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Introductions / Meet ANN / Tell us about Yourself (w/ index).

Since I plan to stay in this forum, I figured it would be a good idea to post my introduction:

Name: Ignas

Sex: Male

Location: Lithuania

Marital status: Single

Age: 18

Drink/Smoke: Neither

Favorite anime: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, RahXephon, Monster

Favorite manga: Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, SaiKano

Favorite visual novel: Saya no Uta

Favorite books: Quinn's Ishmael, Orwell's 1984

Favorite sport (to watch): Soccer

Favorite sport (to play): Swimming, mountain biking

Hobbies: Besides what I've already listed; playing chess, watching documentary films

Pictures:
Me and my dog:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/4812/picture097f.jpg
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/729/picture104tn.jpg
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7703/picture109bv.jpg



Overall, there's nothing really special about my life. I play the clarinet and I plan to do that for living. Before you say anything (something along the lines of "it must be boring"), here's an example of how awesome clarinet music can be:
http://www.youtube.com/user/michaelhankim/videos (I love this guy)

That's wonderful, I rarely ever meet anyone who has even heard of Tamora Pierce, to be honest. Does your username happen to have anything to do with her Circle books?

Well I had already read Hamlet and several of his other works, but I actually had never read The Tempest until I started watching Blast of Tempest, and when I heard some of the quotes they used I decided to read that next. Instantly I fell in love with it, as I did with most of Shakespeares work.

OK, so here's the deal:

I'm what you'd call one of those old, cranky veterans, a relic from the VHS boom of the 90s who got into this whole anime thing before there was even a faint tickle of mainstream acceptance. I became an anime and manga fan at the age of fourteen, way back in the mid-nineties. Needless to say, that makes me something of an old-timer... and it probably doesn't help that I have an unnatural predilection for old-school stuff (think 70's and 80's, with a dash of 60's thrown in for good measure).

Since then, my fandom has wavered in and out like a shortwave radio signal; it comes in spurts and I've oscillated wildly from casual consumer to rabid fanboy to disinterested above-it-all a-hole with no warning whatsoever. Lately, I've wanted to reconnect with the world of anime and manga... a world that brought me a great deal of joy way back when I was a lonely, sadsack teenager. I never got into the convention circuit, since I grew up in the deep, deep south and was kind of a lonely, perpetually isolated fanboy with nobody to share my enthusiasm with. Instead, I lived vicariously through the newsgroups and online forums, chatting with convention hounds and scoring the occasional VHS copy of fandubs (still have my Star Dipwads videotape... somewhere).

Even now, I mostly stick with the older material... although I do occasionally delve into the newer stuff, from time to time. And I'm trying desperately to get with the times. Or rather, catch up on all the stuff that came out when I abandoned the anime and manga scene way back in... oh, I don't know, sometime after college, I guess? I still can't make heads or tails of this newfangled world of fandom, but I'm trying to learn.

Anyway, hope that works as a proper introduction.

Welcome, I hope you find that inspiration. Honestly though you come off way older than you actually are. You're still a young'un by my standards. Robotech was the new thing when I was 14. And I was already almost done with college before Tenchi was even created. But I don't view the old stuff in the same light as you. It's gone, a forgotten realm forever exiled to the dust heap of useless memories. Sure I reminisce from time to time, but I find nothing special or noteworthy about being an anime fan of that era. I may have lived something newer fans might envy in a way, but I am a fan of today's anime only.

I love the new styles, the memes and the culture unique only to the internet age, loli infused fanservice and flashy idol-centered fandom. I love that anime at its essence has always had the same design qualities even though it's gone from paper and ink to a completely digital canvas. I would have been very sad if technology actually caused anime to become something completely different with a new look, but it's only been refined and improved in its visualization. That's why I respect the past but don't dwell in it and am the same person now as the person I'd be if I only discovered anime just a few years ago.

Pamachu, what I'm going to say is mildly off topic and extremely nerdy. For that I apologize. Nevertheless, you wrote that your fandom has in and out like a shortwave radio signal. If it's alright for me to ask, how are you familiar with shortwave radio? Are you a shortwave listener?

I've mentioned here before that I'm actually an avid listener of shortwave radio broadcasts, hence my question. I actually used to love to tune into NHK World Radio Japan when it offered featurettes on anime for that matter.