7.16.19

I felt like recapping a bit about some online and personal stuff, it's been awhile.

I'm moving out of New York City! Finally. I've lived here ~6 years and although it's been a good ride, I've definitely had enough. I've grinded out most of my 20s working here- it can be downright exhausting to keep up a professional working lifestyle while trying to keep up other hobbies and interests around here. It was cool to be in a cultural epicenter for starting out my career, but it's no place I want to stick around. The people, the space, the ungodly filth, and work atmosphere, it's been enough. I don't at all think negatively about my time here, but I know sticking around any longer will be detrimental all around, so it's a good time to move on. I got approved to work remotely for my current company which is pretty cool, first employee to do it at our modest size.

I'm moving to Nashville area in about a month. For a bunch of reasons, including to get my own space, will likely be looking for a house after some time. Plan is to move in with some pals in the area for a short while then move on. Also I've been a bit on the sidelines of playing music in NYC - I've had two singer-songwriters I've known, where I played primarily bass for their gigs now and then, but I'd like to take it more seriously with starting a project or two as a band in a new city. I really miss it, and I think more than any other hobby/interest I have, I feel that this outlet is one I can keep up pretty much my entire life. I don't really distribute or discuss most music related things I work on through my online Twitch/speedrunning/programming handle, but it's important to me for sure (VGM sharing is definitely my outlet in this space)

Twitch stuff's been great. I've got no qualms swapping between casual and speedrunning stuff, where it's totally cool to fall off one or the other for awhile. I still think there's a lingering attitude out there in speedrunning that speedrunners turning to casual playthroughs more is a shame/disappointment/whatever, but I think it's dumb and grinding runs for the sake of it is really pointless (and a fantastic way to waste your time and life). If it's what you like doing, all you, but I think there's still a bit of weird guilt that comes up and people feel obligated to do things for reasons they can't articulate. Anyway, the point is that as someone who 1) is not full time in the slightest and 2) never pushes for subs/viewers and I just sorta do what I want that I think fits streaming, I'm very fortunate to have people be cool & stick around either my Discord or stream, whether its a quiet stream or something bigger. Doing co-op streams or races with your pals is unbeatable. And I've got some speedplans in the making to clean up & revisit some of my old runs too, just in a casual phase for now & there's nothing wrong with it.

I spent late last year learning SNES assembly programming to execute the Final Fantasy V mods we put out during this Winter/Spring. Our project is still in development but it is largely finished for the major groundwork. All time spent to this project was a great way to get through the brutal city-life winter, was fun learning a new (to me) programming language, and was awesome to create an interesting and unique work product. I'm also about to release a new segment splitter program for speedrun practice/clip segments (more soon). If you're on the sidelines of learning something intimidating, just shut up and do it.

There's a few things I've been taking seriously outside of the above too. The last few months I've put my foot down and been learning Japanese more seriously. I've been able to read hiragana/katakana forever but for actual reading comprehension and conversational skills, for many years it's just been at a standstill. So I decided to make it a real thing and try to learn it formally. It's definitely a slow burner, I'm not in a rush but I do keep up with it (I try my best to commit to something and stick with it). Language is genuinely interesting. I've also always wanted to properly cosplay at least one thing in my life and go all out with it, so I've been loosely exploring this too. I pretty much doubt I'd get into the whole scene but I used to work on arts & crafts stuff quite a bit as a teenager so I think it'd be cool to translate into something cool (well, really, something super nerdy but cool). I think I'll do this more after I move.

I've always been someone who tried to do the 'right' thing career wise for a long time, and all this moving stuff is in some way, my way of drastically changing it up and seeing where it goes. I'm working remotely for awhile, getting out of my comfort zone of New York (which I do love most of New York state and will maybe be back sometime), and just winging it. I try to lead a healthy lifestyle with fitness & dieting, and I'm confident I can make anything work with enough willpower. Might be a catchphrase but quite literally, you only live once, so make the best of it.

Thanks for reading