Considering the title of this one I suppose I can dive into my thoughts on it as a whole alongside some general comments and updates. Above all though, happy New Year! I do truly believe in my heart of hearts that this year will be much better than the previous two. It’s difficult to feel that way with how much the latest variant has been hitting, alongside just personal mental block struggles, but I am well aware that those combined with financial difficulty will continue to fade as I mature and garner more life experience.
Being back home has been great as (expectedly) seeing family is always a nice treat when being separated for so long. Things have fallen back to routine, and having to stay here for an additional two weeks due to the variant will undoubtedly make them fly by at an incomprehensible speed. It’s saddening in a lot of ways; I truly wanted to start or continue a project. The start and the end are two of the most challenging portions of the creation process for me, as the embers of an idea come to spark but the idea is snuffed quickly reality. I’m a solo developer, someone who has to understand the limits of my capabilities at the present moment. I could certainly work to build my skills in other agencies (i.e. 3D modeling, pixel art, etc.) but that would delay even further my desire to create something I can be proud of. I’m still not definitive in what that may be; I’m hoping soon I’ll acquire an idea that requires all of my attention, something I can put myself fully into.
I’m sure I’ve touched on it previously, but learning Japanese has by far been one of the most enthralling and enjoyable tasks I’ve taken on in the past few months. I recently began reading and learning from Remembering the Kanji, a series in which the author attempts to create associations between the complex kanji symbols by using your own interpretation of them. It’s an interesting concept that has been useful in many ways as it forces me to continue working on that part of my brain over this break. I can tell I’ve made tangible progress by working through something of that nature. In 2023 I would love to visit Japan not simply because it’s beautiful, but because I could immerse myself in a culture I may wind up working in. I’m young and yet very aware that my working years are already beginning to dwindle. I don’t want to survive; I want to thrive and exceed expectations. This year will be a grind that I need to commit myself to.
AI could end up being an enjoyable part of the courses I am able to take within my university, as I believe I should take classes of which topics engaged in are concepts I haven’t delved into. It’s obvious in media and in simply observing technology that there’s a future and necessity for artificial intelligence. I’ll never be a developed for that sort of thing (flat out computer science, yuck) but I pray people much braver than I will create technologies that can help us prevent our ever-impending doom. Technology could save us all; as for now, we rely on politicians to fill that gap.
2021 was not my best year in certain ways, but in many has opened horizons and firmed up opinions I had never looked into previously. I feel more solid in myself and the things I do; hell, this time last year I didn’t even know to where I had been accepted. This year I was able to co-publish Obscura, and that was an achievement that set me on the slope down to where I am now. Adam Neely recently talked on how many creatives feel a sort of emptiness and desire to create more exciting things following something big, a feeling that’s been festering in me for a long while now. 2022 will hopefully be a year where I can make something else great, something independently (perhaps with some assistance from others) that I’d be proud of. These are all broad and generic thoughts, but this year I hope to enjoy life to its fullest and expand my knowledge to something truly great. Regardless, here’s to your future and mine.