Fears & Failures

Academic

• Still getting used to things at work! Getting more used to working with product teams, but struggling in finding exactly what my role is in the company. Part of me says to pursue interesting research projects and figure out how my work fits in later because that will take time to figure out anyway.
• Gave my first talk as a full-time researcher at Berkeley and got to chat with a lot of great students! It was a good experience even though I only talked about old work since I don’t have anything new to show off yet. 😛
• Went to UIST 2017 in Quebec City, Canada! It was my first time going to Quebec, and I was probably overly nervous about going to a French-speaking place, but it turned out fine! It was my first time going to UIST as well, and it was fun learning about a lot of research areas on creativity support that I’m not familiar with. A couple of paper presentations I enjoyed:
  • Triggering Artwork Swaps for Live Animation
  • Grabity: A Wearable Haptic Interface for Simulating Weight and Grasping in Virtual Reality
  • DreamSketch: Early Stage 3D Design Explorations with Sketching and Generative Design
  • One Reality: Augmenting How the Physical World is Experienced by combining Multiple Mixed Reality Modalities

Art

• Finished Inktober again! It was more exhausting than I expected (I guess now that I have a job that I have to physically commute to), but I did it, and it continues to be one of the things that I am most proud of every year.
• I can now show off the pieces I did for Pokemon Z-food, Memento Lumina (FFXIV player character zine), and Lux Itineris (Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Fanzine, featuring fanart of all the major games in the series). I regret not working harder on the Lux Itineris piece — looking back on it, I see a bunch of mistakes I made in the drawing which is a shame because the zine turned out so gorgeous! Oh well, I guess that means I’ve gotten better in the time between submitting the piece and now.
• Went to CTN Expo as an attendee with a couple of art friends! I know absolutely nothing about animation so this was another event where I got to learn a lot about something new — in my case, what goes into the creative process for 2D and 3D animation. I was also surprised to see the animation industry’s interest in virtual reality. In addition, one friend had taken a class with a Disney 3D animator and had been invited to visit him at the studio, and the rest of us got to tag along to see the campus and a couple of shots he was currently working on! We rounded out our trip with a visit to Daikokuya Ramen (yummm) and Half-and-Half Tea.
• Finished some cover art for a friend’s poetry book!
• Finished my first freelance design project! Go check out the design I did for my sister and brother-in-law’s online card shop, Tabletop Village!

Personal

• Travel: Visited home for an uneventful and relaxing Thanksgiving and Christmas! And went to Quebec for the first time!
• Anime: Osomatsu S2 (fun, but not as good as S1), Shokugeki no Souma S3 (same old stuff, but why can’t I stop watching!?), Blend S (I hate the manager character, but the rest of the characters are great and the comedy is A+), Pokemon Sun and Moon (really, really good!), Digimon Adventure tri (it was OK? I keep forgetting the plot. My love for Adventure is the only thing that’s really keeping me going with this one), Gintama (still one of the only shows that makes me laugh out loud and cry, sometimes in the same episode), Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You (Pikachu!? Wha!? WHY?)
  • Tried: Konohana Kitan (cute, but wasn’t interesting enough to keep going with it?), The Ancient Magus’ Bride (a bit creepy, may come back to this one), Love Live Sunshine S2 (same! old! plot!), Kino no Tabi (I really really really wanted to like this since I love the old series but it was a bit boring… I’m not sure why.)
  • Want to try: Girls’ Last Tour, Houseki no Kuni
• Games: Layton’s Mystery Journey (very Layton-y and cute!), FFXIV Patch 4.1 (caught up with the story, our FC nabbed a Shirogane house, I did my first Savage fight, leveled a bunch of crafters to 60), The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp (cute but super repetitive! I’ve given up on it now)
  • Still working through Persona 5!
  • I started Pokemon Ultra Sun, but I can’t bring myself to finish it. I thought it was a sequel like Black and White 2, but it’s more like a remake?
• Books: I, uh, didn’t read anything since the last blog post. Still reading “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success” in small chunks.
• Podcasts: I was unsure at first about The Adventure Zone: Commitment, but Clint McElroy turned out to be a great dungeon master! He teaches theater, after all. I’m now a regular listener to The Polygon Show, which is a great way to get video game updates from a wonderful, funny group of women. Wonderful! continues being a good source of positivity every week.
• Other:
  • Watched all of Dad of Light with some friends! It was really cute, the story was strong, and they had some funny moments just for players while keeping it accessible to a general audience.
  • Went to the Presidio Picnic for the first time (on the last weekend it was happening this year!) I’ll definitely have to try and go more often next year!