Here’s to One Year (~And Some Overdue Housecleaning~)

As of July 6th, this page officially turned one year old~! (*’ω’*)

I would definitely be celebrating more if I hadn’t *poofed* the last six or so months, but you know, life just loves getting in the way.

But that’s alright, because all that’s in the past.

First off—thank you so much to anyone reading this right now, especially if you were one of my readers from when I was a lot more active!

I’ve never strived to be someone popular, and I still don’t, so having this little safer corner with a handful of people checking in is already more than I’ve ever asked for (*^▽^*)

So whether you’re somebody who interacts or somebody who doesn’t, all my thanks and love to you regardless!

There is one thing I’d like to get out of our way quickly though…

AI Images and Housecleaning

I’ve been using a lot of AI-generated images—I’ve acknowledged it several times, and I even made a few posts about it.

This will continue, but I will avoid putting any emphasis on them going forward unless I have to, because the ethics of this field have just become way too murky for me to want to be associated with.

I’ve taken down my three past “galleries” of these images—those will be gone for good! They had been bringing me a bit of guilt for a while now ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ

To put simply: transparency from AI companies has not necessarily improved, and these developers have yet to reach any reasonable compromise with the artists who put all the real work into creating illustrations to be proud of.

But as I said, I’ll still be using them as little decorators for my site, simply because, as much as I love artists, I’m not in a good financial position to be cashing out for every little nook where I need some visual…

I wish I could do more for the field, but consider this as my explicit pledge to just tone down this side of things a bit—I was all in on this revolutionary idea a few months back, and now is a good time to step back and strive for a balance （＾ω＾）

I’ve also shot down my previous update, and that’s for a much more selfish reason: I just completely failed at holding true to any of those promises~

Which is why I don’t really plan to make many this time around- I’m just not good enough at what I do to push through with all of my dreams, and that’s alright, I have a lot of time to work on that!

All this more serious stuff aside!

~Six Quiet Months, at least online~

So a lot’s gone on over these last few months, including a good cup of things I can’t exactly talk about here, but for something that I could make material out of:

(it’s a shame I didn’t have a better camera (T . T))

I was back in Hong Kong a month ago!

Truth be told, I’ve kinda lost track of how much I’ve gone there—visited a lot over my childhood with my family, and after five years, I was excited just to be back there!

It wasn’t the most eventful trip, but I definitely saw a lot: some new places, a handful of old ones, and at the end of the day, a good little break for me after months of (almost) nonstop academic output!

Will I be writing a piece on the travel? Probably! But it depends on how much I can think of, and how much I can share in the end, which was what stopped me from finishing my last attempt at this ヽ(；▽；)

~Personal Projects~

I’ve also moved on quite a bit creatively—I’ve begun writing a whole new book series! I don’t quite have an elevator pitch yet, since I’m still quite early into writing it, but what I can say for sure: I’m dabbling with slightly more action than I have in the last year!

I’ve shifted back to third person limited for a start, still with internal monologues thrown in, but overall, I think this’ll be a nice challenge for me—the first in quite a while, since my previous two works were in exactly the same style!

As for my music, my album A Time for Memories is nearly complete—yes, I started it one year ago! Well almost- we’re a few more days until that anniversary~

But one more song to go, and my greatest musical project to date will finally be finished for… possible publication?

I don’t really know yet, but what I can say is I’m excited to show off some of the songs I’ve finished in the downtime right here~! ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪

~Some Maps~

I’ve also grown a bit addicted to sketching maps of places in my worlds! Nothing good or complicated, really just simple outlines for visual reference, but I might as well dump ‘em here~

Districts of Muuninrae, the Capital of Vinnive

Boroughs of Tsuzugo, a City in Sarozanka

Boroughs of Saro-Kanazara, Capital of Sarozanka

Side note: I learned of the Four-Colour Theorem after drawing these maps, and decided to test it on the Borough Map of Saro-Kanazara…

The fact that this mathematically works is still mind-boggling to me, but I can now say that it’s one of my all-time favourite somewhat-obscure facts!

~1 More!~

Oh and one more update—I’m officially a Persona 5 Royal addict （＾Ｏ＾☆♪

Managed to grab the game on sale and I haven’t let go of it since. I may be eight years late to the release, but I can see so easily how this game won so many awards- it’s brilliant!

I can’t really think of anything to complain about right now, but if I reference this in the future, then here you have it~

If anything though, I gotta say: the social commentary in this game is on point.

When I was more active here, I remember writing a lot about my own experiences, views, and understandings on more sociological topics, and I think this game captures a lot of what I read about, as well as what I’ve seen, which ain’t a surprise given the developers!

For example, I can’t remember the last time a game ever made me despise an antagonist (yes it’s Kamoshida) to the point of playing 10 hours (almost) straight just to beat him down, while also making me reflect a lot on the social conditions that really produced such a despicable person.

It’s a lot of food for thought, especially when it comes to my creative and academic writings, but we can save all this for its own discussion- it simply deserves one~

~A Closer~

With all of this in mind, I think I can bookmark this quick update here~

I want to thank everyone reading this again, no matter how long you’ve been around or how much you’ve seen! Time really means the most to me, so if I could borrow even a little of your time willingly, then I consider that an honour itself!

I doubt I’ll be able to commit to any more upload schedule going forward, but that’s fine by me again—can’t really afford to burn out so quickly again after all （╹◡╹）

A great happy one year for this little corner, and here’s to another peaceful year, no matter how quiet!

See ‘ya when I see ‘ya, and until then, all the love to you once more!