been bugging her to get surgery or something for a while now.  She manages fine enough for now, though I’m not too sure why she isn’t investing in vision correction of some kind.  You should be grateful you got your dad’s eyes!  Your sister’s probably envious; glasses and contacts can be a bit of a hassle.  I never wore glasses long enough to truly get used to them, though putting in and taking out my night contacts has become second nature to me.  W-What if your doctor mistakenly has it backward but all of his patients are too embarrassed to correct him??  W-W-Wh-What if you were born with 20/10 vision which has since deteriorated to 20/15 and you think the “normal” eyesight of plebs is too poor for your high class tastes????  Well then princess, you better mind how late you stay up gazing into your computer screen else your eyesight plummets to 20/20!  Can you imagine?  Stooping so low as to settle for 20/20 vision?  Oh, the horror, absolutely unthinkable, we cannot have any of that talk around here, it’s making be feel dirty, making me feel like a poor commoner.  Heheheh, just joking of course!

 

Ohh, I’m not very good at this science-y immune system stuff, so you’re probably right.  I still have trouble keeping all the terminology straight, but from what I gather, what you’re saying makes sense.  Hrm, I believe it’s just normal colds I catch.  In truth, whenever I’m sick, I never know what it is I’ve caught.  It’s always similar symptoms though, like a congested or runny nose, a sore throat, nasty coughs, disgusting sneezes, a mild headache, etc.  It’s rarely all of these at once, but rather a random mixture.  I’m assuming it’s just regular colds and not something like the flu, though truth be told I really have no idea, eheheh.  I can’t imagine you as the type who loses interest in anime and video games especially.  I know you have your whole life ahead of you and a lot can change, but still, hah.  We sort of talked about this before, right?  Didn’t we both promise each other never to forget the kid inside of us?  Growing up and living a monotonous life as an “adult” sounds terrible.  While it wouldn’t be right to just ignore our responsibilities and be immature for the rest of our lives, it would also be a shame to forget what life is all about.  To forget what it’s like to genuinely laugh and be happy, you know?

 

Wow, Tong Hua brings me way back.  I haven’t heard that song in years.  It’s not nearly as popular today as it was a while back, since music trends obviously change all the time.  And don’t worry, I love sad songs, though I appreciate the warning in advance anyway.  It’s kind of interesting that you’re affected by sad songs so much, despite never really being moved to tears when watching movies or anime.  I’ve cried a fair amount watching the silver screen but my mood isn’t adversely affected whenever I listen to melancholic songs.  Jay Chou is somehow everyone’s gateway into C-pop, or at least was back in his prime.  My sister went through a phase as well, back when she was younger, hahah.  I’ve gotten better at recognizing Chinese singers by their faces, voices, names, style, and songs, but I wouldn’t say I’m too knowledgeable on the subject yet.  And as far as J-pop is concerned, I’m only well versed in those that are part of the anime community.  There’s a huge difference between anime singers and just regular Japanese singers, so the scope of my knowledge is limited in that sense.  I haven’t really gotten into K-pop.  Occasionally if I’m craving a different change of pace, I just YouTube “kpop” like a newb and click on the “Top Tracks” playlist YouTube automatically generates on the right hand side.  It seems to be more dance-orientated and upbeat than either C-pop or J-pop, but it’s not too bad and can help give me a kick of energy if I find that I’m sluggishly getting through my work.  And foreign songs are the best for when I’m reading text books or articles for the sake of absorbing complex information, since I’m not usually distracted by the lyrics.

 

Ohohohoho, I know, if I’m not going to hell for purchasing and playing video games behind my parents’ back, then I’m totally going to hell for giving out those quizzes.  I’m probably on a blacklist somewhere and am not allowed within a ten meter radius from children.  Hah, but seriously, the extra credit questions were there either because I stumbled upon a fun trivia fact and wanted to share it or because I wanted to ask a question but it was something even I wouldn’t have been able to figure out without looking it up.  And though I said I would share the Fate quizzes with you, upon reconsideration a lot of the questions (the quotes especially) I chose covered topics you might not have noticed in your first run.  I want you to rewatch Fate/Zero and have those “ohhhh I didn’t see that the first time!” kind of reactions, and I feel that a lot of the questions on all my quizzes would tip you off to those in advance, ehehe.  Once you watch F/Z again, whether it be before or after HF, I’ll share the quizzes with you and we can see how well you fare then, hahah.

 

Naw, this was way back when we were still wee lads.  My parents figured a little bit of video gaming here and there couldn’t hurt, especially if they limited it.  Once they realized how attached we got to video games and caught us playing when they didn’t allow it, they were more and more hesitant to buy whatever games we asked for.  From what I can tell they’re not nearly as strict about this as your parents are though, since they’ve purchased a ton of video games and consoles and accessories for my me and my brother over the years.  We had to coerce them and they still don’t willingly let us play, but it’s better than nothing, ahah.  Huh, your parents actually care about your outward appearance?  That’s kind of funny, usually you’d think it’s the other way around.  Like, a girl would more likely be the one nagging her parents to buy the latest in fashion, not so much the other way around.  But as you say, the way you dress really isn’t that important.  As long as you like, shower reasonably often and look self-respecting then you’re fine.

 

Hmph, okeey Kenzi, trying to justify an addiction by insisting you’re not that reliant on your cellphone, I see how it is…  But in all seriousness, I guess it’s good that you’re not one of those compulsive texters.  I still have yet to receive a Facebook message or text that isn’t related to school work though.  Hmm, maybe building a reliance on phones takes time?  Maybe Pokemon Go and those Nintendo apps that are going to be coming out will help with that, heheheh.  I don’t see it ever being useful like my computer is useful, but I can see it becoming something I choose to play over my 3DS whenever I have a few minutes to spare, so there’s that.  Huh, an extreme form of procrastination?  Geezus, what a frightening thought.  Time management is my biggest struggle right now in college, more so than the workload and exams.  There’s a lot of homework for sure, but it’s only bogged me down as much as it has so far because I waste so much time, heh.  Completely shutting down my senses with alcohol sounds like a horrid business, whether for recreation or for counteracting depression.  And I’m perfectly content with my life right now, so it’s not like I have any need to escape reality.  And I watch anime and play video games for entertainment, not to ignore my responsibilities.

 

Ah, so your physics teacher is using clickers too?  I can imagine it’d be pretty fun, but none of my classes are large enough to use them.  Participation is really up to the professor.  Some of them don’t care if you show up so long as you do well on exams.  My econ and math teachers are like that.  Realistically speaking though, there’s no way you can skip class all the time and still do well on tests.  Others like my SAGES professor take attendance every day.  If you’re late or absent, regardless of the reason, you get points off.  It affects your grade enough to give you the incentive to be in class, but not enough that your grade is ruined if you absolutely have to miss class for whatever reason.  And then there’s my accounting professor, who doesn’t technically take attendance but occasionally gives little pop quizzes or small in-class assignments randomly that count for a few points.  If you’re not in class that day, then you get a zero for those assignments.  There are many different ways of making sure that students show up to class.  So though I don’t think any professor will out-right flunk you for not showing up enough, you’re most likely going to fail yourself if you don’t do yourself the favor of going to class.

 

Ooh, look at you, you little scientist, prepping yourself up for success from such an early age, hahah.  That’s really impressive that you read all those anatomy and astronomy books when you were so young.  And just imagining you scribbling out those crazy theories of yours as a child is really cute, heheh.  Nonfiction was never really my thing.  I think we did have some for-children science books at home, but I was more interested in looking at the pictures than actually reading and absorbing the information.  Even in elementary school, I liked reading stories.  I don’t think I read nearly as much as I did in middle school, but given that I read everything on that summer reading list right after fifth grade shows that I practically inhaled novels even at that age.  And it wasn’t actually the sixth grade summer reading list, it was the entire middle school summer reading list.  So fifth to sixth grade, sixth to seventh grade, and seventh to eighth grade books were all on there.  Technically some of them were above my reading level, but the only one I remember giving me a hard time was a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, which consisted of multiple novels and a few short stories.  I loved the heck out of it though, even if it wasn’t the easiest read.

 

Hmph, look at you, mocking the irony of my dorm situation…

 

Woah, I never would have guessed that you ever did figure skating, even if it may not have been for very long, when you were younger.  That’s certainly not the most common recreational activity for kids.  My parents made me try a bunch of stuff when I was younger, but it was me rather than them who didn’t feel like continuing with all those activities.  Let’s see, there was violin, piano, basketball, soccer, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, and table tennis.  My parents were hoping that I would take a passion to at least one of those, but I never really did.  The oboe is what I gravitated to for the majority of my life, but I’ve since dropped that as well.  Ehhh, I feel kind of bad for wasting all their time and money like that, but I guess it’s still better to try something and realize you don’t like it than not try anything at all. 

 

I’m glad to hear that the SAT IIs went well!  Or at least, that you believe you did well!  It always sucks when the actual test is nothing like the practice.  Happens a lot with the SATs it seems.  Practice tests and reality can very so drastically from each other.  Regardless, here’s hoping for perfect scores!

 

Oh nahh, you didn’t make me stay up late at all.  It’s not like I was staying up procrastinating on my homework or anything of course not do you really think I’d do something like that ohohohoho…………  *ahem* And as for fixing the typos, I don’t really know why I did.  I just had a random urge to skim over what I wrote and caught a few errors, so I decided heck might as well fix them, eheheh.  Aww, thanks, and likewise regarding your little addition…

 

I’m glad to see that you’re going out of your way to show demonstrated interest in Case!  I don’t think it’s overkill at all, since they’re probably really happy to see such a good student take such a liking to them.  The Early Action deadline is in just about three weeks now, so I hope your essay and application in general are coming along nicely!  I may be busy with midterms this week (which is why I couldn’t afford to type up nearly as much as I usually do, something I deeply apologize for) but I’ll be rooting for you all the way!  Best of luck in this last stretch!

 

Haha, I've always disliked how formulaic DC episodes tend to be. The earlier episodes had a bit of variety, but the newer episodes are face-desk worthy. And you're right, the music isn't anything great. I'm not sure why I'm so fond of the music since I don't feel the same kind of nostalgia for most other shows. Oh, and I still haven't gotten around to watching movie 19 yet. The movies have gotten progressively worse over the years, so it's not like I mind putting it off. Maybe the fact that it's the highest grossing DC movie to date will invoke some form motivation for me to watch it sometime soon. We were never forced to watch House in AP Bio. It tends to garner a lot of praise, but I haven't watched a single episode on my own, so I can't agree or disagree with you on that. But seeing as it tends to adhere to the same tropes that make DC such a pain to watch, I don't think I'd enjoy it either. We sometimes watched Numb3rs during precalc. It's a CSI-esque show, so the drama and over the top mathematical calculations are to be expected. And yeah, it was great for the entertainment factor, but it became really repetitive and stale after the third or fourth episode. I have yet to stumble across a good mystery/detective show, but I might jump into Sherlock if I have time.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Pokemon Go turned out to be a late 2016 release. They dropped the information on us so late in the year, so having an early 2016 release doesn't seem very likely. You still gotta make room for the hype, haha. I don't think I'm going to get the accessory though. Or at least not until I see what it really has to offer. But like I said before, it can serve as a huge distraction, so I'm still on the fence about this. Oh, the Pokewalker... you adorable little piece of junk... It's functionality wasn't very good. What I mean by that is, it wasn't very good at what it was supposed to do. It never really "counted" steps and it was just generally a hassle to toy around with it because the darn thing is so limited in what it can do. But you know, you can't expect much from a little trinket that's supposed to serve as a supplement to a game. Never really caught any good Pokemon with the thing. Still had a stupid amount of fun though, haha. Although you didn't get to experience the Pokewalker, I'm pretty confident saying that you didn't miss much.

 

Even though they only used Sugimori art, I actually liked ORAS's battle cutscenes more than XY's, lol. Ohh, I hope midterms went well! A few of my friends at UMich were also feeling the same pressure so I guess you guys were all in the same boat! It kinda sucks how you guys had exams so early in the year, but I hope you treated yourself well and killed 'em, hehe. 

 

What the... you've fallen asleep in the shower?? Wut. How is that even possible. Feeling restrictive isn't a problem for me since I wear loose-fitting clothes to sleep. Sweatpants in the winter and t-shirts in the summer. I can see why you feel the need to sleep bare in the warmer months, but in the winter? Oh gosh, wouldn't you freeze to death? The heater/thermostat in my room broke recently, so I'm stuck in 50* conditions whenever I'm in my room now. I currently have a blanket wrapped around me as I type this very paragraph. Gosh, it's cold. It's supposed to warm up this week, or at least I hope it does. Haha, and similarly, I'm not comfortable changing clothes in front of people (not even my roommate back at UMich), much less sleeping bare in a college dorm. And uh, if the building happened to catch on fire, then... I'm not entirely sure what I'd do if I wasn't properly clothed. 

 

Ahh, as you know, the Democrat debate was held about a week ago, and speaking of voting based on race or gender... Yes, voting based on race and gender is incredibly shallow, but having a candidate playing the gender or race card is just as bad. "Well, I think that's pretty obvious. I think being the first woman president would be quite a change from the presidents we've had up until this point, including President Obama." Just the way Clinton says this so smugly irritates me. Don't you have anything better to contribute? Who the hell cares which gender you are. What are you going to offer the country? If being female is the only enticement you can think to bring to the table, that really says something about your character and priorities. Voting for her because she's female is like buying the shell of a sports car for display. Sure it looks nice, but just "looking nice" isn't going to get you very far. No one should vote for a president for looks. I can't believe she bothered to stoop that low. Even if it was a spur of the moment statement or slipup (doubt it, since she's proven herself to be a pretty well-expressed speaker), she didn't have to bring gender into it as one of the defining factors for voting (or at least that's what I thought she was trying to imply). And there's no doubt the feminazis are going to jump on this opportunity to further inflate Clinton's votes because she's female. Sometimes I feel that one of the main reasons Obama won the previous elections was because of his race. Everyone was just so stirred up by the fact that he became the first black president. While there's nothing wrong with that, I kinda wish there was a way for us to tell whether some of the votes truly were based on his political views. It's actually a little funny since being part of the minority usually serves as a disadvantage. We're far from overcoming gender and racial problems, but I still hope the majority of America has enough common sense to look at the candidates from equal ground rather than glorifying or debasing them from a gender and/or racial standpoint.

 

Since the iPads technically belong to the school, you can't download things all willy nilly. But you can surf the internet and stuff. Gosh, what a waste. We have crappy routers and internet at school, and this is what the school district invests in? iPads for the little kiddies to toy around with? Like geez, they even got an actual Apple employee just to hand them out, wtf. If this counts as anything, this friend of mine also has a little brother who attends Cranbrook. Yeahh, I don't get it either. Ohh, even if my close friends end up in different classes, we almost always find time to talk to each other in the hallways when we run into each other. We could end up with the same teacher, but not the same period so we ask each other for homework help on occasion. Or maybe we're in the same club. However, there was this one friend I was really close to back in middle school and early high school. He was arguably my best friend at the time. I believe one of the main reasons we aren't as close anymore is because we didn't share a single class in high school until this year. We chatted with each other on gmail multiple hours on end for multiple times a week during middle school and early high school, but times change and we branch out to new people and interests can split paths, I suppose (could write a whole backstory on this, but I'd rather not bore you). We exchange punches and make faces at each other in the hallways and have small talk whenever we have the chance, so he's still a relatively good friend of mine. I don't think I've ever truly "lost" a really close friend. We might stop hanging out after being separated for a while, but that doesn't mean all of that history we've had together went down the drain. I might lose a few friends who are more like acquaintances, but almost never a close friend. And while change isn't entirely bad, I do have a few friends who I'm not as close to anymore because of it. They didn't necessarily change for the worse; they just adopted new personalities after hanging out with new people. Haha, the only thing that changed about my friend at Cranbrook is his height. >6ft? Phew, that's huge, lol.  

 

I'm actually a bit surprised that you managed to endure so many subpar anime. Like sheesh, your average rating on MAL is just under a 5?? I just... I know rating systems tend to differ between people, and maybe you're just a harsher rater, but being able to stomach anime deserving of 5s on a regular basis is crazy. Maybe you're just a lot more tolerant than I originally thought, haha.

 

Ahah, sorry, I was only bothered by their age because it's just really hard to take middle schoolers seriously when they're trying to make some profound point or something. And in a few years, I'll probably feel the same way towards high schoolers. Goddamn Akazora, my backlog of anime is getting bigger and bigger with each passing response. Not that I mind though, lol. It's just that my list is beginning to feel more like a to-do list since I still haven't gotten around to watching any of them yet, haha. Nodame Cantabile, hmm? Definitely sounds like a good watch, heh. 

 

Out of curiosity, how well did your reactions fare when you showed episode 23 to the club? Specifically the scene after Gilgamesh and Archer fought, hehe... Hmm, so you discovered F/Z the summer before senior year? That's actually... a lot more recent than I thought. And forgive my crappy memory if you mentioned this before, but when did you create this club? Would you also recommend the dub? (random off-topic comment/realization that "club" looks like "dub"). The club was definitely lucky to have such a dedicated president, haha. Setting up technology and rewatching to make sure there were no unanswered questions on top of creating and grading quizzes to test the members' knowledge on the anime (not to mention you also watched it four times in total). Your sister's not into anime but you managed to persuade her to watch it? Gosh, I can't even get my sister to watch Steins;Gate, and she used to be a huge anime fanatic, lol. And what do you mean by "she can't read subtitles"? 

 

We would've dissected Pokemon Y inside out by now given the length of our responses and how often we post if we truly were still talking about it, lol. And while we never really interacted with each other until October 25th, something about your posts always stood out the most for some reason (even before we met)--I can't quite put my finger on it. October 25th, huh... damn, it's been nearly/only a year? It sure as hell doesn't feel that way, haha. But I guess now I finally have a recent fond memory to tag onto autumn. I'm not even sure myself how we got into this pattern of regular responses, but if we both take a step back just to look at how far we've taken this... it's insane. Any outsider would think we're insane, lol. No one would believe me if I told them that my best friend is someone I met on a quaint little forum. You know, with that whole spiel about stranger danger and catfishing, I wouldn't be able to explain it to them either. Hehe, I can't even explain it to myself! It's funny how life works. And that's awfully nice of you to say that about me. I admire everything about you, from your amazing sense of humor to your quirky personality. You never fail to make me laugh or smile, haha.

 

Gosh, I still can't believe you never ate lunch during your four years at JP. Sheesh, I just... how?? Did you at least attempt to eat a solid breakfast? Haha, if I was with you at JP, I would've tried to break your fast for sure. Oh, and I lied. I seldom bought lunch, but I do remember buying a sandwich at one point after forgetting my lunch at home. It wasn't bad, but it was a ripoff. Then again, all school foods are ripoffs. For the majority of freshman and sophomore year, I brought some sandwich made the day before. I'm so freaking sick of sandwiches. I experience some form of PTSD just thinking about the thick, tasteless, whole-grain and flaxseed bread that was paired with processed "meat", 1% cheese, and iceberg lettuce that caused the bread to develop this waterlogged texture. The sandwich tasted like it got dropped in the Atlantic Ocean after getting regurgitated from a dog that dug it out from a dumpster--of course this is all assumption, but who knows, I might not be far off. Towards the end of sophomore year, I couldn't even force it down anymore. I'd just skip lunch entirely because I figured starving myself would be better for my both my physical and mental well-being. Yes, it took me nearly two years to come to that realization. I can't even go to the bread section of the grocery store anymore. The "odor" of that specific kind of bread is just too overwhelming. The bread I bring to school for "breakfast" is entirely different though. For junior and senior year, I brought/bring boxed lunch. Just rice with some food leftover from dinner the day before. It's been okay. Ahaha, sorry. I didn't have as much work to do back at UMich, so exploring the campus after dinner was a regular thing for me. I didn't mean to undermine the college workload that much, eheh... 24 hours of no food and I wouldn't be able to function. I can go without meals entirely and just live off of snacks/small portions of food, but I most certainly wouldn't be able to go 24 hours without food. I haven't tried it yet, and I don't plan to either. And it's good to know that you really aren't living off of a salad a day, ahah.

 

Technically, it's a nickname of a username, but I suppose "Akazora" could also pass off as a nickname, haha. Whoa, your sister's eyes are in pretty bad shape but she still doesn't wear any glasses or contacts? How does she even function?? Holy moly... Yeah, I'm really glad I got my dad's eyes. My mom and sister keep telling me about how much of a pain glasses are, and shoving plastic onto my cornea doesn't sound very appealing either. Haha, if anything, I must've misheard him. There's seriously no way I could have 20/15 vision. Apparently, I'm actually overdue for my eye appointment, so I guess I'm going to have to schedule one soon. My eyes definitely aren't as good as they used to be. They aren't a burden for me yet, but I'm starting to get more conscious about the stuff I'm beginning to have difficulty seeing. Uhh, pfft, yeah. You plebs better know your place since my visual prowess clearly makes me superior to those with eyesight as lowly as yours. Simply conversing with paupers like you makes me feel as if I'm being drenched in an unfathomable amount of idiocy because, of course, the hierarchy of eyesight is what determines which of you peasants are worthy enough to speak to someone with eyes as prevailing as my own, after all. Thank goodness that's been established. Dear me, I don't know what I'd do if we were to be plunged into anarchy due to something as juvenile as intermixing with you... you commoners! Oh God forbid!!

 

Haha, what you wrote seems like the common cold since I also exhibit these symptoms whenever I get a cold (or at least what I think is a cold). Sometimes I can become sensitive to light and physical contact with anything; something as simple as lightly brushing something against my skin can produce a world of discomfort when my colds get really bad. Flus are more like bed-ridden and throw up-y kind of symptoms--a lot worse than colds... I think. Huh... now that I think about it, I'm not quite sure I know the difference between the cold and flu my seventeen years of living have all been a lie. But most of my friends who catch the flu tend to miss school, so I'm fairly confident that flus are a lot more severe. I've never had to skip school because of a sickness so I always assumed that I never caught the flu (plus, the flu shots I got seem to be getting the job done). Nope, I don't see myself losing interest in anime or video games anytime soon. I still have lots of room to make memories with the kid inside of me, and I know you do as well, haha. It's no fun to live a life without any fond memories or experiences to look back on. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about our promise, hehe. 

 

Oh geez, I've been moved to tears while listening to songs, no joke. Not very often, but it does happen every once in a while. Anime and movies though, not so much. Instrumentals, lyrical, anything, really. Melancholic songs affect my mood greatly. It's kinda weird. I avoid depressing songs so I don't get too distracted. Don't get me wrong; there are a lot of good emotional songs out there that I can name, it's just that... I don't like feeling sad, lol. I don't like mourning over nothing. It feels empty and meaningless, and it makes me confused. Hmm, so you've never been affected by listening to sad songs? Gosh, lucky you. I can't even bring myself to listen to songs like Tong Hua because of how depressing they are, sigh. I'm not well versed in C-pop, J-pop, or K-pop. I have a list of songs I sometimes refer to when I need something to listen to, but I'm not going to stalk the artists for their albums or anything. If something sounds good, I add it to my list. Doesn't matter where it's from. Doesn't matter who it's sung by. It can be Ukrainian for all I care. Ahaha, and I can't listen to any songs with lyrics whenever I'm doing homework. It's simply too distracting, so I almost always resort to instrumentals whenever I can.

 

Ohhhh, is that so... I guess I have even more incentive to watch F/Z then, haha. I appreciate you taking that into consideration, so definitely remind me to ask you later once I get around to rewatching it. Also....... y-you want to see how well I'll do on those quizzes? Oh dear, I do hope you keep your expectations in check because I don't have a very good feeling about this...

 

My parents were definitely a lot easier to sway when I first got my DS since I didn't have too much on my plate, but now? It's a hard life. I only have one video game trinket they willingly bought me. And it's this cute little Yoshi plush I got in California (and I think the only reason I was able to persuade them was because we were vacationing with really close family friends). This was way back in middle school though. Ahaha, I rarely nag my parents about clothes. Half of my wardrobe is my sister's, but I still know about the fashion trends going around school. Floral skirts with boots, Under Armour leggings, Dr. Martens, Toms, galaxy-themed everything, Sperrys, military boots, etc. so I'm pretty confident I'm not left in the dark about this stuff. These kinds of fashion trends spread like wildfire. But at the same time, why should I toss away $60 just to wear some shoes or clothes that don't really appeal to me? If I find something on the clothing rack that looks nice, sure I'll buy it... as long as it doesn't cost a fortune. 

 

I don't have a single game on my phone, and I intend to keep it that way. God knows what'll happen to my "reliance" on my phone if I downloaded games. Pokemon Go might be the exception, or I could just look up some reviews and stuff. It's definitely a lot more limited than my laptop, and tapping on glass can't beat typing on a keyboard. You receive texts and messages pertaining to schoolwork? Pfft, what a nerd. Haha, kidding, I tend to receive/send those kinds of texts and messages as well, but it's also helpful getting notifications about social events and activities. Or maybe something happened to you one day, and you just can't help but want to rave/complain about it to a friend. Or vice versa. Time management is also a huge struggle for me. I definitely wouldn't be as stressed as I am now if I just quit putting off studying and doing assignments. I'm not even sure how it happened. In sophomore year and years prior, I'd take any opportunity I could get during the school day to finish my homework. Now I can't even bring myself to take the folders out of my backpack during lunch unless it happened to be due on the same day. I'll try to kill this habit though... later. Ahh, no, I didn't mean to imply that watching anime and video games were ways to escape responsibility. Watching anime and playing video games aren't as fun when you have a constant tug at the back of your head, after all.

edit: waitwaitwait, I completely forgot about Deemo. Deemo (and possibly Pokemon Go) is probably the only game I'll download, ahahahaha...............

 

Nono, not clickers, but plickers, haha. The class size isn't too big (around the low 20s), but it's still kinda fun. I think it's a pretty neat concept. Read the Question of the Day and then hold up a sheet of paper for the teacher to scan as a way to submit your answer. It's kinda funny how some professors go through such lengths just to get students to attend class, especially since college education is paid education (basically you do what you want with your money; waste it if you want). You'd think that public high school teachers would be more strict about attendance since we don't have as much of an incentive or obligation to attend. Or at least not as much as college students who have to pay out of their own pockets do.

 

Haha, in elementary school I read stuff like the Magic Tree House, Geronimo Stilton, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and a bunch of other series I've probably forgotten. I was late to the party and read the Harry Potter series in middle school. I remember going to the local library and school media center pretty often back in elementary and middle school, but it still feels like I haven't read much. I was probably too young to really take anything out of the books I read, lol. I usually gravitated towards realistic fiction, fantasy, and sci fi, but as I began reading more books, I started getting tired of first person, regardless of genre. Towards late middle school, it went to the point where I'd straight up set a book down if I saw any hints of it being written in first person--especially if it was a contemporary book written in a girl's perspective. I never had a problem with this whenever I picked up a nonfiction book. I also really loved crafts books and getting something "practical" out of what I read. I struggled to get through the Sherlock Holmes stories and A Tale of Two Cities in middle school, and I'm even a little afraid to revisit them because of how intimidated I felt, especially since I was surrounded by classmates who seemed perfectly comfortable reading books of that caliber. Haha, and I still struggled to get through books like Candide and Huck Finn in high school.

 

Haha, yeah, most people don't, and it's not too surprising. I was figure skating for a good chunk of late elementary school and early middle school, but it has been such an insignificant part of my life that I often forget about it. I'd also fall flat on my face if you asked me to get on the ice rink at this very moment. You played tennis?? And y-you quit?? H-how... tennis is so much fun... Violin too, but you play oboe (and also decided you didn't like the violin as much) so advocating for the violin would seem like wasted effort, lol. The main reason my parents made me quit piano was because my sister was better, which is no surprise since she had quite a few years of experience on me at the time. When we moved to Michigan, the teacher we went to only had space for one more student, and you can guess what went down from there. Ohh, you actually tried quite a few activities! Taekwondo, hm? It's a little silly to ask, I'll admit, but was there any particular reason you didn't like violin, piano, basketball, soccer, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, and table tennis? Or rather, what about the oboe stood out to you over these other activities?

 

Perfect scores? Probably not, to be honest. I always find myself making silly mistakes, regardless of how confident I feel about the test. I actually ended up writing a huge rant/tangent about this (ty for triggering me, kidding, kidding), but decided to cut it out so I wouldn't be dumping a truckload of salt on you out of nowhere. Thanks though, haha.

 

My essay has been coming along okay. I ran it through a few friends and they seemed to like it. I also went to a couple of English teachers and I'm anticipating feedback soon. There are still a few rough edges, but that's to be expected since I typed up the majority of it during that near all-nighter I mentioned in the PM (had to scrap the previous intro and conclusion I wrote since I didn't like them). It's also 70 words above the limit so I need to work on trimming it down. I could send it to you after that's been worked out if you want to see it. The rest of my application has also been okay. I still need to type up supplements for a few other schools, and maybe smooth out a bit of my application some more. Oh, and I got my rec letters turned in, so I need to write out a few thank-you notes soon (weird turn of events since it turns out I'm actually on good terms with my calc teacher even after that... incident... maybe he forgot it ever happened). Also sent a few emails to an admissions counselor. Even though it doesn't sound like much, this whole process has been interfering with the amount of time I can dedicate to schoolwork and our weekly responses. A lot. Haha, the near all-nighter I pulled wrecked my sleep schedule and I had to catch up on some material after crashing in a few classes. I don't even know how many hours I average anymore. Sometimes I'd be doing some homework at 11pm, then fall asleep and wake up at 1am, then work again, then sleep again, then wake up again for school. Or maybe I'd be too tired to work on anything and just sleep at 11pm until 3-4am and then work until 6am when I have to pack for school. The only saving grace at the moment is the fact that my courseload isn't as difficult as the one I had last year (physics is still a pain though). Oh, and thank the lord tennis season is in the spring. Gahhhh, I can't believe I wasted my entire summer without coming up with a single essay topic I ended up using. My life would be a crapton easier if I had just finished it over the summer. Or maybe my time management is a lot worse than I originally thought. I'm willing to bet that it's a mix of both. So yeah, I brought this upon myself, but eh, gotta roll with it at this point. I'm still happier than I was during junior year though, so I guess that's a plus, lol.

 

Also, regarding your PM, damn, why you gotta pull so many all-nighters, man (and you seem rather proud of them too, for some reason, haha). Still, I'm glad you're happy and well-situated with the college life (despite the of all-nighters you seem to be pulling... hm...), and again, hopefully your midterms went well for you! Thank you for the good luck sentiment and for enduring my untimely responses as well, ahah.

just edited a bit of the politics and the phone paragraphs

...and the last one

Edited October 19, 2015 by Kenzi

[Kid the Phantom Thief 252]

Not me, but some of my classmates have begun playing Runescape again.

[Akazora 293]

Haha, I've always disliked how formulaic DC episodes tend to be. The earlier episodes had a bit of variety, but the newer episodes are face-desk worthy. And you're right, the music isn't anything great. I'm not sure why I'm so fond of the music since I don't feel the same kind of nostalgia for most other shows. Oh, and I still haven't gotten around to watching movie 19 yet. The movies have gotten progressively worse over the years, so it's not like I mind putting it off. Maybe the fact that it's the highest grossing DC movie to date will invoke some form motivation for me to watch it sometime soon. We were never forced to watch House in AP Bio. It tends to garner a lot of praise, but I haven't watched a single episode on my own, so I can't agree or disagree with you on that. But seeing as it tends to adhere to the same tropes that make DC such a pain to watch, I don't think I'd enjoy it either. We sometimes watched Numb3rs during precalc. It's a CSI-esque show, so the drama and over the top mathematical calculations are to be expected. And yeah, it was great for the entertainment factor, but it became really repetitive and stale after the third or fourth episode. I have yet to stumble across a good mystery/detective show, but I might jump into Sherlock if I have time.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Pokemon Go turned out to be a late 2016 release. They dropped the information on us so late in the year, so having an early 2016 release doesn't seem very likely. You still gotta make room for the hype, haha. I don't think I'm going to get the accessory though. Or at least not until I see what it really has to offer. But like I said before, it can serve as a huge distraction, so I'm still on the fence about this. Oh, the Pokewalker... you adorable little piece of junk... It's functionality wasn't very good. What I mean by that is, it wasn't very good at what it was supposed to do. It never really "counted" steps and it was just generally a hassle to toy around with it because the darn thing is so limited in what it can do. But you know, you can't expect much from a little trinket that's supposed to serve as a supplement to a game. Never really caught any good Pokemon with the thing. Still had a stupid amount of fun though, haha. Although you didn't get to experience the Pokewalker, I'm pretty confident saying that you didn't miss much.

 

Even though they only used Sugimori art, I actually liked ORAS's battle cutscenes more than XY's, lol. Ohh, I hope midterms went well! A few of my friends at UMich were also feeling the same pressure so I guess you guys were all in the same boat! It kinda sucks how you guys had exams so early in the year, but I hope you treated yourself well and killed 'em, hehe. 

 

What the... you've fallen asleep in the shower?? Wut. How is that even possible. Feeling restrictive isn't a problem for me since I wear loose-fitting clothes to sleep. Sweatpants in the winter and t-shirts in the summer. I can see why you feel the need to sleep bare in the warmer months, but in the winter? Oh gosh, wouldn't you freeze to death? The heater/thermostat in my room broke recently, so I'm stuck in 50* conditions whenever I'm in my room now. I currently have a blanket wrapped around me as I type this very paragraph. Gosh, it's cold. It's supposed to warm up this week, or at least I hope it does. Haha, and similarly, I'm not comfortable changing clothes in front of people (not even my roommate back at UMich), much less sleeping bare in a college dorm. And uh, if the building happened to catch on fire, then... I'm not entirely sure what I'd do if I wasn't properly clothed. 

 

Ahh, as you know, the Democrat debate was held about a week ago, and speaking of voting based on race or gender... Yes, voting based on race and gender is incredibly shallow, but having a candidate playing the gender or race card is just as bad. "Well, I think that's pretty obvious. I think being the first woman president would be quite a change from the presidents we've had up until this point, including President Obama." Just the way Clinton says this so smugly irritates me. Don't you have anything better to contribute? Who the hell cares which gender you are. What are you going to offer the country? If being female is the only enticement you can think to bring to the table, that really says something about your character and priorities. Voting for her because she's female is like buying the shell of a sports car for display. Sure it looks nice, but just "looking nice" isn't going to get you very far. No one should vote for a president for looks. I can't believe she bothered to stoop that low. Even if it was a spur of the moment statement or slipup (doubt it, since she's proven herself to be a pretty well-expressed speaker), she didn't have to bring gender into it as one of the defining factors for voting (or at least that's what I thought she was trying to imply). And there's no doubt the feminazis are going to jump on this opportunity to further inflate Clinton's votes because she's female. Sometimes I feel that one of the main reasons Obama won the previous elections was because of his race. Everyone was just so stirred up by the fact that he became the first black president. While there's nothing wrong with that, I kinda wish there was a way for us to tell whether some of the votes truly were based on his political views. It's actually a little funny since being part of the minority usually serves as a disadvantage. We're far from overcoming gender and racial problems, but I still hope the majority of America has enough common sense to look at the candidates from equal ground rather than glorifying or debasing them from a gender and/or racial standpoint.

 

Since the iPads technically belong to the school, you can't download things all willy nilly. But you can surf the internet and stuff. Gosh, what a waste. We have crappy routers and internet at school, and this is what the school district invests in? iPads for the little kiddies to toy around with? Like geez, they even got an actual Apple employee just to hand them out, wtf. If this counts as anything, this friend of mine also has a little brother who attends Cranbrook. Yeahh, I don't get it either. Ohh, even if my close friends end up in different classes, we almost always find time to talk to each other in the hallways when we run into each other. We could end up with the same teacher, but not the same period so we ask each other for homework help on occasion. Or maybe we're in the same club. However, there was this one friend I was really close to back in middle school and early high school. He was arguably my best friend at the time. I believe one of the main reasons we aren't as close anymore is because we didn't share a single class in high school until this year. We chatted with each other on gmail multiple hours on end for multiple times a week during middle school and early high school, but times change and we branch out to new people and interests can split paths, I suppose (could write a whole backstory on this, but I'd rather not bore you). We exchange punches and make faces at each other in the hallways and have small talk whenever we have the chance, so he's still a relatively good friend of mine. I don't think I've ever truly "lost" a really close friend. We might stop hanging out after being separated for a while, but that doesn't mean all of that history we've had together went down the drain. I might lose a few friends who are more like acquaintances, but almost never a close friend. And while change isn't entirely bad, I do have a few friends who I'm not as close to anymore because of it. They didn't necessarily change for the worse; they just adopted new personalities after hanging out with new people. Haha, the only thing that changed about my friend at Cranbrook is his height. >6ft? Phew, that's huge, lol.  

 

I'm actually a bit surprised that you managed to endure so many subpar anime. Like sheesh, your average rating on MAL is just under a 5?? I just... I know rating systems tend to differ between people, and maybe you're just a harsher rater, but being able to stomach anime deserving of 5s on a regular basis is crazy. Maybe you're just a lot more tolerant than I originally thought, haha.

 

Ahah, sorry, I was only bothered by their age because it's just really hard to take middle schoolers seriously when they're trying to make some profound point or something. And in a few years, I'll probably feel the same way towards high schoolers. Goddamn Akazora, my backlog of anime is getting bigger and bigger with each passing response. Not that I mind though, lol. It's just that my list is beginning to feel more like a to-do list since I still haven't gotten around to watching any of them yet, haha. Nodame Cantabile, hmm? Definitely sounds like a good watch, heh. 

 

Out of curiosity, how well did your reactions fare when you showed episode 23 to the club? Specifically the scene after Gilgamesh and Archer fought, hehe... Hmm, so you discovered F/Z the summer before senior year? That's actually... a lot more recent than I thought. And forgive my crappy memory if you mentioned this before, but when did you create this club? Would you also recommend the dub? (random off-topic comment/realization that "club" looks like "dub"). The club was definitely lucky to have such a dedicated president, haha. Setting up technology and rewatching to make sure there were no unanswered questions on top of creating and grading quizzes to test the members' knowledge on the anime (not to mention you also watched it four times in total). Your sister's not into anime but you managed to persuade her to watch it? Gosh, I can't even get my sister to watch Steins;Gate, and she used to be a huge anime fanatic, lol. And what do you mean by "she can't read subtitles"? 

 

We would've dissected Pokemon Y inside out by now given the length of our responses and how often we post if we truly were still talking about it, lol. And while we never really interacted with each other until October 25th, something about your posts always stood out the most for some reason (even before we met)--I can't quite put my finger on it. October 25th, huh... damn, it's been nearly/only a year? It sure as hell doesn't feel that way, haha. But I guess now I finally have a recent fond memory to tag onto autumn. I'm not even sure myself how we got into this pattern of regular responses, but if we both take a step back just to look at how far we've taken this... it's insane. Any outsider would think we're insane, lol. No one would believe me if I told them that my best friend is someone I met on a quaint little forum. You know, with that whole spiel about stranger danger and catfishing, I wouldn't be able to explain it to them either. Hehe, I can't even explain it to myself! It's funny how life works. And that's awfully nice of you to say that about me. I admire everything about you, from your amazing sense of humor to your quirky personality. You never fail to make me laugh or smile, haha.

 

Gosh, I still can't believe you never ate lunch during your four years at JP. Sheesh, I just... how?? Did you at least attempt to eat a solid breakfast? Haha, if I was with you at JP, I would've tried to break your fast for sure. Oh, and I lied. I seldom bought lunch, but I do remember buying a sandwich at one point after forgetting my lunch at home. It wasn't bad, but it was a ripoff. Then again, all school foods are ripoffs. For the majority of freshman and sophomore year, I brought some sandwich made the day before. I'm so freaking sick of sandwiches. I experience some form of PTSD just thinking about the thick, tasteless, whole-grain and flaxseed bread that was paired with processed "meat", 1% cheese, and iceberg lettuce that caused the bread to develop this waterlogged texture. The sandwich tasted like it got dropped in the Atlantic Ocean after getting regurgitated from a dog that dug it out from a dumpster--of course this is all assumption, but who knows, I might not be far off. Towards the end of sophomore year, I couldn't even force it down anymore. I'd just skip lunch entirely because I figured starving myself would be better for my both my physical and mental well-being. Yes, it took me nearly two years to come to that realization. I can't even go to the bread section of the grocery store anymore. The "odor" of that specific kind of bread is just too overwhelming. The bread I bring to school for "breakfast" is entirely different though. For junior and senior year, I brought/bring boxed lunch. Just rice with some food leftover from dinner the day before. It's been okay. Ahaha, sorry. I didn't have as much work to do back at UMich, so exploring the campus after dinner was a regular thing for me. I didn't mean to undermine the college workload that much, eheh... 24 hours of no food and I wouldn't be able to function. I can go without meals entirely and just live off of snacks/small portions of food, but I most certainly wouldn't be able to go 24 hours without food. I haven't tried it yet, and I don't plan to either. And it's good to know that you really aren't living off of a salad a day, ahah.

 

Technically, it's a nickname of a username, but I suppose "Akazora" could also pass off as a nickname, haha. Whoa, your sister's eyes are in pretty bad shape but she still doesn't wear any glasses or contacts? How does she even function?? Holy moly... Yeah, I'm really glad I got my dad's eyes. My mom and sister keep telling me about how much of a pain glasses are, and shoving plastic onto my cornea doesn't sound very appealing either. Haha, if anything, I must've misheard him. There's seriously no way I could have 20/15 vision. Apparently, I'm actually overdue for my eye appointment, so I guess I'm going to have to schedule one soon. My eyes definitely aren't as good as they used to be. They aren't a burden for me yet, but I'm starting to get more conscious about the stuff I'm beginning to have difficulty seeing. Uhh, pfft, yeah. You plebs better know your place since my visual prowess clearly makes me superior to those with eyesight as lowly as yours. Simply conversing with paupers like you makes me feel as if I'm being drenched in an unfathomable amount of idiocy because, of course, the hierarchy of eyesight is what determines which of you peasants are worthy enough to speak to someone with eyes as prevailing as my own, after all. Thank goodness that's been established. Dear me, I don't know what I'd do if we were to be plunged into anarchy due to something as juvenile as intermixing with you... you commoners! Oh God forbid!!

 

Haha, what you wrote seems like the common cold since I also exhibit these symptoms whenever I get a cold (or at least what I think is a cold). Sometimes I can become sensitive to light and physical contact with anything; something as simple as lightly brushing something against my skin can produce a world of discomfort when my colds get really bad. Flus are more like bed-ridden and throw up-y kind of symptoms--a lot worse than colds... I think. Huh... now that I think about it, I'm not quite sure I know the difference between the cold and flu my seventeen years of living have all been a lie. But most of my friends who catch the flu tend to miss school, so I'm fairly confident that flus are a lot more severe. I've never had to skip school because of a sickness so I always assumed that I never caught the flu (plus, the flu shots I got seem to be getting the job done). Nope, I don't see myself losing interest in anime or video games anytime soon. I still have lots of room to make memories with the kid inside of me, and I know you do as well, haha. It's no fun to live a life without any fond memories or experiences to look back on. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about our promise, hehe. 

 

Oh geez, I've been moved to tears while listening to songs, no joke. Not very often, but it does happen every once in a while. Anime and movies though, not so much. Instrumentals, lyrical, anything, really. Melancholic songs affect my mood greatly. It's kinda weird. I avoid depressing songs so I don't get too distracted. Don't get me wrong; there are a lot of good emotional songs out there that I can name, it's just that... I don't like feeling sad, lol. I don't like mourning over nothing. It feels empty and meaningless, and it makes me confused. Hmm, so you've never been affected by listening to sad songs? Gosh, lucky you. I can't even bring myself to listen to songs like Tong Hua because of how depressing they are, sigh. I'm not well versed in C-pop, J-pop, or K-pop. I have a list of songs I sometimes refer to when I need something to listen to, but I'm not going to stalk the artists for their albums or anything. If something sounds good, I add it to my list. Doesn't matter where it's from. Doesn't matter who it's sung by. It can be Ukrainian for all I care. Ahaha, and I can't listen to any songs with lyrics whenever I'm doing homework. It's simply too distracting, so I almost always resort to instrumentals whenever I can.

 

Ohhhh, is that so... I guess I have even more incentive to watch F/Z then, haha. I appreciate you taking that into consideration, so definitely remind me to ask you later once I get around to rewatching it. Also....... y-you want to see how well I'll do on those quizzes? Oh dear, I do hope you keep your expectations in check because I don't have a very good feeling about this...

 

My parents were definitely a lot easier to sway when I first got my DS since I didn't have too much on my plate, but now? It's a hard life. I only have one video game trinket they willingly bought me. And it's this cute little Yoshi plush I got in California (and I think the only reason I was able to persuade them was because we were vacationing with really close family friends). This was way back in middle school though. Ahaha, I rarely nag my parents about clothes. Half of my wardrobe is my sister's, but I still know about the fashion trends going around school. Floral skirts with boots, Under Armour leggings, Dr. Martens, Toms, galaxy-themed everything, Sperrys, military boots, etc. so I'm pretty confident I'm not left in the dark about this stuff. These kinds of fashion trends spread like wildfire. But at the same time, why should I toss away $60 just to wear some shoes or clothes that don't really appeal to me? If I find something on the clothing rack that looks nice, sure I'll buy it... as long as it doesn't cost a fortune. 

 

I don't have a single game on my phone, and I intend to keep it that way. God knows what'll happen to my "reliance" on my phone if I downloaded games. Pokemon Go might be the exception, or I could just look up some reviews and stuff. It's definitely a lot more limited than my laptop, and tapping on glass can't beat typing on a keyboard. You receive texts and messages pertaining to schoolwork? Pfft, what a nerd. Haha, kidding, I tend to receive/send those kinds of texts and messages as well, but it's also helpful getting notifications about social events and activities. Or maybe something happened to you one day, and you just can't help but want to rave/complain about it to a friend. Or vice versa. Time management is also a huge struggle for me. I definitely wouldn't be as stressed as I am now if I just quit putting off studying and doing assignments. I'm not even sure how it happened. In sophomore year and years prior, I'd take any opportunity I could get during the school day to finish my homework. Now I can't even bring myself to take the folders out of my backpack during lunch unless it happened to be due on the same day. I'll try to kill this habit though... later. Ahh, no, I didn't mean to imply that watching anime and video games were ways to escape responsibility. Watching anime and playing video games aren't as fun when you have a constant tug at the back of your head, after all.

edit: waitwaitwait, I completely forgot about Deemo. Deemo (and possibly Pokemon Go) is probably the only game I'll download, ahahahaha...............

 

Nono, not clickers, but plickers, haha. The class size isn't too big (around the low 20s), but it's still kinda fun. I think it's a pretty neat concept. Read the Question of the Day and then hold up a sheet of paper for the teacher to scan as a way to submit your answer. It's kinda funny how some professors go through such lengths just to get students to attend class, especially since college education is paid education (basically you do what you want with your money; waste it if you want). You'd think that public high school teachers would be more strict about attendance since we don't have as much of an incentive or obligation to attend. Or at least not as much as college students who have to pay out of their own pockets do.

 

Haha, in elementary school I read stuff like the Magic Tree House, Geronimo Stilton, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and a bunch of other series I've probably forgotten. I was late to the party and read the Harry Potter series in middle school. I remember going to the local library and school media center pretty often back in elementary and middle school, but it still feels like I haven't read much. I was probably too young to really take anything out of the books I read, lol. I usually gravitated towards realistic fiction, fantasy, and sci fi, but as I began reading more books, I started getting tired of first person, regardless of genre. Towards late middle school, it went to the point where I'd straight up set a book down if I saw any hints of it being written in first person--especially if it was a contemporary book written in a girl's perspective. I never had a problem with this whenever I picked up a nonfiction book. I also really loved crafts books and getting something "practical" out of what I read. I struggled to get through the Sherlock Holmes stories and A Tale of Two Cities in middle school, and I'm even a little afraid to revisit them because of how intimidated I felt, especially since I was surrounded by classmates who seemed perfectly comfortable reading books of that caliber. Haha, and I still struggled to get through books like Candide and Huck Finn in high school.

 

Haha, yeah, most people don't, and it's not too surprising. I was figure skating for a good chunk of late elementary school and early middle school, but it has been such an insignificant part of my life that I often forget about it. I'd also fall flat on my face if you asked me to get on the ice rink at this very moment. You played tennis?? And y-you quit?? H-how... tennis is so much fun... Violin too, but you play oboe (and also decided you didn't like the violin as much) so advocating for the violin would seem like wasted effort, lol. The main reason my parents made me quit piano was because my sister was better, which is no surprise since she had quite a few years of experience on me at the time. When we moved to Michigan, the teacher we went to only had space for one more student, and you can guess what went down from there. Ohh, you actually tried quite a few activities! Taekwondo, hm? It's a little silly to ask, I'll admit, but was there any particular reason you didn't like violin, piano, basketball, soccer, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, and table tennis? Or rather, what about the oboe stood out to you over these other activities?

 

Perfect scores? Probably not, to be honest. I always find myself making silly mistakes, regardless of how confident I feel about the test. I actually ended up writing a huge rant/tangent about this (ty for triggering me, kidding, kidding), but decided to cut it out so I wouldn't be dumping a truckload of salt on you out of nowhere. Thanks though, haha.

 

My essay has been coming along okay. I ran it through a few friends and they seemed to like it. I also went to a couple of English teachers and I'm anticipating feedback soon. There are still a few rough edges, but that's to be expected since I typed up the majority of it during that near all-nighter I mentioned in the PM (had to scrap the previous intro and conclusion I wrote since I didn't like them). It's also 70 words above the limit so I need to work on trimming it down. I could send it to you after that's been worked out if you want to see it. The rest of my application has also been okay. I still need to type up supplements for a few other schools, and maybe smooth out a bit of my application some more. Oh, and I got my rec letters turned in, so I need to write out a few thank-you notes soon (weird turn of events since it turns out I'm actually on good terms with my calc teacher even after that... incident... maybe he forgot it ever happened). Also sent a few emails to an admissions counselor. Even though it doesn't sound like much, this whole process has been interfering with the amount of time I can dedicate to schoolwork and our weekly responses. A lot. Haha, the near all-nighter I pulled wrecked my sleep schedule and I had to catch up on some material after crashing in a few classes. I don't even know how many hours I average anymore. Sometimes I'd be doing some homework at 11pm, then fall asleep and wake up at 1am, then work again, then sleep again, then wake up again for school. Or maybe I'd be too tired to work on anything and just sleep at 11pm until 3-4am and then work until 6am when I have to pack for school. The only saving grace at the moment is the fact that my courseload isn't as difficult as the one I had last year (physics is still a pain though). Oh, and thank the lord tennis season is in the spring. Gahhhh, I can't believe I wasted my entire summer without coming up with a single essay topic I ended up using. My life would be a crapton easier if I had just finished it over the summer. Or maybe my time management is a lot worse than I originally thought. I'm willing to bet that it's a mix of both. So yeah, I brought this upon myself, but eh, gotta roll with it at this point. I'm still happier than I was during junior year though, so I guess that's a plus, lol.

 

Also, regarding your PM, damn, why you gotta pull so many all-nighters, man (and you seem rather proud of them too, for some reason, haha). Still, I'm glad you're happy and well-situated with the college life (despite the of all-nighters you seem to be pulling... hm...), and again, hopefully your midterms went well for you! Thank you for the good luck sentiment and for enduring my untimely responses as well, ahah.

just edited a bit of the politics and the phone paragraphs

...and the last one

Oh geez, I’m fairly certain you already know how I feel about DC’s 19th movie, since I’m assuming you read my thoughts on it in the other thread.  Watch it for completion’s sake, but keep your expectations low.  Really low.  I don’t know why it was the highest grossing movie, I really don’t.  Maybe they forget to take inflation into consideration, or maybe Kaitou Kid himself was enough of a selling point, heh.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Numb3rs before, but from your description and Google it seems generic enough.

 

Hrm, I guess you’re right, but still…  If it’s released in late 2016, with only Gen 1 Pokemon, it’s going to be years before we get the rest of the generations brought to Pokemon Go in a patch. *pouts*  I’m glad they’re taking their time with this though, and I really do hope it can live up to the hype.  It’s understandable that you’re still on the fence because it might be a distraction, but I’m already so far off the deep end I have nothing else to lose so might as well…

 

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, so I’m assuming you saw my OMM post stating I finished Alpha Sapphire, which I indeed somehow did.  It was… amazing.  Absolutely fantastic.  I’d be speechless, but that would be a huge waste since there’s so much to talk about.  Just a heads up, but I’m going to be rambling on for a while about this game.  This isn’t going to be like Y, where I just touched on a few things of note and wrapped it up with a “it wasn’t as bad as people say it is”.  I’m going to go all out and write about everything I can recall, starting with where I last left off, which was right after beating Norman.

 

So as I said before, I wasn’t going to surf right on over to the other side of Route 118 just yet, as I wanted to explore everything I could with my newly gained HM.  Before that I decided to finish up the Trick House.  It was pretty good, and I appreciate that they changed the puzzles from the RSE Trick House to keep things fresh.  It was nice having the trivia quiz “puzzle” in the question mark shaped room return though, and it was neat to establish the Mechadolls in advance, when they tried to sell you Escape Ropes, so when the quiz portion happened they didn’t seem nearly as random.  The final puzzle was also almost overwhelming.  It was pretty straightforward once you got started, but at a glance it seemed rather difficult.  It’s a shame there were less puzzles in general than RSE, but I didn’t really mind too much at the same time.  After that I believe I explored the desert, but that wasn’t changed too drastically so there’s not much to say there.  I think I prematurely explored more of Meteor Falls to pick up whatever items I could that I had missed the first time through.  I then checked out that “secret” little part of Route 115 that requires Surf to access.  Not much to report, so I went down to Route 105 and 106.  This was my first time Surfing in a major part of the ocean, though it was straightforward enough.  Route 107 to the east of Dewford was generally unchanged, though I believe that added some new Dive spots, which I’ll address later.  On to the Route 108, the Abandoned Ship, or rather Sea Mauville, blew me away.  I knew I should have expected something really awesome since you told me to look out for it, but damn.  When I was surfing along minding my own business and suddenly that the camera angle changed and revealed that ship in the distance… that was a woah moment.  I had no idea the Abandoned Ship was replaced with Sea Mauville.  I know the PokeNav should have tipped me off, but I never bothered to check all the locations in advance.  I thought it was neat that it was changed to a nature preserve after, for whatever reason, the Sea Mauville project was canceled.  Since I didn’t have Dive, I wasn’t able to explore most of the ship.  Apart from the exterior, I wasn’t too impressed with it though.  Before you call me out on that, my opinion changes drastically after I get Dive, so I’ll address that at a later time, hahah.  I finished up with Route 109 before arriving at Slateport.  I was pretty much done with the west side of Hoenn at that point (I may have left out a few other things I did), so off to Fortree!

 

Oh, before that though, I’m glad that they added in Ace Trainers who Surf on Pokemon to the water areas.  I always thought it was weird you were the only surfing, so having others like you makes things more realistic.  Now I’m just waiting for this to be more than just Ace Trainer exclusive.  Similarly, Tubers actually swim in water now!  I believe that in all previous games they could only be found on land, usually sand, unless paired together with an older sister Swimmer for a double team match.  I get that the point of Tubers is to make donut jokes about their inner tubes and be novices at swimming (which is why they’re only in the water when paired with a supervising adult), but seriously no swimming Tubers at all?  Children are at different stages of swimming capacity after all.  When I saw a swimming Tuber in Alpha Sapphire, moving back and forth across the screen, I was shocked because it was an animation I never thought I was going to see, and in fact never realized I hadn’t seen until that point in time.  Major props to ORAS for adding in some subtle realism, hah.

 

Anyway, back to Route 118.  Obviously the first thing that struck me was the little Lati@s sidequest.  I expected Steven of course, but I did not expect being whisked off to Southern Island like that.  I personally thought it was a decent effort on their part to make Lati@s more related to the plot, but ultimately it felt a bit shoehorned.  There was no indication that Lati@s even existed at that point, and suddenly this weird Pokemon is taking you to this strange island to do what?  Oh, I see, to stop the bad guys.  And then you get one or the other for free as a thank you?  So being taken by an evil syndicate is bad, but losing your freedom to a nice trainer that just happened to pass by is fine?  Umm, okay.  I know it’s just Pokemon and I shouldn’t read too deeply into the plot, but the placement of the event didn’t feel right.  It’s even worse that I wasn’t even given the opportunity to soft-reset for a good Latias because the cut-scene and battle took too long (at least I have the Eon Ticket to get Latios…).  I miss the idea of a roaming Pokemon, and using that hopping Acro Bike trick to find them brings back good memories.  It wasn’t like Lati@s was completely random in RSE either, since a flying Pokemon over Hoenn was subtly alluded to multiple times before you beat the Elite Four and saw the news broadcast.  Sigh, oh well, it’s just a small gripe and not even really a major problem; it just doesn’t sit entirely well with me.  At least those who want to add Lati@s to their pre-Elite Four party now can.

 

After that, I checked out the bit of Route 123 that I could access.  The Berry Master’s garden is huge now.  It was actually a bit of a pain to run around the circle picking all the trees, but hey, free berries, so I guess it pays off.  Apart from that, not much else had changed.  On Route 119, there was the Weather Institute.  The design and premise wasn’t changed too much, though I really like how they had Shelly begin to question Team Aqua’s goals, foreshadowing her reversal in the Seafloor Cavern.  In general, I was very pleased with how Team Aqua and Magma’s goals and motivations were slightly altered and given more depth.  There was more grey morality, much like the recent Teams Plasma and Flare.  I’ll get a bit more into that later.  Fortree City and its Gym was kept pretty much the same, so there’s not much to say there.  Same with Route 120, though I’m glad the Scorched Slab was revamped and expanded upon, since its small size always made me feel kind of sad in the originals.  Route 121 is home to the Safari Zone, but I haven’t explored that yet.  I’ve completed the main story as well as the Delta Episode, but some things like the Safari Zone, soaring, Contests, and Secret Bases I have yet to try.  I want to leave myself a few things to do as motivation for returning to the game in the future.  Lilycove City seemed to be pretty much the same as it’s always been, though the lighthouse actually looking like a lighthouse and not some oversized baby’s bottle was nice to see.  Oh, and actually having the paintings in the Museum match the descriptions was a good touch.  Let’s see, Mt. Pyre got a few changes.  Instead of having the paths branch out at the base, with one traversing the exterior while the other explored the interior, you were forced to go up to nearly the very top before you were allowed access to the outside of the mountain.  I guess a lot of people just ignored the inside of Mt. Pyre in the originals which is why they changed it.  I don’t mind much, though I’m a bit sad they removed the holes in the floor you fell in to quickly make it back to the bottom.  On the other hand, an NPC references how the place used to be decrepit and full of holes, so that makes up for it, hahah.  It’s always fun to see the developers acknowledge the changes they’ve made; rewards you a bit for playing the originals.  And I’m also not too sure why they made the water route on only one side of Mt. Pyre as opposed to both sides.  I mean, sure it was pointless to make both sides traversable, but why change it to one?  Perhaps it was to save programming space?  Back to Route 123, everything is as I remembered.  It ledges were still a bit frustrating, since it required you go back over and over again in order to hit up all the trainers and items, but being able to fly to routes now really eases up the process.  Oh yes, I was quite shocked to learn you can now fly to routes.  Makes things convenient, though I keep on forgetting it’s an option and always just fly to a town or city and walk to where I need to go most of the time.

 

Moving on, I loved what they did to Team Aqua’s Hideout.  The layout is slightly altered, and while it’s less of a maze and more of just a regular building without directions, there’s a lot more detail put into it.  The Admin’s rooms are a really nice touch, as clicking around them helps you to understand their personality better.  In Shelly’s room there’s a picture of her and Archie as kids with a Jirachi.  Hahahah, I think that’s really cute, and also makes it kind of romantic when, at the end of the main plot when Archie’s disillusioned with himself, she promises to stay by his side no matter what.  Apart from the Admin’s rooms, on certain bookshelves around the base are files on Project AZOTH.  Project AZOTH isn’t gone into too much detail, but it explains how Team Aqua (or Magma in the other version) wants to “return the world – return everything – to the beginning”.  It’s especially cool in Team Aqua’s case, since they’re trying to revive Kyogre and expand the ocean for the betterment of Pokemon.  This was most likely unintentional but it can be interpreted as a Biblical reference to the Great Flood which supposedly wiped clean the sins of man.  Even better, that the Devon Corporation held the secret to the ultimate weapon used in Kalos 3,000 years ago was the reason Team Aqua targeted them, as they needed exceptionally strong power to create a drill to access the Seafloor Cavern, really brings the plot together.  Heheheh, I love it when references to other games like this are made; helps to build the history and lore of the Pokemon world and that’s awesome.

 

Now, on to the actually expansive sea, which apparently frustrated IGN enough to give the games a 7.8/10.  It appeared daunting at first, but once I started surfing around I realized how much the ocean had been nerfed.  There was less empty surfing space between boundary rocks and structures, so it was easier to keep your bearing.  The wild Pokemon encounter rate was surprisingly low.  Many times the routes were clearly separated by fade to black transitions (probably a result of limited processing power, but it ended up giving people clear reference points).  The PokeNav shows your pinpoint location relative to surrounding routes and cities, right on the bottom screen.  Navigating the waters of Hoenn was nerfed so hard, I’m wondering why IGN made an uproar now when no one bothered to complain back when RSE was still relevant.  Part of me is glad surfing was made easier, but another part of me wishes it was more of a challenge.  Hmm, guess it would be selfish of me to both have my cake and eat it, too.  Anyway, now that I’ve gotten this far, I might as well talk about Diving.  I love how they added the Scuba Diver trainer class.  Knowing there are trainers down in the depths waiting to be fought gave me even more motivation to explore every last dive spot, aside from the plethora of items.  Speaking of the items though, they were a lot more difficult to find.  Empty patches within tall grass (er… seaweed?) containing items were always 4x4 in size, but only clicking on the correct tile would nab you the item.  To make matters worse, you can’t use the Dowsing Machine underwater nor can you use the D-pad to lock the character into following the grid-lines to make sure you’ve covered everything.  I know I’ve missed more than just one or two items by hastily clicked around a patch I suspected held an item and left it behind unknowingly when I couldn't find anything.  Oh well, unless it’s a really important item I missed, I won’t be going back to double check.

 

Mossdeep City I had already kind of experienced back during the demo, and I like the small changes they made, like with the Space Center’s exterior.  One complaint I do have though is Tate and Liza’s Gym design.  I really don’t like it too much.  It’s hardly even a puzzle.  You just follow the glowing orbs and verse trainers until you reach the end; there’s no thinking involved.  I know the directional tiles in RSE were cheesy and overused, but the new gym in ORAS just felt so… Kalos-y.  It felt too new, like it was created only to show off the 3D effects and not because it was even a cool idea.  Bleh, I could have done without.  The rest of Mossdeep is fine though.  Oh, and Shoal Cave is the same as it’s always been, though I was really happy to finally be able to have the old man give me a Shell Bell in return for salts and shells, since the internal clock in my RSE games broke years ago and the tide hasn’t changed in forever.

 

Seafloor Cavern made just as little sense as it did in the originals.  It wasn’t a particularly difficult cave to get through, but that certain doors randomly teleported you back to the beginning was a bit odd.  I’m glad to see they retained the quirkiness of the cave, even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of its design.  However, I must say they did a great job of replicating the original mini Strength puzzle right before you reach Archie.  Even though Strength rocks changed from 1x1 stones to 4x4 boulders, they managed to keep the puzzle relatively intact.  Kudos to the level design team!  Sootopolis seemed relatively unchanged, though it was really awesome that the tree found in front of the Cave of Origin was donated to the city by Kalos’s AZ.  His Floette’s flower is even among the many planted at the base of the tree.  Woot, the more references the better!  The Cave of Origin itself was obviously changed quite a bit.  I don’t mind the changes; it definitely added to the grand scale of the disaster.  That’s another thing I really liked.  In the originals, the world was in peril, but it didn’t seem like a big deal.  In the remakes there was more of a heavy sense of foreboding, especially since normal Kyogre, before it reached the core of the Cave of Origin, was already causing such an unbalance.  The amount of destruction that it would create once it Primal Reversed was unimaginable.  Ahh yes, and Kyogre even going to the Cave of Origin made more sense in Alpha Sapphire.  In Sapphire, it just went there because… reasons.  I don’t think it’s even explained.  The cave is a spiritual place or something and the big ol’ whale is cozier there I guess?  But in Alpha Sapphire, it seeks the energy it needs to Primal Reverse, and so like the wild, rampaging animal that it is, it heads toward Sootopolis City.  I love how ORAS covers all these plot holes with the lore and much needed character development that was missing from the originals.  And another thing to add, it was really awesome having so many of the major characters gather at the Cave of Origin’s entrance in such a time of danger.  To have not only Steven and Wallace but also reps from Team Aqua and Magma as well as the ever persistent May there to witness your descent helped to add to the atmosphere.

 

My actual battle with Kyogre was pretty intense.  It was the first (and only time, in fact, since Rayquaza and Deoxys had trouble denting my Metagross’s armor) a Pokemon put my Metagross under constant threat of fainting.  In fact, I was KOed once and had to reset my game after a crit hit Origin Pulse.  My move of choice was Hold Back.  I know, I said I was going to teach my Metagross Earthquake, but after I realized I needed a way to catch legendary Pokemon, I decided to forgo EQ and keep the event-only Hold Back on my Pokemon.  It’s just a fancy name for False Swipe, in actuality.  The biggest trouble I had with Kyogre was Aqua Ring.  Since I jumped into the battle blind, I was not at all prepared for an Aqua Ring Primal Kyogre.  Not that it would have made much of a difference though, I suppose, since this was a solo run and Metagross was technically the only Pokemon I was allowed to rely on.  I just Hold Back-ed Kyogre whenever Aqua Ring healed too much, all the while spamming Pokeballs best I could.  And of course, whenever my Metagross’s HP got too low or it became frozen or paralyzed I healed it.  Eventually caught it, though it turned out to be Jolly natured so bleh.  The post battle scene was really cool.  The way the storm cloud dissipated and rained down shiny green sparkles from the night sky as people across Hoenn looked on was pretty.  It may not have had the same effect during the day, but at night when I played it, it gave off really nice vibes.

 

After that that climax, I decided to head right on over to Wallace’s gym to remove my Metagross’s level cap once and for all.  Apart from noticing the obvious nerf to his gym (bit of a pity, since I really liked his ice puzzles and wished they could have instead been harder instead of easier), there’s not much else to say.  Now with Waterfall and Dive in tow, the first order of business was to explore Pacifidlog Town and its surrounding areas.  Route 130 was changed a bit, but there’s not much to say apart from the fact that I’m a bit sad that Mirage Island is no more.  I never was able to explore that place before *sniff*…  Route 131 is home to Sky Pillar, but of course since I can’t access that just yet there’s not much point in talking about it.  Pacifidlog is pretty much the same as I remember it being.  Being allowed to run around though is a nice bit of freedom.  The currents west of Pacifidlog seem to be laid out a bit different than before.  It took quite a number of passes through the currents in order to battle all the trainers and collect all the items.  After that, I flew to various locations, like Meteor Falls, where I knew I could explore new places with Waterfall.  There’s not much to comment on those.  The thing I was most looking forward to exploring, on the other hand, was Sea Mauville.

 

I’m hoping the playthrough you watched took the time to click on all the shelves around the ship, because if not then you’ve been missing out on a lot of stuff.  What affected me the most in Sea Mauville was Professor Cozmo’s backstory.  I never knew I could feel so much for a side character of no importance in the original games.  But when I read the letters in the office and put the pieces together… geez, it messed me up.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll summarize it briefly so you have some context.  As you unlock the doors in the ship, one of the shelves contains a bunch of old letters from a very young Takao Cozmo, known today as Professor Cozmo, to his father Raizoh Cozmo who was working at Sea Mauville before it shut down.  Actually, instead of summarizing that part for you, you can read the letters here under the “Letters” heading.  That’s some really heavy stuff.  And elsewhere in the ship, it’s revealed that Raizoh was fired for “losing” the Odd Keystone, which is who the man on the roof of Mauville City was referencing when he mentioned someone who was kicked off the team.  He never told his ex-wife or even his son that he lost his job, which is why the Hi Skitty doll was sent to Sea Mauville after Raizoh had left.  The doll was thrown into the storage room, where it rested for years even after the facility shut down.  Somewhere along the line Raizoh must have realized that his son had sent him something after he left, and so he searched the entire ship for it.  It wasn’t until you finally got the storage room opened that Raizoh is able to retrieve the Hi Skitty doll.  Thinking about how he left all those Nuggets untouched and was only interested in bringing the doll, which he called “Takao”, back “home” just………… gosh, typing this up is getting me teary-eyed…  Eheh, how embarrassing, I don’t know why I’m getting so emotional over this.  I cried a lot when I got to this part, and thinking about it too much gets me worked up all over again.  That’s not all either.  The other documents (which you can read on the page I linked you) reveal lot of other things about Sea Mauville.  I suggest you read them over if you haven’t already.  I don’t want to ramble on for any longer than I already have to minimize the size of this already lengthy response, so I’ll leave that to you.  Sea Mauville is, without a doubt, my favorite addition to these remakes.  Professor Cozmo’s backstory is tragic and heavy, but it shows Gamefreak isn’t afraid of adding in darker, more mature themes that only older players of the games would pick up on.  Really great work on their part.

 

Anyway, onward with the plot, after I explored all I could with Dive and Waterfall, I headed over to Victory Road.  I was a bit concerned about my PP at first, since I didn’t know how long the gauntlet was going to be, but it was surprisingly short.  I believe it was even shorter and more straightforward than the original.  While this Victory Road didn’t really feel grueling enough to hold a candle to past Victory Roads, I’m also rather grateful that they eased it up because Victory Roads were never the fun parts of Pokemon games, that’s for sure.  The best part of this though was, without a doubt, the battle with Wally.  Damn, what an amazing moment.  I already knew they did a great job with portraying him as frail and weak earlier on in the plot, but to have him change this drastically was amazing.  When his battle theme kicked in, I lost it.  That was a jaw dropping moment.  And the battle in the field of red flowers against his Mega Gallade?  Phew, what a beautiful and powerful moment.  I used to think he was just a generic rival back in RSE, but they really did him justice this time.  I almost felt bad for beating him because he was so determined, but then he thanked me for going all out and not holding back, so I felt a bit better.  The only thing that could have made it even more impactful was if he had more appearances over the course of the game, but that would have taken some of the spotlight away from the “main attraction”, May (or if the player character is female, Brendan).

 

After Victory Road, I was on to the Elite Four!  I was once again worried about PP, but somehow managed to blaze through everyone without using a single Ether or Elixir.  It wouldn’t have been possible without Brick Break, so thank you so much for that suggestion!  I thought it was funny how the members of the E4 all had chairs to sit on, since I suppose they do get tired of standing after a while.  I really liked the oriental design of the exterior of each E4 member’s room; I thought it was a stylish touch to the very plain hallways we had in the original versions.  Steven’s room was the same familiar octagonal shaped platform as the original, and it was nostalgically recognizable.  Neither the Elite Four nor Steven gave me much trouble at all; my Metagross held itself very well, haha!  The credits theme was changed to mashup of a bunch of Hoenn songs, which was nice, though I’m going to kind of miss the original, which I thought was fantastic and wish was remixed fully in ORAS.  Having May wait for you after you come out and bike with you back to where you first battled was cute, ahah.  Honestly, the dynamic between May and the MC (I’ll just call him Brendan) is fantastic.  There was a hint of flirting back in the originals, but it was never developed and May just became a bit of a nonfactor after a certain point in time, only popping up after beating the Champion to remind you that she exists.  She plays a much more integral part of the story now, and her relationship with Brendan is great and honestly absolutely adorable.  I very rarely ship people, but geez it’s really hard not to in this case.  That final confess-- *ahem* I mean, battle with her under the stars was probably the closest Pokemon dared get to a kiss scene, ahah.

 

Of course, that’s not all!  There’s still the Delta Episode to cover.  I don’t want to drag this on longer than it’s already gotten, so I’ll be as brief as I can.  Zinnia is a pretty interesting character.  I would have liked it a little better if she made more than just a few very subtle cameos during the main story, just so her appearance doesn’t come off as nearly so random.  Same with the Draconid people in general.  I believe there was only one random NPC who even mentioned the existence of Draconids at all during the main plot.  If there was slightly more continuity between the main story and the Delta Episode, the transition would have felt a bit smoother.  This is just a small complaint though; I don’t want to sound like I’m really ragging on them for this, ahah.  It’s cool that people recognize you as the new Champion as well.  I’m not sure why Steven continues his Champion duties though; I don’t believe there was an explanation during the Delta Episode, though there might be one later that I haven’t gotten to yet.  It was also really interesting how they tried to explain the warp tiles found in gyms and mazes throughout the games and use that same technology to send the incoming meteor elsewhere.  I always thought it was weird how the Pokemon world was so much like ours but they had something as awesome as teleportation portals.  I just chalked it up to video game logic until this point in time, but that there’s actually an explanation behind it is really cool.

 

All in all, the plot behind the Delta Episode was interesting, but not entirely impactful.  Zinnia could have made things much easier by just telling people what she was up to instead of being all cryptic and secretive about it.  I know, it’s just a video game, and if she wasn’t running around causing havoc by stealing people’s Key Stones like a ninja then there wouldn’t be a story, but still.  I did like how she hypothesized that teleporting the meteor could possibly send it to an alternate Hoenn, one without Key Stones, and spell disaster for that alternate world.  The alternate versions of each generational game already confirm that alternate realities do exist, but doesn’t this fact confirm that RSE Hoenn is an alternate version of ORAS Hoenn?  That’s really awesome, and explains the countless differences between the games.  It was also interesting how they reveal her Whismur, Aster, was actually named after someone she had lost in the past.  It would have been better if they revealed more about the original Aster, but I’ll give them credit for even incorporating that at all.

 

As for the climactic battle itself, I believe they really nerfed Rayquaza’s catch rate so the player doesn’t have nearly as hard a time with Deoxys afterwards.  I caught Rayquaza with my second or third Pokeball after Hold Back-ing it.  Since my Metagross resisted all of its moves, it was a clean and easy victory.  I was upset that you were forced to take the Rayquaza and put it in your party, and even more upset that they automatically put it at the front of your party against Zinnia.  I thought its EVs were ruined until I remembered Reset Bags exist.  And I think it ended up being Relaxed nature to boot, so ew.  It’s fine anyway, since I downloaded that shiny Rayquaza event, if I ever want to oft reset for a better one.  Flying into space with Rayquaza was a tad weird though.  I understand you have that Team Aqua suit and all, but I guess this confirms Pokemon don’t need oxygen to breathe or an atmosphere to live?  Seeing my Metagross suspended like that and seeing the Pokeballs I threw at Deoxys bounce in space like it was solid ground was rather strange.  That aside though, I loved how Deoxys was revealed.  That triangle sliding back and forth across the screen?  Come on, anyone who’s played the original games remembers YouTube-ing “how to catch deoxys in emerald” and gullibly watching hackers chase that moving triangular rock around Birth Island.  Man, good times, when the Internet was still young, ahahah.  That moment really brought me back.

 

Anyway, Deoxys was a pain in the butt to catch.  Psycho Boost and Hyper Beam served to do nothing but nerf Deoxys while barely denting Metagross, so that at least worked in my favor.  However, Recover paired with Cosmic Power proved to be a bit dicey.  Recover healed that bastard fast as heck, and Cosmic Power made my already weak Hold Back less and less effective.  Since I had no way of lowering Deoxy’s stats in return, I decided my best bet would be to raise my own.  And so I used items I never knew I was going to need: battle items.  I had collected a few over the course of my adventure.  I gave my Metagross the three X Attacks I had as well as a Dire Hit to occasionally break through Deoxy’s boosted stats.  That was good enough to keep Deoxy’s HP in check while still giving me chances to throw a couple of Pokeballs when it didn’t use Recover.  Before long, it stopped using its attack moves as well as Recover and just spammed Cosmic Power.  I knew I was at the end of my rope, since it would very soon Struggle itself to death.  There was little I could do but throw out as many Pokeballs as I could, and I was luckily somehow able to catch it.  It must have had only five Cosmic Powers left, so I barely caught it in time.  Jumping a bit ahead, when I had the chance to finally check the Deoxy’s stats, I was completely blown away.  It’s stats… oh my gosh, I can’t even……  Okay, you’re going to think I’m lying, but I’m not kidding.  It was Hasty natured and had a perfect 31 IVs in Atk, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def., and Spd.  Yes, four out of six of its stats were perfect.  Its HP was 26 IVs while its Def. was, funnily enough, 0.  Hasty natured with 0 IVs in Def.  It literally could not be weaker defensively.  But who cares???  I’m going to make it into its Attack form just so I can laugh at its 40 total Def. once it hits level 100.  That would be quite the sight to see.  Damn, I’m still a bit in shock.  You should have seen my reaction.  I reacted stronger to those beautiful stats than I did to that shiny Silcoon I found in Diamond.  Seriously, what are the chances??  I don’t feel like calculating it, but randomly running into IVs like that is crazy lucky.  Especially with a decent nature and on a Pokemon like Deoxys.  Phew, what a way to end my Alpha Sapphire experience.  I’m totally going to EV train that hard-to-catch glorious bastard up.  Not now of course, but maybe once I revisit the game and after my Metagross hits level 100 (it’s only level 96 now; would have been higher if the pesky level cap earlier in the game didn’t prevent me from indiscriminately KO-ing the random wild Pokemon I ran into, hmph).  Heehee, if you came to Case, you can see it with your very own eyes, hahah.

 

Well, got a bit carried away there.  Moving on, I really liked how, at the very end of Delta Episode, when Steven is talking to Wallace in the Champion’s room, Steven begins to express a little bit of doubt about his position and hints at wanting to step down and soul search.  Though he reassures Wallace that he will continue being the Champion for now, Steven asks that Wallace step in to help if he ever decides to venture off and do something else.  It’s a really nice reference to Emerald, where Steven actually relieves his position of Champion to Wallace of all people.  I also loved the cute date Brendan and May had at the Space Center, where they watched the Litleonid metoer shower together.  Geez, Gamefreak really went all out with the romance.  It’s adorable though, so I don’t mind, eheheh.  Post-Delta Episode, I didn’t do much aide from go to the Battle Resort.  It’s nice that it’s bigger and has more things to do there than in Ruby and Sapphire’s Battle Tower, but I do understand how some people are disappointed they decided not to recreate the Battle Frontier.  Those small little references to Emerald, like how they’re planning on expanding and how they’ve already recruited the Pike Queen, may either stay as just references or possibly hint at something more.  I’m perfectly content with what we have so far, but if Delta Emerald or DLC arrives in the future I won’t mind either.

 

In summation, I loved Alpha Sapphire.  No number of words can describe how pleased I was with this game.  Sure, it has it flaws, but so does everything.  To explore and experience the new Hoenn region like this was absolutely fantastic.  Remember how I said I didn’t have a favorite Pokemon game and just defaulted to Pearl?  Well, not anymore.  I can say proudly and without a doubt that my favorite Pokemon game of all time is Alpha Sapphire.  It’s a game that I can recommend to anyone.  Never played a single Pokemon game in your life?  ORAS.  Used to like Pokemon but are beginning to feel disillusioned?  ORAS.  Loved Pokemon since you were little and still love it today?  Heck, do you even have to ask, play ORAS!  This game is more than FRLG or HGSS ever were.  Those remakes were just fresh layers of paint on classic games.  If you've played Red and Blue, then you’ve played FireRed and LeafGreen and vice versa.  If you’ve played Gold and Silver, then you’ve played HeartGold and SoulSilver and vice versa.  But if you’ve played Ruby and Sapphire, then you have not played Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and vice versa.  ORAS went out of their way to give RSE fans nostalgia.  Playing the original music when Professor Birch introduces himself?  Having the old land sprites on the DexNav?  The triangle that appears before you verse Deoxys?  All those little self-aware references to the changes they made, like in Mt. Pyre?  These are things that only those who grew up with RSE would get.  But they don’t settle and rely only on nostalgia to provide a fulfilling experience.  They enhanced every character’s personalities.  May, Brendan, Wally, Steven, the Team Aqua and Magma Admins, Wallace, everyone is so much more likable.  Not only that, but the plot was completely revamped.  Plot holes were filled and references were made to every other game to fully develop the Pokemon world and deepen the lore.  Places like the Abandoned Ship and Mauville City were completely overhauled, and darker themes like with Professor Cozmo’s backstory serve to acknowledge the older fans of the games and show that this series is willing to grow with their fans, beyond the adolescent roots.  This game reminded me why I love Pokemon so much.  Recently, I was at a stage where I wasn’t sure whether I liked Smash Bros or Pokemon more as a series.  Both are nostalgic and have been with me since as long as I can remember.  However since Smash comes out so rarely, all this Smash 4 news has gotten me worked up and hyped, even a full year after its release.  I even follow the Smash subreddit, but not the Pokemon one.  Pokemon on the other hand comes out so regularly I think I’ve been taking it for granted.  New Pokemon game?  Eh, we have one nearly every year.  Alpha Sapphire changed that for me.  I remembered what it was like to get so emotionally attached to and invested in Pokemon game.  I remembered what it was like watching my friends play their Pokemon games every day back in elementary school and wishing I could have one of my own.  Smash Bros was also a major part of my childhood, but I only played that on those rare occasions when my parents brought me and my brother to their Asian parties.  I didn’t experience it daily like I did with Pokemon.  Maybe it was because I so rarely came into contact with those games that I mistakenly held them in higher regard than Pokemon.  Alpha Sapphire was able to put things into perspective.  Ahaha, I don’t know if I’m making much sense.  I think I’m just rambling at this point.  I’ll wrap this up before I get too carried away… 

 

Well, I think that just about covers it.  I know… everything I typed up regarding Alpha Sapphire is long enough to act as a standalone response.  Eheheheheheheh…… oops.  Ummmm, I hope you don’t mind.  If you have PTSD from my massive Orlando trip response and this triggers you in some way, then I’m really sorry!  Y-You can tell me when my responses become a bother, I won’t take any offense by it, honest.  That being said, don’t feel pressured to reply to everything that I wrote.  I won’t mind if you just send a paragraph or two in return.  And if you need extra time to reply, like you did last week, then feel free to take it!

 

Anyway… yeah, I’ve nodded off in the shower before.  I dunno how though.  One moment I’m standing there under the nice warm water thinking about how tired I am, and the next I’m opening my eyes and feeling a bit dazed and realize I must have caught a few seconds of sleep, eheheh.  Oh, I believe you mentioned that your dad is stingy and doesn’t like to turn up the heat, but I don’t think you ever said anything about the heater in your room being broken.  Geez, 50 degrees??  Damn, that is cold.  I’d have to sleep with tons of layers of blankets and definitely have a robe at the ready else I’d never get out of bed in the mornings.  I can’t even imagine how cold your room is in the winter.  Here’s a hug to warm you up!  *hugs*  Ehem, anyway, I find it a bit odd that you weren’t even comfortable changing in front of your roommate at UMich.  It’s not like you were n-n-naked or anything in front of her or anything; you just had to quickly swap what you were wearing with something else.  How do you manage during phys ed tennis?

 

Oh, okay, I see how it is Kenzi, we have Republican debates but you don’t watch them.  Suddenly a Democratic debate with only five attendees is broadcast and you’re all over that thing.  Are you sure you’re only “leaning” left, hmmm?  Ahahah, I’m just joking, you can watch what you want to.  I saw it too, though I had to watch a recording because I believe I pulled that all-nighter the night prior, and so when I passed out on my bed I completely slept through the debate, whoops.  And yeah, when Clinton said that, it rubbed me the wrong as well.  I think that’s what’s been bothering me about her this entire time.  I feel like she’s just running because of her name and her gender, and that’s about it.  Like she wants to add just one more thing to her list of accomplishments and make history while she’s at it.  Something about her doesn’t seem quite that sincere, and I’m really starting to doubt we’ll see much progress with her in the White House.  Sanders was a much stronger candidate.  He wasn’t perfect, but I generally liked what I heard from him.  The other three, the poor blokes with no chance, were fine too I guess.  CNN is just so biased toward Clinton, it’s rather sickening, and I felt bad watching Chafee, Webb, and O’Malley getting the short end of the stick.  Heck, they must have realized how little chance they had, since Chafee and Webb have just recently officially ended their campaigns and Biden has also confirmed he won’t be running.  We’re down to three candidates now?  Actually, four, since Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig has apparently wanted to run since early September but the Democratic National Convention didn’t allow him to speak at the first debate.  They haven’t even allowed him to speak at the next one on November 6th.  With all due respect to the DNC, why won’t they let Lessig run?  It’s not like they’re out of room; in fact, the opposite is true.  Lessig looks like an interesting candidate and I want to see what he has to say.  From what I gather, he’s running exclusively for a single goal: to get his proposed Citizen Equality Act of 2017 passed.  In fact, he even promises that once the CEA becomes law, he will resign from the presidency and be succeeded by his vice president, who will serve the rest of his term.  That’s… certainly a bold statement and goal he has there.  Probably even more “woah what” than even the Trump or the Sanders campaigns.  I really want this guy to get more attention, and I hope the DNC stops stifling him, because the Democratic Party needs far more than just three debaters this early in the game.

 

Ohh, hahah, yeah you’re definitely far more of an extrovert than I am.  I didn’t really do much to prevent elementary and middle school friendships from fading away, even the close ones.  When we ended up in different classes, I didn’t bother to go out of my way to chat them up for fun or anything,  When I saw them I the hallways, I may have said “hi” the first few times, but then after a while we even stopped exchanging greetings.  And you know how it is, once a friendship ends up in that “haven’t heard from you in literally months” stage then there’s no real saving it.  Not for me at least, ahah.  I always worry how others will think if I try to re-establish connections.  Like, will they think I’m kinda weird for trying to strike up a Gmail chat out of the blue?  What if they’re busy?  And there was always other stuff I’d rather be doing. I know this is going to sound terrible, but there was anime to watch and video games to play, sooo……… I just didn’t feel like making small talk was worth the effort.  Even now, I regularly talk with… a grand total of zero people I knew in high school.  Hah, much help that Facebook contraption is.  Ehhhhh, maybe I’m just not that likable of a person…?  Just kidding, just kidding.  I know if I said that even half seriously, you’d rush over to give me a big ol’ lecture on why that’s not true.  Don’t worry though, I have absolutely no intention of letting our friendship fade.  I can’t even imagine a future without you in my life, so…… eheheh, yeahhh…

 

Gomen gomen, I do feel a bit bad piling all these anime and video game recommendations on you.  You may find that you end up with plenty of free time during the second semester of senior year, but there’s still a lot to get through.  Don’t worry though, this week there’s nothing I’m going to recommend you watch, so you don’t have to add yet another thing to your plan to watch list, heh.  My plan to watch list is actually more of an “anime that will come out in the future that I plan to watch” list.  I don’t know if you’ve already noticed, but everything on there for me has yet to air.  I do have a huge backlog of anime series and movies that have already finished that I want to see, but I don’t clog up my MAL with those.  I used to, but for some reason seeing an already aired anime lounging around in my PTW list really bothered me.  Like I have an obligation to watch it now that it’s on there, even if I ultimately decide I don’t want to in the future, or something.  Geezus, why am I so weird…

 

Err, episode 23 of Fate/Zero, right?  Because I think you mean Gilgamesh vs. Rider, not Gilgamesh vs. Archer in that case.  And I can’t really remember how the club reacted at that moment, since it’s been a while.  Generally speaking though, I think they liked that part.  I distributed surveys and took polls, and Rider was probably one of the, of not the, most popular character, hahah.  Oh no no, I discovered Fate/Zero long before then, but didn’t get around to watching it until the summer before senior year.  I remember hearing a lot of praise for it a while shortly after it finished airing, but when I skimmed over the synopsis on MAL it didn’t make much sense to me, and that I knew it was related to Fate/stay night but was unsure how and in what way made me put it off.  As you know in retrospect, the Fate series isn’t the most straightforward one to get into.  I forgot about it for a short while, but when the new F/sn was announced in January of 2014, I was reminded that F/Z existed.  I did a bit of research and came to the conclusion that I’d watch F/Z in time for the new F/sn anime (no one knew when it was going to air or even which route(s) would be adapted).  I was only able to find time for it over the summer, which ended up being a perfect time to watch it anyway.  I don’t remember if I ever told you when I founded the anime/manga club, but it was at the beginning of my junior year.  However, I had to start preparing and getting the paperwork done in advance, at the end of my sophomore year.  As good as the dub is for F/Z, I wouldn’t recommend it over the sub.  The fansubbers of F/Z were Unlimited Translation Work, and as their name implies, they were familiar with the Fate series prior to translating it, so some of the terminology and subtleties are more faithful to both the light novel source material and the Fate/stay night visual novel than the dub translation is.  In fact, though the team is disbanding, they’re going to end their career with fansubs of the UBW Blu-rays, so if you ever want to watch the brighter, longer, and complete version of UBW sometime in the future, be sure to watch their translation of it.  UTW is regarded as one of the best translation teams out there, and are praised for their accurate and professional-grade subtitles, so it’s going to be sad to see them go.  Ohh, what I meant by that was my sister just isn’t used to reading text on a screen while watching something.  She used to watch a lot of Asian dramas when she was in high school, but since then she’s exclusively watched American and British shows and so I guess now her eyes and mind aren’t used to keeping up with subtitles.

 

Wha— something about my posts stood out to you even before we met?? *blush* I just hope I didn’t say anything unsuspectingly weird back then, urghh…  But I guess I could the say the same for you, ahah.  There was a kind of presence about your posts, if that makes any sense.  Oh my, meeting me last year is now a pleasant fall memory for you?  Shucks Kenzi, you’re such flatterer, heheh.  Yup, October 25th.  Geez, that’s tomorrow.  It’s actually a bit funny we started with an offhanded comment about Y and nearly exactly a year later here I am posting a massive spiel on Alpha Sapphire.  It’s almost like we’ve come full circle.  So much has happened since we met a year ago, I’m having a hard time figuring out whether it’s been a fast year or a slow year.  On one hand it feels like we just met only yesterday, and yet on the other hand how could it have been anything less than a full year given how much we know about each other?  Oh my gosh, catfishing… w-why have I not heard of this term until now?  You’re right though, I don’t think anyone I know would believe me if I told them about you.  Or at the very least they’d think I’m being hoodwinked really convincingly, ahah.

 

Oh yeah, I almost always ate a solid breakfast, so it wasn’t all too big of a deal that I skipped lunch.  Geez, did you hate your sandwiches that much?  Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of sandwiches made with ingredients found at the super market either.  They’re not very flavorful, especially if you just grab the “healthy” alternatives of things and throw them together.  However, places that specialize in sandwiches, like the Earl of Sandwich and Panera Bread restaurant chains, are amazing.  I love myself a good café-styled sandwich.  I’d go to the nearby Panera Bread every day if it weren’t for these pesky weekly meal-swipes I’m required to use (and given how little I eat I’m never short of swipes, sigh).  A-And I love the smell of the bread section at supermarkets, eheh.  I don’t like eating that kind of bread, but something about the smell of those bagged loaves is therapeutic to me.  It’s good that you’ve switched over to dinner leftovers now.  Sometimes for breakfast I had leftovers from dinner, which was nice.

 

Ah, true, but I’ve started seeing your username as a bit of a nickname.  I mean, I know your real life name now, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to completely stop calling you Kenzi, not even if we met in person.  Eheheh, now that I think about it, if you come to Case, what are we going to call each other?  If we called each other by our usernames, people would think we’re crazy…… and it would be one helluva situation to explain.  Contacts aren’t nearly as bad as you think.  Actually, kidding, that’s only after you get used to it.  I thought I was going to die back when I first started using my night contacts.  It hurt a lot putting them in at the end of every day.  Of course, those are hard contacts, so they really dig into your eye more than daytime soft contacts would.  But once you get used to them, you can hardly feel them.  Once you schedule an eye appointment, let me know what the verdict is!

 

Woah, I don’t believe I ever had a cold that bad before.  Like, I’ve never had one where I got really sensitive to light touches.  It’s always just been internal discomfort for me.  I’ve only had to miss school once because of “sickness” and it wasn’t even because I was really sick.  I had an APUSH project to finish, and I knew there was no way I was going to get it done if I attended school that day, so I made excuses for myself.  On the record, I missed school because I was sick. Only my project partner knows the truth, heheh.  In truth I was a bit sniffly that day, but that wasn’t the reason I opted out.  It ended up being a good call on my part.  I ultimately spent the whole day working on it and even pulled an all-nighter that night, and if I was short a few more hours it wouldn’t have been as good as it ended up being.

 

Moved to tears listening to songs, hm?  That is a bit odd, but I’m not going to judge you for it considering how often anime and movies (and even video games, goddamn) have made me cry.  I can imagine how distracting melancholic songs can be if they affect your mood that much.  When I get emotional while watching or playing something, at least it happens in that moment and I’m not occupied with anything else.  But if those feelings washed over me while I was doing work, if I had sad music on the background, I wouldn’t be able to get anything done.  Aww, I feel bad that you can’t listen to melancholic songs just because they affect your mood so dramatically.  But yeah, I don’t really prefer one genre of music over another.  I guess I just listen to Japanese songs and video game OST more often than other music because that’s what I’m exposed to on nearly a daily basis, but if I happen to stumble upon some really sweet sounding Australian jams, then I’ll be more than happy to add it to my playlist.

 

I’ve come to realize my quizzes are ridiculously and unfairly difficult.  Even the smartest people in my club do poorly on them.  Eheheh, it’s one of those things where getting a “failing” grade is actually expected.  So don’t worry, I won’t judge you if you struggle with them; in fact, I’d be more surprised if you did well.

 

Half of your wardrobe is your sister’s?  I suppose if I had an older brother I’d probably be wearing a lot of hand-me-downs as well, since my younger brother also wears some of my old clothes.  Wow, you’re more fashion savvy than I am, ahah.  I had to Google what Dr. Martens, Toms, and Sperrys were.  I suppose I’m a bit in the dark about these things then, eheh.

 

Pfft, I saw that Kenzi!  I remember reading that part about how you didn’t intend to download any games on your phone and the whole time I was thinking, “Poor Deemo, she forgot all about that game already…”  Haha, glad you recalled it in the end.  Yeeeahh, I’m such a loser, no one wants to talk with me, sniff.  I’m just kidding; it’s actually good in the sense that I’m not distracted by people wanting to make small talk.  Since my time management sucks once I sit down in front of my laptop, I need as few distractions as possible.  Anime and video games are enough as it is.  The last thing I need is someone rambling about their bad day when I have something due midnight.  Wait… backpack during lunch?  You guys are allowed to carry your backpacks with you around school??  We were forced to keep our backpacks in our lockers except before classes started and after classes ended.  Girls are allowed to carry around purses and handbags, and everyone is allowed to bring drawstring or plastic or lunch bags, but you’re not allowed to put books or binders in those.  Most teachers are generally pretty lax about that rule, but the ones who aren’t can make life a bit inconvenient.  Why is it that every week I’m reminded of how bad JP is?  I never asked for this………

 

Ohhhh, well then, TIL plickers, heheh.  I haven’t even heard of that until just now, but then again I hadn’t heard of clickers until coming to Case either.  I guess it’s that there’s no parental supervision in college.  Sure, you’re paying a ton of money to go to college, but humans have a really hard time of looking at long term effects and instead focus on short term benefits.  It’s worse with young people, because they’re lulled into the false sense of “I have all the time in the world” given their age, and without parents or guardians there to get them out of bed in the mornings it becomes that much more difficult for college students to bring themselves to class.  In fact, just yesterday my math teacher lamented over how few people attended class that day.  Because he doesn’t assign homework and doesn’t take attendance and only gives tests and quizzes predictably on Tuesdays, a lot of the lazier students have just stopped showing up.  They’re probably getting C’s and D’s, but if they’re the types who don’t bother to go to class just because attendance isn’t being taken then they’re probably perfectly content with a near failing grade.  He says he might start taking attendance soon, which I hope he does.  I have an A in that class right now, but it’s not a very high A, so every little boost in my grade helps.

 

Oh man, Magic Tree House was my thing. Same with Goosebumps.  Those two series defined my elementary school experience.  I read a crapton of books in middle school though, literally a book a day at my peak, so God knows how many books I read.  It was generally young adult fiction, from what I remember.  I got pretty far into The 39 Clues series, which was actually really good but it’s shown no signs of stopping (not even now, holy crap) and so I just naturally grew out of it despite stopping at a cliffhanger.  I remembering liking Lois Duncan books for a time, and I absolutely loved Madeleine L’Engle novels.  Her style is a lot like Kinoko Nasu’s, the faceless (wo)man behind the Fate series, in that all her works take place in the same universe and many times reference each other both subtly and overtly.  Her books are generally stand-alone, save for the obvious sequels and prequels, but you won’t get all the references unless you read every single one of them.  Aside from that, I enjoyed various works from popular young adult authors like Margaret Peterson Haddix, Gordon Korman, Rick Riordan, Andrew Clements, Louis Sachar, Lois Lowry, Anthony Horowitz, Chris Wooding, etc.  Oh noo, you’re hesitant to revisit Sherlock Holmes and Tale of Two Cities?  B-But… A Study in Scarlet was so good…  Well, I suppose it’s honestly up to you what you want to do.  I know you’re busy anyway, both with work and other recommendations I’ve made.  Huck Finn was a rather difficult book to get through.  It’s easier to just kind of let the words run through your mind loosely and absorb the information through the general flow of the vernacular dialogue, if that makes any sense at all.  I remember thinking the book was better than I was expecting going into it though.

 

I started all those activities at different points of my life.  I think the first thing I ever tried was piano.  I wasn’t particularly good at it nor did I like it very much, but it helped to establish my music knowledge.  Violin was next, and that I stuck with for a while.  I started in elementary school and played well into middle school, but when I realized I wasn’t improving and had hit a bit of a brick wall, I felt that continuing it would be a waste of time and money (especially since at that point I already had the oboe that I was making decent headway with).  I did a bit of taekwondo in elementary school, but then both my brother and I lost interest in it and my parents realized there’s not really much of a benefit to doing taekwondo over some other more practical activity, so that was the end of that.  Soccer was the first sport I tried, even before taekwondo in fact.  Actually, I think I may have started it at around the same time.  But I was a wimpy kid back in the day and wasn’t very aggressive, so I quit that right around when middle school started as well.  It was a similar story with basketball, though I got into that after soccer in early middle school.  I didn’t play on the middle school team, only at some non-affiliated after school/summer camp thing, but I was still pretty timid and so that didn’t get anywhere.  Swimming was more of an elementary school thing, I believe.  I just didn’t really like that either, for some reason.  I thought it was fine to swim, but learning and getting good at all those different strokes felt a bit pointless, so I quite before middle school.  Table tennis I learned for a brief period of time in middle school.  My parents realized it wasn’t a particularly practical sport, kind of like taekwondo, so my brother and I quit before long.  Tennis is something I started really late, in a last ditch effort by my parents to get me more physically active.  I played for fun and with an instructor a bit in my freshman year of high school, but it was taking me a long time to get even remotely decent, and after my parents realized that at that point there would be no way I’d be able to surpass my peers on the tennis team, they figured it would be best I just focus on the oboe.  As for why I weathered it out with the oboe from elementary school all the way to late high school, even suffering through JP’s band program, I don’t really know.  I’m not that great at the oboe, but since so few people played it I guess it just seemed I was pretty good.  And for a time I suppose I liked the instrument, but the more that was asked of me the less I enjoyed playing it.  But it was kind of fun in elementary and middle school though, so there’s that.

 

Ehhhhh?!  Just a small offhanded comment like that triggered you that hard?  Gomenasai, haha.  I wouldn’t have minded if you left that salty rant in though, since I feel like I’ve just randomly rambled on rather saltily about my own issues more than just a few times.  It looks like the scores were released just a few days ago!  Let me know how you did!  You don’t have to tell me the exact scores of course, but just your thoughts on it will be fine.  Or if you did worse than you thought, then you don’t have to.

 

Yes, I’d love to read your essay!  You have a week left before applications are due, so I don’t think you’ll really have much of a chance to send it to me and have me give you advice, but I feel at this point you’ll pretty much have it finalized and there wouldn’t be much for me to offer anyway, haha.  Ah, cutting out words from the essay can be the hardest part.  Sometimes you get like, emotionally attached to some sentences and thoughts, but you know there’s no way you can keep the essay within the word limit without cutting some pretty major things out.  And given my penchant for writing too much, word caps are the bane of my existence.  Hm?  Incident with your calc teacher?  Did you ever mention that before?  I’m rather curious to know what that’s all about, heheh.  Oh geez, sounds like you’re having it really rough.  Your internal clock is probably even more confused than mine.  Once this whole college application fiasco is over, be sure to take a break!  Or at least as much of a break you can take if you happen to have quarterly exams coming up or something.  You definitely deserve a respite from all the work you’ve been having.  And there’s no need to blame yourself for not getting this stuff done over the summer!  Lots of people are in the same situation as you.  We all struggle with procrastination, even me.  We just need to put our best foot forward in the future!

 

I think ever since I pulled my first all-nighter in fourth grade, I’ve felt that they were something to kind of be proud of.  Like, none of my other peers had ever stayed up literally all night before, and pulling it off gave me a silly sense of pride.  That’s carried over even into college it seems.  For some reason, as stupid as this sounds, I’m kind of happy when it’s crazy late and I go out in the hallways to finally take a shower and the usually rowdy guys on my floor are completely silent.  I managed to stay up later than anyone else on my floor?  Nice.  Eheheh, I’m sorry I’m so weird, I can’t help it sometimes…  My midterms went rather well.  Technically, only my accounting class has midterms.  SAGES classes never have midterms, my econ class only has regular exams and a final, and it’s the same story with my math class.  And even then, my accounting midterms are separated into two parts.  I took the first part the week before the actually midterm week, and I’ll be taking the second part this coming Tuesday.  I did have a math test though, which went pretty well.  Heheh, it’s no problem at all!  If you have to take another week’s break, especially given the crazy length of this response, then feel free to!  Just as long as you put your own health and priorities first, then I’d be willing to wait as long as you need!

 

And this is a bit of a weird note to leave off on, but apparently a Case Western student, an 18 year old freshman in fact, passed away in a car accident over fall break.  Apparently he collided with a truck on the highway.  It’s scary to think how quickly a life can end, and the roads are far more dangerous places than we usually realize.  Please, whenever you’re out driving, be safe.  I… really don’t know what I’d do if something were to happen to you.  So um, yeah, stay safe, put your own health first, and good luck this final week before apps are due!

[Kenzi 146]

sheesh, broke the word limit again so I had to take out the quote, lol.

 

I think it's just the fact that they've been getting better at creating misleading trailers. I still haven't gotten around to watching the movie yet, but I'm expecting a pretty anticlimactic ending. Or at the very least something that's idiotically overdone and Hollywood-esque.

 

I'm rather surprised you didn't comment on the Meteor Falls theme, haha. Definitely one of my favorite remastered soundtracks from the game. I was also kinda disappointed that the overall vibe of the area was lost. Erm, in the sense that it didn't feel as mystical aesthetically, I guess. I really liked the purple hue from Emerald and I was kinda sad they didn't keep that aspect of the cave. But you know, ORAS is a remake of R/S and not Emerald, so I guess that's understandable. Ohh, I didn't notice that the Tubers never swam in the water by themselves. Good eye, haha. 

 

The Lati@s sidequest kinda reminded me of the ORAS demo that was released a while ago. But yeah, it wasn't weaved in too well and felt a bit abrupt. Oh geez, you liked chasing after roaming Pokemon? Mesprit was a pain for me and I just gave in and threw a Masterball at it. I can't remember what I did for the legendary dogs since I never fully "completed" HG. I don't think I ever caught Tornadus either, hm. Oh my gosh, the secret bases look like so much fun! Let me know how it goes if you ever get around to it! Also, being able to fly to routes seemed really innovative when I first saw it... even though it's a feature that should've been implemented a while ago, lol.

 

Not gonna lie, the surfing aspect of R/S/E was a pain. Well, it might've been just me since I always got lost and kept surfing in circles, eheh. Gosh, I really disliked the directional tiles. Navigating through the Rocket Hideout wasn't very fun and neither was Tate and Liza's Gym in R/S/E. It wasn't hard, but it was pretty annoying stopping in my tracks every few seconds to map out which tile I'd be stepping on next. So, as you can imagine, I actually thought Tate and Liza's Gym seemed more revamped rather than toned down. But I agree that the lack of a challenge was disappointing, not that that was unexpected since the games have been getting progressively less difficult.  

 

Ohh, yes! I also loved the amount of detail they put in for Kyogre and the Cave of Origin. And if you remember battling Kyogre in HG, Aqua Ring was, uh, a nice reminder for the amount of frustration it took to catch the darn whale. Also, I didn't know Hold Back was even a thing. A bit pointless since it's pretty much just False Swipe under a different name. Kinda like how Detect is basically Protect but with less PP. Hmm, what do you mean when you said you were sad that "Mirage Island is no more"?

 

The letters were the most heartrending part of that little backstory. As you know, I love backstories, so going through those letters was just... oomph. The backstory itself was also fairly dark, but intricate and subtle enough to be just a nice accent to the landmark. That was a really nice touch, hehe. I really liked how it wasn't shoved in our faces but required digging--kinda like an Easter Egg for those willing to look into it. The bit about the Hi Skitty doll and the Nuggets didn't leave me in tears though. I felt something welling up and I just wanted to hug the guy. Ahah, I'm glad to see that you enjoyed it!

 

I loved what they did with Wally's character development! When I first heard Wally's theme (before I saw the playthrough since I kinda spoiled the soundtrack for myself, eheh), I was like, "damn, why would they bother giving such a timid character this intense of a theme?" Little did I know I was going to get blown back. The backdrop of red flowers definitely made the battle one of the more memorable ones, and the theme? Goddamn. Ahhhh! What a turn of events! It just kicked in out of nowhere and went full speed ahead right into the battle. I saw the Key Stone, but sheesh, watching Gallade mega evolve still caught me off guard. By that time, I was still trying to process what was happening and then the battle ended?? A theme I originally thought was really unfitting suddenly made the battle one of the most impactful battles I've ever witnessed. I felt bad for the guy after he lost, but oh man, still, that battle.........

 

Haha, no problem! Glad to see you got through the Elite 4 with such ease! How did you feel about the Elite 4 theme? I felt like something was missing... probably the clapping. The theme felt kinda empty without it, ahah... or maybe I'm just being too picky. I also thought the scene with Brendan and May was kinda cute, hehe. The remastered, slower version of the encounter theme was a really nice way to tone things down, and the sudden change in textbox format was like, whoaa. It felt pretty significant. And then wrapping things up by walking to where they first met, and then looking up at the stars after having a battle to wrap things off. Ahh, it was just such a satisfying ending and it was carried out really well. 

 

I really liked the Delta Episode even though it was such an obvious appeal to older fans, but that still didn't make the encounter with Deoxys any less hype. Seeing that little triangle made my heart stop. Riding Rayquaza was also a neat addition, haha. Oof, you were forced to resort to using battle items? I probably would've sold all of them, lol. And geezus, holy, what the dkgjslkgfkjghf??? How, what you... eh?? A Deoxys with perfect IVs in the attacks, speed, and sp. def?? It's funny that you ended up with a Hasty nature with 0 IVs in defense, but sheesh. What a lucky duck you are, haha. Zinnia's theme is also freaking badass. I just wish they could've elaborated more on her story.

 

Ohh, so ORAS had that big of an impact on you? Gosh, I wish I could've played it for myself, but it's too late for that now, eheh... I really hope they make the 4th gen remakes just as good if not better. 4th gen is, by far, my favorite generation. Easily the most diverse region with a lot of post-game material (Platinum, at least), great soundfront and soundtrack, storyline, characters, and it was also fairly challenging. If this is what they can do to R/S, I can only imagine what might happen to D/P. Especially the route 216 theme. I love that theme so so so much, ahahahaha... It might be my bias and nostalgia talking for me, but gosh, I love gen 4. I still love Platinum more than ORAS, though it may not be warranted since I don't have any firsthand experience with ORAS, eheh. Hmm, I guess I probably wouldn't feel the same way if I played D/P instead of Platinum. Platinum was just so revamped and everything... oh gosh, I'm rambling on again. Just reading your rave about ORAS made me want to go off on a tangent of my own even though you already know how much I love 4th gen, ahah. Still, I loved everything they did with ORAS. The soundtrack, the character development, the slightly darkened atmosphere, the extra additions like Professor Cozmo's backstory, the Delta Episode, etc. They were all carried out so well, and witnessing people's reactions to these enhancements made the experience pretty enjoyable as well. It was really nice being able to read your thoughts on the game, so thank you for taking the time to type them out!

 

Oh nonono, the heater only "broke" recently when I tried to turn it on. I noticed no temperature difference after about an hour, and the thermostat didn't indicate any temperature change either. Well, I called my dad in to tell him about it. And it turns out there was a bird's nest clogging the furnace. Haha, how cute! I was still stuck without heating for the rest of the week, but I think everything's a-okay now. Thanks for the hug though, ahah. *hugs* Well uh... I still had my undergarments on when I was changing back at UMich but I'm just not comfortable changing in front of people, eheh... I only changed when my roommate was facing the wall. I'd derp around "getting organized" until she turned away for a few moments. Then I'd grab whatever I was planning to change into and put them on as quickly as possible. I know, I'm weird. I can't even change in front of my parents or sister without getting stupidly conscious about it. It's not like I have any scars or marks to hide (most of my scars are on my left leg anyway), and it's not like I'm not comfortable in my own skin. I guess I just don't like it when people see me in such an exposed state? I don't even know if that makes sense. My sister doesn't change in front of me when she doesn't have to (but I walk out on her when she does), and I rarely saw my roommate change (not that I wanted to since I always turned around to respect her privacy whenever she did). I've never changed in front of my friends, and I've never had friends change in front of me (jk, there were a few exceptions, but those were pretty dire circumstances). I'm well aware that there are guys/girls out there who are more open about this though, and I'm guessing you're one of them, haha. For tennis, I just wore my uniform underneath my clothes. Not a problem since our uniform was just a skirt and tank top. On days when I was too lazy to put on my uniform in the morning, I'd change in the bathroom stalls at school. A lot of my friends also did this, lol. Did you guys not have access to bathroom stalls or something? Kidding, but I found it strange that you'd question something like this, haha. 

 

I actually only watched bits and pieces of the debate after reading an article that summed up what happened. That particular quote from Clinton caught my eye. It really irked me and now I can't seem to trust anything she says. Like her comment on that one Humans of New York Facebook post didn't seem very sincere either (not sure if you saw this since it was a while ago). I know the message of the post was pretty heartwarming and all, but part of me felt like she only posted her support for campaigning reasons, as unreasonable as that sounds. Sanders's popularity has skyrocketed, if the numerous Facebook posts I've come across are anything to go by. He seems to be one of the only candidates who truly wants to carry out what he says. Everyone else seemed kinda fake and said what they thought the people want them to say. I feel kinda bad for the other three candidates since I haven't been following them at all, and especially since they don't seem to be gaining much ground either. Sheesh, Lessig plans to resign once the CEA becomes law? Sounds kinda like a publicity stunt if that's the only thing he has to offer. I wouldn't mind hearing what else he has to say, so I also hope he gets some more attention.

 

It's funny you mention that because I've been questioning my "extroverted" tendencies recently. My parents think I'm antisocial, and so does my sister. I love being in the quiet and taking in the scenery. I like relaxing by myself in general and just staring off into the distance. Parties are fun and all and of course I love being around my friends and making new friends, but being by myself for a few moments and just thinking to myself is what really makes me feel at peace. The only reason I've been reevaluating myself is because I noticed a comment somewhere that said something along the lines of "there's such thing as an outgoing introvert." So lately, I've been on the fence about whether I'm an extrovert or introvert. I still love talking to my friends and being in social situations on most occasions, but there are times when I just don't want to go to a social event; times when I just want to stay home and catch up on things I want to do. Sometimes my friends come up to me and ask me if I'm all right when I finally decided to shut up for a few moments to just think to myself since I'm usually pretty talkative around them. Reading that comment was like a "has my whole life been a lie" kind of revelation. "Introvert" and "outgoing" also seem like such contrasting words so I never knew "outgoing introverts" were a thing. I love being by myself as much as I love being around my friends, so I guess I just don't know what I would identify myself as anymore. Whoops, sorry for the random tangent. I was just having a minor existential crisis and needed to write out my thoughts somewhere, lol. Oh dang, you'd just let your connections drop like that? Even with your close friends? I feel like that might be a problem when I head off to college since there'd really be no way for me to contact them aside from texting and messaging or maybe calling... hmm... Well, even if the friend is someone I haven't seen in a while, I'd probably still talk to them. It depends on a lot of factors, but I'd still go for it most of the time. I won't start a chat through social media though. It'd probably be in person. If you'd just let friendships end after not talking to them for a few months, what happened to your friends after summer break then? Y-You can't imagine a future without me? Aw geez, you're too much, ahah<3

 

Actually, despite what I said before about being flooded with anime to watch, I saw your thoughts on The Dog of Flanders, and I want you to remind me to watch it once Christmas rolls around, eheh. Haha, is your inner completionist preventing you from stacking already-aired anime onto your PTW list? That's understandable since I also have a few OCD tendencies. But my backlog is already pretty big, so it doesn't matter to me what I add to it at this point, lol. 

 

Wahhhh, I can't believe I screwed that up, lol. Yeah, I meant Gilgamesh vs. Rider, haha. Ohh, so Rider was the most popular character? That's interesting since it's usually the main character(s) of shows from polls I've seen. Dang, so you really did only get around to watching F/Z the summer before senior year. Given how much knowledge you had on it back when you recommended it to me only half a year later, I could've sworn you were an avid fan for at least a year or two. UTW huh... I'll be sure to keep them in mind when I find the time to rewatch F/SN. I had some good laughs from the "Just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right" line (I know what was intended though), but thanks for the heads up! Haha, it was the complete opposite for me at one point. After bingeing on DC, I found it difficult to revert to any subtitle-free show because I was so used to reading the dialogue, lol. 

 

I dunno, you just seemed like one of those people who had a grip on what you were doing, haha. Most of your posts pertained to updating the masses on upcoming DC openings/endings and specials and the like. You didn't post too often (heck, you rarely approached the off-topic threads, and I guess I didn't either), but you seemed like someone I wouldn't mind getting to know. Then I saw your post on Pokemon Y in this thread and I jumped on it. I don't believe I saw you posting in the OMM thread before then, so I didn't know you very well at the time. Everything you posted just made you seem... very down to earth. So yeah, nothing seemed inherently "weird" about you (except the fact that you insert two spaces after every period, which is a format I thought died out by now, haha). Then you started approaching the off-topic threads a bit more with those gifs and memes of yours and I thought to myself "holy moly, this guy..." I was familiar with many of the gifs and memes you posted but I never thought to use them to "enhance" my posts or anything. You were just different. I loved and still love that about you. I noticed how our lives paralleled in quite a few different ways, which was really strange (like geezus, you felt like my long lost twin at one point), and how much our interests crossed paths. But as I talked to you more, I started noticing differences as well. We're nearly the same in some aspects and complete polar opposites in others. It's been lots of fun getting to know you, haha. There's not much else to say for my first impressions of you. It felt like a really fast year, but at the same time, it's completely baffling how far we managed to take this in such a short time span (or long, depending on how you want to look at it). I never would've guessed in a million years that this is where I'd be after starting this conversation with you on October 25th, 2014. Where would I be today if you hadn't posted your progress on Pokemon Y? If I decided not to reply? It's amazing how these seemingly trivial events can be such life-changers, ahah...

 

Since I almost always skipped breakfast (and I still do if you don't count the bread I bring to school), I pretty much needed a solid lunch. I could skip lunch if I had to though. Yeah, I hated the sandwiches a lot. Sandwiches in general can be great (love Panera Bread), but the sandwiches made from stale supermarket ingredients are just bleh. Flaxseed whole wheat bread is disgusting. I don't care how "healthy" it is. And that reminds me, my parents were invited to a party hosted by a vegan not too long ago. They were given some food to bring back home and offered some to me. Well, I tried the "shrimp" and uh... I don't know what I was eating. It was probably one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. Same with the "beef" and "fish". Yeah, they tasted like what they were supposed to taste like and they looked like what they were supposed to look like, but... I wasn't very comfortable knowing that what I was eating was just something masquerading as these foods. Like, the texture and flavor also resembled that of shrimp, beef, and fish somehow, and I was really weirded out by that. Also, what do you mean by you're "required" to use your weekly-meal swipes? And you're never short of them because of how little you eat? I know you said before that the food at Case isn't bad, so why would you starve yourself like that? Don't tell me your habit of skipping lunch in high school carried over to college...

 

Oh geez, I don't think it'd even be possible to explain that to people, haha. "Uh yeah, 'Akazora' is just his username for this online forum we met each other on." I'd probably stick to calling you by your real name just because it's also easier to say. Unless I can find another nickname to call you by, hmm. I could call you "Al" or something since it's like a combination of the two. Ahah, it's way too early for me to think about this stuff, but it's something I'll keep in mind. Wow, okay, I guess I'm never getting contacts then. "I thought I was going to die back when I first started using my night contacts." Yeahhhhh, I'll just stick to taking better care of my eyes. I don't want to put myself through that. So I finally got an eye appointment on November 17. I'm actually a little nervous because I feel like the eye doctor is going to scold me for how poorly I've been treating my eyes, eheh.

 

I've never skipped school because of a sickness. Actually, I've never skipped an entire school day for my personal benefit until junior year. At one point, it became too much and I decided to stay home to skip a calc test one day. My parents definitely weren't happy, and neither was I. It took a lot of effort to persuade them, and I could tell that their faith in me was dying. It was such a demeaning experience. Oh my gosh, that was awful. I felt so guilty. I still had to take the test the next day, but enough guilt set in for that to become the first, and hopefully last time it ever happens. Other times, I'd just skip class by heading off to the media center if I found myself feeling unprepared. It rarely happened, and I've never even thought about skipping class for that reason until junior year. Geez, that APUSH project forced you to pull an all-nighter even with the extra day? What on earth were you even working on, lol. It's good that it all turned out well though, haha.

 

I don't cry most of the time, but the feelings of sorrow (maybe that's too strong of a word, hm) that come from listening to these songs are enough to keep me away from them. Impossible Dream is an example of one of them. I listened to this just now to see how well my emotions would fare (I did cry over this a few years ago), and weirdly enough, it didn't affect me much this time around. Yeah, I didn't exactly feel happy listening to this (it's still one of my favorite compositions from Joe Hisashi), but I wasn't exactly "sad" either. I still had to listen to another song immediately after so I wouldn't have the tune stuck in my head though. Sad music -> sad memories -> sad feelings -> sad Kenzi (just to sum it up). If I'm listening to melancholic music when I'm already feeling down, that's just asking for trouble. I won't be straight up bawling or anything, but tears will roll down, head might be buried in my arms, and nothing would get accomplished. Gosh, I love listening to OSTs and instrumentals, more so than lyrical songs at times. How is it that you can listen to lyrical songs while doing homework? Anything with a really strong beat (which I guess can include some OSTs and instrumentals) and lyrics is really distracting for me, haha. 

 

Actually, half seems like a bit much. I think maybe a quarter of my wardrobe is my sister's at most. Or at the very least, clothes we picked out together. I'm not even sure how I managed to familiarize myself with the stuff people tend to wear. I wasn't conscious about this kind of stuff at all until recent years. 

 

I know I was pretty adamant for my stance in not wanting to download games, but I can't believe I almost forgot about Deemo, eheh... I normally stay "invisible" on Facebook so people don't feel compelled to chat me up on random occasions. Plus, I'll get the message on my phone when they decide to anyway. I'll reply if it has to do with homework or if I can anticipate the conversation lasting only a few seconds, but if it's just idle chat like "how's your day been" or a random YouTube video someone sends me, I'll probably wait to reply to it. It's not like I want to ignore them, but constantly interrupting my work time to reply can get pretty distracting. Haha yeah, we're allowed to carry our backpacks around school. In middle school, we had to keep them in our lockers. It was a huge pain, so I found a loophole by carrying a tote bag with my folders and textbooks in it around the school. I'm actually rather surprised no one else bothered doing it. But my math teacher caught on and banned my tote bag from her class, lol. Not because she didn't want me bending the rules, but because she was concerned that it would be bad for my shoulder (the textbooks were pretty heavy, not gonna lie). The decree was bothersome, but it was sweet of her. I'm really glad we're allowed to carry backpacks in high school. I haven't opened my locker once since freshmen orientation, haha. Whaa... you guys weren't allowed to carry backpacks around? Sheesh, I'd be late to every one of my classes if that was the case here. Wait, scratch that, I'm actually late for the majority of my classes even with a backpack. I can't imagine how rushed I'd feel if I had to stop by my locker between every class.

 

Ahh well, can't argue with you there. But given how infrequently you guys have classes (or at least compared to high school when you had to attend everyday), wouldn't you guys want to make the most of what you're given? Wouldn't missing class would have a much bigger impact on your grade? I can't speak for college students, but that would be my reasoning. You know, aside from having some form of intrinsic motivation and not wanting to disappoint your parents. I've found myself skipping classes in junior year out of desperation and not necessarily out of lethargy (sometimes a mix of both, I guess). It was only around second semester though and it was done to keep my sanity intact. I'm going to try my best not to let this carry over to college since the education I receive would be for my own good in the long run. I'm actually a little surprised that people are already skipping classes in college this early in the year wait, what the, it's November already?? especially since they're freshmen. I mean, if they're receiving C's and D's without a care in the world, why even bother taking the class, lol. 

 

Oh shoot, forgot to mention Junie B. Jones. Gosh, I really disliked her character but I loved the books. Can't forget our dear Captain Underpants either, lol (my mom was very reluctant to let me borrow them from the library, ahah). Hmm, maybe my love for toilet humor stemmed from that. Good times. Goddamn, a book a day? Phew, I was nowhere near that. Maybe a few books per week at most. Haha, I never touched the Goosebumps series for whatever reason. I always ran into them at the library, but I always found myself avoiding them. In hindsight, I'm not sure why. Same with series like The Boxcar Children and The 39 Clues. The only Madeleine L'Engle novel I read was A Wrinkle in Time, which I thought was a strange book. I've read books from all of the authors you've stated except Lois Duncan and Anthony Horowitz (I did want to get into Alex Rider though). Jerry Spinelli, James Patterson, Eoin Colfer, Roderick Gordon, and Jeff Kinney were also among a few popular picks. Ahah, maybe if I find the time, I'll see if I can muster up the courage to revisit A Tale of Two Cities (literally the only times I dozed off in middle school were when I was reading this) and Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, I guess Huck Finn was okay, but it's definitely not a book I'd go out of my way to reread again. Or at least not anytime soon. Really wanted to sock Tom Sawyer at some points in the book. And speaking of rereading books, my old freshman English teacher told everyone to reread To Kill a Mockingbird once we're older. She made us promise we'd find the time to read it again as an adult. I've taken her words to heart since she seemed like she really meant it, but I'm actually surprised I still remember this.

 

Oh gosh, I really wish I continued piano. I absolutely adore the piano and I have a huge soft spot for piano instrumentals and I hold an enormous amount of respect for all pianists. I subscribed to a few pianists I used to listen to religiously, and self-taught myself how to play random songs because I looked up to these people so much. Most people I've met find playing the piano to be a chore, or at least in their early years. I find it strange that this isn't the case for most other instruments, or maybe too many of my friends play the piano. Yeahh, I also feel like I plateaued at some point back in middle school. Out of curiosity, I began recording myself, and I realized how much I sucked because I noticed that I was playing pretty flat. My teacher never commented on my tendency to play flat, so the revelation was a bit shocking. I think that was the biggest brick wall I had to face for the violin in middle school. Oh, and the fact that I sucked at sight reading, and still suck at sight reading, sigh. Wait a second... if you played violin and oboe in middle school which one was more of a side instrument? And were you in band or orchestra at the time? Also, what do you mean by taekwondo not being a "practical activity"? Soccer is just kicking a ball, basketball is just throwing a ball, and tennis is just hitting a ball (I know, I know, these are huge generalizations), so it's not like playing soccer, basketball, or tennis would have any practical use either, lol. If you think about it, most sports are pretty weird. Tennis is essentially trying to hit a ball back and forth over the net using some paddle-like object. Haha, what a waste of time. But judging by the looks of it, your parents seem to determine whether an activity is practical based on whether it's a common school activity. That's kinda interesting. My parents never really forced me to do any sports/activities. They just offered to send me to these activities if I enjoyed them. I used to love swimming so my mom would often let me take swimming lessons. Ice skating was fun so I guess they also let me skate for a few years. Same with stuff like pottery, drawing, tennis, violin, etc. But I had to drop a bunch of them eventually because my parents thought they were interfering with schoolwork and deemed some of these activities a waste of time. I loved doing these activities and going to summer camps to broaden my horizons, so I was almost always the one pestering my parents to sign me up for them, haha. Of course, this was mainly back in elementary school and early middle school since my parents did a complete 180 afterwards. 

 

Nah, dumping that much salt on you would be uncalled for since it's just my own little issue, lol. Plus, I figured you wouldn't want to read or reply to some bulky paragraph (it's unreasonably big) about my crappy test-taking skills. I still have it saved if you really do want to read it for whatever reason, haha. I didn't get full scores, but there was some improvement. I kinda want to see what I got wrong though. I still ended up sending them because at the very least if my scores won't help me, I'm pretty sure they won't hurt me.

 

I'm glad you liked my essay! I was constantly editing and re-editing, and at one point, the more I read it, the more I began disliking it, but I'm just really relieved that you liked it. I just hope your reactions aren't swayed because I incorporated some of your ideas into it, eheh... Honestly though, thank you so so so so so much. Seriously (you da real mvp). I never would've thought to write about my watch. Thank you for all of your help. Thank you for helping me eliminate and come up with topics to write about. I really don't know where I'd be without you. It's kinda funny since I initially wanted to write about time and something Steins;Gate-y (also tried rewatching it for inspiration over the summer, lol) but didn't know how I would approach it. And sorry for antagonizing you, ahah... There's still no place to enter a title, so I just included it as part of my essay. Not a big deal since I'm sure they can tell that it's a title. Oh, and I wanted to clarify one more thing: I still love my watch. I'm not planning on permanently taking it off, but I have been more conscious about the little contraption lately. I had to stretch a few details of my essay for this reason, eheh... So I'm finally done with my college apps! A huge weight has been lifted off my chest, and it feels freaking great. The uncertainty is still stressing, but at least all that's left to do is wait.

 

Haha, I actually don't think I've ever mentioned the incident with my calc teacher. Well, I brought hydrochloric acid to class one day. A few friends wanted to use it to make a battery for AP Chem (battery with the highest voltage gets extra credit), and I had a ton left over from the previous year, so I figured I'd give it to them. Went to a friend's first hour to transfer a bit of it into her flask (I had multiple friends ask me for some, so I couldn't let her take the entire container). Then I rushed over to my first hour calc class. I don't know what I was thinking running there with HCl. Somehow, some of it leaked onto a desk (I know the cap was screwed on tight, but maybe there were some wet areas on the bottom of the container from the transfer). Of course, my calc teacher asked what was in the container. Uh oh. Had to move the desk out into the hallway and clean it up since HCl is a highly corrosive chemical and coming into contact with it is... bad. Can confirm, since I got some on my finger sophomore year and temporarily turned it chalky white--and that was only diluted HCl. God knows what would've happened if I came into contact with concentrated HCl. I was really lucky that my calc teacher is pretty chill and isn't one of those uptight teachers who reports everything to the administration. It's not like I had any bad intentions or anything (and I'm sure he knew that), but I would've gotten in trouble for sure. Like geez, what kind of kid just casually brings HCl to class. You'd probably have to evacuate the classroom if the entire container happened to tip over and spill onto the carpet or something. For starters, it reeks. Not only does the vapor have this pungent sting, but it physically hurts to even have a small whiff of it (not that it's safe to inhale it in the first place). And it's a pretty dangerous chemical in general (HCl burns can be... grotesque). Gosh, I'm an idiot. What was I thinking? Why didn't I just leave the container in the chem room?? I was rushing late to class so maybe I didn't have time to think clearly, but leaving such a chemical in the chem room is just common sense. Arghhh, what a brainless move on my part. I can't believe I never thought to do that. Granted, this was a while ago, and I haven't brought it up whenever I'm around him, so I'm hoping he forgot it ever happened, eheh... I originally wasn't going to ask my calc teacher for a rec letter in case the incident might end up triggering some beef, but a weird turn of events happened when he invited me to visit him to talk about how my life was going. The conversation went pretty well, so I guess I'm still on good terms with him, haha. Wow, I actually didn't expect to write that much about the incident. This is already enough to be a standalone paragraph, so I'll break it up here to help ease the eyes.

 

Oh believe me, I do intend to take a break. Still, Physics C is a huge pain right now. We get these Webassign problems that are due at 11:59pm on certain days, and they're freaking hard (and my procrastinating tendencies don't exactly help). Hell, I'm forced to seek online help most of the time because I don't have the slightest idea what's going on at times. These problems can take anywhere from 30 minutes to many, many painstakingly long hours to complete. Meaning, there have been days when I wasn't able to finish on time because I underestimated how much time it would take me (like, c'mon, I left myself four hours to do one of these Webassigns one day, and I still didn't finish on time). I don't want to ask my dad for help since I can't understand Chinese physics jargon and he gets really really frustrated whenever I can't understand a concept he's trying to teach. Apparently what we're learning right now is only the foundation, so it's not going to get any easier. It's going to get harder, and it's going to go downhill, or so I'm told (or I could be wrong, since electrostatics is supposedly one of the hardest topics to learn both conceptually and mathematically). I understand the calc concepts and what he's writing on the board for the most part (basically the "okay, I think I can see what he's doing"), but does he expect us to be able to derive that kind of stuff from diagrams on the spot?? Like, geezus, it's all Greek to me (both figuratively and literally). I don't have a good feeling about this. Dozing off in the class is also pretty detrimental since skipping over the foundation is obviously not a good idea (oh dear lord help me). Sometimes I wonder what even compelled me to take this class. Kinda funny since I'm doing the worst in Physics and the best in Lit at the moment when English is usually one of my worst subjects. I'm not exactly sure what's going on in comp sci either, but I'm damn glad I switched into the class since it's almost like a free hour for me to cram for my following classes on some days (I feel kinda bad about it though). The only reason I've been able to scrape by is because I've been working on the codes with a group of friends. At times, the codes make sense. Other times, I feel like I'm reading and typing gibberish. Welp, I've rambled on far too much now. But back on topic-ish, we have our exams at the end of every semester. They're considered midterms or finals depending on whether the class is one or two semesters. There's no way in hell I would've been prepared for any midterms as early as October given my current state, so thank goodness January exams, woohoo.

 

Well, you do have a point there. I sometimes feel the same form of pride when I pull all-nighters (probably not as often as you do though). But it turns into immediate regret once I begin feeling the aftermath after the first hour of school. It's not worth it, lol. Ohh, glad to hear that midterms went well! Thanks once again for being so patient and understanding about these responses. Hopefully you also had a nice Halloween!

 

Have confidence in knowing that I live in the safest city in Michigan and one of the safest cities in the country, haha. My parents would never let me drive on the highways by myself, so I'm only on the main roads most of the time. Rest assured, I'm fine, lol. If anything, you should be looking after yourself. Don't be selfish now; how well do you think I'd react if I found out that something happened to you, hm? Haha, stay safe (apparently, someone was recently shot and killed while driving a car in Cleveland??). I haven't been thinking too much about my health lately mainly because it feels like I'm operating on autopilot at the moment. But even then, I'm still slacking off in a few of my classes. Oh well, that's fine, I guess. I'm sure that'll change since I'm finally done with college apps now. Thank you very much for the kind sentiment; it really means a lot to me, ahah.

[Akazora 293]

sheesh, broke the word limit again so I had to take out the quote, lol.

 

I think it's just the fact that they've been getting better at creating misleading trailers. I still haven't gotten around to watching the movie yet, but I'm expecting a pretty anticlimactic ending. Or at the very least something that's idiotically overdone and Hollywood-esque.

 

I'm rather surprised you didn't comment on the Meteor Falls theme, haha. Definitely one of my favorite remastered soundtracks from the game. I was also kinda disappointed that the overall vibe of the area was lost. Erm, in the sense that it didn't feel as mystical aesthetically, I guess. I really liked the purple hue from Emerald and I was kinda sad they didn't keep that aspect of the cave. But you know, ORAS is a remake of R/S and not Emerald, so I guess that's understandable. Ohh, I didn't notice that the Tubers never swam in the water by themselves. Good eye, haha. 

 

The Lati@s sidequest kinda reminded me of the ORAS demo that was released a while ago. But yeah, it wasn't weaved in too well and felt a bit abrupt. Oh geez, you liked chasing after roaming Pokemon? Mesprit was a pain for me and I just gave in and threw a Masterball at it. I can't remember what I did for the legendary dogs since I never fully "completed" HG. I don't think I ever caught Tornadus either, hm. Oh my gosh, the secret bases look like so much fun! Let me know how it goes if you ever get around to it! Also, being able to fly to routes seemed really innovative when I first saw it... even though it's a feature that should've been implemented a while ago, lol.

 

Not gonna lie, the surfing aspect of R/S/E was a pain. Well, it might've been just me since I always got lost and kept surfing in circles, eheh. Gosh, I really disliked the directional tiles. Navigating through the Rocket Hideout wasn't very fun and neither was Tate and Liza's Gym in R/S/E. It wasn't hard, but it was pretty annoying stopping in my tracks every few seconds to map out which tile I'd be stepping on next. So, as you can imagine, I actually thought Tate and Liza's Gym seemed more revamped rather than toned down. But I agree that the lack of a challenge was disappointing, not that that was unexpected since the games have been getting progressively less difficult.  

 

Ohh, yes! I also loved the amount of detail they put in for Kyogre and the Cave of Origin. And if you remember battling Kyogre in HG, Aqua Ring was, uh, a nice reminder for the amount of frustration it took to catch the darn whale. Also, I didn't know Hold Back was even a thing. A bit pointless since it's pretty much just False Swipe under a different name. Kinda like how Detect is basically Protect but with less PP. Hmm, what do you mean when you said you were sad that "Mirage Island is no more"?

 

The letters were the most heartrending part of that little backstory. As you know, I love backstories, so going through those letters was just... oomph. The backstory itself was also fairly dark, but intricate and subtle enough to be just a nice accent to the landmark. That was a really nice touch, hehe. I really liked how it wasn't shoved in our faces but required digging--kinda like an Easter Egg for those willing to look into it. The bit about the Hi Skitty doll and the Nuggets didn't leave me in tears though. I felt something welling up and I just wanted to hug the guy. Ahah, I'm glad to see that you enjoyed it!

 

I loved what they did with Wally's character development! When I first heard Wally's theme (before I saw the playthrough since I kinda spoiled the soundtrack for myself, eheh), I was like, "damn, why would they bother giving such a timid character this intense of a theme?" Little did I know I was going to get blown back. The backdrop of red flowers definitely made the battle one of the more memorable ones, and the theme? Goddamn. Ahhhh! What a turn of events! It just kicked in out of nowhere and went full speed ahead right into the battle. I saw the Key Stone, but sheesh, watching Gallade mega evolve still caught me off guard. By that time, I was still trying to process what was happening and then the battle ended?? A theme I originally thought was really unfitting suddenly made the battle one of the most impactful battles I've ever witnessed. I felt bad for the guy after he lost, but oh man, still, that battle.........

 

Haha, no problem! Glad to see you got through the Elite 4 with such ease! How did you feel about the Elite 4 theme? I felt like something was missing... probably the clapping. The theme felt kinda empty without it, ahah... or maybe I'm just being too picky. I also thought the scene with Brendan and May was kinda cute, hehe. The remastered, slower version of the encounter theme was a really nice way to tone things down, and the sudden change in textbox format was like, whoaa. It felt pretty significant. And then wrapping things up by walking to where they first met, and then looking up at the stars after having a battle to wrap things off. Ahh, it was just such a satisfying ending and it was carried out really well. 

 

I really liked the Delta Episode even though it was such an obvious appeal to older fans, but that still didn't make the encounter with Deoxys any less hype. Seeing that little triangle made my heart stop. Riding Rayquaza was also a neat addition, haha. Oof, you were forced to resort to using battle items? I probably would've sold all of them, lol. And geezus, holy, what the dkgjslkgfkjghf??? How, what you... eh?? A Deoxys with perfect IVs in the attacks, speed, and sp. def?? It's funny that you ended up with a Hasty nature with 0 IVs in defense, but sheesh. What a lucky duck you are, haha. Zinnia's theme is also freaking badass. I just wish they could've elaborated more on her story.

 

Ohh, so ORAS had that big of an impact on you? Gosh, I wish I could've played it for myself, but it's too late for that now, eheh... I really hope they make the 4th gen remakes just as good if not better. 4th gen is, by far, my favorite generation. Easily the most diverse region with a lot of post-game material (Platinum, at least), great soundfront and soundtrack, storyline, characters, and it was also fairly challenging. If this is what they can do to R/S, I can only imagine what might happen to D/P. Especially the route 216 theme. I love that theme so so so much, ahahahaha... It might be my bias and nostalgia talking for me, but gosh, I love gen 4. I still love Platinum more than ORAS, though it may not be warranted since I don't have any firsthand experience with ORAS, eheh. Hmm, I guess I probably wouldn't feel the same way if I played D/P instead of Platinum. Platinum was just so revamped and everything... oh gosh, I'm rambling on again. Just reading your rave about ORAS made me want to go off on a tangent of my own even though you already know how much I love 4th gen, ahah. Still, I loved everything they did with ORAS. The soundtrack, the character development, the slightly darkened atmosphere, the extra additions like Professor Cozmo's backstory, the Delta Episode, etc. They were all carried out so well, and witnessing people's reactions to these enhancements made the experience pretty enjoyable as well. It was really nice being able to read your thoughts on the game, so thank you for taking the time to type them out!

 

Oh nonono, the heater only "broke" recently when I tried to turn it on. I noticed no temperature difference after about an hour, and the thermostat didn't indicate any temperature change either. Well, I called my dad in to tell him about it. And it turns out there was a bird's nest clogging the furnace. Haha, how cute! I was still stuck without heating for the rest of the week, but I think everything's a-okay now. Thanks for the hug though, ahah. *hugs* Well uh... I still had my undergarments on when I was changing back at UMich but I'm just not comfortable changing in front of people, eheh... I only changed when my roommate was facing the wall. I'd derp around "getting organized" until she turned away for a few moments. Then I'd grab whatever I was planning to change into and put them on as quickly as possible. I know, I'm weird. I can't even change in front of my parents or sister without getting stupidly conscious about it. It's not like I have any scars or marks to hide (most of my scars are on my left leg anyway), and it's not like I'm not comfortable in my own skin. I guess I just don't like it when people see me in such an exposed state? I don't even know if that makes sense. My sister doesn't change in front of me when she doesn't have to (but I walk out on her when she does), and I rarely saw my roommate change (not that I wanted to since I always turned around to respect her privacy whenever she did). I've never changed in front of my friends, and I've never had friends change in front of me (jk, there were a few exceptions, but those were pretty dire circumstances). I'm well aware that there are guys/girls out there who are more open about this though, and I'm guessing you're one of them, haha. For tennis, I just wore my uniform underneath my clothes. Not a problem since our uniform was just a skirt and tank top. On days when I was too lazy to put on my uniform in the morning, I'd change in the bathroom stalls at school. A lot of my friends also did this, lol. Did you guys not have access to bathroom stalls or something? Kidding, but I found it strange that you'd question something like this, haha. 

 

I actually only watched bits and pieces of the debate after reading an article that summed up what happened. That particular quote from Clinton caught my eye. It really irked me and now I can't seem to trust anything she says. Like her comment on that one Humans of New York Facebook post didn't seem very sincere either (not sure if you saw this since it was a while ago). I know the message of the post was pretty heartwarming and all, but part of me felt like she only posted her support for campaigning reasons, as unreasonable as that sounds. Sanders's popularity has skyrocketed, if the numerous Facebook posts I've come across are anything to go by. He seems to be one of the only candidates who truly wants to carry out what he says. Everyone else seemed kinda fake and said what they thought the people want them to say. I feel kinda bad for the other three candidates since I haven't been following them at all, and especially since they don't seem to be gaining much ground either. Sheesh, Lessig plans to resign once the CEA becomes law? Sounds kinda like a publicity stunt if that's the only thing he has to offer. I wouldn't mind hearing what else he has to say, so I also hope he gets some more attention.

 

It's funny you mention that because I've been questioning my "extroverted" tendencies recently. My parents think I'm antisocial, and so does my sister. I love being in the quiet and taking in the scenery. I like relaxing by myself in general and just staring off into the distance. Parties are fun and all and of course I love being around my friends and making new friends, but being by myself for a few moments and just thinking to myself is what really makes me feel at peace. The only reason I've been reevaluating myself is because I noticed a comment somewhere that said something along the lines of "there's such thing as an outgoing introvert." So lately, I've been on the fence about whether I'm an extrovert or introvert. I still love talking to my friends and being in social situations on most occasions, but there are times when I just don't want to go to a social event; times when I just want to stay home and catch up on things I want to do. Sometimes my friends come up to me and ask me if I'm all right when I finally decided to shut up for a few moments to just think to myself since I'm usually pretty talkative around them. Reading that comment was like a "has my whole life been a lie" kind of revelation. "Introvert" and "outgoing" also seem like such contrasting words so I never knew "outgoing introverts" were a thing. I love being by myself as much as I love being around my friends, so I guess I just don't know what I would identify myself as anymore. Whoops, sorry for the random tangent. I was just having a minor existential crisis and needed to write out my thoughts somewhere, lol. Oh dang, you'd just let your connections drop like that? Even with your close friends? I feel like that might be a problem when I head off to college since there'd really be no way for me to contact them aside from texting and messaging or maybe calling... hmm... Well, even if the friend is someone I haven't seen in a while, I'd probably still talk to them. It depends on a lot of factors, but I'd still go for it most of the time. I won't start a chat through social media though. It'd probably be in person. If you'd just let friendships end after not talking to them for a few months, what happened to your friends after summer break then? Y-You can't imagine a future without me? Aw geez, you're too much, ahah<3

 

Actually, despite what I said before about being flooded with anime to watch, I saw your thoughts on The Dog of Flanders, and I want you to remind me to watch it once Christmas rolls around, eheh. Haha, is your inner completionist preventing you from stacking already-aired anime onto your PTW list? That's understandable since I also have a few OCD tendencies. But my backlog is already pretty big, so it doesn't matter to me what I add to it at this point, lol. 

 

Wahhhh, I can't believe I screwed that up, lol. Yeah, I meant Gilgamesh vs. Rider, haha. Ohh, so Rider was the most popular character? That's interesting since it's usually the main character(s) of shows from polls I've seen. Dang, so you really did only get around to watching F/Z the summer before senior year. Given how much knowledge you had on it back when you recommended it to me only half a year later, I could've sworn you were an avid fan for at least a year or two. UTW huh... I'll be sure to keep them in mind when I find the time to rewatch F/SN. I had some good laughs from the "Just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right" line (I know what was intended though), but thanks for the heads up! Haha, it was the complete opposite for me at one point. After bingeing on DC, I found it difficult to revert to any subtitle-free show because I was so used to reading the dialogue, lol. 

 

I dunno, you just seemed like one of those people who had a grip on what you were doing, haha. Most of your posts pertained to updating the masses on upcoming DC openings/endings and specials and the like. You didn't post too often (heck, you rarely approached the off-topic threads, and I guess I didn't either), but you seemed like someone I wouldn't mind getting to know. Then I saw your post on Pokemon Y in this thread and I jumped on it. I don't believe I saw you posting in the OMM thread before then, so I didn't know you very well at the time. Everything you posted just made you seem... very down to earth. So yeah, nothing seemed inherently "weird" about you (except the fact that you insert two spaces after every period, which is a format I thought died out by now, haha). Then you started approaching the off-topic threads a bit more with those gifs and memes of yours and I thought to myself "holy moly, this guy..." I was familiar with many of the gifs and memes you posted but I never thought to use them to "enhance" my posts or anything. You were just different. I loved and still love that about you. I noticed how our lives paralleled in quite a few different ways, which was really strange (like geezus, you felt like my long lost twin at one point), and how much our interests crossed paths. But as I talked to you more, I started noticing differences as well. We're nearly the same in some aspects and complete polar opposites in others. It's been lots of fun getting to know you, haha. There's not much else to say for my first impressions of you. It felt like a really fast year, but at the same time, it's completely baffling how far we managed to take this in such a short time span (or long, depending on how you want to look at it). I never would've guessed in a million years that this is where I'd be after starting this conversation with you on October 25th, 2014. Where would I be today if you hadn't posted your progress on Pokemon Y? If I decided not to reply? It's amazing how these seemingly trivial events can be such life-changers, ahah...

 

Since I almost always skipped breakfast (and I still do if you don't count the bread I bring to school), I pretty much needed a solid lunch. I could skip lunch if I had to though. Yeah, I hated the sandwiches a lot. Sandwiches in general can be great (love Panera Bread), but the sandwiches made from stale supermarket ingredients are just bleh. Flaxseed whole wheat bread is disgusting. I don't care how "healthy" it is. And that reminds me, my parents were invited to a party hosted by a vegan not too long ago. They were given some food to bring back home and offered some to me. Well, I tried the "shrimp" and uh... I don't know what I was eating. It was probably one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. Same with the "beef" and "fish". Yeah, they tasted like what they were supposed to taste like and they looked like what they were supposed to look like, but... I wasn't very comfortable knowing that what I was eating was just something masquerading as these foods. Like, the texture and flavor also resembled that of shrimp, beef, and fish somehow, and I was really weirded out by that. Also, what do you mean by you're "required" to use your weekly-meal swipes? And you're never short of them because of how little you eat? I know you said before that the food at Case isn't bad, so why would you starve yourself like that? Don't tell me your habit of skipping lunch in high school carried over to college...

 

Oh geez, I don't think it'd even be possible to explain that to people, haha. "Uh yeah, 'Akazora' is just his username for this online forum we met each other on." I'd probably stick to calling you by your real name just because it's also easier to say. Unless I can find another nickname to call you by, hmm. I could call you "Al" or something since it's like a combination of the two. Ahah, it's way too early for me to think about this stuff, but it's something I'll keep in mind. Wow, okay, I guess I'm never getting contacts then. "I thought I was going to die back when I first started using my night contacts." Yeahhhhh, I'll just stick to taking better care of my eyes. I don't want to put myself through that. So I finally got an eye appointment on November 17. I'm actually a little nervous because I feel like the eye doctor is going to scold me for how poorly I've been treating my eyes, eheh.

 

I've never skipped school because of a sickness. Actually, I've never skipped an entire school day for my personal benefit until junior year. At one point, it became too much and I decided to stay home to skip a calc test one day. My parents definitely weren't happy, and neither was I. It took a lot of effort to persuade them, and I could tell that their faith in me was dying. It was such a demeaning experience. Oh my gosh, that was awful. I felt so guilty. I still had to take the test the next day, but enough guilt set in for that to become the first, and hopefully last time it ever happens. Other times, I'd just skip class by heading off to the media center if I found myself feeling unprepared. It rarely happened, and I've never even thought about skipping class for that reason until junior year. Geez, that APUSH project forced you to pull an all-nighter even with the extra day? What on earth were you even working on, lol. It's good that it all turned out well though, haha.

 

I don't cry most of the time, but the feelings of sorrow (maybe that's too strong of a word, hm) that come from listening to these songs are enough to keep me away from them. Impossible Dream is an example of one of them. I listened to this just now to see how well my emotions would fare (I did cry over this a few years ago), and weirdly enough, it didn't affect me much this time around. Yeah, I didn't exactly feel happy listening to this (it's still one of my favorite compositions from Joe Hisashi), but I wasn't exactly "sad" either. I still had to listen to another song immediately after so I wouldn't have the tune stuck in my head though. Sad music -> sad memories -> sad feelings -> sad Kenzi (just to sum it up). If I'm listening to melancholic music when I'm already feeling down, that's just asking for trouble. I won't be straight up bawling or anything, but tears will roll down, head might be buried in my arms, and nothing would get accomplished. Gosh, I love listening to OSTs and instrumentals, more so than lyrical songs at times. How is it that you can listen to lyrical songs while doing homework? Anything with a really strong beat (which I guess can include some OSTs and instrumentals) and lyrics is really distracting for me, haha. 

 

Actually, half seems like a bit much. I think maybe a quarter of my wardrobe is my sister's at most. Or at the very least, clothes we picked out together. I'm not even sure how I managed to familiarize myself with the stuff people tend to wear. I wasn't conscious about this kind of stuff at all until recent years. 

 

I know I was pretty adamant for my stance in not wanting to download games, but I can't believe I almost forgot about Deemo, eheh... I normally stay "invisible" on Facebook so people don't feel compelled to chat me up on random occasions. Plus, I'll get the message on my phone when they decide to anyway. I'll reply if it has to do with homework or if I can anticipate the conversation lasting only a few seconds, but if it's just idle chat like "how's your day been" or a random YouTube video someone sends me, I'll probably wait to reply to it. It's not like I want to ignore them, but constantly interrupting my work time to reply can get pretty distracting. Haha yeah, we're allowed to carry our backpacks around school. In middle school, we had to keep them in our lockers. It was a huge pain, so I found a loophole by carrying a tote bag with my folders and textbooks in it around the school. I'm actually rather surprised no one else bothered doing it. But my math teacher caught on and banned my tote bag from her class, lol. Not because she didn't want me bending the rules, but because she was concerned that it would be bad for my shoulder (the textbooks were pretty heavy, not gonna lie). The decree was bothersome, but it was sweet of her. I'm really glad we're allowed to carry backpacks in high school. I haven't opened my locker once since freshmen orientation, haha. Whaa... you guys weren't allowed to carry backpacks around? Sheesh, I'd be late to every one of my classes if that was the case here. Wait, scratch that, I'm actually late for the majority of my classes even with a backpack. I can't imagine how rushed I'd feel if I had to stop by my locker between every class.

 

Ahh well, can't argue with you there. But given how infrequently you guys have classes (or at least compared to high school when you had to attend everyday), wouldn't you guys want to make the most of what you're given? Wouldn't missing class would have a much bigger impact on your grade? I can't speak for college students, but that would be my reasoning. You know, aside from having some form of intrinsic motivation and not wanting to disappoint your parents. I've found myself skipping classes in junior year out of desperation and not necessarily out of lethargy (sometimes a mix of both, I guess). It was only around second semester though and it was done to keep my sanity intact. I'm going to try my best not to let this carry over to college since the education I receive would be for my own good in the long run. I'm actually a little surprised that people are already skipping classes in college this early in the year wait, what the, it's November already?? especially since they're freshmen. I mean, if they're receiving C's and D's without a care in the world, why even bother taking the class, lol. 

 

Oh shoot, forgot to mention Junie B. Jones. Gosh, I really disliked her character but I loved the books. Can't forget our dear Captain Underpants either, lol (my mom was very reluctant to let me borrow them from the library, ahah). Hmm, maybe my love for toilet humor stemmed from that. Good times. Goddamn, a book a day? Phew, I was nowhere near that. Maybe a few books per week at most. Haha, I never touched the Goosebumps series for whatever reason. I always ran into them at the library, but I always found myself avoiding them. In hindsight, I'm not sure why. Same with series like The Boxcar Children and The 39 Clues. The only Madeleine L'Engle novel I read was A Wrinkle in Time, which I thought was a strange book. I've read books from all of the authors you've stated except Lois Duncan and Anthony Horowitz (I did want to get into Alex Rider though). Jerry Spinelli, James Patterson, Eoin Colfer, Roderick Gordon, and Jeff Kinney were also among a few popular picks. Ahah, maybe if I find the time, I'll see if I can muster up the courage to revisit A Tale of Two Cities (literally the only times I dozed off in middle school were when I was reading this) and Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, I guess Huck Finn was okay, but it's definitely not a book I'd go out of my way to reread again. Or at least not anytime soon. Really wanted to sock Tom Sawyer at some points in the book. And speaking of rereading books, my old freshman English teacher told everyone to reread To Kill a Mockingbird once we're older. She made us promise we'd find the time to read it again as an adult. I've taken her words to heart since she seemed like she really meant it, but I'm actually surprised I still remember this.

 

Oh gosh, I really wish I continued piano. I absolutely adore the piano and I have a huge soft spot for piano instrumentals and I hold an enormous amount of respect for all pianists. I subscribed to a few pianists I used to listen to religiously, and self-taught myself how to play random songs because I looked up to these people so much. Most people I've met find playing the piano to be a chore, or at least in their early years. I find it strange that this isn't the case for most other instruments, or maybe too many of my friends play the piano. Yeahh, I also feel like I plateaued at some point back in middle school. Out of curiosity, I began recording myself, and I realized how much I sucked because I noticed that I was playing pretty flat. My teacher never commented on my tendency to play flat, so the revelation was a bit shocking. I think that was the biggest brick wall I had to face for the violin in middle school. Oh, and the fact that I sucked at sight reading, and still suck at sight reading, sigh. Wait a second... if you played violin and oboe in middle school which one was more of a side instrument? And were you in band or orchestra at the time? Also, what do you mean by taekwondo not being a "practical activity"? Soccer is just kicking a ball, basketball is just throwing a ball, and tennis is just hitting a ball (I know, I know, these are huge generalizations), so it's not like playing soccer, basketball, or tennis would have any practical use either, lol. If you think about it, most sports are pretty weird. Tennis is essentially trying to hit a ball back and forth over the net using some paddle-like object. Haha, what a waste of time. But judging by the looks of it, your parents seem to determine whether an activity is practical based on whether it's a common school activity. That's kinda interesting. My parents never really forced me to do any sports/activities. They just offered to send me to these activities if I enjoyed them. I used to love swimming so my mom would often let me take swimming lessons. Ice skating was fun so I guess they also let me skate for a few years. Same with stuff like pottery, drawing, tennis, violin, etc. But I had to drop a bunch of them eventually because my parents thought they were interfering with schoolwork and deemed some of these activities a waste of time. I loved doing these activities and going to summer camps to broaden my horizons, so I was almost always the one pestering my parents to sign me up for them, haha. Of course, this was mainly back in elementary school and early middle school since my parents did a complete 180 afterwards. 

 

Nah, dumping that much salt on you would be uncalled for since it's just my own little issue, lol. Plus, I figured you wouldn't want to read or reply to some bulky paragraph (it's unreasonably big) about my crappy test-taking skills. I still have it saved if you really do want to read it for whatever reason, haha. I didn't get full scores, but there was some improvement. I kinda want to see what I got wrong though. I still ended up sending them because at the very least if my scores won't help me, I'm pretty sure they won't hurt me.

 

I'm glad you liked my essay! I was constantly editing and re-editing, and at one point, the more I read it, the more I began disliking it, but I'm just really relieved that you liked it. I just hope your reactions aren't swayed because I incorporated some of your ideas into it, eheh... Honestly though, thank you so so so so so much. Seriously (you da real mvp). I never would've thought to write about my watch. Thank you for all of your help. Thank you for helping me eliminate and come up with topics to write about. I really don't know where I'd be without you. It's kinda funny since I initially wanted to write about time and something Steins;Gate-y (also tried rewatching it for inspiration over the summer, lol) but didn't know how I would approach it. And sorry for antagonizing you, ahah... There's still no place to enter a title, so I just included it as part of my essay. Not a big deal since I'm sure they can tell that it's a title. Oh, and I wanted to clarify one more thing: I still love my watch. I'm not planning on permanently taking it off, but I have been more conscious about the little contraption lately. I had to stretch a few details of my essay for this reason, eheh... So I'm finally done with my college apps! A huge weight has been lifted off my chest, and it feels freaking great. The uncertainty is still stressing, but at least all that's left to do is wait.

 

Haha, I actually don't think I've ever mentioned the incident with my calc teacher. Well, I brought hydrochloric acid to class one day. A few friends wanted to use it to make a battery for AP Chem (battery with the highest voltage gets extra credit), and I had a ton left over from the previous year, so I figured I'd give it to them. Went to a friend's first hour to transfer a bit of it into her flask (I had multiple friends ask me for some, so I couldn't let her take the entire container). Then I rushed over to my first hour calc class. I don't know what I was thinking running there with HCl. Somehow, some of it leaked onto a desk (I know the cap was screwed on tight, but maybe there were some wet areas on the bottom of the container from the transfer). Of course, my calc teacher asked what was in the container. Uh oh. Had to move the desk out into the hallway and clean it up since HCl is a highly corrosive chemical and coming into contact with it is... bad. Can confirm, since I got some on my finger sophomore year and temporarily turned it chalky white--and that was only diluted HCl. God knows what would've happened if I came into contact with concentrated HCl. I was really lucky that my calc teacher is pretty chill and isn't one of those uptight teachers who reports everything to the administration. It's not like I had any bad intentions or anything (and I'm sure he knew that), but I would've gotten in trouble for sure. Like geez, what kind of kid just casually brings HCl to class. You'd probably have to evacuate the classroom if the entire container happened to tip over and spill onto the carpet or something. For starters, it reeks. Not only does the vapor have this pungent sting, but it physically hurts to even have a small whiff of it (not that it's safe to inhale it in the first place). And it's a pretty dangerous chemical in general (HCl burns can be... grotesque). Gosh, I'm an idiot. What was I thinking? Why didn't I just leave the container in the chem room?? I was rushing late to class so maybe I didn't have time to think clearly, but leaving such a chemical in the chem room is just common sense. Arghhh, what a brainless move on my part. I can't believe I never thought to do that. Granted, this was a while ago, and I haven't brought it up whenever I'm around him, so I'm hoping he forgot it ever happened, eheh... I originally wasn't going to ask my calc teacher for a rec letter in case the incident might end up triggering some beef, but a weird turn of events happened when he invited me to visit him to talk about how my life was going. The conversation went pretty well, so I guess I'm still on good terms with him, haha. Wow, I actually didn't expect to write that much about the incident. This is already enough to be a standalone paragraph, so I'll break it up here to help ease the eyes.

 

Oh believe me, I do intend to take a break. Still, Physics C is a huge pain right now. We get these Webassign problems that are due at 11:59pm on certain days, and they're freaking hard (and my procrastinating tendencies don't exactly help). Hell, I'm forced to seek online help most of the time because I don't have the slightest idea what's going on at times. These problems can take anywhere from 30 minutes to many, many painstakingly long hours to complete. Meaning, there have been days when I wasn't able to finish on time because I underestimated how much time it would take me (like, c'mon, I left myself four hours to do one of these Webassigns one day, and I still didn't finish on time). I don't want to ask my dad for help since I can't understand Chinese physics jargon and he gets really really frustrated whenever I can't understand a concept he's trying to teach. Apparently what we're learning right now is only the foundation, so it's not going to get any easier. It's going to get harder, and it's going to go downhill, or so I'm told (or I could be wrong, since electrostatics is supposedly one of the hardest topics to learn both conceptually and mathematically). I understand the calc concepts and what he's writing on the board for the most part (basically the "okay, I think I can see what he's doing"), but does he expect us to be able to derive that kind of stuff from diagrams on the spot?? Like, geezus, it's all Greek to me (both figuratively and literally). I don't have a good feeling about this. Dozing off in the class is also pretty detrimental since skipping over the foundation is obviously not a good idea (oh dear lord help me). Sometimes I wonder what even compelled me to take this class. Kinda funny since I'm doing the worst in Physics and the best in Lit at the moment when English is usually one of my worst subjects. I'm not exactly sure what's going on in comp sci either, but I'm damn glad I switched into the class since it's almost like a free hour for me to cram for my following classes on some days (I feel kinda bad about it though). The only reason I've been able to scrape by is because I've been working on the codes with a group of friends. At times, the codes make sense. Other times, I feel like I'm reading and typing gibberish. Welp, I've rambled on far too much now. But back on topic-ish, we have our exams at the end of every semester. They're considered midterms or finals depending on whether the class is one or two semesters. There's no way in hell I would've been prepared for any midterms as early as October given my current state, so thank goodness January exams, woohoo.

 

Well, you do have a point there. I sometimes feel the same form of pride when I pull all-nighters (probably not as often as you do though). But it turns into immediate regret once I begin feeling the aftermath after the first hour of school. It's not worth it, lol. Ohh, glad to hear that midterms went well! Thanks once again for being so patient and understanding about these responses. Hopefully you also had a nice Halloween!

 

Have confidence in knowing that I live in the safest city in Michigan and one of the safest cities in the country, haha. My parents would never let me drive on the highways by myself, so I'm only on the main roads most of the time. Rest assured, I'm fine, lol. If anything, you should be looking after yourself. Don't be selfish now; how well do you think I'd react if I found out that something happened to you, hm? Haha, stay safe (apparently, someone was recently shot and killed while driving a car in Cleveland??). I haven't been thinking too much about my health lately mainly because it feels like I'm operating on autopilot at the moment. But even then, I'm still slacking off in a few of my classes. Oh well, that's fine, I guess. I'm sure that'll change since I'm finally done with college apps now. Thank you very much for the kind sentiment; it really means a lot to me, ahah.

(geez, we keep on pushing DCW to its limit, hahah)

 

Uwah, the Meteor Falls theme just didn’t really stand out to me.  I even had to go on YouTube and look it up to remember how it differs from the original.  I mean, I guess it’s nice, but it’s not really my type of music, so…  Meteor Falls was never a place that evoked much of a nostalgic response in me, since I never spent much time there.  All the redone town and city themes stood out more to me, but not just because I spent more time in the places I could fly to.  They’re all generally more melodic while Meteor Falls’s theme is more atmospheric.  Atmospheric songs are nice and serve their purpose well, but I never remember how their tunes go just because they’re so good at playing in the background without me knowing.

 

Catching roaming Pokemon was a bit of a pain, but part of it was kind of fun, weird as that may sound.  I never bothered to catch any roamers in games I didn’t care for, but something about them was rather enticing.  Oh geez, I will admit though, my brother and I spent so much time trying to catch Mesprit and Cresselia in our Diamond and Pearl versions.  We eventually caught them without using our Master Balls, but it used up a lot of our resources.  The dogs in my HG version are still running around wild, though I remembering helping a friend catch them on her version of the game.  They definitely weren’t nearly as difficult to catch as Mesprit or Cresselia; it took a solid two nights of devoted chasing and a decent number of Dusk Balls.  I know, I’ve had a huge urge to make a Secret Base and start messing around with it, but I’ve managed to stay my hand for now, haha.

 

Once you play the games enough, you just know how things are laid out and it’s not so bad.  I’m still intimidated whenever I think about traversing the waters, but once you get in and start moving you quickly realize it’s manageable.  Aw, directional tiles, right up there with teleportation tiles, are such an iconic feature of Pokemon puzzles though!  Did you not like slippery ice puzzles then either, since those also involve a bit of preplanning before you made a step?

 

I, uh… never actually caught Kyogre in my HG version…  Eheheh, it was fun thrashing through that game with my shiny Typhlosion, but it was Jolly natured (not sure if I ever mentioned this before) and despite being EV trained and running a mixed sweeper set, I really don’t think it would do very well tanking hits against legendaries as I feebly chucked out Pokeballs.  Hrm, guess those leftovers legendaries in that shiny Beautifly Diamond run won’t be going anywhere for a while either.  Oh my gosh, now that I think about it, I still need to beat the Pearl Battle Tower!  I found the time yesterday to actually EV train all of the Pokemon I had previously RNG abused.  I traded them to my Pearl version, fed them vitamins, infected them with Pokerus, gave them Power items, and before long they all had spanking new Effort Ribbons to show for their work.  Now I'm just training them all up to level 100.  I know I don't have to, but I'm OCD and figured I might as well.  That won't be the hard part though.  The most grueling part of making this team is getting them their moves.  Most of their moves are TMs you get at the Battle Tower/Frontier or HGSS move tutor moves that cost BP.  Either way, it's going to take quite a bit of Battle Tower grinding.  Thankfully, my brother already made a Battle Tower team in his HG version, which he lost interest in.  I'll be using that to rack in the BP.  Since Alpha Sapphire revived my love for Pokemon, I have significantly more motivation to beat the Pearl Battle Tower now than before.

 

Edit: Um, oops, completely forgot to address your question about Mirage Island.  I was just a little sad to see Mirage Island removed from the game.  The route description on the town map makes a reference to it, and things like Mirage Spots and the Secret Cavern, Shore, and Meadow were added, but I'm not entirely sure why they got rid of Mirage Island.  Granted, it was a fairly useless island that I never had the luck of exploring in RSE, and it would be made even more useless in the current generation, but I'm sure they could have revamped it to make it more relevant.

 

Sighh, as expected of you Kenzi, spoiling soundtracks for yourself like that…  I’m glad I managed to keep all of ORAS under wraps.  Moments like the final battle with Wally were absolutely fantastic as a result.  It seems you still really liked that moment though, so I’m glad the magic wasn’t entirely lost though you had already heard the OST.

 

Hm, now that you mention it, ORAS’s Elite Four theme wasn’t very exciting when I versed them.  I mean, Metagross was wiping the floor with them easy, so it’s not like I ever felt much threat.  Listening to it now, it’s pretty intense, but I didn’t really feel that when I actually versed them.  Hmm, maybe it was a mix of the missing claps and Metagross just being over powered.

 

Ahahah, I don’t think I’ve ever used Battle Items.  I would have sold them, but I was already so rich and my pockets were overflowing with Pokedollars by the end of the game anyway, so I didn’t even bother (I even had enough money to buy my Metagross those three super expensive Sinnoh ribbons in Mauville City).  Thank goodness too, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to keep Deoxy’s HP under control, and it would have Struggled itself to death before I could catch it.  And what a waste of such glorious IVs that would have been, ahah.

 

I’m sure Gamefreak will be able to do an amazing job with the Diamond and Pearl remakes.  Of course, that might be speaking a bit too soon since we don’t even know what 7th gen is going to be like, so there’s no game engine to make a comparison to.  Unless they decide to double up two gens on the 3DS, like they did with 4th and 5th gen on the DS.  But then again they saved ORAS for 6th gen as a result, so if they do something similar then the 8th gen game engine is what the 4th gen remakes will be on.  And there’s also a possibility for a FRLG remake, but that’s a very very small possibility.  I really don’t think, and really hope, they don’t do that.  I’m honestly sick and tired of Kanto, urgh.  I also really liked Pearl, but that’s mainly the nostalgia talking.  I don’t know what kinds of changes they made in Platinum, but they must have been significant since playing through Diamond not too long ago wasn’t very exciting.  The post-game island was pretty neat, but the characters were bland and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the plot or Team Galactic.  It wasn’t very difficult either (seriously, a Beautifly with 0 IVs in Sp. Atk rekt house??) and generally speaking it was more of a pain to get through than the third gen games.  I’ve restarted Diamond many times, nearly as many times as Sapphire, but unlike Sapphire I’ve almost never finished those runthroughs I started.  Ohhh, route 216 huh?  That’s certainly an interesting song to like the most.  I’m personally a fan of Route 209’s theme, and was stoked to find it was remixed and put in Brawl and Smash 4.  Route 216’s theme isn’t bad either, though it’s not one I hear very often just because I never seem to find myself traversing in that area.  Probably because that snow is a bit of a pain to get through, much like the swampy areas near Pastoria City.  Regardless though, if Gamefreak gave Ruby and Sapphire this much love, I can’t wait to see what they have in store for Diamond and Pearl.  It won’t be out for years, but Alpha Sapphire has revitalized my love for Pokemon, so whatever games they have planned for 2016, even if it’s Z or FRLG remakes, I’m pretty excited for.  Aww, and I’m glad you liked reading all that I typed up, though I can imagine it must have been a bit of a pain to get through.  It’s also nice to hear that you were able to enjoy ORAS vicariously.  It would have been better if you could have experienced it firsthand, but that wouldn’t have been possibly given your parents would never have allowed you to buy a 3DS in time to satiate your craving hunger from a year ago when the games first came out.

 

Ahh, I’m glad to see you got the heater problem worked out.  It sounded like you were really suffering in that cold.  Oh, okay, so that’s how you manage.  It’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to expose yourself like that.  Your body is your business after all; even if there’s nothing about it you’re ashamed about doesn’t mean you’d be comfortable exposing it to people you’re close with.  Eheheh, nah, the way you word that makes it sound like I’m some kind of exhibitionist, hahah.  I may appear to be more open about changing in front of others, but that’s just the way I’ve had to live.  My younger brother and I are really close, since we’re only two years apart, so he’s always been a part of my life.  We’re super chill with each other and are pretty much half naked when we use the bathroom together before going to sleep (since he also has a going-to-bed routine).  It’s been that way since we were practically babies, so as weird as that might sound to you, it’s something I’m completely used to.  Not only that, but in middle school and high school we were forced to change for gym in the locker rooms.  The locker rooms don’t have enough bathroom stalls for everyone to use or even share, so everyone just changes in the general areas of the locker room, which have no privacy at all.  If you’re not comfortable changing in front of others, then you’re just going to have to suck it up and get used to it.  You have to be in the locker room before the bell rings, otherwise you’re marked as late; so no changing in the bathrooms elsewhere in the school (so, uhh, despite your joking, technically speaking we actually weren’t allowed access to stalls…….).  This was the case with both middle school and high school, so I’ve been changing in front of friends, acquaintances, and strangers nearly every school day for the past seven years.  Changing twice a day too, if you count changing back out of my gym clothes and into my regular clothes.  So yeahhh, given how I was raised and the things I was forced to do growing up, I’ve gotten used to changing in front of others.  I don’t strip down half naked and walk around nonchalantly of course, but I don’t do that whole “derping around” thing before changing either.  And of course, this only applies to guys.  Changing in front of a girl??  Geezus, oh no no no, I wouldn’t even be able to imagine myself shirtless in the presence of a girl.  Just thinking about it gets me embarrassed, bleh…

 

Ohh, okay, so you didn’t actually watch the debate.  It seems like you’re quite against Clinton though.  Don’t worry, so am I, ahah.  Of the Democrats, there’s really no doubt the primaries are going to come down to Clinton and Sanders, much like how in 2008 it came down to Clinton and Obama.  I’ve pretty much settled on voting for Sanders in the Democratic primaries.  I don’t know if I’ll vote for him in the actual election even if he beats out Clinton, but at the very least I’ll have his back during the primaries.  Welp, Lessig’s plan did seem like a bit of a publicity stunt, and it looks like even he has dropped out of the running.  I guess we’ll never get a chance to see him on the big stage.  I guess it’s just that his promise reminded me a lot of James K. Polk’s promises to the people when he was running for President back in 1844.  He was also a dark horse candidate during that election, and promised to annex California, New Mexico, Texas, and Oregon, as well as lower tariffs and reestablish the Independent Treasury System.  His biggest promise however, was to serve only a single term.  When he left the White House four years later, every single one of his promises had been kept.  Damn.  Polk is one of my favorite Presidents, and he’s wildly considered by historians to be one of the most underappreciated and underrated Presidents of all time.  We hear about Washington and Lincoln and FDR all the time, but Polk?  For a politician who literally kept all his promises I’m surprised people don’t see him as someone modern day politicians should strive to be more like, especially given rampant mistrust in the government system.

 

Hm, so I actually watched the Democratic debate forum yesterday.  Apart from MSNBC being so disgustingly far left it hurt, the event itself was pretty interesting to watch.  Upon further inspection, I kinda like Martin O'Malley.  He has this sort of intensity about him and he's very good with his words.  I believe he even pauses and hesitates less than both Sanders and Clinton.  I really wish Clinton wasn't running, or at least that it was her with the low single digits in the polls and O'Malley who was duking it out with Sanders.  Given a choice been Sanders and O'Malley, I don't know who I'd choose.  But since I really don't trust Clinton and I want to do all I can to prevent her from moving on to the general election, I don't really have much of a choice but to vote for Sanders.  Sanders, despite his popularity, is still trailing Clinton considerably all across the board, and he's going to need all the votes he can get.  Sigh, O'Malley is just running for President at a bad time; I feel bad for him.  And if I'm not mistaken, there was a Republican debate a little over a week ago that I also watched.  There's not really much to report there.  Trump is still generally leading the polls, though Carson is right behind him.  Everyone else is beginning to fall behind.  It seems like the effort to back a Republican candidate to seriously contend with Trump is beginning to work, though I've also seen a lot of leftists bash Carson, so it's still a bit unclear whether Democrats are just trying to get Carson into the general election but still prefer either Clinton or Sanders, or if it's Republicans who actually don't want Trump to move on and feel that Carson has the highest chance to contend with the Democratic nominee.  Either way, I'm a bit upset that Fiorina is beginning to trail in the polls, since I still like her the most of all the Republican candidates. She's as poised as ever and it's not like she's said or done anything to ruin her chances, but as people begin to bandwagon onto either Trump or Carson, everyone else who had decent chances at the start are beginning to fade in the minds of the general public.  Oh, also, Christie and Huckabee are now off of the primary debate for this Tuesday.  They haven't dropped out of the race yet, and Christie especially doesn't seem unfazed by this setback, so we'll see how this develops.

 

An “outgoing introvert”?  That certainly is interesting; I don’t think I heard about that before either.  But then again, the entire premise that everyone in the world can just be shoved into two contradictory categories and not leave any room for compromise seemed a bit archaic as well.  I wouldn’t suggest you force yourself to identify entirely one way or the other.  I’m perfect content being an introvert through and through, and if the way you live makes you an outgoing introvert, or a reserved extrovert, then so be it.  Embrace who you are and be happy about it.  Words are just words after all.  Their meanings change all the time, and they only are what you make of them.  No need to take the categorization of personality types as the word of God or anything.  When humans try to organize things in the name of science, things can get rather complicated, if the history of taxonomy is anything to go by.  You just be you, ahah.  It’s a bit hard maintaining high school connections, mainly because once you go your separate ways you very quickly run out of things to talk about.  Sure, you can share and compare college experiences, and maybe talk about shared hobbies, but after a while I guess you just find it more convenient and fulfilling to establish relationships with people you actually go to school with and see on a regular basis.  Shhh shhh, I know, you’re going to say that in our case we’ve somehow managed to keep in touch for an entire year and we haven’t even met each other yet, but there are exceptions to every rule, hahah.  And oh yeah, summer break…  Err, with the exception of my closest friends, I pretty much have a complete reset of friendships at the start of every school year.  Most people I’m acquainted with I know for the span of a single year, when I have classes with them, but once summer break rolls around and brand new classes start back up in September, I establish new relationships.  That's also why I’ve let all my connections from JP end now that I’m in college.  It’s not like I had particularly strong ties with anyone in high school anyway.

 

As expected of Kenzi, you saw my post on The Dog of Flanders, haha.  I was going to mention it now myself, but you did the job for me.  Yes, it would be an amazing movie to watch Christmas day, or Christmas Eve, or anytime during the Christmas season.  I’ll definitely be sure to remind you.  Yup, it’s pretty much the completionist inside of me that’s preventing me from putting them on my list.  I know that there’s no way I’ll ever run out of anime to want to watch, so it’s not like I’m ever going to clear out my Plan to Watch list, but it still bothers me and makes the task of getting through my backlog that much more daunting, eheh.

 

The main characters for F/Z were also really popular.  Kiritsugu, Saber, and Gilgamesh were right up there, but I’m fairly certain Rider edged them out when it came down to it.  For UBW, Saber and Gilgamesh maintained their popularity, while we got rather mixed opinions on Shirou as you can imagine.  Eheh, I may not have gotten into the Fate series until just over a year ago, but once I really fall in love with a series I go crazy over it.  The hype is starting to die down now, which is good because the wait for HF has been slaying me.  It was the same with SnK when that aired a while ago.  After the first season ended, I was in SnK withdrawal for the longest time.  I then got distracted by other things, and suddenly *bam* 2016 is nearly upon us!  Whoo, I’m beginning to get excited for season 2!  Oh, and according to UTW, their translation of the second season Blu-rays of UBW will be done around Christmas.  There’s no rush though, since I’d recommend watching UBW again after F/Z, or at least right before the HF movie(s).

 

D’awwwww, geez Kenzi, you sweet little thing, heheheh.  You’re making me blush and grin like a fool; thank God no one else is in my room to question why I’m being a dork in front of my laptop.  In all honesty, my interest in DCW and DC had been stagnant for the longest time.  Well, it’s not like I’m any more interesting in DC now than I was a year ago, though I can’t deny that movie 20 looks like it’s going to be a glorious fustercluck.  However, ever since meeting you, I guess I’ve found a lot more motivation to stop by DCW whenever I found the chance.  We didn’t have our weekly responses yet (those started right after winter break, didn’t they?) and though our main form of information exchange was right here in this thread, I discovered all the similarities we shared through random posts we both made in the Off Topic threads.  I don’t know who started posting there more first.  I guess I just started posting more in hopes of maybe getting to know you better…  Ahh, the way I worded that is a bit embarrassing, but you know what I mean, eheh.  Yeahh, I remember when I thought we were long lost twins as well!  We definitely have found where we differ, but that makes interacting with you that much more interesting.  You’re giving me all this credit for being “down to earth” and having a grip on what I was doing, but I could say the same for you.  There was something about your posts, and your personality.  I can’t really put it into words, but you sounded so level-headed and reasonable.  You were someone who I felt I could respect and someone that I wanted to get to know better.  Oh gosh, I really can’t believe we’ve gotten as far as we have this past year.  This year has gone by really fast.  I’d like to think that that’s an indication I’ve been generally really happy, and I’m confident that you’re to thank for that, haha.  Really, sending weekly responses to you and getting to know you has helped me get through some rough times this past year, more than you can imagine.  How did I ever manage without you, ahah.  (Oh, yeah, the double space thing.  I think one of my teachers way back in first grade or something told me it was “proper” and “professional” to double space after a sentence ends.  I’ve gotten so used to doing it now, I can’t help it, even if it messes up the formatting occasionally.  You’re the first person to actually ever point that out; give yourself a pat on the back you sharp-eyed girl, heehee.)

 

Woah, so that’s what vegans eat?  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they eat fake meat, since meat of pretty much any kind is amazing and it would be a shame to live life without that delicious source of protein, but that’s still rather fascinating.  I’d be interested in trying some of that stuff, even if it is kinda weird, haha.  Oh, you’re forced to use your weekly meal swipes the first year (or semester, can’t remember) at Case in the sense that you have to sign up for meal swipes the first year.  Let’s say you’d rather just use your own cash and eat out at restaurants every time you want some food instead of going to the dining halls or the other places that accept meal swipes.  Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to and will be forced to pay for meal swipes.  You could just not even touch your meal swipes, but that would be a foolish waste of money obviously.  And to make matters worse, you can’t specify how many meal swipes you want.  They have a set number of options, generally between 2-3 swipes a day.  If you want to only have 7 swipes a week, you’re not allowed to have that.  Furthermore, meal swipes don’t carry over at the end of the semester/year, and they reset every week.  So if you didn’t use your weeks’ worth of swipes, then they’re going to waste.  I eat 1-2 meals a day, so a ton of my swipes are left unused by the end of the week.  It kind of sucks, but you’re given more freedom to customize your meal plan as you progress through your time at Case.  As soon as I can, I’ll just drop meal swipes entirely.  I eat too sporadically and rarely to really gauge how many meals I need a week.  Using my own money should be fine.  And yeahhh, my habit of skipping lunch has carried over from high school.  I try to eat breakfast and dinner, but if I skip breakfast because I wake up too late then oh well.  Guess I’ll just eat a hefty dinner that day, eheh.  It’s not like the food at Leutner is bad.  It looks okay on the surface and tastes rather bland, but I imagine that’s how high school lunches must have tasted.  The service is a bit shoddy as well, but I’m not really picky when it comes to that kind of stuff.  There are apparently amazing places elsewhere on campus that accept meal swipes, so if you’re one of the many people who are sick of Leutner and absolutely cannot stand another bite of the food there, those are options as well.  They’re far away from the freshman dorms though, so you’re going to have to go out of you way to walk there or stop by right before, in between, or after classes.  I’m lazy as heck efficient with my time, so I just settle for Leutner so I can get back to watching anime doing my homework as fast as I can.  And uhhhh, I forgot to mention this before, but when my parents came to visit me during fall break a couple weeks ago, they said I got thinner.  Like, a lot thinner.  I’ve noticed it myself, since my pants that used to fit so comfortably now require a belt to wear.  I-It’s just because I’ve been working out, that’s all, eheheheh……...  Okay, I guess I’m not fooling anyone when I say that.  I have been eating a lot less than before, but only because I’m so bad at getting up on time and miss breakfast all the time.  I really can’t bring myself to eat lunch, but I suppose I’ll try when I need to.  Working out and eating less isn’t good; I need that protein to build muscle after all.  Don’t worry Kenzi, I’ll definitely be taking better care of myself.  I almost wanted to just leave all that out so as to not worry you, but I’d feel bad if I tried hiding something like that from you, so I left it in.  I hope you aren’t upset; I really am fine!

 

Ohhh, yeahh, thinking about it now, though Akazora works for online profiles because it’s short, simple, and relatively unique, it doesn’t work nearly as well when said out loud.  Too many syllables and doesn’t really roll off the tongue too well.  Kenzi works though!  Hahah, I’m not implying that I dislike your real life name; I like both equally!  I suppose it is a bit early to be thinking about this, but it’s something that crosses my mind occasionally.  Oh no no, I didn’t mean to scare you like that!  Contacts aren’t really that bad.  I had to get them when I was in sixth grade, so I had the pain tolerance and mindset of a little boy.  And those were hard contacts.  The soft kinds that are used for daytime wear are apparently a lot more comfortable (obviously, you need to have them in all day).  Of course, if you can preserve your eyesight then there’s no point in even worrying about any of that.  After November 17th, be sure to update me on how the eye appointment goes!

 

Woah, you felt that guilty for skipping a day of school?  I suppose it would make you feel even worse if your parents were upset at you.  Just know that there’s nothing wrong with skipping a day or two if you absolutely must.  While it’s important to be in class for as many days as you possibly can, opting out every once in a while for your own well-being won’t hurt.  God forbid you’re ever seriously ill or injured, but if you are and going to class puts you and everyone around you at risk, then just take it easy for a bit.  Have friends send you the notes for the day and e-mail your professors (yeah, I’m talking about college, but this applies to high school as well).  Just do your best to recover.  Perfect attendance is commendable, but in the grand scheme of things your health should come first.  Never forget that.  Oh, I could have finished that APUSH project a lot earlier, but then my stupid self had the brilliant idea at two in the morning to make the presentation even better by incorporating nerdy history jokes in the slides, which required photo editing, which I wasn’t very good at, which just… my gosh, it was just really bad time management.

 

Hmm, sad memories huh?  From the looks of that flowchart, it seems the music is only a trigger for memories which in turn lead to your tears.  So technically it has less to do with music and more just to do with remembering something from the past.  I’m not going to pry, but I can see how that works.  Some things from my past can be upsetting if I remember them now, but I don’t believe I’ve ever had music trigger a memory that sends me into a sad, unproductive mess.  Perhaps you’re more sensitive to music than most people?  You say that you can’t listen to lyrical songs of any kind or music with a strong beat while doing homework.  I understand how songs with English can be distracting, but that’s only for text intensive things like reading a book or taking notes.  I can listen to English songs just fine while doing math or something.  I’d think most people are like this, right?  To be so distracted by lyrics of any kind seems a bit odd.  For me, I absolutely need music in the background when I’m doing something.  I can’t just sit around and do homework in silence.  But whenever I get really into my work, the music just sort of fades to a blur.  So like, music is nice to listen to, but by mind doesn’t latch onto it.  It just becomes indiscernible noise.  No no, that’s not a very good way to word it.  I don’t know how to explain it to someone so sensitive to music, eheheh.  It’s actually kind of ironic.  You love music so much, but it seems your mind is wired to be so especially sensitive to it that any lyrical songs and heavy beat songs are out of the question for studying, and sad songs trigger you to the point of inability.  In fact, your selection of study music is severely limited compared to most people.  It’s like you love music so much that you can’t listen to it, or something like that.  When do you even find the chance to listen to lyrical and heavy beat music then?  Do you just like, listen to it while staring a wall…?

 

If you’re always invisible, then won’t people start to realize you’re one of those people who’s always set to not available and just chat you up anyway?  I don’t feel a need to set myself as invisible, because I’m rarely on Facebook anyway.  I know most people probably have their Facebook constantly open in a separate tab, much like how I always have my Gmail open (though that’s kind of pointless given my phone sends me a notification any time I get something anyway).  But on the few days I do check in, it’s just to click my notifications and updates and whatnot to clear those queues out.  I then log out immediately afterward only to check back in a few days.  Even if someone did want to chat with me, they’d need to have Lady Luck on their side to even see me online.  In fact, I log onto DCW more often, hahah. Whhhhhaaaaaaa??  You haven’t opened your locker since freshman orientation?  Damn, I can’t even imagine high school without stopping by my locker between classes.  Pfft, pampered Kenzi will never know the thrill and rush of dashing to your locker to throw your backpack in before running to homeroom.  Late to class even without locker stops?  Git gud Kenzi, git gud, heheh.  JP has trained me to walk really fast in a crowd of people.  I walk a lot faster than most people.  Pays off in college at least, though I do wonder what it would have felt like to have walked leisurely between classes.

 

My math class actually consists of not only freshman, but sophomores and juniors and even seniors.  The freshman are those who came in with credits.  The sophomores are those who either don’t have credits or decided not to use them, and who must have decided not to take at least one semester of math in their freshman year. As for juniors and seniors, I really don’t know what they’re doing.  This math course is just a prereq class, so I’m a bit confused as to why they’ve taken so long to take it, especially since they’ve all been forced to declare their majors already.  And I don’t want to sound mean, but honestly, bad students exist everywhere.  And the juniors and seniors in this class… well, they definitely aren’t the brightest bunch.  They’re the ones who are skipping classes the most, even though they’re under more pressure to complete their credits than freshman or sophomores.  Of course, what do you expect from people who pushed off such a basic math course until so late?  A-Are they even going to graduate on time?  Sigh, whatever, it’s none of my business.  You’d think a school like CWRU would have weeded out these kinds of students, but I guess some weak links accidentally or luckily get in.  Then again, if a Harvard student can party too hard, flunk every class, and ultimately drop out, then no university of any prestige is safe from students who just… don’t care.

 

I’ve never actually read any Junie B. Jones books.  I saw them all the time, but for some reason I just decided never to get into them.  I did read a fair share of Captain Underpants though, ahah.  Oh geez, you might have a point, maybe that’s where my penchant for crude humors stems from as well, heheh.  Goosebumps was decent.  It always followed a very predictable formula and it wasn’t very scary, but the books were a fun read for an elementary schooler.  You didn’t miss much for not reading The 39 Clues.  The plot was actually really intricate, but because it was written for middle schoolers and it’s taking so long to finish you would have grown out of it before very long anyway.  A Wrinkle in Time is L’Engle’s most popular work, but I can’t remember if it was my personal favorite.  It definitely was a bit of an abstract story, but I still enjoyed it.  Duncan and Horowitz are pretty good authors as well.  I only read the first book in the Alex Rider series, and I’m actually more familiar with Horowitz’s work on The Power of Fire series.  Let’s see, I’ve read a few books by Spinelli, and I read Patterson’s first Maximum Ride book.  I never read Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, though I’ve seen it around.  I’ve also never read Gordon’s Tunnel series, though I believe I read one or two books from Kinney’s Diary of a Whimpy Kid series.  I definitely want to reread Tale of Two Cities, but not for a while since I don’t have the time.  If you ever want to give Sherlock Holmes a chance, just read A Study in Scarlet.  It was the first Holmes novel I ever read (and first Holmes story ever written) and still my favorite case of the entire series.  Huck Finn was alright, but yeah as you say, it’s not something I’ll read again.  I’ve already read To Kill a Mockingbird twice now.  I’m really not the biggest fan of it.  I get why some people might like it, and I appreciate the message behind the story, but it really doesn’t resonate with me.  To each his or her own though.

 

I guess practicing the piano just isn’t convenient as you get older.  Lots of people have pianos in their homes, but those are the past generation.  As people our age go off to college, they don’t have the liberty to bring their pianos with them, obviously.  They could use an electronic keyboard, but that’s not a good replacement.  They have to resort to either going to the music facilities and practicing on the pianos there or using the pianos located in the common rooms of dorms.  But that comes with the inconvenience of having to go out of your way to practice out in the open and risk other people walking in on you, either to gawk or praise or chat.  If you’re trying to actually practice hard, having people interrupt you can be annoying.  It’s much unlike practicing in the privacy of your house.  And then what are they to do after leaving college?  Young adults these days take a long time to settle down, marry, have children, etc.  As a result, they're constantly getting new jobs and moving across the country or at least jumping from apartment to apartment.  With that kind of lifestyle, purchasing a piano just isn't realistic given its size and the price it takes to transport it around.  Nah, I was a band member all the way.  I never was a part of the orchestra, and only saw the violin as a side instrument.  That’s why it was on the cutting block, ahah.  You pretty much answered your own question; my parents only saw activities that could benefit me in school as practical activities.  There’s only so far taekwondo and ping pong can take me, as opposed to more popular and academic sports such as soccer and tennis and volleyball.  So you used to like swimming?  What made you change your mind?  Or was it just that your parents canceled the lessons and stopped taking you to the pool and you just lost interest?  Geez, pottery as well?  Oh yeah, and I did a bit of art as well when I was younger.  I remember thinking I had some artistic skill back in elementary school, and I guess I was a bit more handy with a pencil back in the day compared to my peers, but I never cultivated that skill so now I’m just kinda meh at drawing stuff.  Ahhh, what an enthusiastic kid you were!  Gosh, I was a lazy little boy.  I really didn’t like all the random stuff my parents signed me up for.  I always felt it got in the way of enjoying my weekends and summer breaks, eheheh.  It’s funny how our parents are such opposites.  My parents would have loved it if I had ever shown actual interest in extracurricular activities.  They were the ones who forced me to do everything that I did.  If I were given the choice, I would have just played video games to “broaden my horizons,” fufufufufu.

 

I see, thanks for being so considerate!  Haha, I guess I don’t have to read it.  It’s good that you typed that all out just to get it out of your system anyway.  I was pretty angry at my econ professor not too long ago, but I decided against posting about him here.  Just know he’s a terribly unfair grader, ugh.  Aw, well it’s too bad that you couldn’t get perfect scores, but at least you improved!  Your profile is already so strong, your scores should be just fine.

 

Trust me, I wasn’t just saying the essay was good just to be nice; it really was fantastic.  You should definitely be proud of it!  And you’re giving me far too much credit, ahah.  I’m awfully flattered, but I only gave you the base premise, not even that.  I just kinda half mentioned you might want to write about your watch.  You were the one who thought of the whole experiment and you were the one who wrote it so well.  Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back before you praise me, hah.  And yeah, I figured you wouldn’t just actually discard your watch like that, not after how much you raved about it before.  I’m glad that you’re finally done with college apps!  As you say, there’s nothing left to do but wait.  Be sure to take the time to treat yourself.  Maybe have some dinner out or something.  It’s always nice to eat a bit extravagantly every once in a while.  Ahhh, I’m anticipating the results!  You’re notified whether or not you’re accepted into Case by December 15th, right?  Heheh, I’m going to keep my eye out for that date.  That’s a Tuesday, so if you’re going to post a response the following Wednesday be sure to let me know the results!  Ahah, geez, I’m so excited for some reason!

 

Oh boy, HCl…  Well I’m glad that your calc teacher didn’t seem to mind.  I’m sure it wasn’t too big of an issue for him.  He’s probably had a lot of weird things happen in this classroom, and as you said, it’s not like you had bad intentions.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had forgotten that even happened.  People who feel guilty about wronging someone else are usually the ones who exaggerate how the other person thinks of them in their head.  Imagine if a friend of yours accidentally did something to upset you, and in that moment you were a bit angry.  That friend could have felt so guilty about it and tossed and turned all night with worry while you just went to sleep and completely forgot about it the next day.  Every time they saw you afterward, they couldn't help but think back to that event and feel ashamed while you're smiling there completely obvious to their worry.  I bet your calc teacher doesn't even think about the HCl incident whenever he sees you, haha.  Phew, those physics assignments sound like a pain.  And I thought the online accounting homework I have is bad.  At least that stuff is just tedious instead of difficult.  Man, I wish you the best of luck with that!  Haha, and English is always my best subject while science is always my worst…  Now that college apps are behind you, you’ll hopefully have more time to focus on physics.  And if best comes to best and you get into Case, you can accept their invitation and completely let your worries go after that.  Then you’ll be able to focus even more on school work.  I say this time and time again, but don’t be afraid to take breaks from these weekly responses!  It sounds like you’re rather stressed and strung up over your workload, and I’d hate to take up too much of your precious time.

 

I didn’t do anything too special for Halloween.  Just relaxed, played some video games, and watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” for nostalgia’s sake.  I don’t even really like the Peanuts, but since I wasn’t going trick or treating or dressing up or going to a party, I decided to celebrate it in a bit of traditional way.  I’m guessing you spent your Halloween working on your college apps?  Because that’s what I was doing last year, eheheh…

 

Hah, true true, I shouldn’t be underestimating a city as amazing as Troy.  I’m glad to see that you’re doing well and staying safe.  Aw, and of course, I’ll definitely be sure to look out for myself.  If it’s any reassurance, I only leave my dorm for class, food, and the gym.  And I look both ways twice before crossing streets as well, hahah.  Thank you though, for thinking about me.  I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

(added a bit below the fourth paragraph...)

Edited November 9, 2015 by Akazora

[Kenzi 146]

 

(geez, we keep on pushing DCW to its limit, hahah)

 

Uwah, the Meteor Falls theme just didn’t really stand out to me.  I even had to go on YouTube and look it up to remember how it differs from the original.  I mean, I guess it’s nice, but it’s not really my type of music, so…  Meteor Falls was never a place that evoked much of a nostalgic response in me, since I never spent much time there.  All the redone town and city themes stood out more to me, but not just because I spent more time in the places I could fly to.  They’re all generally more melodic while Meteor Falls’s theme is more atmospheric.  Atmospheric songs are nice and serve their purpose well, but I never remember how their tunes go just because they’re so good at playing in the background without me knowing.

 

Catching roaming Pokemon was a bit of a pain, but part of it was kind of fun, weird as that may sound.  I never bothered to catch any roamers in games I didn’t care for, but something about them was rather enticing.  Oh geez, I will admit though, my brother and I spent so much time trying to catch Mesprit and Cresselia in our Diamond and Pearl versions.  We eventually caught them without using our Master Balls, but it used up a lot of our resources.  The dogs in my HG version are still running around wild, though I remembering helping a friend catch them on her version of the game.  They definitely weren’t nearly as difficult to catch as Mesprit or Cresselia; it took a solid two nights of devoted chasing and a decent number of Dusk Balls.  I know, I’ve had a huge urge to make a Secret Base and start messing around with it, but I’ve managed to stay my hand for now, haha.

 

Once you play the games enough, you just know how things are laid out and it’s not so bad.  I’m still intimidated whenever I think about traversing the waters, but once you get in and start moving you quickly realize it’s manageable.  Aw, directional tiles, right up there with teleportation tiles, are such an iconic feature of Pokemon puzzles though!  Did you not like slippery ice puzzles then either, since those also involve a bit of preplanning before you made a step?

 

I, uh… never actually caught Kyogre in my HG version…  Eheheh, it was fun thrashing through that game with my shiny Typhlosion, but it was Jolly natured (not sure if I ever mentioned this before) and despite being EV trained and running a mixed sweeper set, I really don’t think it would do very well tanking hits against legendaries as I feebly chucked out Pokeballs.  Hrm, guess those leftovers legendaries in that shiny Beautifly Diamond run won’t be going anywhere for a while either.  Oh my gosh, now that I think about it, I still need to beat the Pearl Battle Tower!  I found the time yesterday to actually EV train all of the Pokemon I had previously RNG abused.  I traded them to my Pearl version, fed them vitamins, infected them with Pokerus, gave them Power items, and before long they all had spanking new Effort Ribbons to show for their work.  Now I'm just training them all up to level 100.  I know I don't have to, but I'm OCD and figured I might as well.  That won't be the hard part though.  The most grueling part of making this team is getting them their moves.  Most of their moves are TMs you get at the Battle Tower/Frontier or HGSS move tutor moves that cost BP.  Either way, it's going to take quite a bit of Battle Tower grinding.  Thankfully, my brother already made a Battle Tower team in his HG version, which he lost interest in.  I'll be using that to rack in the BP.  Since Alpha Sapphire revived my love for Pokemon, I have significantly more motivation to beat the Pearl Battle Tower now than before.

 

Edit: Um, oops, completely forgot to address your question about Mirage Island.  I was just a little sad to see Mirage Island removed from the game.  The route description on the town map makes a reference to it, and things like Mirage Spots and the Secret Cavern, Shore, and Meadow were added, but I'm not entirely sure why they got rid of Mirage Island.  Granted, it was a fairly useless island that I never had the luck of exploring in RSE, and it would be made even more useless in the current generation, but I'm sure they could have revamped it to make it more relevant.

 

Sighh, as expected of you Kenzi, spoiling soundtracks for yourself like that…  I’m glad I managed to keep all of ORAS under wraps.  Moments like the final battle with Wally were absolutely fantastic as a result.  It seems you still really liked that moment though, so I’m glad the magic wasn’t entirely lost though you had already heard the OST.

 

Hm, now that you mention it, ORAS’s Elite Four theme wasn’t very exciting when I versed them.  I mean, Metagross was wiping the floor with them easy, so it’s not like I ever felt much threat.  Listening to it now, it’s pretty intense, but I didn’t really feel that when I actually versed them.  Hmm, maybe it was a mix of the missing claps and Metagross just being over powered.

 

Ahahah, I don’t think I’ve ever used Battle Items.  I would have sold them, but I was already so rich and my pockets were overflowing with Pokedollars by the end of the game anyway, so I didn’t even bother (I even had enough money to buy my Metagross those three super expensive Sinnoh ribbons in Mauville City).  Thank goodness too, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to keep Deoxy’s HP under control, and it would have Struggled itself to death before I could catch it.  And what a waste of such glorious IVs that would have been, ahah.

 

I’m sure Gamefreak will be able to do an amazing job with the Diamond and Pearl remakes.  Of course, that might be speaking a bit too soon since we don’t even know what 7th gen is going to be like, so there’s no game engine to make a comparison to.  Unless they decide to double up two gens on the 3DS, like they did with 4th and 5th gen on the DS.  But then again they saved ORAS for 6th gen as a result, so if they do something similar then the 8th gen game engine is what the 4th gen remakes will be on.  And there’s also a possibility for a FRLG remake, but that’s a very very small possibility.  I really don’t think, and really hope, they don’t do that.  I’m honestly sick and tired of Kanto, urgh.  I also really liked Pearl, but that’s mainly the nostalgia talking.  I don’t know what kinds of changes they made in Platinum, but they must have been significant since playing through Diamond not too long ago wasn’t very exciting.  The post-game island was pretty neat, but the characters were bland and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the plot or Team Galactic.  It wasn’t very difficult either (seriously, a Beautifly with 0 IVs in Sp. Atk rekt house??) and generally speaking it was more of a pain to get through than the third gen games.  I’ve restarted Diamond many times, nearly as many times as Sapphire, but unlike Sapphire I’ve almost never finished those runthroughs I started.  Ohhh, route 216 huh?  That’s certainly an interesting song to like the most.  I’m personally a fan of Route 209’s theme, and was stoked to find it was remixed and put in Brawl and Smash 4.  Route 216’s theme isn’t bad either, though it’s not one I hear very often just because I never seem to find myself traversing in that area.  Probably because that snow is a bit of a pain to get through, much like the swampy areas near Pastoria City.  Regardless though, if Gamefreak gave Ruby and Sapphire this much love, I can’t wait to see what they have in store for Diamond and Pearl.  It won’t be out for years, but Alpha Sapphire has revitalized my love for Pokemon, so whatever games they have planned for 2016, even if it’s Z or FRLG remakes, I’m pretty excited for.  Aww, and I’m glad you liked reading all that I typed up, though I can imagine it must have been a bit of a pain to get through.  It’s also nice to hear that you were able to enjoy ORAS vicariously.  It would have been better if you could have experienced it firsthand, but that wouldn’t have been possibly given your parents would never have allowed you to buy a 3DS in time to satiate your craving hunger from a year ago when the games first came out.

 

Ahh, I’m glad to see you got the heater problem worked out.  It sounded like you were really suffering in that cold.  Oh, okay, so that’s how you manage.  It’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to expose yourself like that.  Your body is your business after all; even if there’s nothing about it you’re ashamed about doesn’t mean you’d be comfortable exposing it to people you’re close with.  Eheheh, nah, the way you word that makes it sound like I’m some kind of exhibitionist, hahah.  I may appear to be more open about changing in front of others, but that’s just the way I’ve had to live.  My younger brother and I are really close, since we’re only two years apart, so he’s always been a part of my life.  We’re super chill with each other and are pretty much half naked when we use the bathroom together before going to sleep (since he also has a going-to-bed routine).  It’s been that way since we were practically babies, so as weird as that might sound to you, it’s something I’m completely used to.  Not only that, but in middle school and high school we were forced to change for gym in the locker rooms.  The locker rooms don’t have enough bathroom stalls for everyone to use or even share, so everyone just changes in the general areas of the locker room, which have no privacy at all.  If you’re not comfortable changing in front of others, then you’re just going to have to suck it up and get used to it.  You have to be in the locker room before the bell rings, otherwise you’re marked as late; so no changing in the bathrooms elsewhere in the school (so, uhh, despite your joking, technically speaking we actually weren’t allowed access to stalls…….).  This was the case with both middle school and high school, so I’ve been changing in front of friends, acquaintances, and strangers nearly every school day for the past seven years.  Changing twice a day too, if you count changing back out of my gym clothes and into my regular clothes.  So yeahhh, given how I was raised and the things I was forced to do growing up, I’ve gotten used to changing in front of others.  I don’t strip down half naked and walk around nonchalantly of course, but I don’t do that whole “derping around” thing before changing either.  And of course, this only applies to guys.  Changing in front of a girl??  Geezus, oh no no no, I wouldn’t even be able to imagine myself shirtless in the presence of a girl.  Just thinking about it gets me embarrassed, bleh…

 

Ohh, okay, so you didn’t actually watch the debate.  It seems like you’re quite against Clinton though.  Don’t worry, so am I, ahah.  Of the Democrats, there’s really no doubt the primaries are going to come down to Clinton and Sanders, much like how in 2008 it came down to Clinton and Obama.  I’ve pretty much settled on voting for Sanders in the Democratic primaries.  I don’t know if I’ll vote for him in the actual election even if he beats out Clinton, but at the very least I’ll have his back during the primaries.  Welp, Lessig’s plan did seem like a bit of a publicity stunt, and it looks like even he has dropped out of the running.  I guess we’ll never get a chance to see him on the big stage.  I guess it’s just that his promise reminded me a lot of James K. Polk’s promises to the people when he was running for President back in 1844.  He was also a dark horse candidate during that election, and promised to annex California, New Mexico, Texas, and Oregon, as well as lower tariffs and reestablish the Independent Treasury System.  His biggest promise however, was to serve only a single term.  When he left the White House four years later, every single one of his promises had been kept.  Damn.  Polk is one of my favorite Presidents, and he’s wildly considered by historians to be one of the most underappreciated and underrated Presidents of all time.  We hear about Washington and Lincoln and FDR all the time, but Polk?  For a politician who literally kept all his promises I’m surprised people don’t see him as someone modern day politicians should strive to be more like, especially given rampant mistrust in the government system.

 

Hm, so I actually watched the Democratic debate forum yesterday.  Apart from MSNBC being so disgustingly far left it hurt, the event itself was pretty interesting to watch.  Upon further inspection, I kinda like Martin O'Malley.  He has this sort of intensity about him and he's very good with his words.  I believe he even pauses and hesitates less than both Sanders and Clinton.  I really wish Clinton wasn't running, or at least that it was her with the low single digits in the polls and O'Malley who was duking it out with Sanders.  Given a choice been Sanders and O'Malley, I don't know who I'd choose.  But since I really don't trust Clinton and I want to do all I can to prevent her from moving on to the general election, I don't really have much of a choice but to vote for Sanders.  Sanders, despite his popularity, is still trailing Clinton considerably all across the board, and he's going to need all the votes he can get.  Sigh, O'Malley is just running for President at a bad time; I feel bad for him.  And if I'm not mistaken, there was a Republican debate a little over a week ago that I also watched.  There's not really much to report there.  Trump is still generally leading the polls, though Carson is right behind him.  Everyone else is beginning to fall behind.  It seems like the effort to back a Republican candidate to seriously contend with Trump is beginning to work, though I've also seen a lot of leftists bash Carson, so it's still a bit unclear whether Democrats are just trying to get Carson into the general election but still prefer either Clinton or Sanders, or if it's Republicans who actually don't want Trump to move on and feel that Carson has the highest chance to contend with the Democratic nominee.  Either way, I'm a bit upset that Fiorina is beginning to trail in the polls, since I still like her the most of all the Republican candidates. She's as poised as ever and it's not like she's said or done anything to ruin her chances, but as people begin to bandwagon onto either Trump or Carson, everyone else who had decent chances at the start are beginning to fade in the minds of the general public.  Oh, also, Christie and Huckabee are now off of the primary debate for this Tuesday.  They haven't dropped out of the race yet, and Christie especially doesn't seem unfazed by this setback, so we'll see how this develops.

 

An “outgoing introvert”?  That certainly is interesting; I don’t think I heard about that before either.  But then again, the entire premise that everyone in the world can just be shoved into two contradictory categories and not leave any room for compromise seemed a bit archaic as well.  I wouldn’t suggest you force yourself to identify entirely one way or the other.  I’m perfect content being an introvert through and through, and if the way you live makes you an outgoing introvert, or a reserved extrovert, then so be it.  Embrace who you are and be happy about it.  Words are just words after all.  Their meanings change all the time, and they only are what you make of them.  No need to take the categorization of personality types as the word of God or anything.  When humans try to organize things in the name of science, things can get rather complicated, if the history of taxonomy is anything to go by.  You just be you, ahah.  It’s a bit hard maintaining high school connections, mainly because once you go your separate ways you very quickly run out of things to talk about.  Sure, you can share and compare college experiences, and maybe talk about shared hobbies, but after a while I guess you just find it more convenient and fulfilling to establish relationships with people you actually go to school with and see on a regular basis.  Shhh shhh, I know, you’re going to say that in our case we’ve somehow managed to keep in touch for an entire year and we haven’t even met each other yet, but there are exceptions to every rule, hahah.  And oh yeah, summer break…  Err, with the exception of my closest friends, I pretty much have a complete reset of friendships at the start of every school year.  Most people I’m acquainted with I know for the span of a single year, when I have classes with them, but once summer break rolls around and brand new classes start back up in September, I establish new relationships.  That's also why I’ve let all my connections from JP end now that I’m in college.  It’s not like I had particularly strong ties with anyone in high school anyway.

 

As expected of Kenzi, you saw my post on The Dog of Flanders, haha.  I was going to mention it now myself, but you did the job for me.  Yes, it would be an amazing movie to watch Christmas day, or Christmas Eve, or anytime during the Christmas season.  I’ll definitely be sure to remind you.  Yup, it’s pretty much the completionist inside of me that’s preventing me from putting them on my list.  I know that there’s no way I’ll ever run out of anime to want to watch, so it’s not like I’m ever going to clear out my Plan to Watch list, but it still bothers me and makes the task of getting through my backlog that much more daunting, eheh.

 

The main characters for F/Z were also really popular.  Kiritsugu, Saber, and Gilgamesh were right up there, but I’m fairly certain Rider edged them out when it came down to it.  For UBW, Saber and Gilgamesh maintained their popularity, while we got rather mixed opinions on Shirou as you can imagine.  Eheh, I may not have gotten into the Fate series until just over a year ago, but once I really fall in love with a series I go crazy over it.  The hype is starting to die down now, which is good because the wait for HF has been slaying me.  It was the same with SnK when that aired a while ago.  After the first season ended, I was in SnK withdrawal for the longest time.  I then got distracted by other things, and suddenly *bam* 2016 is nearly upon us!  Whoo, I’m beginning to get excited for season 2!  Oh, and according to UTW, their translation of the second season Blu-rays of UBW will be done around Christmas.  There’s no rush though, since I’d recommend watching UBW again after F/Z, or at least right before the HF movie(s).

 

D’awwwww, geez Kenzi, you sweet little thing, heheheh.  You’re making me blush and grin like a fool; thank God no one else is in my room to question why I’m being a dork in front of my laptop.  In all honesty, my interest in DCW and DC had been stagnant for the longest time.  Well, it’s not like I’m any more interesting in DC now than I was a year ago, though I can’t deny that movie 20 looks like it’s going to be a glorious fustercluck.  However, ever since meeting you, I guess I’ve found a lot more motivation to stop by DCW whenever I found the chance.  We didn’t have our weekly responses yet (those started right after winter break, didn’t they?) and though our main form of information exchange was right here in this thread, I discovered all the similarities we shared through random posts we both made in the Off Topic threads.  I don’t know who started posting there more first.  I guess I just started posting more in hopes of maybe getting to know you better…  Ahh, the way I worded that is a bit embarrassing, but you know what I mean, eheh.  Yeahh, I remember when I thought we were long lost twins as well!  We definitely have found where we differ, but that makes interacting with you that much more interesting.  You’re giving me all this credit for being “down to earth” and having a grip on what I was doing, but I could say the same for you.  There was something about your posts, and your personality.  I can’t really put it into words, but you sounded so level-headed and reasonable.  You were someone who I felt I could respect and someone that I wanted to get to know better.  Oh gosh, I really can’t believe we’ve gotten as far as we have this past year.  This year has gone by really fast.  I’d like to think that that’s an indication I’ve been generally really happy, and I’m confident that you’re to thank for that, haha.  Really, sending weekly responses to you and getting to know you has helped me get through some rough times this past year, more than you can imagine.  How did I ever manage without you, ahah.  (Oh, yeah, the double space thing.  I think one of my teachers way back in first grade or something told me it was “proper” and “professional” to double space after a sentence ends.  I’ve gotten so used to doing it now, I can’t help it, even if it messes up the formatting occasionally.  You’re the first person to actually ever point that out; give yourself a pat on the back you sharp-eyed girl, heehee.)

 

Woah, so that’s what vegans eat?  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they eat fake meat, since meat of pretty much any kind is amazing and it would be a shame to live life without that delicious source of protein, but that’s still rather fascinating.  I’d be interested in trying some of that stuff, even if it is kinda weird, haha.  Oh, you’re forced to use your weekly meal swipes the first year (or semester, can’t remember) at Case in the sense that you have to sign up for meal swipes the first year.  Let’s say you’d rather just use your own cash and eat out at restaurants every time you want some food instead of going to the dining halls or the other places that accept meal swipes.  Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to and will be forced to pay for meal swipes.  You could just not even touch your meal swipes, but that would be a foolish waste of money obviously.  And to make matters worse, you can’t specify how many meal swipes you want.  They have a set number of options, generally between 2-3 swipes a day.  If you want to only have 7 swipes a week, you’re not allowed to have that.  Furthermore, meal swipes don’t carry over at the end of the semester/year, and they reset every week.  So if you didn’t use your weeks’ worth of swipes, then they’re going to waste.  I eat 1-2 meals a day, so a ton of my swipes are left unused by the end of the week.  It kind of sucks, but you’re given more freedom to customize your meal plan as you progress through your time at Case.  As soon as I can, I’ll just drop meal swipes entirely.  I eat too sporadically and rarely to really gauge how many meals I need a week.  Using my own money should be fine.  And yeahhh, my habit of skipping lunch has carried over from high school.  I try to eat breakfast and dinner, but if I skip breakfast because I wake up too late then oh well.  Guess I’ll just eat a hefty dinner that day, eheh.  It’s not like the food at Leutner is bad.  It looks okay on the surface and tastes rather bland, but I imagine that’s how high school lunches must have tasted.  The service is a bit shoddy as well, but I’m not really picky when it comes to that kind of stuff.  There are apparently amazing places elsewhere on campus that accept meal swipes, so if you’re one of the many people who are sick of Leutner and absolutely cannot stand another bite of the food there, those are options as well.  They’re far away from the freshman dorms though, so you’re going to have to go out of you way to walk there or stop by right before, in between, or after classes.  I’m lazy as heck efficient with my time, so I just settle for Leutner so I can get back to watching anime doing my homework as fast as I can.  And uhhhh, I forgot to mention this before, but when my parents came to visit me during fall break a couple weeks ago, they said I got thinner.  Like, a lot thinner.  I’ve noticed it myself, since my pants that used to fit so comfortably now require a belt to wear.  I-It’s just because I’ve been working out, that’s all, eheheheh……...  Okay, I guess I’m not fooling anyone when I say that.  I have been eating a lot less than before, but only because I’m so bad at getting up on time and miss breakfast all the time.  I really can’t bring myself to eat lunch, but I suppose I’ll try when I need to.  Working out and eating less isn’t good; I need that protein to build muscle after all.  Don’t worry Kenzi, I’ll definitely be taking better care of myself.  I almost wanted to just leave all that out so as to not worry you, but I’d feel bad if I tried hiding something like that from you, so I left it in.  I hope you aren’t upset; I really am fine!

 

Ohhh, yeahh, thinking about it now, though Akazora works for online profiles because it’s short, simple, and relatively unique, it doesn’t work nearly as well when said out loud.  Too many syllables and doesn’t really roll off the tongue too well.  Kenzi works though!  Hahah, I’m not implying that I dislike your real life name; I like both equally!  I suppose it is a bit early to be thinking about this, but it’s something that crosses my mind occasionally.  Oh no no, I didn’t mean to scare you like that!  Contacts aren’t really that bad.  I had to get them when I was in sixth grade, so I had the pain tolerance and mindset of a little boy.  And those were hard contacts.  The soft kinds that are used for daytime wear are apparently a lot more comfortable (obviously, you need to have them in all day).  Of course, if you can preserve your eyesight then there’s no point in even worrying about any of that.  After November 17th, be sure to update me on how the eye appointment goes!

 

Woah, you felt that guilty for skipping a day of school?  I suppose it would make you feel even worse if your parents were upset at you.  Just know that there’s nothing wrong with skipping a day or two if you absolutely must.  While it’s important to be in class for as many days as you possibly can, opting out every once in a while for your own well-being won’t hurt.  God forbid you’re ever seriously ill or injured, but if you are and going to class puts you and everyone around you at risk, then just take it easy for a bit.  Have friends send you the notes for the day and e-mail your professors (yeah, I’m talking about college, but this applies to high school as well).  Just do your best to recover.  Perfect attendance is commendable, but in the grand scheme of things your health should come first.  Never forget that.  Oh, I could have finished that APUSH project a lot earlier, but then my stupid self had the brilliant idea at two in the morning to make the presentation even better by incorporating nerdy history jokes in the slides, which required photo editing, which I wasn’t very good at, which just… my gosh, it was just really bad time management.

 

Hmm, sad memories huh?  From the looks of that flowchart, it seems the music is only a trigger for memories which in turn lead to your tears.  So technically it has less to do with music and more just to do with remembering something from the past.  I’m not going to pry, but I can see how that works.  Some things from my past can be upsetting if I remember them now, but I don’t believe I’ve ever had music trigger a memory that sends me into a sad, unproductive mess.  Perhaps you’re more sensitive to music than most people?  You say that you can’t listen to lyrical songs of any kind or music with a strong beat while doing homework.  I understand how songs with English can be distracting, but that’s only for text intensive things like reading a book or taking notes.  I can listen to English songs just fine while doing math or something.  I’d think most people are like this, right?  To be so distracted by lyrics of any kind seems a bit odd.  For me, I absolutely need music in the background when I’m doing something.  I can’t just sit around and do homework in silence.  But whenever I get really into my work, the music just sort of fades to a blur.  So like, music is nice to listen to, but by mind doesn’t latch onto it.  It just becomes indiscernible noise.  No no, that’s not a very good way to word it.  I don’t know how to explain it to someone so sensitive to music, eheheh.  It’s actually kind of ironic.  You love music so much, but it seems your mind is wired to be so especially sensitive to it that any lyrical songs and heavy beat songs are out of the question for studying, and sad songs trigger you to the point of inability.  In fact, your selection of study music is severely limited compared to most people.  It’s like you love music so much that you can’t listen to it, or something like that.  When do you even find the chance to listen to lyrical and heavy beat music then?  Do you just like, listen to it while staring a wall…?

 

If you’re always invisible, then won’t people start to realize you’re one of those people who’s always set to not available and just chat you up anyway?  I don’t feel a need to set myself as invisible, because I’m rarely on Facebook anyway.  I know most people probably have their Facebook constantly open in a separate tab, much like how I always have my Gmail open (though that’s kind of pointless given my phone sends me a notification any time I get something anyway).  But on the few days I do check in, it’s just to click my notifications and updates and whatnot to clear those queues out.  I then log out immediately afterward only to check back in a few days.  Even if someone did want to chat with me, they’d need to have Lady Luck on their side to even see me online.  In fact, I log onto DCW more often, hahah. Whhhhhaaaaaaa??  You haven’t opened your locker since freshman orientation?  Damn, I can’t even imagine high school without stopping by my locker between classes.  Pfft, pampered Kenzi will never know the thrill and rush of dashing to your locker to throw your backpack in before running to homeroom.  Late to class even without locker stops?  Git gud Kenzi, git gud, heheh.  JP has trained me to walk really fast in a crowd of people.  I walk a lot faster than most people.  Pays off in college at least, though I do wonder what it would have felt like to have walked leisurely between classes.

 

My math class actually consists of not only freshman, but sophomores and juniors and even seniors.  The freshman are those who came in with credits.  The sophomores are those who either don’t have credits or decided not to use them, and who must have decided not to take at least one semester of math in their freshman year. As for juniors and seniors, I really don’t know what they’re doing.  This math course is just a prereq class, so I’m a bit confused as to why they’ve taken so long to take it, especially since they’ve all been forced to declare their majors already.  And I don’t want to sound mean, but honestly, bad students exist everywhere.  And the juniors and seniors in this class… well, they definitely aren’t the brightest bunch.  They’re the ones who are skipping classes the most, even though they’re under more pressure to complete their credits than freshman or sophomores.  Of course, what do you expect from people who pushed off such a basic math course until so late?  A-Are they even going to graduate on time?  Sigh, whatever, it’s none of my business.  You’d think a school like CWRU would have weeded out these kinds of students, but I guess some weak links accidentally or luckily get in.  Then again, if a Harvard student can party too hard, flunk every class, and ultimately drop out, then no university of any prestige is safe from students who just… don’t care.

 

I’ve never actually read any Junie B. Jones books.  I saw them all the time, but for some reason I just decided never to get into them.  I did read a fair share of Captain Underpants though, ahah.  Oh geez, you might have a point, maybe that’s where my penchant for crude humors stems from as well, heheh.  Goosebumps was decent.  It always followed a very predictable formula and it wasn’t very scary, but the books were a fun read for an elementary schooler.  You didn’t miss much for not reading The 39 Clues.  The plot was actually really intricate, but because it was written for middle schoolers and it’s taking so long to finish you would have grown out of it before very long anyway.  A Wrinkle in Time is L’Engle’s most popular work, but I can’t remember if it was my personal favorite.  It definitely was a bit of an abstract story, but I still enjoyed it.  Duncan and Horowitz are pretty good authors as well.  I only read the first book in the Alex Rider series, and I’m actually more familiar with Horowitz’s work on The Power of Fire series.  Let’s see, I’ve read a few books by Spinelli, and I read Patterson’s first Maximum Ride book.  I never read Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, though I’ve seen it around.  I’ve also never read Gordon’s Tunnel series, though I believe I read one or two books from Kinney’s Diary of a Whimpy Kid series.  I definitely want to reread Tale of Two Cities, but not for a while since I don’t have the time.  If you ever want to give Sherlock Holmes a chance, just read A Study in Scarlet.  It was the first Holmes novel I ever read (and first Holmes story ever written) and still my favorite case of the entire series.  Huck Finn was alright, but yeah as you say, it’s not something I’ll read again.  I’ve already read To Kill a Mockingbird twice now.  I’m really not the biggest fan of it.  I get why some people might like it, and I appreciate the message behind the story, but it really doesn’t resonate with me.  To each his or her own though.

 

I guess practicing the piano just isn’t convenient as you get older.  Lots of people have pianos in their homes, but those are the past generation.  As people our age go off to college, they don’t have the liberty to bring their pianos with them, obviously.  They could use an electronic keyboard, but that’s not a good replacement.  They have to resort to either going to the music facilities and practicing on the pianos there or using the pianos located in the common rooms of dorms.  But that comes with the inconvenience of having to go out of your way to practice out in the open and risk other people walking in on you, either to gawk or praise or chat.  If you’re trying to actually practice hard, having people interrupt you can be annoying.  It’s much unlike practicing in the privacy of your house.  And then what are they to do after leaving college?  Young adults these days take a long time to settle down, marry, have children, etc.  As a result, they're constantly getting new jobs and moving across the country or at least jumping from apartment to apartment.  With that kind of lifestyle, purchasing a piano just isn't realistic given its size and the price it takes to transport it around.  Nah, I was a band member all the way.  I never was a part of the orchestra, and only saw the violin as a side instrument.  That’s why it was on the cutting block, ahah.  You pretty much answered your own question; my parents only saw activities that could benefit me in school as practical activities.  There’s only so far taekwondo and ping pong can take me, as opposed to more popular and academic sports such as soccer and tennis and volleyball.  So you used to like swimming?  What made you change your mind?  Or was it just that your parents canceled the lessons and stopped taking you to the pool and you just lost interest?  Geez, pottery as well?  Oh yeah, and I did a bit of art as well when I was younger.  I remember thinking I had some artistic skill back in elementary school, and I guess I was a bit more handy with a pencil back in the day compared to my peers, but I never cultivated that skill so now I’m just kinda meh at drawing stuff.  Ahhh, what an enthusiastic kid you were!  Gosh, I was a lazy little boy.  I really didn’t like all the random stuff my parents signed me up for.  I always felt it got in the way of enjoying my weekends and summer breaks, eheheh.  It’s funny how our parents are such opposites.  My parents would have loved it if I had ever shown actual interest in extracurricular activities.  They were the ones who forced me to do everything that I did.  If I were given the choice, I would have just played video games to “broaden my horizons,” fufufufufu.

 

I see, thanks for being so considerate!  Haha, I guess I don’t have to read it.  It’s good that you typed that all out just to get it out of your system anyway.  I was pretty angry at my econ professor not too long ago, but I decided against posting about him here.  Just know he’s a terribly unfair grader, ugh.  Aw, well it’s too bad that you couldn’t get perfect scores, but at least you improved!  Your profile is already so strong, your scores should be just fine.

 

Trust me, I wasn’t just saying the essay was good just to be nice; it really was fantastic.  You should definitely be proud of it!  And you’re giving me far too much credit, ahah.  I’m awfully flattered, but I only gave you the base premise, not even that.  I just kinda half mentioned you might want to write about your watch.  You were the one who thought of the whole experiment and you were the one who wrote it so well.  Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back before you praise me, hah.  And yeah, I figured you wouldn’t just actually discard your watch like that, not after how much you raved about it before.  I’m glad that you’re finally done with college apps!  As you say, there’s nothing left to do but wait.  Be sure to take the time to treat yourself.  Maybe have some dinner out or something.  It’s always nice to eat a bit extravagantly every once in a while.  Ahhh, I’m anticipating the results!  You’re notified whether or not you’re accepted into Case by December 15th, right?  Heheh, I’m going to keep my eye out for that date.  That’s a Tuesday, so if you’re going to post a response the following Wednesday be sure to let me know the results!  Ahah, geez, I’m so excited for some reason!

 

Oh boy, HCl…  Well I’m glad that your calc teacher didn’t seem to mind.  I’m sure it wasn’t too big of an issue for him.  He’s probably had a lot of weird things happen in this classroom, and as you said, it’s not like you had bad intentions.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had forgotten that even happened.  People who feel guilty about wronging someone else are usually the ones who exaggerate how the other person thinks of them in their head.  Imagine if a friend of yours accidentally did something to upset you, and in that moment you were a bit angry.  That friend could have felt so guilty about it and tossed and turned all night with worry while you just went to sleep and completely forgot about it the next day.  Every time they saw you afterward, they couldn't help but think back to that event and feel ashamed while you're smiling there completely obvious to their worry.  I bet your calc teacher doesn't even think about the HCl incident whenever he sees you, haha.  Phew, those physics assignments sound like a pain.  And I thought the online accounting homework I have is bad.  At least that stuff is just tedious instead of difficult.  Man, I wish you the best of luck with that!  Haha, and English is always my best subject while science is always my worst…  Now that college apps are behind you, you’ll hopefully have more time to focus on physics.  And if best comes to best and you get into Case, you can accept their invitation and completely let your worries go after that.  Then you’ll be able to focus even more on school work.  I say this time and time again, but don’t be afraid to take breaks from these weekly responses!  It sounds like you’re rather stressed and strung up over your workload, and I’d hate to take up too much of your precious time.

 

I didn’t do anything too special for Halloween.  Just relaxed, played some video games, and watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” for nostalgia’s sake.  I don’t even really like the Peanuts, but since I wasn’t going trick or treating or dressing up or going to a party, I decided to celebrate it in a bit of traditional way.  I’m guessing you spent your Halloween working on your college apps?  Because that’s what I was doing last year, eheheh…

 

Hah, true true, I shouldn’t be underestimating a city as amazing as Troy.  I’m glad to see that you’re doing well and staying safe.  Aw, and of course, I’ll definitely be sure to look out for myself.  If it’s any reassurance, I only leave my dorm for class, food, and the gym.  And I look both ways twice before crossing streets as well, hahah.  Thank you though, for thinking about me.  I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

(added a bit below the fourth paragraph...)

 

gahh, sorry for the late reply

comp sci is such a pain in the arse at the moment

 

The Meteor Falls theme was pretty memorable for me, so I was really pleased with the remastered version, haha. It never evoked nostalgic response in you? Part of the reason I liked it so much was because I spent a good amount of time in there hunting for a Bagon, lol. Ohh, my favorite city/town themes are probably Lilycove, Ever Grande, Slateport, Verdanturf, and who am I kidding I loved them all. I was hit really hard when I heard Littleroot though. I couldn't breathe for a few seconds because I... I felt like a little kid again... that feeling of playing my sister's Gameboy just flooded all of my senses, t-the nostalgia, ahaah... And the bicycle theme! They did such a good job with the bicycle theme ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

 

Running back and forth between a route and a city and periodically checking whether the Pokemon ended up on the route you were on was enticing to you? If you happened to be lucky enough to encounter it, you also had to make sure you brought a Pokemon with Mean Look or Block so it wouldn't escape. Imagine if you didn't know that. Imagine your naive self walking into a random patch of grass, and suddenly intense encounter music sets in. Imagine yourself experiencing this adrenaline rush while preparing an attack for this legendary Pokemon. Except that it just ran away. Poor you, undergoing one of the most anticlimactic experiences of your childhood. Just grab that Nosepass from the PC you caught then. You can use that to trap Mesprit, no worries. After mindlessly biking in circles for an hour or two... or three... you finally managed to encounter Mesprit again! Hmm, what's this? The Nosepass was too slow and you weren't able to trap Mesprit with Block quickly enough? Too bad you didn't realize that the speed of your Pokemon mattered. Go waste a Pokeball or two on that Golbat you thought you'd never catch. No need to fret, because now you can just go through that arduous process of biking in circles again with your newly caught Golbat! Okay, but make sure you trap it and weaken it enough, and make sure you don't crit the thing! Oops, turns out you didn't buy enough Pokeballs and Potions, and Golbat is almost dead. You shake in anticipation as you sheepishly throw your last Pokeball--your last lifeline--in hopes that a you'll be blessed with a stroke of luck. Sigh, not even one wiggle. It's almost as if Mesprit is trying to mock you! Rinse and repeat. Except this time around, Mesprit decides to Struggle to death before you can catch it. Oh dear, maybe you should've inflicted a status condition on it. Don't worry though. Simply proceed to repeat said process x amount of times until enough rage sets in for you to finally give in and chuck your cherished Masterball at it. Ahh, now you feel accomplished for being able to best it. You laugh a hearty laugh, you save the game... and immediate regret sets in after you realize the amount of effort and rage you could've saved yourself had you done this earlier. You also silently cry to yourself after realizing that you have yet to catch Cresselia. Enticing, indeed! Oops, sorry, got a little carried away there.

 

Oh dear lord, the teleportation tiles were even worse than the directional tiles. Especially the ones in the Aqua Hideout. Geezus the puzzle made no sense. I was too lazy to map out where each tile lead to so I would hold down the left button to see where that would lead me. If that didn't work, I would hold down the right button. And if that didn't work, I'd just run into all of them in the most sporadic manner possible (even if it meant going around in circles again... and again... and again...) until I got to a new area. Definitely not the most efficient way to navigate the area, but my laziness got the best of me. Ohh, ice puzzles were kinda fun. At least I had a sense of where I was going whenever I did those, haha. I can't name every puzzle off the top of my head, but I think my ranking for them would be fairly predictable. The more in-control I am/the less reliant on luck it feels, the less I'll dislike it. You remember Lt. Surge's gym right? That puzzle can burn to the ground.

 

Haha, I never caught Kyogre in my HG either since I never fully completed the game. I was referring to catching it in my friend's HG during one of those card parties I went to. It was still pretty tedious though, as I'm sure you can imagine after catching Primal Kyogre. Ahahaha, you just reminded me that I spent so much time at the Battle Frontier that I had 500+ BP that I never used. I think the only reason I didn't have the heart to spend them was because they kinda represented the amount of work I put into the Battle Frontier. And I guess I reveled in the fact that the number was so high, eheh...  I also had a similar problem with a Yoshi's Island game mechanic... It's nice to know that you're prepping for your run through the Battle Tower though, haha. 

 

Waitt... but they never removed Mirage Island. Well, it's not the same Mirage Island that RSE had, but the island is still there, isn't it?

 

I remember posting quite a few ORAS soundtracks around DCW, so I hope I didn't spoil much for you. Argh, I remember raving about Zinnia's theme a while ago... and I think even Wally's theme... oh dear, I'm really sorry if I happened to spoil any part of ORAS for you, eheh... 

 

They definitely could've done a better job with the Elite 4 theme. It wasn't bad per se, but I think it was one of the weaker soundtracks.

 

Haha, I've never used Battle Items either. I almost always sell the items I don't need, even if my pockets were already filled to the brim with Pokedollars. Oh danggg, you managed to get all three ribbons? You had that much money to spare? And it's a darn good thing you managed to catch Deoxys in time, heh.

 

Ohmygosh, I don't want to hear it. I just got my hands on a 3DS and if... if you're saying what I think you're trying to say, you're saying the 4th gen remakes are possibly maybe perhaps going to be on a different console...? :'c Actually, nah, it's cool. I want to see the 4th gen remakes at peak quality, and if that means they'll be catered to a new console, that's great. But one thing's for sure: I'm going to anticipate their release and I'm determined to play them one way or another, heh. By the looks of it, 7th gen won't be released until 2017... so if 4th gen remakes aren't coming out until 8th gen, then... gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can't wait that long Gamefreak pls don't do this to me... also, inb4 Mega Primal Delta Alpha Arceus. And nope nope nope nope nope there's no need for FRLG remakes. That's a bit excessive, don't you think? Gamefreak's been really good about delivering what the people want, so I know they won't drop some FRLG remake out of nowhere. Okay, you missed out on a ton by not playing Platinum. But at the same time, I haven't played Platinum since I last opened it on my DS years ago, so everything I'm about to type will likely be littered with childhood bias and nostalgia. For starters, the Distortion World, holy geezus. That place was backwards af and completely insane and it blew me away, like wtf is that place. And Giratina is freaking badass. Also, the Battle Frontier. I spent a good chunk of my post-game at the Battle Frontier. It's so diverse and since there are five facilities you can derp around in, you won't get bored easily. Of course, since you've played HG, you already know what it's like. You can also rebattle the gym leaders daily, the graphics are a ton better (just my opinion though), and you can chase after the legendary birds roaming across the region. And after typing that out, they better make a Platinum remake instead of D/P remakes. Ohh, Route 209 is cool. It's definitely one of the defining themes of D/P/Pt along with Route 201, Route 203, Route 210, and all of them? 4th gen has some of the best route music. Route 228 is also a personal favorite (both the daytime and nighttime versions). Oh, and I also love the fact that D/P/Pt introduced daytime and nighttime themes. That was awesome. Ughhh, Sinnoh is so jazzy with Route 228 and I love it soooooooo muchhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! I'm having a rush just digging through all these OSTs and wow, this really takes me back. Oh gosh, the good ol' days, indeed. I won't deny that Route 216 was a pain to get through, but once the theme kicked in, oomph. It was a blast. I sometimes flew back there and left my DS on just so I could listen to it on repeat, hehe. Sinnoh is also the region with easily the most diverse terrain with mountains, snow, tropical areas, haunted areas, a safari, a resort, a volcano, a desert, the underground, marshes/swamps, parks, lakes, forests, Distortion World??? You could argue that certain regions also encompass some of those terrains/areas, but geezus, Sinnoh has it all. Hoenn was mainly focused on the tropical aspect, Unova was mainly focused on the urban aspect, Kalos was France-themed? ...and I'm not entirely sure what to say about Kanto and Johto. Oh gosh, I just love 4th gen so much. And not to mention the godly soundfont, omphhhh... If I'm raving this much about 4th gen, just imagine how I'm going to react when the remakes come out. Wowowowow, I can't believe I rambled on so much. You must think I'm insane or something if you don't already. Oh reading and replying to your journey through ORAS was no trouble at all! If anything, I should be apologizing for trailing off so much, eheh.

 

Haha, that's understandable. I used to be pretty open when I was a little kid. I remember times when I bathed with my best friend back in NYC when we had sleepovers together. I couldn't have cared less if my parents or sister wanted to help me change into or out of my clothes. I probably wouldn't have cared if they watched me shower. But something triggered as I got older, and doing any of the stuff I did back then would feel like taboo. I'm not even comfortable changing in front of my family members now. Gosh, how times have changed. I'm also really glad that our school allows us to take gym over the summer since I didn't have to worry about changing too much. Actually, we were all forced to swim everyday towards the end of class so we did have to change into swimsuits in locker rooms. But if I recall correctly, most people either hung towels between themselves and others, or just waited in line for a bathroom stall in order to change. Most of us also showered in the locker rooms after swimming as well, but we all had our swimsuits on since every showerhead was out in the open. So I think it's safe to assume that not very many people were comfortable changing in front of others. Well, this was for the girl's locker room at least, lol. I'm assuming that your school also had separated guy's and girl's locker rooms, right..? Even though I wasn't born here, I was still largely raised in an environment where privacy is considered top priority by most, so I guess that might answer why I'm so conscious about changing in front of people. But at the same time, I have no idea what the guys did, so like the people at your school, they might've just sucked it up and changed in front of each other--which I guess wouldn't be a huge surprise since they were always the first ones at the pool. I'm actually a little envious that you've grown up with such a tolerant mindset for changing in front of others--even if it's only in front of guys, haha. 

 

After listening to what Sanders had to say, I've noticed that his decrees seem a bit overly optimistic. No wonder everyone seems to be supporting him. Still, everything he said is true; we should be investing in environmentally friendly and energy efficient ways of getting around, minimum wage should be raised, and yeah of course everyone deserves a college education, but implementing all of those within a four year time span? Uhh... that's not going happen. Everyone seems so caught up in this utopia he plans to create that they don't realize how much conflict this will make. First of all, a lot of what we operate runs on fossil fuel, so this energy efficient country he plans to make isn't going to take over in merely four years (I hope people realize that). I was pretty pleased with the argument Rand Paul put forth yesterday that addressed this issue. Minimum wage from $7.25 to $15?? Yeahh, a lot of employers won't be happy about that. And the whole free college education thing... it's probably going to come right out of everyone's pockets through taxes. Sure, he means well, but I hope he realizes that he can't just shove all of these new declarations down our throats the moment he steps into office (if he does), because that's what he sounds like he's going to do. He has my support at the moment because he has some pretty good ideas and because I'm not a big fan of Clinton, Trump, or Carson. And you know, Sanders does make a good argument. I was pretty happy with Theodore Roosevelt, and everything he did was pretty agreeable--particularly the policies he implemented. I don't have a favorite president, but he's definitely on the top of my list. Polk is one of the more overshadowed presidents, but the fact that he actually carried out everything he promised to do is pretty commendable.

 

Actually, after watching a small bit of the Republican Debate yesterday, Carson is now ahead of Trump, interestingly enough. What irked me the most about this debate was that much of it was focused on attacking Clinton rather than putting forward ideas. As much as I dislike Clinton, the bashing still left a sour taste in my mouth. They were practically saying, "support me if you don't want America to be ruined by Clinton." They were circlejerking the idea over and over again. I really liked Fiorina up until her closing statement when she decided to hop on the attack-on-Clinton bandwagon. Comparing yourself to others in order to bolster your campaign is cheap and childish (I'm also looking at you, John Kasich). I know it tends to happen since everyone's put on the spot (so pretty much everyone's guilty), but it still doesn't change the fact that the argument is low-hanging fruit at best. Not to mention it gets old real fast.

 

I thought the whole introvert and extrovert thing seemed pretty black and white. Since there are only two categories, I figured you're either one or the other. You're either an introvert or extrovert. Kinda like how you're either a guy or girl (I know there are exceptions and controversy surrounding this, but I'm just using this example for simplicity purposes). So after realizing I didn't know where I belonged, I felt a bit conflicted. I could classify myself as an ambivert, but in all honesty, I never liked the idea of an "ambivert" since it sounds so ambiguous. But you know, this stuff is pretty trivial so it's not something I'm going to bother diving into any further. Maybe I'll just break out of this idea of identifying myself as an introvert or extrovert. I'll just be introverted or extroverted when I need to be, lol. Yeahh, you're right. I guess just the fact that I might be losing my friends is a little disheartening. My sister is still pretty close to her two best friends. One went to Cornell and the other went to UMich so I'm not entirely sure how she managed to maintain her connections with them. Hmm, maybe I'll find the time to visit some of my friends in college. Oh gosh, you had a complete reset of friendships after every summer? So if you ended up in some class with a friend you made in the year prior, you'd treat him/her like an acquaintance? I haven't made many new friends this year since I'm pretty much stuck with the same people each year, lol. The connections I've already established tend to stay intact, and acquaintances usually stay as acquaintances for the same reason.

 

Phew, you have a crapload more PTW anime than I do. And I thought my backlog was already pretty big, haha. Best of luck with that! I saw the reviews on The Dog of Flanders and I'm looking forward to watching it!

 

Ohh, I probably would've casted a vote for Kiritsugu for F/Z, and Illyasviel and Gilgamesh for UBW. I also liked both Lancers a lot. And yeahh, Shirou was kinda meh and reminded me too much of Eren. Gosh, I hate waiting for anime to come out, especially when it ends with such a vague cliffhanger. *cough* SnK *cough* Colossal Titan *cough*. At least UBW ended with some closure, haha. I can't believe 2016 is almost here. Time to hop on the hype train, heh.

 

Oh you little... making me cover my silly grin with my hand while I was reading this in case my parents decided to barge into my room, eheh... Your words were awfully sweet and you're far too kind, ahah... I guess the main reason I decided to approach the Off Topic threads a bit more was because the DC threads were pretty slow. It was always the same people necro-ing and replying to those threads, and I barely found any opportunity to generate some discussion with other people. Hmm, I guess I really can't remember which one of us started posting in the Off Topic threads first. I just dug through my DCW history, and apparently, I didn't approach them actively until November, and wow, I didn't make a single OMM post until November 23. Huh, interesting... that's actually a lot later than I thought. And I guess I started posting more often because I also wanted to get to know you better, hehe. You also seemed like the kind of person I could respect. Your sense of humor and personality stood out to me, you sounded pretty grounded, and there was also something about your posts... I can't exactly put it into words either. Perhaps I was just charmed by the stuff you posted, haha. It really is astonishing how quickly this year has gone by. And I also want to thank you for taking the time to read and reply to my posts for this long. I wasn't very open about myself when we first talked, but after I realized I could trust you, ah well, it was very relieving to say the least. I didn't realize how much I needed someone to talk to. Ranting to a Word doc with incoherent gibberish, caps lock, and stream of consciousness was okay and all, but keeping my feelings all pent-up to myself had me on edge. I didn't want to burden friends by venting about these petty things, and I felt very isolated. I kept everything to myself and figured I could work out my problems as I went along. Just knowing that there was someone on the other end willing to listen to what I had to say was really comforting, so I wanted to thank you for that. The thing is, I've always wanted to comment on your habit of double spacing, but I could never find an appropriate time to squeeze it in. I was also told that the format was "proper" (around middle school I think), but I never bothered to follow through with it. And I'm sure there have been people who've noticed this since it was one of the first things I noticed about you, lol.

 

Wow, they just force freshmen to buy meal swipes? Seems rather unreasonable since everyone has different eating habits. It's good that they allow more flexibility throughout the years though. Do they at least allow you to take food from the dining hall? And there were days when you only ate dinner? Aw geez, don't do this to yourself! My sister also got a lot thinner when she came back to visit us. She purposely starved herself because she couldn't stand college food, which was a bit worrying. Ah well, if you say you're fine, I'll take your word for it. I appreciate that you took the time to inform me, but make sure you treat yourself better, haha.

 

Haha, the thing is, I've always had mixed feelings about my name. I'd prefer it over an oriental name but... I just don't like how my name is portrayed, I guess? But at the same time, I can't imagine myself being named anything else, lol. I really disliked it back in middle school, but I'm beginning to warm up to it now. Still, even if contacts aren't that bad, I really am better off just taking better care of my eyes. I'll be sure to update you with my next response!

 

My parents would never let me skip a day for my own well-being. The only way they'd let me is if I could convincingly tell them that I won't be doing anything in class that day (it only worked for one class though). That said, senior skip day could be an exception, heh. I honestly couldn't care less about perfect attendance, but thinking about the amount of catch-up I'd have to do is daunting. I've never had any injury or sickness cripple me to the point where going to school ends up as a much bigger struggle than usual, but there were definitely days when I wanted to hide under my covers and take a day off because of how tired and unmotivated I felt. You know that heavy feeling in your chest whenever you wake up with less than four hours of sleep? Every Monday last year, I'd count down the days when I would wake up feeling like that. Thankfully, I've found ways to counteract that this year, but it still doesn't change the fact that going to school on certain days can be quite tiresome. Haha, you can't blame yourself for having an epiphany though. Most of my best ideas also come during the late hours of the night, lol.

 

Ah yes, but that's one of the main reasons I love instrumentals so much. I listen to lyrical and heavy beat music when I'm surfing the interwebs, Facebook, etc., you know, leisure stuff. And you're not too far off when you asked whether I listen to them while staring at a wall. I love gazing out my window whenever I need a small break. I have a pretty nice view of the neighborhood, and staring at the trees and bright blue sky in the distance gives me comfort. I guess I could do stuff like math homework under lyrical or heavy beat music, but not as productively as whenever I'm listening to the instrumentals. I also need music in the background whenever I'm working, so I'm always actively adding good instrumentals to my list of things to listen to whenever I happen to stumble across some. I wouldn't say my selection of study music is terribly limited though. I have a pretty extensive list of what I can listen to (hooray for OSTs), and I also have a few musicians/remixers I've subscribed to, so it's all good, haha.

 

Yeah, a few of my friends already know that I tend to stay invisible, lol. At least when they have the urge to open up a chat, they won't be able to tell whether I'm really online or not, eheh... wow, I feel like a jerk wording it that way. Haha, I also have a Gmail tab open at all times! I don't get notifications on my phone since I turned them off, but a small popup window opens on my laptop whenever I receive an email. I also keep a Facebook tab open for times when my phone is out of reach. Oh wow, you check DCW more often than Facebook? Ahah, do you really dislike Facebook that much? Oh geez, I really hated the idea of lockers. Everyone would swarm to them between every class in middle school, and my personal bubble felt violated getting crammed into that mess. Even though my tote bag lessened the amount of locker visits, there are only so many textbooks and folders it can hold. Thank goodness we're allowed to carry around backpacks in high school. And whaaa... you guys had to run to homeroom that often? We only have to visit our homeroom at the beginning of every semester, lol. Well, uh, in my defense, it's actually completely my doing that I'm almost always late to class. Wait, that doesn't sound any better. Okay, let me clarify: it's because I usually choose to stay after class to wait for my friends (or sometimes the other way around). Most teachers don't care if you're late as long as you come into class at a reasonable time. I'd say anything past 1-2 minutes late is pushing it.

 

Oh geez, there are juniors and seniors in this math class? I'm just as surprised as you, if not more so. I didn't realize CWRU was so liberal in allowing people to take their prereq classes whenever they wanted to. How much of this math class would you say is consisted of these juniors and seniors? Skipping class so actively isn't very good no matter how you slice it. But maybe senioritis set in for them...?

 

I read A Wrinkle in Time way back in early middle school, so I didn't have any solid opinions for it other than the fact that it was strange book, lol. I really want to take the time to revisit some of these old books I read in elementary school like The Tale of Despereaux (which I never got around to finishing), The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, and probably a bunch more for old times' sake. Gosh, I feel so old. I can't believe it's been nearly a decade already. Hmm, I'm actually not familiar with The Power of Five probably because Alex Rider was more popular around here. I haven't seen many people carry books from The Power of Five. A Study in Scarlet, hm? I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Thanks for the suggestion! Ohh, you've read To Kill a Mockingbird twice? What for? Haha same, I'll admit it's not exactly a personal favorite either. Same with Gatsby and Of Mice and Men that some people seem to revere to pieces. What were some of your favorite "classics" or required reading from school? 

 

Ohh, I beg to differ. My sister found ways to continue playing piano in college by coordinating with violinists and forming ensembles. She even got a keyboard for her apartment, haha. She seems rather happy with it, so I think it's safe to say that she's not letting this inconvenience bog her down. I'm not the least bit surprised given how much she loves the piano. I don't think practicing in the dorms is much of a problem. It won't disturb most people as long as you use the soft pedal. I guess getting interrupted by people walking by can get frustrating, but you could always head off to a music facility like you said. Sure, it sounds inconvenient, but it's just as inconvenient as going out of your way to work out in a gym. There's nothing wrong with buying barbells and doing reps in your dorm, right? But I'd assume most people don't do it for similar reasons. If you really love it, you'll find ways to work around the inconvenience, haha. Oh poo, I had a glimmer of hope thinking that you might've always been an orch dork at heart, heh. I think it's strange that your parents forced you into playing a band and an orchestra instrument at the same time. You can't be in both orchestra and band, after all. Actually, I take that back. You could technically be in both band and orchestra at our school if you played with the orchestra during concerts. I'm not entirely sure why I quit swimming. I used to love it, but I dunno, I guess I started getting tired of it. Haha, pottery was a lot of fun. I still have most of what I made stashed in the back of my art closet. I wasn't terribly good at it though. But at the same time, what are you going to expect from a little kid, lol. Art was a big part of my life up until sophomore year. My mom hung a few of my paintings in her workplace, which felt really flattering. I had to quit abruptly after my dad had this sudden realization that it was a waste of time; that grades were far more important. I was in the middle of painting a dog at the time, sigh. A lot of my work is still with my teacher, so maybe I'll take the time to retrieve them sometime soon--even the unfinished dog I was painting. Whaaaa?? Those random things my parents signed me up for defined a good chunk of my childhood, haha. If I recall correctly, my most spoken phrase at the time was "I'm bored." I always pestered my parents to take me places because I wanted to do things. It didn't matter where. I would've been perfectly content going to the grocery store with them. Going to those random summer programs was so much fun, heh. In fact, one of those programs I went to planted the seed for my graphic designing hobby. I did silly things like photoshopping the Eiffel Tower on fire (and I still have the picture, hehe), but it wasn't until years later that I decided self-teach myself with the minimal knowledge I gained, which eventually turned into my old YouTube channel. And the rest was history. Ahh, good times. I also loved working with pastels and doing any hands-on activity. I was still very much addicted to my Pokemon games, but they never got in the way of these activities I did. Hmm, now that I think about it, perhaps the reason my parents let me continue tennis and violin was because they were school activities. 

 

Aw geez, thanks, ahah. But really though, thank you for helping me. I seriously don't know what I would've ended up writing if it weren't for you. Oh gosh, I hope your confidence in me isn't misplaced. I'm still pretty nervous about receiving the letter in a little over a month. I appreciate your enthusiasm though, haha.

 

Ahh, but the thing is, my friend saw me ask him for a rec letter and she began teasing me about the incident shortly after, so memory of it definitely didn't die out. Word about the incident actually spread around the school for a few days. My calc teacher interrogated me in front of the class about how I even got my hands on HCl, the concentration of the chemical, why I brought it to school, and you could see and hear the concern in his eyes and tone. I've said and done some pretty stupid things, but this is definitely on the list of some of the stupidest things I've ever done. I can't stop kicking myself over it. You're right though. Maybe he did forget about it by now. He seemed quite happy about the thank-you letter I sent him, so maybe everything really is okay. I don't plan on taking any more breaks from these responses since I've already taken so many these past few weeks. Don't be afraid to take some breaks yourself if you ever feel the need to though, haha.

 

Uh, for your information, I actually finished my college apps before Halloween, hmph. Kidding. I actually finished on Halloween, ahah... Worked through the majority of the day and finished around dusk. It was probably one of my more productive days, lol.

 

Glad to hear that you're doing rather well yourself! I suppose that's one less thing I'll have to worry about then, haha.

[A L 217]

*slowly munches popcorn* why read fanfiction when you got KenZora

[Akazora 293]

*slowly munches popcorn* why read fanfiction when you got KenZora

 

gahh, sorry for the late reply

comp sci is such a pain in the arse at the moment

 

The Meteor Falls theme was pretty memorable for me, so I was really pleased with the remastered version, haha. It never evoked nostalgic response in you? Part of the reason I liked it so much was because I spent a good amount of time in there hunting for a Bagon, lol. Ohh, my favorite city/town themes are probably Lilycove, Ever Grande, Slateport, Verdanturf, and who am I kidding I loved them all. I was hit really hard when I heard Littleroot though. I couldn't breathe for a few seconds because I... I felt like a little kid again... that feeling of playing my sister's Gameboy just flooded all of my senses, t-the nostalgia, ahaah... And the bicycle theme! They did such a good job with the bicycle theme ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

 

Running back and forth between a route and a city and periodically checking whether the Pokemon ended up on the route you were on was enticing to you? If you happened to be lucky enough to encounter it, you also had to make sure you brought a Pokemon with Mean Look or Block so it wouldn't escape. Imagine if you didn't know that. Imagine your naive self walking into a random patch of grass, and suddenly intense encounter music sets in. Imagine yourself experiencing this adrenaline rush while preparing an attack for this legendary Pokemon. Except that it just ran away. Poor you, undergoing one of the most anticlimactic experiences of your childhood. Just grab that Nosepass from the PC you caught then. You can use that to trap Mesprit, no worries. After mindlessly biking in circles for an hour or two... or three... you finally managed to encounter Mesprit again! Hmm, what's this? The Nosepass was too slow and you weren't able to trap Mesprit with Block quickly enough? Too bad you didn't realize that the speed of your Pokemon mattered. Go waste a Pokeball or two on that Golbat you thought you'd never catch. No need to fret, because now you can just go through that arduous process of biking in circles again with your newly caught Golbat! Okay, but make sure you trap it and weaken it enough, and make sure you don't crit the thing! Oops, turns out you didn't buy enough Pokeballs and Potions, and Golbat is almost dead. You shake in anticipation as you sheepishly throw your last Pokeball--your last lifeline--in hopes that a you'll be blessed with a stroke of luck. Sigh, not even one wiggle. It's almost as if Mesprit is trying to mock you! Rinse and repeat. Except this time around, Mesprit decides to Struggle to death before you can catch it. Oh dear, maybe you should've inflicted a status condition on it. Don't worry though. Simply proceed to repeat said process x amount of times until enough rage sets in for you to finally give in and chuck your cherished Masterball at it. Ahh, now you feel accomplished for being able to best it. You laugh a hearty laugh, you save the game... and immediate regret sets in after you realize the amount of effort and rage you could've saved yourself had you done this earlier. You also silently cry to yourself after realizing that you have yet to catch Cresselia. Enticing, indeed! Oops, sorry, got a little carried away there.

 

Oh dear lord, the teleportation tiles were even worse than the directional tiles. Especially the ones in the Aqua Hideout. Geezus the puzzle made no sense. I was too lazy to map out where each tile lead to so I would hold down the left button to see where that would lead me. If that didn't work, I would hold down the right button. And if that didn't work, I'd just run into all of them in the most sporadic manner possible (even if it meant going around in circles again... and again... and again...) until I got to a new area. Definitely not the most efficient way to navigate the area, but my laziness got the best of me. Ohh, ice puzzles were kinda fun. At least I had a sense of where I was going whenever I did those, haha. I can't name every puzzle off the top of my head, but I think my ranking for them would be fairly predictable. The more in-control I am/the less reliant on luck it feels, the less I'll dislike it. You remember Lt. Surge's gym right? That puzzle can burn to the ground.

 

Haha, I never caught Kyogre in my HG either since I never fully completed the game. I was referring to catching it in my friend's HG during one of those card parties I went to. It was still pretty tedious though, as I'm sure you can imagine after catching Primal Kyogre. Ahahaha, you just reminded me that I spent so much time at the Battle Frontier that I had 500+ BP that I never used. I think the only reason I didn't have the heart to spend them was because they kinda represented the amount of work I put into the Battle Frontier. And I guess I reveled in the fact that the number was so high, eheh...  I also had a similar problem with a Yoshi's Island game mechanic... It's nice to know that you're prepping for your run through the Battle Tower though, haha. 

 

Waitt... but they never removed Mirage Island. Well, it's not the same Mirage Island that RSE had, but the island is still there, isn't it?

 

I remember posting quite a few ORAS soundtracks around DCW, so I hope I didn't spoil much for you. Argh, I remember raving about Zinnia's theme a while ago... and I think even Wally's theme... oh dear, I'm really sorry if I happened to spoil any part of ORAS for you, eheh... 

 

They definitely could've done a better job with the Elite 4 theme. It wasn't bad per se, but I think it was one of the weaker soundtracks.

 

Haha, I've never used Battle Items either. I almost always sell the items I don't need, even if my pockets were already filled to the brim with Pokedollars. Oh danggg, you managed to get all three ribbons? You had that much money to spare? And it's a darn good thing you managed to catch Deoxys in time, heh.

 

Ohmygosh, I don't want to hear it. I just got my hands on a 3DS and if... if you're saying what I think you're trying to say, you're saying the 4th gen remakes are possibly maybe perhaps going to be on a different console...? :'c Actually, nah, it's cool. I want to see the 4th gen remakes at peak quality, and if that means they'll be catered to a new console, that's great. But one thing's for sure: I'm going to anticipate their release and I'm determined to play them one way or another, heh. By the looks of it, 7th gen won't be released until 2017... so if 4th gen remakes aren't coming out until 8th gen, then... gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can't wait that long Gamefreak pls don't do this to me... also, inb4 Mega Primal Delta Alpha Arceus. And nope nope nope nope nope there's no need for FRLG remakes. That's a bit excessive, don't you think? Gamefreak's been really good about delivering what the people want, so I know they won't drop some FRLG remake out of nowhere. Okay, you missed out on a ton by not playing Platinum. But at the same time, I haven't played Platinum since I last opened it on my DS years ago, so everything I'm about to type will likely be littered with childhood bias and nostalgia. For starters, the Distortion World, holy geezus. That place was backwards af and completely insane and it blew me away, like wtf is that place. And Giratina is freaking badass. Also, the Battle Frontier. I spent a good chunk of my post-game at the Battle Frontier. It's so diverse and since there are five facilities you can derp around in, you won't get bored easily. Of course, since you've played HG, you already know what it's like. You can also rebattle the gym leaders daily, the graphics are a ton better (just my opinion though), and you can chase after the legendary birds roaming across the region. And after typing that out, they better make a Platinum remake instead of D/P remakes. Ohh, Route 209 is cool. It's definitely one of the defining themes of D/P/Pt along with Route 201, Route 203, Route 210, and all of them? 4th gen has some of the best route music. Route 228 is also a personal favorite (both the daytime and nighttime versions). Oh, and I also love the fact that D/P/Pt introduced daytime and nighttime themes. That was awesome. Ughhh, Sinnoh is so jazzy with Route 228 and I love it soooooooo muchhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! I'm having a rush just digging through all these OSTs and wow, this really takes me back. Oh gosh, the good ol' days, indeed. I won't deny that Route 216 was a pain to get through, but once the theme kicked in, oomph. It was a blast. I sometimes flew back there and left my DS on just so I could listen to it on repeat, hehe. Sinnoh is also the region with easily the most diverse terrain with mountains, snow, tropical areas, haunted areas, a safari, a resort, a volcano, a desert, the underground, marshes/swamps, parks, lakes, forests, Distortion World??? You could argue that certain regions also encompass some of those terrains/areas, but geezus, Sinnoh has it all. Hoenn was mainly focused on the tropical aspect, Unova was mainly focused on the urban aspect, Kalos was France-themed? ...and I'm not entirely sure what to say about Kanto and Johto. Oh gosh, I just love 4th gen so much. And not to mention the godly soundfont, omphhhh... If I'm raving this much about 4th gen, just imagine how I'm going to react when the remakes come out. Wowowowow, I can't believe I rambled on so much. You must think I'm insane or something if you don't already. Oh reading and replying to your journey through ORAS was no trouble at all! If anything, I should be apologizing for trailing off so much, eheh.

 

Haha, that's understandable. I used to be pretty open when I was a little kid. I remember times when I bathed with my best friend back in NYC when we had sleepovers together. I couldn't have cared less if my parents or sister wanted to help me change into or out of my clothes. I probably wouldn't have cared if they watched me shower. But something triggered as I got older, and doing any of the stuff I did back then would feel like taboo. I'm not even comfortable changing in front of my family members now. Gosh, how times have changed. I'm also really glad that our school allows us to take gym over the summer since I didn't have to worry about changing too much. Actually, we were all forced to swim everyday towards the end of class so we did have to change into swimsuits in locker rooms. But if I recall correctly, most people either hung towels between themselves and others, or just waited in line for a bathroom stall in order to change. Most of us also showered in the locker rooms after swimming as well, but we all had our swimsuits on since every showerhead was out in the open. So I think it's safe to assume that not very many people were comfortable changing in front of others. Well, this was for the girl's locker room at least, lol. I'm assuming that your school also had separated guy's and girl's locker rooms, right..? Even though I wasn't born here, I was still largely raised in an environment where privacy is considered top priority by most, so I guess that might answer why I'm so conscious about changing in front of people. But at the same time, I have no idea what the guys did, so like the people at your school, they might've just sucked it up and changed in front of each other--which I guess wouldn't be a huge surprise since they were always the first ones at the pool. I'm actually a little envious that you've grown up with such a tolerant mindset for changing in front of others--even if it's only in front of guys, haha. 

 

After listening to what Sanders had to say, I've noticed that his decrees seem a bit overly optimistic. No wonder everyone seems to be supporting him. Still, everything he said is true; we should be investing in environmentally friendly and energy efficient ways of getting around, minimum wage should be raised, and yeah of course everyone deserves a college education, but implementing all of those within a four year time span? Uhh... that's not going happen. Everyone seems so caught up in this utopia he plans to create that they don't realize how much conflict this will make. First of all, a lot of what we operate runs on fossil fuel, so this energy efficient country he plans to make isn't going to take over in merely four years (I hope people realize that). I was pretty pleased with the argument Rand Paul put forth yesterday that addressed this issue. Minimum wage from $7.25 to $15?? Yeahh, a lot of employers won't be happy about that. And the whole free college education thing... it's probably going to come right out of everyone's pockets through taxes. Sure, he means well, but I hope he realizes that he can't just shove all of these new declarations down our throats the moment he steps into office (if he does), because that's what he sounds like he's going to do. He has my support at the moment because he has some pretty good ideas and because I'm not a big fan of Clinton, Trump, or Carson. And you know, Sanders does make a good argument. I was pretty happy with Theodore Roosevelt, and everything he did was pretty agreeable--particularly the policies he implemented. I don't have a favorite president, but he's definitely on the top of my list. Polk is one of the more overshadowed presidents, but the fact that he actually carried out everything he promised to do is pretty commendable.

 

Actually, after watching a small bit of the Republican Debate yesterday, Carson is now ahead of Trump, interestingly enough. What irked me the most about this debate was that much of it was focused on attacking Clinton rather than putting forward ideas. As much as I dislike Clinton, the bashing still left a sour taste in my mouth. They were practically saying, "support me if you don't want America to be ruined by Clinton." They were circlejerking the idea over and over again. I really liked Fiorina up until her closing statement when she decided to hop on the attack-on-Clinton bandwagon. Comparing yourself to others in order to bolster your campaign is cheap and childish (I'm also looking at you, John Kasich). I know it tends to happen since everyone's put on the spot (so pretty much everyone's guilty), but it still doesn't change the fact that the argument is low-hanging fruit at best. Not to mention it gets old real fast.

 

I thought the whole introvert and extrovert thing seemed pretty black and white. Since there are only two categories, I figured you're either one or the other. You're either an introvert or extrovert. Kinda like how you're either a guy or girl (I know there are exceptions and controversy surrounding this, but I'm just using this example for simplicity purposes). So after realizing I didn't know where I belonged, I felt a bit conflicted. I could classify myself as an ambivert, but in all honesty, I never liked the idea of an "ambivert" since it sounds so ambiguous. But you know, this stuff is pretty trivial so it's not something I'm going to bother diving into any further. Maybe I'll just break out of this idea of identifying myself as an introvert or extrovert. I'll just be introverted or extroverted when I need to be, lol. Yeahh, you're right. I guess just the fact that I might be losing my friends is a little disheartening. My sister is still pretty close to her two best friends. One went to Cornell and the other went to UMich so I'm not entirely sure how she managed to maintain her connections with them. Hmm, maybe I'll find the time to visit some of my friends in college. Oh gosh, you had a complete reset of friendships after every summer? So if you ended up in some class with a friend you made in the year prior, you'd treat him/her like an acquaintance? I haven't made many new friends this year since I'm pretty much stuck with the same people each year, lol. The connections I've already established tend to stay intact, and acquaintances usually stay as acquaintances for the same reason.

 

Phew, you have a crapload more PTW anime than I do. And I thought my backlog was already pretty big, haha. Best of luck with that! I saw the reviews on The Dog of Flanders and I'm looking forward to watching it!

 

Ohh, I probably would've casted a vote for Kiritsugu for F/Z, and Illyasviel and Gilgamesh for UBW. I also liked both Lancers a lot. And yeahh, Shirou was kinda meh and reminded me too much of Eren. Gosh, I hate waiting for anime to come out, especially when it ends with such a vague cliffhanger. *cough* SnK *cough* Colossal Titan *cough*. At least UBW ended with some closure, haha. I can't believe 2016 is almost here. Time to hop on the hype train, heh.

 

Oh you little... making me cover my silly grin with my hand while I was reading this in case my parents decided to barge into my room, eheh... Your words were awfully sweet and you're far too kind, ahah... I guess the main reason I decided to approach the Off Topic threads a bit more was because the DC threads were pretty slow. It was always the same people necro-ing and replying to those threads, and I barely found any opportunity to generate some discussion with other people. Hmm, I guess I really can't remember which one of us started posting in the Off Topic threads first. I just dug through my DCW history, and apparently, I didn't approach them actively until November, and wow, I didn't make a single OMM post until November 23. Huh, interesting... that's actually a lot later than I thought. And I guess I started posting more often because I also wanted to get to know you better, hehe. You also seemed like the kind of person I could respect. Your sense of humor and personality stood out to me, you sounded pretty grounded, and there was also something about your posts... I can't exactly put it into words either. Perhaps I was just charmed by the stuff you posted, haha. It really is astonishing how quickly this year has gone by. And I also want to thank you for taking the time to read and reply to my posts for this long. I wasn't very open about myself when we first talked, but after I realized I could trust you, ah well, it was very relieving to say the least. I didn't realize how much I needed someone to talk to. Ranting to a Word doc with incoherent gibberish, caps lock, and stream of consciousness was okay and all, but keeping my feelings all pent-up to myself had me on edge. I didn't want to burden friends by venting about these petty things, and I felt very isolated. I kept everything to myself and figured I could work out my problems as I went along. Just knowing that there was someone on the other end willing to listen to what I had to say was really comforting, so I wanted to thank you for that. The thing is, I've always wanted to comment on your habit of double spacing, but I could never find an appropriate time to squeeze it in. I was also told that the format was "proper" (around middle school I think), but I never bothered to follow through with it. And I'm sure there have been people who've noticed this since it was one of the first things I noticed about you, lol.

 

Wow, they just force freshmen to buy meal swipes? Seems rather unreasonable since everyone has different eating habits. It's good that they allow more flexibility throughout the years though. Do they at least allow you to take food from the dining hall? And there were days when you only ate dinner? Aw geez, don't do this to yourself! My sister also got a lot thinner when she came back to visit us. She purposely starved herself because she couldn't stand college food, which was a bit worrying. Ah well, if you say you're fine, I'll take your word for it. I appreciate that you took the time to inform me, but make sure you treat yourself better, haha.

 

Haha, the thing is, I've always had mixed feelings about my name. I'd prefer it over an oriental name but... I just don't like how my name is portrayed, I guess? But at the same time, I can't imagine myself being named anything else, lol. I really disliked it back in middle school, but I'm beginning to warm up to it now. Still, even if contacts aren't that bad, I really am better off just taking better care of my eyes. I'll be sure to update you with my next response!

 

My parents would never let me skip a day for my own well-being. The only way they'd let me is if I could convincingly tell them that I won't be doing anything in class that day (it only worked for one class though). That said, senior skip day could be an exception, heh. I honestly couldn't care less about perfect attendance, but thinking about the amount of catch-up I'd have to do is daunting. I've never had any injury or sickness cripple me to the point where going to school ends up as a much bigger struggle than usual, but there were definitely days when I wanted to hide under my covers and take a day off because of how tired and unmotivated I felt. You know that heavy feeling in your chest whenever you wake up with less than four hours of sleep? Every Monday last year, I'd count down the days when I would wake up feeling like that. Thankfully, I've found ways to counteract that this year, but it still doesn't change the fact that going to school on certain days can be quite tiresome. Haha, you can't blame yourself for having an epiphany though. Most of my best ideas also come during the late hours of the night, lol.

 

Ah yes, but that's one of the main reasons I love instrumentals so much. I listen to lyrical and heavy beat music when I'm surfing the interwebs, Facebook, etc., you know, leisure stuff. And you're not too far off when you asked whether I listen to them while staring at a wall. I love gazing out my window whenever I need a small break. I have a pretty nice view of the neighborhood, and staring at the trees and bright blue sky in the distance gives me comfort. I guess I could do stuff like math homework under lyrical or heavy beat music, but not as productively as whenever I'm listening to the instrumentals. I also need music in the background whenever I'm working, so I'm always actively adding good instrumentals to my list of things to listen to whenever I happen to stumble across some. I wouldn't say my selection of study music is terribly limited though. I have a pretty extensive list of what I can listen to (hooray for OSTs), and I also have a few musicians/remixers I've subscribed to, so it's all good, haha.

 

Yeah, a few of my friends already know that I tend to stay invisible, lol. At least when they have the urge to open up a chat, they won't be able to tell whether I'm really online or not, eheh... wow, I feel like a jerk wording it that way. Haha, I also have a Gmail tab open at all times! I don't get notifications on my phone since I turned them off, but a small popup window opens on my laptop whenever I receive an email. I also keep a Facebook tab open for times when my phone is out of reach. Oh wow, you check DCW more often than Facebook? Ahah, do you really dislike Facebook that much? Oh geez, I really hated the idea of lockers. Everyone would swarm to them between every class in middle school, and my personal bubble felt violated getting crammed into that mess. Even though my tote bag lessened the amount of locker visits, there are only so many textbooks and folders it can hold. Thank goodness we're allowed to carry around backpacks in high school. And whaaa... you guys had to run to homeroom that often? We only have to visit our homeroom at the beginning of every semester, lol. Well, uh, in my defense, it's actually completely my doing that I'm almost always late to class. Wait, that doesn't sound any better. Okay, let me clarify: it's because I usually choose to stay after class to wait for my friends (or sometimes the other way around). Most teachers don't care if you're late as long as you come into class at a reasonable time. I'd say anything past 1-2 minutes late is pushing it.

 

Oh geez, there are juniors and seniors in this math class? I'm just as surprised as you, if not more so. I didn't realize CWRU was so liberal in allowing people to take their prereq classes whenever they wanted to. How much of this math class would you say is consisted of these juniors and seniors? Skipping class so actively isn't very good no matter how you slice it. But maybe senioritis set in for them...?

 

I read A Wrinkle in Time way back in early middle school, so I didn't have any solid opinions for it other than the fact that it was strange book, lol. I really want to take the time to revisit some of these old books I read in elementary school like The Tale of Despereaux (which I never got around to finishing), The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, and probably a bunch more for old times' sake. Gosh, I feel so old. I can't believe it's been nearly a decade already. Hmm, I'm actually not familiar with The Power of Five probably because Alex Rider was more popular around here. I haven't seen many people carry books from The Power of Five. A Study in Scarlet, hm? I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Thanks for the suggestion! Ohh, you've read To Kill a Mockingbird twice? What for? Haha same, I'll admit it's not exactly a personal favorite either. Same with Gatsby and Of Mice and Men that some people seem to revere to pieces. What were some of your favorite "classics" or required reading from school? 

 

Ohh, I beg to differ. My sister found ways to continue playing piano in college by coordinating with violinists and forming ensembles. She even got a keyboard for her apartment, haha. She seems rather happy with it, so I think it's safe to say that she's not letting this inconvenience bog her down. I'm not the least bit surprised given how much she loves the piano. I don't think practicing in the dorms is much of a problem. It won't disturb most people as long as you use the soft pedal. I guess getting interrupted by people walking by can get frustrating, but you could always head off to a music facility like you said. Sure, it sounds inconvenient, but it's just as inconvenient as going out of your way to work out in a gym. There's nothing wrong with buying barbells and doing reps in your dorm, right? But I'd assume most people don't do it for similar reasons. If you really love it, you'll find ways to work around the inconvenience, haha. Oh poo, I had a glimmer of hope thinking that you might've always been an orch dork at heart, heh. I think it's strange that your parents forced you into playing a band and an orchestra instrument at the same time. You can't be in both orchestra and band, after all. Actually, I take that back. You could technically be in both band and orchestra at our school if you played with the orchestra during concerts. I'm not entirely sure why I quit swimming. I used to love it, but I dunno, I guess I started getting tired of it. Haha, pottery was a lot of fun. I still have most of what I made stashed in the back of my art closet. I wasn't terribly good at it though. But at the same time, what are you going to expect from a little kid, lol. Art was a big part of my life up until sophomore year. My mom hung a few of my paintings in her workplace, which felt really flattering. I had to quit abruptly after my dad had this sudden realization that it was a waste of time; that grades were far more important. I was in the middle of painting a dog at the time, sigh. A lot of my work is still with my teacher, so maybe I'll take the time to retrieve them sometime soon--even the unfinished dog I was painting. Whaaaa?? Those random things my parents signed me up for defined a good chunk of my childhood, haha. If I recall correctly, my most spoken phrase at the time was "I'm bored." I always pestered my parents to take me places because I wanted to do things. It didn't matter where. I would've been perfectly content going to the grocery store with them. Going to those random summer programs was so much fun, heh. In fact, one of those programs I went to planted the seed for my graphic designing hobby. I did silly things like photoshopping the Eiffel Tower on fire (and I still have the picture, hehe), but it wasn't until years later that I decided self-teach myself with the minimal knowledge I gained, which eventually turned into my old YouTube channel. And the rest was history. Ahh, good times. I also loved working with pastels and doing any hands-on activity. I was still very much addicted to my Pokemon games, but they never got in the way of these activities I did. Hmm, now that I think about it, perhaps the reason my parents let me continue tennis and violin was because they were school activities. 

 

Aw geez, thanks, ahah. But really though, thank you for helping me. I seriously don't know what I would've ended up writing if it weren't for you. Oh gosh, I hope your confidence in me isn't misplaced. I'm still pretty nervous about receiving the letter in a little over a month. I appreciate your enthusiasm though, haha.

 

Ahh, but the thing is, my friend saw me ask him for a rec letter and she began teasing me about the incident shortly after, so memory of it definitely didn't die out. Word about the incident actually spread around the school for a few days. My calc teacher interrogated me in front of the class about how I even got my hands on HCl, the concentration of the chemical, why I brought it to school, and you could see and hear the concern in his eyes and tone. I've said and done some pretty stupid things, but this is definitely on the list of some of the stupidest things I've ever done. I can't stop kicking myself over it. You're right though. Maybe he did forget about it by now. He seemed quite happy about the thank-you letter I sent him, so maybe everything really is okay. I don't plan on taking any more breaks from these responses since I've already taken so many these past few weeks. Don't be afraid to take some breaks yourself if you ever feel the need to though, haha.

 

Uh, for your information, I actually finished my college apps before Halloween, hmph. Kidding. I actually finished on Halloween, ahah... Worked through the majority of the day and finished around dusk. It was probably one of my more productive days, lol.

 

Glad to hear that you're doing rather well yourself! I suppose that's one less thing I'll have to worry about then, haha.

Don’t worry about being late; gotta make sure you submit those assignments in on time after all!

 

Hrm, hunting for a Bagon shouldn’t have taken that much time though, right?  It’s only found in that specific little patch of land where you find the Dragon Claw TM, but even so it’s relatively common there.  Unless you were looking for an Adamant natured one and just got really unlucky with RNG?  Truuue, all of Hoenn’s route and towns and cities have rather catchy tunes.  They did a great job remixing them, though I wouldn’t say I ever had one of those breathless moments like you had with Littleroot (hahah, that high affinity to music of yours is showing again).  For me, the things I loved about ORAS the most were actually all the new stuff they added and changed.  The nostalgia factor is nice, but if it was just a 1:1 upgrade like with HGSS I wouldn’t have liked it as much as I did.

 

Th-The salt is strong with this one…  I’m uhhh, I’m sorry I asked…………  Since I got my Pokemon games so late (or at least it always seemed my friends had finished the games I was just starting, even today) I always had sufficient time to learn the pro-tips of doing the hard stuff.  I always watched on as a bunch of people I knew played Pokemon, generally third and fourth gen games, in the after school program I was in.  My parents had work so they couldn’t pick me and my brother up right when school ended, and because elementary school homework couldn’t even be considered homework, I found myself watching hours and hours of gameplay every week.  Because of that, I pretty much learned relatively safe and simple ways of tracking down roaming Pokemon.  We were still all scrubs though, so none of us knew jack squat about natures or that doing weird button inputs while the Pokeball was shaking did not, in fact, raise our chances of a secure capture or that getting Arceus traded to your game through GTS (wut, that wasn’t even possible) would not, despite popular misconception, brick your game.  I’m sorry, errrr, to hear that you did not receive the kind of assistance that I did……  That was the most passive aggressive thing I have ever heard read you say type (that doesn’t make any sense, but whatever) and I’m a bit frightened.  What was that about a woman scorned again…?  Hahah, joking joking

 

Whaa--?  B-But the Team Aqua Hideout was one of the easiest hideouts to traverse, both the original and the remade ones…  If you’re talking about that room full of teleportation tiles, I believe the layout was exactly the same in both RSE and ORAS, so when I came across it in Alpha Sapphire I subconsciously remembered the correct path from the countless times I had done in the past and just waltzed right on in.  Aww, and I wouldn’t be too hard on Lt. Surge’s Gym.  A lot of it relied on dumb luck, but it generally worked out before it got infuriating.  The only thing that really struck me as rage inducing was Route 13 in XY.  That placed was ridiculous.  I’m not sure if you feel the same way since you never played it, but goddamn.  Those little patches of dust that signify a Pokemon underground?  The way they chase you around and only move when you move like peskier versions of Hoenn’s Mimic Circle?  The fact that you can’t repel them?  The Dugtrio and Trapinch that always seem to have Area Trap?  That you need to use skates to get to certain places, but the constantly changing direction of the wind makes it hard to control and easy to run into dust patches?  I can’t even think how a route could be more poorly designed than that.  If they don’t fix this route in Z, I’m going to be really angry.

 

Woahhh, 500+ BP and you never spent any of it nor did you bother trying to get a 100 battle win streak??  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given you’re hesitant to even use your PayPal money.  Just be sure not to let that habit carry over when you get a real job.  You have to spend money eventually, hahah.  Woah, you played Yoshi’s Island?  The port for the GBA, I assume?  I’ve never played the game, but just the other day I was listening to a selection of Nintendo soundtracks to get me hyped for the Direct that happened on Thursday, and the opening theme of Yoshi’s Island was on there.  Gosh, that music box melody really hit me hard in the nostalgia, even though I never played the game.  What a beautiful song; really evokes childhood memories.  I especially liked how the music box eventually slows to a stop but is wound back up again.

 

Hrm, according to Bulbapedia, Mirage Island is only present RSE.  Are you thinking about Mirage spots?  Those are only accessible via soaring, apparently, which I have yet to do.  And from what I can tell, none of the Mirage Spots are located where the original Mirage Island was.  Or are you thinking of the Secret Meadow?  That’s located really close to where Mirage Island used to appear.  However, I don’t think they’re the same island, because they look completely different and according to the Town Map they should be bordering each other.  From what I gather, Mirage Island is completely gone, even if its inclusion wouldn’t have added much to the gameplay regardless.

 

Ah, no worries, I completely ignored those posts of yours ahah.  I wanted to take every opportunity to get to know you better of course, but at the same time I didn’t want to spoil ORAS for myself and in this situation ORAS took priority (no offense though, eheheh).

 

Even if 4th gen remakes don’t come out for the 3DS, I’d be perfectly cool with that.  My 3DS library is absolutely massive as it is.  And admittedly, the 3DS was having a bit of trouble running XY and ORAS.  Since you never played them yourself, you’re probably not aware, but when you switch on the 3D effects during the Pokemon battles, there are significant frame drops.  It gets even worse when a Pokemon is in the middle of a graphic-intensive move.  It’s very noticeable and really distracting, which gave me even less of an incentive to have the 3D effect on.  Who knows if Nintendo is going to continue this 3D gimmick going into the next gen handheld, but whether they do or not I hope the 4th gen remakes end up perfectly suited for whatever console it ends up being made for.  The wait is going to be long, but you have to admit, ORAS did only just come out.  Maybe for you it’s been a while, but for me I’m still content with exploring the world of Hoenn in the meantime.  And working on Pearl’s Battle Tower as well, hahah.  We should be grateful there aren’t massive gaps between games like with Smash Bros at least.  Looks like we aren’t going to get a revamped Kanto, since it was announced during the Nintendo Direct that RBY would be coming to the Virtual Console on the 3DS.  That’s a nice way to appease fans who want to emulate the first gen without having to use an illegal phone/PC method and leaves room for them to work on new projects.  Woah there Kenzi, nostalgia goggles indeed, hahahah.  I certainly see why you like Platinum so much.  I can’t say I agree or disagree with you, since I haven’t played the game myself.  My brother emulated it not too long and thought it was pretty much the same as Diamond and Pearl, with the added benefit of Cyrus being far more interesting of a character.  He didn’t gush over it though, so I’m fairly certain a lot of what you’re saying is skewed by rose-tinted memories.  Sinnoh did have a fair share of flaws, after all.  Oh my gosh, you like the music so much…  I think it’s pretty good, though it doesn’t invoke as much of a nostalgic response as RSE’s sound track.  Route 228’s theme is nice and funky, but I was never too keen on jazz when I was in elementary/middle school, which is probably why Unova’s songs blew me away more than Sinnoh’s.  I've only recently found an appreciation for jazz and in fact found this really fresh jazz-based K-pop album not too long ago that’s rather addictive, ahah.  I didn’t explore HG well enough to know what the Battle Frontier was like, so I actually don’t really know what you’re talking about, ehhh…  But if it’s anything like Emerald’s Battle Frontier, then that does sound rather nice.  I hope the 4th gen remakes do turn out nice for your sake, though expecting a Platinum remake over Diamond and Pearl ones is a bit much given the precedent they’ve set.  It’s not impossible, but a little nod to make Giratina more plot prevalent like they did with the Delta Episode seems more likely.  More people played Diamond and Pearl than Platinum, so if they break the precedent now they're going to piss off more people than not.  Ohh and it’s no problem at all!  It’s actually a lot of fun seeing how you geek out over Platinum, ahahah!

 

Dayum, you guys have a pool too?  JP obviously doesn’t, though it was a running gag to try and convince the incoming freshman that there was a pool on the third floor (we don’t have a third floor).  I haven’t gone swimming in ages, which actually probably explains why I wouldn’t be all that comfortable even just shirtless in the presence of females.  I guess it shouldn’t be any surprise that you’ve become more conservative with your body as time passed.  It would be really weird if you’d still be up for a bath with friends at this age.  It’s interesting to know that you were so open when you were younger though; from what you had said before, it seemed like you were conservative your whole life and not just recently.  I wonder if it really does have something to do with your school/city’s environment?  Or maybe guys are just generally more chill with this stuff, since guys here also generally finished changing faster than girls.  I wouldn’t say it’s anything to be envious about though; it really only comes in handy when you find yourself having to use facilities that have almost no privacy (Taplin’s bathrooms are kinda ughh, but I’ve gotten used to them).

 

Mhm, Sanders definitely isn’t the candidate with very realistic goals or ideas, even if I do agree with a lot of what he has to say.  But then again, all politicians promise unrealistic things to an extent.  I watched the debate as well… kinda.  After the Nintendo Direct was announced, a YouTuber I keep up with hosted a hype stream on Twitch, and even though it was just two hours of him talking and getting hype with the chat, I wanted to watch it.  Unfortunately, it started exactly when the debate started, so I had the bright idea of just putting both the stream and the debate on two separate windows, shrinking them down, shoving them over to the side, and doing my accounting homework in a larger window.  I turned the volume up for both the debate and the livestream, and it was a goddamn mess.  Heh, oh well, Directs are rarer than debates, so it was worth it, ahah.  However, it was very difficult to follow what was going on, so I can’t really say much as far as how the debate went.  It might have just been my imagination, but there seemed to be a bit more contention between the candidates than before.  Yeah, I don’t really like Kasich much either, since he always seems to be the one who initiates attacks on the other candidates.  Fiorina apparently really hates Clinton, though she hides it pretty well.  Occasionally she comes out and directly attacks Clinton (I believe she did that in a previous closing statement as well) but for now at least that’s not the focus of her campaign, and at the very least she doesn’t just throw Clinton’s name out of the blue during unrelated discussions like Christie, who spoke in the earlier secondary debate, has the bad habit of doing.  Sigh, there really is no perfect candidate, especially for a centrist like me.  I have qualms about supporting both Sanders and Fiorina, but then again I don’t really see any better options for now.  At least those on the far right and those on the far left can blindly vote for their respective parties and rest easy believing that they made the correct decision, whether or not they’re mistaken in their beliefs.

 

Yup, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert or some mix of both depending on the day of the week.  Just be whatever you want to be and whatever you feel like, ahah.  That’s rather impressive your sister managed to keep in touch with her two best friends from high school!  Of course, I guess when it comes to best friends and really good friends, maintaining ties even over long distances shouldn’t be much of a problem.  For me, I guess I just never made such strong friendships that I would have been distraught over losing them.  I don’t want to sound like some emo teenager who mopes around like “Look at how edgy I am, I don’t need human compassion” *blasts heavy metal and Evanescence*; I’ve matured past that cringy stage of life.  I guess as an introvert, it’s hard to really connect with people on a personal level.  I'm just more in my "zone" when I do thing by myself.  That’s why I was so surprised I hit it off with you so well, eheheh.  So losing “friendships” annually has just been a way of life for me; I hardly think anything of it.  It’s not like I dislike people (I love my family and I really like you after all), but being alone doesn’t really bother me either.  Huh, I don’t know if I’m making any sense.  It’s hard to put it into words, but that’s how it is, ahah.

 

Woah, I didn’t realize you started posting in the OMM thread so late either!  But it is true that all of those threads actually related to DC can get stale really fast.  Heheh, I’m glad you started posting more in the Off-Topic threads.  Aww shucks, look at you, making me out to be all special and everything, golly, you’ve got me blushing again…  I’m glad I could be there for you though.  I always derive so much pleasure from reading and responding to your replies as well, so it’s definitely not a burden either.  I’m really happy I could make a difference in your life.  And of course, I could say the same for you.  My senior year was already off to a great start, but since meeting you my life has only gotten better and better.  Being able to completely open up to someone is just fantastic, so for every time you thank me, I thank you back.  I can’t even remember what my life was like before I met you.  I’ve been happier than I could ever imagine these past few months, and it’s hard to imagine how I could have gotten through those rough patches in life without someone like you to support me from afar.  You’ve made a world of a difference in my life, you amazing person.

 

Hmm, I’ve never tried taking food from the dining halls before, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else attempt it, but I’m sure they’ll let you.  As long as you don’t stack together ten burgers and walk out you should be fine.  Ehhh, I know, now that I’ve been working out my metabolism has really been kicking into high gear as well.  But at the same time, I get stuffed pretty easily when I do eat, so I’m not too sure what’s up with that.  It's not like my stomach shrunk, so maybe my hunger threshold was altered?  Maybe I should try to eat smaller meals but more frequently?  It sounds like a bit of a hassle and I don’t see how that’s going to play into my schedule very easily, but I might consider it.  Mhm, I remember you telling me about your sister’s picky eating.  That sounds absolutely ridiculous, especially since I’d even dare say what I remember Brandeis’s food quality to be was actually better than what we have here at Leutner.  I wonder how she managed in high school?  Hahah, did she pack exquisite French dining for lunch every day or something?

 

Mixed feelings about your name, huh?  I can sort of understand how you feel.  It’s a bit curious you say you don’t like “how your name is portrayed”, since you’d think the reason you might harbor somewhat negative feelings towards it is because it’s too common or something.  I’m glad that my name isn’t too common, but at the same time I feel like it has a bit of an unprofessional connotation, since it can be seen as an abbreviation for another name, even though in my case it’s not.  But I’ve gotten used to it and hardly even think of my name anymore, so it’s all good in the end, ahah.  Yup, I definitely want to know what the results of your eye appointment are!

 

Ohh, my parents would be fine with me staying home if I really insisted that I wasn’t feeling well.  Of course they’d voice concern over the amount of work I’d have to make up, but at least they’d let me get the rest I need.  And of course, I’ve only ever had to miss a full day of school like, twice or something, so it’s not like I abused my ability to do this or anything.  L-Less than four hours of sleep…?  Th-That’s me like every other day, oh dear…  Okay, joking, not that often, but I have nights like that at least twice a week, usually more.  I seriously need to fix my sleeping habits for next semester, especially since I’m planning on taking slightly more classes than I did this semester, some of which might happen earlier than what I’m used to.

 

I guess you do find the chance to listen to lyrical and heavy beat songs, but still…  I didn’t expect you to actually stare out the window while you listen to some songs, eheh.  I always keep the blinds closed in my room, both back home and here in my dorm.  Natural light is nice and all, but back at home the sun always set right in front of my window and the glare seriously ruins the mood of the anime I watch.  The habit’s just carried over, and my roommate doesn’t mind since he’s also quite the shut-in himself who’s so neck-deep in his phone and PC games it sometimes frightens me…  And I’m guessing if you still subscribe to YouTubers but your original graphics channel is down, you’re using an alternate account for that?  I’m always logged in to YouTube because my Gmail’s always open, but I’ve never liked anything, commented on anything, or subscribed to anyone.  I don’t know why, sometimes it feels like I really should express my appreciation for when I stumble upon something I like, but at the same time I don’t really feel like it, eheheheheh…

 

Hmm, but if you’re always invisible, then won’t people just chat you up anyway once they realize that you’re never going to officially go online?  Even if you’re not actually there, at least they have a chance of hearing back from you while as opposed to waiting they don’t have any chance at all.  That might temporarily decrease the number of people who chat with you, but in the long run wouldn’t that result in a higher rate of messages when compared to only briefly logging on every once in a while to trick people into thinking they just always happen to be online at the wrong time?  I don’t dislike Facebook per se; I just don’t need it for anything.  There’s nothing fun on it, and it’s only productive if there’s a group project I need to work on.  If I want to relax and chill out, I have anime and video games to turn to.  If I want to be productive, then I track down some tunes to listen to and get to work.  There’s nothing Facebook really provides, even though it actively tries to get me to log in as often as possible.  “Help your friends recognize you by uploading a profile picture” or something.  It’s kinda cute how hard it tries.  Ahh, there’s that whole “privacy is important” theme coming from your town again.  Lockers are hardly an intrusion of privacy, not once you get really good at efficiently packing and unpacking in the throng of people.  Wait… homeroom is only at the beginning of each semester for you guys?  N-Not every day?  What’s the point of a homeroom then, I’m so confused…  Our homeroom is for the morning announcements, pledge of allegiance (I’ve almost forgotten I don’t have to do this on weekdays anymore), and taking attendance.  In our school, you have to be in homeroom on time otherwise you’re officially late for the day.  You also have to be in homeroom otherwise you’re absent for the day.  Teachers can see whether or not you were in homeroom for that day and whether or not you were late, and if you were absent for homeroom but did not stop by the office to report in late then the teachers are incapable of marking you present on their class roster, so no sneaking in through the back doors (there are security cameras anyway, don’t even try it).  They can also see whether or not you were in other classes for that day, so skipping only one class of the day isn’t recommended unless you want your teacher to have a really bad impression of you.  It’s either all or nothing.  Thing is, you mentioned before that sometimes you considered just skipping just one class for a day.  I was confused at first because that seemed disadvantageous on multiple levels, but now that I think about it… your attendance system is probably completely different from ours then, isn’t it?  How does attendance at your school work?

 

I think a little under half are, or rather were, juniors and seniors.  That percentage is slightly smaller now, since there were a few seniors that especially stood out in my mind at the beginning of the year that, for some reason, have dropped out of the class.  A senior dropping a prereq class?  Sheesh, bless their souls and their wallets.  Honestly, I don’t see how you can’t get your prereqs done before the first semester of your junior year, especially if you have AP credits.  Even if you don’t come in with credits, the system is designed so that it’s still completely possible.  Just take enough classes each semester and don’t fail, ahah.  If you don’t finish your prereqs by the end of your sophomore year, you won’t even be qualified for honor societies like Phi Beta Kappa.  And people have counselors leading them in the right direction from day one, so unless you go out of your way to ignore what’s both good for you and what your advisor recommends, I don’t really see how you can so royally screw up in college.  It can’t just be senioritis.  Seniors who worked hard in their previous years can slack off a bit, but those who slacked off early on and are only finishing prereqs now better be putting in their fair share of work if they plan on graduating.  The majority of seniors in my math class are definitely pulling their weight and trying hard, so I won’t judge how they handled their earlier years, but the seniors just not giving a damn even when they’re at the end of the line?  For shame, for shame.

 

I recognize The Tale of Despereaux’s cover, but I’ve never read it, though I believe I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit somewhere.  I’m not sure under what circumstances though.  Ahhhh, and I recognize the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters but I don’t think I ever read the books.  Back then, I read mainly the Magic Tree House and Goosebumps series, as well as some of the classic stuff like E.B White and of course the picture books by people like Jan Brett and Chris van Allsburg.  Oh, and for some reason I vividly remember the Berenstain Bears books as well.  The Alex Rider series was more popular than The Power of Five here as well; I just happened to stumble upon the first book in the series by chance one day at the library.  It was fairly entertaining and known for the brutal five year gap between the fourth and the final book.  I had to re-read the first four books just so to remember what I going on when the fifth book finally released not too long ago, hahah.  The first time I read To Kill a Mocking Bird, it was for some summer education program my parents signed me up for; the second time it was for actual school.  I didn’t like Gatsby either, and I thought Of Mice and Men was pretty decent, though I read it in one sitting for leisure so I’m not sure how being forced to read it for school would have felt.  Hm, well, one of the “classics” I already mentioned: A Tale of Two Cities.  The other two I believe I have on my profile page: A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (I believe I mentioned this previously) which was summer reading for senior year and Beloved by Toni Morrison which one of the books we reading during senior year.  Both are fantastic, and not even really that old so they aren’t “classics” in the same sense that Huck Finn is a classic.  Also, I liked Beloved all-in-all better than Handmaid’s Tale, but only barely.

 

Well, you have a fair point there.  People will go to insane lengths for the sake of someone or something they love.  I’ve already sacrificed so much of my soul and sanity for video games and anime over the course my life, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat, hahah.  I guess it really comes down to what you’re passionate about, and it’s good that your sister is so devoted to the piano!  I’m not sure whether or not you were allowed to be in both the band and orchestra in my high school.  I assumed it wasn’t allowed since no one ever did it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case given how elitist the band is.  I know in middle school there was this one person who was part of both the band and choir, so at least in middle school it looks like compromises could be struck.  Oh man, it sucks that you had to quit art so abruptly like that.  If it’s not any inconvenience, then yes it would definitely be a good idea to see if you can get some of your paintings back from our teacher.  Ahh, quite the ambitious and curious child you were!  Gosh, I feel ashamed; I’m certain I wasn’t nearly this energetic when I was younger.  Maybe I was when I was a toddler and stuff, but not after I discovered the joys of video games, ufufufufu.  I can hardly remember what I did to keep myself entertained back in the day.  Apart from school and the stuff my parents forced on me, it’s not like I had much work to do.  Hmm, my brother and I started playing the video games behind our parents’ back at a very very very early age, so I wouldn’t even be surprised if most of my free time was preoccupied with devious thoughts like that.  After all, I did pull an all-nighter in fourth grade for the sake of Pokemon, sooo…...  I definitely wouldn’t hold it against myself…  Geezus, how embarrassing, as your senior I am a terrible example.  If anything, it’s your youth and spirit I should be looking up to, hahahah.  Good on you for being so driven and self-motivated to explore the world around you!

 

Eheh, I can’t help it, just the thought of possibly being able to see you is just… gosh, it’s really exciting!  I’m so curious to know what you look like, I can barely contain myself.  Hmm, I wonder if I can find a picture of you online…?  Ehhh, that sounds kinda creepy…  How would you think of me if I put my brain to the test to try and find one?  Probably poorly, right…?  Yeah, never mind, not a good idea……

 

If you were called out in front of everybody like that and that was all anybody would talk about for days, then I can imagine how that left an impression on you.  You must have been mortified.  I know that feeling, it sucks.  And geez Kenzi, don’t force yourself to reply just because you skipped and delayed a few responses recently!  It’s not like you have a month or yearly quota to meet!  Just do what you can!  And of course, if I find myself bogged down with work, especially as this semester draws to a close, I’ll definitely be sure to take a break.

 

Ahh, I actually technically finished my apps on Halloween as well!  It was mainly giving everything the final touches before submitting it that night.  Anyway, if you haven’t already noticed, this response was rather short compared to what I usually write.  I’m really sorry about that, but I have a crazy week coming up and I need all the time I can get this weekend, so if you’re wondering why I may sound distracted and/or rushed anywhere in this response, it’s because I have a lot on my mind.  Hopefully you’re not nearly as stressed as I am, ahah.  If I can use this weekend’s time wisely and not derp around idiotically like I usually do, I should be okay, so don’t worry about me too much!

[Kenzi 146]

 

Don’t worry about being late; gotta make sure you submit those assignments in on time after all!

 

Hrm, hunting for a Bagon shouldn’t have taken that much time though, right?  It’s only found in that specific little patch of land where you find the Dragon Claw TM, but even so it’s relatively common there.  Unless you were looking for an Adamant natured one and just got really unlucky with RNG?  Truuue, all of Hoenn’s route and towns and cities have rather catchy tunes.  They did a great job remixing them, though I wouldn’t say I ever had one of those breathless moments like you had with Littleroot (hahah, that high affinity to music of yours is showing again).  For me, the things I loved about ORAS the most were actually all the new stuff they added and changed.  The nostalgia factor is nice, but if it was just a 1:1 upgrade like with HGSS I wouldn’t have liked it as much as I did.

 

Th-The salt is strong with this one…  I’m uhhh, I’m sorry I asked…………  Since I got my Pokemon games so late (or at least it always seemed my friends had finished the games I was just starting, even today) I always had sufficient time to learn the pro-tips of doing the hard stuff.  I always watched on as a bunch of people I knew played Pokemon, generally third and fourth gen games, in the after school program I was in.  My parents had work so they couldn’t pick me and my brother up right when school ended, and because elementary school homework couldn’t even be considered homework, I found myself watching hours and hours of gameplay every week.  Because of that, I pretty much learned relatively safe and simple ways of tracking down roaming Pokemon.  We were still all scrubs though, so none of us knew jack squat about natures or that doing weird button inputs while the Pokeball was shaking did not, in fact, raise our chances of a secure capture or that getting Arceus traded to your game through GTS (wut, that wasn’t even possible) would not, despite popular misconception, brick your game.  I’m sorry, errrr, to hear that you did not receive the kind of assistance that I did……  That was the most passive aggressive thing I have ever heard read you say type (that doesn’t make any sense, but whatever) and I’m a bit frightened.  What was that about a woman scorned again…?  Hahah, joking joking

 

Whaa--?  B-But the Team Aqua Hideout was one of the easiest hideouts to traverse, both the original and the remade ones…  If you’re talking about that room full of teleportation tiles, I believe the layout was exactly the same in both RSE and ORAS, so when I came across it in Alpha Sapphire I subconsciously remembered the correct path from the countless times I had done in the past and just waltzed right on in.  Aww, and I wouldn’t be too hard on Lt. Surge’s Gym.  A lot of it relied on dumb luck, but it generally worked out before it got infuriating.  The only thing that really struck me as rage inducing was Route 13 in XY.  That placed was ridiculous.  I’m not sure if you feel the same way since you never played it, but goddamn.  Those little patches of dust that signify a Pokemon underground?  The way they chase you around and only move when you move like peskier versions of Hoenn’s Mimic Circle?  The fact that you can’t repel them?  The Dugtrio and Trapinch that always seem to have Area Trap?  That you need to use skates to get to certain places, but the constantly changing direction of the wind makes it hard to control and easy to run into dust patches?  I can’t even think how a route could be more poorly designed than that.  If they don’t fix this route in Z, I’m going to be really angry.

 

Woahhh, 500+ BP and you never spent any of it nor did you bother trying to get a 100 battle win streak??  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given you’re hesitant to even use your PayPal money.  Just be sure not to let that habit carry over when you get a real job.  You have to spend money eventually, hahah.  Woah, you played Yoshi’s Island?  The port for the GBA, I assume?  I’ve never played the game, but just the other day I was listening to a selection of Nintendo soundtracks to get me hyped for the Direct that happened on Thursday, and the opening theme of Yoshi’s Island was on there.  Gosh, that music box melody really hit me hard in the nostalgia, even though I never played the game.  What a beautiful song; really evokes childhood memories.  I especially liked how the music box eventually slows to a stop but is wound back up again.

 

Hrm, according to Bulbapedia, Mirage Island is only present RSE.  Are you thinking about Mirage spots?  Those are only accessible via soaring, apparently, which I have yet to do.  And from what I can tell, none of the Mirage Spots are located where the original Mirage Island was.  Or are you thinking of the Secret Meadow?  That’s located really close to where Mirage Island used to appear.  However, I don’t think they’re the same island, because they look completely different and according to the Town Map they should be bordering each other.  From what I gather, Mirage Island is completely gone, even if its inclusion wouldn’t have added much to the gameplay regardless.

 

Ah, no worries, I completely ignored those posts of yours ahah.  I wanted to take every opportunity to get to know you better of course, but at the same time I didn’t want to spoil ORAS for myself and in this situation ORAS took priority (no offense though, eheheh).

 

Even if 4th gen remakes don’t come out for the 3DS, I’d be perfectly cool with that.  My 3DS library is absolutely massive as it is.  And admittedly, the 3DS was having a bit of trouble running XY and ORAS.  Since you never played them yourself, you’re probably not aware, but when you switch on the 3D effects during the Pokemon battles, there are significant frame drops.  It gets even worse when a Pokemon is in the middle of a graphic-intensive move.  It’s very noticeable and really distracting, which gave me even less of an incentive to have the 3D effect on.  Who knows if Nintendo is going to continue this 3D gimmick going into the next gen handheld, but whether they do or not I hope the 4th gen remakes end up perfectly suited for whatever console it ends up being made for.  The wait is going to be long, but you have to admit, ORAS did only just come out.  Maybe for you it’s been a while, but for me I’m still content with exploring the world of Hoenn in the meantime.  And working on Pearl’s Battle Tower as well, hahah.  We should be grateful there aren’t massive gaps between games like with Smash Bros at least.  Looks like we aren’t going to get a revamped Kanto, since it was announced during the Nintendo Direct that RBY would be coming to the Virtual Console on the 3DS.  That’s a nice way to appease fans who want to emulate the first gen without having to use an illegal phone/PC method and leaves room for them to work on new projects.  Woah there Kenzi, nostalgia goggles indeed, hahahah.  I certainly see why you like Platinum so much.  I can’t say I agree or disagree with you, since I haven’t played the game myself.  My brother emulated it not too long and thought it was pretty much the same as Diamond and Pearl, with the added benefit of Cyrus being far more interesting of a character.  He didn’t gush over it though, so I’m fairly certain a lot of what you’re saying is skewed by rose-tinted memories.  Sinnoh did have a fair share of flaws, after all.  Oh my gosh, you like the music so much…  I think it’s pretty good, though it doesn’t invoke as much of a nostalgic response as RSE’s sound track.  Route 228’s theme is nice and funky, but I was never too keen on jazz when I was in elementary/middle school, which is probably why Unova’s songs blew me away more than Sinnoh’s.  I've only recently found an appreciation for jazz and in fact found this really fresh jazz-based K-pop album not too long ago that’s rather addictive, ahah.  I didn’t explore HG well enough to know what the Battle Frontier was like, so I actually don’t really know what you’re talking about, ehhh…  But if it’s anything like Emerald’s Battle Frontier, then that does sound rather nice.  I hope the 4th gen remakes do turn out nice for your sake, though expecting a Platinum remake over Diamond and Pearl ones is a bit much given the precedent they’ve set.  It’s not impossible, but a little nod to make Giratina more plot prevalent like they did with the Delta Episode seems more likely.  More people played Diamond and Pearl than Platinum, so if they break the precedent now they're going to piss off more people than not.  Ohh and it’s no problem at all!  It’s actually a lot of fun seeing how you geek out over Platinum, ahahah!

 

Dayum, you guys have a pool too?  JP obviously doesn’t, though it was a running gag to try and convince the incoming freshman that there was a pool on the third floor (we don’t have a third floor).  I haven’t gone swimming in ages, which actually probably explains why I wouldn’t be all that comfortable even just shirtless in the presence of females.  I guess it shouldn’t be any surprise that you’ve become more conservative with your body as time passed.  It would be really weird if you’d still be up for a bath with friends at this age.  It’s interesting to know that you were so open when you were younger though; from what you had said before, it seemed like you were conservative your whole life and not just recently.  I wonder if it really does have something to do with your school/city’s environment?  Or maybe guys are just generally more chill with this stuff, since guys here also generally finished changing faster than girls.  I wouldn’t say it’s anything to be envious about though; it really only comes in handy when you find yourself having to use facilities that have almost no privacy (Taplin’s bathrooms are kinda ughh, but I’ve gotten used to them).

 

Mhm, Sanders definitely isn’t the candidate with very realistic goals or ideas, even if I do agree with a lot of what he has to say.  But then again, all politicians promise unrealistic things to an extent.  I watched the debate as well… kinda.  After the Nintendo Direct was announced, a YouTuber I keep up with hosted a hype stream on Twitch, and even though it was just two hours of him talking and getting hype with the chat, I wanted to watch it.  Unfortunately, it started exactly when the debate started, so I had the bright idea of just putting both the stream and the debate on two separate windows, shrinking them down, shoving them over to the side, and doing my accounting homework in a larger window.  I turned the volume up for both the debate and the livestream, and it was a goddamn mess.  Heh, oh well, Directs are rarer than debates, so it was worth it, ahah.  However, it was very difficult to follow what was going on, so I can’t really say much as far as how the debate went.  It might have just been my imagination, but there seemed to be a bit more contention between the candidates than before.  Yeah, I don’t really like Kasich much either, since he always seems to be the one who initiates attacks on the other candidates.  Fiorina apparently really hates Clinton, though she hides it pretty well.  Occasionally she comes out and directly attacks Clinton (I believe she did that in a previous closing statement as well) but for now at least that’s not the focus of her campaign, and at the very least she doesn’t just throw Clinton’s name out of the blue during unrelated discussions like Christie, who spoke in the earlier secondary debate, has the bad habit of doing.  Sigh, there really is no perfect candidate, especially for a centrist like me.  I have qualms about supporting both Sanders and Fiorina, but then again I don’t really see any better options for now.  At least those on the far right and those on the far left can blindly vote for their respective parties and rest easy believing that they made the correct decision, whether or not they’re mistaken in their beliefs.

 

Yup, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert or some mix of both depending on the day of the week.  Just be whatever you want to be and whatever you feel like, ahah.  That’s rather impressive your sister managed to keep in touch with her two best friends from high school!  Of course, I guess when it comes to best friends and really good friends, maintaining ties even over long distances shouldn’t be much of a problem.  For me, I guess I just never made such strong friendships that I would have been distraught over losing them.  I don’t want to sound like some emo teenager who mopes around like “Look at how edgy I am, I don’t need human compassion” *blasts heavy metal and Evanescence*; I’ve matured past that cringy stage of life.  I guess as an introvert, it’s hard to really connect with people on a personal level.  I'm just more in my "zone" when I do thing by myself.  That’s why I was so surprised I hit it off with you so well, eheheh.  So losing “friendships” annually has just been a way of life for me; I hardly think anything of it.  It’s not like I dislike people (I love my family and I really like you after all), but being alone doesn’t really bother me either.  Huh, I don’t know if I’m making any sense.  It’s hard to put it into words, but that’s how it is, ahah.

 

Woah, I didn’t realize you started posting in the OMM thread so late either!  But it is true that all of those threads actually related to DC can get stale really fast.  Heheh, I’m glad you started posting more in the Off-Topic threads.  Aww shucks, look at you, making me out to be all special and everything, golly, you’ve got me blushing again…  I’m glad I could be there for you though.  I always derive so much pleasure from reading and responding to your replies as well, so it’s definitely not a burden either.  I’m really happy I could make a difference in your life.  And of course, I could say the same for you.  My senior year was already off to a great start, but since meeting you my life has only gotten better and better.  Being able to completely open up to someone is just fantastic, so for every time you thank me, I thank you back.  I can’t even remember what my life was like before I met you.  I’ve been happier than I could ever imagine these past few months, and it’s hard to imagine how I could have gotten through those rough patches in life without someone like you to support me from afar.  You’ve made a world of a difference in my life, you amazing person.

 

Hmm, I’ve never tried taking food from the dining halls before, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else attempt it, but I’m sure they’ll let you.  As long as you don’t stack together ten burgers and walk out you should be fine.  Ehhh, I know, now that I’ve been working out my metabolism has really been kicking into high gear as well.  But at the same time, I get stuffed pretty easily when I do eat, so I’m not too sure what’s up with that.  It's not like my stomach shrunk, so maybe my hunger threshold was altered?  Maybe I should try to eat smaller meals but more frequently?  It sounds like a bit of a hassle and I don’t see how that’s going to play into my schedule very easily, but I might consider it.  Mhm, I remember you telling me about your sister’s picky eating.  That sounds absolutely ridiculous, especially since I’d even dare say what I remember Brandeis’s food quality to be was actually better than what we have here at Leutner.  I wonder how she managed in high school?  Hahah, did she pack exquisite French dining for lunch every day or something?

 

Mixed feelings about your name, huh?  I can sort of understand how you feel.  It’s a bit curious you say you don’t like “how your name is portrayed”, since you’d think the reason you might harbor somewhat negative feelings towards it is because it’s too common or something.  I’m glad that my name isn’t too common, but at the same time I feel like it has a bit of an unprofessional connotation, since it can be seen as an abbreviation for another name, even though in my case it’s not.  But I’ve gotten used to it and hardly even think of my name anymore, so it’s all good in the end, ahah.  Yup, I definitely want to know what the results of your eye appointment are!

 

Ohh, my parents would be fine with me staying home if I really insisted that I wasn’t feeling well.  Of course they’d voice concern over the amount of work I’d have to make up, but at least they’d let me get the rest I need.  And of course, I’ve only ever had to miss a full day of school like, twice or something, so it’s not like I abused my ability to do this or anything.  L-Less than four hours of sleep…?  Th-That’s me like every other day, oh dear…  Okay, joking, not that often, but I have nights like that at least twice a week, usually more.  I seriously need to fix my sleeping habits for next semester, especially since I’m planning on taking slightly more classes than I did this semester, some of which might happen earlier than what I’m used to.

 

I guess you do find the chance to listen to lyrical and heavy beat songs, but still…  I didn’t expect you to actually stare out the window while you listen to some songs, eheh.  I always keep the blinds closed in my room, both back home and here in my dorm.  Natural light is nice and all, but back at home the sun always set right in front of my window and the glare seriously ruins the mood of the anime I watch.  The habit’s just carried over, and my roommate doesn’t mind since he’s also quite the shut-in himself who’s so neck-deep in his phone and PC games it sometimes frightens me…  And I’m guessing if you still subscribe to YouTubers but your original graphics channel is down, you’re using an alternate account for that?  I’m always logged in to YouTube because my Gmail’s always open, but I’ve never liked anything, commented on anything, or subscribed to anyone.  I don’t know why, sometimes it feels like I really should express my appreciation for when I stumble upon something I like, but at the same time I don’t really feel like it, eheheheheh…

 

Hmm, but if you’re always invisible, then won’t people just chat you up anyway once they realize that you’re never going to officially go online?  Even if you’re not actually there, at least they have a chance of hearing back from you while as opposed to waiting they don’t have any chance at all.  That might temporarily decrease the number of people who chat with you, but in the long run wouldn’t that result in a higher rate of messages when compared to only briefly logging on every once in a while to trick people into thinking they just always happen to be online at the wrong time?  I don’t dislike Facebook per se; I just don’t need it for anything.  There’s nothing fun on it, and it’s only productive if there’s a group project I need to work on.  If I want to relax and chill out, I have anime and video games to turn to.  If I want to be productive, then I track down some tunes to listen to and get to work.  There’s nothing Facebook really provides, even though it actively tries to get me to log in as often as possible.  “Help your friends recognize you by uploading a profile picture” or something.  It’s kinda cute how hard it tries.  Ahh, there’s that whole “privacy is important” theme coming from your town again.  Lockers are hardly an intrusion of privacy, not once you get really good at efficiently packing and unpacking in the throng of people.  Wait… homeroom is only at the beginning of each semester for you guys?  N-Not every day?  What’s the point of a homeroom then, I’m so confused…  Our homeroom is for the morning announcements, pledge of allegiance (I’ve almost forgotten I don’t have to do this on weekdays anymore), and taking attendance.  In our school, you have to be in homeroom on time otherwise you’re officially late for the day.  You also have to be in homeroom otherwise you’re absent for the day.  Teachers can see whether or not you were in homeroom for that day and whether or not you were late, and if you were absent for homeroom but did not stop by the office to report in late then the teachers are incapable of marking you present on their class roster, so no sneaking in through the back doors (there are security cameras anyway, don’t even try it).  They can also see whether or not you were in other classes for that day, so skipping only one class of the day isn’t recommended unless you want your teacher to have a really bad impression of you.  It’s either all or nothing.  Thing is, you mentioned before that sometimes you considered just skipping just one class for a day.  I was confused at first because that seemed disadvantageous on multiple levels, but now that I think about it… your attendance system is probably completely different from ours then, isn’t it?  How does attendance at your school work?

 

I think a little under half are, or rather were, juniors and seniors.  That percentage is slightly smaller now, since there were a few seniors that especially stood out in my mind at the beginning of the year that, for some reason, have dropped out of the class.  A senior dropping a prereq class?  Sheesh, bless their souls and their wallets.  Honestly, I don’t see how you can’t get your prereqs done before the first semester of your junior year, especially if you have AP credits.  Even if you don’t come in with credits, the system is designed so that it’s still completely possible.  Just take enough classes each semester and don’t fail, ahah.  If you don’t finish your prereqs by the end of your sophomore year, you won’t even be qualified for honor societies like Phi Beta Kappa.  And people have counselors leading them in the right direction from day one, so unless you go out of your way to ignore what’s both good for you and what your advisor recommends, I don’t really see how you can so royally screw up in college.  It can’t just be senioritis.  Seniors who worked hard in their previous years can slack off a bit, but those who slacked off early on and are only finishing prereqs now better be putting in their fair share of work if they plan on graduating.  The majority of seniors in my math class are definitely pulling their weight and trying hard, so I won’t judge how they handled their earlier years, but the seniors just not giving a damn even when they’re at the end of the line?  For shame, for shame.

 

I recognize The Tale of Despereaux’s cover, but I’ve never read it, though I believe I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit somewhere.  I’m not sure under what circumstances though.  Ahhhh, and I recognize the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters but I don’t think I ever read the books.  Back then, I read mainly the Magic Tree House and Goosebumps series, as well as some of the classic stuff like E.B White and of course the picture books by people like Jan Brett and Chris van Allsburg.  Oh, and for some reason I vividly remember the Berenstain Bears books as well.  The Alex Rider series was more popular than The Power of Five here as well; I just happened to stumble upon the first book in the series by chance one day at the library.  It was fairly entertaining and known for the brutal five year gap between the fourth and the final book.  I had to re-read the first four books just so to remember what I going on when the fifth book finally released not too long ago, hahah.  The first time I read To Kill a Mocking Bird, it was for some summer education program my parents signed me up for; the second time it was for actual school.  I didn’t like Gatsby either, and I thought Of Mice and Men was pretty decent, though I read it in one sitting for leisure so I’m not sure how being forced to read it for school would have felt.  Hm, well, one of the “classics” I already mentioned: A Tale of Two Cities.  The other two I believe I have on my profile page: A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (I believe I mentioned this previously) which was summer reading for senior year and Beloved by Toni Morrison which one of the books we reading during senior year.  Both are fantastic, and not even really that old so they aren’t “classics” in the same sense that Huck Finn is a classic.  Also, I liked Beloved all-in-all better than Handmaid’s Tale, but only barely.

 

Well, you have a fair point there.  People will go to insane lengths for the sake of someone or something they love.  I’ve already sacrificed so much of my soul and sanity for video games and anime over the course my life, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat, hahah.  I guess it really comes down to what you’re passionate about, and it’s good that your sister is so devoted to the piano!  I’m not sure whether or not you were allowed to be in both the band and orchestra in my high school.  I assumed it wasn’t allowed since no one ever did it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case given how elitist the band is.  I know in middle school there was this one person who was part of both the band and choir, so at least in middle school it looks like compromises could be struck.  Oh man, it sucks that you had to quit art so abruptly like that.  If it’s not any inconvenience, then yes it would definitely be a good idea to see if you can get some of your paintings back from our teacher.  Ahh, quite the ambitious and curious child you were!  Gosh, I feel ashamed; I’m certain I wasn’t nearly this energetic when I was younger.  Maybe I was when I was a toddler and stuff, but not after I discovered the joys of video games, ufufufufu.  I can hardly remember what I did to keep myself entertained back in the day.  Apart from school and the stuff my parents forced on me, it’s not like I had much work to do.  Hmm, my brother and I started playing the video games behind our parents’ back at a very very very early age, so I wouldn’t even be surprised if most of my free time was preoccupied with devious thoughts like that.  After all, I did pull an all-nighter in fourth grade for the sake of Pokemon, sooo…...  I definitely wouldn’t hold it against myself…  Geezus, how embarrassing, as your senior I am a terrible example.  If anything, it’s your youth and spirit I should be looking up to, hahahah.  Good on you for being so driven and self-motivated to explore the world around you!

 

Eheh, I can’t help it, just the thought of possibly being able to see you is just… gosh, it’s really exciting!  I’m so curious to know what you look like, I can barely contain myself.  Hmm, I wonder if I can find a picture of you online…?  Ehhh, that sounds kinda creepy…  How would you think of me if I put my brain to the test to try and find one?  Probably poorly, right…?  Yeah, never mind, not a good idea……

 

If you were called out in front of everybody like that and that was all anybody would talk about for days, then I can imagine how that left an impression on you.  You must have been mortified.  I know that feeling, it sucks.  And geez Kenzi, don’t force yourself to reply just because you skipped and delayed a few responses recently!  It’s not like you have a month or yearly quota to meet!  Just do what you can!  And of course, if I find myself bogged down with work, especially as this semester draws to a close, I’ll definitely be sure to take a break.

 

Ahh, I actually technically finished my apps on Halloween as well!  It was mainly giving everything the final touches before submitting it that night.  Anyway, if you haven’t already noticed, this response was rather short compared to what I usually write.  I’m really sorry about that, but I have a crazy week coming up and I need all the time I can get this weekend, so if you’re wondering why I may sound distracted and/or rushed anywhere in this response, it’s because I have a lot on my mind.  Hopefully you’re not nearly as stressed as I am, ahah.  If I can use this weekend’s time wisely and not derp around idiotically like I usually do, I should be okay, so don’t worry about me too much!

 

Yeah, I was just trying to hunt for a Bagon with a decent nature, haha. This was all on my sister's Emerald emulator, and I did spend a pretty decent amount of time in there. I only played through the 3rd gen games a few times, so I wasn't able to catch a lot of the minor details they added. They did such a freaking fantabulous job with the soundtrack though, ahhhhhh... Did you happen to catch excerpts of the original RSE soundfont in the Primal Kyogre/Groudon theme? Genius, I tell you. 

 

Ahaha, nonono, I just got really carried away there. I love sarcasm, lol. Mesprit was a pain to catch because I played Platinum blind--no online help or anything. Most of my encounters with it were random and not planned out strategically, so you know, trying to catch it was pretty annoying. But not that irritating, haha. The only person I looked up to for advice at the time was my sister since barely any of my friends played Pokemon (or at least to my knowledge). I only sought for online help after beating the Elite 4, but mainly for completion purposes. Oh yeahh, I also believed those silly misconceptions! Like furiously jamming on the B button to increase your chances of a capture, ahahah. 

 

The room full of teleportation tiles was a nightmare. It wasn't hard though. It was just flat out annoying. I never bothered to memorize the layout either, so every run-through was just as tedious as the last. Lt. Surge's gym didn't even make any sense though! You had to dig through trashcans for a lever? And if you peered into the wrong one, the "puzzle" would reset?? What?? Was there even a smidgen of logic used to create this atrocity??? Were they high??? Oh yeah, let's just make some hulking war veteran sit in an electric-themed gym filled with trashcans. Makes total sense. I agree, Route 13 was also fairly annoying. At first, I thought it was a pretty creative route, but then these Pokemon would keep interrupting the progress of the playthrough. It was funny when the guy ran into them three times in a row without moving a single step, but aside from that, Route 13 was painful to watch. Arena Trap shouldn't be much of a problem as long as you have something that's part Flying or something with Levitate, but they really need to fix the bit about repels not having an effect in this area.

 

Ohh, Yoshi's Island was a blast! Yup, the GBA version. You just reminded me to dig through some of the OSTs, and oh my gosh... every passing response is just turning into a nostalgia-fest... y u gotta do dis to me... I haven't played the game in years... The music box melody kfhlghskdhdklghsklhgkl... And Yoshi's Athletic theme, ahh... I remember bringing the game with me to this summer program at Cranbrook and playing it with one of the friends I made there. I spent so much time playing Yoshi's Island. Ah, good times, man.

 

But both Bulbapedia and Serebii have pages on Mirage Island. Erm... Mirage Islands, then.

 

I haven't seen anyone rave about the 3D aspect of the 3DS, so it kinda ticks me off that the 3D is such an integral part of the console--especially now that I know there are frame drops. But that's fine, I guess. I'm not planning on playing these games for the 3D effects, after all. Part of me is still hoping that they'll hold off releasing the new console for at least a couple of years since I still need to play catch-up, ahah... And I'll be honest, I really didn't expect them to release RBY on the Virtual Console. Good ol' Nintendo never failing to surprise us. I won't deny that much of what I said about Platinum is skewed from bias, haha. It was my first game from the main series, and it was pretty much my gateway to the Pokemon world. Also, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I'm fairly certain that if I played it again I won't have as strong of an impression, so I'm really banking my hopes on the remakes to blow me away because of how amazing ORAS was. And yes, BW/B2W2's music was stellar. It's just that the characters were bland (Bianca was kinda annoying and Hugh wasn't memorable at all), it wasn't very challenging (aside from getting backed into a corner when battling Ghetsis), Alder is one of the worst champions ever (it was also hard to take him seriously with a theme that reminds me of the Naruto chase music), the motive of Team Plasma sounds like something ripped off of PETA, there isn't much post-game material either, but goddamn, the graphics and music were fantastic. Ahh, it's a shame you didn't visit the Battle Frontier, but I hope they find the time to add it to the remakes because I would love to see it again. Yeahh, I wouldn't be surprised if they remade D/P instead of Platinum, but I'm still totally okay with any 4th gen remakes. 

 

Whoa, your school didn't have a pool? So I guess that means you guys didn't have a swim team? Part of the reason I don't like swimming as much anymore is because it forces me to break out of this conservative shell I've lived in for so long. You might ask why I don't have this problem when I play tennis, but I'm not too sure myself. Nah, actually, I'm fairly certain that this conservative mindset of mine would've developed regardless of the environment I grew up in. I'm not sure how big of an impact growing up here had, but I mean, it was my conscious decision for the most part, haha. And yeah, guys tend to be a lot more chill about this stuff around here since during cross country and track season, many of them are shirtless while running through the halls of the school. 

 

Hmm, there actually wasn't anything that caught my eye in this Nintendo Direct. The character reveal was definitely something, but I haven't played Final Fantasy, so I didn't have as strong of an reaction as others. I can imagine the amount of hype that must've come with the Fire Emblem Special Edition announcement, and releasing RBY on the Virtual Console was also pretty neat. Not much else for me to say though. What the... you watched both the Nintendo Direct and the debate while doing your accounting homework on another window?? Well, uh, that's pretty efficient of you to be able to multitask like that... I can't focus on two streams or videos at once, much less doing homework while watching them. Oh, and after watching the Democratic debate a few days ago, I've begun taking a liking to O'Malley. He seems really level-headed and has pretty reasonable proposals. Sanders is still okay, but ahaha, Clinton got rekt. Also, Fiorina shouldn't have attacked Trump the other day. Given how hot-headed he is, it wouldn't be a good idea for any of the candidates to attack him so directly, especially over social media. None of the right wing people seem appealing after the last Republican debate, so I think I'll just focus my attention on O'Malley and Sanders for now.

 

Some of my closest friends are friends I made in elementary school, so we've been friends for a pretty long time, haha. It's just a little scary that I might not be able to maintain my ties with them when we head off to college. One of my friends is confined to in-state schools, another is reaching for the Ivys, another has her eyes on military academies and east coast schools, and another one is kinda clueless and is just applying to whatever. So it's pretty likely that we're all going to get separated, sigh. Well, it's not like I can't visit them though, so that's always an option, lol. I can definitely relate to being in my "zone" when doing things by myself, but don't you ever feel the need to ask for homework help or something? Or maybe one of your friends asks you for help? You know, people you can casually ring up with questions and insults. Or people you can derp around with who make you happy? People you flock to when you see their faces? If you insist that you're fine, that's awesome. But just remember that being an introvert doesn't mean you can't have long lasting relationships with friends, haha. 

 

Oh you, ahah... it's really heartwarming knowing that I made such a big difference in your life, and gosh, you're quite the flatterer. Regardless, I'm really glad I was able to make you happy, haha. Of course, I also love reading and replying to your responses, and I honestly feel so fortunate to have met someone as compassionate as you. Thank you for being there for me during such a rough time, and thank you for being such an amazing friend. And wow, I can't seem to remember what my life was like before I met you either. Everything certainly feels a lot more vibrant ever since I met you. You really are something else, heh.

 

Haha, we weren't allowed to take full plates of food out of the dining halls back at UMich, but we could sneak something from the dessert bar, heh. Hmm, that's weird. You'd think that working out would cause you to become hungrier... Are you hungry after you hit the gym? Maybe your sleep schedule screwed up your eating habits? Oh wut, Brandeis's food was better than Leutner's? I'm not much of a picky eater, but I'm not sure how well I'll fare living off the supposed subpar college food. Perhaps I'll just buy ramen in bulk and stuff it under the bed frame or something, lol. Actually, my sister bought lunch in high school. She was okay with it for the most part, so I don't know why she detested Brandeis food so much. It can't possibly be that bad. 

 

Yeahh, the fact that my name is rather common can also be a bit bothersome. Someone casually mentions my name and I turn around, but they're actually talking about someone else. It doesn't happen as often as you may think though, lol. What I mean by "I don't like how my name is portrayed" is... erm... I just didn't like its vibe, if that makes sense, and I felt this way about it for most of middle school. My friends and I were having a conversation about our names a while ago and they commented that they couldn't think of any other name that would suit me, and I guess I couldn't think of any either, haha. I'm more or less indifferent about it now since it's not like it's a bad name or anything. I normally don't think much of other people's names so there's no need for me to get worked up over mine, lol. Your name took me a little bit to get used to, but I like it. I think it suits you, though I'm not sure why, hm. And about my eye appointment, I guess I really am 20/15. Apparently my eyes haven't changed much since my last appointment, which was a bit of a surprise since I haven't been treating them very well this past year. The eye doctor told me that I'm still getting a tad bit more nearsighted though, but it's not like that was unexpected, lol.

 

Maybe if I caught pneumonia or something my parents would let me stay home... not that I even want to catch a sickness that severe. What on earth... you get less than four hours of sleep at least twice a week?? Well, that was me for the majority of junior year, but those days are long gone. I still only get around 4-5 hours on most days, but it no longer "feels" that way. I discovered that if I woke myself by setting my alarm at two-hour intervals, I'd be able to interrupt my REM sleep. While that doesn't sound very appealing or conventional, it has helped me wake up feeling a lot less groggy. I'm pretty sure there are long-term consequences to this, but I get a pretty sufficient amount of sleep during the weekends, so I guess everything's okay-ish. It's not something I'd personally recommend though since going into REM sleep is pretty crucial to your well-being. It's true that I don't get as much "good" sleep, but hey, if it means I have less trouble getting out of bed in the mornings, I'm all for it. I've been trying this out for the past few weeks, and I think it's something I can live with. Ohh, you're taking more classes next semester? Which ones? Best of luck to you, and get some sleep, haha.

 

Glare isn't a problem since I can just increase the brightness of my laptop. I'm not situated directly in front of my window so it usually doesn't bother me anyway, ahah. I can't remember if we even had blinds back in UMich because I don't think we ever used them. The window was usually exposed, lol. My sister was also a shut-in back home. She always preferred artificial light for whatever reason. It would be a perfectly bright, sunny day outside and she'd have her lamp turned on, so I almost always barged into her room to turn off her lamp and open her blinds in the mornings. Part of me was also bothered by this habit of hers since using a lamp in broad daylight is kinda wasteful. Yup, I had two YouTube accounts I used. My graphics channel is gone, but my personal channel is still up. It's linked with my personal email and I made it back in elementary school, so it's actually older than my graphics channel. Whaa... you... you aren't subscribed to anyone?? Aren't there people out there you watch regularly?

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what happens, lol. Some people just chat me up regardless of whether I'm online or not, but at least I won't feel as compelled to reply to them. Truee, but I love reading the Humans of New York posts, and we even have a page that posts confessions of anonymous people from our school, so those are also kinda fun to read through. I'm also in a few Facebook groups for a couple of the classes I'm taking, which can be helpful at times. All in all, Facebook is ultimately what you make of it. It can be a great place to help you procrastinate on your work, a place to chat with friends, or even a place you can turn to for help. Oh nonono, lockers were a nightmare. Everyone was packed like those canned anchovies between every class desperately trying to reach for their lockers. Unless you happened to  be blessed with an end locker (which I was, in sixth grade, hehe). We only go to our homerooms at the beginning of every semester to receive schedules and fill out forms and stuff. We basically sit in chairs doing nothing but that for half an hour before we're allowed to leave. Yeah, I'm not really sure what its purpose is either. On a typical school day, we just head straight to our first period. If you happened to be significantly late (like 30 minutes or something), you just had to check in at the main office, no big deal. We can't "sneak" into school since we're only allowed through the main entrance after school starts (the other doors are locked). The main entrance is located right in front of the main office where the Safe-Ed people are located. There's no way you'd be able to sneak past them since they basically act as security. You can skip classes if you wanted to, though I'm not sure if the teacher would be able to tell if you attended other classes. Just make sure you avoid him/her for the rest of the day if you want to be safe. The only problem with skipping class is that your parents receive a call informing them that you didn't attend said class. Then they have to confirm with the school that they're aware it happened and whether it's an excused or unexcused absence. So it's not something you should do often if you don't want your parents breathing down your neck 24/7. As for the pledge of allegiance and announcements, those usually happen during second period. But pretty much only half of the class participates/pays attention. The pledge of allegiance wasn't even required for high schoolers until last year. Honestly, the pledge seems kinda pointless. In middle school, we sometimes had contests to see who could speed through it the fastest because no one takes it seriously, lol. Barely any of the teachers do either. It's basically some failed brainwashing propaganda that everyone does a half-assed job reciting. It's almost kinda funny. 

 

Oh wow, nearly half of the class was consisted of juniors and seniors? Geez, what were they doing. Well, good for the ones who're actually putting effort into the class as opposed to those blowing off the class and even dropping out?? I don't see why they would go out of their way to go against what their counselors were advising them to do. And if it really was senioritis kicking in, they'd have to stay in school longer if they can't pass the class, so shouldn't that provide at least a little incentive to try a bit harder? Well, I can't dive deep into the mental processes of college students, but I really don't understand why these seniors would push off taking their prereq classes for so long.

 

Whaa?? You've never read the Mr. Men and Little Miss books?? [insert inaudible gasp] What about Frog and Toad? Olivia? Tuck Everlasting? I think the only book I've read from E.B White is Charlotte's Web. I can't remember if I actually read Stuart Little. Oh my gosh, Allsburg's Jumanji was scary (the fact that it was colorless didn't help either). Well, younger me thought it was scary, haha. Hmm, I don't recognize anything from Jan Brett though... Ahhhh, I loved the Berenstain Bears! I have a collection of those on my shelf, and I'm positive I ran through all of them several times as a child. Oh geez, there was a five year gap between the fourth and final book of The Power of Five? I probably would've forgotten about it before I'd find the chance to pick it back up again, lol. Ohh, so the first time you read To Kill a Mockingbird was for a summer program, huh... how did it go? Of Mice and Men was okay, but it was just kinda... tragic. Almost like the R+J or Oedipus kind of tragic where everything felt a bit too predetermined. Curley and his wife also got on my nerves. A Handmaid's Tale is on my list of books to read, and I haven't read Beloved either, but if you enjoyed it more than A Handmaid's Tale, I'll have to add it to my list as well, haha. I'm sure you know about 1984, so I'll go ahead and say that some of my other favorite required readings were The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and The Glass Castle.

 

Haha same, same. I've devoted far too much time to certain games and anime. It was a crazy phase for me, but I'm still not completely over it at this point. Actually, now that I have a 3DS and a huge backlog of anime to catch up on (and the fact that I want to live a bit more before becoming an... "adult"), that's probably never going to happen thank goodness. Hmm, so I'm assuming that your band never coordinated with the orchestra? Around half of the pieces we play require band members, so the band is pretty essential to our orchestra, lol. I'm actually a little anxious about visiting my teacher to get some of my art back since I haven't seen her in years. I never had the chance to say a proper goodbye either since my dad just cut off all of my ties with her that day. I don't want to drop in out of nowhere just to retrieve some art, but the more I put it off, the worse I'll probably feel about it, sigh. Oh gosh, you're giving me a bit too much credit because I've gotten a lot lazier since then. I'm definitely not as motivated as I used to be since my workload is really bogging me down on some days. I barely have enough time to do anything on my own and I also quit a few of the clubs I was in last year because they were pointless and I had no motivation to continue them this year. And uh, senioritis has taken over so every last drop of motivation has gone down the drain. Seriously, I'm bs-ing my way through some of the classes so much that my younger self would be appalled. I've also felt pretty distracted lately, but it's probably just another side-effect of senioritis. I have a bunch of stuff planned for the break like catching up on video games and anime, and a few online courses I've had my eye on for a while--basically stuff I want to do, and school is definitely not one of them. Haha, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. I've also played video games behind my parents' back for a good chunk of my childhood and pulled several near all-nighters as well. In fact, I got caught on several occasions and they were forced to confiscate my consoles. But that still didn't deter me from turning the house upside-down looking for them whenever my parents weren't home, eheh...

 

Haha, believe me, it'd be a dream to be able to meet you in person. Well, you could try hunting down a picture of me online... just know that I won't confirm or deny any suspicions or uncertainties you may have. If you still want to go for it, I'm not going to stop you, but you're on your own for this, lol.

 

Yeahh, the experience kinda sucked, but it's all behind me now, haha. Erm, I just feel kinda bad that you've been able to crank out timely responses while I've been so inconsistent with mine, eheh... Gosh, it's a wonder how you even manage that on top of the schoolwork. In fact, I could say the same for you! You sound rather stressed so don't push yourself to reply when you have school to focus on!

 

Ohh, best of luck to you this week! Don't let the stress get to you, and kill 'em!

[Akazora 293]

Yeah, I was just trying to hunt for a Bagon with a decent nature, haha. This was all on my sister's Emerald emulator, and I did spend a pretty decent amount of time in there. I only played through the 3rd gen games a few times, so I wasn't able to catch a lot of the minor details they added. They did such a freaking fantabulous job with the soundtrack though, ahhhhhh... Did you happen to catch excerpts of the original RSE soundfont in the Primal Kyogre/Groudon theme? Genius, I tell you. 

 

Ahaha, nonono, I just got really carried away there. I love sarcasm, lol. Mesprit was a pain to catch because I played Platinum blind--no online help or anything. Most of my encounters with it were random and not planned out strategically, so you know, trying to catch it was pretty annoying. But not that irritating, haha. The only person I looked up to for advice at the time was my sister since barely any of my friends played Pokemon (or at least to my knowledge). I only sought for online help after beating the Elite 4, but mainly for completion purposes. Oh yeahh, I also believed those silly misconceptions! Like furiously jamming on the B button to increase your chances of a capture, ahahah. 

 

The room full of teleportation tiles was a nightmare. It wasn't hard though. It was just flat out annoying. I never bothered to memorize the layout either, so every run-through was just as tedious as the last. Lt. Surge's gym didn't even make any sense though! You had to dig through trashcans for a lever? And if you peered into the wrong one, the "puzzle" would reset?? What?? Was there even a smidgen of logic used to create this atrocity??? Were they high??? Oh yeah, let's just make some hulking war veteran sit in an electric-themed gym filled with trashcans. Makes total sense. I agree, Route 13 was also fairly annoying. At first, I thought it was a pretty creative route, but then these Pokemon would keep interrupting the progress of the playthrough. It was funny when the guy ran into them three times in a row without moving a single step, but aside from that, Route 13 was painful to watch. Arena Trap shouldn't be much of a problem as long as you have something that's part Flying or something with Levitate, but they really need to fix the bit about repels not having an effect in this area.

 

Ohh, Yoshi's Island was a blast! Yup, the GBA version. You just reminded me to dig through some of the OSTs, and oh my gosh... every passing response is just turning into a nostalgia-fest... y u gotta do dis to me... I haven't played the game in years... The music box melody kfhlghskdhdklghsklhgkl... And Yoshi's Athletic theme, ahh... I remember bringing the game with me to this summer program at Cranbrook and playing it with one of the friends I made there. I spent so much time playing Yoshi's Island. Ah, good times, man.

 

But both Bulbapedia and Serebii have pages on Mirage Island. Erm... Mirage Islands, then.

 

I haven't seen anyone rave about the 3D aspect of the 3DS, so it kinda ticks me off that the 3D is such an integral part of the console--especially now that I know there are frame drops. But that's fine, I guess. I'm not planning on playing these games for the 3D effects, after all. Part of me is still hoping that they'll hold off releasing the new console for at least a couple of years since I still need to play catch-up, ahah... And I'll be honest, I really didn't expect them to release RBY on the Virtual Console. Good ol' Nintendo never failing to surprise us. I won't deny that much of what I said about Platinum is skewed from bias, haha. It was my first game from the main series, and it was pretty much my gateway to the Pokemon world. Also, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I'm fairly certain that if I played it again I won't have as strong of an impression, so I'm really banking my hopes on the remakes to blow me away because of how amazing ORAS was. And yes, BW/B2W2's music was stellar. It's just that the characters were bland (Bianca was kinda annoying and Hugh wasn't memorable at all), it wasn't very challenging (aside from getting backed into a corner when battling Ghetsis), Alder is one of the worst champions ever (it was also hard to take him seriously with a theme that reminds me of the Naruto chase music), the motive of Team Plasma sounds like something ripped off of PETA, there isn't much post-game material either, but goddamn, the graphics and music were fantastic. Ahh, it's a shame you didn't visit the Battle Frontier, but I hope they find the time to add it to the remakes because I would love to see it again. Yeahh, I wouldn't be surprised if they remade D/P instead of Platinum, but I'm still totally okay with any 4th gen remakes. 

 

Whoa, your school didn't have a pool? So I guess that means you guys didn't have a swim team? Part of the reason I don't like swimming as much anymore is because it forces me to break out of this conservative shell I've lived in for so long. You might ask why I don't have this problem when I play tennis, but I'm not too sure myself. Nah, actually, I'm fairly certain that this conservative mindset of mine would've developed regardless of the environment I grew up in. I'm not sure how big of an impact growing up here had, but I mean, it was my conscious decision for the most part, haha. And yeah, guys tend to be a lot more chill about this stuff around here since during cross country and track season, many of them are shirtless while running through the halls of the school. 

 

Hmm, there actually wasn't anything that caught my eye in this Nintendo Direct. The character reveal was definitely something, but I haven't played Final Fantasy, so I didn't have as strong of an reaction as others. I can imagine the amount of hype that must've come with the Fire Emblem Special Edition announcement, and releasing RBY on the Virtual Console was also pretty neat. Not much else for me to say though. What the... you watched both the Nintendo Direct and the debate while doing your accounting homework on another window?? Well, uh, that's pretty efficient of you to be able to multitask like that... I can't focus on two streams or videos at once, much less doing homework while watching them. Oh, and after watching the Democratic debate a few days ago, I've begun taking a liking to O'Malley. He seems really level-headed and has pretty reasonable proposals. Sanders is still okay, but ahaha, Clinton got rekt. Also, Fiorina shouldn't have attacked Trump the other day. Given how hot-headed he is, it wouldn't be a good idea for any of the candidates to attack him so directly, especially over social media. None of the right wing people seem appealing after the last Republican debate, so I think I'll just focus my attention on O'Malley and Sanders for now.

 

Some of my closest friends are friends I made in elementary school, so we've been friends for a pretty long time, haha. It's just a little scary that I might not be able to maintain my ties with them when we head off to college. One of my friends is confined to in-state schools, another is reaching for the Ivys, another has her eyes on military academies and east coast schools, and another one is kinda clueless and is just applying to whatever. So it's pretty likely that we're all going to get separated, sigh. Well, it's not like I can't visit them though, so that's always an option, lol. I can definitely relate to being in my "zone" when doing things by myself, but don't you ever feel the need to ask for homework help or something? Or maybe one of your friends asks you for help? You know, people you can casually ring up with questions and insults. Or people you can derp around with who make you happy? People you flock to when you see their faces? If you insist that you're fine, that's awesome. But just remember that being an introvert doesn't mean you can't have long lasting relationships with friends, haha. 

 

Oh you, ahah... it's really heartwarming knowing that I made such a big difference in your life, and gosh, you're quite the flatterer. Regardless, I'm really glad I was able to make you happy, haha. Of course, I also love reading and replying to your responses, and I honestly feel so fortunate to have met someone as compassionate as you. Thank you for being there for me during such a rough time, and thank you for being such an amazing friend. And wow, I can't seem to remember what my life was like before I met you either. Everything certainly feels a lot more vibrant ever since I met you. You really are something else, heh.

 

Haha, we weren't allowed to take full plates of food out of the dining halls back at UMich, but we could sneak something from the dessert bar, heh. Hmm, that's weird. You'd think that working out would cause you to become hungrier... Are you hungry after you hit the gym? Maybe your sleep schedule screwed up your eating habits? Oh wut, Brandeis's food was better than Leutner's? I'm not much of a picky eater, but I'm not sure how well I'll fare living off the supposed subpar college food. Perhaps I'll just buy ramen in bulk and stuff it under the bed frame or something, lol. Actually, my sister bought lunch in high school. She was okay with it for the most part, so I don't know why she detested Brandeis food so much. It can't possibly be that bad. 

 

Yeahh, the fact that my name is rather common can also be a bit bothersome. Someone casually mentions my name and I turn around, but they're actually talking about someone else. It doesn't happen as often as you may think though, lol. What I mean by "I don't like how my name is portrayed" is... erm... I just didn't like its vibe, if that makes sense, and I felt this way about it for most of middle school. My friends and I were having a conversation about our names a while ago and they commented that they couldn't think of any other name that would suit me, and I guess I couldn't think of any either, haha. I'm more or less indifferent about it now since it's not like it's a bad name or anything. I normally don't think much of other people's names so there's no need for me to get worked up over mine, lol. Your name took me a little bit to get used to, but I like it. I think it suits you, though I'm not sure why, hm. And about my eye appointment, I guess I really am 20/15. Apparently my eyes haven't changed much since my last appointment, which was a bit of a surprise since I haven't been treating them very well this past year. The eye doctor told me that I'm still getting a tad bit more nearsighted though, but it's not like that was unexpected, lol.

 

Maybe if I caught pneumonia or something my parents would let me stay home... not that I even want to catch a sickness that severe. What on earth... you get less than four hours of sleep at least twice a week?? Well, that was me for the majority of junior year, but those days are long gone. I still only get around 4-5 hours on most days, but it no longer "feels" that way. I discovered that if I woke myself by setting my alarm at two-hour intervals, I'd be able to interrupt my REM sleep. While that doesn't sound very appealing or conventional, it has helped me wake up feeling a lot less groggy. I'm pretty sure there are long-term consequences to this, but I get a pretty sufficient amount of sleep during the weekends, so I guess everything's okay-ish. It's not something I'd personally recommend though since going into REM sleep is pretty crucial to your well-being. It's true that I don't get as much "good" sleep, but hey, if it means I have less trouble getting out of bed in the mornings, I'm all for it. I've been trying this out for the past few weeks, and I think it's something I can live with. Ohh, you're taking more classes next semester? Which ones? Best of luck to you, and get some sleep, haha.

 

Glare isn't a problem since I can just increase the brightness of my laptop. I'm not situated directly in front of my window so it usually doesn't bother me anyway, ahah. I can't remember if we even had blinds back in UMich because I don't think we ever used them. The window was usually exposed, lol. My sister was also a shut-in back home. She always preferred artificial light for whatever reason. It would be a perfectly bright, sunny day outside and she'd have her lamp turned on, so I almost always barged into her room to turn off her lamp and open her blinds in the mornings. Part of me was also bothered by this habit of hers since using a lamp in broad daylight is kinda wasteful. Yup, I had two YouTube accounts I used. My graphics channel is gone, but my personal channel is still up. It's linked with my personal email and I made it back in elementary school, so it's actually older than my graphics channel. Whaa... you... you aren't subscribed to anyone?? Aren't there people out there you watch regularly?

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what happens, lol. Some people just chat me up regardless of whether I'm online or not, but at least I won't feel as compelled to reply to them. Truee, but I love reading the Humans of New York posts, and we even have a page that posts confessions of anonymous people from our school, so those are also kinda fun to read through. I'm also in a few Facebook groups for a couple of the classes I'm taking, which can be helpful at times. All in all, Facebook is ultimately what you make of it. It can be a great place to help you procrastinate on your work, a place to chat with friends, or even a place you can turn to for help. Oh nonono, lockers were a nightmare. Everyone was packed like those canned anchovies between every class desperately trying to reach for their lockers. Unless you happened to  be blessed with an end locker (which I was, in sixth grade, hehe). We only go to our homerooms at the beginning of every semester to receive schedules and fill out forms and stuff. We basically sit in chairs doing nothing but that for half an hour before we're allowed to leave. Yeah, I'm not really sure what its purpose is either. On a typical school day, we just head straight to our first period. If you happened to be significantly late (like 30 minutes or something), you just had to check in at the main office, no big deal. We can't "sneak" into school since we're only allowed through the main entrance after school starts (the other doors are locked). The main entrance is located right in front of the main office where the Safe-Ed people are located. There's no way you'd be able to sneak past them since they basically act as security. You can skip classes if you wanted to, though I'm not sure if the teacher would be able to tell if you attended other classes. Just make sure you avoid him/her for the rest of the day if you want to be safe. The only problem with skipping class is that your parents receive a call informing them that you didn't attend said class. Then they have to confirm with the school that they're aware it happened and whether it's an excused or unexcused absence. So it's not something you should do often if you don't want your parents breathing down your neck 24/7. As for the pledge of allegiance and announcements, those usually happen during second period. But pretty much only half of the class participates/pays attention. The pledge of allegiance wasn't even required for high schoolers until last year. Honestly, the pledge seems kinda pointless. In middle school, we sometimes had contests to see who could speed through it the fastest because no one takes it seriously, lol. Barely any of the teachers do either. It's basically some failed brainwashing propaganda that everyone does a half-assed job reciting. It's almost kinda funny. 

 

Oh wow, nearly half of the class was consisted of juniors and seniors? Geez, what were they doing. Well, good for the ones who're actually putting effort into the class as opposed to those blowing off the class and even dropping out?? I don't see why they would go out of their way to go against what their counselors were advising them to do. And if it really was senioritis kicking in, they'd have to stay in school longer if they can't pass the class, so shouldn't that provide at least a little incentive to try a bit harder? Well, I can't dive deep into the mental processes of college students, but I really don't understand why these seniors would push off taking their prereq classes for so long.

 

Whaa?? You've never read the Mr. Men and Little Miss books?? [insert inaudible gasp] What about Frog and Toad? Olivia? Tuck Everlasting? I think the only book I've read from E.B White is Charlotte's Web. I can't remember if I actually read Stuart Little. Oh my gosh, Allsburg's Jumanji was scary (the fact that it was colorless didn't help either). Well, younger me thought it was scary, haha. Hmm, I don't recognize anything from Jan Brett though... Ahhhh, I loved the Berenstain Bears! I have a collection of those on my shelf, and I'm positive I ran through all of them several times as a child. Oh geez, there was a five year gap between the fourth and final book of The Power of Five? I probably would've forgotten about it before I'd find the chance to pick it back up again, lol. Ohh, so the first time you read To Kill a Mockingbird was for a summer program, huh... how did it go? Of Mice and Men was okay, but it was just kinda... tragic. Almost like the R+J or Oedipus kind of tragic where everything felt a bit too predetermined. Curley and his wife also got on my nerves. A Handmaid's Tale is on my list of books to read, and I haven't read Beloved either, but if you enjoyed it more than A Handmaid's Tale, I'll have to add it to my list as well, haha. I'm sure you know about 1984, so I'll go ahead and say that some of my other favorite required readings were The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and The Glass Castle.

 

Haha same, same. I've devoted far too much time to certain games and anime. It was a crazy phase for me, but I'm still not completely over it at this point. Actually, now that I have a 3DS and a huge backlog of anime to catch up on (and the fact that I want to live a bit more before becoming an... "adult"), that's probably never going to happen thank goodness. Hmm, so I'm assuming that your band never coordinated with the orchestra? Around half of the pieces we play require band members, so the band is pretty essential to our orchestra, lol. I'm actually a little anxious about visiting my teacher to get some of my art back since I haven't seen her in years. I never had the chance to say a proper goodbye either since my dad just cut off all of my ties with her that day. I don't want to drop in out of nowhere just to retrieve some art, but the more I put it off, the worse I'll probably feel about it, sigh. Oh gosh, you're giving me a bit too much credit because I've gotten a lot lazier since then. I'm definitely not as motivated as I used to be since my workload is really bogging me down on some days. I barely have enough time to do anything on my own and I also quit a few of the clubs I was in last year because they were pointless and I had no motivation to continue them this year. And uh, senioritis has taken over so every last drop of motivation has gone down the drain. Seriously, I'm bs-ing my way through some of the classes so much that my younger self would be appalled. I've also felt pretty distracted lately, but it's probably just another side-effect of senioritis. I have a bunch of stuff planned for the break like catching up on video games and anime, and a few online courses I've had my eye on for a while--basically stuff I want to do, and school is definitely not one of them. Haha, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. I've also played video games behind my parents' back for a good chunk of my childhood and pulled several near all-nighters as well. In fact, I got caught on several occasions and they were forced to confiscate my consoles. But that still didn't deter me from turning the house upside-down looking for them whenever my parents weren't home, eheh...

 

Haha, believe me, it'd be a dream to be able to meet you in person. Well, you could try hunting down a picture of me online... just know that I won't confirm or deny any suspicions or uncertainties you may have. If you still want to go for it, I'm not going to stop you, but you're on your own for this, lol.

 

Yeahh, the experience kinda sucked, but it's all behind me now, haha. Erm, I just feel kinda bad that you've been able to crank out timely responses while I've been so inconsistent with mine, eheh... Gosh, it's a wonder how you even manage that on top of the schoolwork. In fact, I could say the same for you! You sound rather stressed so don't push yourself to reply when you have school to focus on!

 

Ohh, best of luck to you this week! Don't let the stress get to you, and kill 'em!

Ohhh, I believe you may have been aware of natures well before I was.  Or at least, you understood the significance of them well before I did.  I can’t remember when I first learned that natures affected stats.  Hm, was it when I first tried to beat the Pearl Battle Tower waaaaayyy back in the day and got royally screwed over by Palmer?  That was probably it.  Since then I’ve never been able to just randomly catch a stationary/legendary Pokemon in good conscious and not feel like I wasted it if it didn’t have a good nature.  Wha-- ummm, well, I actually didn’t hear the RSE soundfont in the Primal Groudon/Kyogre battle…………  M-My sensitivity to music just isn’t as sharp as yours is, and not to mention Kyogre was giving me a run for my money so it took all the concentration I had to focus on the battle, eheh… Errr, listening back to it, I guess I can hear the old soundfont… I think……

 

I find it curious you didn’t have many friends who played Pokemon when you were younger.  I guess if you just hung out with girls then that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise though.  All those guys who played Pokemon while I watched were, well, guys.  The girls in my elementary school never really played Pokemon.  I can remember about two or three in the entire school that regularly did.  I guess most girls just know Pokemon from the anime then?  Did you end up finding people in the future who shared the same passion for Pokemon as you do?  (aside from me of course, heh)

 

Shh shhh, it’s okay Kenzi, Lt. Surge’s gym is behind you now.  It may not have made much sense, but then again I have no idea how they fit some of those monstrously sized puzzles in those regularly sized buildings either.  If the Pokemon world has the technology for that, I’m sure disappearing switches activated by someone peering into trashcans isn’t outside the realm of possibility, heheh.  Route 13 is just atrocious, oh god.  And if Z utilizes those unused Power Plants, making that area more of an integral part of the story, I’ll be pissed if they don’t fix all the problems with the route as well.  Having to rely on a Flying/Levitating Pokemon is just ridiculous.  And it doesn’t prevent Pokemon from consecutively running into you while you just stand still either, so it’s still a rage inducing timewaster.  Please Game Freak, I have faith in you, don’t let me down, though I will admit my expectations are sky-high after ORAS, eheh.

 

G-Gomen, if a song I had only just discovered made me stop doing my work and get all nostalgic, than I should have known what something like that would have done to a person who grew up with the game, ehhh…  Ahaha, forgive me Kenzi, though I do hope you gained something from rediscovering those songs.  Ohh, the Athletic theme?  Gosh, I heard a remix of that so often in Smash.  That song brings back memories of Brawl shenanigans, goodness.

 

I guess everyone’s having a hard time categorizing the Mirage Islands.  I’m siding with Bulbapedia on this one.  Serebii seems to think ORAS’s Mirage Islands are the same as RSE’s Mirage Island, but based on the evidence I have to politely disagree with them.  Mirage Islands are just a part of a larger feature, Mirages Spots, which also encompass Mirage Forests, Mirage Caves, and Mirage Mountains.  Mirage Spots also include those special little areas and dimensional rifts and storm clouds that contain legendary Pokemon.  Paired with the fact that not a single Mirage Island in ORAS’s Hoenn is anywhere near the original Mirage Island from RSE’s Hoenn, and that no existing location in ORAS is located on the same Town Map tile that the original Mirage Island was found on leads me to believe that that mysterious island, for whatever reason, doesn’t randomly anymore appear in this universe.  Mirage Spots can be seen as a nod or reference to that strange island, but their differences are too great to call them the same thing.

 

Yeahhh, the 3DS is an amazing console with an even greater variety of good games than the DS, and it sucks that those on the outside looking in just think, “So it’s just a DS with 3D effects?  That’s dumb.” because in a sense they’re right.  The 3D is dumb and was a gimmicky ploy to get the system to sell.  It would have done just as well, if not better, if it just had the 3D feature removed and was given a new name.  But whatever, no point in getting worked up over a console that’s been around for nearly five years (hory shet, I know).  Speaking of which, the DS was released late 2004, which means there was a little over six years between its release and the release of the first 3DS.  Because it’s been nearly five years that the 3DS has been out, it’s very likely that the new generation handheld console will be revealed soon.  The 3DS was announced in March of 2010 and released in March of 2011, only a single year later.  If the 3DS and its successor follows the DS and 3DS’s pattern, then sometime in 2016 we’ll know what the new console is, whether it’s the rumored NX or not, and in 2017 it will be released.  On the other hand, the 3DS’s lifespan is probably even longer than the DS’s.  While the DS sold well, it was quickly out-teched by mobile games and faced stiff competition from the PSP later in its life.  The 3DS on the other hand is dominating this niche market it’s claimed, and with new games like Fates, the speculated Pokemon Z, and upcoming Smash DLC, this console is far from being dead.  If we take this into consideration, it might make more sense for them to put off the next gen’s console reveal until 2017 with a release date of 2018.  That should be plenty of time for you to finish those DS and 3DS games you have yet to play, right?

 

I-I didn’t expect myself to ramble like that, so I’ll just make the rest of this a new paragraph.  I remembering really liking Black and White’s plot when the games first came out.  This was back before I even watched anime critically, so despite how underwhelming the game would feel if I ever replayed it today, I just went along with the hype and believed for a time that White was the best Pokemon game ever made.  Then when I took a closer look at how bad the Pokemon designs were, how nonsensical Entralink was (Seriously, what in blazes is Entralink????  It’s been years and I still can’t figure it out.  This concept is harder to understand than physics, what the--), and how forced a lot of the characters and motivations were, I realized just how poor of a game 5th gen was.  I’ll give it credit for blowing me away with the graphics, though I’m not in middle school anymore and those tricks won’t fool me again, bleh.  The music is still nice.  Not very Pokemon-ish, but nice nonetheless.  Urgghh, and Bianca, geebuscdwkqcjdw!11!!onE!1!!  I believe you already know how she killed that poor shiny Skorupi right before my eyes.  What a goddamn savage.  Poor baby didn’t stand a chance, sniff…  I’ll never forgive her for that, grrrr.  Hugh was pretty bland indeed.  I don’t even remember what his personality was like.  He wanted to get his sister’s Pokemon back or something?  Wait, why was Team Plasma stealing Pokemon again?  Pfft, heck if I know, I can’t be bothered to remember that, heh.  But of course, Hugh will still have his fangirls, as will N.

 

Ehhhh?  Shouldn’t it be more of a surprise for a school to have a pool than not?  Our school technically had a swim team, but I believe they used the local YMCA to practice.  It was a dinky little team and a bit of a joke sport.  Remember that nationally ranked swimmer from our school I mentioned a while back?  He wasn’t on our school’s team because he thought the team sucked too much and it would be a waste of his time.  Ah, so you think you’d still be pretty conservative no matter where you grew up then, hm?  I guess if those were conscious choices then that would make sense.  Hahah, well no matter the reason, there’s nothing wrong with that!

 

Ohh, so you watched the Direct!  Cloud’s reveal definitely didn’t emotionally rile me up like Robin/Lucina’s reveal or Mewtwo’s reveal, because I never played Final Fantasy before much like you.  In retrospect, the barriers (or should I say limits, heh) that have been broken as a result of Cloud’s inclusion are what make me excited.  No one expected Cloud to get into Smash.  Some people way back when Brawl was new used to say they wanted Cloud, but they were immediately dismissed by those who “knew better”, claiming that Nintendo and Square Enix would never come to an agreement.  I'm sure you're familiar with Brawl Taunts?  After all, Smash is for “Nintendo characters only”.  At least that’s what everyone thought.  Who seriously believed that a “joke” character like Cloud would make it in?  Heck, Cloud didn’t even get into PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale… and that’s literally Sony’s answer to Nintendo’s Smash!  Now that we have a nearly exclusively Sony character in Smash, we’re one step away from having Master Chief in, two steps away from Goku, three steps away from Shrek, and four steps away from Home Depot.  Mickey Mouse is a viable contender.  Mickey Mouse.  I never thought I’d see the day… Smash 4 has broken so many expectations, it’s unbelievable.  Sakurai is going all out, and he definitely deserves praise.  So for the Fates Special Edition, as exciting as it was to have it announced, it wasn’t much of a surprise.  Japan had gotten the Special Edition previously (the game is already released over there) so it was just a matter of time before America would get the same treatment.  It’s such a good deal, though.  Only eighty bucks for three full games and merch in the form of an art book and a little pouch?  Damn, considering how expensive each of those items would have been separately, the Special Edition is an absolute steal.

 

Oh no no no, I didn’t watch the debate and the Direct at the same time, I watched the debate and a hype stream on Twitch preceding the Direct.  The Twitch stream was literally just some guy getting excited speculating about the Direct which would happen the next day.  That might sound absolutely pointless to watch to you, but hey, the dude’s fun to watch and just chill with, so why not, hah.  I had completely forgotten there was a Democratic debate this past week.  I didn’t expect them to host one on a Saturday, bleh.  I only realized I was missing out when I was at the gym and happened to see the debate on a television hung in front of the treadmills.  I watched a recording of it later though, so it’s all good.  Hahahah, are you talking about the whole Wall Street issue?  Yeahhh, Clinton was rekt.  Huh??  You’ll have to excuse me for not keeping up with the social media aspects of this campaign, eheh, but when and how did Fiorina attack Trump?  Regardless of what exactly went down though, going head to head with Trump as you say is definitely a risky move.  He has quite the sharp tongue and a rather strong following, and social media attacks are his forte.

 

I’m sure even if you go your separate ways, you’ll all find time to get back together again to hang out.  There’s always winter and summer breaks after all.  I know my sister got really emotional after high school because she’s an extrovert and had a ton of friends there.  Apparently she was so upset and distraught over not being able to see them regularly anymore.  In college though, she made new friends and moved on.  She still keeps in touch with some of her high school friends, even if the majority of those ties have been severed by time and/or distance.  So yeah, while I don’t doubt that you’ll be able to maintain those friendships, at the same time I also don’t think it would be unnatural or bad if you had a complete reset and made even better friends in colleges.  I actually usually figure things out by myself, so I rarely ask for homework assistance of any kind.  And as for others asking me for help, that almost never happens as well, eheh.  Hmm, since I only just got a phone, “ring up” wouldn’t be the greatest term for it, but if you mean randomly being chatted up then yeah that happens every once in a while.  Very infrequently though and I don’t think too much of those conversations nor do they get very far.  I guess in high school there were some people I hung out with who were pretty agreeable, but it’s not like I went out of my way to see them.  If they were in my phys ed or lunch periods and could help pass the time, then of course I’d take the opportunity to chill with them.  Eheheheh, gosh, I probably sound like such a loner.  But once again, I really do insist that I’m absolutely fine.  However, I appreciate your concern though, ahah.  It’s not that I’m avoiding long lasting relationships; it just seems like they don’t usually work out in my case.

 

Ah, you misunderstand, I am hungry.  A lot of the time.  But whenever I satiate that hunger by eating, I barely eat more than an average amount of food before I get really stuffed.  I’m constantly switching between “I’m so hungry I could eat eight cows” and “I’m so stuffed I could go for days without food” which is a bit of a hassle.  Usually my hunger peaks after I work out, but since I do that late in the evening I never have any food to eat.  By two in the morning, I’m craving some snacks.  If I’m staying up late, then by four my stomach really starts to growl.  If I’m pulling an all-nighter, then by six I’m more famished than I am tired.  But whenever I try to eat more to balance my hunger out, I get stuffed so quickly…  I feel like it’s a mix of both my higher metabolism as a result of going to the gym and my altered hunger threshold as a result of eating meals infrequently.  And I guess my variable sleep schedule probably doesn’t help matters, eheheh.  Uwah, but if you bought ramen then you’d be letting all those meal swipes go to waste!  I don’t want to make the food at Leutner sound inedible or something.  It’s not very scrumptious, but when you’re hungry you’re pretty much in the mood for anything (or at least I am; my stomach is rumbling as I type this, urgh) and it’s a better and generally healthier option than cupped noodles and bags of chips. 

 

Its vibe, huh…  I’ve never thought that name ever had a weird or negative vibe to it.  It’s pretty normal, and it’s nice in its simplicity.  It suits you, though I’m so used to calling you Kenzi that Kenzi suits you just as well, hahah.  Yeah, I can imagine my name probably wasn’t what you expected it to be, and it no doubt took some getting used to.  Aw, f-flattering me by saying you like my name isn’t going to get you anywhere, b-baka… okay maybe it might.  Whhhhaaaa you actually have 20/15 vision??  Yoooo, I don’t I know anyone with eyesight that good, holy geez!  Well, excuse me Kenzi ojou-sama, I didn’t realize you were of such noble caliber; you must feel disgusted knowing you’ve been mingling with the likes of me, who’d have 20/40-20/50 vision without contacts.  Ahah, all kidding aside, that’s really amazing.  My contacts give me temporary 20/10-20/15 eyesight when I have them in, and wow everything looks amazing!  Like, as much as they hurt when I first started wearing them, my mind was completely blown by how crisp the world could look to some people.  Of course, with that comes the drawbacks of seeing cosmetic flaws everywhere.  It doesn’t help that I pretty much only put on my contacts at night and so the first thing I see with them in is my tired face after a long day of work starting back at me through the mirror, eheheheh.  But it’s totally worth it considering how much detail and texture you can see in everything.  I never mentioned this before because I never found a good chance to, but whenever I stargaze I have to wear my contacts otherwise I wouldn’t be able to make out the celestial objects well.  I can kinda see stars without any visual aid, but if 20/20 vision is 480p then 20/15 vision is 720p.  Individual stars just look really blotchy and fuzzy, in the same way a 480p shot of the night sky would look distractingly pixelated as opposed to a 720p one.  My contacts bring everything up to a nice 1080p/720p, which is super helpful.  Just a few days ago, I pulled two pseudo-all-nighters in a row (took naps during the day, so they didn’t really count as true all-nighters) and failed to put my contacts in during those short naps.  I couldn’t see anything for the full day after.  It was awful.  Can you imagine seeing the world with perpetual 144p?  It’s worse experiencing than imaging, trust me.  I couldn’t see people’s faces; I felt like Ace from 999.  My mind was straining itself so hard just to comprehend what was going on with my reduced vision it was giving me a headache.  However, reverting back to HD vision with my contacts at the end of the day was such a satisfying feeling, ohohoho.  Anyway, I still can’t believe your eyesight is so good!  And you seem to have good ears too, so gosh it’s like you have the best of both worlds (assuming your senses of taste, smell, and touch are not compromised in some way)!  Geez Kenzi, so unfair, you should share your genes with the less fortunate, hmph!  Joking joking, I know that’s not possible, but your sister must have, and probably still is, really envious of your glorious chromosomes.

 

Woah, disturbing your REM sleep like that sounds both ingenious and rather torturous at the same time.  Good on you for having that idea, but don’t overdo it!  A good night’s sleep is the best, but at least you’re still getting those on the weekends.  Hrm, I may do something like that if there’s something I have to wake up unusually early for, but if it’s just a normal class day then I’ll try to train and build up my own willpower.  And of course, the cold has only barely started to settle in, so I have yet to see how my body handles the frigid Cleveland winters in the morning.  That aside, remember how I always stress that your health should be more important than anything else!  If you start seeing negative side effects to this REM sleep deprivation, then be sure to stop that alarm clock nonsense, heh.  

 

You actually mentioned that at a good time, as freshman registration for next semester classes finally opened just yesterday at seven in the morning.  Almost everything is finalized except for one class, which I’m on the waitlist for.  My advisor says that class’s student limit is usually raised and that people are shuffled around a lot so I’m nearly guaranteed to get a spot once all the paperwork is sorted through.  For a quick rundown, I’m taking six classes: a SAGES University Seminar, accounting 102, econ 103, an Excel course, management 201, and intro to political science.  The SAGES University Seminar is not to be confused with the First Seminar that I took (am taking) the first semester.  The University Seminar doesn’t have Fourth Hours and is on a different general topic than my First Seminar.  There are three general categories SAGES classes can fall under: Natural World, Social World, and Symbolic World.  I took an FSSO course this semester (First Seminar Social World), which means I am required to take a USNA (University Seminar Natural World) and USSY (University Seminar Symbolic World) in future semesters.  If someone took an FSNA, then they would later have to take a USSO and a USSY, while someone who took an FSSY would go on to take a USNA and a USSO.  I’m taking a USSY course for this coming spring semester, so when I’m a sophomore I’ll be taking a USNA class.  Case Western wants to make sure you stay well-rounded and not focus too exclusively on any one of the three categories, ahah.  I know SAGES can be a bit confusing, but hopefully I explained that well enough for you to understand.  As for what the class is specifically on, it’s actually called “Protest Drama” and explores the use of politics in plays and literature.  Sounds pretty fascinating if you ask me.  Accounting 102 is just a simple follow-up to accounting 101, and while I studied micro in econ 102 this semester I’ll be studying macro in econ 103 next semester.  The Excel class is just that, a class teaching you how to use Excel with a focus on accounting.  Management 201 is just an introduction to business and communications.  This is the class I’m waitlisted for, so there’s no guarantee they’ll find a spot for me in this class, but the chances are pretty high.  And finally, I’m taking an intro to comparative politics class.  I wasn’t initially planning on taking this class, but I lost the speed-clicking-at-seven-in-the-morning contest to those whose computers processed the pages faster than mine and so wasn’t able to snag myself a phys ed class this semester.  I wish I could have just gotten it done and out of the way with my freshman year, but there’s harm in taking it as a sophomore.  My chances of getting in a phys ed class will be higher when I’m older as well, since seniors choose first, juniors choose second, sophomores choose third, and freshman choose last.  They have to give priority to those graduating soon, after all.  So without a phys ed class my schedule was looking a bit empty, and on a spur of the moment I decided to get some of my prereqs out of the way.  I explained earlier how my APs covered my arts and humanities requirements and how I would be taking a summer course at Rutgers to cap off my natural and mathematical sciences requirements, so I was left with a choice between various intro level social science courses.  I found one that wasn’t full and fit into my schedule nicely and that was the political science class, so I signed up for it rather spur of the moment.  That brings me up to a total of 18 credit hours, a bit more than average.  None of my classes are joke classes either (unlike the wellness class I took this semester).  Accounting, the Excel class, and management are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while econ, SAGES, and political science are on Mondays and Wednesdays.  The only class I have on Friday is econ, which is split into three classes as opposed to the two classes all my other course are separated into.  Classes on Mondays and Wednesdays start at nine in the morning while those on Tuesday and Thursday begin at ten.  My econ class on Friday is at 11:30 am, which is nice.  I’m generally pretty happy with my schedule.  I’m moving at a bit of a brisk pace, but I don’t having much of a choice if I want to complete that dual degree program.  If it’s normal to complete it in five years, I need to take the extra strides early to get it done in four.  I also have to wake up earlier than I’m used to on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I’ll have to adjust for that as well as deal with the extra burden of two more (real) classes than this past semester.  It’s going to be a struggle, but I was pretty comfortable these past few months even with the excessive amount of slacking off I did.  I won’t be able to fully enjoy Fates when it comes out in February though, which is a bit of a bummer considering I have it pre-ordered, but oh well.  I’ll see if I find time over the weekends for a bit Fire Emblem.

 

Oh gosh, I’m just like your sister.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a sunny, gorgeous day outside; those blinds will be closed.  The room light and lamp are perfectly fine as sources of illumination, and they don’t fluctuate like natural does or cause as much glare.  I always have my brightness turned up to the max and still distractingly see my reflection in the computer screen in natural light.  I guess that’s less of a glare problem and more… whatever a good science term would be for that, but still.  My brother tries to get me to open the blinds all the time.  He only gave up after I taped the blinds shut, heheh, that’ll show him.  Though, he proudly informed me over the phone that he had taken over my old study spot and claimed it at his own, so I believe the tape is gone now.  Oh geez, winter break is going to be a power struggle.  Ahahah, of course I follow a lot of YouTube channels regularly, but I’ve gotten into the habit of manually checking their channels every day for new content, and watch their videos when/if they upload something.  I guess things might be easier if I subscribed, but I’m so used to just checking in whenever I want that I don’t think it would make much of a difference at this point.

 

Call me dumb, but I never figured out what Humans of New York is.  It’s one of those things that got all popular while I wasn’t paying attention and now I’m too afraid to ask.  When I first heard of it, I thought it was some sort of charity like the Red Cross, but evidently I’m wrong.  Is it a social media thing that’s Facebook specific or something?  Is it a book?  A newspaper?  A website?  A company?  A person?  A small group of people?  What’s so good about it/them/him/her?  This is almost as baffling as Entralink.  Goodness, you’re making lockers out to be the most dreaded part of your day.  Surely nothing can be worse than algebra II, right…?  Hmm, your attendance system isn’t actually too different from ours then.  We also have security at the front entrance and calls to parents if we’re absent, etc.  I’m surprised the pledge wasn’t mandatory until just last year for your high school, and a bit puzzled by the fact that it’s recited randomly during second period.  It’s been required K-12 for decades where I was from.  I wouldn’t be too hard on the pledge of allegiance; it’s rather nostalgic for me for some reason, eheh.  It evokes a lot of warm and fuzzy elementary school memories.

 

Yeah, they’re most definitely going to have to take an extra year or two before graduating.  It’s awfully silly, but the college doesn’t have much of a choice.  They can be as selective as they want, but once a trouble child falls into the system it’s going to be a struggle to get them out.  If the student’s parents can afford to pay for the extra time there, and they’re not doing any violent crimes to get them officially kicked out, you just have to force feed them like depressed sloths and hope that they graduate sooner rather than later.  Worst comes to worst, just shove a psychology major down their throats and chase them off-campus, ahah.

 

(Wait, but how can you insert an “inaudible gasp” if such a thing does not exist?  Wouldn’t a gasp have to be audible to exist??)  Ohhhhhhhhhh myyyy gooooooddddd I almost forgot Frog and Toad existed!  Those books were my jam when I was a kid!  I only recognize Olivia but never read it.  I definitely read Tuck Everlasting, though I hardly remember it so I can’t say whether I thought it was good or bad.  Allburg’s The Polar Express fascinated me as a child; it was one of the reasons I fell in love with Christmas, along with hundreds of other reasons of course, ahah.  For some reason the teachers at my elementary school loved reading Jan Brett books to us youngsters during story time.  The books were only okay, and since my eyesight sucked it’s not like I could see the pictures very well, but they were so prevalent I remember them rather vividly for some reason.  Honestly, I had forgotten about The Power of Five books for a time.  I only randomly happened to recall it one day (you know those moments when you just remember a forgotten life event like *bam* woah how did I ever forget that?) and luckily for me the fifth book was set to be released very soon afterwards, so I kept an eye on it.  Ehh, To Kill a Mockingbird didn’t give me a very strong impression the first time I read it during the summer program, and wasn’t much better two years later in high school.  It’s a fine book, but I really don’t think I’ll be re-reading it any time soon.  Ohh, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of those two books before.  It’s been so hard to find the time to read a book for pleasure nowadays, but I’ll try my best to find time for those!

 

Yay, that’s the spirit!  Play that 3DS on the subway, who cares if everyone else is either on their phones, sleeping, or grumpily glaring at the opposite wall.  Letting your inner geek loose is always so invigorating, ahah.  I believe there was this special club formed where they actually got orchestra members and band members together to play a few pieces for a small venue.  It was run by the orchestra conductor, and while it wasn’t “official” because they didn’t have their own holiday/winter/spring concerts and because the band instructor didn’t really pay it much heed, it was still surprisingly pretty legit.  Some people took it seriously enough, though there was always a shortage of more specific wind instruments like the bassoon or the bass clarinet.  Oh, well if you’re not comfortable talking to her and feel like it would be awkward for both of you to retrieve your art, then I suppose you don’t have to.  It’s up to you what you want to do in the end.  Ahh, don’t worry, I was just like you after college apps were done.  Well, I didn’t completely let loose until after/during winter break because of regular decision applications, but even so I barely did anything senior year.  It was only my classes and the anime club that I took seriously, and even then I never got that worked up over my grades.  Without band, there was a huge weight off my shoulders, even if part of me did feel a bit lazy for being so uncommitted to everything that wasn’t my own creation, heh.  Gosh Curious Kenzi, you’re saying online classes over winter break is something you want to do?  Pls, that’s far more than what I could muster.  Ahhhhh I used to get caught all the time, too!  I can’t even recall the number of times they’ve relocated the games.  They used to hide it in juvenile places but have upped their game dramatically by literally locking it away (that didn’t stop me from figuring out how to unlock it without a key) or by stashing it in their car and driving off to work with it every day (…okay, they stumped me there…......... nah, not really, this is what led me to actually purchase consoles and games behind their backs, ufufufufu).  The thrill and rush of finding where they hid the games was amazing, ahah.  As a result, I’ve also gotten really good at hiding my games from them as well, if I was ever in a position safe enough to keep the games in my room instead of return them to my parents’ hiding spot, heheh.

 

Hrm, while part of me wants to take on that challenge, that sounds like it could be an awful lot of work for naught.  If I correctly identify a picture of you though, will you confirm that I’m right at least?  Or will you just not comment on anything I find?

 

Nah, it’s nothing really.  While I spend a lot of time on these, the only thing I’m sacrificing is my anime and video game time, which I could do without if it meant being able to converse with you, heheh.  I’ve been late and had to take breaks before, so it’s not like I’m perfect either.  I really don’t mind if you have to take days off.  I’d much rather you deal with what you have to deal with instead of stress out over sending a response just because you feel bad for having missed a few in the past.  Hmph, if you do something like that I’ll never forgive you, b-b-baka!

 

Hahah, thanks, pretty much all of my papers and tests and projects are finally behind me, barring a few, so it’s mainly the finals I’m starting to worry about.  But because there’s an upcoming Thanksgiving break, I’ll have plenty of time to both work hard if I need to and de-stress when necessary.  That being said, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I’m so grateful for everything that you’ve done, so during my days off I’ll definitely be thinking about you, ahah!

 

EDIT:

Okay, so Nintendo just revealed their eShop Black Friday deals here, some of which are pretty decent.  What especially caught my eye was Cave Story.  I really feel terrible about putting off the game for about a year now, and I think this is my chance to finally play through it.  This version of Cave Story is the eShop version, which is different from Cave Story 3D as it retains the original graphics and music.  From the version differences page, the eShop version of the game seems to provide a pretty solid experience.  I know you originally recommended the free PC version since you weren't a fan of the 3D graphics and because the cartridge version was expensive, but since the digital eShop version uses the original graphics/music, is currently on sale, is on a handheld console, and helps support the developers to boot, I feel that it would be a worthy investment.  I've always preferred playing games on a console as opposed to the PC, and since Cave Story is a action/adventure platformer, I would probably have a better impression of it if I played it on my 3DS.  The sale ends in exactly a week which is why I wanted to ask you of your opinion for good measure, even though at this point I'm fairly certain I'll end up buying the eShop version regardless.

 

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your break!

Edit: Added a bit to the end...

Edited November 25, 2015 by Akazora

[Kenzi 146]

 

Ohhh, I believe you may have been aware of natures well before I was.  Or at least, you understood the significance of them well before I did.  I can’t remember when I first learned that natures affected stats.  Hm, was it when I first tried to beat the Pearl Battle Tower waaaaayyy back in the day and got royally screwed over by Palmer?  That was probably it.  Since then I’ve never been able to just randomly catch a stationary/legendary Pokemon in good conscious and not feel like I wasted it if it didn’t have a good nature.  Wha-- ummm, well, I actually didn’t hear the RSE soundfont in the Primal Groudon/Kyogre battle…………  M-My sensitivity to music just isn’t as sharp as yours is, and not to mention Kyogre was giving me a run for my money so it took all the concentration I had to focus on the battle, eheh… Errr, listening back to it, I guess I can hear the old soundfont… I think……

 

I find it curious you didn’t have many friends who played Pokemon when you were younger.  I guess if you just hung out with girls then that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise though.  All those guys who played Pokemon while I watched were, well, guys.  The girls in my elementary school never really played Pokemon.  I can remember about two or three in the entire school that regularly did.  I guess most girls just know Pokemon from the anime then?  Did you end up finding people in the future who shared the same passion for Pokemon as you do?  (aside from me of course, heh)

 

Shh shhh, it’s okay Kenzi, Lt. Surge’s gym is behind you now.  It may not have made much sense, but then again I have no idea how they fit some of those monstrously sized puzzles in those regularly sized buildings either.  If the Pokemon world has the technology for that, I’m sure disappearing switches activated by someone peering into trashcans isn’t outside the realm of possibility, heheh.  Route 13 is just atrocious, oh god.  And if Z utilizes those unused Power Plants, making that area more of an integral part of the story, I’ll be pissed if they don’t fix all the problems with the route as well.  Having to rely on a Flying/Levitating Pokemon is just ridiculous.  And it doesn’t prevent Pokemon from consecutively running into you while you just stand still either, so it’s still a rage inducing timewaster.  Please Game Freak, I have faith in you, don’t let me down, though I will admit my expectations are sky-high after ORAS, eheh.

 

G-Gomen, if a song I had only just discovered made me stop doing my work and get all nostalgic, than I should have known what something like that would have done to a person who grew up with the game, ehhh…  Ahaha, forgive me Kenzi, though I do hope you gained something from rediscovering those songs.  Ohh, the Athletic theme?  Gosh, I heard a remix of that so often in Smash.  That song brings back memories of Brawl shenanigans, goodness.

 

I guess everyone’s having a hard time categorizing the Mirage Islands.  I’m siding with Bulbapedia on this one.  Serebii seems to think ORAS’s Mirage Islands are the same as RSE’s Mirage Island, but based on the evidence I have to politely disagree with them.  Mirage Islands are just a part of a larger feature, Mirages Spots, which also encompass Mirage Forests, Mirage Caves, and Mirage Mountains.  Mirage Spots also include those special little areas and dimensional rifts and storm clouds that contain legendary Pokemon.  Paired with the fact that not a single Mirage Island in ORAS’s Hoenn is anywhere near the original Mirage Island from RSE’s Hoenn, and that no existing location in ORAS is located on the same Town Map tile that the original Mirage Island was found on leads me to believe that that mysterious island, for whatever reason, doesn’t randomly anymore appear in this universe.  Mirage Spots can be seen as a nod or reference to that strange island, but their differences are too great to call them the same thing.

 

Yeahhh, the 3DS is an amazing console with an even greater variety of good games than the DS, and it sucks that those on the outside looking in just think, “So it’s just a DS with 3D effects?  That’s dumb.” because in a sense they’re right.  The 3D is dumb and was a gimmicky ploy to get the system to sell.  It would have done just as well, if not better, if it just had the 3D feature removed and was given a new name.  But whatever, no point in getting worked up over a console that’s been around for nearly five years (hory shet, I know).  Speaking of which, the DS was released late 2004, which means there was a little over six years between its release and the release of the first 3DS.  Because it’s been nearly five years that the 3DS has been out, it’s very likely that the new generation handheld console will be revealed soon.  The 3DS was announced in March of 2010 and released in March of 2011, only a single year later.  If the 3DS and its successor follows the DS and 3DS’s pattern, then sometime in 2016 we’ll know what the new console is, whether it’s the rumored NX or not, and in 2017 it will be released.  On the other hand, the 3DS’s lifespan is probably even longer than the DS’s.  While the DS sold well, it was quickly out-teched by mobile games and faced stiff competition from the PSP later in its life.  The 3DS on the other hand is dominating this niche market it’s claimed, and with new games like Fates, the speculated Pokemon Z, and upcoming Smash DLC, this console is far from being dead.  If we take this into consideration, it might make more sense for them to put off the next gen’s console reveal until 2017 with a release date of 2018.  That should be plenty of time for you to finish those DS and 3DS games you have yet to play, right?

 

I-I didn’t expect myself to ramble like that, so I’ll just make the rest of this a new paragraph.  I remembering really liking Black and White’s plot when the games first came out.  This was back before I even watched anime critically, so despite how underwhelming the game would feel if I ever replayed it today, I just went along with the hype and believed for a time that White was the best Pokemon game ever made.  Then when I took a closer look at how bad the Pokemon designs were, how nonsensical Entralink was (Seriously, what in blazes is Entralink????  It’s been years and I still can’t figure it out.  This concept is harder to understand than physics, what the--), and how forced a lot of the characters and motivations were, I realized just how poor of a game 5th gen was.  I’ll give it credit for blowing me away with the graphics, though I’m not in middle school anymore and those tricks won’t fool me again, bleh.  The music is still nice.  Not very Pokemon-ish, but nice nonetheless.  Urgghh, and Bianca, geebuscdwkqcjdw!11!!onE!1!!  I believe you already know how she killed that poor shiny Skorupi right before my eyes.  What a goddamn savage.  Poor baby didn’t stand a chance, sniff…  I’ll never forgive her for that, grrrr.  Hugh was pretty bland indeed.  I don’t even remember what his personality was like.  He wanted to get his sister’s Pokemon back or something?  Wait, why was Team Plasma stealing Pokemon again?  Pfft, heck if I know, I can’t be bothered to remember that, heh.  But of course, Hugh will still have his fangirls, as will N.

 

Ehhhh?  Shouldn’t it be more of a surprise for a school to have a pool than not?  Our school technically had a swim team, but I believe they used the local YMCA to practice.  It was a dinky little team and a bit of a joke sport.  Remember that nationally ranked swimmer from our school I mentioned a while back?  He wasn’t on our school’s team because he thought the team sucked too much and it would be a waste of his time.  Ah, so you think you’d still be pretty conservative no matter where you grew up then, hm?  I guess if those were conscious choices then that would make sense.  Hahah, well no matter the reason, there’s nothing wrong with that!

 

Ohh, so you watched the Direct!  Cloud’s reveal definitely didn’t emotionally rile me up like Robin/Lucina’s reveal or Mewtwo’s reveal, because I never played Final Fantasy before much like you.  In retrospect, the barriers (or should I say limits, heh) that have been broken as a result of Cloud’s inclusion are what make me excited.  No one expected Cloud to get into Smash.  Some people way back when Brawl was new used to say they wanted Cloud, but they were immediately dismissed by those who “knew better”, claiming that Nintendo and Square Enix would never come to an agreement.  I'm sure you're familiar with Brawl Taunts?  After all, Smash is for “Nintendo characters only”.  At least that’s what everyone thought.  Who seriously believed that a “joke” character like Cloud would make it in?  Heck, Cloud didn’t even get into PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale… and that’s literally Sony’s answer to Nintendo’s Smash!  Now that we have a nearly exclusively Sony character in Smash, we’re one step away from having Master Chief in, two steps away from Goku, three steps away from Shrek, and four steps away from Home Depot.  Mickey Mouse is a viable contender.  Mickey Mouse.  I never thought I’d see the day… Smash 4 has broken so many expectations, it’s unbelievable.  Sakurai is going all out, and he definitely deserves praise.  So for the Fates Special Edition, as exciting as it was to have it announced, it wasn’t much of a surprise.  Japan had gotten the Special Edition previously (the game is already released over there) so it was just a matter of time before America would get the same treatment.  It’s such a good deal, though.  Only eighty bucks for three full games and merch in the form of an art book and a little pouch?  Damn, considering how expensive each of those items would have been separately, the Special Edition is an absolute steal.

 

Oh no no no, I didn’t watch the debate and the Direct at the same time, I watched the debate and a hype stream on Twitch preceding the Direct.  The Twitch stream was literally just some guy getting excited speculating about the Direct which would happen the next day.  That might sound absolutely pointless to watch to you, but hey, the dude’s fun to watch and just chill with, so why not, hah.  I had completely forgotten there was a Democratic debate this past week.  I didn’t expect them to host one on a Saturday, bleh.  I only realized I was missing out when I was at the gym and happened to see the debate on a television hung in front of the treadmills.  I watched a recording of it later though, so it’s all good.  Hahahah, are you talking about the whole Wall Street issue?  Yeahhh, Clinton was rekt.  Huh??  You’ll have to excuse me for not keeping up with the social media aspects of this campaign, eheh, but when and how did Fiorina attack Trump?  Regardless of what exactly went down though, going head to head with Trump as you say is definitely a risky move.  He has quite the sharp tongue and a rather strong following, and social media attacks are his forte.

 

I’m sure even if you go your separate ways, you’ll all find time to get back together again to hang out.  There’s always winter and summer breaks after all.  I know my sister got really emotional after high school because she’s an extrovert and had a ton of friends there.  Apparently she was so upset and distraught over not being able to see them regularly anymore.  In college though, she made new friends and moved on.  She still keeps in touch with some of her high school friends, even if the majority of those ties have been severed by time and/or distance.  So yeah, while I don’t doubt that you’ll be able to maintain those friendships, at the same time I also don’t think it would be unnatural or bad if you had a complete reset and made even better friends in colleges.  I actually usually figure things out by myself, so I rarely ask for homework assistance of any kind.  And as for others asking me for help, that almost never happens as well, eheh.  Hmm, since I only just got a phone, “ring up” wouldn’t be the greatest term for it, but if you mean randomly being chatted up then yeah that happens every once in a while.  Very infrequently though and I don’t think too much of those conversations nor do they get very far.  I guess in high school there were some people I hung out with who were pretty agreeable, but it’s not like I went out of my way to see them.  If they were in my phys ed or lunch periods and could help pass the time, then of course I’d take the opportunity to chill with them.  Eheheheh, gosh, I probably sound like such a loner.  But once again, I really do insist that I’m absolutely fine.  However, I appreciate your concern though, ahah.  It’s not that I’m avoiding long lasting relationships; it just seems like they don’t usually work out in my case.

 

Ah, you misunderstand, I am hungry.  A lot of the time.  But whenever I satiate that hunger by eating, I barely eat more than an average amount of food before I get really stuffed.  I’m constantly switching between “I’m so hungry I could eat eight cows” and “I’m so stuffed I could go for days without food” which is a bit of a hassle.  Usually my hunger peaks after I work out, but since I do that late in the evening I never have any food to eat.  By two in the morning, I’m craving some snacks.  If I’m staying up late, then by four my stomach really starts to growl.  If I’m pulling an all-nighter, then by six I’m more famished than I am tired.  But whenever I try to eat more to balance my hunger out, I get stuffed so quickly…  I feel like it’s a mix of both my higher metabolism as a result of going to the gym and my altered hunger threshold as a result of eating meals infrequently.  And I guess my variable sleep schedule probably doesn’t help matters, eheheh.  Uwah, but if you bought ramen then you’d be letting all those meal swipes go to waste!  I don’t want to make the food at Leutner sound inedible or something.  It’s not very scrumptious, but when you’re hungry you’re pretty much in the mood for anything (or at least I am; my stomach is rumbling as I type this, urgh) and it’s a better and generally healthier option than cupped noodles and bags of chips. 

 

Its vibe, huh…  I’ve never thought that name ever had a weird or negative vibe to it.  It’s pretty normal, and it’s nice in its simplicity.  It suits you, though I’m so used to calling you Kenzi that Kenzi suits you just as well, hahah.  Yeah, I can imagine my name probably wasn’t what you expected it to be, and it no doubt took some getting used to.  Aw, f-flattering me by saying you like my name isn’t going to get you anywhere, b-baka… okay maybe it might.  Whhhhaaaa you actually have 20/15 vision??  Yoooo, I don’t I know anyone with eyesight that good, holy geez!  Well, excuse me Kenzi ojou-sama, I didn’t realize you were of such noble caliber; you must feel disgusted knowing you’ve been mingling with the likes of me, who’d have 20/40-20/50 vision without contacts.  Ahah, all kidding aside, that’s really amazing.  My contacts give me temporary 20/10-20/15 eyesight when I have them in, and wow everything looks amazing!  Like, as much as they hurt when I first started wearing them, my mind was completely blown by how crisp the world could look to some people.  Of course, with that comes the drawbacks of seeing cosmetic flaws everywhere.  It doesn’t help that I pretty much only put on my contacts at night and so the first thing I see with them in is my tired face after a long day of work starting back at me through the mirror, eheheheh.  But it’s totally worth it considering how much detail and texture you can see in everything.  I never mentioned this before because I never found a good chance to, but whenever I stargaze I have to wear my contacts otherwise I wouldn’t be able to make out the celestial objects well.  I can kinda see stars without any visual aid, but if 20/20 vision is 480p then 20/15 vision is 720p.  Individual stars just look really blotchy and fuzzy, in the same way a 480p shot of the night sky would look distractingly pixelated as opposed to a 720p one.  My contacts bring everything up to a nice 1080p/720p, which is super helpful.  Just a few days ago, I pulled two pseudo-all-nighters in a row (took naps during the day, so they didn’t really count as true all-nighters) and failed to put my contacts in during those short naps.  I couldn’t see anything for the full day after.  It was awful.  Can you imagine seeing the world with perpetual 144p?  It’s worse experiencing than imaging, trust me.  I couldn’t see people’s faces; I felt like Ace from 999.  My mind was straining itself so hard just to comprehend what was going on with my reduced vision it was giving me a headache.  However, reverting back to HD vision with my contacts at the end of the day was such a satisfying feeling, ohohoho.  Anyway, I still can’t believe your eyesight is so good!  And you seem to have good ears too, so gosh it’s like you have the best of both worlds (assuming your senses of taste, smell, and touch are not compromised in some way)!  Geez Kenzi, so unfair, you should share your genes with the less fortunate, hmph!  Joking joking, I know that’s not possible, but your sister must have, and probably still is, really envious of your glorious chromosomes.

 

Woah, disturbing your REM sleep like that sounds both ingenious and rather torturous at the same time.  Good on you for having that idea, but don’t overdo it!  A good night’s sleep is the best, but at least you’re still getting those on the weekends.  Hrm, I may do something like that if there’s something I have to wake up unusually early for, but if it’s just a normal class day then I’ll try to train and build up my own willpower.  And of course, the cold has only barely started to settle in, so I have yet to see how my body handles the frigid Cleveland winters in the morning.  That aside, remember how I always stress that your health should be more important than anything else!  If you start seeing negative side effects to this REM sleep deprivation, then be sure to stop that alarm clock nonsense, heh.  

 

You actually mentioned that at a good time, as freshman registration for next semester classes finally opened just yesterday at seven in the morning.  Almost everything is finalized except for one class, which I’m on the waitlist for.  My advisor says that class’s student limit is usually raised and that people are shuffled around a lot so I’m nearly guaranteed to get a spot once all the paperwork is sorted through.  For a quick rundown, I’m taking six classes: a SAGES University Seminar, accounting 102, econ 103, an Excel course, management 201, and intro to political science.  The SAGES University Seminar is not to be confused with the First Seminar that I took (am taking) the first semester.  The University Seminar doesn’t have Fourth Hours and is on a different general topic than my First Seminar.  There are three general categories SAGES classes can fall under: Natural World, Social World, and Symbolic World.  I took an FSSO course this semester (First Seminar Social World), which means I am required to take a USNA (University Seminar Natural World) and USSY (University Seminar Symbolic World) in future semesters.  If someone took an FSNA, then they would later have to take a USSO and a USSY, while someone who took an FSSY would go on to take a USNA and a USSO.  I’m taking a USSY course for this coming spring semester, so when I’m a sophomore I’ll be taking a USNA class.  Case Western wants to make sure you stay well-rounded and not focus too exclusively on any one of the three categories, ahah.  I know SAGES can be a bit confusing, but hopefully I explained that well enough for you to understand.  As for what the class is specifically on, it’s actually called “Protest Drama” and explores the use of politics in plays and literature.  Sounds pretty fascinating if you ask me.  Accounting 102 is just a simple follow-up to accounting 101, and while I studied micro in econ 102 this semester I’ll be studying macro in econ 103 next semester.  The Excel class is just that, a class teaching you how to use Excel with a focus on accounting.  Management 201 is just an introduction to business and communications.  This is the class I’m waitlisted for, so there’s no guarantee they’ll find a spot for me in this class, but the chances are pretty high.  And finally, I’m taking an intro to comparative politics class.  I wasn’t initially planning on taking this class, but I lost the speed-clicking-at-seven-in-the-morning contest to those whose computers processed the pages faster than mine and so wasn’t able to snag myself a phys ed class this semester.  I wish I could have just gotten it done and out of the way with my freshman year, but there’s harm in taking it as a sophomore.  My chances of getting in a phys ed class will be higher when I’m older as well, since seniors choose first, juniors choose second, sophomores choose third, and freshman choose last.  They have to give priority to those graduating soon, after all.  So without a phys ed class my schedule was looking a bit empty, and on a spur of the moment I decided to get some of my prereqs out of the way.  I explained earlier how my APs covered my arts and humanities requirements and how I would be taking a summer course at Rutgers to cap off my natural and mathematical sciences requirements, so I was left with a choice between various intro level social science courses.  I found one that wasn’t full and fit into my schedule nicely and that was the political science class, so I signed up for it rather spur of the moment.  That brings me up to a total of 18 credit hours, a bit more than average.  None of my classes are joke classes either (unlike the wellness class I took this semester).  Accounting, the Excel class, and management are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while econ, SAGES, and political science are on Mondays and Wednesdays.  The only class I have on Friday is econ, which is split into three classes as opposed to the two classes all my other course are separated into.  Classes on Mondays and Wednesdays start at nine in the morning while those on Tuesday and Thursday begin at ten.  My econ class on Friday is at 11:30 am, which is nice.  I’m generally pretty happy with my schedule.  I’m moving at a bit of a brisk pace, but I don’t having much of a choice if I want to complete that dual degree program.  If it’s normal to complete it in five years, I need to take the extra strides early to get it done in four.  I also have to wake up earlier than I’m used to on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I’ll have to adjust for that as well as deal with the extra burden of two more (real) classes than this past semester.  It’s going to be a struggle, but I was pretty comfortable these past few months even with the excessive amount of slacking off I did.  I won’t be able to fully enjoy Fates when it comes out in February though, which is a bit of a bummer considering I have it pre-ordered, but oh well.  I’ll see if I find time over the weekends for a bit Fire Emblem.

 

Oh gosh, I’m just like your sister.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a sunny, gorgeous day outside; those blinds will be closed.  The room light and lamp are perfectly fine as sources of illumination, and they don’t fluctuate like natural does or cause as much glare.  I always have my brightness turned up to the max and still distractingly see my reflection in the computer screen in natural light.  I guess that’s less of a glare problem and more… whatever a good science term would be for that, but still.  My brother tries to get me to open the blinds all the time.  He only gave up after I taped the blinds shut, heheh, that’ll show him.  Though, he proudly informed me over the phone that he had taken over my old study spot and claimed it at his own, so I believe the tape is gone now.  Oh geez, winter break is going to be a power struggle.  Ahahah, of course I follow a lot of YouTube channels regularly, but I’ve gotten into the habit of manually checking their channels every day for new content, and watch their videos when/if they upload something.  I guess things might be easier if I subscribed, but I’m so used to just checking in whenever I want that I don’t think it would make much of a difference at this point.

 

Call me dumb, but I never figured out what Humans of New York is.  It’s one of those things that got all popular while I wasn’t paying attention and now I’m too afraid to ask.  When I first heard of it, I thought it was some sort of charity like the Red Cross, but evidently I’m wrong.  Is it a social media thing that’s Facebook specific or something?  Is it a book?  A newspaper?  A website?  A company?  A person?  A small group of people?  What’s so good about it/them/him/her?  This is almost as baffling as Entralink.  Goodness, you’re making lockers out to be the most dreaded part of your day.  Surely nothing can be worse than algebra II, right…?  Hmm, your attendance system isn’t actually too different from ours then.  We also have security at the front entrance and calls to parents if we’re absent, etc.  I’m surprised the pledge wasn’t mandatory until just last year for your high school, and a bit puzzled by the fact that it’s recited randomly during second period.  It’s been required K-12 for decades where I was from.  I wouldn’t be too hard on the pledge of allegiance; it’s rather nostalgic for me for some reason, eheh.  It evokes a lot of warm and fuzzy elementary school memories.

 

Yeah, they’re most definitely going to have to take an extra year or two before graduating.  It’s awfully silly, but the college doesn’t have much of a choice.  They can be as selective as they want, but once a trouble child falls into the system it’s going to be a struggle to get them out.  If the student’s parents can afford to pay for the extra time there, and they’re not doing any violent crimes to get them officially kicked out, you just have to force feed them like depressed sloths and hope that they graduate sooner rather than later.  Worst comes to worst, just shove a psychology major down their throats and chase them off-campus, ahah.

 

(Wait, but how can you insert an “inaudible gasp” if such a thing does not exist?  Wouldn’t a gasp have to be audible to exist??)  Ohhhhhhhhhh myyyy gooooooddddd I almost forgot Frog and Toad existed!  Those books were my jam when I was a kid!  I only recognize Olivia but never read it.  I definitely read Tuck Everlasting, though I hardly remember it so I can’t say whether I thought it was good or bad.  Allburg’s The Polar Express fascinated me as a child; it was one of the reasons I fell in love with Christmas, along with hundreds of other reasons of course, ahah.  For some reason the teachers at my elementary school loved reading Jan Brett books to us youngsters during story time.  The books were only okay, and since my eyesight sucked it’s not like I could see the pictures very well, but they were so prevalent I remember them rather vividly for some reason.  Honestly, I had forgotten about The Power of Five books for a time.  I only randomly happened to recall it one day (you know those moments when you just remember a forgotten life event like *bam* woah how did I ever forget that?) and luckily for me the fifth book was set to be released very soon afterwards, so I kept an eye on it.  Ehh, To Kill a Mockingbird didn’t give me a very strong impression the first time I read it during the summer program, and wasn’t much better two years later in high school.  It’s a fine book, but I really don’t think I’ll be re-reading it any time soon.  Ohh, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of those two books before.  It’s been so hard to find the time to read a book for pleasure nowadays, but I’ll try my best to find time for those!

 

Yay, that’s the spirit!  Play that 3DS on the subway, who cares if everyone else is either on their phones, sleeping, or grumpily glaring at the opposite wall.  Letting your inner geek loose is always so invigorating, ahah.  I believe there was this special club formed where they actually got orchestra members and band members together to play a few pieces for a small venue.  It was run by the orchestra conductor, and while it wasn’t “official” because they didn’t have their own holiday/winter/spring concerts and because the band instructor didn’t really pay it much heed, it was still surprisingly pretty legit.  Some people took it seriously enough, though there was always a shortage of more specific wind instruments like the bassoon or the bass clarinet.  Oh, well if you’re not comfortable talking to her and feel like it would be awkward for both of you to retrieve your art, then I suppose you don’t have to.  It’s up to you what you want to do in the end.  Ahh, don’t worry, I was just like you after college apps were done.  Well, I didn’t completely let loose until after/during winter break because of regular decision applications, but even so I barely did anything senior year.  It was only my classes and the anime club that I took seriously, and even then I never got that worked up over my grades.  Without band, there was a huge weight off my shoulders, even if part of me did feel a bit lazy for being so uncommitted to everything that wasn’t my own creation, heh.  Gosh Curious Kenzi, you’re saying online classes over winter break is something you want to do?  Pls, that’s far more than what I could muster.  Ahhhhh I used to get caught all the time, too!  I can’t even recall the number of times they’ve relocated the games.  They used to hide it in juvenile places but have upped their game dramatically by literally locking it away (that didn’t stop me from figuring out how to unlock it without a key) or by stashing it in their car and driving off to work with it every day (…okay, they stumped me there…......... nah, not really, this is what led me to actually purchase consoles and games behind their backs, ufufufufu).  The thrill and rush of finding where they hid the games was amazing, ahah.  As a result, I’ve also gotten really good at hiding my games from them as well, if I was ever in a position safe enough to keep the games in my room instead of return them to my parents’ hiding spot, heheh.

 

Hrm, while part of me wants to take on that challenge, that sounds like it could be an awful lot of work for naught.  If I correctly identify a picture of you though, will you confirm that I’m right at least?  Or will you just not comment on anything I find?

 

Nah, it’s nothing really.  While I spend a lot of time on these, the only thing I’m sacrificing is my anime and video game time, which I could do without if it meant being able to converse with you, heheh.  I’ve been late and had to take breaks before, so it’s not like I’m perfect either.  I really don’t mind if you have to take days off.  I’d much rather you deal with what you have to deal with instead of stress out over sending a response just because you feel bad for having missed a few in the past.  Hmph, if you do something like that I’ll never forgive you, b-b-baka!

 

Hahah, thanks, pretty much all of my papers and tests and projects are finally behind me, barring a few, so it’s mainly the finals I’m starting to worry about.  But because there’s an upcoming Thanksgiving break, I’ll have plenty of time to both work hard if I need to and de-stress when necessary.  That being said, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I’m so grateful for everything that you’ve done, so during my days off I’ll definitely be thinking about you, ahah!

 

EDIT:

Okay, so Nintendo just revealed their eShop Black Friday deals here, some of which are pretty decent.  What especially caught my eye was Cave Story.  I really feel terrible about putting off the game for about a year now, and I think this is my chance to finally play through it.  This version of Cave Story is the eShop version, which is different from Cave Story 3D as it retains the original graphics and music.  From the version differences page, the eShop version of the game seems to provide a pretty solid experience.  I know you originally recommended the free PC version since you weren't a fan of the 3D graphics and because the cartridge version was expensive, but since the digital eShop version uses the original graphics/music, is currently on sale, is on a handheld console, and helps support the developers to boot, I feel that it would be a worthy investment.  I've always preferred playing games on a console as opposed to the PC, and since Cave Story is a action/adventure platformer, I would probably have a better impression of it if I played it on my 3DS.  The sale ends in exactly a week which is why I wanted to ask you of your opinion for good measure, even though at this point I'm fairly certain I'll end up buying the eShop version regardless.

 

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your break!

Edit: Added a bit to the end...

 

I became familiar with natures after derping around on Serebii mid to late middle school. Whoa, I have the same problem! After discovering that natures had an effect on stats, I just couldn't enjoy the games as much anymore. I always felt compelled to soft-reset until I got a Pokemon with a decent nature, and I can't catch legendaries anymore in fear that I'll end up with less than stellar IVs even if they have good natures (especially roaming Pokemon, oh god). As for the Primal Kyogre/Groudon theme, if you're not sure whether you can hear snippets of the RSE soundfont, see if you can catch them around 0:15-0:19, 0:26-0:28, and 0:55-0:59. Try to listen to a minute straight through, and just keep an eye (or ear) out for them while you're listening! 

 

I only had one girl friend who actively played Pokemon, but she goes to a different school and I only met her through those card parties I sometimes went to. Aside from her, all of my friends who've played Pokemon are guys. Yeah, a few of my girl friends are familiar with Pokemon and have watched a few episodes when they were little, but they never actively played the games though. I recently discovered that there are a few people in my comp sci class who openly play on Pokemon Showdown during their free time. So yeah, I guess I made a couple of new friends, lol. I can't completely geek out with them though since most people don't know about this side of me. It sucks that I have to suppress this urge, but at least I have some new friends to talk to, haha.

 

Ahaha, oh my gosh, I've always wondered how they managed to fit those puzzles into such small buildings. Buildings like the Pokecenter also come to mind. In RSE, they were about four Brendan/Mays in length on the outside, but on the inside? They're huge?? They did a better job with the proportions in the later games, but I still like making fun of this, haha. Well, at the very least, Game Freak needs to allow repels to work on Route 13. Or you know, make those Pokemon easier to avoid by taking out the wind or something. I think it's a pretty creative route, but these annoyances are a bit much. And I thought Sky Pillar was a pain, lol.

 

I love Yoshi's Athletic theme so much! It brings back so many memories, ahhh... I remember downloading the sheet music at one point and even listening to dozens of covers of it... it's such an adorable tune! Haha no worries. I actually want to thank you reminding me to revisit the OST again, hehe.

 

But doesn't this have the same layout as RSE's Mirage Island? Of course, ORAS is not merely just a remake since the games also incorporate a bunch of new additions, but couldn't this be considered as an "enhancement" to the original Mirage Island instead of an entirely new area? I guess it's true that the differences are far too great to simply brush off, but why are they still called the "Mirage Islands" then? Surely they could've come up with a different name, right? I think it coincides with the idea of RSE's Mirage Island appearing and disappearing. Don't the new Mirage Islands follow a similar mechanic? I'm not really siding with anyone on this, but I still think the new Mirage Islands are similar enough to be connected to the original, even if they are vastly different. Good on Serebii for not completely categorizing them as new areas, and good on Bulbapedia for acknowledging the differences enough to give the new Mirage Islands a separate page.

 

What on earth, the 3DS has been around for nearly five years already?? Geezus, wtf wow, I'm really late to the party. I probably wouldn't have been able to wait until 2018 for the new console to be released so I'm glad you pushed me to get one back in August, ahaha... Hehe, yup, I think 2+ years is plenty of time to get through the games I want to play. Yeah, I'm also pretty confident that they'll reveal the new console soon. Wasn't the 3DS revealed just after the DSi was released? They seem to be following the same pattern after releasing the New 3DS XL not too long ago. But you're right. It's not like the 3DS is going to die out anytime soon, lol.

 

Oh wut, I actually didn't have that great of an impression after playing Black even though I wasn't playing it very critically either. Best Pokemon game ever made? Ehh, it was fun, but it was still a pretty underwhelming game aside from the music and graphics. Honestly, I was really disappointed with the Battle Subway. It was pretty boring in comparison to Platinum/HGSS's Battle Frontier. Bianca was just a really annoying character in general (apologies for bringing back the unwanted memories, gomen), and Cheren was also relatively bland. I never used the Entralink either, so I don't have an explanation for you there, haha. Even after looking at the game critically, I still don't see too many merits. Same with B2W2. Black 2 was a good enhancement to the originals though. I honestly expected a Pokemon Gray instead (or Grey, depending on how you want to spell it), so good on them for throwing that curveball. It was a creative twist, and I enjoyed that. Also, I'm curious; what do you mean by the music wasn't very "Pokemon-ish"? Ahaha, Hugh has fangirls? N too? I... I didn't realize people actually fangirled over Pokemon characters, lol. I jokingly spazzed about B2W2's Cheren with a friend if that counts as anything. Though I guess I've seen Professor Sycamore gain some attention from people...  

 

But I thought most high schools had pools... I mean, even a few of the middle schools I visited had pools... Barely any high schools would have swim teams if schools didn't have pools, lol. I mean, where would they compete? They can't just hog those public pools and water parks for all of their practices and competitions, after all. So yes, I do find it rather surprising that your school doesn't have a pool, haha. I'm guessing that swimming wasn't part of your P.E. curriculum then? 

 

Ahaha, I know right?? Who would've thought they'd include a character from Final Fantasy. And oh my goshhhhh I remember Brawl Taunts! I used to think it was the funniest thing (well, the first one at least). Yush, Mickey Mouse is very much possible use Kingdom Hearts as justification, huzzah. I watched a video reaction of one of my favorite YouTubers (a recording of his stream) and I could feel the hype coming even though I've never played Final Fantasy. Ohh, what a game changer, this is so exciting! Barriers have been broken and any character has potential to get into Smash! Sakurai still has to be careful though. With great power comes great responsibility, heh. Haha yeah, I figured the Fates Special Edition was a really good deal, so congrats! Hopefully you'll have time to play it over spring or summer break! 

 

I'm not the biggest fan of streams, but I love watching people getting hyped up over stuff, so I can see where you're coming from, hehe. Ahah, I don't follow the social media aspects of the campaign either, and I only happened to stumble upon Fiorina attacking Trump when I typed her name into the google search bar. One of the first "news" articles I saw displayed this petty argument between them. Fiorina was defending Carson and basically implied that Trump had no brains. Bad idea. Reallyyyy bad idea. It was a bit immature of both of them to attack each other like that--even if they're not exactly on good terms with each other either.

 

Haha yeah, I don't plan on not making new friends in college, and I guess I can always visit my old friends during break, lol. Hm, well figuring out stuff by myself is always fun, so I can relate, but you rarely approached teachers or friends for help? Oh geez, I regularly asked for help for my math and science classes. Before school during the day of every quiz and test in AP Chem, the classroom would be completely flooded with students asking questions and helping each other out. Same for days after school when labs were due by 3pm for all students. For the calc midterm last year, a couple of friends and I stayed at the library for nearly ten hours straight trying to cram for it. For Physics C, students sometimes stop by the classroom after school whenever they need help with these soul-sucking Webassigns. We call them "physics parties" to delude ourselves. People also sometimes chat me up asking for help, and sometimes I chat up others for help as well. What better way to learn than by offering and exploring different approaches or perspectives to a problem? I love having epiphanies and discovering things on my own, but I could never go without asking questions. Gosh, I know you keep insisting that you're fine, but I still find it hard to believe that long lasting relationships don't work out for you. You gotta have some people who'll be there for you through thick and thin, haha. Ah, well, you seem to be doing fine, so I'll take your word for it, eheh... 

 

Ahhhhhh, eat some food! Don't do this to yourself! :c Go place a jar of pretzels on the corner of your desk and munch on them when you're up late (quietly though since you wouldn't want to wake up your roommate, haha). You can't just come back from the gym late in the evening and not eat anything! You can't build muscle without eating either; your body needs the nutrients, after all. So when you eat, you barely eat anything more than average, yet you get stuffed anyway? Oh dear, I didn't realize how difficult it must be to address hunger as a college student. Isn't it also harder to pay attention in class feeling like this? You're kinda scaring me, eheh... Regardless, I hope you'll be able to fix this soon! Well, now that you're on break (and the fact that it's Thanksgiving), hopefully you'll take the time to treat yourself and eat something nice, heh. Haha, whether or not I'd use my meal swipes probably won't matter to me. I'll eat when I'm hungry, and I won't eat when I'm not. Unless I'm allowed to take food out of the dining hall or something. No point in eating when I'm not hungry, lol. I'll bring a few packages of ramen and maybe an electric kettle for days when I gotta stay up late though. 

 

Haha, yeah, I've learned to appreciate the normality of my name after realizing how inconvenient it was for one of my friends to have an oriental name (which she eventually changed). Well, I'm not sure what I would've expected your name to be, lol. I was so used to referring to you as "Akazora" that any name might've taken some getting used to, haha. And whaa... how was I trying to "get anywhere" with a simple compliment? W-What's wrong with me liking your name...? Oh gosh, I really have been taking my eyes for granted for so long... Contacts seem like such a pain--especially night contacts that physically push back on your eyeballs (which honestly sound really painful, even if you say you're already used to it). And the fact that lack of prolonged use can cause your eyes to revert back to their original shape. Geez, your analogy comparing vision with video quality really helped me gain a new perspective. Hmm, I guess not being forced to wear vision correctors is another thing I should be grateful for this Thanksgiving. Also, the eye doctor may not have mentioned this, but I'm pretty sure that my left eye is worse than my right eye. It's not a very noticeable difference, but I'm certain it's there. Nah, my ears actually aren't that great. I completely trashed them after discovering the magic of headphones. I'm trying my best to keep the volume at a reasonable level, but gah, I can't help it sometimes, eheh... Ahah, "glorious chromosomes" seems like a bit much. I'm really no different from the average person you pass by on the sidewalk (20/15 isn't as uncommon as you may think). Thanks though, haha.

 

Ehh, I'm not going to get a "good" night's sleep on 4-5 hours no matter how you look at it. So I may as well make the process of waking up easier, lol. I've been feeling all right so far, and weirdly enough, I'm not dozing off in my classes anymore. Hm, I will be continuing for the time being then. If anything, you need to look after yourself more since you'll be taking extra classes next semester, haha. Cleveland winters should be pretty rough since you guys are right beside a lake. Even though the amount of snow you received a few days ago was a bit underwhelming, I'm confident that you'll be able to experience a real winter soon. Hopefully you guys have good heating in your dorms! You'll need it, heh.

 

Ohh, so you're planning to take on six classes? And calc is only one semester? Geez, you guys move fast, haha. I also didn't know that colleges offered courses on Excel. Is it one of the required classes for that Integrated Study program you're in? Oh poo, so if I went to Case and had to enroll in some SAGES courses, I can't just focus on the more science-oriented ones? Aw, that's no fun. I guess I could always brush up on some history, but shouldn't the SAGES courses you take be tailored to the major you're planning to pursue? If someone wants to go into kinesiology, why should they be forced to enroll in some random course that focuses on languages or the environment? It's one thing if someone wants to take the class, but what if they don't really want to? Whoa, so the class you're taking focuses on politics in plays and literature? Oh dang, what the... that actually sounds kinda interesting, haha. I'm willing to bet that Shakespeare's Julius Caesar might make an appearance there, heh. Let me know how it goes! Also, is there a reason your econ class is split into three classes instead of two? And best of luck to you this upcoming semester! You'll be taking more courses than usual, so be sure to look after yourself as well!

 

Oh whaa, ahaha, I'm just like your brother then. I also moved into my sister's room right after she left for college, lol. I've gotten into the habit of calling it "my" room even though it's still technically hers (which I feel kinda bad about, ahah...). I keep the window exposed for the majority of the day and only cover them during the nighttime so the light coming from my window at 2am won't disturb any neighbors, eheh... Wow, you really are just like my sister. She also turns her laptop brightness up to the max and insists that she'd rather be working under artificial light. She never bothered taping the blinds though (dang, I didn't realize you were willing to go to such lengths, haha). We have those fabric blinds, so she wouldn't have been able to anyway, lol. My laptop brightness is always on the lowest setting since the highest setting is way too bright (plus it saves battery). The glare usually doesn't bother me, but I can always turn the laptop brightness up a notch or two when it does. The reflection you see on your laptop is likely caused by backlighting. If you worked beside a lamp situated in front of you rather than behind you, you probably won't experience as much glare. I'm not sure how your workspace is arranged, but that might help a bit. Oh geez, what's the point of having a YouTube account if you're not going to bother commenting or liking any videos, or subscribing to anyone? Haha, I can understand the part about not wanting to comment on (damn google+) or like anything (since I don't enjoy how it clogs my like history), but it's a lot easier to keep track of people by subscribing. And if you stumble across a video you enjoyed, you can always add it to a playlist. There are a couple of people I regularly follow who I'm not subscribed to, so I guess I can kinda understand where you're coming from, but how do you keep track of all of the people you follow without subscriptions?

 

I'm actually not entirely sure myself what Humans of New York is, lol. I have a pretty good idea though. I think it originally blew up as a Facebook page run by one person (Brandon) who went around NYC interviewing everyday people, and I guess his aim was to show people the everyday struggles (or profundities) these people were willing to share about themselves. And it worked. "Wow, I never realized the people I walk past everyday had such amazing stories and advice to share." I think that's the reaction HONY wanted from followers. It's a very powerful Facebook page that has garnered a lot of attention. If you haven't read some of HONY's Facebook posts yet, I highly recommend you dig through a few of them just to get an idea of what it is. It's a very diverse page as well (as you would expect from a place like NYC). There are people of all ethnicities, ages (so yes, little kids too), and occupations featured here. Brandon is a very generous man with wholeheartedly good intentions, and despite the popularity HONY has gotten, he's still the same man he was years ago. He has managed to raise thousands of dollars, and has truly changed people's lives for the better through this Facebook page. There are homeless people who end up getting noticed and hired by corporates because of Brandon. Seriously, it's absolutely incredible. Oh gosh, nope, lockers were godawful. You could ask any of my friends and they'd give you similar answers. And pfft, algebra II wasn't that bad. Couldn't possibly have been any worse than those summer school history classes I took (lol, I'm kidding; I know you love your history, hehe). I'm actually more surprised that the state decided to make the pledge mandatory for all schools (as opposed to only K-8 in years prior). I mean, I don't think it was required for any schools back in NYC. Gosh, what a waste of fifteen seconds that could be used to fill in a few answer bubbles on a test! But in all seriousness, it really is kinda pointless. It's not nostalgic for me at all. It feels like more of a nuisance nowadays, to be honest. Elementary and middle school were fun times, but the pledge isn't one of those things that evokes and warm and fuzzy memories from those days. As for why the pledge and announcements are recited and displayed during second period and not first period, I'm not too sure myself. It's probably so the kids who arrive late to school for first period (who might've skipped the pledge and announcements as a result) aren't left in the dark or something, lol.  

 

Wow, that's actually kinda depressing. Why bother staying in college longer than you have to? It's a waste of time, money, and if they really hated college enough to not want to try in classes anymore, well, they're going to have to continue to stay in college until they pass those classes anyway. So why not just pull through during that last stretch? Ahh, well, good luck to them, I guess.

 

Ohoho, I beg to differ. Can't you express inaudible gasps through gifs? Also, it's possible for someone to gasp very quietly. You might be able to see it in their facial expression even though you may not be able to hear it, heh. Yesss!! Frog and Toad was the bomb! Haha, I figured you probably haven't read Olivia since it doesn't seem like something guys would read, but I guess it didn't hurt to ask, lol. Ohh, yes, The Polar Express was also really nice. Hmm, so your teachers mainly read Jan Brett books to you guys? Back in NYC, we read a lot of Louis Sachar books. You remember Sideways Stories from Wayside School, right? Absolutely loved that book to pieces. We also read books like Lexi's Tale and PeeWee's Tale, haha. No David was also fun, oh and Shel Silverstein! Hmm, I dunno. Maybe I have read some of Jan Brett's books before. They do seem like books that little me would pick up, haha. What about The Little Engine That Could? Patricia Polacco? I remember reading quite a few of her books, and she even visited our school back when I was in fifth grade! Or was it fourth, I actually can't remember... It was quite inspiring and I remember each one of us got to touch a chunk of a meteor she brought in and make a wish (from her book Meteor!). I'm not even sure why I still remember these kinds of things, but I guess talking about some old books really brings back some old memories, ahah. So what did you do during that summer program you read To Kill a Mockingbird for?  

 

But we don't have subways around here... or any public transportation... I'm more likely to derp around with that 3DS on an airplane, heh. Ahhhh, whaaatttt, so your school's orchestra conductor never incorporated band members into the orchestra? Geez, but playing with the band is so much fun! Oh my gosh, they're so loud sometimes I can't hear myself play, ahahaha... (and this is only a small chunk of the entire band). It's nice to see that your school formed a special club where both band and orchestra members got together though, haha. Oh nono, I'm not planning on taking actual online classes over break (I already learned my lesson after taking online chem, urgh). Just some basic courses to help me learn a thing or two; stuff I can learn at my own pace, lol. Learning doesn't always have to be torturous you know, hehe. Eheh, whenever my parents confiscated my DS, it was always my dad I had to look out for. He was annoyingly good at hiding it. My mom, on the other hand, was pretty predictable and I knew all of her hiding spots. I don't think my parents ever locked it away though. But that still didn't stop me from attempting to pick locks with a straightened paperclip (except it never worked, lol). Once high school started, my dad finally decided to take away my laptop one day. Well, I had to seriously up my game since I actually kinda needed my laptop for schoolwork and because I didn't want my backlog of graphics requests to get any bigger. I've seen him take away my sister's laptop before, but I don't think she's ever found hers so I couldn't ask her for help. So I had this epiphany when my dad was calling for me one night. I decided to "disappear" in hopes that I could scout out where he hid it (so I never answered when he called my name). I figured one of the places he'd go looking for me was the very place he hid my laptop (probably to see whether or not the laptop was still there). He went into my room first. Not very surprising. Then I heard footsteps walking down to the basement, which was a bit suspicious since there's no reason why I'd be down there. Even more suspicious was the fact that the basement was the second place he searched even though the lights there were turned off. Of course, I eventually had to run back to my room so that he didn't get too worked up or frustrated trying to find me. My dad eventually found me in my room again, then brushed off the "incident" and went to bed after I told him I was in the bathroom and couldn't hear him when he was calling my name. After digging through the basement, I found my laptop inside a dusty shoe closet. It's honestly the last place I would've thought to look. I'll give him creativity points for that. I think that was the first time I was able to find something he hid from me. It was also one of the most exhilarating hunts I'd ever been on, haha. I think I've gotten a lot better at finding my confiscated stuff in recent years, though I don't think I've ever found the need to hide my stuff from them.

 

If you're perceptive enough to deduce my city location (I'm still baffled), school, and full name without any deliberate hints, you have the skills to find a picture of me, lol. Hmm, you know what... if you do happen to correctly identify a picture of me, I'll confirm it for you if it helps put your mind at ease, haha. 

 

Aw geez, you're too much. I'm quite flattered that you're willing to put aside your anime and video game time just to talk to me. If you ever feel that typing these up is too time consuming, please don't hesitate to take days off as well! Don't think you're going to leave scot-free either if you're putting these responses above schoolwork and times for unwinding (seriously, if you need to catch up on work, anime, or video games, that's totally fine, lol). I'm already touched by the fact that you were willing to put up with me for this long, ahah.

 

Oh geez, finals are coming up for you guys already?? Holy... gosh where did the time go wtf, it's almost December already?? Be sure to study hard! Just don't forget to take a small break this Thanksgiving, hehe.

 

Dang, Smash isn't up there for the Black Friday deals. Well, that's not unexpected though since it's only about a year old, haha. Oh there's no need to consult me for this! Do whatever you want; you're the one who's experiencing it, lol. If you think playing Cave Story on a handheld will give you a better impression, then by all means go for it! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well! Relax a bit and go catch up on some sleep and anime and video games!