My Flipnote Hatena Experience

Hello Blog Readers of all kinds. My name is Jake Davis, also known as Neon™ from Hatena. Its been a long time since I've used Hatena for anything, or even thought of it. Hatena brought so much good into my life, during a time I needed it the most. I'm sure there is some Neon fan out there wondering how life has gone for me since the closure of Flipnote. Although the real reason I am writing this is because I don't feel like I had any closure after Hatena ended. It was just, boom. All of the sudden my 500 fans no longer had access to my work, and I had no access to them. It felt much too sudden for me. So hopefully I can make myself feel better knowing that people know I'm fine. That sounds super weird but whatever. :P

So, I started posting on Hatena in 7th Grade when a friend stayed at my house for a week. We loved making flipnotes. Spritework, stick figure comedies, it was just a fun way to pass time. I soon started up again later under the name Awesome™, where I began to really focus on the quality of my flipnotes; better drawings, original characters, lip syncing, etc. My style and O.Cs at the time were motivated by $R0N4LD$, another famous flipnote maker. Things were looking good, I had about a hundred fans at the peak of this point in Hatena. 

8th Grade rolled around. I decided to leave my ghetto public school and was faced with a tough decision; skip a grade into High school or homeschool a year. It was the hardest, most life changing decision i've ever made, and I made the wrong decision. I decided to homeschool, and being a social butterfly, i kinda fell into a depression because i never interacted with anybody anymore. This was a bad point in my life, yet as silly as it seems I thrived on the attention I got from my fans on Hatena. I tried my best to please my fans and see my flipnote in the most popular section. I then decided yet again to change my name and animating style. I went from being Awesome™ to Splash to the name that finally stuck, Neon™. My style changed so much, going from humanoid drawings to stick figures. This change really heed me to learn how to animate, so much so, I made a few flipnotes about it.

At this point I was finally getting recognized by the community. I got to do a Collab with Squirt, another famous creator. There are very few people who can say they did that. I was featured in $R0N4LD$s flipnotes, one of my role models put me in a Flipnote. All this glory was great, but at the same time, very stressful. I am such a perfectionist, and a pleaser. Combine the two with Hatena, and you get many sleepless nights, and a lot of self stress. So there were many times I felt unmotivated, I didn't want to start something I knew would take all of my spare time up. Many times I tried quitting, but came back each and every time to please you guys, the fans I had. 

I finally made it through the year. The worst year of my life was over. I started highschool, which took up anytime I had for flipnotes. I slowly faded away from the Flipnote community, sometimes returning for brief periods of time. Near the end of Hatena, I put out as many flipnotes as I could. I ended on a relatively good note. It was a ending that was much needed. I finally moved on from it and continued moving on through life, always remembering the friends I had there who I may never see or hear from ever again. 

 

SO WHERE AM I NOW???

 

One full year has passed since Hatena shut down. I am now a Junior in High School, 16 years old, and The secretary of my teeny tiny High School. I have plans to run for the president next year, we will see how that works out. :P I am really into singing, and I sing Tenor in my school's highest choir. I have a ton of friends, yet sadly no girlfriend. :P I have not continued animation at all since the close of Hatena, I don't think I have the patience to persue that as a career. I am taking Calculus, and am going to be very very busy the rest of the summer with that. A blog however is something I wouldn't mind continuing. I will try to post on here as often as I can without being annoying. So that about wraps up this. Last thing I would like to say, thank you to everyone that supported me during my Hatena career. If we ever get a Hatena 3D I would love to see you guys on there. Stay true to yourselves and stay awesome! 

-Jake