Summer Brings the Sunshine When Winter Comes: Another Sunshine Blogger Award

Konichi-welcome Island Guest !  I lost count of how many Sunshine Blogger Awards I have done by now!  I think  it’s close to ten!  I took a break from tag posts for a good while but I can never refuse to answer my Blogging Besties questions! So we tackle a new Sunshine Blogger Award .. but break most of its rules again. I know that may be rude.. but it’s just SOOOO many people to tag! We all did this a lot .. so I am trying to shape this into something on a a more pro-active basis rather than a reactive one! I do love the tag though and I do love Summer’s Questions.

Do we even do the Rules Still?

Display the Sunshine Blogger Logo, thank the one who nominated you, answer 11 questions, nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 new questions. It’s so familiar to me that we can brush through these! Will I nominate 11 bloggers? No!  The tag has been around for so insanely long that I think everyone did these. If you like my questions you can answer them if you don’t that is fine as well.  If you want to participate just comment one of the questions in my comments.. and as a reply I will answer it.. in the end up to 11 questions can be asked of me and by then I will have nominated 11 people.. who interact with my blog! Isn’t that a neat less intrusive system?!   Woot! Ideas!

It’s not that I dislike rules or anything but 11 is a very high number to  nominate if you have done this tag 10 times or so! Thats 110 nominations!  I don’t have nearly that amount of active followers.. the community I dabble in I’d say is .. 50ish people large.  I can’t even keep up with so many of you even though I’d like to.. so self nomination by mutual interaction is the way to go!  I don’t mean to be disrespectful to any post creator .. just as a tag is used over and over again I think it should evolve a bit.. and this feels like a proper evolution!

Now with that said , Thank you Summer for nominating me and I was really intrigued by your questions so I will answer them!  Here we go! Thanks for being such a loyal follower and supporter and having such an amazing life that leads to some of the most interesting tag answers I can read as well! You have such an interesting blog and people really need to check out your amazing art and insightful ideas! They can even do so by clicking on this link! Summer has free Butterscotch candy for everyone! Here is my answer to your questions!

Summer’s Questions

Question 1:  Now that the pandemic has thrown all the building blocks of our lives up in the air, shuffled them, and dropped them randomly – have you made any significant life changes, either day to day or in your future plans? What have you learned?

I remember this episode of the tv show Community called Debate 109. In which Annie and  Jeff have to debate whether mankind is good or evil. Covid to me has shown that mankind is inherently evil and selfish. It might sound rude but we have revealed to have zero respect for each other. I usually stand with the more careful side but I do occasionally see some people and a close friend may come closer than six feet on a rare occasion. I think we need to be careful .. yet we also can not be TOO scared and pretend to fight everything. Nature is calling and telling us we did bad… we can fight for those we hold dear and we should.. but we can not fight for everyone.  If we oppose nature too much.. it will happen again.. and again.. so for me the Covid times are about finding balance. 

Making choices.. both paths have their benefits. .and none is inherently wrong.. as long as we keep some semblance of sense. That doesn’t mean balantantly ignoring the rules because you think masks are stupid.. or saying our goverments are harvesting DNA or testing panic scenario’s… No I simply mean that if you want to give your cousin a hug.. and none of you are anywhere near sick.. and the hug is worht more to you than that risk.. if you wash your hands afterwards.. maybe you can.

What we can not do is let this divide us. If I am more careful than a friend of mine.. I do not mind if he goes out to party with more people than is allowed.. It just means I will wait 10 days before I see him. I do not judge him because he needs that interaction to thrive. He doesn’t judge me for being careful. If he needs to socialise.. he will then afterwards not visit family that is weak.. or at least warn them of what he did so they can make an informed choice. It’s okay not to listen to all advice.. but if you ignore advice , accept that people might stay clear of you.. It’s okay to follow all the rules to the letter.. but do note that without people ever taking risks and breaking the rules we would have been much lesser of a world as well.

We share this world .. and we already have plenty of enemies so let’s not let a disease separate us. Respect each other’s opinion and don’t try to force your way upon others. Of course you will have to follow the law.. so if the government says you need to wear a mask.. you will need to wear a mask. There is no big evil government trying to collect DNA samples to easier keep track of everyone and turn the world into a police state.. and even if they did what do you have to fear from them having your DNA if you are a law abiding citizen.. Sure you have right.. but the right to privacy will not be invaded  if you act like a normal person.

Sure you can’t go burn down 5g towers.. that sucks if that is your thing.. but what good will privacy do for you.. if you are not safe.  People measure only with their own best interests in mind all the time..and have become less and less compatible with each other.. that is what Covid has thought me.. and I adapted to it.. in a sense that I will focus my life on the people that matter in my bubble, I can not create a better world.. but I can create a better world for myself.

Question 2: Of all the many streaming services now offering anime, who is your favorite and why? Which one do you watch most?

Crunchyroll offers less basic stuff than Netflix does, and is the one that works most consistently in Europe..  HighDive I think is not available to me.. and let’s not even begin about Fun.. I basically select anime shows I watch now based on whether or not I can find them on Crunchyroll or if one of my DvD collecting pals has them in their library.  There are a few more factors that come into play but Crunchyroll has been my defacto service for a while now. So much so that I use it’s icon for my Anime Cocktail featured image-thing!

Question 3: Do you even know what a CD is? 3.5 Floppy Disk? Vinyl record? Owned any? Still own any? Is this one question or five?

I owned all of them and I still have a few CD’s.  I had Commander Keen on Floppy Disc , it was this space platformer game about a guy in a pink shirt shooting space slugs with his laser! It  was very fun!   There was a while when we had to do our homework on Floppy Disc even which was super nifty because it was so easy to cheat.. those things cost like nothing.. so if I had done a bad job on my homework I would always wreck my floppy. I would always pretend to be super upset.. because I always had good grades teachers always believed me.. my odd movement would make them put them in my bag unlucky and that little metal thing on the top would clip to my zipper and voila.. I skipped homework!  Vinyl I did not own a lot of .. my dad was a hobby musician and grandpa was a music teacher that kept forcing music onto me.. and so often that I always felt listening to music is a chore.  

The Vinyl I did have was Disney Audio Books.. or well retellings. I had the Smurfs on Audio Cassette.. which I think is missed in this question as a medium and I had the Disney collection on Vinyl. my favourite Vinyl was that of Robin Hood.. because we did not have those on VHS .. another medium that kind of is missing here as well.. we never had Betamax though..  anyway.. since I never had Robin Hood on VHS I would often listen to the vinyl in our playroom. One day my sister wanted to play with me and I wanted to finish the story.. so she took the record from the player and hit me on the head with it.. it broke!  I was super upset for days!  I have never watched or listened to Robin Hood ever since!… Well the disney movie at least.

Question 4: What do you think is going to happen after you die?

I believe in reincarnation of sorts. As physics tell us the energy before a reaction equals that of the amount of energy after a reaction thus energy can never be expended and just transformed. Whatever energy we have will return to the earth.. whether that is us decomposing to fertilising the plants, after my death my energy will remain.  Eventually that plant will be fed to a few cows and I will love on as the energy of a 20 cows.. and then the stereotypical american will go Mac Donalds and eat 20 burgers.. and I will live one as an American!… If Mc D still uses reall beef and not Soylent Green by then. Maybe I will return as an actual person .. who knows.. I just know my energy will never go away!

As for an afterlife.. I do think there sort of is one. When we are dreaming time slows down we see things and can experience things beyond what is thought possible. I do belief that when we die our brain.. just like it makes your life flash in front of your eyes just before you die.. can enter a dreamlike state.. which can be considered an afterlife.. a nearly everlasting dream…caused by all sorts of processes going up in there. Trapped in a bliss induced by our own decay.. this final dream will be what we perceive as “heaven. Now I already told I believe if planes of existance beyond our comprehension linked to creativity and ideas and I do belief that our concious from the dream state can transition into these other planes.. as long as people remember us.. , think of us or imagine how we would respond to a thing after we are gone. It will literally allow us to live on in the memories of others.. digging into that plain of existance that we call imagination. This is also why I do kind of want to be remembered for the person that I really am.. if I ever meet my demise.. that way my dream may never end and I can stay in heaven.

Question 5 : What is your favorite bird?

This should come to no surpise to people who frequent my blog but it’s a duck!  It’s an adorable species that is distinct enough from other birds to be recognised by anyone, it has this level of clunkiness to it that I do appreciate in animals and a very distinct sound.  Ducks aren’t as evil as Geese and make for good and lovely pets! I have seen so many videos of ducks just enjoying being petted or even listening to the radio.  Back when we had a little pond in our garden we always had ducks in summer. They would come and hang out to the pond and walk to our window to be fed.  These were wild ducks yet they all bonded with us.. and each had a bit of a different bond with most of the family. The female duck really bonded with mom while  one of the male ducks really preferred me.. It was quite lovely to see personalities in them and such.. A few other birds had that as well but for me duck have the full package.

Question 6: Do you think you have a totem animal? Or Spirit animal? What is it?

Yes I do, it’s a cat.. and that is strange because I am totally not a cat person. Yet I “hallucinate” a cat every now and again. It’s a black cat.. and it’s always the same.. it has yellowish eyes and a white tipped tail. It also has a bit of white in the face. I see it staring at me from time to time.. usually just from outside a window on a roof. The first time I saw it.. I told dad  I saw a cat in my room (I was 15 I think)  it walked backwards after seeing me spot it.  We searched the entire house but could not find it.  Whenever I see it it usually is a signal that I should be careful because some bad luck is coming my way.  It’s avoidable..but in a way it works like the Pokémon Absol to me. Who predicts disasters.. the cat predicts trouble. Yet I have also seen it running in some bushes and when I look below I found money.. or once a little mouse that got trapped in empty soda can. So I do believe I have a animal spirit guardian of sorts.. it might also bring me bad luck! But just like with real cats.. you never no what they will drag in.

Question 7: What is a comfortable indoor temperature for you? No, really, I’m curious. What’s your thermostat on, if you have one?

Well isn’t this a tricky one.. .. I do have a thermostat in my new home but as a European I use Celsius and not that weird one Americans use.  (Celsius uses the temperature that H20 changes from liquid to  solid and gaseous state as 0 and 100 point and other than that scales to the absolute scale of Kelvin). I usually use 19.5 degrees C to be productive but warm and 20.5 degrees when I want to be toasty and snuggly in front of the tv. This means that I am usually most comfortable with temperatures between 66 degrees Fahrenheit and 68,5. The warmer it gets the least productive and groggy I get!  I love wearing big sweaters to hide in so I don’t need the temperature to be insanely hot!

This is before I get my first gas bill though! In my old house gas was included in the rent price.. though they tend to frick me over in the end! 

Question 8: How do you feel about slice of life anime?

Slice of life is a very big concept and there are anime within the genre that I do like.. I mostly like Slice of Life  when it is used as a subgenre though.  Slice of Life episodes in Shonen anime I absolutely adore. Slice of Life moments in horror make the impact  of it all so much bigger.  It makes characters really relatable. I do enjoy Slice of Life moments a lot.. ..

Pur Sang Slice of Life anime however I usually find boring. There are exceptions like Watamote which is one of my favourite anime, but usually I find Slice of Life anime devoid  of any relatability.  I do not talk with friends on how to eat a pudding bun, I do not have 27 potential lovers or even 2..  It either depicts an to idylic life for me or something to zaney.  I like my loony characters and odd stories but I don’t really feel anything by seeing a potato peel itself and jump into a curry.  Japanese culture often doesn’t help make these situations any more relatable and without that connection I do think many of those stories are lackluster.

Question 9: Do you watch the same genres in live action as you do in anime?

No, life action I mostly watch Sci-Fi and Horror shows.. also a lot of those crime shows! Or well I used to.. I nowadays barely watch any life action fiction. I rewatch some Buffy, some Power Rangers and a few sitcoms just because they are on tv but I am mostly done with Life Action series. I like the Mandalorian and will watch the second season once it is completely released  but there is a predictabilty in Western Media that has mostly put me off it. Each CSI clone has basically the same episodes in a different order, there is a structure that makes them ultra predictable to me. I did not care much for Game of Thrones after season 3 because we mostly just had a looping plot. Stranger Things is just “every Steven King Novel Ever”  stretched over an entire season with just a dash of cosmic horror and some 80’s flavouring.  The west really very much more than the east wants to see the same thing over and over again.. and due to how my mind works I can’t watch those series and feel I haven’t seen this before.

This is also why I don’t watch a lot of Shonen and prefer the odd ball anime that I do .. I want to be suprised, I don’t like to be able to predict a series. I try to turn my head off when watching these things but I pick up on this subconsciously. Even in movies I have been able to predict a final scene of a movie based on how the first shot was framed. For example there was this movie where we see a woman come home and put her key on the dresser. Putting it away in a drawer.  The scene was shot from a frog  perspective and  would linger for just a second so I knew in the end she would attack the killer with that key.  At some point she did not do it when inviting a certain character over.. because .. she had mail in her hand that day or something and I knew.. well that guy is the killer then.. he does not know she keeps her key there and it will allow her to escape. A 20 second opening shot and I already connected the dots and solved the entire movie for the intermission in the cinema. I can’t do that with anime! ..It’s also why I tend to wath more YouTube nowadays because predictability isn’t a thing there.!

Question 10: Do you remember the very first anime you saw? Was it love at first sight?

The first time I subconsciously saw anime .. was either Alfred J Quack if you count that one or MapleTown  and I loved both series.. especially Mapletown had me crazy as a kid!   I have NO memories of the series except for .. I loved Mapletown and the theme song in dutch! Then it would take years to see an official anime and it was Gundam and I hated it! It was aired in front of shows I thought that were good and Gundam was just too complex and dark for me at the time. It would take me awhile until they started to air Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh Beyblade and Medabots to fall in love with it again.  Pokémon as well of course.  Those were love at first side.. but Mapletown will always be my really official first. I watched it when I was 3 to like 5 or maybe 6.. not sure.. and I just remember it made me happy.. so love at first sight? Yes! I think so. Opening down below if you aren’t checking this in reader!

Question 11: The EMP hit. Everything with a computer chip is fried. Will you survive?

Nope! I have a device on my heart that helps me out at times.. I assume that would break as well .. so I’d probably literally die from the EMP itself.  It kind of depends on how fried the pacemaker would be. I have no landline to call for help , and not a strong enough voice to yell out I am in trouble.. so I’d probably be up doodies creek without a paddle.. and a hole in my canoe!

If the device powers down without leaving me with any damage I would be good for a while. I do  keep a slightly okay stack of cash with me.. so I can pay for some groceries, I usually live on  day to day basis so I don’t have a lot of supplies going to waste, so I would probably just buy some bread and cheese and wait it out while getting some paper and pens to write stories down the old fashioned way as a way to kill time. I also have a lot of analogue games, and a pretty great analogue hobby so in that sense I would not die straight away.

However deep stress can cause my heart rythm to go wonky pretty easily and I think seeing the entire world blacked out and having no means of communications would cause enough stress to still kill me..  So unless I happen to have a friend over.. I would say I am quite litteraly done for! .. Not in the sense that most millenials would.. but like actually ..dead dead!

The questions to anyone willing to answer.. and ask me to answer one of these in the comments! …also All coconuts since they are auto-nominated! Yet Do Not feel Obiligated If you don’t want too!

Question 1:  Do you have any non-blogger people that inspire you to do your blog?

Question 2: If you had a reality tv show based around you, what would it be called?

Question 3: Do you use your real name for Blogging.. if not what is your real (First)  name

Question 4:  If you would be a serial killer from a 90’s movie.. what would be your gimmick and what would be your media nickname.

Question 5: What Anime Character do you think is the most overrated?

Question 6: What Anime or Game or Movie did you really like but you are ashamed that you like it so much?

Question 7: Describe yourself, when you became a new species of Pokémon (Name , look, typing or whatever you can think off)

Question 8: If you could kill someone… without any consequences.. (including causing no grief in people that know this person) would you?! If so what would you do?!

Question 9: What do you think is a good movie idea that hasn’t been done before?

Question 10: If Humans stopped being Mammals.. what would you prefer they become instead?

Question 11: Name a Geometric Shape, A Colour and a Single word to describe yourself… use Microsoft paint.. to turn that into a picture

That is it 11 weird questions to give you all a challenge!  If you want to participate.. just ask me one of these questions in the comments.. once I reply to them you have been nominated to participate in this challenge.. Don’t ask the same question twice!  So I can actually nominate 11 people .. though I doubt I will gather 11 who want to do this one.. it can still be fun! I will see you in the comment section. If you don’t want me to answer my own questions.. or if 11 people have gone before you… consider becoming a coconut.. by supporting my Kofi! That will nominate you as well .. and help me buy a pc!