Well. I don’t know where to start. About the fact that the last post was written 270+ days ago, about the fact that two blokes didn’t manage to say hello every now and then (well on twitter, yes, but duh), about the fact that… well, it is now time to close this chapter and pipe out.

I just got an e-mail from Netto, the chief-in-chief of NotCliche, which hosts this blog (for free, may I emphasise), that inactive blogs may be pruned if they remain inactive. Here’s my reply:

Hi Netto,

I guess you wrote that e-mail with specifically me in mind ;) But it’s true I lost interest in blogging, for now at least. It’s been ages since I last watched anime, taking almost all of my incentive to blog. Right now, my priorities are uni, gaming and most importantly, my fiancée…

[NB: I proposed to my girlfriend on October 23rd here in Brighton :D]

While I always hoped I would be getting back to animeblogging at some point, I was aware that all of this time my inactive blog has been taking up a lot of space on your server, perhaps wasting a bit of traffic too. I probably should have cut it clear right in the beginning… but then again, I kept it mainly because of my domain and to leave that door open for me if I ever felt the urge to blog again. Guess I was just waiting for your e-mail to come to make up my mind…

Well, I can’t see myself blogging in the foreseeable future, or at least not about anime, my co-writer is busy too and my domain expires sometime next year too, so I guess it is over, even though I am reluctant to see my blog go now. Some reviews might have been useful to people still (I keep getting comments to my Baccano review heh), but really, if I want my blog to be up I should pay for it then and not leave it to rot on a free host. I had always frowned upon dying blogs, and there I am now, figures.

In any case, I’d like to have an archive of my blog, in case I’d ever want to restart it in the future. Who knows, perhaps I might ring on NotCliche’s door again if it’s still possible ;) [Funnily enough my animeblogger account is still up, despite me telling them numerous times that I'm gone there... I might place my backup there while on hiatus.]

Netto, thank you so much for all your efforts and the incredible and excellent service you have offered me. I deeply appreciated it. Good luck in the future!

I already stated in one of the last hiatus posts that modern anime have generally become unattractive to me for various reasons, so I won’t get back to it. Another often reiterated thought is that I simply lost touch with the new ways of communication, especially during that transition period from long-ish wall of texts to small twitter updates. The community was moving at a far greater pace than I was; nevermind my lack of interest in anime, but I never got around to extensively use Google Reader, Buzz (anyone still using that??), tumblr, and the likes to effectively connect with people. As I said, I’ve started to get my priorities straight, and while watching the occasional anime here and there, blogging is not an option anymore. I have kept that door open for too long.

There was a time where I cared a lot more about visibility, popularity, stats and feedback, but I grew out of that. In fact, looking back I feel a little bit ashamed of my childishness (ranting about unpopularity while doing nothing myself, lashing out at stuff in my usual biased ways), however learning from those mistakes has made me a stronger person in some ways. Blogging – although this blog might have seemed like a waste of time to some – has greatly helped me educate myself, forced me to improve how to express myself and argument in English, which is not my mother tongue. I was also able to improve my Japanese skills a little, although I never really was able to make use of those. Widened my HTML and PHP knowledge too (although I’ve never really been fond of the latter). It has helped me to resolve some personal issues (remember my Venice fiasco from 2009) and has helped me to make some great friends all across the world, of which I hold RyanA in high esteem for being an overall level-headed and awesome guy, having had the one or another interesting chat about anime and random stuff and helping me with code/layout issues on my blog too. Reminds me I should pop into melative every now and then…

Dunno what to write anymore. I suppose thanks are in order now, namely… all of you who read and commented to my blog while it was active ;) I stopped caring about stats or figures ages ago (tbh I lost my bookmarks heh), so no numbers for you now. Once again, thanks to RyanA for the extensive help he has given me, to my co-writer Matthew who has filled in a few posts in the declining period of this blog but went busy himself producing music and stuff, Maestro from animeblogger for hosting my blog from 2007-2009 and, last but not least, Netto for hosting my blog 2009-now, all the while bearing with my domain problems when I moved to NC and simply being incredibly friendly. As I said, I’d come back anytime! And all the others whom I’ve forgotten in the long meantime, you know who you are, cheers.

That’s it really. I will be around on the nets: look up natsuneko on twitter and facebook, or nekosasu on Steam (play some TF2 with me :D), PSN and GReader/Mail. Looking forward to seeing you guys again, wherever, whenever. Good luck in the future!

All the best,

Adam aka nekosasu/natsuneko

Guess the location!

Wrong guess. It’s not Hisui’s birthday indeed, because, as you might remember from last years’ posts, hers is tomorrow the 12th. Actually, today is my gf’s birthday (and the proximity of the dates was NOT why I chose her). Consider this my ronery spamfest, without the embarrassing worshipping.

Well, I broke the ice already. Neko posted! How awkward. So… In a nutshell, Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! And stuff. …erm, right. I also owe you guys an apology, and perhaps a small explanation for my sudden but ever so recurrent AWOL.

Edit: Well, I thought I had scheduled this post for the 11th, but yeah it’s been a long time, WP, and it posted today, gg. Well, whatever. It’s the 11th! :V

Read the rest of this entry »

After a late night talk with Neko, I decided that you know, I live in the boonies, and interenets are slow in the boonies ergo internet video sucks in the boonies. Rather than post a preview of next season (BTW, I’m on summer ’09 NOW), I’ll do the most difficult thing to do: Figure out which is better, the manga or the anime.

Read the rest of this entry »

I Got you a Miko for your Birthday. Enjoy Responsibly.

I noticed that it’s the Solstice today, and that means it’s Neko’s Birthday. I believe that this means Neko is OVER 9000 today, and that he also is now king. Well, at least until the 22nd rolls aroun. So everyone, please wish this man a Happy Birthday today, because he deserves it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEKO, AND MANY MORE!

????

Made a pot of tea about one hour and a half ago, and I haven’t drunk one sip of it while watching episodes 3-6 of Nyan Koi! just now. So I shall try and find a reason why I forgot to drink my tea.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lag's impression of Black★Rock Shooter - Red☆Bee Stinger.

Lag’s impression of Black★Rock Shooter – Red☆Bee Stinger.

First series to be caught up to is Tegami Bachi. Unlike the frantic marathoning I could have hinted to in my post on batch watching/blogging from a couple of days ago, I took it relatively slowly, two episodes a day.
Either way, let’s see how well the working bees have fared so far.

Read the rest of this entry »