But First, an Introduction…

[violet_skies]

So I was vaguely interested in blogging because I have a pretty cluttered mind. 

 

 

I started this blog under the influence of wine, so the first entry wasn’t really edited/proofread/even thought about much. And I probably should have done a more introductory-type post before it. So I decided to write this one, and it has gotten WAY LONGER than I had anticipated. The introduction is here in excruciating detail, but even my introduction has an introduction.

I struggle sometimes when my mind latches onto an idea because it’ll sometimes play on loop in my head until I do something about it. I keep a notebook and pencil in my bedside table drawer because my main source of insomnia comes from things that I really want to remember forcing their way into my brain. Writing things down relieves a lot of the burden I feel when my mind goes into a feedback cycle. A theoretical blog is a possible outlet, so I thought about it. 

Between insecurity (is anything I say interesting?), overthinking things (is there blog etiquette?), and general laziness (if I start it, will I keep doing it?), the upside to starting a blog didn’t really seem worth it.  But the concept hung there, a meta layer of something else to distract me at the edges of my thought process. So now there was a downside to NOT starting a blog. If I didn’t, I would consider it in my head until, eventually, it was no longer at the edges, until it became more pervasive. While I wasn’t really positive that I wanted to blog, the barrier to entry was pretty low, I had some wine and some microscopic amounts of peer pressure, so I was off to the races. I am also, in general, really prone to overcaution, which dovetails quite well with the overthinking. Drinking even a small amount lowers my inhibitions, which leads us here. Consequently, I don’t like being drunk. I LIKE being overcautious. But here we are.

***

So! About me. I was born and raised in a very small town in rural Pennsylvania, my closest city not even in the Top 10 of the state. (BARELY in the top 20). I didn’t know what anime was, but I was a nerd. I liked sci fi shows (Star Trek: TNG and SeaQuest DSV), my favorite childhood gift was my first GameBoy (my parents didn’t know better but still managed to get me the one that came with Link’s Awakening), and I was nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs because I refused to care about the Titanic movie. Just peak 90s things. I also learned to play Magic: The Gathering at a young age, was a five year member of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, and didn’t have a boyfriend until I was 18.

My first official introduction into anime was when I was a Freshman in college (2001/2002). I knew about Pokemon but assumed it was for little kids. I made some friends, who became my sophomore year roommates, and my dive into the world of anime had begun. They had been watching Magic Knights: Rayearth when we met. My college had close proximity to a very large anime rental business, which made it easy to find and watch things. We watched Gundam Wing, we watched Escaflowne, and we watched Cowboy BeBop. Pretty solid introduction really. 

Growing up, I always had creative hobbies that gave me a lot of joy. I was diagnosed with “gifted” at a young age, which led me to overthink what to go to school for–I felt like I could do anything. I really wanted to do something creative, but I knew that wouldn’t pay the bills, so science it was. I was a Biochemistry major but determined to continue to pursue my creative interests. I was the only science person on the literary magazine staff, the only one in the costume department, and one of a very few on the school choir. After college graduation, sewing and knitting were my primary hobbies. 

I met my husband in 2007 because of Magic: The Gathering. I decided that I liked him, I burned the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack CDs for him back when that was a thing, and I asked him out. He bought me Magic Cards instead of flowers for our first date. I introduced him to tabletop and live action roleplaying games. He introduced me to MMORPG. Match made in nerd heaven.

 

 

He gave me four of these because my favorite card was Radiant: Archangel.

He followed me to graduate school, I left with a master’s degree in Chemistry, yadda yadda yadda, now I’m married with a kid (trying my best to abbreviate this and failing). A lot happened in the last 15 years. One thing that happened that I didn’t realize was important at the time was my first anime convention, where I saw my first AMVs. That was Setsucon 2013, also my first cosplay, because Little Kuriboh was there. Anime conventions started to be a thing that we did, especially cosplay, because I really enjoyed sewing. The AMV rooms always gave me a lot of joy and soon became my favorite convention activity. 

My husband Tyken started editing off and on in 2019–his first AMV. He had a song/source pairing he couldn’t shake. He sent that AMV to Otakon, and it wasn’t accepted. Not to be deterred, he continued to refine that same video and sent it to Otakon again in 2021. It wasn’t accepted then, either. He then made his second MV, Nowhere to Hide, which wasn’t even anime. In 2022, he sent both that first AMV (Happier Lie, version 3) and his second to our local convention, Zenkaikon. Both made it to finals! I still remember sitting at the awards ceremony, and when he didn’t win Romance, we thought that was it. Free Range fandom was VERY competitive that year. Editor names that I recognized as being highly talented were his category, such as Rider4Z, BecauseImBored1, and SilkAMV (whose vid in the category, Jedi Survival, had won *Best in Show* at Katsucon a few weeks before). We thought Romance was his best shot, and when it lost, that was it. After the Free Range Fandom title card came up, we heard those two beginning notes (bwom BWOM)... and were STUNNED. 

He was invited to AMV Sashimi (now Bento) and became a member of the community. It took about three months of him being immersed in the AMV scene for me to finally get curious. I had thought about editing my own once before. I put half a dozen clips on a timeline in Lightworks, found it tedious, and gave up (probably also 2019ish). I started to edit seriously when I got a cracked copy of Vegas. I started my first project in June last year, joined Bento in July, went off the editing deep end, and haven’t looked back. It scratches that creative itch, but it's more forgiving (and less expensive) than cosplay.

July through until now is easily enough for its own post. I think I’ll target that for a one year retrospective. I am still pretty sure that the music and pairings post will be my next non-autobiographical one.