I forgot how busy school could be. This is what happens when you wait too long, to pursue your Bachelor’s Degree. As I shuffle through my second semester, I have begun to finally get down my time management again. I have been working on review ideas, that I hope I can get up here soon.
Hey everybody!! Many apologies for the long absence, I really hope these long MIA sessions do not continue. I am like 5 weeks into the semester and oh my gosh! It has been about 2-3 years since I have been in school but I didn’t think I would be this rusty at. I finally sorta getting a routine worked out. Just a quick glance at how my weeks ago and maybe you can see how writing in between has bee difficult. I live in Fort Worth and 4 days of week(Monday-Thursday) I commute to school in Denton. My commute consists of an almost 3-hour bus ride to school and an almost 3-hour trip back home. So, of course, I am just a tad exhausted when I get home. I do most my studying/homework on the bus and at school. Then I go to work 3 days a week(Friday – Sunday). I am trying to get everything balanced out and trying to get caught up so I can eventually work in gym time because my weight is starting to finally effect my health. Wish me luck on that! But enough about me! On to the real reason of this post.
As I drew up my calendar on my dry erase board for October, which is 3 days away, I came to the realization that we are only a month away from one of the biggest writing events that come every November. Yes, you got it, the NaNoWriMo challenge! There are many people know what that is, but I know there is many who do not. To put it simply and to quote from the website: “On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.” Yeah, you read that right, 50,000 words in one month! It is insane but oh so fun. You really learn about your writing abilities and can even improve on them. They have workshops and pod casts on their website for how to prep before the event starts. You can have pep talk messages sent to you on there or join local writing teams. You can earn badges on there, too. I highly encourage that if you are a writer or if you love writing, that you participate in this challenge. It is open to writers of all skill levels and yes, there are prizes for hitting the word goal. They prizes vary from year to year. I am excited for it, but also nervous. I hope I will have time to participate. The link below is to their website and how the process works:
https://nanowrimo.org/how-it-works
I promise I will try to make my next post a review~
Before Violet Evergarden became an anime series, it was originally an award-winning light novel series by Kana Akatsuki and illustrated by Akiko Takase. The story revolves around the character Violet Evergarden, a young woman who has only ever known the life of fighting, and being a deadly weapon of the military. But now since the war has ended, she must now learn how to live another type of life, as she is reintroduced into society. A life where she does not live by orders from others, but for herself which was her Major’s last wish before he went MIA. The story follows her on this journey, as she begins this new life working as an Auto Memory Doll (A profession where someone writes letters for people to send to other people), where she learns how to live among other people and understand these things called emotions that they convey.
This anime blew me away. There have been many that have touched me deeply, but this one is unlike any that I have seen in a long time. The animation, the main characters, the characters you meet along the way, the overall story from beginning to end, the music, the romance, and everything is so captivating. This is a slow-paced anime, so if you are a fan of fact paced and action driven anime, then this is most likely not your cup of tea. If you like slow pace anime, appreciate deep stories or want to try to see something different, then I highly suggest this anime. I will warn you that if you are a sensitive person, then maybe about 3 or 4 episodes in, you may want to keep some tissue nearby, because I believe that is when the emotional roller coaster of getting your heart torn out starts. The story is good about pulling you in, and overtaking you in each episode. The series can be found on Netflix with audio available in English, Japanese, Spanish, French and German and Subtitles available in English, Spanish, French, German an Italian. The series is 13 episodes long with a recently announced Movie project on the way. I will warn that if you are a fan of the novel series, that you may have trouble with the anime. I have not read the novel yet, but from what I have been told by other fans, the anime falls short of the novel mainly because of time skips, and certain parts overlooked. But as someone who is not a stranger to anime not matching their novel, or graphic novel counterpart, I usually never try to compare the two. So, as an anime alone, I still believe that it is good, and highly recommend watching it as soon as you get the chance.
I apologize for the lack of writing. I am currently in the process of prepping for Animefest, going back to college to get my Bachelor’s Degree and brainstorming business plans for the Etsy business I help my brother with. I have also been pulling multiple 10 hour shifts at my job. I hope to be back on track shortly and have a new post within this next week. Thank you for the support and sticking with me.
Another thing I want to touch base is on that I have split my blog into 2 two blogs now. This one will be for reviews of shows, anime, books or anything that really tickles my geek fancy and for mostly personal use. My other blog will be more for article and business use. I have moved my articles on here to the other blog, while keeping review and life blogs on here. If you do not want to follow my personal blog, but only my article blog, then please click on the link below to subscribe to my article blog.
Thanks again for your support!
Every other week for the geek portion of my blog, I will spotlight a favorite geek show or anime/animated show of mine. I will be sharing a summary of the show and why I enjoyed it in hopes I can make you a prospective fan. This week’s spotlight will be on a show I recently finished and that won not only the top spot in my favorites list but a special place in my geeky heart.
Grimm revolves around Detective Nick Burkhardt who discovers that he is what is known as a Grimm. A Grimm is a hunter of Wesen and are the ones with the main power to see them woge. The Wesen is a collective term used to describe the many different creatures that Grimm can see (GrimmWikia). Most Wesen look like everyday humans to regular people and even sometimes Grimms until they woge. Now, there are two different types of woge, the kind that are not intentional that are triggered by high surge of emotions and only Grimm can see. Then there is the intentional woge which is voluntary and where anyone can see it. The Grimms are known in the Wesen world very well, so well they even wrote Wesen children horror stories about them and how they hunt Wesen for their heads. Now, not all Wesen are bad, as Nick learns along the way. Just like Wesen learn that not all Grimm are bad, thanks to Nick. While being a Grimm with a conscience brings him many allies, it also brings many, many enemies. Nick runs into many obstacles along his journey of being a Grimm, especially one of being a cop and a Grimm.
While Mr. Burkhardt is supposed to be the main star of the show, it feels like the whole cast are main characters. My favorite character, Monroe (with Wu being a close tie for that spot), is the only one of the main reasons I stayed with this show. The first meeting between Nick and Monroe really sets the feel for the show, in my opinion. Monroe is the first Wesen that Nick ends up meeting in a very hilarious manner. Monroe ends becoming one of Nick’s greatest allies and even though their friendship is considered unorthodox by many people from both sides of the spectrum to the point that they could be killed for it. This does not stop them. This screams such a strong message of unity to me and acceptance of differences, love over hate. This is just one of the many things I love about this show. I love how the storyline stays pretty consistent and on point every season, even when a big story twist happens. A few times there have been a few low points, not often, but those low points are pretty quickly fixed or improved on.
Another thing I love is the visuals and the many types of Wesen we get to see throughout the series. I like how they go into the history and characteristics of each Wesen, too. But they don’t only focus on Wesen creatures, but also spirits, demons, and things that I could only see in my nightmares that I never heard of but I am not sure I wanted to. That Aswang still gives me nightmares and chills to this day. I feel your pain, Sergeant. Wu, lol!
I also really love all the actors and how wonderfully talented they are at bringing their characters to life and bringing so much emotion to them. I honestly don’t know why they haven’t been in bigger roles. Plus, I love how they all have such amazing chemistry together, on and off the camera, which is so rare to see with shows these days. I follow almost all the actors from Grimm. I say almost because there are a few who do not have a social media account of any kind, which I highly respect (I may use social media, but I do not like it. I try to keep my use to a minimum.). But the actors from Grimm still hang out with one another a lot and keep up with each other’s social media, despite the show being over. I think that is so cool and awesome.
Another reason, I love these actors and the show is what came from it. “The Friends of Doernbecher and Grimmster Endowment” is a fund that was started for the families of children who are being treated at the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. The funds generated helps with the uncompensated costs of rental assistance, housing assistance, vehicle assistance, transportation assistance and meal assistance. A little history behind the fund, it was started not long after Sasha Roiz and other cast members began visiting this children’s hospital to spread cheer. During their time filming in Portland, Oregon, they began to become more involved with these families. It was not long after that Sasha Roiz signed on as a trustee of the Doernbecher Foundation board. Sasha Roiz and the Grimm cast also started holding an event called the “Grimm Gala”. This event helped to raise money for the cause and establish the Grimmster Endowment. This gala gave Grimm fans and Doernbecher supporters the chance to bid on special items from the show. The final Grimm Gala in 2017 managed to raise $804,000 for the hospital, which I find so amazing (OHSU). The show may be over but the fund is still in place and they are still taking donations if you are interested. This is the link if you want to learn more about this fund and for making a donation (I “borrowed” the link from Sasha’s Instragram. Thank you, Mr. Roiz.): http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/dchf/fundraising/friends-grimmster-endowment.cfm
I really could go on, but I don’t know if I could without giving away a ton of spoilers. I do hope you enjoyed this spotlight article and hope that you will give the show “Grimm” a try. It is awesome and I think you love almost everything about it, if not everything, lol. (P.S. for you romantics out there, this show has one of the best marriage proposals I have seen and that same couple is by far, my most favorite among any show I have ever seen. My standards for a relationship have been set higher because of them, lol). I wish you lots of smiles and love until next time!
GrimmWikia. (n.d.). Grimm Wikia: Wesen. Retrieved from Fandom: http://grimm.wikia.com/wiki/Wesen
OHSU. (n.d.). The Friends of Doernbecher and Grimmster Endowment. Retrieved from http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/dchf/fundraising/friends-grimmster-endowment.cfm
Thanks for joining me! I am a very beginner blog writer. I did try to make a blog in my past but I did not take it as seriously as I should. This will be my second try. I want to use this blog to not only make articles(or posts) about geek-stuff but also give some good ‘food for thought’ life articles.
I am hoping to not only showcase the writing skills I do possess, but also improve upon my writing skills. I would like to break into the freelance writing business at some point and I believe this will be a good start. Although fear and hesitation fill me, I choose to push forward.
Thank you again for joining me and enjoy the long quote below!
“This is just a dream, but very clever people can hear dreams. So please, just listen. I know you’re afraid, but being afraid is all right, because didn’t anybody ever tell you that fear is a superpower? Fear can make you faster and cleverer and stronger.
And one day, you’ll come back to this barn and on that day you’re going to be very afraid indeed. But that’s okay because if you’re very wise and very strong, fear doesn’t have to make you cruel or cowardly. Fear can make you kind.
It doesn’t matter if there’s nothing under the bed or in the dark, so long as you know it’s okay to be afraid of it. You’re always going to be afraid, even if you learn to hide it. Fear is like a companion, a constant companion, always there. But that’s okay, because fear can bring us together.
Fear can bring you home.
I’m going to leave you with something, just so you always remember: Fear makes companions of us all.”
-Clara Oswald, Doctor Who Episode “Listen”
Always Geeky Antoinette 