Hello!

I figured I might as well introduce myself briefly. I just finished studying for the AP US History exam and I'm taking a break. ^^ So, this will be brief so I can get back to studying!! :)

Nice to meet you! I'm Marius Mink! ^^ Up until recently I lived in central Florida (for about 12 years) with my lovely friends. As of Nov 07 I've been living in upstate New York, which is where I was born. The school I went to was a public military academy, which I loved dearly. There I took Japanese and Kendou (at school), participated in Drill Team (that's where you flip rifles in the air), and met some of my best friends. The city I lived in was huge compared to where I live now. 90,000 people live in the actual city and 500,000 live in the metropolitan area surrounding the city. Now I live in a town of 12,000 people, 7,000 being college students. It's a big change. Of course, it snows here, but there are many other differences. I'll talk about eventually. Oh, and I live with my aunt now, along with my older sister, when before I lived with my mother. Just a bit of background information. ^^


Two things in my life define me, I think: school and East Asia. There's really nothing else I do. I take school very seriously and just about everything I do revolves around getting into college. Typically, I study everyday and about 12 hours a day on weekends although that's changed a bit recently. I don't study for my classes, per se. It's more for the giant exams at the end of the year. It's easy to do well in school because people don't generally expect much from you. As long as I have straight As, I'm good (although that's changing a bit too; I want a cumulative average of 95 or better for the moment). It's those AP Exams at the end of the year I'm worrying about. I'm taking three this year and I took one last year. 

I get up, go to school, come home, eat, exercise, watch an episode of Ajumma Ga Ganda (Here Comes Ajumma), and study till night time and go to bed. ^^ My only time off is on weekends after my marathon study sessions. I've been taking Fridays off too. In my free time, I mostly watch Asian dramas online and little extras and lives from my favorite bands. I love East Asia. I love the pop culture stuff (movies, dramas, music, etc) but I love the ethnographic stuff too. I only read nonfiction books mostly on East Asian (also Newsweek and Game Informer). No fiction whatsoever unless it's a manga/manhwa or some yaoi novel. ^^ Whatever college I end up attending, I'm probably going to major in East Asian Studies (Japan, Korea, China) and minor in Anthropology with a concentration in ethnography. 

This is a bit unique, but I love heavy metal and boy bands equally. It's a funny combination. Not many people expect an honor student to listen to heavy metal but, yeah, I love it. Rock/heavy metal is my favorite genre of music. And I only listen to East Asian music. If you haven't guessed by now, my favorite group is Dir en Grey and has been for about 3 or 4 years. On the other hand, I absolutely love Asian boy bands. Super Junior is my favorite band in that respect. I don't like them all though. DBSK and SS501 and stuff are okay but Super Junior and NewS are my top bands. I love their music and them as individuals/actors. I've been into Jrock for years but kpop is relatively knew to me (almost a year, not quite). Malice Mizer is my favorite old band (is it okay to call them old?!) but I think X Japan is the greatest band to ever walk the face of the earth. T.T Really. I still cry when I hear their music. Vidoll, Believe in Style (they just broke up!!!!), Sadie, Girugamesh, NewS, Super Junior, Takui, Onmyouza... I like a bunch of groups.

My other likes/hobbies include dramas (I've already said that), IMing (I do that TOO much), DDR, sleeping, reading/collecting manga, watching anime, studying people (ethnography!!), studying language, and yaoi in general. I've been into anime for 8 years, and I love it, but I don't watch it much anymore. ^^ The current American anime culture disgusts me. I'll probably talk about that some other time. I'm absolutely addicted to yaoi. Most of the manga I own are yaoi (I've been into it for 6 years). I do actually watch [yaoi] pron too, but that's a whole 'nother story. 

Again, my obsession with dramas will be the subject of some other entry some other day. 

That doesn't look that brief but it really is considering how dynamic people are. I'll talk about things I wasn't able to here throughout the year (like my undying love for Teppei Koike). I'll looking forward to it. Wish me luck! ^-^