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!

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!)

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.  

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.

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.

Holding Onto Gravity, That Other Blog, And Me (Ranting Like A Boss)

I mentioned before on how my interests and mood can be divided into three and all, but I've come to the point where there's an addition to that; nothing. Yes, as in none of the three manage to make me focus on them. Sure, I still follow on music (or rather, keep on rediscovering and repeating songs from way back or something), I still don't give up on writing (the editor was thisclose on exploding upon the discovery that is my draft folder), I still watch anime (though it's been years since I last download the latest episode of currently/aired anime -end up falling into Ghost In The Shell fandom instead), and I still read manga (which mostly are still ongoing and stops at freaking cliffhanger and make me rant endlessly like what), but it's just come to the point where I don't do those obsessively like I usually did, and the possibility of me letting them go or something is so so horrifying I end up upgrading/messing with the html on Livejournal's master list and make changes here and there on this blog.

Which leads to me (sorta) rediscovering things and this (totally, definitely will be long) post is my attempt to make peace with myself and rekindling all those passions (a.k.a me going to rant and justifying myself so yeah you might not want to read this). Never mind this is my first post in a long while, and the first in 2013 no less; I sincerely think we have establish the fact that I'm characteristically late with everything by now, so yeah.

Before you click the 'x' button though, here's the link as per usual.

Holding Onto Gravity