Shooting Star Dreamer

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another post! This post announces my return to blogging, while taking a little inspiration from the opening lyrics of my new favorite series: RWBY! The song is labeled as The Triumph , which is a fitting name for such an upbeat song. You can listen to the song below at the linked video. (Don't worry the video has no spoilers, but you might want to avoid the comments if you're worried about that.) RWBY (expect more posts on RWBY soon), and the opening song The Triumph are inspiring to me. The song starts off from a defeated point of view, explaining the current situation and how things feel somewhat hopeless. Afterwards, the piece builds into a triumphant roar, stating that despite the past and regardless of all obstacles, there will be a way to overcome it all. This escalates from a possibility for change or aimless living, to blatantly declaring the will to survive and persevere. The overall theme deals with having the courage to kee...

Hello and sorry about the recent lack of posts everyone! I've been dealing with computer issues for a long time, and now that everything is resolved I can begin posting somewhat normally. Upon seeing this post you may wonder, exactly what is this award all about? This award comes from a friend of mine and fellow blogger over at  WanAbrar , Rei. If you have the time please check out his blog, as I was once writer there! He has a lot of quality anime related posts! Moving on, for this award I will be answering a few questions Rei created for his nominees. I will also be nominating a few other bloggers who I communicate with or visit very often and I hope they will also do the same! The reward is basically communication; bloggers get to spread awareness of others they fancy, and readers get a look into the personal life of their writers. With that being said, let's get onto the questions alright? What is your most favorite anime genre and why? Honestly, although ...

When it comes to anime blogging, it's almost a necessity to ask many questions. When I first started blogging, I used to be quick to send posts through, without a second thought. I later found out that doing so wasn't always the best approach, because it led to posts that were riddled with errors. With that being said, I think one of the most important questions for an anime blogger to ask is "Should I publish this post now? Is this really the right time?" From my perspective I struggle greatly when finding the right time to post. Due to differences in scheduling, I have time to blog only at certain odd moments such as 3:00 A.M. in the morning and other crazy times. Despite this, I never wanted to post at such moments or I never wanted to save a post for later and automatically set it to post at a different time. I've had a deep need to post my thoughts when they're fresh, which is somewhat detrimental. Obviously though, this can lead to a good amount o...

If there is something you want to do, then do it. If its a hobby, passion, or anything else that is important to you, don't wait. The right time is not later; the right time is now. Even if you don't have a set plan, you can make something work. If your goal isn't completely clear, start working on the parts that you are. Above all else...always remember that anything you believe or dream, is possible. These are literally a few lessons I have learned over the course of my blogging days. A few come from anime, manga, and video games, and others come from life experiences. Although being so involved in such things is a great benefit, we must not forget that everything isn't always laid out for us. It's easy to start thinking that we have to accomplish things at a certain time period. Many works of fiction lay out predetermined events, actions, and relationships for the characters to pursue. However, things don't always work that way for us. We might even be...

When I started this blog, I didn't really think of it too much, in regards to me as the writer. I always thought that taking care of the blog mattered more than how I was feeling or the content of my thoughts at the time. When I look at my old blog posts, I notice differences in how I wrote, how I thought, and the lingering emotion behind my words. Sometimes it was great, sometimes it was bad, and other times it was just mediocre. Looking upon this now as an experienced anime blogger has really taught me a good amount of lessons. One that always comes to mind is the realization that a blog's quality isn't always judged or altered by the blog itself. Sometimes, the quality of the blog depends on the one who is writing it. Since all of my words come from my head, unless I am quoting someone else or a specific source, this lesson might seen a little obvious. Funny enough, it took me until now to realize this. So I feel that the best thing a blogger can do to improve the...

I hadn't intended to make a post today, but I found myself with the free time and energy to do so! Today is New Year's Eve for me, and 2015 has already hit for others. So while this is a time about moving forward, it's also a time about thinking back and not leaving things undone. Now that we're officially at the end, I looked through all my blog posts from this year and those from the beginning of Shooting Star Dreamer. It's crazy seeing how much my writing has evolved over the years, and how my interests have changed and developed. In the past, I could see myself running with the potential to be successful and do a lot. I had a lot of passion, but I was running on passion alone. This time around, I picked up a few new things and experiences. I feel more mature, wiser, and most importantly, more intelligent! Now, I can picture myself progressing like a well oiled machine. I think that's a major improvement in a matter of a year. So looking back at thi...

This is the look a blogger usually has on their face! Almost anyone can have the chance to start anime blogging, or blogging of any kind, but I think it takes a lot to create and manage a good blog. When I first started blogging I expected many views in a short amount of time. I also expected a lot of guides on what to do and I thought these would pave the way to my success. Unfortunately, there weren't many. I realized as well that success is not always a straight path; simply reading a guide and following it word for word didn't shoot me straight to the stars, but it did help me get off the ground. I'm not sure if there will ever be a guide that can simply make anime blogging a quick success in such a way, as it's such an immensely wide topic, with many different things factoring in. A lot of it is in effort and working habits. Despite this, there's a lot that makes your blog a hit or a miss. Sometimes it can just be your opinions, sometimes it's the top...

Since we're nearing the end of year, I decided to take a look back at some of my old posts from 2013. One that I really remember is a post  I made towards the end of last year, December 30th to be exact. It was a basically of summary of what went on at my blog in 2013. I also ended up writing a list of resolutions for this year. For those who don't know, 2013 was the year Shooting Star Dreamer officially started. The blog looked completely different, color scheme and all. It didn't stay that way for long, before I revamped it to the layout you see today. Thus, the blog was named Shooting Star Dreamer 2.0 or SSD 2.0. Although it wasn't my first blog, it was definitely my first anime based one. When I started it, I didn't really have a good writing style or any kind of format. I just tried experimenting and using new things. At one point I thought my blog was going to fizzle out and die like a lot of the other ones that pop up every now and then. I didn't w...

We all know of the website by the name of MyAnimeList. It's a wonderful website, allowing you to make a beautiful list of all your watched anime. It's a great way to keep track of what you've seen, and a useful tool for sharing your tastes with others. For me, the website is really great, because I've seen so many anime that I usually forget most of them! However, there's another side that comes in play when we make our lists. We can rate anime by a single number score. A few people take the time to write a more detailed review, but others just stick to the scoring system. In conclusion, all of this factors into an average score which is shown on the anime's page. So this is when personal opinion starts to come in; is this process somewhat harmful, especially for bloggers? I enjoy MyAnimeList as I stated before, but I feel that the act of defining a whole anime by a single number is a bit over the top. If you think of anime in general, it's ba...

Despite the type of blogger you are, there comes a time when you ask the question if a schedule is necessary. If you look at many successful blogs and websites, they tend to provide articles and posts for their viewers consistently. Readers know when to visit and can expect something on a daily or weekly basis. While this is something that seems simple, it's a great way to build a loyal viewership. The only thing is, every blogger is different, and every blog is different. The blog itself is an extension of the blogger, a representation of their thoughts and feelings in the form of text. So like people, one method may not work well for everyone. It depends on the person and the blog. So when it comes to this blog, Shooting Star Dreamer, I don't think a schedule works. Yes, I made a post before about creating a schedule and limiting myself to those posting times and dates, but the longer I tried to pull this off the worst it became. I started rushing my writing and f...

People always say that we make blogs for ourselves and that the primary focus of a blog such as mine is our own thoughts and feelings. However, this thought never sat well with me. If we're all connected on this vast world through the internet and the little community known as the aniblogosphere, why would I spend my time only talking about myself? Even if it comes to simple editorials, spotlights, or more, my thought process when blogging is the exact same every time. I'm writing for my readers, and myself. For this reason, I encourage and even ask for people to comment and share their thoughts on anime. Why not get into heated discussions about your likes and dislikes? Just keep it calm and don't go overboard. You can even connect with people who enjoy the same things and discuss; that's the beauty of the Aniblogosphere. I think this is the only way to keep the community thriving and alive.  Otherwise, we'd just have a bunch of loudmouths. For example,...

Hey everyone! I've decided to fix up (and hopefully improve) my blog. I'm just going to take the time to explain a few changes I've made. First up, I added dividers between my header links. Hopefully that makes them easier to read as the words tended to run together. I've been considering adjusting my blog to make use of my Facebook Header...though I'm not sure if it will look well. I adjusted the post background so transparency isn't a problem. I received a few complains about my posts being hard to read due to the transparency. I think white is a good color in contrast to the overall orange...but it seems a bit too plain. I might change it to a lighter orange/tannish color to help bring some life to my posts. Lastly, when entering my blog you would notice a gear depending on how long it takes to load. Recently I found a way to change this and replaced it with a gif. However, I'm not sure if this will cause unnecessary loading or not. If you exper...