Anniversary Special Post – Passion with Irina

Starting again with a massive thanks to Irina for coming along to the anniversary. Of course, I guess the party couldn’t get started until she arrived, after all, she’s shouting the drinks. For the few of you who don’t know, Irina is the writer behind I Drink and Watch Anime which she describes as drinking games disguised as anime reviews, but really, her blog is so much more. Irina is one of the many fantastic people I have met because of my blog and discussing anime with her is an absolute joy. Our collaborations on Black Butler and Natsume Yuujinchou were amazing fun to write and I look forward to working with her again in the future.

In nowhere near 100 words, plus we’re going to get off topic as Irina decides to make me blush, again:

Passion is most probably one of the most attractive qualities one can display. When I was younger they tried to fool me into thinking caring wasn’t “cool”. That you should try to be above it all, that the neutral and dispassionate argument carried more weight, but they are wrong.

I have always been drawn to passion like a moth to a flame, so I am well aware of it’s duplicitous nature. Having the courage to put your passion on display in a post will always yield something special. Something beautiful and worthy of your time – I very much agree with Karandi on this. It’s why I love anime where I can tell the subject meant something personal to the author beyond a tale to tell.

But sadly, the flip side is that an excess of passion can blind us to the bigger picture. Make us unable to appreciate alternate view. To me, someone who is truly passionate about an issue, subject, point of view…will have enough faith in it to let it stand up to criticism. If you can defend a thesis with both passion and reason – then you’ve truly figured it out.

Ok, so Karandi asked us to do a series of posts for her anniversary week. There were specific rules. Write a hundred words – I’m at about 200 now – make it about one of the 6 specific subjects, stick to a format.

I’m bad at things guys.

I read all the posts that were submitted last year, and they were all about how fantastic 100 Word Anime is. I wasn’t around then so I missed my chance but I’m not going to now. I got something to say.

Of course, I mention Karandi in my posts often, but I’ve never really taken the time to talk about her or 100 Word Anime as I have other blogs. At first, I was simply intimidated and awed. I mean everyone already knew her and was impressed, what more could I really bring to the conversation? I have come to realize that just because something is a plain and obvious fact, doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate it.

Most of the posts from last year, and really just the general consensus in the community, is that Karandi’s hard work and discipline are unparalleled. The fawning odes to her work ethic, the general whispers of How is it even possible for a person to do all that (I still think there’s an army of clones involved), the raw drive I see in everyone to try to be worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence (let’s face it, we all gave up on actually competing a long time ago)…All of it is simply undeniable. Every one of those compliments has been earned and paid for with hard work and dedication.

But you know what we don’t hear as often? Karandi is kind. She has done more to encourage new bloggers and bring the community together than anyone I know but she does it quietly, without ever drawing the spotlight to herself.

Every single week she collects posts form all sorts of bloggers and features them like it’s no big deal. As if it doesn’t take hours of work. Every day she reads through an unbelievable amount of posts. And when she comments – it’s always substantive. Not a simple good work or rehash of what you said in your post but an actual conversation, a relevant question, an opposing viewpoint always shared in a positive matter. This to me is encouraging above all else.

There’s a reason I went to Karandi when I wanted to get the blogwarming project off the ground. She’s proven that she deserves the respect and quite frankly authority she has in this community but more than that, I simply know that she would want to help. That she has always worked to bring us together and to make a community she clearly loves, one that we will love as well.

Since I’m reaping the benefits of that, I want to take this opportunity to thank you K. Here’s to another 2 years and then many more after.

When I first read this in my email, there may have been a few tears (happy tears, but tears nonetheless). Army of clones notwithstanding (apparently I’m also possibly an AI, depends who you talk to I guess), someone saying that about my blog was an incredibly touching moment. I don’t think any of us start our blogs because we want people to tell us we’re great and I know that I started mine expecting no one to read it and was mostly just hoping to maybe get a conversation or two around anime going, but just because that wasn’t the intent when starting the blog doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly appreciated when someone does offer you a moment of thanks.

So Irina, you made me blush and cry. But thank-you so much for those words. They mean the world to me.

And, if you aren’t already one of Irina’s avid readers, be sure to check out her blog. Now she didn’t actually provide me a link to share so I’ve picked two of her posts to link to:

• Black Butler 2 Series Review (Please keep in my the views expressed in this review are Irina’s and do not reflect my views on the anime. If you want more on that, check out Irina and my debate on the subject of Black Butler 2.)
• Natsume’s Book of Friends Season One (Because everyone should watch it.)

Right, tomorrow we have Remy discussing scheduling and I use my feature to set some new blogging goals for the third year. Over the weekend we’ll have one more guest post from Arthifis on, well, everything, before I’ll conclude the anniversary week with a bang (hopefully).

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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