This past month and a half have been kind of rough. I got sick in the beginning of June with my allergies acting up at the same time which lead to a cough that lasted for weeks. Shortly after E3, there was news on the disappearance of Desmond "Etika" Amofah and a few days later it was reported that he had taken his own life. Earlier in the week, I was told that a relative of ours from China was in town and will be joining us for dinner. I was excited as I haven't seen them in 13 years. But immediately after, I was also told that their mother had passed away the night before. It was shocking and devastating to hear such news. So as happy as I was to see them, I didn't know what to say and felt feel sorrow for their loss. Yesterday, news broke out that a man had gone to the Kyoto Animation Studio building, poured flammable fluid all over the building and lit it on fire. From the last update, 33 people had died and 29 more were sent to the hospital including the suspect. It was sad enough to hear such an event occurred in Japan (Japan is supposed to be really safe!), but the amount of lives it claimed and affected is unnerving. Whatever drove that man to do such a thing can't be justified. Those affected didn't deserve this.
Originally, I wanted to make a post talking about Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and SolSeraph, but I feel like this isn't particularly the time to do so. I've been so busy that I haven't really had time to do things like make posts about the games I've played. I had agreed to help a friend out on a project he was working on and I've dedicated these past 2.5 weeks towards that work. I can't really talk about it much, but I can say that I went through a list of 300 mobile games to test and analyze. Whenever I did have time, I've been playing through the new games I got during Steam Summer Sale.
So for the past three days, I've been just sorting out my thoughts and figuring out what to do from here. In terms of entertainment, Fire Emblem Three Houses releases next Friday, EVO 2019 is a week after that, Astral Chain releases at the end of August, Daemon X Machina comes out two weeks after that, and Code Vein comes out at the end of September. So my plate is pretty full in terms of Videogames the next three months or so. In terms of productivity, I think I want to start going to the gym again this upcoming Monday. I know I've been ignoring my health again with going to sleep late and not exercising. I'm going to try to finish up the remix I was working on before the end of the month. Then I need to figure out what I want to do next because there's just too much I want to do right now. I want to be able to revisit my previous work and remaster them, work on new remixes, work on original work for my portfolio, learn and create animations that I've had ideas for years now, record my past piano arrangements, etc. I feel my mind wandering and feeling unfocused ever since I got back from Japan earlier this year. It still feels like a dream, having gone to Japan and experience what it had to offer there. I have been able to focus enough to work on improving mastering, but I feel like I'm not getting enough work done this year. But the fact that I'm still motivated to learn, improve, and produce work is enough to get me on the right path. I don't know my exact plans yet for the rest of the year, but I'd like to finish that remix first more than anything.
