neko's thinkbox

So, I’m just back from my short trip to the UK (to check out the campus, my accommodation, and get a glimpse of the atmosphere overall), and I received some good and bad news upon arrival. Recruiting writers! More info after the jump.

GET!

Guess the good news first:

I finally got my Ar Tonelico manga, you know, the one that was shipped (late) with ominous Tenso. As you can see in the image above, it’s Ar Tonelico ~arpeggio~ 1-3, Ar Tonelico II 1-3, and doujinshi anthologies for the two respective games. I can’t wait to read it all! (By the way, my DSLR is in the UK now so I’m back to my old CyberShot for the now. Cor. D:)

I also got some PS2 controller to USB adapter, so I can play my PS2 games properly on my laptop. Hope those games will run fine on my laptop. (At least Disgaea 2 did yesterday, but optical drive is quite loud. I should dump an image of it.)

The bad news:

Brett unfortunately left the team, already. No, it’s not because he feared the endless whipping he wasn’t happy here (as far he has told me, at least :P) and he was on best terms with me and Matt – but in these few months, he’s gathered quite some experience and ambition here, and now wants to go his own path.
Too bad he did not want to do it here, but then again it’s quite understandable, since I take the limelight here most of the time. Mea culpa, perhaps I don’t have this team spirit after all. (I have yet to figure it out whether it comes as a surprise or not.)
Although, we had planned to do the usual seasonal “first impression” series together, which would have been a great first step towards team blogging, but it’s obviously fallen through now that he’s gone, so short before the beginning of the season, too.^[1]

In any case, thanks for lasting 4 months here at neko’s thinkbox, Brett. You didn’t post often, but when you did, you did it well. I don’t know where you’ll move to yet, but I’ll definitely make sure to check your new blog whenever it will appear, and so will my fellow readers, I hope. Godspeed.

I need you! Yes, YOU!

I need you! Yes, YOU!

Well, guess I’m back to searching for a new writer. With so many blogs now actively searching… it will be hard. But here goes anyway.

Recruiting writers!

The requirements:

• Any style should be fine, but I believe this blog needs an episodic writer with a broad view and sense of humor. This being an anime blog, your posts should be about current anime and/or manga series preferably. Games, music, culture, events, and other topics of general relevance are a plus.
• You need to be consistent, as in having a regular posting schedule for any series you’d like to cover. Don’t worry, I’m not a slave driver *hides whip* so I won’t send you ten reminders immediately after the show just finished airing, but I expect of you to at least complete your series in a timely fashion.
  • Now you might tell me “No prob mate, I can do that and much much more!” It’s fine to be ambitious, but I know from my writers (and from my own experience as well) that it will be very hard to deliver on it. Initial enthusiasm for blogging usually wanes after a couple of weeks because of all sorts of reason relating to real life (school, friends, duties, what-not). It will cause backlogs, inactivity, and an impatient curmudgeon cat to worry about you.
• Loyalty. I don’t mind having this blog serve as a spring board for future independent anibloggers (such as Brett above), but I’d rather you pledge your eternal loyalty to me and this blog, so I won’t have to go through the heartbreaking hardship of looking for writers ever again. …I’m kidding. But it’s true, I don’t want you to leave after a couple of months. Not after all we will have been through… ;__;
• Beginners are fine, but please note:
  • You should have some experience with screencapping and editing images (resizing, optimizing colors and b/c, cropping).
  • Experience with Wordpress (media uploader) is a major plus (it’s not hard to learn how to use it).
  • HTML knowledge a plus (I will provide you the precise code to use, as this blog uses a thumbnail preview plugin.)
  • Your post layout (as in image placement and stuff) can be inspired by existing posts on this blog or elsewhere, although you can just be creative and impose your own style. (Mostly) Anything goes!
• Most importantly: be yourself, use your own voice. I shall quote Kabitzin:
  

  I don’t want huge massive detailed play-by-play plot recaps. Not that they are bad, but they are difficult to put together consistently and not very fun to write for most people. I’d like you to be able to put your own spin on what happened in the episode, rather than just tell readers exactly what happened and that the episode was good/bad.

What this blog can offer you:

• Lots of love
• Lots of cake
• Although I hate to say it, and it might be one of the least attractive points for any prospective writer: I can’t say this blog is “well endowed” with loyal, commenting readers^[2], but you will have a fairly average numbered reading audience overall. It might be frustrating not to receive the desired feedback every time, and I can imagine you might be much better served elsewhere, but I believe that this will be a good experience to start with, and might help you improve your posts, too.
• No pressure or additional work load from me (as long as you don’t go AWOL). As I said above, I know ambition will be high in the first couple of weeks, but since real life might eventually get the better of you, you might want to start modestly with only one or two series at the beginning. Every once in a while, I might approach you to suggest a joint post on a certain topic, but in no way will I ever force you to write something you don’t want to. On the other hand, if you want to bring in new, fresh ideas… you’re absolutely welcome!
• Freedom of choice… to a certain extent. :P You can pick almost any series you like to cover. Since I will be busy with UK studies and so on, I probably will keep my count to a minimum. In the case we’d like to blog about the same series, we could do it together. Besides, even if you’d like to review a series that has already been covered here at neko’s thinkbox, go ahead. That’s what the “Second Opinion” category is for.
• A friendly team. I am known to be relatively easy-going (sic) and tolerant (sic²), so I am always up for a chat (depending on timezones, obviously). Matt is a little more distant since he’s busy with his music business, but usually makes for a great chat too. And natsuneko… god forbid. Don’t you ever meet him.
• Bunnies. And cats.

Any questions? Are you, by any chance… interested? Yes??? Then please, drop me a mail with some information about yourself, and I will reply to you as soon as possible with more details about how to proceed.
Depending on your experience, I might require a sample post. But we’ll see about that later.

Hope this didn’t sound like a blatant ripoff of Kabitzin. ^^;

1. I asked Matt too, but he declined, saying he doesn’t really watch newer series. [↩]
2. Don’t get me wrong – I know there are quite a few! But compared to other blogs… you know. >_> [↩]