A Monthly Post – January Edition January 29, 2012

A late Happy New Years to all from me.

This first post will be the start of a new monthly post series I’ll call my “Monthly Post” series. Not a very creative name I know, it’s named after the the sort of regular posts blogger Danny Choo does that he calls his “A Week in Tokyo” series. In these posts I’ll treat them as a sort of journal that summarizes my month, about Japanese stuff and related, my school, and my projects that I’m working on such as my PMS series, Let’s Play videos, photography, and other new things that I’ll reveal in time. I’ll also post some interesting/relevant photos I take during that month. This series of posts will be done regularly usually around the end of the month, though I’m debating on an actual date in which I should “force” myself to write these posts and publish them. It will be like how I try to upload PMS videos every month on the 5th.

This new year started a bit strangely, with the weather I mean. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area we were already experiencing a very dry winter season, we usually get most of our rain during this season. On new year’s day, it was quite warm; it was even warmer on the outside than it was in my house. The sky also had this warm orange glow to it, which was nice but unusual for the normally cold time of the year. I enjoyed it still and wish I had taken a photo of the setting sun of the first day of this year, but I didn’t as I’m guessing I didn’t have my camera with me then.

Talking about cameras, my main camera that I used for most of the pictures I post online has finally broke. It was a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS Point and Shoot Digital camera. I got it I think in 2008 or early 2009 and it was my trusty camera that I took around with me everywhere, as I have the belief that anything can happen at anytime, and when it does I’ll be ready with my camera in hand to snap a photo. (One of the “anything can happen” events that I want to record when it does occur is the BIG ONE earthquake that has been predicted to hit the Bay Area within the next 30-50 years.) It was also my main camera that I used to record my Piano Melodies Series videos with as it was compact with decent video quality. Now I’m in a bit of a predicament; its not like I don’t have another camera with me, I do have a Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR but I don’t want to lug that camera all over the place, because its big and expensive equipment. I only bring my DSLR around when I know there’s a event where I’ll be taking a lot of photos. I’m planning to buy another compact digital camera, one that has 720p HD video recording with comparable photo quality as my Canon PowerShot digital camera, though it will take a lot of looking on Amazon and testing them out at Best Buy for me to make a final purchase that is hopefully under $200 for my new Point and Shoot Digital Camera. If anyone has any suggestions about a digital camera that meets that criteria then please tell me.

This year started pretty good for me this year, mainly because I finally got a real job at my college campus. Although my employment is only temporary for rush (about a month), I am still very happy that  I got the job for a few reasons: 1) Make money for savings and other stuff, 2) Job experience for future employments, and 3) Gets me out out of the house and into a more productive environment. My job mainly is fairly straightforward, I’m a textbook clerk and that mainly means doing two things: 1) Stocking books on the shelves for customers to buy, and 2) Helping customers with whatever they need help with. While there are more smaller tasks that I didn’t mention that I take care of as well, the job as a whole is nice as it’s fairly easy with mostly nice customers to deal with. I also get discount on buying the books within my bookstore which can be quite expensive. (Books in my bookstore can go up to $300 each easily.) I’ve always wanted to experience a work atmosphere, sort of like in the anime Working!!… not exactly though.

My first week of classes at my college has passed, and by the looks of it this semester will be a very interesting one, one I’m looking forward to. This is the first semester that I’m taking classes for my new true major, Photo Journalism. I’m happy I don’t have to deal with no more math classes, future physics or a bunch of chemistry classes anymore; I can focus now on what I like to do and turn it into a future for myself in job and life. My most interesting classes is my Newswriting Lab and Photojournalism class: My Newswriting Lab is a separate class that goes with my main class that simply goes over basic grammar rules and stuff, and the class itself is only five weeks long, something I did not know about until going to the first class.  My Photojournalism class is basically a class that teaches how to use DSLRs at a journalism quality level from the bottom up, good for me who has no formal training to take photographs. It’s a requirement that each person in our class has a DSLR that has certain specifications, DSLRs like those cost minimum $400. I don’t know any camera terms so I can’t actually describe the specific features the camera needs that my instructor told us to have in ours. I know that my DSLR is good enough for the class, a Canon EOS Rebel T3, though I may have to get another lens for it besides the kit lens that it comes with, probably a 50mm with a UV filter and lens hood, recommended by my instructor. The class is money demanding but I think of it as more of an investment for the future. Overall this semester will involve a lot of writing and work, but I think this year will be the start of success, something I can really work on for my future. Last year was my “inspiration” year, this year will be “initial success” year.

I’ve pretty much finished most of my 2011 winter season animes such as Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukanai, Ika Musume Season 2, Working!! Season 2, and The Idolm@ster, but still need to write posts about them. I’ve been putting off writing them but I know I really should get down to write them before I start watching new animes. My Newswriting teacher told us that it’s “Better never than late” in the journalism world. While I don’t follow that phrase now, I guess I should use it to motivate myself to write posts here on Topic “Otaku” and quit lying that I will when I actually don’t. Making this Monthly Post Series will I hope make me write more regularly here on my blog like how I try to upload PMS videos on the 5th of every month. Making writing and video posting a habit will make it easier for me to follow deadlines for when I become a professional journalist.