Another month has gone by, once again. I've been saying that a lot this year, and it's odd because it should feel slow considering how awful the state of the world has become. Aside from the COVID-19 virus still infecting the populace and the protests for Black Lives Matters, racism and homo/transphobia has been a common topic this month. June is pride month which raises awareness and celebrates the challenges and rights those of homosexual orientation or of transgender faces. With so many people bringing up racism and gay rights, those of opposite opinions have also been a lot more aggressive with how they feel. With people anxious of being stuck indoors, they congregate the moment officials said it's okay to go outside as long as they continue to follow social distancing and are careful. Of course, that's not how it went. People went to large gatherings. People didn't want to wear masks. And now, that much more people are infected with the Corona virus and continue to spread it. With the topic of racism and homophobia/transphobia being prevalent, the amount of hate and harassment has been just as high. I haven't even mentioned a worldwide economy crumbling, or foreign tensions between China and India rising, or suicide rates going up because of unchecked mental health within the confinement of one's home, etc. It just seems so scary and intolerable out in the world right now.
I tried to get back into working with a remix.
I wasn't completely satisfied with this remix. But I make do with what I got and didn't want to dwell on this particular project for too long.
While I do try to keep up with current events and news since I'm disconnected from the outside world more than usual, I've tried to put more focus into my work and personal goals. Working on the remix took most of the time out of this month, so I didn't get much done. With Phantasy Star Online 2 finally out in North America, I tried to play as much as possible. But since the game is exclusive to the Microsoft Store, parts of it is undoubtedly linked to Windows. When Windows updated, it broke the game for me after 2.5 weeks of playing the game. I haven't been able to play since then. While I planned out for my next few projects, I knew the summer events were going to distract me and so slowed down on work to put some focus on games. I tried to clear some more games from my Steam library so I can cycle in a new batch of games as well as buy some new ones. So far, a lot of the game announcements throughout June have been rather disappointing and not particularly exciting. New Game+ Expo was last week and the most exciting news was that Ys IX was confirmed to have a Western release, Trails of Cold Steel IV has a release date, and Inti Creates announced Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 for a release on July 10th. Given the slow down in progress because of developers working from home and the fact that we're in the transition period into the next generation of consoles, I guess it's not as surprising to see a lack of games announced this year. With Steam Summer Sales, I feel like a lot of games have stagnated on big discounts and haven't really moved in years. Still, I bought a decent amount of games and having fun with them so far. I'm planning to take this week to play through my new games and hopefully clear some more off my library of games before I start getting back into work. I think I'm going to try to finish the last few example tracks I want to use for my portfolio, set things up and start looking for a job I can possibly work remotely from home. It's not exactly what I had in mind for my entry into the Videogame Industry or as my first full time job in nearly a decade, but I feel like my skills are ready and it gives me a chance to get some experience without worry about moving, paying expenses and such right away. I'm not sure what the environment for hiring is at the moment, but I imagine not a lot of people are seeking potential employees within our given environment.
I was going to try to do some more reading or watch anime, but I'm just constantly always working or clearing through games that I never feel like I have time. I can understand people miss being around other people or wanting to participate in outdoor activities, but it's hard to imagine people getting bored at home considering the sheer amount of indoor activities available to us in our modern day lives. For the month of July, I hope I can get a fair amount of work done as well as clearing more games.
Monday, June 29, 2020
Friday, May 29, 2020
A quick month
I can't believe we're already at the end of May. I decided to spend May on doing the other things I didn't get to do in April: reading books, watching anime, and finishing some games. There were so many things I wanted to talk about throughout the month, but I was always constantly doing something that I never felt like I had the time to reflect on them.
I managed to finally finish reading the first volume of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, yet I still have 3 more to go before I fully complete the story. I got around to watching all of Little Witch Academia so I could finally start playing the game. I loved the anime so much. It was magical, moving, and such a joy to watch. I've started on the game, but it feels very slow and tedious. I also decided to watch all that I could of the Sakura Wars franchise since I was curious about what the original story was about. As I played the newest Sakura Wars game, I couldn't help but wonder if the older games were as cheesy and contrived as the newest one. I watched playthroughs of the original and compared them with the anime adaptation and thought the anime did an incredible job capturing most of the important parts of the game. I absolutely adored the original anime as it far surpasses my expectations of what I wanted out of the franchise: exciting warfare combat, a sense of camaraderie, and those "moments" of romance, drama, and fighting spirit. I also finished playing the newest Sakura Wars and was disappointed with the game since I felt it had all the right tools for a great game but didn't get it right during execution. Still, I'm glad I got to play the game. With that, I only finished two anime shows and I watched the two OVAs for Is the Order a Rabbit?. In terms of games, I had finished Streets of Rage 4, Trials of Mana remake, Oninaki, The Evil Within 2, and Team Sonic Racing aside from a handful of smaller games. I wanted to talk about a lot of these games, but I feel like I don't really have time to.
This month may have felt fast, but it wasn't all fine and dandy. Seanna, our last silkie chicken, passed away on the night of May 19th. Over that past weekend, my dad had already mentioned that she was dying and she wasn't looking too well. Looking at her, I knew it to be true. I was anxious and stressed that whole weekend knowing it was going to happen sometime soon. We had already sat down for dinner and as soon as I was about to take a bite to eat, we saw Seanna flapping frantically. We knew it was coming, but it was still hard. I tried not to get attached to Seanna after losing Powderpuff two years ago, and although it didn't affect me nearly as much this time, it still hurt. More than anything, I was worried about my dad. He didn't eat solid food for a week and is still barely eating solid food now after a week and a half. I stayed off of voice chat with my friends and tried to stay quiet throughout the week to give him some peace and quiet.
With the rest of the world, the lockdown has finally taken its toll. People are protesting, some states are opening back up which has caused another surge of covid-19 cases in certain states, people are losing jobs, unemployment rates and suicide rates have gone up, businesses are closing down, tension between China and Hong Kong/China and USA continue to rise, and a recent case where a black man was killed during an arrest because the officer negligently (or perhaps purposely) applied so much pressure on the man's neck that he suffocated has caused such a stir in the country that every state has protesters yelling for justice. Even worse, it seems that an officer of Minnesota (where the case happened) instigated a riot mentality by going into a Target, destroying things there and stealing merchandise so that others would do it too. With so many people angry and not knowing what to do about it, they followed suit and took their anger out by doing the same. Buildings have been burned, shops are being looted, and chaos spread. Whether it was the instigator's attempt at diverting the media and public's attention away from the case or a way to get everyone riled up so that the police can justify any method of suppressing the riots, it just made a bad situation worse.
I'm just trying to enjoy life right now as best as I can in the situation we're in. I think I might start working again on Monday with the beginning of June. It's hard to believe we're already nearing June. Despite so many events being canceled, the amount of online events taking its place is going to be very interesting for the next three months. Instead of 3 days of E3, there will be announcements from various publishers all throughout the summer. Instead of 3 days of EVO, there will be 5 weekends of competitions, exhibitions, and announcements. I haven't gotten much work done this year, but I'd like to enjoy this year's Summer as well if I can.
Oh yeah, and Phantasy Star Online 2 finally released on PC for North America 2 days ago. After 8 years of waiting, I'm finally playing the game!
I managed to finally finish reading the first volume of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, yet I still have 3 more to go before I fully complete the story. I got around to watching all of Little Witch Academia so I could finally start playing the game. I loved the anime so much. It was magical, moving, and such a joy to watch. I've started on the game, but it feels very slow and tedious. I also decided to watch all that I could of the Sakura Wars franchise since I was curious about what the original story was about. As I played the newest Sakura Wars game, I couldn't help but wonder if the older games were as cheesy and contrived as the newest one. I watched playthroughs of the original and compared them with the anime adaptation and thought the anime did an incredible job capturing most of the important parts of the game. I absolutely adored the original anime as it far surpasses my expectations of what I wanted out of the franchise: exciting warfare combat, a sense of camaraderie, and those "moments" of romance, drama, and fighting spirit. I also finished playing the newest Sakura Wars and was disappointed with the game since I felt it had all the right tools for a great game but didn't get it right during execution. Still, I'm glad I got to play the game. With that, I only finished two anime shows and I watched the two OVAs for Is the Order a Rabbit?. In terms of games, I had finished Streets of Rage 4, Trials of Mana remake, Oninaki, The Evil Within 2, and Team Sonic Racing aside from a handful of smaller games. I wanted to talk about a lot of these games, but I feel like I don't really have time to.
This month may have felt fast, but it wasn't all fine and dandy. Seanna, our last silkie chicken, passed away on the night of May 19th. Over that past weekend, my dad had already mentioned that she was dying and she wasn't looking too well. Looking at her, I knew it to be true. I was anxious and stressed that whole weekend knowing it was going to happen sometime soon. We had already sat down for dinner and as soon as I was about to take a bite to eat, we saw Seanna flapping frantically. We knew it was coming, but it was still hard. I tried not to get attached to Seanna after losing Powderpuff two years ago, and although it didn't affect me nearly as much this time, it still hurt. More than anything, I was worried about my dad. He didn't eat solid food for a week and is still barely eating solid food now after a week and a half. I stayed off of voice chat with my friends and tried to stay quiet throughout the week to give him some peace and quiet.
With the rest of the world, the lockdown has finally taken its toll. People are protesting, some states are opening back up which has caused another surge of covid-19 cases in certain states, people are losing jobs, unemployment rates and suicide rates have gone up, businesses are closing down, tension between China and Hong Kong/China and USA continue to rise, and a recent case where a black man was killed during an arrest because the officer negligently (or perhaps purposely) applied so much pressure on the man's neck that he suffocated has caused such a stir in the country that every state has protesters yelling for justice. Even worse, it seems that an officer of Minnesota (where the case happened) instigated a riot mentality by going into a Target, destroying things there and stealing merchandise so that others would do it too. With so many people angry and not knowing what to do about it, they followed suit and took their anger out by doing the same. Buildings have been burned, shops are being looted, and chaos spread. Whether it was the instigator's attempt at diverting the media and public's attention away from the case or a way to get everyone riled up so that the police can justify any method of suppressing the riots, it just made a bad situation worse.
I'm just trying to enjoy life right now as best as I can in the situation we're in. I think I might start working again on Monday with the beginning of June. It's hard to believe we're already nearing June. Despite so many events being canceled, the amount of online events taking its place is going to be very interesting for the next three months. Instead of 3 days of E3, there will be announcements from various publishers all throughout the summer. Instead of 3 days of EVO, there will be 5 weekends of competitions, exhibitions, and announcements. I haven't gotten much work done this year, but I'd like to enjoy this year's Summer as well if I can.
Oh yeah, and Phantasy Star Online 2 finally released on PC for North America 2 days ago. After 8 years of waiting, I'm finally playing the game!
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