Chronicles: 2019 Winter

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Academic

  • Attended my company’s big internal technical conference (Tech Summit) in February! I even gave a talk on how cool crowdsourcing is! (Since, you know, that’s my area of expertise.) It was a good chance to learn about what engineers in the company are up to.
  • I’m one of the posters & demos chairs for Creativity & Cognition 2019 this year! This involves a lot of, well, organizing and (real talk here) floundering because this is my first time organizing ANYTHING for a conference! But it’s a lot of fun — I hope I can help make the conference a good experience for everyone!

Art

Personal

  • Had a great time watching AGDQ 2019!
    • I really enjoyed the Rayman 2 run (really great commentary); watching Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight made me want to play it; and of course, enjoyed the TASBot block.
  • Killed my first succulent 🙁 But I got another one! I now know to keep them away from humidifiers and closer to sunny windows.
  • I went to a cat show near me on a whim! It was really interesting and fun! I have no idea how the judging works, but it was neat seeing all the pretty cats and the judges’ commentary on them.
  • I got really into tarot in the past couple months! (The deck I bought was the Kawaii Tarot.) I’ve always been a bit of a interest in folklore, superstition, and religion, and am super fascinated about how these have developed over time and how different cultures and times have related to it. It seems like a fun brainstorming tool — I’ve seen a couple of blog posts around on how people use tarot to write stories or develop characters. I’m going to have to try it out!
  • Kept up with my regular DMing sessions and also played in a friend’s one-shot Mage game where I was a cranky goddess disguised as a village elder! I enjoyed being a cranky old lady.
  • As one of my New Year’s resolutions, I’m trying to be more eco-friendly! I’m focusing on recycling things I didn’t before (cough take-out containers and boba cups) and now have a compost bag in our house for organic waste. I also bought a reusable boba cup and straw that I’ve already made good use out of because I drink way too much boba!
  • Games: FFXIV patch 4.5 (leveled all my gatherers to 60+ too!), Celeste (fun, challenging, easy to pick up anytime kind of game!), The Return of the Obra Dinn (spooky and difficult, very rewarding), Granblue Fantasy (What Makes the Sky Blue III), Let’s Go Pikachu, Doki Doki Literature Club (why. why did I play this.)
    • Still playing through Kingdom Hearts 3 and Smash Ultimate. Started up Rune Factory 4 again, too! (Hopefully I’ll finally get through the third story arc so I can finish the game!)
    • Boardgames: Wingspan (cute, easy game), 2-player Betrayal at the House on the Hill (works surprisingly well!)
  • Anime: She-Ra (cute), That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (positive and fun fantasy shenanigans), SSSS Gridman (I was really into this, but the ending kinda got away), Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (fun so far, not sure how I feel about Giorno!), Kaguya-sama: Love is War (REALLY FUN. I think my favorite anime of the season!), Hinamatsuri (funny, great animation, really sweet), Gintama, Skull Face Bookseller Honda-san (ok funny, good background show), Neo Yokio (So. SO. SO BAD. SO BAD IT’S GOOD? What did I watch??)
    • Tried: Zombieland Saga, Saint Seiya Saintia Sho
    • Not anime, but I finished watching all of Friends on Netflix, so I guess I’m officially caught up on pop culture now.
  • Books: Way of the House Husband, The Creative Tarot, Enchantments, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, Light Magic for Dark Times, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun Vol. 8, My Solo Exchange Diary, The Power of Myth, Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes
    • I’m so proud of myself for reading more this year!

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