I did so much travelling at the end of 2018, and the holidays were super busy! As a result, I think most of my notes are going to be in the Personal section (sorry, job and hobbies…)
Academic
- Went on a bunch of work trips! I visited our Seattle office twice and visited the New York office once! It’s always great to see people in person.
- Finished a bunch of reviews for CHI 2019.
- I cannot believe it’s intern recruiting season again! I feel like I barely just finished with the summer. Time to think about projects for next year.
Art
- Finished my entry for the FFXIV NA Fan Fest art contest! I did a bit of real-time panic on Twitter, so you can see how I progressed. I did make it as a finalist, which made me really happy.
- I did Inktober this year again! It’s so exhausting but I love love love doing Inktober, and I always feel so accomplished at the end of the month. I feel like I wasn’t as adventurous with compositions this year, but I think I did a better job telling stories with my illustrations.
- I tabled at the Geek Girl Con artist alley, which was my first convention in Seattle! It’s small, but well-organized and the vibe of the convention was really positive and relaxed. I’m definitely going to look into attending again next year.
- I got my first wholesale order! A number of the phone charms I designed will be sold at a REAL, PHYSICAL store (the Mox Boarding House in Seattle) in the next month or so, which is nuts! I wish I could go see it on display in person!
- I leveled-up my knitting skills! I made some mini-stockings (learned how to knit fair-isle!) and some stuffed animals (learned how to knit in the round!) as Christmas presents.
- Right at the end of the year, started working on some new illustrations for Nintendo-themed birthday cards! I managed to finish this Animal Crossing birthday illustration just before the new year.
Personal
- I participated in VoterCon! No, really. I’m going to do my best to be more vocal about civic participation and I am sure as heck going to be on top of voting!
- Conventions! I went to Blizzcon for the first time, survived the lines, and spent pretty much the whole time at the Starcraft 2 stage and watched a non-Korean player win the world championship for the first time in Starcraft’s 20 year history. I also went to FFXIV Fan Fest in Las Vegas and (despite being a little sick) had a lot of fun with friends, hearing about new game updates, and of course, enjoying the Primals concert!
- My boyfriend’s family visited from Singapore and Australia! They hung out in California while I was visiting my parents in Seattle, then they came up to the Pacific Northwest and we had fun looking around Seattle and Portland.
- More D&D! I didn’t do as much DMing since my players and I were all travelling a lot these few months, but I kept up with the campaign that I’m a player in. I also ended up running a mini-session of Mines of Phandelver for my boyfriend and his sister while we were traveling together, by printing out some premade characters in our hotel lobby!
- Some new things I tried:
- Went to a golf driving range for the first time over Thanksgiving because my mom has been learning golf and wanted to go.
- Bought a few little succulents for the home and office! I’m really enjoying having them with me.
- Games: Deltarune: Chapter 1 (really enjoyable! great music, art, characters so far), FFXIV (mostly crafting and botanist leveling), FFXV (I finally finished it! I understand now while people are crying over it all the time, ahh)
- I tried out quitting mobages (Dragalia and Granblue mostly) and it’s amazing how much more free time I feel like I have! Definitely going to stick with it as much as I can.
- Started playing Earthbound, Let’s Go: Pikachu, Smash Ultimate! So many games to play…
- Board games: Tea Dragon Society (very very cute art, but not very strategically deep), Fog of Love (interesting, feels a little too real sometimes), Azul (ideal hangout game), Unstable Unicorn (fun, feels like a shorter, less intense Munchkin), Tokyo Highway (really tactile and fun!). I also got my first tarot deck on a whim, which has been fun to play with!
- Anime: Revue Starlight (it was really good! Recommended if you like magical realism), Little Witch Academia (finished! Very cute, and the story was more solid than I expected), Gintama, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (enjoyable so far!), Voltron S7 (it’s… finally over? It’s a nice background show, I feel pretty neutral about the overall story), Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas (cute! cute!!!)
- Tried: Sword Art Online Aliciziation (why do I keep trying to watch Sword Art), SSSS Gridman, Tsurune, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- I also went to see the SF Symphony perform The Nightmare Before Christmas! This was actually my first time watching the film, though I was familiar with the music. I actually found it a little scary… how did little kids watch this? 😛