It’s been almost a year since my last post. At least this time I managed to post again in -only- a year instead of four like the last break between posts.
So what has kept me so busy for the last year? I mentioned in my last Desk Diary that I had started to do freelance work for a publishing company. Well, shortly after my last post I was brought on as a full employee! I’m now a “production manager” with the extra responsibilities that go with it, which has kept me rather busy. I’m really fortunate, though, I get to work on interesting titles and it is all remote, which lets me keep my night owl lifestyle for the most part.
Even while I was doing freelance for them, the work was regular enough that I was able to treat myself to some nice loot and even expand a couple collections last year. Now with a regular paycheck that has only increased throughout this past year.
Though, it’s not been all good new. One of the cats that I adopted last year has feline asthma. It’s been a bit of a challenge trying to find the best combination of medicine to keep him breathing normally. Right now I have to give him an inhaler everyday and we’re starting on an additional medication to help even more. On the day we took him to the vet to find out what was wrong, there was a massive car accident right in front our house, totaling our car and busting down the front door. It was pretty bad. Thankfully no one was really hurt, but it was over a month before everything was fixed.
Darkborn, my webcomic, has been steadily trucking along with weekly updates even with the new job. However, we are finally nearing the end that I had outlined all those years ago when I started it. The upcoming conclusion of Darkborn has pushed me to try my best to get the next project started. I really want to try and create an animated series—something I’ve mentioned on this blog for years now. Recently I’ve been mulling over the technical aspects, trying to figure out the best method to employ with the fastest turn around without sacrificing too much quality. I’m mostly leaning to 2D “puppet” animation using Moho. I feel drawing the elements I need will be a lot faster than modeling, texturing, and rigging in 3D.
I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this project, it’s just been hard to find the time to get it going. I’d like to get it started before Darkborn ends or at the very least have it fully planned out by then. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure I’ll post about it here one way or another.
On the gaming front, it’s been a pretty tame year for me. I just haven’t had a lot of free time. I keep buying games on Steam, only for them to sit there unopened or even installed. I also haven’t spent a lot of time in my goto gaming genre of choice, MMOs. However that may change in November when the expansion for Final Fantasy XIV launches. I still have a small group of friends from that game that I talk to regularly and most of us seem to be planning to play. Sadly, I’ll likely be playing when most of them are sleeping, but we’ll see. I just hope it doesn’t hinder my ability to move forward with my new animation project too much. We all know how that tends to pan out.
As I mentioned above, the new job has allowed me to spoil myself. My toy collection has simply… well, gotten out of hand, but I plan to post about that on its own soon. In the non-toy collection front I have gotten a few items this year.
Early in the year I replaced my aging A50s and my very old Wacom Cintiq. These were much needed replacements.
Despite not having much time for gaming, I did pick up a VR headset. It’s quite an unreal experience. It’s kind of hard to describe if you haven’t tried it for yourself. Sadly I don’t really have a lot of titles to take advantage of it. It’s also rather bulky, so I don’t have it hooked up at all times to just plop on whenever. Hopefully that will change at some point, but it’s a fun thing to mess around with.
Speaking of gaming gear, I did manage to get one of the most desired gaming items of the year, a PS5! Now this is a really nice console. I mostly got it for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake so I could enjoy it in full 4K.
Final Fantasy 7 was one of those games that really had a big influence on me. It introduced me to RPGs and helped get me interested in 3D. I also had hoped I could play through the whole Assassin’s Creed series, so I picked up a few of those that I was missing.
Sadly, I haven’t really had much time to enjoy many of these things. I keep hoping life calms down a little so I can, but it hasn’t as of yet.
My room has gone through a lot of change this year as well. As my toy collection has… exploded I’ve had to rearrange things. To make a little more room I finally replaced my corner desk with a new one.
And thus ends one era of Desk Diaries as a new one begins. It’s been a long journey for sure. A lot has happened over the years on that old brown desk. Hopefully it’s been somewhat interesting to see the evolution over time. As the world begins to get back to some amount of normalcy (fingers crossed) and I settle into my new job, here’s to a better year next year, and many more Desk Diaries.
See you there!
gp