Just the Drastic FAQs

Written by TheBigN

 

For people who want to be in the know… though granted, this is more like a self-introduction than a good FAQ.

Why are you doing this?

I’m doing the FAQs because I’m feel like joining that bandwagon, and this makes me feel like I’m writing a useful blog post. As to the blog, as most people do, I wanted to throw out my opinions so the Internet can hear my whining. In this case, it happens to be about anime and anime-related stuff. Expect at least a post a week month(?) about something on my mind or my colleague’s minds, but depending on how hard Anime Fantasy (a.k.a. Real Life) is kicking my ass, this might be wonky. The posts themselves are guaranteed to be wonky. 😛

What type of blog is it?

People have said that we write editorials, so let’s go with that. I myself tend to give my impressions or something like that with the shows that I watch or anime culture in general, and Nomad Otto, dm, Link and others due the same with their own little twists. I don’t usually do episode summaries, so if I cover a specific episode of a series, expect me to tie that to something greater than just that episode itself. As to spoilers, if I feel that a lot of people already know or it’s not that important (to me that is), I’ll say it, and I try to get my fellow writers to do the same, if it doesn’t trouble them. If that doesn’t turn out to be case, then sorry. Otherwise, I’ll try not to spoil much.

Why do the pictures look off-scale?

Because I’m lazy, and because the way things are now, it seems as if WordPress.com scales down pictures for you.  If that doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll try my best to fix the problem. So click the picture to get that glorious normal sized version. :3

What were your inspirations for this?

They came from a combination of writing for my college anime club newsletter and reading anime blogs and thinking “I can do what they can do too, so why not? I wonder how many people would want to read me.” I’m still thinking about that latter part, even though I can’t control that seriously.

Where are you from?

I was born in and have lived in the United States for all of my 27 years on this Earth, so my perspective to things, especially regarding anime and its culture can be strange to others. I do love hearing perspectives from other places on this small anime world of ours. I’m black, so hopefully I’m also changing perspectives with what I’m doing here, though that’s not a main goal of mine.

Favorite Anime? Characters?

Take a look at my MAL, which hasn’t been updated in a while. It has that and more. :3

Has there been any anime you’ve loathed?

I’ve always managed to find something that I’ve liked about every anime that I’ve ever watched, and I haven’t found something that I’ve hated with every fiber of my being, and don’t expect to. I do get disinterested in shows though. Granted, I’m no Mr. Sunshine, but I’ve been told I have a little Pollyanna in me.

Where can I get “X” anime from?

If you can’t find out, you’re not trying hard enough and your Google-fu is weak. I’m not going to divulge that information, so find another source if that’s all you want here. And I’ve heard the X TV series is pretty good, but the movie is confusing. Given that it’s apparently all of the series condensed into one small block, that would make sense. 😛

Is there a set style to my posts?

Not really, and it’s the same thing for everyone else writing here. As it should be. And although I try hard not to, I might end up pissing someone off with my posts, but that’s life~

So… the blogroll…

All the links I have on there I believe has some good value for people who want to read them, and I’m kinda capricious as to what I put on there. I also tend to be a little more lenient on keeping them on there even after they’ve been defunct for a while, as some have seen. So check them out, even though it has more links than you could care about (someone has to do it :P). As to whether I’ll add you if you ask, we’ll see. :3

What’s the difference between you and the other writers?

I’d like to think that Nomad’s writing is more solid than mine, at least in terms of connecting points and in humor, but we’re both good in that aspect. I tend to focus on shows in general while Nomad tends to focus on more than individual shows, but this is a tenuous classification, so don’t hold me on that. But I think Nomad speaks using Logos while I speak using Ethos. Dm brings experience and a more esoteric take on anime than me, and he’s the one who usually finds the interesting and underpraised works that I wouldn’t necessary think about otherwise. And Link definitely has his emotions more easily accessible than I do in my writing. Be pleasantly surprised though. 😀

I actually don’t like writing that much (so why am I doing it now? XD), but that’s been lessening as I’ve been doing that. Probably because I feel like I have a lot more to say than I actually do. So in terms of mechanics, I might be weaker than most because I still don’t care that much about it. I do attempt to be accurate spelling-wise and I hope that most of my sentences make sense, but other than that, segues, connections and the like might be there, but you never know. I also might have problems with making what I’m thinking about come out in a way that people understand. Part of that can be because of my education, but most of it is probably because of an inability to word a sentence carefully sometimes. Please bear with me on that regard. Making excuses? Hell yes. 😛

Any other extra authors?

We’ll see… Some more…

Are you a poser?

Yes, but that depends on what you’re talking about.

If I don’t like how you do things, can I complain about them?

But of course. Criticism is always welcome, and I’ll gladly pay attention to ones that make sense. Don’t expect me to always take critiques into consideration though. At least the ones that I don’t think are valid. I’m a strange person that way.

How long will you keep this up?

Until I get bored talking about anime (which probably won’t happen anytime soon), or I feel that I’m not writing for myself anymore, that I’m just writing for the sake of getting things up there, that I’m doing it just to please everyone, since that would cease to be interesting to me, and probably to anyone reading.  It’s all about the enjoyment gotten out of the medium. It helps that it seems that others can pick up the slack should this ever happen, but since it’s my baby, I’d like to see it through.  This still applies even though the frequency of posts has gone down significantly compared to before.

Anything else I should notice?

I have an odd brand of humor it seems (often self-deprecating, random and odd), which can pop up in places if you look hard enough (some places aren’t as hard as others). I also tend to throw in random references, so if you get them, more power to you (Nomad’s much better at it than I). I’ll give you one: the name of my blog came from the ending song to the powerbragging contest that was S-cry-Ed. That wasn’t hard, now was it?

“Drastic My Anime Blog” is a mouthful. Is there anything else I can call it?

You can shorten it to Drastic, acronymize it (yes I know that’s not a real word) to DMAB, and so on. As long as it makes sense to me. I’ll call you on it if you go off the wall with it and I don’t understand where you’re coming from. It is my blog at least. 😛

How do you contact the blog?

The main e-mail for this blog happens to be the e-mail that I list on the FAQs: TheBigN (at) gmail (dot) com, and that’s the way to go if you want to focus on the blog in general. If you want to specifically contact the writers, their e-mails should also be on the FAQs, and if they aren’t contact me and I’ll be able to relay your questions or comments to them. Thank you for your interest. :3

What does the “N” stand for?

Quiet weapons for silent wars. <.<

tl;dr

Oh well. You don’t have to read it all at once, but here’s a nice surprise for those who do:

If you want to know more, give me or Nomad a question via e-mail or on the comment box. We’ll be paying attention. 😛

Updated 06/23/13.