Posting for the next year!

Lyrical New Year!

So I haven’t posted in… forever.  (๑≧౪≦)てへぺろ

I just want to take the time to record some thoughts about this year, and what I want to do for the coming year.

So this year, I had a bunch of awesome experiences, like going to Japan last winter, going to EVO in the summer, and TAing this fall for the first time.

Japan was great, and I want to go back and see what I wrote to refresh my memory.

EVO was awesome, had a whole lot of fun. Saw a friend from TX that I haven’t seen in forever. Made it to Winner’s Finals in both P4U and KOF13 (then got bopped into Loser’s then got bopped into nothingness…). I definitely want to go next year, hopefully some game I play will make it into the lineup (or I’ll just get much, much better at AE/Ultra, lol).

I also TAed Web Applications this fall, which was the first time I’ve ever TAed anything. It was a lot of work (I definitely put more time into it than the students in the class), but I felt it was really rewarding. Also learned a whole bunch about web applications at the same time. Thinking about making a web application now, might post about it when I get the chance. How I felt about TAing probably deserves its own post, which may or may not happen.

Oh, I also finished all my required classes! Still gotta TA one more time and finish up other requirements, but I’m making serious PhD progress!

Currently, I’m finishing up loose ends for this year and am about to go to Hawaii with my family! I’m really excited, since I’ve never gone before (and it’s hella cold here in Pittsburgh, glad to be escaping it). I’ll be sure to post about it when I’m over there (at least as much as I can, not sure how the internet situation will be like).

Hawaii!

I’ve also picked up Blazblue Chrono Phantasma about a month (?) ago. My Rachel’s still pretty bad, but I think I can make it work as long as I put the hours in. I might try to make posts about things I’ve learned along the way once I have the info finalized.

For the next year, there are a few things I’d like to do:

• Live more thrifty. I definitely spend too much money on stuff. For instance, I think I can get my monthly food bill down by 50% or so if I was more careful about what I bought. This also means more money to spend on things like anime figures :3
• Work out more. I had a pretty strong start last year, but I kept dropping it and picking it back up. This year, I’ll try to stick with it for much longer. Gotta get dat Jojo’s body.
• Science. I think I did alright this year, but now that I’m done with classes, I can be more productive. I definitely want to propose sometime this calendar year (probably in the Fall).
• Hack more. I did some for-fun projects this year, but I’d like to sharpen my technical skills this year. Maybe a mobile app? Maybe a web app? I’ve got a project that I’m already working on, but I should spend more time on it.
• Learn a new skill. I’m probably going to learn how to alter clothes pretty soon. I have a sewing machine that’s just kinda sitting around. It’d be really nice to be able to alter jeans and stuff myself since nothing fits me. I also want to try my hand at 3D printing since I have access to one at CMU.
• Body fools in games. In the next semester for sure, I want to focus on BBCP and AE. My Rachel is pretty bad, but I think that with some time and study, I can make my Rachel scary. I’ve also been playing AE for… maybe half a year? I’m still not very good, but I think if I spent more time solidifying my Sakura, learning matchups and punishes and solidifying my game, I can beat people in that game. Either way, I definitely need to spend a lot more time in both games. Hopefully I can make that happen this semester.

I’m also entertaining the idea of making an app or something and trying to make some supplementary income that way. Might be fun. I’ve got a silly idea that could turn out pretty well. We’ll see.