I haven’t forgotten about this blog. How can I anyway when it’s only the beginning of the year and got occupied by my coding journey (with some mentorship along the way) and more inspirations along the way. I wonder, does this mean I’m only going to write here once a month?

Lately, my life has been in a cycle since January. It goes something like this:

• Code studying w/ App Academy Open, Progate, FreeCodeCamp, and Udemy
• Baby life
• Code studying w/ App Academy Open, Progate, FreeCodeCamp, and Udemy
• Code studying w/ SoloLearn in between
• Keeping in touch w/ MADKID in between ¹
• Baby life
• … and it repeats on and on again

I think I’ve always been sluggish during the winter season. I mean, in the coastal areas of California, all we get are rain, sun, rain, and more rain, and more sun. I vowed to myself to sneak in some better habits like exercising/working out at home and have lesser afternoon naps.

Apps for Better Habit-Making

Since I’m partially old-fashioned, I never relied on mobile apps for a better living. Ever since late of last year with a better phone, I started to explore some more and decided to give mobile apps a try.

I think I’ve written about them before, but these are the newest ones that I started using the most:

• Fabulous: Boy, I love this app, but I really need to seriously commit. The committing part is still something I need to work on. But, you can create your own daily schedules in the morning, afternoon, and night that include habits you should adopt, like drinking water, eating a good breakfast, having a power nap in the afternoon, breathe, meditate, exercise, etc.
• Trove Skin: For anyone who has been following me on Instagram for a while now are aware that I’ve gotten the habit of doing my own skincare using Korean and (some) Japanese skincare products. The Trove Skin app is a skincare diary and tracker that analyzes your current skin before and after you use the skincare products you use that day. I don’t always do the same steps and don’t always use the same products, so it’s a great way to track your skin. At age 42, the app is telling me that I’m not  “doing so well” with my skincare because it tracks that my skin belongs to someone in the early 20s. It needs some work on the age part, but other than that, I’m satisfied.

日本語勉強のアプリ (Japanese Study Apps)

So, I’m trying it again. I wanted to start a #100DaysOfJapanese challenge on Twitter along with my #100DaysOfCode daily coding challenge, however, the former never really took off.

I opened a blog that was supposed to be primarily for my blogging in Japanese, but it was never launched. I think the imposter syndrome in me kicked in because I didn’t want to be laughed at or being looked down upon for “faking it” with what I know and learned about the Japanese language.

I’ve taken Japanese language classes for five years back in college, including two years of independent study with my sensei, but that was almost some 20 years ago, so it has been a very long time. If I stayed being J-Pop fan, or even an anime/manga fan, for so long, I would have kept up learning more of the language. Alas, I didn’t.

So, I’m currently using the following apps for learning:

• Eggbun Japanese: This is a Korean app that uses a chat format. Eggbun has a Korean language app, a Japanese language app, and a Chinese language app. I was interested in the chat format, which was why I downloaded this one. It’s only available on the iOS, so I have it installed on my iPad. It’d be nice if they have an Android version too. ²
• LingoDeer: LingoDeer is another app that only has Asian language courses like Eggbun (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.).  I wanted to install this on my phone, however, the app doesn’t sync my progress from my iPad to Android, so I decided to just keep it on my iPad.
• Takoboto: Takoboto isn’t quite exactly a learning tool, but an online dictionary like no other. This is the Android app version of it. What I love about Takoboto is that it’s got a “bookmark/favorite” features for all the words I’ve looked up that I can save them in a “Favorites” section, where I can always look back at the list again and check out the meaning of the word. When I look up verbs, it has all of the conjugated forms and example sentences. It also has a study list for everything from learning/refreshing Kana, learning vocabulary terms based on the JLPT levels, Kanji based on JLPT levels, numbers and counters, reading dates, and so much more. I can use Takoboto on the web too, but it’s so much more convenient with an app installed on my phone.

There are other apps that I downloaded on both iPad and phone, but I haven’t really checked them out just yet.

Discrimination in the anime/manga otaku world

If you’re a current anime/manga fan who is in the know with the latest trends and series, I’m sure some of you are familiar with the brand-new anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero. I wrote about it in the previous post about the light novel series. I also wrote that MADKID was also performing the anime’s opening theme, RISE.

And so, I present to you, the music video.

Now, going back on the subject. Some of you may probably seem shocked to see the subheading of this section. I have to admit that I was nervous when there is some number of anime/manga fans who would be leaving negative comments about MADKID and this video. I’m afraid that there are some negative comments. For one thing, a lot of them (mostly males) are already dismissing MADKID and the opening theme because they were expecting the performers to be some J-rock band because of its edgy rock-like sound. Never mind about that.

However, what really ticked me off the most is the reeking of discrimination from non-Asian anime/manga otaku against females and Asians altogether. For instance, a few of the common comments I’ve seen from this MV are:

• “OMG is this a K-Pop boy band?” ³
• “I know the opening theme’s in Japanese, but are they Korean?” ⁴
• “Bruh, you’re so right! Thanks!” (and anything similar with the addition of “bruh, bro, man, boiz,” etc.) ⁵
• Raphtalia / Filo is the best waifu. ⁶

This pains me to see all of these so-called “proud anime/manga otaku” showing their sheer ignorance and discrimination against Asians and females altogether. Heck, it pisses me, even more, speaking as both Asian and female. The entire world doesn’t share the same “beauty standards” as the Western world, and it’s not exactly the Asian race’s fault for having males looking so androgynous and “pretty” that they all automatically think they’re gay. I was seriously tempted to go on a rampage, but I didn’t want to upset the guys for my outrageous bursts on YouTube.

It’s also not the Asian races’ fault, especially those in the East and Southeast regions of the Asian continent, to have a lot of similarities with each other. Japan and Korea have a long history together that the peoples of those two countries were beginning to resemble each other. Nowadays, K-Pop groups now have non-Korean idols (many are coming from Japan lately, as well as China, Taiwan, and Thailand), as long as they’re Asian and closely resembling a Korean celebrity. (seriously?) J-Pop has a lot more diversity, as they also bring in talent that isn’t pure Japanese and isn’t pure Asian. Half-black Japanese, half-white Japanese, so on and so forth.

I’ll continue on reading with my light novels and laugh while watching these emo-filled “otaku” making a big deal out of everything. And I’ll continue to support MADKID regardless of these ignorant comments. I just wish, altogether, that non-Asians would at least take the time to educate ourselves about our peoples and that huge continent, most especially East Asia and Southeast Asia. These two regions of Asia have a lot of commonalities, and yet we’re still different from one another.

And also, these people need to educate themselves about the history of pop music. The Western world created the genres that we’re familiar with today. But somehow, some people are starting to see that J-Pop groups (as well as pop music of other Asian countries) doing R&B/Hip-hop styles from the music to the dance and even the fashion are considered as “copies” of K-Pop.

If that’s what they say, it’s safe to say that K-Pop is a copy of American pop music.

I don’t want to start talking about the whole “cultural appropriation” bit. Don’t get me started.

But lastly, thanks to RISE, MADKID is now gaining a lot of new fans from the anime/manga otaku community outside Japan. It’s a sign.

Conclusion

Looks like I’m writing one blog post per month on The ADRICULOUS Life. That’s not a good sign.

But, this is all I have to write for now.

Oh, Happy Singles Valentine’s Day to all!

Till next time!

1. On Twitter and livestreams.
2. You can tell I’m an Android person…
3. Japan made the colored/dyed hair popular in the first place. They created anime, filled with different colored-haired characters, and then there’s also the Visual Kei movement and the Harajuku Fashion Scene that started in the late ’80s-early ’90s. When did the popularity of K-Pop emerge in the masses? Wasn’t it in early-mid 2000s? Yeah, look them all up on Wikipedia…
4. Is it because they have colored/dyed hair, flashy and swanky fashion, singing and rapping and dancing in sync to an edgy song, they’re Korean now? So, as a ranting Asian right now, if I color my hair blue, I’m no longer Filipino, but a Kor……
5. Not all anime/manga otaku are male, and not all anime/manga otaku who watches or follows seinen isekai (male-oriented “another world”) genre… this is becoming similar to discrimination in the tech industry, like ugh.
6. Is it just me or am I just seriously sick and tired of this whole waifu thing. It’s so derogatory against females altogether, like wtf?