Goals for the 2009 Year

First day of school started for me today and it looks like Japanese and various science classes will be keeping me as busy as ever this semester so I decided to write about what I want to accomplish so that I will not forget as the year progresses. Since things will only get more hectic from now on I need to get my priorities straightened out. Of course many of these will be otaku-related but some goals may spill over into my schoolwork or elsewhere.

First off is Lyrical Spark of course. I try to post here as often as I can though other obligations and the occasional unexpected internet cutoff make that a difficult task. I find that having a monthly quota keeps me on track so I will continue to use my 10 posts per month guideline from last year. Of course I would like to have more than that per month but things happen.

Content-wise I want to start adding two regular features in addition to the things I always write about. As the title of this blog may suggest, I have a strong interest in music of the otaku variety. However it is sometimes hard to find lyrics for the more obscure things such as character songs so my goal is to have a new set of lyrics posted weekly including kanji, romaji and eventually translations when I feel my Japanese can do the music justice. Expect the following songs in the next few weeks: Key of Dream ,the B-side of Sono Saki ni Aru, Dare ka no Egao no Tame ni (the theme song for Higurashi Daybreak Portable); Danketsu, an iDOLM@STER song; and Umineko no Naku Koro ni, the theme to the sound novel of the same name. Requests are welcome! Just post a comment on the lyrics page or something.

Along with transcribing lyrics, I also want to start posting more of my art again. I find that posting stuff here gives me more motivation to draw so I’ll try that to see how things go. I’m not sure on what sort of schedule I would be posting or the subject matter of the art but I want to at least do one colored piece per month. I may even post some old stuff so that others can see how my art style and quality has changed. In addition I am currently working on two stand-alone doujin manga projects, one for my anime club and another for online publication. The first will based off of Kannagi though that may eventually change while the other will be a Touhou doujin that I hope will be released in the next issue of Another Dream. Whenever I have them done I’ll post them here for everyone to criticize.

In general cutting back on certain otaku activities would be a good idea for me so that I can have time to do the things I say I plan to. I want to limit the amount of new anime series I pick up and focus on finishing the ones I have already started or the shows on my backlog. I’ll also try to keep gaming limited because I have an extreme tendency to play games nonstop until I beat them. For example I put everything else aside and beat Super Mario Galaxy less than a day after getting it for Christmas. This shouldn’t be too hard since the only consoles I have immediate access to are my DS and my Xbox 360 which is not even in my own room. I’m not too worried about any PC gaming since I play mostly doujin shooters anyways.

As for school I was not as diligent in studying Japanese as I would have liked last semester so I want to get more serious. It turns out that for class I have to watch at least one episode of a J-Drama per week so I decided on Mahou Sensei Negima. I’m quite sure I will hate myself for this later but I have to know how bad it is or the possibility that I may actually enjoy it. Either way I will end up cringing every time Nodoka talks and tell myself, “This is not the Honya-chan you love!” I’ll probably end up posting about it every so often so that I don’t go crazy from Noto Mamiko withdrawal. Combining this with the work I want to do with lyrics should hopefully give me the willpower to practice Japanese more often and much more seriously (I’ll be doing real studying too of course but doing only that gets boring after a while).

Lastly I want to get in better shape. I’m not exactly using rolling my own body as my primary means of transportation but I would like to lose some weight and build up more upper body strength. I’ll try regimenting a regular workout schedule to go along with the daily hour or so of walking I do regularly at school and hopefully I should get some results. Besides the added health benefits, I would like to be able to cosplay Ushiromiya Battler (check picture at top). I wouldn’t be able to quite match his height but he does have some stylish clothes I could use elsewhere.

I believe that for the time being those are my main goals. If I remember more I’ll just add them later.