A New Chapter In Our Story

The last post I made may have been a little cryptic! But it was meant for a very specific someone. On the 14th, I proposed to "VikingontheBackofaDragon". Well, more specifically I proposed to my dear Meggie. I am so happy to say that her answer was a smiling "Of course."

New Blog

Hi all!

I wanted to let you know that I am going to be running a new blog that focuses more on media criticism and analysis. I don't fancy myself an expert on this by any means, but I would love to give my perspective on a broader array of stories and topics.

I have a first post that explains my mentality behind media criticism, but I also wanted to explain why I am not doing this here on my original blog.

This blog is very personal. It was a place I used primarily to celebrate the story I loved, HTTYD. Because of that, this blog isn't really focused on criticism. It is very positive, and I usually just didn't discuss the elements of stories that I thought weren't great. 

This new blog will give me a platform to discuss stories I love as well as ones I feel fall short. I do not intend for this new blog to replace this one. For specifically HTTYD stuff, it will probably still show up here. For personal nerd stuff, it will probably show up here! I do not know if I will be successful at posting here often like I used to, but I do still have a place for this blog in my heart, so I am not abandoning it!

So, as for warnings, the new blog will cover some media and films that are definitely more mature than HTTYD. Ha. I may also be more negative and critical in my analysis than I usually am here. But if you are interested in seeing my critiques and analysis, please feel free to give the new blog a shot.

https://usertoothless.blogspot.com/

Back from the dead! (At least for a bit!)

 

Well, this blog has been dead for ages. Honestly, a big part of me wishes I would've ended it on my post, "There Were Dragons When I Was a Boy". That would have been a beautiful bow to tie on this blog and an amazing era of my life. If you are still reading (which would surprise me! Hi!), then I'd like to fill you in on two things:

1) Why I've been gone so long

2) Why I am back

Click through to see the post in full

26!

Well, I turned 26 today! Quite the odd age... I'm still about 4 years away from the end of HTTYD3 Hiccup or Roy Mustang, but I can wait.

HeroScape Toothless (Playing HeroScape Again!)

Hey everyone! Just wanted to pop in and show off a goofy project I did yesterday evening! So I've recently picked back up an old, old board game that I used to absolutely love. It's called HeroScape, and this post will kinda talk about it and how it impacted me as a kid!

My Brother Got Married!

My little brother, Andrew (haha, also known as Link in the Dsplash RPG) married his fiancé Sarah yesterday. I was able to be part of the wedding, which was a small and somewhat unusual ceremony in order to conform to the CDC guidelines. It was quite the day. I'm really happy for him, and it's such a big moment, I felt I needed to blog about it.

Merry Christmas!

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Snoggletog! I've had a lovely morning filled with great gifts and memories with my family! I'm gonna post pics of the "loot" below. Above are some Christmas cookies I made. The very bottom one is my attempt at Roy Mustang's flame alchemy transmutation circle. Toothless is obviously in the middle, and the red and white cookie is the Hoshidan royal crest (from Fire Emblem Fates). Above that is the Nohrian crest (which my bro made... as I am pro Hoshido and he is pro Nohr). Then you have Sans and Grimm (from Hollow Knight) at the top!

Turning 25!

Hey everyone! Gosh, I am so absent these days! I turned twenty-five this last Friday, and I just wanted to do a quick thank you to the many people who made that day extremely special. Also, though I haven't posted about it, I am extremely excited (ha, and almost conflicted) about the new HTTYD short that has been announced: Homecoming. But, anyway, let's get onto the thank you!

There Were Dragons When I Was A Boy

Well, it's taken me a while to get the courage to actually tackle this post. On the one hand, I've been very busy, but the real reason is that writing this, in a way, really acknowledges the fact that the story of How To Train Your Dragon is... over. It's such a bittersweet thing, and I'm so thankful to have been along for the ride. It's the anniversary of HTTYD's release back in 2010, so now is the time to write this thing out. This post will be a sort of homage to the story, especially in how it has changed me as a person. This is my childhood, this is a time when I met a boy and a dragon... and these are the events that happened because of them.

Happy Snoggeletog!

Well, it's that time of year again! Merry Christmas, everyone! I had a great Christmas this year; it was awesome getting to be home and hang out with my family! I got a lot of nice gifts (and I think a few are on the way), so I'll show them to you in the post below. If you guys got anything fun and nerdy, please feel free to show them off as well!

Christmas Cookies

Our family made Christmas cookies a while back, and since some of the ones I made were nerdy, I thought I would post pictures of them here. It's nothing spectacular, but I'm trying to do as much blogging as I can during the break!! I made a Toothless, Sans, Corrin, and Roy Mustang... and I didn't eat any of them!

My Top 15 Favorite Stories (2018 version!)

Well, another year has passed and I've fallen for some new stories! I want to post my current list of top favorites, and I'd be really interested to see any of your lists as well! Some of this will obviously be repeats from my previous post... but there are few fun changes!

I got to meet Inhonoredglory and Toothlesslove!

Well this weekend was very special and very exciting! I got to meet my two of my oldest and best friends in person for the first time! After meeting online back in 2013 (if I remember correctly XD), we've been in pretty constant contact and have all three become really close, but this was our first time to actually meet face to face!

I'm Twenty Four (sigh... and now Hiccup is YOUNGER than me!)

Whew, so today was my birthday. Boy was it LONG. I went into work a little early (7:40), but I didn't wind up leaving until 10:20 PM. Ah well... I'm hoping the experiment I was working on turns out ok. I did get to stop and spend an hour with my family who drove up to see me, and my old buddy/roommate came too! I've only gotten a few gifts so far, but I've been told by several people that more are being shipped to me, so I'm excited about that! I'm gonna post what I receive below and try to properly thank the people who gave them :)

My top 30 Favorite Protagonists!

What does a colossal nerd do when he finally gets a free evening? He uses a spreadsheet and a scoring system to try and rank his all-time favorite heroes!

I've been wanting to do this ever since I ranked my favorite stories, but with characters, I knew I would have a much longer list (I mean, seriously, great stories often have at least two or three really, really great heroes!). Because the list was going to be so massive, I felt I needed a system to help me be somewhat objective in how I scored everyone. This seemed like it would be a lot of fun, but I was also kinda worried it wouldn't be accurate. I was rating blindly, not comparing between characters for my first time around, and I felt sure the math would show things that weren't necessarily true. However, I was surprised to see how well this system reflect how I feel! There was even a big surprise for my two HTTYD heroes.

So, if you're interested, please click the "read more"!

HTTYD2 Fourth Year Anniversary!

Well, it's been four years since HTTYD2 released! I'm gonna celebrate it by watching the movie this evening! I'll post a few pictures of the "private screening" as well... and once I finish the film, I'll come back to more fully edit this post (explaining the few other things I did today to celebrate). Ok... bracing myself to cry.

Happy Eight Year Anniversary, How To Train Your Dragon!

Eight years? MAN time flies! Happy HTTYD day everyone! I have just now gotten off of work, and despite the MOUNTAIN sized pile of homework I have to do tonight, I'm gonna watch HTTYD! I think it's been a year since I last watched it all the way through, and I do confess to being very excited about this! I'm all alone, up in my little room, about to indulge in some mega nostalgia! I'll be sure to continue this post once I finish watching the film... and I have some cool HTTYD3 tidbits that I want to share (no spoilers, just neat development stuff). Ok, onto the movie!

Happy Single's Awareness Day! (Usertoothless's Favorite Ships)

So, it's that time of year again... a time where my dating friends all wind up spending tons of money, time, and thought to please and impress their significant other. I don't have that problem! So, I'm gonna steal a little time away from all of my lab work and actually post a list of my favorite couples from fiction. Some of these are more canon than others, but all of them are generally accepted in their fandoms, so I'm going for it!

Sideshow Toothless Is Here!

Well, after months of waiting, it has finally arrived! The Sideshow Toothless statue now sits heroically on my desk! My wallet feels a little, ahem, light after purchasing it, but OH BOY is it GORGEOUS. Bellow I'm gonna post the photos I have taken of it, and I'll give a quick review as well.

I've signed up for Secret Odin!

I haven't done this in years, but I am pretty excited to have signed up for the Secret Odin gift exchange on Berk's Grapevine. If you've never seen this before, it's a pretty nifty idea. Dragon fans who sign up get paired up with a mystery partner, create gifts for each other, and then send those gifts all on a set day! So, I am hoping this will motivate me to be creative and actually make some cool HTTYD stuff! That being said... I am gonna be super busy, so my partner may receive a polished line art... or they might receive a full blown digital painting! It will all depend on my lab schedule (heh). 

So, if you'd like to potentially get a special gift from me, I'd highly encourage you guys to sign up. It's super fun, and you don't have to do anything crazy to impress the fan on the other end. Plus, it's a great excuse to make and give HTTYD gifts!

Here's a link to the page:

http://www.berksgrapevine.com/2018/01/secret-odin-2018.html