I’m incredibly proud of my partner who recently started her own blog about her childhood as part of the Jehovah’s Witness’, in order to raise awareness of the organisation and the power it holds over people. When she first confessed to me about her childhood it was hard not to cry, the person I loved had gone through so many years of what was essentially mental abuse. In the three plus years since we’ve known each other I’m amazed by how far she’s come, from being alone with no one to rely on or confide in to being surrounded by people that care for her. Going from seeing herself as a sinful liar who doesn’t deserve to be happy to someone with dreams and aspirations that would have never been possible before.
It’s hard for me to believe that I have such a wonderful person in my life and she impresses me everyday. Not many people in her situation would be willing to go against their family and what they’d been raised to believe, following their conscience and trying to make not only something of their life but to then help others. It takes a lot of confidence to put out information so personal in the hope that it will help someone in a situation like her own and to raise awareness of a misunderstood cult that takes advantage of the weak and ruins lives.
I’ll support her any way I can, so please give her blog a look for an interesting and informative read.
Writing a blog seems like something that’d normally be against my nature but here we are. In general I actively avoid talking about myself, I like to limit people’s knowledge about me to the fact that I’m 23, am a huge nerd and that I like cats. This seems to be enough for most, just listen to them rant about their problems, offer common sense solutions like you’re the next Wiki How and you become the wise stoic friend rather than being ousted as the socially awkward mess you really are. Did I mention I liked cats because here are my cats?
Chi and Tsuki, my feline muses.
So why start a blog at all?
A mixture of writing practise and the opportunity to vent all the vast knowledge/opinions I have on useless nerd culture like the robot from Rocky IV. Plus it’s a way to seem productive. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t like doing things, or people, so I especially don’t like doing things with people. Hence when asked if I want to go out and do stuff the answer is consistently “no I’d rather make an excuse, go home and feel guilty about saying no”.
As such this blog will be mainly me giving my opinions on anime, games, film, TV, music, the usual nerd affair, while giving the odd opinion piece on the current state of media industries and a rare insight into the life of white male millenial because god knows we don’t have enough of those on the internet. I guess you could say I’m an aspiring writer, though I can’t bring myself to attempt my book ideas because the concept seems so overwhelming, so as I fancy myself a critic what better to do than yell each week about things in an objective yet highly opinionated fashion.
Never forget.
Who is the man behind the curtain?
So my real name’s James and I was born in Manchester, England in 1995, the oldest of two children. I didn’t grow up in the worst area, but let’s just say that last week a man who thought I was posh changed his attitude completely and winced when I told him where I was from. At 13 or 14 I moved to a village in Cheshire, a county filled with large manor houses and pubs that serve £30 steaks rather than chavs and high crime rates. I attended a Catholic boys school, though I’m not religious just far left (this isn’t a politics blog though). I got along with pretty much everyone but was never particularly close to anyone, so I essentially lived the hermit lifestyle.
At the moment I’ve reached the “what am I even doing with my life” stage. Recently moved back home after four years at university pretending to be a scientist, it’s like regressing back to who you were pre-uni. Currently job searching while working part time minimum wage jobs and being the perfect househusbando. Went to uni at Keele, a place with literally nothing but the university, but it’s in the Stoke-On-Trent area. Stoke being a magical place filled with oatcakes, people calling you duck and drunks by midday. There I was king of the nerd societies, running my own con, and met my partner of three years.
This anime girl in Manchester no longer exists and it’s a crime against the 80’s.
Why am I such a nerd?
I always had a fascination with media, the idea that someone puts a piece of themselves into their work because they have a story to tell, that they leave behind a life’s work. From a film, song, etc, which someone releases you can get a real feel of that person, their principles and their style, an understanding of what they’re trying to tell you on an emotional level that you can’t achieve just conversing with people in everyday life. As such I’ve always had a big thing about whether something is an artpiece produced with heart or whether it’s just a souless cash grab.
Because I never went outside and the height of male conversation was “do you like Man City or Man U?”, I instead spent my time consuming media like my life depended on it. Initially I was a big film buff, horror movies and martial arts flicks were my thing, so much so that I did kung-fu for about 7 years. Later I got into comics, more a Marvel/X-men kinda guy, and music, alt/classic rock. Only got into anime at about 15, I’d seen plenty of stuff before but never really sought it out until I sort of realised how unique the aproach to the creation process was in the far East, a contrast to the usual Hollywood flair that Western movies seemed to succumb to. I’ve always been a Sony kid too.
Geek in the Shell 