About

This blog owes its genesis to In Search of Number Nine and the following exchange:

INT. A WELL-LITTED ROOM A.K.A. ICHAT—NIGHT

BAKANEKO, watching True Tears; PI314159, twiddling his thumbs.

PI314159

OK, I’m frickin’ bored out of my mind here.

BAKANEKO

Go download some anime.

PI314159

Anime? That stuff is for kids. I personally need something with more substance.

BAKANEKO

No, anime can have substance too.

I pause the episode I was watching and go on to introduce him synopses of Grave of the Fireflies, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and yes, even School Days with its gruesome ending on YouTube.

PI314159
(jaw dropped)

Dude, I was so aroused by the setup but now I’m traumatized for life!

BAKANEKO
(chuckling)

I told you it’s good shit.

PI314159

But still, these plots seem shallow. Is that all?

I frown at his comment. Then, recalling an excellent post on Koi Kaze, which has made a deep impression on me, I google up the URL.

BAKANEKO
(pasting the URL)

Shallow? Look, let me finish watching what I’m watching, but in the meanwhile, go read this.

Ten minutes pass by.

PI314159

That guy is an idiot!

BAKANEKO
(eye wide open)

What?!

PI314159

He’s reading way too much into it. This is the worst case of abuse of inductive reasoning I’ve seen—he’s just making up meanings where there is no meaning.

I pause for a moment. Then a flash of inspiration comes upon me.

BAKANEKO

But isn’t that what us humanity constantly strive to do—attributing meanings to a meaningless world?

FADE OUT

That was the moment I decided to start a blog.

Since starting nekodan, I did not always find it easy to keep up the passion that had started it. At a couple of times, I thought of quitting, but blissmo, my first commenter, had always had an uncanny timing of leaving me comments that kept me going a bit further; and when one day she inducted me into her extensive blogroll as an Advanced Species from Outer Space, I felt like the black sheep that was finally accepted into the fold. As of this writing, I have just surpassed my 100^th post.

Thanks, Cameron Probert @searchofno9 and blissmo.

—bakaneko
bakaneko dot nekodan at gmail dot com

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