Chronicles: 2018 Summer

Academic

  • Finished serving on the CSCW 2018 program committee! It was my first time in a PC meeting and seeing the paper acceptance process behind-the-scenes… I didn’t have any papers that I needed to particularly champion, so a lot of it was me observing how more experienced folks talked about the value of different kinds of research work. I think I learned a lot.
  • I served on the Scholarship committee at work! It was a pretty intense process of reading applications, meeting with the other committee members, and holding interviews… but it’s definitely a rewarding process, especially because you get to interact with so many great students.
  • Finished up my summer internships! All my interns started on papers for CHI, but we decided not to submit and work on fleshing them out a bit more for a future conference deadline. I’ll be continuing to work on these projects with my interns!
  • Accepted a few roles for Creativity & Cognition 2019, which will be in San Diego! I’ll be serving as a mentor for the Graduate Symposium and as one of the Posters & Demos Chairs.
  • Spent some spare time learning React and Node! I think one of my goals for the rest of this year (or next year?) will be to use these as much as possible to try and get a good understanding of it.
  • My company decided to write a Researcher Spotlight article about me and my research :O

Art

  • Tabled at Anime Expo‘s Artist Alley! IT WAS. SO. HOT. OUTSIDE. Fortunately the temperature in the artist alley was totally fine! I feel like they made a lot of improvements this year — they included this reserved rest area for artists and artist helpers which was a great place to take a break from the crowds and eat some food away from all my precious merch! I hope they bring it back next year.
    • I usually don’t take commissions at AX because traffic is so crazy, but I did end up taking one commission for a repeat customer that was fun to work on!
  • I also tabled at Crunchyroll Expo‘s Artist Alley! I had a couple of new pieces a merch, including a sketchbook of my Inktober drawings from 2017 and a small Nier Automata fanart print (that I had to get rush printed because I finished the game and drew some fanart last minute!). I also did a bunch of commissions, including probably my favorite drawing I’ve ever done for someone.
  • Got into Geek Girl Con‘s Artist Alley! I’m excited because this will be my first Seattle convention and I’ll be meeting lots of artists and attendees I’ve never met before!
  • Added all the new merch I’ve made so far this year to the Etsy store!
  • I have been bad about doing my weekly comics. 😐 I think I let all this convention prep get the better of me…

Personal

  • Highlight of the quarter: I MET YASUHIRO WADA (the creator of Harvest Moon) AT AX AND GAVE HIM MY HARVEST MOON FANART AND I THINK HE LIKED THEM! I also got to get his autograph (and made some friends in the autograph line — so nice to chat with other Harvest Moon fans!)
  • Got my tickets to FFXIV Fan Fest! I actually missed out on tickets, but it turned out that an FC member was able to snag a couple. See you all in Las Vegas!
  • Attended the Distant Worlds concert with some friends!
  • My boyfriend and I babysat a friend’s kittens for a few weeks and had a lovely time! Eevee is a super sweet, smart Abyssinian and Bansky the Bombay is a little terror that wants to hunt everything in sight (but is still very cute).
  • Tried a bunch of stuff to try and get more healthy. Started playing tennis on the weekends, and also started seeing a chiropractor and dietician for some other issues, though I’m not sure if I’ll keep doing it in the long term. We’ll see how it goes!
  • I’m learning how to knit! I’m teaming up with someone at work to create a knitted Welcome Blanket that will go to refugees entering the U.S.
  • Anime:
    • Hanebado (was really excited for this, but I can’t get into the characters), Hinamatsuri (surprisingly funny and sweet), Cells at Work! (feels a bit too edutainment-y), BNHA (of course), Chuunibyou movie (super fluffy and romantic!), Asobi Asobase (I very reluctantly find this show hilarious), Harukana Receive (wanted girl’s sports anime, got fanservice… boo), Chio’s School Road (just ok), Gintama (I am never going to catch up), Voltron Season 6 (I mean, I’m just in too deep now)
  • Games:
    • Went on a mobage downloading frenzy (FF Dissidia Opera Omnia, Grow Stone, Digimon Links, Dragon Village M, Idle Poring, and got back into Tiny Farm and Pokemon Go a little, please, someone help), Little Dragons Cafe (very cute but it’s laggy loading times makes it kinda hard to play), Rune Factory 4 (I still haven’t unlocked the third story arc but I finally managed to start dating some of the characters!), Story of Season: Trio of Towns (really addicting and cute!), and caught up on FFXIV patch 4.3 and 4.4.
    • I finished Nier Automata, and oh my god, what a crazy game. It defied all my expectations, to the point where I can’t decide if I even like the game or not.
    • Watching a lot of Starcraft recently! I only played the game a bit when I was younger, but I found that I enjoy spectating!
  • Lots of D&D this month!
    • My players and I managed to keep to a monthly schedule, and I think I really grew as a DM — I had the epiphany that I should be rewarding players for their own actions, even if I have to hastily improv something a little sloppy/dumb, rather than rewarding them for being able to read the preconceived scenarios that I have in my mind. That seems to work out way better (at least for my players). We also had a fun session where one of my friends joined us as a temporary guest player where he died at the end, and that was all very exciting and the scenario actually managed to bring a little emotion to the table. Success!
    • I also joined a separate D&D campaign as a player, this time with some grad school friends! It feels so good to not have to prep for sessions 🙂