ohnaistars

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An Otaku Goes to Japan 2: For the Culture

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Don't Wanna Be An American Idiot

One of my favorite albums turned 20 last year. The album that I wrote extensive fanfic about, the one I analyzed like any other great work of fiction, one that despite its age feels right at home today in 2025 as it did in 2004.  Same shit, new regime.  American Idiot in so many ways felt like it was an album crafted just for my teenage brain. Perfectly edgy, self-deprecating and…

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Criminal Minds: The Misrepresentation of Goths and Nerds

I’ve been rewatching Criminal Minds because my personal Chinese spy on TikTok told me to. While the show certainly lacks the subtlety I once thought it had (cue the episode where a man is determined to bring his dead big brother back from the dead by murdering young men, sewing their body parts together and trying to use the ‘magic’ of tornados to bring him back). But one thing that has been a…

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Day 15, speckled boobook

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May Angels Keep Me Through the Night

I grew up in a Dallas suburb in the 1990s. While looking back at the 90s now, it feels like there was crime everywhere but at the time, the 90s felt like a welcomed balm in comparison to the tumultuous 1970s and 1980s. Clinton was in office. The suburbs were quiet and life was peaceful. But two landmark cases rocked the very foundation of my childhood. And as anniversaries for these deaths and…

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2025 Chubby Bird Calendar

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Gladiator II: Make Ancient Rome Great Again

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My Year in Bloodwork

I’ve always known I’m chronically ill. I knew there were ghosts in the machine that made life more difficult for me than it did for others. And I pressed on through sheer spite and the resilience that only comes with being raised black and hypercompetent. But I always knew that I was sick even when I didn’t have names for the conditions that made me tired, caused me pain, and left scars both…

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After the Election 2024

I wanted to write this days ago. I wanted to write something when the feelings were still fresh and raw.  I spent the day immediately after the election talking friends and loved ones down from metaphorical and literal ledges.  I spent that day crying, bitter, angry, hurt and confused.  I spent the day trying to be strong and optimistic in a situation that is deeply pessimistic.  The election…

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The Opal Thief

The Valentine’s Day before my Father died, he gifted my Mother and I each a ring. I got my birthstone: a ruby flanked by diamonds on a gold band. My Mother received a stunning opal set with earrings, a necklace and a ring.  These gifts were meant to show just how special my Mom and I were to my Dad and any normal child would be thrilled to receive such gorgeous jewelry as a gift.  However, I…

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My ADHD Is Not a Superpower

My aunts were in town recently and I was happy to show them my unique version of San Antonio (the kind with less gentrification and more hand-pulled burrata). One of those stops was inevitably the museum where I’ve spent plenty of Sundays seeing the main collections and absorbing the history and art. While there, I amassed a little bit of a crowd. A family had assumed that with all of my…

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What My ADHD Likes

After a new psychiatrist finally listened to me, I started taking medication for my ADHD. We talked and it turns out, I’ve likely had ADHD for most of my life and had just built up a series of (albeit, at times unhealthy) coping mechanisms to deal with the condition that crumbled like most things did during the COVID pandemic.  I understand the hesitancy some have to talk about ADHD. There are…

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Hello! This month's episode is up and we have a sponsor! Thank you to Filthy Figments for sponsoring the show! In this month's episode, hosts Amanda and Carola will discuss queer representation in BL and yaoi, how far we've come and how far we still can go!

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On Current Events- Part 2

There’s a couple of things going on that I find newsworthy, let’s talk about them.  The Linkin Park Drama I remember the day the world found out that the lead singer of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington, died by suicide in 2017. If you’ve read this blog before, you know that Linkin Park and bands like them have been part of the soundtrack of my life since I was an angry teenager. There was just…

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How to (Properly) Write Romance- ColossalCon 2024

Talk about a convention that made me feel like I got my groove back. I was able to present my panel on writing romance at ColossalCon 2024 and I think this is the best version of that panel I have ever presented.

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How to be a Media Critic- AnimeFest 2024

Here is my panel video from AnimeFest 2024 on media criticism and how to be a media critic!

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Thoughts and Musings from the Very Last AnimeFest

AnimeFest as I’ve come to know and love is no more. Let’s talk about it.