Good progress, but not enough

I wanted to use the time in May to work on and finish a new remix I had planned out already and to spend a bit more time on games to work on my backlog so I can cycle in some new games before my pre-orders start coming in the next 3 months.  Getting the remix started was a small bit of trouble.  It always is when I'm starting with nothing and having to build the basis for the track and trying to remember what I wanted the remix to sound like while working on it.  But once I got the main parts down, filling in the rest of it was a lot easier.  Despite the time I put into the work, I'm only about 50-60% done.  I was hoping to finish by the end of the month, but that seems highly unlikely now since I want to do a bit of house work the next few days before my mom comes back from her trip.  The remix is coming along nicely, but I have a lot more work to do before it's even close to finish and definitely going to bleed into a good portion of June before I finish.  I still have a lot of work I want to finish before I fully update my portfolio and start applying for jobs again with it, so it's got me a bit worried.  It especially has me worried since June is approaching.  E3, Steam Summer Sales, Summer Games Done Quick, EVO and a few pre-ordered games are going to be impeding on my focus and productivity throughout the Summer as it usually does.  Still, I'm looking forward to all those things this year and feel pretty excited that it's almost time for them.

In terms of completing games this month, I managed to get through a whopping 10 games!  Unfortunately, they were all on PC with the exception of one being a mobile game.  I wanted to focus a bit more on console games this past month so I can delete some games on my PS4 to free up space for the new games coming in the next few months (I really hate how data is managed and stored for PS4).  I got back on my PS4 last night to try to get through more of Uncharted 4 since it's taking up 63 GB and Lapis x Labyrinth released today.  Looking through a game guide, I'm only halfway through the game.  On the bright side, I finished a good portion of my priority list on PC and am close to ready to cycle in a new batch.  There are a LOT of games I want to play next on PC and so the next list of games is a bit intimidating.  Even with the semi-extra time I've spent on games this past month, I feel like I'm still not putting enough time into them.  There just doesn't feel like there's enough time in the day to do everything.  Last month, all my time was spent on reading and working.  This month, all my time was spent working and getting through backlog games.  There isn't time for other things I want and NEED to do.  I miss watching animé.  It's been a long time since I've had time to sit down to just watch a show and relax (other than watching High Score Girl with my sister when I got back from Japan earlier this year).  I couldn't help it and watched the first episode of Wataten yesterday.  It's......weird to say the least, but it's filled with cuteness and humor.  In terms of what I NEED to do, it's exercise.  Taking the time out of the day to exercise is a lot more than one would think until you start releasing how much less time is taken out for everything else you do in the day.  I did some walking every now and then this past month, but I need actual cardio.

I'm not sure what's in store or planned these next 3 months, but I'm hoping to get some work done along with all the fun that I'll (hopefully) have.

April ended too quickly

I'm actually surprised by how focused and productive I've been the past month.  Much like last year, I wanted to spend the month of April reading and I wanted to make a better effort this year than I did last year.  Although I've only finished 1.5 books, I did stick to the reading this month by reading 3-4 hours a day.  I started with a book written by a family friend called "The Lu Family Saga".  It talks about the many revolutions and wars China went through in the past century and her family's involvement in it.  It was a surprisingly easy read as it was about a history I wasn't very familiar with.  Right after finishing that book, I went back to continuing reading the Hellgate: London trilogy of books I bought over a decade ago.  I had recently finished playing the Hellgate: London videogame for the first time and felt inclined to finish the books.  I was halfway through the 2nd book before I stopped nearly 10 years ago since I last read it.  I'm currently on the 3rd and last book and think I can finish it sometime next week.  It was surprising to me that I remember all the characters and what happened before.  Still, that's only 1.5 books I finished and I had planned to read quite a few more books.

How I managed each day this past month was reading the first half of the day and then working on practicing "mastering" audio work the last half of the day.  I keep saying "I'll stop early today to play some games" everyday but never managed to do so.  After learning about being able to master my audio tracks last year, I really wanted to practice and learn how to use the program to make my music sound better.  So I've been going through my previous work and try to remaster each one.  I haven't finished that many as two particular tracks had me going back to them for 3 weeks because I was always unsatisfied with something.  I'm definitely getting better and it's making it easier to get through, but I can certainly tell I have a lot more to learn.  Which, by the way, here is my remix from December:


This was the most complicated video I've created for a music upload.  I experimented and learned a lot.

Because of reading and my work habits this month, I realized it's taking a bit of a toll on me.  I haven't been exercising, I'm making less time for playing games, and I feel more drained.  I'm hoping to balance this a bit during May.  I plan on working on a new remix I have a strong idea for while taking the time to get through some more games.  I feel restless with the games I'm playing and I'm in that mode where I feel like I'm playing more to complete a game rather than to have fun with it.  Maybe that's true and I just need to put a bit more time into games since I really want to.  I can tell my brain is looking for that stimulation as I've been staying up late at nights the past week just to play a bit more.  I'd rather not ruin my sleep schedule that I've worked so hard on trying to correct.  Besides that, I'd like to get back into exercising of some sort.  If I don't go to the gym or go out walking, I'm hoping I can do some floor exercise mini-games while I'm playing games.

If things go according to plan, May should prove to be an entertaining and productive month.