2020, it has been one hell of a ride. Let's just admit it, this year had not been a good year. It was like a warzone. Miss Rona had really tested our ability to endure. Economy went crashing, people losing jobs...Not a good year. People were being unreasonable and impatient, shouting and cursing at us, saying that we carried the diseases on our uniform just because we work in the healthcare line, or that we are making big bucks because the healthcare industry is booming. I beg your pardon, everyone, including the healthcare industry is also suffering. Just because you see us still working doesn't mean we are doing well. We are mentally stressed and drained, some to the point of even being burnt out due to some stubborn people not taking isolation seriously. It's tiring, exhausting and once again draining. At times I have even felt like screaming and tearing my hair out, if it wasn't for my co-workers, doctors and friends who are keeping me sane throughout the whole pandemic.
I won't be posting as often because starting onwards, I'll be doing a 24 hour shift work. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I no longer have a fixed office hour job. Like it or not, we humans need to survive and persevere. I do love my job, but I haven't done night shifts in a long time so it will be quite interesting to see how things goes. Speaking of which, I noticed my post sounds quite depressing, so let me sprinkle a little bit of good things that did happen.
As mentioned before, I want to thank my co-workers and doctors. Sure we do sometimes tend to make morbid jokes, but it's one way to keep us from breaking down from bad things that kept happening around us. If it sounds offensive to some people, I deeply apologize. My friends, who are not in the medical line, they check on me once in a while to make sure I am safe, some of them throwing encouragement on my work, whether it's nursing or writing. Here's a confession: I nearly gave up on my long overdue book because it's horror themed, because no one was interested in it, and I was accused of being in a Satanic cult (Do horror writers ever get accused of being in a cult?). I can see why some people might dislike it, especially during in a pandemic, but a good friend of mine whom I had known for many years slapped some sense into me. I confessed to her that I wondered if I should shelf the whole manuscript aside, and she told me straight in the face, "Don't think about what others think. Take your time, and just finish that manuscript. You owe it to yourself to finish the story." After pondering about, she is right. I am a superstitious person in a way that I sometimes don't like announcing on a book that I'm working on, because I feel like it could be jinxed.
I also finally did something that I should've done a long time ago. I finally plucked up the courage to block, unfriend and delete toxic people in my life (not just in social media, but in real life). Some people said I was being a coward, but you know what, I feel much better, as though a weight has been thrown off my shoulders. I know some people keep them in their friend list to show off that they are doing well as one way of coping, but for me, if you are being toxic in my life, arigatou and sayonara. I used to get really riled up whenever I'm talking about them, and a friend told me one of the best advice in my life: "If you don't like something or someone, you don't need to think about it or talk about it. Get it out of your life." It wasn't easy, but I eventually did it, bit by bit. I originally wanted to do a book review online, so my friend recommended me to read some truly awful books written by equally awful writers, which turned me off for life. At one point I wanted to write an essay regarding books that you should avoid or authors who are just looking for a way to make quick bucks, or cash-grabbing, but I feel like if I do talk about it, it feels like I'm giving them attention (If you want me to write about it, I don't mind, but I'll warn you that there are some prominent authors in the list)
I've been going onto Youtube and listening to a lot of podcasts lately, especially commentary and beauty channels. I don't wear makeup at all in real life, but I enjoy some of the beauty guru/ make-up artists talk because their voice is so soothing and relaxing. I do not enjoy watching influencers because some of them tend to suddenly start shrieking and screaming that it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Podcasts are usually fun because usually I'll get onto Spotify, let the whole thing run while I'm writing. Music is another which I need in my life, I can't bear losing my mp3 player which I desperately needed in my life. Thank you mainly to the J-Pop industry and Muse, and especially Gorillaz. I actually stopped listening to them at one point, but their latest songs from Sound Machine is really catchy so I'm back to listening to them. (I'll later make a list of artists I listen to...)
Regarding writing, this year had really made me put my skills to the test because nowadays people are setting a limit on how much words I could write. You all know that I did a fifty-word challenge regarding the pandemic, which didn't work out, but surprisingly, my hundred and fifty word challenge for Halloween was picked up by an online media publishing company which was an honour, because I did not expect to win. I just wrote the whole thing in five minutes, spellchecked it, made sure it made the word count and just submit it without even thinking. Thank you Cilisos media, it was a blast writing it and having that email in my inbox. I feel like drawing once again, but writing takes up so much of my time till I don't even have time to draw, when this long overdue novel is done, I hope I'll be able to pick up on drawing again. Oh, I also want to give a huge thank you to Nichol for letting me edit her manuscript even though I have zero experience in editing other's manuscript. Doing for your own manuscript is one thing, but doing for others is a huge responsibility. I'm not sure if I did a good job on it, but I tried to keep it simple and to a minimum, because as an editor for an another author, I do not want to change the whole context of the story. My role is to just polish it and give it a few tweaks, because it is not my story to tell. Note to all editors, including manga-ka editors: Do not change the whole story drastically from the author please. This nearly drove Watase Yuu from creating mangas, so please don't.
In case you haven't known by now, I'm an otaku, so yes, I still do watch anime, read mangas, play the occasional video games and enjoy Japanese drama, especially Tokusatsu. Unfortunately there aren't many good mangas recently so I tend to stick to old school. Without further ado, dear readers, I present to you, the list:
ARTISTS WHOM I LISTEN TO (WITH SOME RECOMMENDED SONGS):
*due to the extensive list, I only listed out the ones on top of my head, but I listen to a large variety
- ABBA (Chiquita, Does Your Mother Know?, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), I Have A Dream, Lay Your Love on Me, Money, Money, Money)
- AIMER (Brave Shine, I Beg You, Last Stardust)
- AiM (Ashita wa Atashi no Kaze ga Fuku, Days: Aijou to Nichijou, Itsumo Itsudemo, Keep On, My Tomorrow)
- Amalee (Indie artist who covers anime English dubbed songs) (Blue Bird, Brave Shine, Colours, Come My Way, Don't Think Twice, Every Heart and Fukai Mori (mashup), Face My Fears, Gotta Catch 'em All (feat. Natewantstobattle), Last Stardust, Moonlight Densetsu, Oath Sign, Synchronicity)
- David Bowie (As the World Falls Down, Chilly Down, Dancing in the Street (with Mick Jagger), Underground, Within You)
- Fall Out Boy (Beat It (cover), My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up), Thnks fr th Mmrs)
- Hayashibara Megumi (Brave Heart, Northern Lights, Oversoul)
- Hiroyuki Takami (Believer, Justice, Wish in the Dark)
- Gorillaz (Aries, Clint Eastwood, Demon Days, Desole, Feel Good Inc., Last Living Souls, Pac-man, Punk, O Green World, The Pink Phantom, Tranz, White Light)
- KIMERU (Overlap, Starry Heaven, Timeless, You Got Game?)
- Kalafina (Ring Your Bell, To the Beginning)
- Kylie Minogue (Can't Get You Out of My Head, Come Into My World, Higher (feat. Taio Cruz), I Believe in You, Love At First Sight, Please Stay)
- Linkin Park (Bleed It Out, Breaking the Habit, Easier to Run, Faint, Hit the Floor, New Divide, Numb, Shadow of the Day, What I've Done)
- Michael Jackson (Bad, Beat It, Ben, Billie Jean, Earth Song, Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), Things I Do For You, Thriller, Working Day and Night)
- Miyazaki Ayumi (Brave Heart, Break Up, The Last Evolution)
- Muse (Assassin, Butterflies and Hurricane, City of Delusion, Hyper Music, Mercy, Newborn, Psycho, Resistance, Save Me, Stockholm Syndrome, Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Time is Running Out, Uprising)
- Powerman 5000 (Bombshell, Show Me What You Got, Supernova Goes Pop, Supervillain, When Worlds Collide)
- Ruelle (Fire Meets Fate, I Get to Love You, Live Like Legends, This is the Hunt)
- S Club 7 (Alive, Do It Till We Drop, Gangsta Love, Never Had a Dream Come True, You)
- TETRA-FANG (Destiny's Play, Roots of the King)
- Taylor Swift (Blank Space, Look What You Made Me Do, Love Story, Shake It Off, Sparks Fly, The Man, You Belong With Me, You Need to Calm Down)
- The Cranberries (Salvation, Zombies)
- Utada Hikaru (Don't Think Twice (Chikai), Face My Fears, Flavour of Life, Hikari, Passion (Sanctuary) Prisoner of Love, Sakura Drops, Simple and Clean)
- Wada Koji (Butter-fly, The Biggest Dreamer, Target~akai Shogeki)
- Wagakki Band (Ignite, Senbonzakura)
- Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider series, Power of Five series)
- Benedict Jacka (Ninja duology, Alex Verus series*)
- Chris Bradford (Young Samurai series, Bodyguard series)
- Cornelia Funke (Inkheart trilogy and other notable standalones)
- Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy)
- Enid Blyton (I can't seem to find the name of the series, but I have the whole hardcover series. I Googled it and apparently it is called the Popular Rewards series...)
- J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter series, Wizarding World contents and spin-offs)
- James Dashner (Maze Runner series)
- Kathryn Fox (Anna Critchton series)
- L.J. Smith (Dark Vision trilogy, Forbidden Game trilogy, Night World series, Vampire Diaries series)
- Meg Cabot (Abandon Trilogy, Heather Wells Mysteries series, Little Bridge Island series, Queen of Babble Trilogy, The Mediator series, The Princess Diaries series and many other standalones)
- Michael Critchton (Jurassic Park duology)
- Patricia Cornwell (Kay Scarpetta series)
- Robert Galbraith (Cormoran Strike series)
- Sophie Kinsella (Shopaholic series and other standalones)
- *Stephen King (Carrie, Cujo, IT, Salem's Lot, The Shining and other notable standalones)
- Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games series, Underland series)
- *Higuchi Tachibana (Gakuen Alice)
- *Kishimoto Masashi (Naruto)
- *Kubo Tite (Bleach)
- Kure Yuki (Kin'iro no Corda)
- Takahashi Rumiko (Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2)
- *Takeuchi Naoko (Sailor Moon)
- *Toriyama Akira (Dragon Ball)
- Watase Yuu (Ayashi no Ceres, Fushigi Yuugi series)
- *Watsuki Nobuhiro (Rurouni Kenshin)
- Yabuki Kentaro (Black Cat)
- Yoshihiro Togashi (Yu Yu Hakusho)
- Alex Rider
- Angel
- Buffy
- Charmed
- (Cormoran) Strike
- Grimm
- Shadowhunters
- The Rookie
- The Vampire Diaries
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Jurassic World trilogy
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Star Wars (original trilogy)
- Titanic (1997)
- Chrono Cross
- Chrono Trigger
- Dark Cloud 2
- Dragonfable (online RPG)
- Final Fantasy (V, VI, VII, Crisis Core, VII Remake, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, Brave Exvius, Dissidia series, Record Keeper)
- Legend of the Dragoon
Loved reading this! I can't wait to read more! You and I have very similar tastes in music and movies! I can't wait to read your next manuscript and have you read mine!
ReplyDeleteLove Nichol