Greetings and Salutations!

[Shatterheartiel]

Hi! I'm Spectra, and I'm new here. I'm a twenty-four year old (*insert resigned sigh here*) NEET in-between jobs (for five months thus far...finding part-time work is a nightmare) who spends most of his time at the moment watching assorted anime, playing games, reading books and now, probably (hopefully?) posting here and chatting to some like-minded people. I look forward to getting to know some of you better~

...OK, that's the short version of my little intro. The standard thing you expect to find in every intro thread. What will follow now will be a mini autobiography of sorts, so I can give any curious people an idea of what I'm like etc and maybe make some impromptu friends? Feel free to skip it. In fact, I wholeheartedly endorse skipping it. Mash that Square button! Or scroll. Whichever takes your fancy. Scrolling might be better in this instance, since most PC keys are a squarish shape, so mashing the square button could break your keyboard, fill your screen with letters/number/symbols, or mess something up.

 

Stuff I like in some more detail, then? Classic cartoons! I'm a child of the early 90s, with a bit of 80s and 70s for good measure. It doesn't get much better than the 90s versions of the various Marvel and DC superheroes...well, the less said about the Hulk, the better. I've always hated the Hulk, and I probably always will. But X-Men, Spiderman and Batman were (and still are, in some cases) all fantastic. Animaniacs, Taz (an acquired taste; I hated it when I was younger), Freakazoid, Pinky and the Brain, etc etc, are amongst my favourites as well, and I've probably seen every episode of the original Tom and Jerry (plus Tom and Jerry Kids) and Looney Tunes. Yeah, most people grow out of cartoons, but I never did. Never grew out of Power Rangers, either...well, I stopped watching when they replaced the original Turbo Rangers (was never really a car person anyway, but Tommy was in it until that point, and I worshipped the ground Jason David Frank walked on) but picked it up again with Lightspeed Rescue...gotta buy the DVDs when I have more expendable income than sense again.

That said, I don't mind newer cartoons either, so long as they've got a good story or writing and/or are just plain funny. Ben 10: Alien Force won me over after the first series shocked and appalled me (I'm sorry, but Humungousaur singing is one of the greatest things, ever) and the 2003 TMNT reboot was alright...at least up to that awful Fast Forward series. Never saw the appeal of stuff like Phineas and Ferb or Adventure Time, though, and I can't understand how My Little Pony has such a huge fanbase...having watched a few episodes of both incarnations, I think I prefer the original. To each their own, I guess? Batman: The Brave and the Bold is probably my favourite of recent times, though...the Music Meister episode got me. Then Aquaman's Rousing Song of Heroism happened. It's like the original live action series, only animated. Winning combo!

I'm a sci-fi fan! Who doesn't like Doctor Who. Well, I liked the old Dalek movie. I grew up watching Stargate, Star Trek (The Next Generation only, mind - Voyager had its moments, but the less said about Deep Space Nine the better, and I think the original series is a bit TOO retro for me...not sure about Voyager, it's a bit...weird. Like the Star Wars prequels. It all feels too flashy to be set before something older than I am) and then when I was a bit older to appreciate things beyond "lasers, boom!" I was introduced to Babylon Five, Battlestar Galactica, Lexx, Andromeda, etc.

I read an awful lot as well, although I'm in a bit of a grey area with that at the moment. By that, I mean I'm stuck for something new to read so I'm re-reading all my old books again...I have more books than I thought. Mostly I read fantasy novels although I went through this awful period during my teenage years when I read nothing but Star Wars Expanded Universe novels...I can still name about thirty Imperial Star Destroyers. Heaven help me. They were good books, in my defence. Well, for the most part.

Obviously, I'm a gamer as well...an RPG gamer, although I dabble in other genres as well. Except fighting games, because I suck at them, and racing games, because I get my fill of fast cars every time I sit in one with my grandmother behind the wheel. Oh, and sports games, because they remind me of how unfit I am and how I'll probably never even see a tenth of what I'm giving my players for a single match. I'm mostly on my PS3 these days, although I have a Wii-U as well, which is quietly gathering dust until the urge to play Monster Hunter sweeps over me again, or until X gets released. I had an Xbox360, but I sold it, because it became a large DVD player when the PS3 dropped in price enough for me to buy one. It was a stopgap console for me, mostly because I didn't have the money for online and I didn't have any nearby friends for massive Halo parties. Plus I find trophies more satisfying than achievements, and on balance, the PS3 has a bigger and better JRPG library. I miss Magna Carta 2 and Tales of Vesperia, but I can live without them for now. I don't have either a PS4 or Xbone yet, primarily because neither have any games worth playing on them, and nothing interesting has been announced either. I'll probably wind up with a PS4 eventually, but for the time being, I'm happy with what I have. Got myself a 3DS (two, actually; I got an XL with my first paycheck from my old job...I like big screens, I cannot lie) and Vita (an original model, which is just now starting to get some use) as well as some older consoles...I had a weird urge to buy a Gameboy Micro last year.

I also watch anime from time to time, although not much holds my interest these days...it's getting harder and harder to find good series, so I hope to find some here, and/or get some recommendations. I finally pulled my finger out and watched Gundam recently - the Universal Century stuff, except for ZZ, because of the lack of Char, and Unicorn, because it's not finished yet and waiting for Hellsing Ultimate to end was bad enough - and I quite liked that. But all the popular stuff I've seen recently has bored me: I didn't like Code Geass, Death Note ended horribly, Madoka was too short and wasn't really as enjoyable as the more light-hearted magical girl shows I've seen, Evangelion made no sense whatsoever to me (but from what I gather, that's not unusual...the films are good though), Dragonball Z gave me a headache (but, oddly, I liked Dragonball a lot) and I pale at the thought of trying to catch up with titans like One Piece or Bleach. So I kinda pick things up on a whim and see where they lead me. My fondness for anime comes mainly from my childhood exposure to Sailor Moon, Digimon, Cardcaptors, Monster Rancher (that does count, right? I'm pretty sure it does) and Studio Ghibli movies. I went through a bit of a Pretty Cure phase last year, although the latest incarnation has put me off it a bit...or, rather, the fandom's reaction to it has put me off.

Other stuff...uh, I used to write fanfiction, but I gave up because I wanted to re-write the earlier chapters as I went through it and the whole thing got screwy. I wrote a Pokemon fanfic featuring all the fourth gen Legendary Pokemon before the tenth movie came out, then got VERY discouraged when the plot for that one turned out to be better than my convoluted mess. I used to RP, but poor health and time conspired to draw me away from it. I haven't picked up a pencil in about eight years now; my passion for drawing died after my art GCSE. I'm fairly good with coding for sites, but it's not my favourite way to spend my time. I sing a lot. Badly. Beware me on Skype, I spontaneously burst out into song; I'm like the worst sort of Disney character sometimes. Apparently I have an accent, but obviously, I've never heard it. Probably makes it worse. I could go on and on, but this has probably gone on for long enough now and I doubt anyone opened my thread expecting several paragraphs about how horribly dull I am, no?

That's all, folks! I'll close by saying I hope I didn't put too many of you off, and that my inbox is always open if you wanna chat...I'm a shy newbie who doesn't like bugging people because once he starts talking he never shuts up...or hadn't you noticed that? In any case, thanks for reading (or at least looking) and I'll see y'all around~

P.S. I reserve the right to edit this extensively. xD