These are rather hard times for a lot of people, to put it mildly. I am very lucky in many ways. I can and do work from home, even if I didn’t I’m financially secure and have no debt. For now me and my close ones are healthy and taking the proper measures to stay that way. I also don’t suffer from loneliness and rather enjoy staying home.
Trust me I know how blessed I am. I’m trying to give to my local hospitals and WHO to help a minuscule bit. I set up everyone I could with the tools to work from home and am available to both my coworkers and the older people in my neighbourhood to teach them how to use online tools and the internet so they stay home.
Mostly, I’m staying home so as to not make it worse for everyone else. My readers are smart and reasonable. There is no need for me to hammer home why it is absolutely vital to just stay home and away from people and common surfaces right now. It is in fact the most important thing you can do to help the whole world.
And you know what else is cool, being able to connect with others and maybe even distract them a bit during this time. I have never been so happy to have this blog and this is what I’m doing (planning to do) with it while continuing to stay home at least until April 13. Let’s forget all that heavy stuff from the first paragraphs, this isn’t why any of us are here. Instead, what do I have planned and what have I been doing!
5. Discovering and Learning more about Canva
You may not have heard of Canva, I hadn’t until Karandi told me about it. Canva is the online resource I have been using to create the title cards for my gallery posts and episode reviews. I use the free version but there is a paid option that opens up even more possibilities, including the ability to make gifs which is very tempting.
This said, the free version does have plenty to offer and I would tell you all about it if I wasn’t still learning the ropes myself. It took me a while to really start exploring it (because I’m lazy) but once I got into it I saw that it was pretty user friendly and a lot of fun! I plan on going through it even more. Maybe even seeing if I can use it for some…branding… Look at me sounding like an actual blogger and all!
4. Discord
I use to go on discord a bit but then I stopped. I’m pretty busy in general and I’m not the most sociable person. Not to mention that if people want to talk to me they can just DM me any time. I do try to answer as much as I can.
But if there are people who just like to hear someone’s voice once in a while, even if that voice isn’t saying anything that interesting. I can be that occasionally boring voice. I’m not guaranteeing anything but I think it’s time I dove back into discord. Maybe try to organize some watch-a-longs or other virtual events. Do you have any ideas?
3. Collaborations baby!
I sue to collab a lot and with a whole bunch of different bloggers. I really like working collaboratively on posts. It’s more interesting and I learn a lot more from collaborative posts than from working alone. Now I’m sort of banking on the world slowing down just a bit in the coming weeks which really hasn’t been the case so far. I’ve been self isolating for about two weeks now and I’ve not worked such long hours or had people talk to me quite as much before in my life. I currently average out 14 hour workdays 80% of which are spent on Skype.
I’m an optimist so I’m going to assume that’s going to slow don soon and I can put some time back into working with my fellow bloggers again. Thank you so much Crow for putting up with me. You are awesome!
For instance I have never had an online blogger feud. That would be entertaining right? Some hot aniblogger tea for the masses! Just what we need!
2. Mini site makeover
I have wanted to rearrange my site’s layout for months now. Nothing drastic, just move a few things around. Find a way to make navigation easier and organize essay posts so people can actually find them if they want. Remove some outdated stuff and add in some new options.
I’ve also been sitting on an invitation for contributors for a while. I want to get that out and put it somewhere that anyone who wants to can refer back to it. It’s all little thing. I still really like my site template so I’m not changing that.
Oh and um…my hair is silver now. Not white but actual silver. Same as my jewellery… It’s awesome! I haven’t updated Rini yet because I really like her and this template doesn’t have a silver hair option but maybe I should some day. And yes I should also stop changing my hair. I’m going to keep this one for a while. It looks kicka**.
1. Business as usual
Bottom line is, this blog has always been just a nice casual place for me to relax and talk about anime because I love anime. And eventually, other people who love anime drop by once in a while and talk as well. That has always been a comforting and rewarding experience for me just as it is.
I want to continue that. Just talk about anime with other people who want to talk about anime. Have some laughs. Shoot the breeze. Is that an expression? I’m not going anywhere right now, I’m not going to use the time to start ambitious new projects that take up all my time or to really focus on going pro or anything like that. (This said, kudos to the bloggers who do. You should use this time for self improvement and projects. That’s a great idea)
I’m just going to be here, making up drinking games and telling you what I thought about them pretty pretty Japanese cartoons in barely coherent typo strewn posts. So if ever you think to yourself, I want to read a difficult to follow post about a random anime that came out three years ago, you will know exactly where to go!
OK, these may not be the most impressive goals. I could have said finally get my Japanese to a level that I can comfortably watch without subtitles. Or maybe get a bunch a bloggers together so we can do a short parody fansub for you all. That would be so funny. Someone less lazy than me should do that… For now, I just want to be able to get my workdays down to 12 hours. Mind you without the commute, that still leaves me more free time! I would be happy to help out with projects if I can though.
Do you guys have any plans while you’re stuck at home? Maybe we should start preparing our when this is over party?
Came for the gif, stayed for the tips. Thanks for the advice as always Irina.
A pleasure as usual
I love canva and been using it for a while now. I like being able to take a template and rehash the idea. It’s really comes in handy.
I’ve been self isolation for a week now. Only going out to walk my dog. Other then not having to work nothing is really different. Most of my down time I try and pool it into building our community. So I’ve doing that. Taking some trainning classes to advance some of my skills and just chilling. Nothing too exciting.
Glad to hear your doing well though.
That sounds nice! Newton came up with gravity while self isolating during the plague. I bet we can do something cool like that too!
I think we can too. We got this!
Counting on you!
Should you ever get back onto Discord more, I’d love to add you as a chat buddy! I barely use it myself (outside family members), but we can learn together!
Tempting! I’ll let you know as soon as I have some time for Discord
I love canva tbh. I’ve been using it for 5 years now, and I built everything of my blog on there. Even now, all my designs I make on canva. I came to your site after ages, and it looks so cute! I love what you’ve done here. Be safe and learn more things I guess 😀
Thanks same to you, Glad you like the new site
Ooo Canva seems interesting! I’ll try it out! 😀 Glad you are doing well. 🙂
I hope you have fun with it
I’ve always wanted silver hair—maybe that should be my next color. The site looks beautiful, Irina, and thanks for the Canva tip—I’ll have to check it out! 👀
Silver hair is a pain to upkeep and daunting to achieve but man it’s fun!
To keep myself entertained I made myself an Amabie tee shirt. Amabie is a yokai who has some power over plagues: http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2020/03/13/amabie-japanese-epidemic-yokai/
Ohhh good idea!
Even free Canva can be really useful. I broke down for my application security site and used the paid Canva, which is really economical — about $1.00 US for a decent picture, including headlines and a frame. I’ve gotten a lot of good use out of it!
“Thank you so much Crow for putting up with me. You are awesome!”
I’m not sure what you mean by “putting up!” I mentioned this in a commend on Shallow Dives in Anime, but you’re one of those rare writers who’s not only interesting and effective alone, you bring out the best in a collaboration. So, thank you!
“Or maybe get a bunch a bloggers together so we can do a short parody fansub for you all.”
That could be hilarious! The parody potential is astronomical! If only I understood Japanese beyond a few phrases…
My plans while stuck at home? I’m lucky enough to still be fully employed, just working from home. So, except for the 40 minute drive each way, it’s business as usual — except for the family’s stress. Who would have thought that sanitizing groceries in the garage could be so stressful?
Who knew my background in DR planning would come in so handy?
I know what you mean. I’m also sanitizing all my groceries and staying away from anything I can’t boil or bake which is a shame.
I hope you and the fam stay safe and healthy. Well I know you will but I hope you make the most of this time together.
Glad you are doing great and that you have more time for yourself. As someone who is now in self quarantine this gives me some ideas as well. And I would love to collaborate with you.
Yay, I do love collabs so much. To be honest I use to work from home in the past so it’s not a huge adjustment
What’s the best way to contact you?
Usually twitter DMs but they’re acting up lately
5. Canva is great an Scamaton recommended. I think it’s still a little limiting and creates too much of a standard contemporary look but anyone looking to spruce up their visuals its a good place to start.
4. If you are looking to get into discord consider joining Mr. Spencer’s a lot of the gang (Scott, Lita, both of the Matts, Aria, etc) are already there. It’s a little PST heavy in terms of activity but it could be a way to gauge when people are online and how to set up anything you’d like to do.
3. Collabs are always fun, I fingers-crossed will maybe do some more here and there but I like when collabs feel special and really represent all parties so I’ll have to wait and see if any ideas or collaborates arise.
Good read, good luck with all that
– K (rogueotakugamer)
Thanks K! I was thinking of getting back on the OWLs discord. What is PST? is it a tax?
I’m busy focusing on my backlog of games,anime and manga and also still focusing on getting myself more involved with interacting with the online anime community. I’ve been also focusing on writing reviews for stuff i already have completed a while back like Castlevania Symphony Of The Night and Disgaea 4 and soon eventually Rosario Vampire.
Overall its basically buisness as usual for me and you. Wash your hands,cover sneezes and coughs and DON”T EAT EXOTIC MEAT AT ALL.
-K (rogueotakugamer)
You’re focusing on a lot of stuff. Sounds fun
I’m working from home and have two children to look after… I wish I had time to do other things, but apparently it’s not good if I don’t get any sleep… I don’t see the problem 🤪
With 2 kids! Impossible… no one can survive that
I’d take a horde of zombies any day, they’re much easier to negotiate with.
With all this social distancing I’ve been posting a lot more. I’ve got a ton of ideas and I love it. Normally I’m working 13-hour shifts so the downtime is nice.
Also, Canva is awesome. I’ve used it in the past back when I had a Wattpad. I love it but I’m way too lazy to dissect the site to make it useful for my blog. Good Luck.
Thank you – I’m still at 14 to 16 hour days but I’m really hopeful it’s gonna slow down soon
I hope so. The world is so stressful right now. Everybody needs a break.
Definitely been outlining and planning more blog posts too. It’s therapeutic to me even though I tend to chicken out of sharing a lot of the discussion stuff I plan. Yay, social anxiety. *sobs* Stuff I’ve seen in some anime is BSing with friends online, I do that online. My nephews are finally in college and we have really outrageous conversations. I’m sure their dad would murder me if he knew half the shtick we talked about hahaha. Um… what else. I’ve wanted to do collabs, but I’m so awkward with people that I haven’t done many of them. Did one with Lita which was super fun! And… I game a lot. That’s really about it. Oh and I sleep sooo much. Well, I try to anyway. Damn cats…
Collabing with Lita is always fun and wroth anyone’s time. Excellent choice!
Indeed, she’s awesome. XD
Waiting for OUR collab post Irina! Whatever it may be!
INTERESTING! Let’s do it.
That be awesome, send me a DM on the twitter and we can discuss a series!
I fiddled around with Canva for a bit, killed my account and then when more bloggers took it up I regretted it. To be honest though, with the extra hours self-isolation has given me, I was able to wrangle some very fancy featured images I was really proud of (the two past weekly posts, so the Eizouken and ID: INVADED ones).
I also changed over some of the appearance things on some of my social accounts (AniList/Discord) and phone lock screens and now…I can’t stop staring at them…they’re too pretty…
You had a paid version of Canva? Is it cool?
Nah, it was free. By “killing my account”, I mean I shut it down so that if I wanted to use it again, I’d need to sign up again, possibly with a different account. (Sorry if my wording confused you.)
The weird thing is that I don’t think I created an account….I’m gonna assume I’ve been using Karandi’s for all this time. ooopsies