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Hydrogenium's Blog Attempt

Hydrogenium

Hydrogenium

Аvatаr bу Οkidо!!
Forum Moderator Nemona Fan
Joined
Jul 16, 2021
Messages
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Pronouns
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  2. They/Them
My blog attempt!

A place where I want to post about all kinds of things using my B2 level
according to the textbook we use at least, I've never taken any official level test
 English and some of the free time I have! Feel free to correct my grammar if you want to, I don't mind, really.

So... I feel like I need to justify making a blog, so :wynaut:

A very long time ago, I read a book about a girl who was a vlogger and back then, I thought it was very creative and cool to have a blog of some sort. A few years after that, I heard that it is a good thing to have a blog
I don't remember why or how, so don't ask me lol
, which made me definitely decide to make one one day. I have several excuses for not making one earlier, the main of them being "I'm too young now, I'll do it after turning eighteen", which is an excuse I don't have anymore lol.

There was a sentence "Yes, but when?" in my Duolingo lesson recently which reminded me that I need to force myself to just start one already, so, yes, now.

What an awkward beginning...

Anyway, that's it!

:bulbaWave:
 
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^ Hi Lisia! I too hope you're doing well! It honestly kind of surprises me your Japanese is lower level than my English - you always seem quite confident in it
I don't mean it as a bad thing! Language confidence is essential!
 which gave me the impression you have near-native speaker level... Of course, I don't speak Japanese at all and I know nothing about learning Japanese, except for the information one anime Youtuber (who is a Japanologist, so I consider him a trustworthy source) shared in his video titled Why is Japanese so horrible language
original title: Proč je japonština tak PEKELNÝ jazyk, and yes, it's a clickbaity title
 which made me realise how different must be learning it compared to Germanic languages... Japanese has never been on my "language to learn wishlist" (surprisingly) and after learning that it requires serious consistency and discipline, I'm pretty sure it won't ever get on there... Still, I think it's a fascinating language (especially its politeness system, or what is it called), and I'd love to learn a bit more about it in the future!

On the topic of language learning... I've been learning English since I was seven, although I wouldn't say all the time of it really counts? We progressed only slowly and the language learning strategy used in schools is very flawed in my opinion. (I'm just lucky I never had one of these teachers who let you just watch a cartoon with no dialogue the whole lesson instead of teaching...)

Sure, I've learnt lots of nice grammar things, but when it came to writing/speaking, I would make the most fundamental mistakes before (I had no idea how to use articles and would always use the incorrect form of a verb with the third person, like "She go for walk." ...from what I know, these specific mistakes are quite common). Things changed a bit when we got a teacher who I really liked (our class is divided into two groups for English based on skill and she teaches the "worse" group I am no longer in). But still, I've just learnt more grammar, writing was still a big struggle as I had no idea what to do with English words (well, I could translate stuff in my head, but that's not how it should be done, it might sound like it works, but in reality, it absolutely does not - I can confirm lol). Speaking was even worse as I was always nervous, I had this slow, careful pronunciation one has when trying hard to pronounce words correctly but still fails... I completely lacked confidence in my skills.

So I have learnt no actual English at school. I've learnt English grammar that was necessary for me to learn the language, but that is not the same thing (it sounds illogical to me now, you know grammar - you know the language, right? Well, somehow no, and I don't know how to explain it... I'd say it's a bit like watching a movie (or even better, reading an adult book, by which I don't mean inappropriate, but I'm not sure if many people have done this), that contains a deeper message, a metaphor to human experience or something, as a child and seeing nothing in it, but realising what it meant as you grow older or experience some things... That is if you remember it of course).

Uhhhh, I want to finish my "How I have learnt English to this degree" story already, but it's quite late and I'm too tired (which reminds me I have to get up early tomorrow, too). So... part two next time :wynaut:
 
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I've learnt English from the Pokémon anime. (What did you expect?)

It is a bit of a hyperbole, of course, all I've written yesterday applies.

And well, that's it - I was home alone, decided to watch Pokémon, binge-watched the second season, then I was home alone again, did the same with the rest of the episodes up to the final one of the fifth season, English dubbed. Then I went to school shortly after that (I suppose it was during some holiday or something? It wasn't too recently so I don't exactly remember) and we were supposed to write something in the English class, I looked at my paper, and I suddenly realised I knew what to do - for the first time in a situation like that.

It wasn't quite recently, but I still remember how amazing feeling it was... I finished writing early and there were almost no grammar errors (pretty sure I still have whatever it was we wrote somewhere among my older school things. I was really happy about it as it had been my... dream almost lol, to write a perfect test as I had been almost frustrated by learning English for years with minimal results and I considered scoring well at tests an assurance that it wasn't a complete waste of time back then).

That piece of writing gave me the confidence and motivation I needed, learning grammar became easier as it made sense to me since then (mostly), and I continued learning...

I'd say my weakest points are currently all these past tenses in English (there sure are a lot of them and they are a bit complicated to use when you aren't used to using that many) and poor vocabulary. Well, not my weakest points, but rather the ones I'd like to work on (I have no idea what the actual worst part of my English is). Pronunciation is not really my concern, I'd say I sound somehow understandable, which is enough for me. Also, I'd like to look more into the rules for using commas, I've already stopped applying the Czech rules for it all the time, but I haven't completely stopped yet (it is not my priority, I'm rather just curious - as I think the rules aren't as strict as in Czech... I hope...).

I don't know where this fits into the timeline of events, but that teacher I mentioned, she once told us that we cannot learn English at school, that we need to "take an interest in it outside of school" to learn it. It's not that often teachers say something about learning that's true... (Just thought it was an inspirational quote.)

Maybe you have noticed I take forum breaks over the weekend? I do. So, until Monday. Have a nice weekend everyone!
 
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There's a thing I wanted to explain. I think it would... make more sense if I had written the stuff above in a text document and then posted it in one post, but still, that is not what I've done, my reason for that being I check what I write too much as I'm writing it and then more times than is comfortable for me as a whole post before posting it, so that's why I've decided that I'll post things here as I finish them, rather than waiting with posting them until next day and leaving even more time for overthinking. Aaaand that's it.

The "Just Nemona" theme. (It's very cute! I've used the "Spring Blossoms" theme before so I like the overall look quite a lot too.) I currently have the default style set, so I went to my profile as I don't have a link to the forums anywhere on the internet browser's front page so I always start typing and then select one of the suggested... addresses? I suppose? It's called?... which led to my profile and I saw Nemona addressing me by my username :confused: Not what I expected to see!

I was staring at the new look for a few seconds. It looked familiar, and the blossom theme part wasn't the only thing that made it seem so... "Just Nemona"... I've heard something like that before... The logo looked familiar, too... And then I finally realised it's a DDLC reference! Took me several seconds, which I think is a bit long for someone who is familiar with it, and also, it is rather obvious in my opinion.

...I thought it's just a new theme that is shown as default because... it's new? Not a real reason...? It took me embarrassingly long to realise it's a seasonal theme or something... Because it's a---- O.K. this would be the beginning of "DDLC spoiler area", although I'm sure it begins with the part that has been spoiled to anyone interested, at this point... The part of this post with spoilers the next time. And to anyone who magically managed to avoid all of them: don't worry, I'll hide them. Although if you avoided them to this time I'm pretty sure you're a master at avoiding spoilers so it's unnecessary...

Anyway, the next time. Goodnight!
 
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Doki Doki Literature Club is a horror game, to finish that sentence from the previous post.

When I remembered that (yes I forgot... somehow), I wondered: why Nemona? Does she have something in common with Monika? I haven't played the gen 9 games, so I'm familiar with her only from fan content, and I was sure I'd know if there was some major similarity between them...

So perhaps because their names sound similar - they kind of do! So "Just Nemona" sounds similar to "Just Monika". Well, not really considering the English pronunciation, I do pronounce Nemona differently, but still, it looks a bit similar written.

So... both of them wear school uniforms and have longer hair in a ponytail... This one, I thought, must definitely be the reason - now I'm not that convinced, after reading the announcement post... However, I still think that Nemona was the best choice, for the mentioned similarities!
Was it necessary to hide this? Perhaps not, but here's something about spoilers, since I've mentioned them already ^-^

For some time, I thought that people say this "it is this old already, so spoilers for it are O.K." < that's not quite it, but something like that, following the logic "whoever cares for this has already watched/read/played it", and while some people probably do, I think it's more like "if you care about it you have either already watched/whatever it, or have seen all the spoilers already, anyway".

In my opinion, both of these mentalities aren't quite right. I think it is unnecessary to explain why the first one is wrong? Just think about it...

While I think the "if you haven't 'consumed' it yet, it has been spoiled for you already anyway" mentality is a bit better, it still has it's problems. The first, more obvious one in my opinion, is: what if it's someone's first time hearing about it? It might be an older and well-known piece, but not for someone who is just getting into a certain niche, or hasn't ever been interested in it before. And the second problem... if it has been spoiled to someone already, well... where did the spoilers come from?? Sure, some people don't mind and might spoil stuff for themselves purposefully, but sometimes, spoilers just are, well, they're there when you don't want to see them (spoilers on YouTube thumbnails for example).

Did you know Czech also simply uses the word spoiler? Sometimes I feel like people only know the figurative sense of the word, which, well yes, that's right, that's the Czech word, am I upset people don't know origin of a word? Yes kind of sometimes...

(More DDLC next time for real with actual spoilers!)
 
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So... Doki Doki Literature Club. I've played that game, sort of.

I've first heard of that game, by which I mean actually heard, at school during literature class. O.K. I don't remember if it was literature, but I am sure it was Czech of some sort, and I think it was literature. We had a rather... inactive teacher and since there was a lot of time left before the end of the class, she let some students talk about some media... and one of them talked about DDLC, it was apparent from the way they talked about it they were quite passionate about the game, and it was rather funny to me how they tried really hard not to spoil anything, eventually they just gave up and told the teacher they cannot talk about it because of spoilers. Nice of them, but I doubt anyone in the room cared... Anyway, that was a long time ago, perhaps around when the game was new, and I played it a rather long time after hearing about it.

I played it this year, from February to March? I suppose? I don't remember, I'm just checking my browsing history for the dates... which does make this information more accurate than it would be if I were just trying to remember so... Probably yes, moving on.

YouTube. I might be a tiny bit addicted to it... I was on YouTube and the algorithm made me remember about the existence of the game. (I was watching either some videos about breaking the fourth wall or about visual novel games... Maybe both? Not checking that in my YT history.) And so, I decided I might as well play it, since it is a good game, and is for free.

I installed it on my computer, and started to play it... or should I say read it? I saw that notice you shouldn't play it if you have anxiety, which made me briefly reconsider playing (reading?) it, but I decided to just continue.

As I read it, I noticed one thing I thought was some sort of foreshadowing (about Yuri's character and I was right), which was of course mostly because I had some information as I watched some YT videos, I didn't know the complete story, just the ending and some general things, probably more than one would like to know to have the full spoiler-free experience, which I think was one of the reasons why I decided to play it, I definitely wouldn't play a game without having some basic info at least, and I definitely wouldn't play a horror game without having some serious level spoilers for it. That was back then at least - maybe I'd play a game I know nothing about now, though I doubt so, and I definitely wouldn't play any horror game now.
I'm sorry, I'm tired. I'll finish this the next time... hope it's O.K.! Goodnight!
 
Nemona said:
Nemona found you!
Click to expand...
...is that a good thing..?

I was online over the weekend! Because of the one-shot contest, mostly!

To finish...
So, I have played the game (or read it?) and thought it would be O.K. but then it happened.

You know, Sayori.

There were some creepy pictures appearing in the game folder on my computer before, but it was just that, creepy pictures. What happened - you know, Sayori - was... real psychological horror. I had no spoilers for that, I just knew I was at the point where the novel truly begins to be a horror, but I didn't know what was going to happen. I expected something jump-scare-like and was scared, and when I saw what happened - I was relieved there was no jump scare, yes - but also, I was terrified. I remember smiling as I read that part, thinking 'well, this is where I turn the game off... and probably never play it again'. Then the screen glitched and there was the title screen again and I don't remember what exactly I did after; before - you know, Sayori - there was a part I wanted to read again (because the things I write aren't the only things I sometimes feel the need to read more times than necessary), so I had planned to re-read everything from that one point but I don't know whether I've done so or not? I think I told myself that I do not want to see that scene again so I did not, but I also feel like I remember that too well for something I've only experienced once. Sure, I've googled things, I've watched videos (not play-throughs), but I feel like I remember too well the whole scene, not just the sight...

Anyway, I remember that the moment Sayori confessed to being depressed and the player character said that 'it'll be O.K.' I was like ???? No? What are you doing?? Hugging her won't fix this GET PROFESSIONAL HELP ASAP and then I was angry with the protag guy...

So whether I replayed some parts or not, I didn't play much further (if at all, I don't remember) after the glitchy screen appeared. I watched some videos about the game and wow the project Libitina thing it's so cool how much thought the authors put into that game and also I decided, after watching the videos, to never play the game (until that I thought that maybe after some time I'll continue playing) and deleted it and it took a week or two until I could sleep peacefully at night.

I'm not playing that game ever, playing it is like finding yourself in a horror movie scenario, but I recently started thinking (guess thanks to what?) about watching some play-through of it - that would be like just watching a horror movie! I think...
(My thousandth post!)
 
So... I watched the pilot episode of The Amazing Digital Circus on Friday, because I've seen some fanart of it, and then YT videos got recommended to me, so I was curious what it is and googled it. I expected it to be some indie animation project with a big fanbase that is perceived as obnoxious by many and I was surprised upon finding out that that's the case and also how new it is, I certainly did not expect that, I thought it'd been around for some time and gained popularity thanks to getting a sequel or something... So when I found out it was new, I decided to "join in" and watched the pilot.

I think it is solid and has great potential, and I also think I'll click the 'not interested' button on any YT videos about it that get recommended to me because I am sure there will be a lot of unnecessary negative discourse about it (there already kind of is I think... why do some people have to hate on things just because they are popular?)

If I should point out one thing I hated about it the most, I'd say the glitch effect animation, as any rapid animation makes me anxious - which I had thought was weird before I looked into it and it seems not to be so unusual, so nowadays I just accept it - and I was glad I had the grayscale screen filter on (I had a premonition...) the whole time because colours would have made it much worse, but it definitely does not improve enjoyment (just like closing your eyes does not). My personal problem with it aside, I think there was too much of it - it would be more impactful if they saved it for the most dramatic moments only, but it's not that big of a problem, so it's mostly personal.

To highlight one thing I liked the most: the way it begins, I think it was smart and creative.

In conclusion, The Amazing Digital Circus is certainly not without flaws, for another example, there were a few scenes that were unnecessarily long and could be shorter and more impactful in my opinion, but the positive aspects prevail and it for sure has the potential to be amazing. And it probably will be... well, something at least considering the popularity. And numbers.

This was bad... but not the worst review I've written today, that's the one I wrote on one of my favourite books for my literature class, and also, I've been writing some (more feedback-style reviews rather than regular reviews) on the Autumn one-shots since last Monday, but I'm really trying not to make these bad. I've read a lot about reviewing fanfics, and reading a lot about reviewing fanfics required me to go to fanfic writer spaces, which revived my will to write my own 'dream fanfiction', or one of them precisely speaking... Note to self: maybe share something about myself and fanfic writing, some day...

I've written two reviews so far, I want to write four! I've started with those two long fics so I suppose reviewing others will take less time? So far, I'm satisfied with only one of them, the second one needs to be rewritten completely. I plan to post the two of them on Wednesday as they should be O.K. by that time. As I've already mentioned, I don't want them to be bad, and I felt like everything I wrote seemed 'low effort' - until today (or yesterday, I wrote all of this yesterday but my internet went off right when I wanted to post this, and I was terrified I'll lose everything, because well, it might be ‘low effort’ but it still takes quite a lot of time to write. I made some edits today but fully rewriting this? "Updating" this? No...) - it felt like I exhausted my English writing skills by writing my own one-shot, I wanted to post here (or anywhere on the forums) a few times during last week but writing anything felt very hard, so I did not.

And also, my posts here, by which I mean this blog, are rather low effort, yes I admit that - I'd like them to be... 'authentical content' most of the time (what a fancy-sounding excuse, right?). So, if you're here for well thought out essays and reviews (which I suppose you're not) I highly suggest you to leave, bye, though I hope to make some... sophisticated posts here from time to time as well...

So! Until next time! (Probably won't be a sophisticated post, lol.)
 
I'm here with my not-a-sophisticated post! A short one this time I hope?

A few days ago, I rediscovered one anime. I've seen it on TV I don't know when exactly, but it was a long time ago - probably around 2015, 2016 I guess? Definitely after 2015 though, it's from 1984 but it wasn't dubbed into Czech until 2015. By 'seen' I mean that I've seen like one or two episodes, or maybe even just a part of an episode, we were at my Grandma's place and she always has TV on all the time, so I've just seen it, not watched it.

And I somewhat remembered the existence of that series until today, as... well, it was very interesting, let's say. I just could not forget that there is an animated series with 'that interesting art style' that is Sherlock Holmes, but everyone is a dog. An anthro dog, I mean. And for the art style; it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki so yeah.

Two days ago - and I am once more upset that there is no single word for 'the day before yesterday' in English like there is in Czech because I could just write one word instead of saying that the day before yesterday I happened to see a screenshot from that show on Pinterest which caused the vague memory I had of its existence to fully emerge.

The English title of the show is 'Sherlock Hound' and I have to internally giggle every time I think about that name. I don't know why, but it's so funny to me. And not just me, I told my sister about it (which was kind of awkward as I was not sure how to pronounce 'hound' but maybe less awkward than when I told her about Project Voltage as I pronounced 'project' in Czech way and 'voltage' in a French way, with 'age' as 'aʒ', so "proyεkt vɔltaʒ" yes) she started to laugh at it so I guess 'Sherlock Hound' is funny. I don't know if it's a character name too, in the Czech dub it is not it's Sherlock Holmes, like normal, which makes sense as the Czech title is like 'famous detective Holmes' and they used very bookish expression for 'famous' and I think I'll incorporate the word 'slovutný' into my everyday vocabulary.

The characters are anthro just for the aesthetic and I've seen in one review that the show would be so good if they weren't dogs which no, I don't think so? I think the character designs would be extremely generic if they were just people, while a dog Sherlock is a very distinctive look. I've seen only the first episode, but what I believe to be the worst aspect of the show is the design of the female characters. I suppose you know what I mean, guy anthro characters have cool designs while the girls need to look more girly. Disgusting, that's it.

So yes, I don't think I want to say more. I think I'll watch the whole thing? 26 episodes, that's O.K.... My expectations are pretty low, I'd say... So perhaps this is not the last time you'll hear from me about Sherlock Hound. We'll see.
 
(Sorry if posts by other people aren't allowed!)
So I was curious and decided to search this anime on the internet and the artstyle reminded me of «Dartacán y los Tres Mosqueperros», a Spanish-Japanese anime from the 80s that was extremely popular here in Spain (even younger people recognise the opening thanks to their parents haha)
And guess what? Turns out Hayao Miyazaki was the character designer for this anime I'm talking about ^^ So if you are curious for more weirdly specific anthro dog anime adaptations of European tales, I recommend checking it out (that being said I don't know the title in English and the dubs that existed of this anime)

Edit: the same studios that made Dartacán also made another anthro anime called «La vuelta al mundo de Willy Fog», based on Julio Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days... spaniards really like furries, don't we?
 
^ Hi EB! Posts from others are O.K.!

The English title of the first show you mentioned seems to be 'Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds' and the fact it also has a quite recent CGI movie adaptation :lapras: gives me some idea of how popular it must be in Spain! I've never heard of it before though, so thanks for the info!! (I very vaguely remember seeing characters like these on some biscuits my family brought from their vacation in Spain?!)

I'd probably bring up Willy Fog sooner or later here lol, so glad you did that instead of me! It was dubbed into Czech in 1990. I saw the whole first season some years ago - my mum was very nostalgic about it and wanted us to watch it, and I and my siblings liked it a lot... that's an understatement we loved it lol! I'd say it's popular here - it has nearly 13 000 reviews on ČSFD (the 'main' movie database here) which is more - not by much though - than the German-Austrian-Japanese anime about the furry bee that is very well-known here, mostly for its legendary opening.

On a somewhat related note, one anime with anthro characters for aesthetics I would like to watch one day is Alfred J. Kwak, a Dutch-Japanese children's series that contains very dark themes.

That's it for today... Goodnight!
 
^ The local Subway Master has appeared! Hi Blanc!! What anime genres? That's a secret! I have no idea-

So, it is the last month of the year already... Also, it apparently was Saint Nicolas Day today, I had no idea until my mum told me she wanted to give me stuff - I got two chocolates (I don't eat chocolate... or rather try not to anymore...) a lot of bottles of juice (kind of strange but something I actually appreciate : ) and food for my fish and it's Hikari (such a good brand!! I'm really picky about what I feed to my goldfish lol) and money of course but I don't know, not that nice of a gift, if you know what I mean?

Anyway, back to the fact that the year is ending soon... and there are some things I want to post about before that happens, and these are:
  • one of the best anime I've seen this year, sort of a recommendation-style review
  • music, set your expectations low for that if you're into music
  • also, one short movie
  • there are more things, but I'm not sure...
...yeah that's it, the first article is the most 'important', will be a sophisticated post lol. And a long one too hopefully, something I'm looking forward to writing about!!

Also, I'd like to do a post here about my... 'personal creative projects', let's say... It's just something I want to talk about, but I never do lol. But that can wait until next year.

There are also some things I want to add...
Hydrogenium said:
I suppose you know what I mean, guy anthro characters have cool designs while the girls need to look more girly.
Click to expand...
Such a bad formulation lol. I was heavily relying on the reader being familiar with the design trope of male characters being basically furries while female characters are more like humans with animal features slapped on.

And for the "furry bee anime": I was on a stream of that one anime YouTuber I've mentioned here already (the only one of that kind I watch lol) and it was an anime list rating stream, and someone asked if the furry bee anime is on MAL and it was followed by "Of course, you all could add it to improve its rating." I mean, I knew it was popular but, I don't know lol. The title is 'Mitsubachi Maaya no Bouken', thought it would be nice to mention it at least once.

Aand that's it for today... better end this mess of a post already!! Goodnight!
 
Hydrogenium said:
And for the "furry bee anime": I was on a stream of that one anime YouTuber I've mentioned here already (the only one of that kind I watch lol) and it was an anime list rating stream, and someone asked if the furry bee anime is on MAL and it was followed by "Of course, you all could add it to improve its rating." I mean, I knew it was popular but, I don't know lol. The title is 'Mitsubachi Maaya no Bouken', thought it would be nice to mention it at least once.
Click to expand...
I KNEW IT WAS MAYA THE BEE!!! When you said furry bee anime that was the first thing that popped into my head XD The CGI adaptation gives me the heebie jeebies I hate it lmao
 
hi, don't mind me, i'm new here, didn't know you had a blog hydro!! thought'd I'd check it out for myself. Pretty neat place you've got here.
 

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