Hopefully throwing my hat back into the ring.

Okay guys I know it's been about two and a half months since I've last posted anything here. I've been busy making my way through my last semester of school and haven't really been able to find time to blog about all of the nerdy things going on in what little free time I've had. But now that I'm graduating, I'm going to try to make time to blog in between whatever job I manage to get and doing comics.

I'm going through my old to-do list for RTQ and chucking things that are no longer relevant and adding things that I've been planning to write about. So I've got plenty waiting in the wings once I find the time to write about it. I'm also going to be putting together a full cosplay from scratch this summer, so I'm sure there will be plenty of posts about that too.

For those who have stuck around, and I know you're out there because this blog is still getting over 300 hits a month somehow, thanks for being patient with me. i'll get myself back on track soon, I promise.

"Tuesday's Anime Sampler" or "Thanks For 1,000 Hits!"

Back home from my two week stay at Downtown Otaku's. It was a great trip and I was glad to hear that he had a nice time and got there and back okay. He bought me a figure of Rukia with Shirayuki, even though I already had it. so now I have one, and a special one from Chile. He also bought me GOALSBOT, which is probably the coolest robot I now own.


The one he got me is red and blue and has a 7 on it's uniform, but I couldn't find a picture of it, and I'm too tired to get up and actually take one. This is why I should not blog right after waking up.

"Rook Takes Queen" has also hit the milestone of 1,000 page views. For a blog that's only been consistently updating for two and a half months (which is the period of time I've been tracking visitors) I think that's a pretty impressive number, and I want to thank you all for coming by here 1,000 times. I hope in the next two and a half months, you'll all come by 1,000 more times.

To celebrate, let's take another look at my ridiculous visitor map.



Spent yesterday with McLovin and Kristin, once again in Kristin's basement watching anime. This is usually the only time I get a chance to watch new things, because on my own I am generally just too busy and impatient to sit and watch series. And I miss out on a lot because of this. But it's been fun sitting around with friends and watching things together and I'd rather see things with friends than alone anyway. While usually we pick one thing to watch and marathon, this time we watched a little bit of several things...

Gurren Lagann: Parallel Works 2


In all honesty ParaWorks 2 deserves it's own post, so I think i'm going to hold off saying too much and write about it in full later. Like most people, "Kittan Zero" is my favorite but I also adored "Kiyal's Magical Time". It was humorous and sweet, and I think I described it as "If Gurren Lagann and Di Gi Charat were the same thing." Over all, I liked Parallel Works 1 better, but 2 had some really great stuff.

Hetalia: Axis Powers


I've always been pretty against Hetalia because portions of the fandom drive me insane. (Sorry guys, but it's true.) But at Otakon, I went to the Voice Actor Q&As for the voices of Vino and Firo from "Baccano!", who happen to be doing Russia and Italy. They did a bit of the voices, and there was so much crazy accents that I thought I'd give the dub a shot just for that.

We watched the four episodes that are up on Funimation's website, and while I'm not suddenly going to throw aside everything else I'm doing to dive into this fandom, I did think it was pretty funny and cute. I have also developed a huge crush on Italy. Italy and Germany are amusing to me, but so far i'm not that into anyone else. We'll have to see where things go as I watch more.

K-On

McLovin once described K-On to me as "If the cast of Lucky Star was in a band." and I have to admit that's pretty spot on. The story isn't quite as scattered and moment-to-moment as Lucky Star, but it's got a lot of the same feel. The characters are very cute, and the show is a little mindless (at least as far as I've watched into it), but I think after watching things that are a little heavier, like "Baccano!" and "Durarara!!" (which are both still hilarious at points, but are not straight comedies), there's nothing wrong with something that's just silly and cute.

I'm loving all of the character interactions in K-On a lot, and their reactions to the world around them. it's a very sweet little series and if you just want to laugh and enjoy something fluffy and silly, I'd recommend it.

I'm still waiting on the last chapter of "The Lucifer & The Biscuit Hammer" before I can blog about that, and Kristin just sent me a link to "Yankee-kun to Megane-chan" for me to start reading, so I'll have those to blog about in the near future. I'm also planning my next cosplay; Marlone from "Atelier Marie". I've got lists of everything I need, and my best friend, Cass, has offered to help me make it. Suri's possibly going to do Kreis so we'll be a matching pair. So I'll have updates on that as things happen too.

Thanks again for coming by guys! It's been great blogging for you all and I hope to bring you more great things to read about in the future!

My Recent Nerdy Purchases

So I felt the need to finally update again. It's been a few days, and I haven't really been doing anything nerdy since I've been apartment-sitting. But I did buy a few things last Sunday when McLovin, Suri, and a few others came up to visit so we could run around for McLovin's birthday. So I can talk about all that I guess.

But first, man guys... Look at my visitor map...



I hope all of my international visitors, who probably came looking for something else, at least found something they could enjoy for a few minutes while they were here. From what I can tell form looking at my stats, a lot of people have ended up here recently searching for pictures of Alcyone cosplays and finding our picture we took of Super Cosplay Kazoku's Alcyone and Lantis. (Which, again, were just stunning.) While I'm on the subject, drop by and give them a look if you're into cosplay. They're really fantastic, and I hope to see them again at future conventions.

Okay so onto the stuff I bought on Sunday. At one point we ended up at Forbidden Planet, a great NYC comic store (one of several) and went upstairs to their manga section. I was surprised to see that VIZ had released a translation of the Bleach "Official Bootleg" book. A while ago, Downtown Otaku had bought me a japanese copy, and I've always been curious as to what all of the little bonus comics were about.



It's probably just been released in the past few weeks (it was on FP's new releases shelf) but if you've got a decent manga section at your local Borders, B&N, or other bookstore you shouldn't have a hard time getting it. And if you can't find it there, it's already up on Amazon.com. If you're a bleach fan, and you're like me and can't be bothered keeping up with all of the communities that translate supplementary material like this (and therefore haven't read it yet) it's definitely a worthwhile addition to your collection. The color comics are pretty hilarious and there's some other good general info included in the book.

The other book I bought was Let's find Pokemon! Crystal, which is basically "Where's Waldo" but with pokemon. It's all Gen II art, and is apparently the third in a line of "Let's Find Pokemon!" books.



I've already sat down and found all of the pokemon I was supposed to find, but it's also fun sitting down and seeing what other pokemon are in the scenes, and I love the Gen II artwork. When McLovin showed it to me I just took it from him and was pretty much set on buying it. It wasn't much of a question. Because I love me some Gen II pokemon stuff.

So I've still got a few more days before I go back to New Jersey. Hopefully I'll manage one more post before I head home and get back to my usual nerdings. Take care, ya'll!

Get To Know Your Blogger

Hey guys. Before I do anything else, I want to thank the awesome folks at Ramenbox.com for passing around links to the reviews I wrote about them. I ended up with 105 hits that day, as opposed to my usual... 8-ish. Thanks guys! Stay awesome!

Sorry I kind of vanished from the internet there for a while. It's been a rough however long it's been, and then I was out of town for a few days visiting Downtown Otaku and just living my life. I read straight through "The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer" up to current, and I'll blog about that once my life settles down again.

Speaking of life, how about we talk about we all get to know each other a bit? I've been posting a lot without letting ya'll get to know me and that's probably a mistake when blogging. And lord only know that little bio thing over on the side will only go so far.

So hi. I'm Sono.

I wear wigs sometimes. Not because I don't like my hair. I just really like wearing wigs. Also because I'm really into dressing up as people that aren't me due to anxiety issues. This mostly takes the form of dressing up as anime/comics/video game characters. Though sometimes I just walk around in wigs because it's awesome.

I'm also an art student, majoring in cartooning at the School of Visual Arts.

This means, pretty much, that I draw comics. I'm looking to make a career out of it. I am improving constantly (as seen above) through ass-loads of work. I'm hoping, by this time next year, to have one of my projects live, finally. Next summer is also when I graduate and have to be an adult. Suckkkk. I'm so nervous about it. But I'm looking forward to trying to make a name for myself in the field.

I don't know how many of you remember the... one time Suri wrote for this blog before I removed him as an author because he never posted. But we're still dating. It's been over four years now. Shit's rough sometimes, but we always come out the other end spouting nonsense and being crazy. We're kind of ridiculous like that. He's supportive of all my nonsense and he puts up with shit from me that I wouldn't even put up with. He's basically a saint.

I am, as I have made obvious, a huge nerd. I love pokemon, cartoons, some video games, music, and food. I will ramble about these things until daybreak if you let me. Thus why I started this blog. It's a good outlet for all of my rambling and hopefully some if it is useful to you all.

If there's anything specific ya'll want me to talk about or check out just let me know and I'll do my best to get around to it. Otherwise I'm just going to keep rambling about things that no one cares about except for me.

I hope this was some kind of interesting for you all and that you now know me a little better.

Getting A Semi-Fresh Start

Well the blog's gotten itself a new name and a fresh coat of paint. I'm rather liking it as it is now, so it'll likely stick. For those curious, the pair up on the header are the gijinka Ho-Oh and Lugia that have taken over my sketchbook lately. They're pretty much the nerdy-est thing I've ever done so I figured it was appropriate.

I've written up a post on "Bakuman", and I'm going to try and get some others written up ASAP so I can get back to posting regularly here. In the mean time, I saw this (blogging related) today and thought it was cute. I've been listening to it over and over. I don't know the source song because I detest Miley Cyrus, but I like the vocalist he got to sing it and it's just a really funny, cute video.