Who am I?

Who am I? – In this case it’s no existential question but more of an introduction to myself, so you start to get to know me a little better – who I am, what I like, and so on.

First of all: I am old – well not OLD old but like Internet/Social Media old since I’m already 35 (born in 1985), which makes me older than most of my friends and colleagues.

• Who I was at the start

Early on in my life I loved watching cartoons and 80s/90s TV shows as well as playing football (or soccer if you’re American) and skiing. While I’ve not been skiing for some time now and also haven’t played football for a couple of years – mostly because the amount of free time and my circle of friends has changed over time – I still love pretty much everything with 80s/90s nostalgia (p.e.: Stranger Things).

While I started to get more into Anime and movies than cartoons and TV shows in my teens and early twenties, I haven’t really watched a lot of Anime from my early twenties until my late twenties/early thirties. That’s why I probably missed a lot of good shows I’d like to catch up on over time.

The fact that I now almost own 2000 DVDs/Blu-Rays (mostly movies, but also some TV shows like „Married… with Children“, „Knight Rider“, …) probably tells you that my love for movies hasn’t faded until now. You could even argue that I started to expand my horizon in my late twenties when I started to watch more Korean and Japanese movies – mostly subbed since dubs sometimes seem a bit bland.

• Change of taste

When it comes to music my taste changed/expanded a lot over time. While I mostly listened to 70s and 80s pop music growing up and while driving around with my parents in my father’s car I started to get into Metal and Classic Rock as well as some Punk Rock and Rock ’n‘ Roll. So when I was in my late teens I liked music by Metallica, Manowar or Motörhead as well as I liked Elvis, Pink Floyd, The Ramones, Frank Sinatra and a lot of others. Because of my interest in Anime I also got into a few Japanese Rock and Visual Kei bands.

Some time around late 2012/early 2013 I also started to get into K-Pop and I’m hooked ever since (I’m like 100% sure there will be a future blog post just about this). So here I am enjoying flashy pop tunes from Korea as much as some heavy Hard Rock or Metal tunes, classic Rock, Punk, 60s to 90s pop and also some classical music. If I ever had to decide on my favourite musician of all time there’s probably no one else like the boss himself: Bruce Springsteen.
I went to 3 of his concerts back in 2012 and 2013 and all of them have been some absolutely great experiences.

Because of Anime/Manga I always wanted to travel to Tokyo/Japan when I was in my late teens. While this has all faded a bit over the years, it all came back a couple of years ago. And after visiting Seoul 4 times from 2013 to 2016 I finally went to Tokyo in 2019 and I can’t wait to go back to either of the 2 cities/countries some time in the future with my soon to be wife (and maybe kids).

• Who I am now

While a lot of my interests may have changed or expanded over the last 20+ years, there’s one thing that’s been with me since the late 90s/early 2000s: video games. While the type of games I prefer to play may have slightly changed, I always loved to play ever since I was in my early- to mid-teens. Video games help me to calm down after a stressful day as well as get my focus away from bad/sad thoughts. In some strange way they have always been some kind of therapist for me and I’m glad they exist.

Like with a good book or movie it’s mostly the experience of diving into another world filled with different characters, animals, landscapes, … that help you flee reality and become someone else. The big difference between games and books/movies is, that you actively take part in the story and – in some occasions – also are able to change the outcome. Since I don’t want to start a list of my favourite games and an explanation why I like them I will just keep that for another post in the future

Looks like this has turned out to be more about my hobbies/favourite things than initially intended. But since I don’t want this post to go on for too long I might keep some of my personal preferences for the future.