Tobby Received The Liebster Award!

Huh, I got another blogging award. Thank you very much for giving me The Liebster Award, Matthew Burgos! ^_^

As for the rules of this award, well…check them out by clicking this link here.

And now, here are my answers to Mr. Burgos’s questions:

1. If your house is on fire, what will you take and why? I’d prioritize saving my family first. If there are things that I can still salvage, then I’ll retrieve the stuff that I can safely retrieve.
2. If you’ll leave all the stress in this world, where will you go? If, by stress, you mean negative stress, then I would probably be going to death at that point. In life, negative stress waits on the path to true happiness. If I want to go away from negative stress, then I’ll have to face negative stress and win against it, step by step.
3. Will you directly type your writing works or write it down first in a notebook/journal? Usually, I prefer directly typing my writing works. Writing my works down in a notebook/journal feels more difficult (erasure marks, erasure marks, freaking erasure marks), and writing using a computer feels smoother.
4. What genre of books do you read? I’m not quite genre-specific when it comes to reading books. When it comes to reading books, I look for and read books that can positively inspire me greatly.
5. What is your highly recommended read and why? Kagerou Daze. It’s Japanese, but you can find English translations here. It’s a pretty inspirational story, even if it can be dark at times. LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE AND FRIENDSHIP FOR THE WIN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
6. Does music inspire you to write? If yes, what certain song do you listen to? Yes, music does inspire me into writing, and I usually listen to Jin/Shizen no Teki-P’s music in order to motivate myself.  DECO*27’s music, Mashiro Shirakami’s music, and Suzumu’s music also inspire me, but Jin-sensei’s music is at the top of my inspirational music list.
7. When was your hardest writing experience? I guess my hardest writing experience would be my awakening to my creative writing skills. I was an angry high school kid waiting and facing some bullies (I feel like I exaggerated their bad attitudes towards me and my friends in my mind back then, though.) during cheering practice for my school’s Intramurals opening, so I wrote a poem in order to vent out my anger properly. I forgot what its title was and what it was exactly about, though.
8. If you can have something material today (any price) for free, what will it be and why? A PS Vita. I wanna be able to play Persona 4 Golden and Dangan Ronpa.
9. If you will write a story with a dedication, to whom will you address it? If I were to write a story with a dedication…I’d dedicate it to those who are having difficulties in seeking true happiness.
10. Would you rather live in reality or fantasy? I prefer reality, even if it can be a tough place. Besides, if I lived in fantasy, then it would become reality already. So…yeah, I can’t escape reality. I can never escape from reality. We can never escape from reality, you know.
11. What is writing for you? For me, writing is one of the ways that a person can use to inspire other people.

Now, here are 11 random facts about myself:

1. Recently, I have become a fan of DECO*27 (Read: Deko Niina) and his music. As of now, my favorite DECO*27 song is Kissou Honnou (Heart’s Homing Instinct).
2. I’m a Roman Catholic.
3. Aside from creative writing, which I consider to be my specialty, I’m also interested in drawing pictures and composing music.
4. I have a YouTube Channel. Hanging around YouTube and watching YouTubers’ videos was probably a major influence in its creation.
5. I’m a fan of PewDiePie and Markiplier. They got me interested in Let’s Playing, and their horror game Let’s Plays helped me get used to the horror genre.
6. I’ve written fanfiction before, and I’m still interested in writing fanfiction, especially fanfics of my favorite series mixed with whatever interesting ideas that form inside my mind, to express myself and inspire other people.
7. I’m not good at playing musical instruments, so when I’m going compose music, I prefer using PxTone. As of now, I have made one short musical piece, and its title is “Glass Polisher.”
8. I haven’t tried drawing digitally yet. I’m still interested in it, though.
9. Some of my favorite characters are Ayano Tateyama and Kousuke Seto from the Kagerou Project and Makoto Naegi from the Dangan Ronpa series.
10. I’m currently interested in Ume Aoki’s Hidamari Sketch and Dai Shiina’s Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii, but, as of now, I haven’t read them much.
11. I’m a really optimistic person. You probably would have noticed that if you’ve spent enough time near me and my works.

And now, here are the 5 blogs/bloggers that I would like to nominate for The Liebster Award:

1. The Catholic Husband
2. Juan Blea
3. Delicious Peace of Mind
4. Medieval Otaku
5. Knits by Sachi

And here are my 11 questions for the nominees:

1. What sort of music do you like?
2. Is there a foreigner-made artwork that you really like?
3. Is there a fictional story that you would like to recommend?
4. What do you usually do when you’re in the Internet?
5. Have you ever had to deal with a really short-tempered child?
6. Do you think that you are an optimist?
7. What is your preferred way of dealing with people who hate you?
8. Do you think that the death penalty is a good way to curb crime?
9. Who is the family member that inspired you most?
10. In three to five words, what are your values?
11. What is your favorite food?

Once again, thank you very much for the award! ^_^

Tobby’s Recommendation Yell: Days of Happiness

As I was lazily wandering around the Internet, I found this short story by Kenshi Yonezu, a well-known Japanese musician who also goes by the name “Hachi.” This story about happiness…ah, it reminds me of those days when my old pessimistic self started to shatter greatly…and I really need to read more stories that are like this beautiful short story.

Anyway, I’d like to recommend this story to all the sad people out there. The world needs more happiness, you know. Also, I’d like to thank vgperson for translating this beautiful story. You can go to the translation by clicking the picture above or by clicking here. If you want to read the Japanese original, then go here.

 

Mekakucity Actors Episode 3 Reflection: Synergize, Mekakushi Dan!

Greetings, dear reader. This is The Overlord Bear, and I am now back with another reflection on an episode of…

The opening animation has been improved again! Freaking nuts!

Mekakucity Actors!

You Can Be A Hero, Tobby!

hero (noun) – a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities

That definition above is one of the definitions that showed up in Google Search’s dictionary (just type “define [insert word here]” and let Google Search do its work) for the word “hero.” Heh, when I was a younger, I kinda thought that a hero was someone who was beyond the reach of ordinary humans…someone who was absolutely good, without any imperfections at all. Well, my perception of heroism pretty much changed a lot as the years passed. The challenges of life gave me some nice whuppings courtesy of my pessimistic crybaby years, and then with some very helpful guidance from a bunch of trustworthy people and a bunch of inspirational creative works, I developed into the optimistic nut who wrote this blog post.

Now, I have a question to ask you:

Can anyone be a hero?

If you were to ask that question to my pessimistic crybaby self, I’d probably say that only superhumans can be heroes while reasoning that anyone who can calmly stand up to wrongdoers is a superhuman with nerves of steel that can bruise the brains of anyone who would try to break them. The me back then…I thought that all humans are unequal…I thought that some humans can be great while some can’t.

And now, I find those thoughts stupid.

Ask “Can anyone be a hero?” to the optimistic nut who wrote this blog post, and then I’d say…

Yeah, anyone can be a hero.

As my perception of heroism developed, I once thought that I had to be instantly noticed by the whole world if I wanted to be a hero. I thought that I had to appear spectacularly like a bunch of exploding fireworks in order to be a hero. Again, traces of my pessimistic crybaby self tried to hinder my development. I thought that I had to be perfect, that I had to be pleasing in the eyes of everyone else in order to be a hero.

And then, I learned and repeatedly remembered a bunch of life lessons as I developed.

No one is perfect.

No man is an island.

Everyone is unique.

I can’t please everyone.

Only I can control myself.

The path of a hero is and will always be a tough road.

The improvement of the self and the world isn’t something that comes instantly.

I can still choose to be happy, even if the world around me is filled with sadness.

Anyone can do good and help in making the world a better place.

When I thought about it…yeah, heroes weren’t a bunch of superhumans who were superior over the rest of “ordinary” humanity. I don’t think that there’s a human out there who’s worthless. We may be imperfect, we may be sinners, but seeing these heroes who are as imperfect as all of humanity makes me think that…yeah, we can do good…and no one is worthless. Some people may be minor characters in my life, but those people are also major characters in someone else’s life, too. I may be a minor character in someone else’s life, but I’m also a major character in certain people’s lives, too. Also, there are many ways to be a hero. It’s not just restraining and arresting armed wrongdoers and doing risky rescue moves, you know. You can be a hero to an audience by inspiring hope in them through creative works. You can be a hero to your family by helping them out through household chores. Heh, you can even be a hero to others by willingly choosing to look at the bright side and do good even if the world around you is freaking plagued by despair! Even if you don’t have superpowers, such as the eye powers in the Kagerou Project, you can still be a hero, you know!

Makoto Naegi may not be a wealthy businessman or an ace detective, but his optimism was a big help in performing his heroic acts, you know!

Also, social relationships are important if you want to be a hero. We all have limits, and that’s where the importance of diversity and celebrating differences comes in. One person’s strengths can make up for another’s weaknesses, you know, and celebrating differences and synergizing can lead to the discovery of solutions that can’t be found by simply compromising or cooperating! What, I shouldn’t be depending on someone if I want to strong and brave? Well, I once believed in that idea, but now, I find it stupid as well. A person can only do so much alone, you know! If you wanna improve yourself and help in making the world a better place, then you gotta remember that it’s not something that one person can easily do singlehandedly! Friendship for the win!

I don’t think Ayano Tateyama would have gotten far in executing her rescue plan without any help from her fellow “secret agents.”

Now then, self-reminder time:

Anyone can be a hero.

You can be a hero, Tobby!