Z is for Zero (and the end as well as reflecting on the AtoZ Challenge)

Surprisingly, I don't have much qualms on what topic to write about today for the letter Z. Though I did debating on whether to do this or to write on Zetsuen no Tempest and all the underrated anime -in my opinion- but this is the last one, the ending, so while I don't have other story to link to (har har) I thought I should close this with regards to the challenge; since there's high chance I won't do it tomorrow.

Or, the zero in the title above can be interpreted on many things, like:

• the chances that there will be zero post here on the course of May and possibly June (since I have to buckle up and write for that damn challenge already damnit).

• the zero feeling in me when I don't open the Blogspot to write a new post come almost-midnight tomorrow.

• the need to readjust all the writing here to MS Word instead and be concrete when I have gotten used to just type whatever that come in the usually blank (zero) mind of mine.

Thinking about parting with this almost-habit actually kind of hurts, somehow.

Y is for Younha's "Nothing" (or my favorite female singer proving she's boss yet again)

The song is playing but I can’t hear it
You and I, we’re in silence

Younha. (2013). Nothing

X is for Xia Junsu's "Kanashimi no Yukue" (or the one ballad by Junsu-sama I never seem able to get bored of)

Sadness, please do not weep, even though we can see almost nothing
The memories are by our side, forever and ever
For me, happiness changing is more lonely, than happiness coming to an end

Xia Junsu. (2010). Kanashimi no Yukue (The Whereabouts of Sadness)

W is for Writer's Block Demon (or me waging a war on the entity that conquers my brain most of the time)

For someone who (allegedly) called oneself as a (sorta) amateur writer I am one who unfortunately have the long-period of blankness where I am unable to think of something remotely close to a concrete plot and that period; which is more accurately identified as having a block -is what people dubbed a writer's block.

While this is not something uncommon among people who writes, it is an almost constant presence with me when it comes to fiction writing to the point of me calling it Writer's Block Demon. Yes, caps for its a legit evil.

(As of writing this I still have no idea whatsoever sans a title -don't ask- and the deadline for the 1st draft of the challenge is just around the corner and yes, I'm sorta panicking right now)

V is for Vertical Horizon's "Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)" (or time for some blast of the past stuff)

So you sailed away
Into a gray sky morning

Vertical Horizon. (2001). Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning).

U is for Uncomfortable (or how the AtoZ challenge impacts me so far)

I'm taking a break from all the song recommendation posts as I can't really choose a song for the day (though I can always choose one from U-Kiss and begone with it) and this is me trying to reason with myself on the purpose of blogging and all -or simply put welcome to yet another episode of me ranting about the no-nonsense that is my more-often-than-not jumbled up thoughts.

(I try to make it short since I just have the urge to go and read some manga instead, but the day's nearing to close and I don't think it'll be wise to give in to the procrastinator side in me at this moment)

T is for TOXIC's "Pheromone" (a.k.a the hybrid rock song that really brings out the quality of the band's sound)

I am dragged to you, I don’t know why
The instinct is waking me up since way before

TOXIC. (2013). Pheromone.

S is for Seo Taiji's "F.M Business" (or the boss criticizing the music business since 2004)

In there, in the center
We are stupidly standing there

Seo Taiji. (2004). F.M Business

R is for Röyksopp ft. Susanne Sundfør's "Running To The Sea (Protohype & Carnage Remix)" (a.k.a I actually like the dubstep like whoaa)

I remember running to the sea
Alone and blinded by the fear

Röyskopp & Susanne Sundfør. (2013). Running To The Sea.

Q is for Quest (or my journey towards writing a post for a letter Q)

In all the days I'm writing a post for the AtoZ challenge thus far, none had given me as much headache as today; for the letter Q.

I can just screw it and simply wrote 'Q',  but I'm not sure if it'll break any rule or anything, until a random search at Wikipedia states that quest is a journey towards a goal, and in a way this post might essentially be about that damn letter anyway, thus quest it is.

Call me cheating my way out with a random post, for this will be nothing but simply me describing my weird line of thinking outside of the box (or, outside of the right vocabulary because that's how I roll) but I'll say it's the perks of having the ability to twist things up, ha!

P is for P-Type (feat. Gray)'s "Love, Life, Rap" (which is hella awesome it's the first rap song to get a post in this blog)

Love, life and rap
All I want is one mic

-P-Type (feat. Gray). (2013). Love, Life, Rap.

O is for OST (or me pimping some that I like since I never did that here before)

When talking about anime or drama, OST or the long title Original Sound Track always trails closely behind. After all, it can make or break a scene depends on how well it suits the situation, but alas I'm not really an expert in this kind of stuff, so instead of going all strictly OST, I'm focusing more on the opening or ending songs used in anime instead, with a sprinkle of OST from anime (and some drama that I happen to watch or just listen somewhere) that stands out to me because that's how I roll ha!

To make it simpler, I'll be dividing them by categories; the anime OP/ED edition (I'll try to look for the ones with the animation because that's what usually makes me like them in the first place, unless the song is just so awesome), the anime OST edition, and the drama OST edition.

(I try to limit one song per anime/drama for OST lest I go and spam the hell out of this post with Mushishi's instead. No, really. I'm serious. As for the OP/ED it'll be 2 at most for series with sequels or 2-cour and 1 for the rest.)

Or, this will go down as the most random mixed of music post I ever did in the history of this blog. OTL

N is for Nell's "Newton's Apple" (a.k.a my early pick and no.1 strong contender for Album of the Year)

Going through the AtoZ challenge post here in my blog, there's a couple of titles and topic that pops up anywhere and everywhere depends on the topic of the day; and it must be blatantly obvious by now that N will definitely belongs to Nell.

Of course, as easy a decision it was, there's still a problem whether I ought to just talk about them like I did with Linkin Park for L (but then it will be nothing but me fangirling to oblivion and beyond), or spam the hell out of this post with their whole discography (you have no idea how tempted I was to do exactly just that).

So I go back to basic and take the sorta-award-list-but-not-really style of post when it comes to music and really, Newton's Apple is so amazing I cannot not talk about it.

Before I begin this album comes with 2 CD and the video below comprises of only the 1st CD, since the 2nd is basically a re-release of two mini albums that makes up the first two of the Gravity trilogy; Holding Onto Gravity and Escaping Gravity. And this post shall focus on the 1st CD only since it'll be cheating to include the 2nd as well, as it was released earlier on late 2012 and 2013 respectively.

Now that's out of the way, let me tell you on the amazing that is Newton's Apple, which was released on 27th February (which was also a day after my birthday, so I call it a belated birthday present ha!)

M is for Mushishi (a.k.a the easy pick for Anime of the Year so far)

Had you know me well enough or generally talks to me for the past month or so, you'll see this coming from miles away. I was so excited for Mushishi Zoku Shou (a.k.a the 2nd season) since January and just can't seem to able to shut up about it. And given my current state of apathetic towards all anime in general lately this is a heaven sent gift to fuel back the anime watching in me.

And sure it's just Spring season, and there's more anime to come and be excited for, but I doubt anything will come and beat the general feels and downright screaming I did for Mushishi, hands down. Yes, even Book of Circus on the last 'K' letter post and 2nd season of Durarara!! falls short to this amazing piece of work.

The one that might be able to contend will be if they announce the production of Natsume Yuujinchou Go, but even then I doubt it will win; for Mushishi Zoku Shou is, if anything, nothing short of a miracle.

It started on January when out of nowhere, an OVA was released for the series, and needless to say, everyone was generally excited for it, -more Mushishi is better than none- but when the end credits reveal the new season slotted on Spring, the whole fandom explodes (the re-emergence of it at Tumblr is nothing short of amazing, and all the beautiful art that comes with it are surreal; seriously, the whole time I was like 'how do people art?!'). It's not the sort of anime that totally cashing-in commercial-wise, and the award-winning manga had long finished its serial, that nobody saw the sequel coming after 9 freaking years.

Mushishi is, after all, a rare beast when it first aired way back on 2005, and even more peculiar among all the airing ones today.

L is for Linkin Park (and the ups and down of being a fan a.k.a Guilty All the Same makes me rant)

If you follow/know me long enough, you'll know that Linkin Park is a huge band for me. It's literally the first band I really am a fan of since I can remember and Hybrid Theory is the first album I really get obsessed with, thanks to the introduction did by a classmate way back then. Like, more than a decade ago, yeah.

Since then I tried to closely followed the news of the band (I have a friend back in high school who talked to me at first and become close afterwards because of our shared intense-fangirling of the band. Go figure) but I still am late in all things Linkin Park, somehow.

Because I just found out that the band's having a new album coming this June and there's a single released last March and available on their Youtube page and it really shows how I'm really not that much of a Youtube person because I just listened to the song for the first time despite subscribing to the said page. Obvious fail is obvious. OTL.

K is for Kuroshitsuji (or me being excited as hell for Book of Circus damnit)

I'm a fan of Kuroshitsuji; like, a huge one for I've been following the manga for years now and still get so excited whenever there's new chapter's out. Of course, that also means I've already watched both season of the anime, and while I've got some issues with the 1st season it's still generally good to me. But the 2nd season was so bland and boring I like to pretend it never existed. Seriously.

So when there's announcement of a new anime series I found myself more worried than happy because the manga is so. good. and the anime had hardly give it the full justice it deserved (in my opinion) until the announcement mentioned the Circus arc.

Needless to say I was screaming bloody murder like, freaking. finally.

As always, here's the proof: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-22/black-butler-gets-book-of-murder-arc-video-anime

And also:

J is for Justin Timberlake's "Mirrors" (a.k.a my pick for Song of the Year and Music Video of the Year of 2013)

It's like you're my mirror
My mirror staring back at me

-Jusin Timberlake. (2013). Mirrors.  

I is for Immortal Song 2 (a.k.a the show to go when it comes to awesome live singing)

I don't watch much tv; lest it's sports (of course), MTV (lol), or occasional anime. But I've made it a point to tune into Immortal Song 2 on KBS World every Saturday because damn, the show is real good. There's comedy (the waiting room's MC cracks me up so much), drama (sorta, with the competition festival atmosphere though I have to admit that it really gets better when the nobody stole the thunder and get a win; like, damn), and obviously, awesome singing.

(KBS World put the whole episode on Youtube, so you can watch it there. For old episodes, be specific on the comments and I'll try to help you out.)

I've watched most of the episodes (I unleashed my Google ability somewhere around early Jan (?) last year and downloaded the whole thing starting from ep1 like whoaa) There's a lot of good performances of course, and it's hard to pick the ultimate favorite, so let's do a list because that's easier on the post and less of a pain. Also less commentary because I don't want to sound like a broken record praising each performance; just know that they are all so. good. Just click play, seriously.

(I try to limit one performance per artist, -do know this is harder than it sounds- so, again, feel free to hit the comment if you want to ask for other recommendations)

Or, reasons why you should watch the show is because of the awesome performances like these:

H is for Haikyuu!! (or how sports manga owns my life)

I'm currently in the mood of going through sports manga like my life depends on it or something. Like, I can't even read other manga that is not sports-oriented because I can't seem to put an ounce of interest in them, to my horror.

Currently I'm in deep with Daiya no A/Diamond no Ace (or the one baseball manga that single-handedly ruins my life so hard I go and read all the spoilers -for the record it's still ongoing- because my heart can't take all the feels OTL) and Haikyuu!! which is the first sports manga I read about volleyball. 

It all starts when I re-read Eyeshield 21 (which is about American football of all things and really, Murata Yuusuke-sensei's art is godly) and goes on to read the whole volumes of the legendary Slam Dunk (basketball) in record time. Needless to say, with my tv also conquered with sports (there's the MotoGP or F1 race on the weekend, among the sprinkler of other things, like badminton last Sunday) it comes off as no surprise that my interest is heavily influenced by it.

Still, there's a reason why Haikyuu!! is the main topic of the day; the anime has just airing the 1st episode for Spring season anime and it's set to break the iron rule of sports anime watching in me; weekly-watching. The rule was set simply because I can't handle the weekly cliffhanger; Giant Killing killed me on weekly basis when it was airing before.

G is for Glasses (a.k.a THE most important object in my life)

I was mulling about today's topic and letter, and was half-convinced to write about the manga and anime Giant Killing, but I need to re-read the whole thing again and I don't even remember half the character's name either so that's how I come to write about glasses, of all things.

But then, I'm a glasses person. Like, I've been wearing it since I was 8 and I spent more than half of my life having it perched on top of my nose. I don't remember how many exactly I've owned up to this point, but last night while lazing about and talking to my sister on the phone I wound up taking it off and sorta hit it or something, resulting in one of the lenses to fall off the frame.

Needless to say it freaks me out so bad.

Luckily I got an old one for emergency (though the lenses are scratched up hard from long period of usage; yet still usable) so now I'm typing this while the current glasses still in the case because I forgot to borrow the very-small screwdriver from my dad and fixed it.

Or, chances I'll ask him to fix it for me later.

F is for Formula 1 (or me trying to talk about how Bahrain's race was so fabulous it's awesome)

I'm a fan of Formula 1, and my first memory of watching it was way back in elementary school period with Michael Schumacher duking it out with Mika Hakkinen, both in Ferrari and McLaren respectively; however long years ago that was.

Since then I've been following the races; and long period of been away from home (I've been staying in hostels starting from when I was 13) prompts me to follow the news instead. Still, I can call myself a huge fan of the sport in general, though team orders and FIA at times remain the one thing that irks me from thoroughly enjoying the race sometimes, (and reasons why I slightly prefer MotoGP; which I started watching along the similar time period).

But, I can truly say that last night's Bahrain's race (it started at 11PM here) was one of the most fabulous race I've seen in recent memory. It doesn't help that there's adrenaline carried over from watching the badminton Men's Singles finals of India Open between Lee Chong Wei (congratulations on the win! \O/) and Chen Long prior to the race; damn it was exhilarating.

E is for Emo(tion)

Because I can't decide which is more appropriate to describe myself today.

I have bouts of mood swings at times; like, there are times I want to yell (I don't), sleep for 20 hours (I don't), cry (lol I don't), or just numb (this is common). Worse case scenario, I'll go on bouts of writing spree and thinking and create drafts and regretting myself because my WIP folder makes me feel mad and giving me the urge to delete everything (I don't).

It starts last night, actually.

D is for Durarara!! (Season 2! Like hell yeah!!)

Way back in 2010 I watched and wound up loving this one anime called Durarara!! so much I wrote a recommendation post right after I'm done with the last episode because all the damn feels requires me to relieve the stress (?) by fangirling to oblivion. And at the end of it I mentioned my wish for a sequel and now, 2014 and I got my wish fulfilled!

Proof that I'm not making this up: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-15/durarara-gets-new-tv-anime-series

Also:

C is for Candy Crush and Criminal Case (also Farm Heroes Saga)

Or more accurately described as the ones responsible of ruining my life on daily basis. I mean, I don't remember when I actually start playing those, (though Candy Crush is the one that start the chain reaction) but I'll be damned if they're not addictive as hell.

(As of typing this I got stuck on one level in Candy Crush -typical, I say-, waiting for energy to accumulate in Criminal Case and waiting for help to clear the roadblock in Farm Heroes Saga. Go figure.)

Perhaps it's not farfetched to say that these games are the reason I even open my Facebook lately. Like, my profile is filled to the brim with game notifications as statuses and my home page is even shaping up to be one, to my horror.

Which leads to me musing as I shaping up this post in my head; since when did Facebook become not a social network but a game platform? Don't get me wrong, Facebook IS a social network first and foremost, but to some people (read: me) it might be more on gaming and less on the socializing.

B is for BANKS' "Brain" (a.k.a my pick for the best English Song of the Year so far)

Trying to look smart
But not too smart to threaten anything they say

-BANKS. (2014). Brain.

A is for And The Looking Glass Falls (and intro to the AtoZ challenge)

Apparently there are times that I wound up forgetting the fact that this blog actually exist (to my horror). Of course, I can make 1001 excuses on why I'm not updating and I swear it will all be plausible in so many ways but that still didn't change the fact that this. blog. is. dead. (sorta).

So in order to revive this place from the oblivion, I'm participating in the AtoZ blogging challenge where the blogger is required to blog everyday sans Sunday starting on 1st of April (which is today, yeah). You can check out the details by clicking on the badge at the sidebar.

(I mentioned my intention on doing this to my 'editor' imouto and I'm pretty sure she's half-convinced it's not going to work; but I need to get a move on or I'm forever stuck in limbo thanks to the disaster that is last year's NaNoWriMo. For the record I don't open the MS Word since. Damnit.)

Anyways.

It occurs to me that I'm yet to put in a link to the last piece of completed work I ever did (and the only one last year OTL), and it just so happen it starts with A, so what better way to start the whole thing by doing so?

And The Looking Glass Falls