Difference between revisions of "Shawn Budwal"

Latest revision as of 05:05, 20 March 2024

Introduction

Shawn Singh Budwal (Born November 18, 1999) was the Webmsater and later Secretary of Minna no Anime. He started his work as an officer as Webmaster in 2018 and served as such until 2021. He was preceded by Hannah Wilkins and succeeded by Tomas Ludin. After this, he was elected Secretary for the 2021-2022 school year. His notable accomplishments include extensive collaborative organizational work for club events (such as the annual Halloween Party and 30th Anniversary Party) and the complete aesthetic overhaul of the Minna no Anime website. He is also known as an openly-homosexual member of club, as well as being of Indian descent.

Shawn Budwal grew up in Folsom, California. He attended Folsom High School and entered Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as an Animal Science major in 2017, but changed his major to Biological Sciences in 2019 with a concentration in Wildlife Biology and Biodiversity Conservation. He joined Minna no Anime at the Halloween Party during his freshman year, and was appointed as the next Webmaster in winter quarter. While having no significant history with computing before his appointment, his officership suffered no problems due to prior inexperience in coding. He began running weekly Trivia Nights at Thursday Hangout meetings during Winter 2022, which continued until he graduated later that year and was picked up by other officers afterward.

Officer Positions

And don't you forget it <3

Early Life & Personality

Shawn Budwal was born in San Jose, California, on November 18th, 1999. However, his family moved to Folsom, California, a few years later and have remained there ever since. Growing up, he participated in recreational soccer, swim, and theater and was very involved in the Boy Scouts of America - where he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He has described his hometown as a “bubble." He struggles with issues of self-esteem and fitting into social groups, which stem from his elementary and middle school experiences, and even defined his middle-school years as the worst of his life. Budwal realized that he was not heterosexual when he was a sophomore in high school and currently identifies as gay. At the end of the Winter 2021 quarter, he came out to his parents. Prior to this point, he had only been open about his sexuality with his friends and local community. Along with this, he has been in a committed relationship since the Fall quarter of his freshman year (2017).

Budwal is 5’9” (although he claims that it depends on who measures him) with brown skin, naturally black hair, and glasses with black or clear frames. During the fall quarter of his junior year, he started to experiment with dying his hair, leading to one school year where he had red hair. He also wears a metal bracelet on his right wrist to signify his religious status as a Sikh. He has a noted enthusiasm for jackets and sweaters.

Budwal is known for being a self-described “himbo, but not attractive… just dumb and loud.” His main strengths are his honesty, passion, and level of commitment, but he has been criticized for being overly emotional at times. This has led to him getting into heated discussions with other members of the club. He is very open to personal conversations and has been public about his mental, physical, and emotional struggles throughout his college experience.

Anime

Introduction to Anime:

Budwal considers himself to have engaged with anime on three separate occasions before realizing his love for the medium. The first was his childhood, when he would watch whatever cartoons were broadcast on TV. Some of these included anime, such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, but the first series he ever completed was Dinosaur King. However, he does not consider this to be when he became attached to anime, since these were the 4Kids localized broadcasts. His family was not subscribed to channels that aired mature series such as Adult Swim or Toonami and he wasn’t even aware that these shows were categorized as anime at the time.

The second occasion was in middle school. His school library contained several manga series, including Fruits Basket and Naruto. The former was the first manga series he ever completed, and he also watched all of the 2001 adaptation. Although he didn’t complete the latter due to a lack of volumes at the school, he did get far into the series and watched some of the anime as well. However, after engaging with these two series, he had no significant interaction with anime or manga until his high school years.

The third instance in which he became involved with anime was during his sophomore and junior years of high school. Having knowledge of the Corpse Party video game series, he watched the OVAs, but he does not attribute this to sparking his interest in anime since he does not have a positive opinion of the adaptation. After this, he completed Your Lie in April, but again, does not associate it with getting invested in anime. To him, it was Death Parade that convinced him to watch more anime. When he finished it, he thought to himself, “this seems like something that I need to get into,” in regards to anime in general. He watched more series throughout his later high school years and started keeping up with seasonals after joining the club.

Favorite Series:

Budwal considers many different series to be among his “favorites.” However, if he were to narrow it down to his top 9 TV shows, they would be Nichijou, Baccano!, Haikyuu!!, Katanagatari, Land of the Lustrous, the Monogatari Series, 3-gatsu no Lion, Hibike! Euphonium, and Mononoke.

However, he would include Tatami Galaxy (+ The Night is Short, Walk on Girl), Hyouka, Ping Pong the Animation, Millennium Actress, In This Corner of the World, Wolf Children, Acca-13, Gintama, Durarara!!, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mob Psycho 100, Mawaru Penguindrum, Death Parade, Cowboy Bebop, Heartcatch! Precure, Paranoia Agent, Run With the Wind, Casshern Sins, Shirobako, Konosuba!, Little Witch Academia, Kill la Kill, and And Yet the Town Moves in his overall favorites.

He considers his favorite studios to be Kyoto Animation, BONES, Science Saru, and Trigger.

Random Trivia

> Was the self-proclaimed "Weebmaster" of the website.

> Loves anime OPs and EDs.

> Loves to talk about his British heritage.

> Loves cake (pretty much all kinds).

> He was the only officer absent for the 2019-2020 Halloween party (due to attending a funeral for his grandfather in England). However, he made significant contributions to the organization of the event.

> He scored a 32 on his ACT.

> His favorite video game series include Persona, Nier: Automata, Fire Emblem, Super Smash Bros, Pokemon, and Legend of Zelda (exclusively the Breath of the Wild timeline as he hasn’t played the others yet).

> His favorite characters include Lukas from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Spider-Man from Marvel Comics, Ryuji Sakamoto from Persona 5, Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3, Daichi Sawamura from Haikyuu!!, Meisai Tsuruga from Katanagatari, Ougi Oshino and Tsubasa Hanekawa from Monogatari, Nice Holystone from Baccano!, and Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop.

> His favorite color is red. He's even dyed his hair red before.

> His favorite meat is pork.

> His favorite music artists are Lady Gaga, Qveen Herby, iyla, Rina Sawayama, Myth & Roid, Yakushimaru Etsuko, MARINA, and Charli XCX.

> He likes tarot cards and horoscopes, although he doesn't really believe in them. He's a Scorpio by western zodiac, Rabbit by the Chinese zodiac, and feels closest to the Tower arcana.

Quotations and Other Anecdotes

"Yes, it's her!" (Context: Second episode of Psycho Pass when Shion Karanomori (the technician) was introduced in an interesting manner. Note that this comment was whispered, yet the entire club still managed to hear it. XD)

"Crying in the club. Sobbing at the spa. Weeping by the window"

• Alternative: ”crying in the club, sobbing in the shower, weeping in Walmart, dying in Denny’s...”

”I think the fuck not you trick ass bitch!”

"I make up for lost time with my overwhelming presence!"

"Do you know what else of mine is longer than yours?" (context: he must be talking about his ego)

“Every time Spike (Cowboy Bebop) speaks, I orgasm multiple times.”

"I want to be able to throw a building, I want to be able to shoot lasers out of my mouth, I want to be able to hear my neighbors having sex" (Context: I'm just as confused as you are on this one.) (Update: the conversation was about superpowers, about him wanting one. Unsure about the examples though...)

"I need to ask you a question, but I need you to not interpret anything from it ... How long do you think you're going to be in school for?"

"Bitch I am literally the patron saint of this organization, y'all should be grateful that you are permitted to bask in my presence."

"OK MEMER"

"I don't want his genetics, I want his genetic material."

"Take your fucking spaghetti monsters and get the fuck out." (Note, the conversation was about religion.)

"I'm incompetent without being drunk."

"Wait? Are you just wearing a shirt with pants?"

"based pogchamp" (note: he hates the phrase "pog")

"I really really love Imaishi. Like wow, I’m alive at the same time as him. My skin is clear; my mind is at peace; my crops have been watered."

"If Jon (Jonathan Skelly) ever touches [Discord] channel permissions again I'm going to eat his game cartridges."

"What are you talking about? This is my club, my job is to oppress you."

"kinda quirky though"

"So anyways, the weather."

"With enough alcohol, you can fly anywhere, and you don't even need a plane."

"Well, let me ask the audience"

"What are you going to do? Block me?"

"I JUST WANT TO BE GAT AND THAT'S IT NO MORE OF THIS "LIFE" BULLSHIT"

What Others Say

"he 90% gay, 10% Bayonetta" -Kellen Dobson

"This guy is a meme but that's why we love him" -Avery Whelan

"He's obviously the MC of a slice of life. Have you not seen the red hair?" -Conrad Kinsey

"If shawn was trapped in a box he would fight with himself." -Dylan Winick