I'm back, and my psoriasis is as in control as it's going to get with the weather playing with me like it is.
Otaku Community
Loud rock music in noisy bars is oddly, a good way for me to clear my head sometimes. Having been out with Poobah again, I got to thinking about the whole mess I found myself in early this month, and I was reminded of Sisyphus, man cursed for all eternity to roll a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down again, forcing him to start all over. On the dark, winding road coming back home after the show, at somewhere around 4:00AM, the futility of my outward efforts, through projects like "Passive Dissent", hit me hard. You could say that my eyes were opened to that "vision softly creeping" that Simon and Garfunkel sang about so many years ago, and I could see myself in the position of the dreamer, caught up in a world so distracted that communication has turned meaningless.
What I came to realize as my Mom dodged the deer and kept pace the van driven by Poobah's lead singer, is that my words, and the words of everyone who spoke out for this community, for myOtaku.com, is that, we might as well have been pouring our hearts out to brick walls for all the good we've done. Aside from token action, and less than sincere interest, I do not feel I made an impact where it counts the most. Sure, I know others have rallied behind me, but can any one of us truly say that we've been effective in communicating our concerns to the staff, to Adam, in such a way that has commanded his attention? Honestly, I can't say that I've seen enough action to say that I've made such an impact.
I do realize that Adam has his hands full with getting theOtaku.com running smoothly, and he has been under the weather lately as well. Maybe I'm just too impatient to wait before jumping to the conclusion that I'm not being heard. Whatever the case may be, things have not been getting done, and that has belittled my efforts.
For anyone who noticed, I have taken down the Passive Dissent banner, kitabug has chosen to shut down the World for the cause, the activity was declining there, and with the reduced capacity of my efforts there, things didn't look too good for it. I think it's best that we all find a way to move on as best we can. You can count on me to continue to bring stuff to Adam's attention, it just won't be nearly as loud a roar in the future. Whispers are just as effective as shouts to get someone's attention in my experience, so lots of whispers may do more good than our shouts did.
Campaigns of Another Sort
Recent e-mail newsletters, as well as the June issue of Shonen Jump have brought to my attention yet another display of content distrubution ignorance on the part of, none other than Fathom Events. If that name doesn't strike any chords, it was last year that I had a discussion with Fathom Events over their lack of distributing anime content to WV movie theaters. Long story short, I got an empty promise from Fathom that they would consider WV for future anime stuff, and they haven't done that. I realize I'm the only WV resident here so this whole thing is moot to anyone else (unless you live in another cultural black hole that never gets this content), but I have to say something.
Right now, there are two up-coming Fathom Events related to anime content. The Live Action Death Note movie which itself isn't anime, but it's connected to the anime and manga by name anyway. The second event, coming in June is the Bleach movie. I know, it's contradictory for me, someone who's openly admitted he don't like Bleach to complain about that film not coming to WV theatres, but this is a principle thing. I'd pay to see Serial Experiments Lain (the all-time worst anime I've ever seen) in theatres, just to say I saw something anime on the big screen. Right now, I'm working on writing a letter to NCM Fathom, as well as Regal Entertainment Group, Viz Media, Viz Pictures, and any other companies I discover are involved with this thing. It does me no good to ask anyone else to campaign this cause for me since it does not personally effect anyone else, so I'll just leave it at that and let you all know I'm doing this campaign.
Lighter Notes
It's May, and that means Prom season for High School. I know back in 2006, and 2007 I promised I would post a prom picture of me, and I don't recall ever actually doing it. In the spirit of the season, I dug up one of the pictures of me for my Junior Prom (I never attended Senior Prom, long story, not going there). I never was a photogenic dragon in my human form, but I do have to say you human creatures do make some really nice skin covers for your special occasions. The image quality is poor, it's a scan of a Polaroid photo, not the best combination.
I am building a photo portfolio on a site I'll link here soon, and I've put a few things into my DeviantArt gallery as well lately, so my creative energies are getting a workout, and I do have other plans I'm working on as well. Also, I hope to have another Poobah video up in the next week or so, I just have to finish up with the credits, get it uploaded, and fight with Google for a day or two before getting it up here.
Technical notes on things I've done and will be doing to my blog here.
- Blog posts have been extended to 500px in length
- Will widen posts to about 600px (for ease of viewing video clips)
- New Header banner will be put in place
- Background will be overhauled
- MyOtaku.com support stamp is in the works (the flag is cool, but I want to make my own)
Comments:
ima loser baby
Stressing out over a Sisyphean task just isn't worth it to me, that's why I stepped back. Peaceful or not, putting heart and soul effort into something to get token interest is not worth emotional cost to me, it's not worth the stress. Hopefully future projects will be brighter and yield more positive results.
DarkFaerie88:
I know, and anyone can call me a coward or whatever for backing down, but it just is not worth it to me to keep pushing. I have hobbies, I have interests, I have a life beyond the realms of the siblings otaku, and I'd rather enjoy that than get the "Sound of Silence" treatment over needed improvements here.
whtdragon:
I know a lot of people appreciate what I, as well as others, have done to try to affect some kind of positive change both here, and over on TheOtaku. That's never been a doubt in my mind.
It's sad for me to say this, but from where I stand now, I don't think there IS anywhere members like you or I can go with our concerns because no one who CAN do anything about them is listening with their full attention.
When something is stirred by passion, it's not supposed to be a burden. I've thought about it a few times over in my absense, and that's what I came up with. I can and will speak where the need be, but I can't go heading up any major campaigns, the attention is too negative, too hostile, and too intense for me to deal with.
My e-mail has been in my profile since 2004 or 2005, quite a while anyway, and all my points of contact are there just in case anyone seeks me in one way or another. I also have a blogger blog that I don't link to, and will not share through PM here. For personal reasons I'm trying to keep that one disconnected from here as much as possible. I don't make myself hard to contact, cause I've lost touch too many times already.
BlackMagicianGrl:
Well, the relaunch was for theOtaku.com, not myOtaku.com which is where we are now. A know a lot of people have brought up the "temporary" comment situation here in terms of not liking it, and Adam's asked for help in designing a new one, so hopefully it will be corrected soon.
The break did me a lot of good, so I'll be good to go for a while.
