Coral Amber

About Coral Amber

The author: I'm a 20-something small town girl from Illinois. I see myself as a playful individual who is straightforward and has a somewhat sarcastic bite. I'm just as likely to throw out a witty comment as I am to do something completely goofy like balance a spoon on my nose in public. Also, I'm a bit of a geek and I get excited over stuff like robots, dressing up as a character from Firefly for Halloween, or seeing a new anime movie in the theatre.

I started my first online journal in 2000 as a way to stay in touch with friends while I studied abroad. I used to travel quite a bit and I have lived in the UK, Paris, and Tokyo; but Japan was my absolute favorite. I've done a tiny bit of freelance writing, and my first published article was a review of the first Harry Potter movie that I wrote in 2000 for my online journal and was picked up by a local paper. I also was a columnist for the "Kawaii Culture" column on the Tokyopop website for a few months. I'm currently studying Library Science and have moved back to my hometown.

This website: This is a fun, personal website where I link to things I like, talk about my interests, review books, movies, and tv, publish doodles & jottings, and generally be creative.

My current tagline is Kaizen, Kawaii, Moxie!

Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning "small continual improvement" and I use it because I tend to focus too much on big changes and then get frustrated and overwhelmed. I want to focus on small things like doodles, quick links to click on, and writing shorter pieces.

Kawaii is the Japanese word for "cute" and that's just part of my personality. I'll post a funny lolcats picture or a list of my current favs whenever the mood strikes me. It cheers me up and maybe you too.

Moxie (an English word!) means having spirit, courage, and maybe being a little feisty. I used to be shy growing up, but now I'm quite opinionated and I'm sure that will come out in my brainstorms and reviews.

The design was inspired by some of my favorite manga artists, Sho Murase and CLAMP. I took some art from their manga and altered it in Paint.net to make the banner and the background. I grabbed a font I felt was most like my handwriting and used stickers from Scrapblog to develop the heart icon. Special thanks to the folks at Learning Movable Type and my friend Chris who helped me through many internet induced headaches.

Books: So Yesterday | The Mediator Series | Free Stallion | The Wand in the Word | The Tipping Point | Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs | 52 Projects | Tsubasa Series | Genshiken

Television: Grey's Anatomy | Heist | Bones | Firefly | Buffy the Vampire Slayer | A Vision of Escaflowne | Cowboy BeBop | Chobits

Movies: Love Actually | Shawshank Redemption | Serenity | Freaky Friday | Since You've Been Gone | High Fidelity | Nausicaa

Music: Rachel Yamagata, Happenstance | Shannon Curfman, Loud Guitars Big Suspicions | Maroon 5, Songs about Jane | The Killers, Hot Fuss | Jem, Finally Woken | Howie Day, Stop All the World Now | Gavin Degraw, Chariot | Smallville Sountrack, Metropolis Mix | Veronica Mars Soundtrack | Freaky Friday Soundtrack | Punk Goes Pop