October 24th, 2008

BERKELEY, CA—Miao on My Mind, an anime blogging and anime blog blogging site, has been launched to the public today by enthusiastic admin and gold-winning satirist lolikitsune. Already, it has been the target of much fanfare and many rotten oranges tweets. It is both a bitter day for the aniblogosphere and a sweet day for the aniblogosphere; in essence, it is a bittersweet day for the aniblogosphere.

It is a bitter day, because the birth of Miao on My Mind signals the death of notdotq, an aniblog and aniblog blog previously run at the same URL by the same admin. Many long-time readers will be shocked to see their favorite site mysteriously missing when they load their only bookmark.

“I’m not worried ’bout dat,” said lolikitsune, who prefers to go by the more intimate monicker of lolikit, when he was questioned about the issue of reader loyalty, expectations, and potential betrayal. “If a long-time reader looks around with the critical eye I have trained my readers to have, he or she will notice that all the old content is still intact, and that all new content follows in the footsteps of the old.”

When we asked him about the aforementioned “training,” he likened it to a high school education.

“I keep throwing nonsense and utter bullshit at them, you see,” he patiently explained. “Eventually they learn how to cut away that bullshit and get to the heart of things.”

He went on to add, “of course, there isn’t always a heart. Aniblogging is heartless business. But that’s the point, you know? There’s no real substance, anywhere. A true notdotq reader won’t be disappointed by the new shell—the same old lack of meaning is still pervasive.”

Miao on My Mind promises to be “the same old shit” in a “refined package.” The fifteen-day redesign shows lolikit’s hard work in the field of CSS, especially.

“[lolikitsune] learned how to create classes the names of which mean nothing,” said a noted expert from the World Wide Web Consortium. “This is no mean accomplishment. We at the W3C are all very impressed with how far he’s come since he learned HTML 4 in the ninth grade.”

One contact in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Communications Department revealed that the W3C was in fact so impressed with lolikit’s abominable coding habits that plans to file three different lawsuits were currently occupying two entire 1.5TB hard drives. When asked for further details, our contact—who asked to remain anonymous—said that the rest was “classified information.” She also sent us an animated .gif file of a red-haired anime character winking.

But the W3C aren’t the only ones taking notice of—or offense at—lolikit’s latest shenanigans.

“It’s atrocious,” stated Impz of THAT Animeblog [@] and the Anime Blog Awards [@] Committee. “Simply atrocious.”

Owen S. of Cruel Angel Theses [@] concurred with Impz, adding that “lolikitsune is an unthinking douche, and should be removed from the internet with post haste.”

Some, like Shirukii of Anime Blog ga Arimasu [@], merely shrugged when we asked them about the news. “lolikit’s an old friend,” Shirukii said when we pestered him. “I can forgive him for liking flat chests more than <ul> tags.”

Others are on the other side of the love/hate spectrum.

“I think the jasonisms are totally out of hand,” said CCY of Mega Megane Moe [@], in reference to the fact that lolikit’s XHTML stopped being very semantic with the redesign. “But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, you know? lolikitsune has always been an out-of-hand kind of guy. And he’s doing something 100% original, bringing a new style of anime blog to the table.”

100% original, it might be noted, so long as you count “recycling the memes of others” as original. To lolikit’s credit, most anime bloggers recycle crowd memes (see: 4chan) or their own memes, and the reuse of other anime bloggers’ memes is a rare practice. Devoting a site to this is an even rarer practice, and indeed lolikit’s efforts might be the first in the field.

The new genre of website that Miao on My Mind purports to be—”aniblog, aniblog blog, and aniblogger shrine”—may sit stagnant for months or even years before lolikit sees new neighbors joining him, rushed studies show. Only 1 in 17 anime bloggers even recognize the term “aniblog” as official jargon in the aniblogosphere, and only about 1 in 25 read other anime blogs. With those numbers, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will be joining Miao on My Mind anytime soon.

“I did quick studies of my own,” admitted lolikit when we asked him about this. “Ran some quick simulations through Technorati, converted the results into some pleasing graphs, and quickly discovered that the most likely candidate to start up another site like Miao on My Mind in the next two years is yours truly. Now THAT is Web 2.0!”

We appreciated lolikit’s jovial tone, but we noted the despair in his eyes. He’s a true pioneer.

When asked about the future of Miao on My Mind, lolikit lightened up significantly.

“Oh, it’s going to be awesome!” he declared. “The site looks different, but behind the scenes, nothing’s really changing. Working on notdotq was almost always fun, so Miao on My Mind will be a barrel of monkeys as well, I’m sure.”

We asked him to be more specific about his plans.

“Well, at some point I’m going to have to acknowledge those Oi, Hayaku! guys. Riex has been clutching onto my epenis for dear life. He’s even stalking me on Facebook. I feel like the guy from LME in Skip Beat—if I don’t satisfy this fellow, he’ll follow me to the grave. That aside… I guess I’m going to be blogging some anime this season, Mouryou no Hako, and whatever else catches my fancy. As for aniblog blogging, I’m long overdue for some good Versus posts. Expect to see the following before the year is out: Baka-Raptor.com VS. LovelyKitsune.com, Natsuneko VS. TheBigN, and the big one that everyone’s been waiting for, anime|otaku VS. Cruel Angel Theses.”

In short, lolikit’s spirits are wavering back and forth like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni‘s per-episode quality, and his ambitions are soaring like the proverbial (and actual) paper airplanes of noted symbolism anime ef. It will be interesting to see what comes of this transformation, and where Miao on My Mind goes from here.

In the meantime, we can satisfy our hunger for lolikit’s obscenities by examining the various new pages of information that he has set up around the site, including, but not limited to, a fresh page about the admin in question himself, a new page of frequently asked questions, and a page about blogging awards.

Lastly, lolikit expressed his desire to thank selected members of the aniblogosphere. We have published his message along with our article, and you can read it just below.

FUCK JASON MIAO!

Thank you, lolikit.

lolikitsune, also known as Flak, is a first-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he will begin exploring the fields of Cognitive Science, Rhetoric, and Legal Studies in January. He spends half his time working in the Communications Department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and in his free time he enjoys writing stories—such as Miao on My Mind’s featured Night Switch—and maintaining websites, both activities he’s pursued for several years now. You can learn more about him at his main site, Dreams of the Quill.

The former notdotq was part of the second generation of anime blogs, rearing its little head around the same time as other now-notable anime blogs, including the award-winning Minaide! Hazukashii… and the award-winning RIUVA (recipients of Bronze and Silver in the 2008 Anime Blog Award’s Satire section, respectively). notdotq has come and gone four times in the last three years, appearing and disappearing with the seasons and lolikitsune’s mood swings.

Baka-Raptor, I’ve filled out my application:

P.S. Still don’t have reliable (private) internet access. I’ve got fairly reliable internet access at work, but that’s on a government computer on a government network and I’ll be damned if I so much as load this site there. Also, no anime for a while. I can still write posts in Google Docs there and then post them on various acquaintances’ comps, so I might try to do some of that in the not-so-distant future. Some posts to look forward to:

1. how ARIA ruined subtext for me
2. how ARIA ruined yuri for me
3. how Japan ruined Hatsune Miku for me
4. how good Lamune is
5. how good To Heart (the first series) is
6. why is Code Geass so gay? Nobody knows. /A/ll /a/nyone knows is that it just is.
7. why I hate my parents and why I still haven’t bought a computer
8. why I’m so filthy rich (I still haven’t bought a computer!)
9. ten people whom I’d love to spend the rest of my life with
10. ten blog posts I’d die to write

I woke up two episodes later, went back to the hotel room, cleaned up, and headed for AMVs, which were much more exciting. At this point, I was super low energy (and probably kind of lame) so I headed back to the room to catch a nap. … this was everyone’s plan, it seemed, because there was barely room for me to walk for all the bodies on the floor. Soooo I got on my comp and blogged Friday and Saturday.

After blogging, I sort of hung around and talked to people for an hour or two. Then grabbed breakfast, hit up the dealer’s room, tried to watch more AMVs/anime, and I either succeeded or failed epicly because and completely just forgot I met up with CCY and his friend at noon. Author wasn’t there (fucker!!) and no one else approached me with my sign (sigh…). There was some good punching. We chatted a bit, wandered a bit, and then next thing I knew I was waking up for the webcomics panel at 3 P.M. I know that sounds suspicious, but I promise it’s not what it sounds like. It sucked because Dom wasn’t there. What.

Somehow the rest of the evening burned away—I think we watched some Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Dennou Coil, and I think I fell asleep a couple times. Eventually I went to the room to nap only to run into a super-awkward situation involving a male friend and his female friend. It was lulz, though, because I’m good at making awkward awkwardly funny. An hour or two later, I hit up a pizza place nearby with the guy who watched School Days with me. After that, we went to Damn You Internets…

… is what I’d LIKE to say, but it was canceled. It turns out that maybe the convention center doesn’t like having watermelons spun on against their floors. Remember, with every full revolution of your fist, your arm grows one step longer. Instead of Damn You Internets, we cracked Nice Boat jokes while in line for the second Gainax/TTGL panel. The panel itself may or may not have been cool; I went to pick out Jason Miao but was easily distracted by the opportunity to watch AMVs across the hallway. It’s kind of sad because I don’t even like AMVs that much. Then again, I don’t even like TTGL that much, and that’s not even me talking about my feelings for Gainax. FLCL? You really don’t want me going there.

After some AMVs degenerated into Anime Hell, we went across the hall again, this time to the Karaoke Gong show, which was being run by Tommy. Yes, that Tommy. The Tommy who confiscated my sign at AOD 2006. The Tommy whose karaoke contest we trolled at AOD 2007. My friend lolikappa/Duk/Sunshine was signed up to do Shiraishi Minoru. I was lulzing at the prospect until two people before my friend did Shiraishi Minoru. At that point I decided that Minoru was corporate bastardization in a similar vein to Haruhi, and I took down the minoru-dan.dotq.org site in a fit of self-righteous fanboy fury.

My friend’s “Ore no Wasuremono” was total fail but it was total fail done right. Before singing, he dedicated the song to Tommy. Before the judges said their bits, Tommy told my friend that he had come a long way from the little boy with the lolicon sign. I /facepalmed but my friend on stage—and my friends in the audience—called out to me. I stood.

“Take out the sign!” they said. “We know you have it with you!”

I had previously put it in my pocket. A suspicious not-so-obvious troll staff member had told me to take it off, so I had. I had, however, made a grievous mistake right after returning from pizza. I had left it in the room. My pocket had no sign. I decided to go out in a blaze: I would empty all my pockets, rip off my clothes—”I HAVE NO SIGN!!!”

But. It was not to be.

After emptying one pocket, I found in the other my schedule for the convention. My schedule, which had been used as scratch paper by KigaMoosh at our Create That Anime! panel. My schedule, which had “FURRY!!!!” scrawled across the back. Changing my plans in a flash, I carefully unfolded the piece of paper and then held it out.

“I HAVE BECOME A NEW MAN!” I shouted. Tommy laughed. The audience—what of it could see the new improvised sign—went wild. It was awesome. My friends couldn’t contain themselves and burst out. I bit my lip to keep myself from cracking up. I was almost crying—I couldn’t be the lolicon I wanted to be. I had to become a furry.

Then some other shit went down, and I ended up going to bed at midnight.

That was a good day somehow, even if I don’t remember what the fuck happened for most of it.

BY THE BY HERE’S WHAT I BOUGHT AT THE CONVENTION:

ARIA FIGURINES

PRESIDENT ARIA

FINALLY, in response to some things said earlier:

Zeroblade:

Also, your con posts are composed of incoherent rambling.

No; they’re composed of sleep deprivation, euphoria, and enthusiasm. Incoherent rambling is the resulting structure, not the entirety of the composition.

IcyStorm:

Punch Miao for me. He’s been soiling the name "Jason."

Fucking Jason.

Os:

You noob. You dont go to cons to watch episodes of anything.

Shut the fuck up, Mr. I Don’t Know The Joy Of Enjoying Things With Others.

Jared:

So I herd you liek me

FUCK YEAH JARED

P.S. I will write about Monday ASAP. Also, I have new shit to disseminate regarding Damn You Internets. Also, next year I will panel as much as possible. It turns out that our Create That Anime! panel was the funniest and possibly best of all the events this year, so clearly we should do more of it

P.P.S. The only two things that would have made the weekend better than it was: more people watching School Days Saturday night, and Damn You Internets not sucking.

P.P.P.S. I should blog anime again sometime.

I started off the morning with failing to blog about Friday (note how Friday’s post was written mostly on Sunday—the same day I’m writing this) and followed that up with some delicious hot chocolate and lemon bar. I then headed over to AMVs where I wasted a good two hours enjoying the mostly fun and sometimes incredibly lame fan creations. After the AMVs I hit up the dealer’s room again. This time I walked away with a new hat and an Aria figurine. And not just any Aria figurine—an Aria figurine. That’s right. The cat. Fuck yeah Aria.

After the dealer’s room, I found myself at loose ends. I tried forcing myself to re-watch some El Cazador de la Bruja and that went over real shittily. The first problem with it was that I realized that its re-watch value on go #3 is like, 0. That was the only problem I recognized because I got the fuck out. I ended up being tooled into going to the Gainax room and watching four episodes of Gurren Shittan. I flame, as usual, because I love.

At four I flounced over to the MAD about Nico panel, which was cooler than last year’s MAD panel and better than this year’s lack of Nico-ness in Damn You Internets!, due to… well, having Nico-ness. I lulzed at Nagato Yuki’s UNINSTALL. I think I lulzed too much. I think it hurt a little bit.

At five I scurried over to the Gainax panel. I sat with three friends, each of whom asked a question (the guy who asked about Yoko’as age? He did it at my bidding—I was too shy and self-conscious). I heard both of Miao’s questions. The first was, admittedly, cool, because it prompted a lot of interesting talk from the president. The second was shit because Ikari Shinji should never be apologized for. If Simon and Kamina are so different, Jason, that’s not an apology—it’s a compliment. Faggerjack.

After Miaonax I tried to hit up the How To Talk To Girls panel with my buddies but it was crap despite having Mr. Evangelion on it. We ditched it in favor of food, which was needed and sooooooooo delicious. We came back from food just in time to line up for Damn You Internets!. Which uh, for lack of a better word, sucked ass.

No internet connection, so no nico nico douga.

No Jared, so no lulz.

No Stu, so no sex.

Mikey completely failed and holding the focus while being funny and half the people who said things at the audience mic were fail. My friend who measured… well, he measured, and I was surprised that it only came out to be that long because when it’s inside me oh let me tell you it is the bomb and it is the snake and it’s like the ultimate in terrorist technology if you consider my ass to be a flying car. Or something.

There WAS a beautiful beautiful gigantic picture of wet&needy Hatsune Miku. I came a bazillion times.

I also found out WHY Jared wasn’t at the panel—the story’s lulz, and I’ll recount it when I do my more in-depth end-of-con report on Monday that will have precious anecdotes and stuff. Notable events at the otherwise fail 4chan panel: my friend announcing his measurement. The Mexican guy breaking the watermelon. The one Ronald video. Some not-too-impressive rickrolling. I yelled something about xenutv being down for breaking the law; thankfully no one paid heed.

After the fail panel, I took a shower (masaka!!!!! rite?!), chilled a bit, grabbed some food, and then catapulted myself into School Days.

School Days.

School Days.

School Days.

I love you. I don’t know if it’s that I was watching you with someone else. I don’t know if it’s that I knew Makoto had it coming. I don’t know if it’s that I’d been cracking Nice Boat jokes all day. I don’t know if it’s that I was sleep-deprived. But holy fuck, that show was awesome. I’m not editing my MAL right now, but if I were, I’d set it to complete and give it a 10/10. It was amazing. Bantering with the other audience members throughout the penultimate and ultimate episodes was hilarious fun. And there was so much applause at every event in the last episode—Makoto’s death, Makoto in a bag, Sekai’s death, Sekai’s disembowelment, “there’s no one inside you,” the Nice Boat. Some yelled, “BAD END!” I yelled back, “BEST END!” Someone said they needed to watch something happy ASAP. I said nothing’s happier than watching Makoto be raped with knives.

This is hardly Saturday any longer (the entire School Days marathon took place on Sunday, technically) but I slept for about an hour in the Clannad marathon afterward, and I’m using that as the bookend of the day.

And now I’m off to go enjoy Sunday!

There’s an animeblogger meet-up in two and a half hours in the lobby lounge of the hotel I’m in, I think, so uh—I’ll be there, I guess. I wonder if Miao will show his face. That’d be fucking hilarious on all kinds of levels.