2016: In Review

Earlier today, I went through and read through all 5 of the previous Year in Review posts.

It was kinda fascinating. My original post was cringe-inducing, mostly because of the edgy offensive language that riddled throughout it. Though reading it back, I almost sounded depressed.
And the 2013 post...that one was interesting too.

Now I look forward to 2016, which is rather notorious. I won't be surprised if 'I survived 2016' shirts aren't already being sold. I don't believe it's been as cataclysmic to me as it has to the rest of the world, but, I can't say for sure until I look back...

January: Things began with the start of the penultimate semester. I had sorted myself into the Operations Stream, and theorized how things would go. I had first essay class, and was optimistic. Then projects began to pile up right away as expected, but again, the optimism persisted.

Then my cousin moved out.

Which really didn't hurt the optimism. Arguably it was a good thing, as the fighting among the household could finally cool, and I was no longer in the middle of drama garbage. I concentrated on school, getting a real rush as I practiced help air a TV-Show for the first time. Dyland was out west on business. And essays kicked my butt, but only slightly.

February: Minecraft addicted on my sister's server as I was, I made time for school stuff. Trixie was sick around that time. Overall I started the month just busy busy busy.
I filmed the degree-changeover for my program. My vignette turned out pretty good. I found some youtuber. I had a day off which was time-vipered by the parents.
And mid-month my mom hurt herself yet again. Which was a real bummer cuz then her time-vipering skyrocketed.

Then I got reading week, which spending time with a certain someone always improves me. During this time was when my sister got engaged, which was very exciting!
I hate to make this post all over the place, but the next one...well thats when [Type] Posts began.
My hemophobia decided to make a statement, and I blacked out. Mistaken for a seizure, I was sent to the hospital, only to be immediately released. 10/10 Do not recommend leaving class this way. That was the day ESSAYS WON.

Following that I skied down a mountain so as usual I make good decisions. AND I WAS FINE BECAUSE THERE WERE NO ESSAYS UP THERE.
And it was a leap year! Leap year posts are cool.

March: The month began with a sharp realization: I'm not graduating without a practicum. So the scramble began. School continued as it does, and I played more roles with the TV show. I forgot about march 7th or 9th, because whatever. We had a TV show day where nobody really showed up, and it was a mess. Following that was Dyland helping me not be complete amateur with resumes and applying to practicums. And me trying to drum up excitement talking about videos I was making.

April: I gave ownership of PTE away.
IT WAS A JOKE DONT WORRY I WONT LEAVE apparently im good at this or something.

I battled with the grand essay, started Miitomo, and got mauled by spiders. The final news show happened, and oh boy, it was an..experience. Speaking of which, I updated about my main 3 shows of the semester, and pretty much all of them were messes. One failed and turned into something else, one failed outright and left a great divide among peers, and the last...well you just about it 2 lines ago.
I then suffered from essay writing but didn't need a hospital this time....maybe.

I had an EEG to make sure I wasn't epileptic and good news....I'm not! Just unlucky, and horribly bad with imagination affecting my nervous system.
MY MIND IS SO POWERFUL I CAN DESTROY only me so far.
 ...
Then things got sorted out, I got my practicum! I nearly didn't get it because e-mail protocols between theirs and mine weren't working right, THANKS HOTMAIL.
I ended the month with hometown bait, which looking back, pretty clever past Eric Riccy...

May: Exam...! I had only the one. And got Netflix, moving me into the 2010s! I did that thing with the Taylor character again, and Practicum was going pretty good. I yammered about the post [tags] and around then is when Literary Merit began. (Free plug brought to you by PTE)
I mentioned my plans to get myself a broadcast equipment set-up (Which I continue to work on to this day..!) And around then is when Premiere and my laptop started playing Rochambeau together. Needless to say, that affected my working abilities at my Practicum...and affected my Practicum...
I finished it soon after. I learned a lot from it, and decided that for the next bit, the wisest move was to stay in Hometown.
Honestly though, there was no other option at that point, but dont tell anyone k.

June: Gamer Jay's Birthday! My laptop's issues got insane, and I started gardening. (I like gardening lol.) We got a crazy hybrid plant, which did okay.
Following that was Dyland's return home, me planning to be productive and dropping plans of a Hometown trip.
Then my wisdoms (bottoms) started being crazy (yay evolution), and I gave details on the trip.

July: I got the wisdoms out for good. Finally free. Except for the part where I didn't take pain meds and when the anesthetic came out...rip.
Got addicted to RCT again, and pushed myself to keep being productive. Visited the annual New City Festival (but didn't bother with rides, more interested in food and bazaar at this point...) and ended the month with my cousin from Hometown coming to visit. My cousin ended up helping Dyland move also lol.

August: Super delays as I was off on the Hometown Trip. Things went pretty okay...! I'm leaving it at that.
Once home, I tried being productive, and the job hunt continued.

September: My parents checked out 'Far Town', which turned out to be too desolate and empty for them. I haven't heard any more word of moving from them since that, so I dunno.
I went on a city build tangent as I do, and filmed a hockey game. I ('finally') got PTE a secure address, to solve a safety issue. (I <3 safety, this is fact)

And admitted that though functional, The tags system was removed because seeing how most posts could be lumped in two categories....I didn't want PTE to seem repetitive. Which I'm sure it totally is, but I just don't want that aspect completely obvious.
Heh.

The last post of the month was me sucking at math, PTE is 7 years old now. My job and creative ruts continued to cut deep. Etc. Etc. Etc.

October: The month started with minor illness. Then Dyland's world crashed, so him and I became small-time chore lackeys. (This house is cleaner than when we originally bought it now.) My dad had his work trip and made it back safe, though also became ill.

I did the Me-In-3-Characters Thing! It was better accuracy than that time I said I was an anime girl.

Edit: Nope still called myself an anime girl. WEEB TRASH 4EVA WOOO

Thereafter I started getting it in my head to make games again, because insanity. My mom had a brutal week of sorts which I helped go by better. I ended the month on a teaser of a collab, which technically has fallen through. A different collab took it's place, but in the next month...

November: I graduated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

C'mon I spent 2 years and so much PTE posts about it, being excited is allowed.
Grad went nicely. There's a video of it online, which I have a link to. As much as I'd love to link it here, it would ruin the anonymity of New City, so...request in comments if you honestly want to see me grad that badly. 
I then made posts about social media post-election, perseverance, Floating dogs, Amy Day,  Black Friday, and dog memes. The Entire month was short posts as a celebration for Grad. Odd I know, but, that's me for ya.
Oh yeah, and the collab began...

December: The month began with the release of Soccer Tales, an animated short series featuring stories about Dyland's soccer past. The game dev stuff continued, and I got drones to learn/work with.
Basically the creative boom I had hoped for since...August...finally hit! I made more episodes, and PTE Test-Your-Luck was removed, because literally no machine would display it anymore. (Side effect of going HTTPS). Security also means no more flash stuff on PTE ever...but not really a big deal. GIF banners and Video capabilities will easily takes it place, and as people tell me: "Flash on webpages is so 2006."

I celebrated my 5 year anniversary with Kaitlin! Not in person granted, but we did celebrate in November, along with my grad. November was a nice month.
Also Jennnnaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

I followed that with the release of a mini project, Pj's Voice Demo. It managed to get obliterated in ratings, which is baffling since lesser projects managed to do way better than it. The blow still exists to this day as I haven't really animated since. I do have the next Soccer Tales on my pallet though, so...2017 WILL be the comeback.

I celebrated K-Day because I'm a huge nerd who can't let go of his own damn holidays, and Christmas because yes.
Also resolutions, which I don't have to mention any more in this post now, heheh.

--------------------------------------------------------------

2016 For me was in like a Lion, out like a Lamb. Yet that said, I made more full-out projects in the last month than I have literally ever before. The job search continues. (Yes I've applied to places, its a tough industry ok)

Next year is shaping up to be quite interesting. My cousin has been talking about moving back to Hometown. Dyland has mentioned ideas of going west. I'm sitting and spinning but determined to make things work. I still have my game, which currently I'm working on figuring out sprite design. And of course, more soccer tales. Maybe more animation side projects too, but honestly, as long as I'm doing something productive, I'm not too concerned with having 100000 things to do.

Happy New Year! Here's to a hopefully wonderfully lucky year.

Resolutions!

Since tomorrow's post will be the Year in Review, I figured if I wanted to make a post about resolutions, minus well do it now.

Usually and typically, I'm not one who does the whole resolutions thing. I accept with ease that trying to plan improvements, especially a lot of them, and hope I follow through in the next while blindly, is a bit silly. Goal setting is a great practice, but a new year doesn't really change the flow of life.

That all said, this year I'm actually setting out quite a few resolutions. From above, this should seem backwards and odd, but the goal-setting aspect I have overlooked cannot be ignored any longer.
It's worth a shot, anyway.

In 2017, I resolve to get fit again. I recently managed to undo the progress on my shoulder and become a mangled mess, spasms ranging from fingertip to neck. It sucksssssss.
I resolve to animate more, even in light of the literal boom of animation in the past 2 months. The minute I get comfy and sit on laurels, game over. I suck and need to continue to suck and work!
 I resolve to either find a job, get a non-industry job, or go back to school. That may seem like the obvious as they are literally all the options, but dammit, ONE of them is happening before 2017 ends.
I resolve to learn how to cook more, and to hopefully do it. Or learn how to be more handy in general, I like fixing things. The inner nerd, I tells ya.

I'm not making any resolves about health, as I'll jinx things; and no resolves about cities or living situations, because I have no idea what 2017 has in store.

See ya in the Year In Review!

Merry Christmas!

Whatcha doin' here? go spend time with your family!

Even if you don't celebrate it, PTE wishes it to you

~From a bunch of nerds created by an even bigger nerd

Professional Hobbyist

I recently made and published a secret project, only to get a taste of reality as it got a bad rating. (And got one hell of a scathing review..!)

I've been mainly animating a bunch as of late. Knowing broadcast standards helped me make properly sized high-image-quality videos. I can't call em straight up high quality, heh. Maybe someday.

It's been my response to my wall of a job search. My sister in comparison recently got hired full-time, so she'll have a job right after college. I've returned to the hobby of back in the day, and finally wised up to not put all my eggs in game development. Well, Dyland's ideas awakened it and is really the person to blame thank for the resurgence in the hobby.

I doubt it's going to go anywhere, but it's at least keeping me busy, and it'll require me to keep working with video and audio editing. At least I can say I'm (In Theory™) getting industry-required time experience.

In the back of my mind I worry I'll fizzle out and not animate anymore, but the secret project is a blessing in disguise, as it's a challenge to make me come to terms that things I make will never publish as greatly as I always seem to think.
Making past this means I'm getting better at persevering.

No Jay I'm not making Basketball Tales.

ps hi peter

what

on an unrelated note my feed is now spammed with jenny birthday songs oops

also

MORE IMPORTANTLY



5 Years <3

PTE Test Your Luck (Jan 2014-Dec 2016)

It may have been the https://, it may be because Firefox and flash are not friends, whatever the case, it's been clear to me that PTE Test Your Luck is a flash relic of the past, and also broken/not showing up.

I've opted to just outright scrap it, it makes the page more secure and load faster.

It sucks to lose it but I mean it hasn't even been functional for awhile. Change is good.

Mostly.

I'll probably have access to it on a secret page that you'll never find. Nope its gone for good.

Picture Man

"Don't Call it a comeback!" - LL Cool J

If you remember an old blog of mine, I rambled on end about games and ideas, and nothing happened.
In fact, nothing has "happened" since RFR, and before that, Jenny's Quiz and DJ Riccy Songs.
My creativity is like a freakin' lightning bolt, it comes out of nowhere and strikes randomly. And otherwise, the weather is calm and nothing happens.

I'm back at the picture moving game though, and now with school's education, have more quality to my stuff. I'm nothing to people who actually spent time and money at university for animation, but I'm damn trying anyway lol.
I've updated my old RFR FB page to match this. Eventually I'll change the name lol. I don't wanna until I cement this animation thing more. I currently don't trust myself still, kinda half worried I'll stop out of nowhere or something again.

I've been making 1 min animations, which are nearly the longest animations I've ever made. I believe BP was longer by ~20 seconds, but it was also BP...so yeah...

Cheer me on or tell me I'm shite. Either way, you got a post out of this, and I'm doing stuff now...so...yeah!

Real Post Return

If you're confused, last month to celebrate grad, I decided to make every post just a title with a picture. It wasn't planned as much as thought of later and went with...ah well.
But real posts are back! and such.

First and foremost, one of my side projects has seen the light of day. You can watch it HERE. It's a 1 minute story about a soccer game from Dyland's past. We intend to have more coming, hence the "Ep. 1" part. The more people see it the better!!! because I have no idea how to get views or known or anything lol

On that note the game dev thing is still going too, but I gotta sit down and figure out graphical and coding things so yeah. And thats all the creative crap you'll hear about!*

*for now

The job search continues and that's all you need to know about that.
Also I'm learning sorta how to fly drones (For broadcast exp sake and having equipment never hurts). It's not easy but the drone I'm learning on also took some wall and fall damage. (cough cough not my fault.) So it can't exactly fly vertically...

This is maybe an update post youre welcome maybe

Dog memes

save me from myself

PTE now 50% off

Amy Day

wpg?

Do you fight-o?

Social Media

And that about sums it up yeah

Graduand

Two days from now, I will graduate from uni.

Investor Creator

The length between posts was not on purpose, I assure you.

This past week has managed to be very busy, as a multitude of appointments mixed with two jobs kept my mom so busy, that she needed assistance. It's no issue for me, especially with my current predicament/situation. I'm trying to not get comfy where I am, but slamming myself for not having a job yesterday has proved just as counterproductive as slacking itself.

Anyway, the week went fine, though hectic and non-stop. My help was with reward, and I've been saving my nickels for awhile. As of recently, what I've been saving for went on sale, and as such, I've invested in 2 game developing programs.

Now initially I had the hair-brained scheme I always do:
1. Make thing
2. ???
3. Profit!
But a certain someone pointed out how damning and deflating that will be to my willpower to make things. I don't believe I made anything else with the intent for profit, all my previous stuff has been more of a muscle flex, a 'look what I can do I'm so cool you guys' sort of thing. And frankly, as dumb as it may sound, that may be the attitude to stick with. As much as the title says and the paragraph above mentions 'investing', I doubt my luck at this point, and think it wiser to treat this as a hobby.

I don't want to cause any hype or expectation (Though with nothing since 2012 and RO at 'remember the 90s' cringe material, there's nothing to worry about) but I will be toying around in these new programs very soon, just to see what I can do. I've long accepted that if I ever want to make more fleshed out realized games, that Flash alone will not do. It's great for my art design, but aside from that...it's time to try new things.

Oh yeah I'll also tease that I have a potential collab in the works, unrelated to game-making. That said, it's so early in planning that it's not worth giving detail. If anything comes to fruition on that, a post will be made.

Me in 3 Characters

I did the thing!

 

Lol but seriously:

Descent

It's crazy, but somehow, I've gone from starting my job search 2 months ago to it now being 2 seasons later. It's snowing today.
Time flies I tell ya.

On a different note, I've been 'working' with Dyland as of late. We've done wall and door washing and thorough cleaning throughout most of the main floor so far. Essentially the house looks closer to how it was 8 years ago now more than ever. Which means its very nice! (His Mrs. has helped quite a bit also)

I also realize I never mentioned that my dads trip went well and he's already back and safe. He's sick though, but that's travel for ya.

More news when it actually happens. I'm a somewhat boring guy these days.

Yep its definitely October

I have a head cold.

Mathemantics

I uh, I might be bad at math.

16 - 9 = 7
True?
PTE has been around 7 years, not 6.
Oopsie.
Well, it's secure more than ever and even more antiqued or whatever.

On a different note, tomorrow my dad goes on a business trip. It's a far travel, but he should be back by the weekend.

I'm still in the same job rut which is whatever. I've been trying to get myself inspired so that I might get creating things again. Further driving this is knowing a certain animator who said he had quit his craft actually mentioned that he recently picked it up again. This helps since I haven't really made anything complete since 2012. I have made a bunch of little project things...but nothing of note.
A certain friend also pitched I should do more animating. My biggest issue is I always fall to my RO IP, which leads to a cyclic issue wherein I find something that I cant sort out and kinda falter. 
I'm not afraid to stray from the RO IP though, in fact, I really wanna branch out something new. I'm not above parody and using well-known characters either. Though the idea of accidental copyright infringing gives me cold feet.

I shouldn't blab too much about creative things here since there was a blog about it. But it's kinda my main gig at this point, and there's not much else riveting to ramble about yet.

Maybe I'll do that 'me in 3 characters' meme thing soon.

PTE: 6ecure

As the 6 year mark comes and goes (It was yesterday, my bad), PTE continues chugging along, now fancier than ever.

On that note: It's official - unless I ever get a custom IP - PTE now runs on https://. It's a simple change that really won't affect anything, but maybe please a few anti-virus softwares. If some odd issue comes up I'll revert it, but otherwise, this change really is just for the better.

But, speaking of fancy, It's high time I addressed the tags feature that just...left. [This] was a thing in post titles for a solid while, but after a bit I began to notice that posts had the same few topics in common. Work, School, Health, Generic Update... Labeling them all seemed to suck all the interesting out of the posts.
That, and trying to figure out whether a post with 50/50 of two topics should be labelled 'a' or 'b' or just 'update' was really becoming annoying.
So for now, indefinitely...The tags will not be. Except for the few posts that have them, which will serve as an example of a system attempted, and for whenever I come back to it, something to start from.

It's crazy to think this project has gone on for over 6 years. (It's been 24 hours I can say that)
I consider it my most successful project to date, since viewership is more than double my other most viewed project. (Was Second Place: Jenny's Quiz, Jenny's Show, Jenny's Game, Or Riccium Collection? The Answer Below This.)

Jenny's Game

Sorry You Lost at Jenny's Quiz 2

Numbers aside though, I've stuck with it the longest, I've put the most work into it, and it's changed the most drastically out of any other project. I've also ruined it on multiple occasions.
And continue to.
<3

Alright I'm done being meta. Here's a picture:

 

City Crazy

I've gotten the city building fever again.

No, it's not a real illness. But every once in a while, my shredded architectural dreams float together with my design creativity (The thing that made JQ) and thus I begin making virtual cities.
That and I'm determined to beat cities skylines legitimately, getting a populous of 100k.

That determination though. It's there! But to harness it into something...better...
I'm working on it.

The closest I have is this Saturday.

Dyland, Jeff and I have plans to film Jeff's home opener hockey game for his team. This won't be the first time I'm filming one of Jeff's games, as I filmed some previous to make a news story about the league. (It became my best story to date...!)
This though is for a few side projects (that I'm assisting in, technically) and I'll be using my personal camera this time. (This will be the first project its used for, its been collecting dust...)
Though driver, I am a bit excited to at least have a project to do. One that isn't me myself and I as the entire team...

If we built cities on the moon, would it crash into earth?

After checking out Far Town, my parents decided that as nice as it was, it was not their location of choice to move to. The town itself didn't seem to have much to it, and apparently was surprisingly busy as two highways converged in the town. They still had a good time though.

Things have been super calm for me, which is both a blessing and a curse. Job search continues, frustratingly. My sister prods me about trying Hometown again now and again, but I know my luck will be the same or worse there.

In my other free time, I've been trying to be productive as possible. I've gotten into a creative kick, though it's through gaming. I've been making cities, which is one of my more odd fun hobbies. 
I hope that after the passion for cities burns out, I can apply the passion for personal projects. (Fun fact: RO has been making vapourware since 2013.)

I'm thinking maybe more music making again. Maybe I'll break down and buy loops or something.

Far Town

Updating PTE took me a solid 2 hours.
And I enjoyed every second of it.

Job searching continues, little success but I've peaked a bit of interest so far. I've been able to spend time seeing friends from uni, catching up and just hanging out with them. It's reassuring and wonderful they are around, figuring when this blog started, New City and friendship weren't in the same post.

Over this coming weekend my rents are heading out to check out a small town to the west. They have retirement ideas based around there. For the sake of PTE, I dub it Far Town.
I don't have any real exciting plans so far for the weekend, aside from job hunting and maybe going out with friends on one of the days.

There's also still plans brewing for side projects with friends, and if anything comes to fruition, I'll be sure to showcase it here.

Marvellous

Keeping up the posting rate has continued to be hard. Not for a lack of time, rather the contrary.

"Freedom" means not much happening.

I've applied a few places, and will continue the process. Hometown is still on the radar, but is a much more difficult option to make work.
I've been back at city building in Minecraft, and am back toying with creative ideas, such as trying let's playing or animation.
If curious, I haven't tried to reboot FNWER for several reasons. 1) I'm  afraid I won't do the original series justice. 2) I'm hoping to make something better than FNWER. (Ironic compared to first point, I know.) 3) Without others to have fun (sometimes at their expense, heh) with, I have low drive to create.
I've been scrambling to understand my own creative mind, and try to master how to get myself going. Ultimately I need a trigger; something that puts a fire under me so to speak. But past and recent attempts at those haven't worked much.

I've been in talks with a friend to work together on creative stuff, as his job search sounds to be similar to mine. It's probably a far shot in the dark, and a big iff anything gets made, but trying something is better than not.

More things coming soon maybe!

The ReturnPost

...I wasn't joking about 'eventually'!

After last post came driving back to Hometown. I managed to see a certain someone and Zoo on the first day, before jetting off to the cabin. I returned during the cabin week as per a deal with my sister, which sorta bought me more time to see a certain someone. Thereafter I spent the rest of the week at the cabin. After the cabin, I managed to see 1, which turned into seeing 2 long time good friends. (One of those friends might even be reading this right now...!) The remaining 2 days I spent with family and a certain someone, before heading back.

The cabin time went pretty well overall.
I spent lots of time at the beach, one day more than I should've as I kinda got heat exhaustion. But I've bounced back, and aside from splashing around a bunch, I managed to hike, play tennis and bingo, learn a bunch of card games, and enjoy my fair share of ice-cream slushies. (People are surprised that I 'actually eat' these days, I've been lucky with not pissing off my stomach as of late is all...)
I also didn't get sunburned! I did suffer a lil when sunscreen would wash off, but nothing compared to a past back burn that can only be described as a 'stop light'.
I did forgot a hat for the cabin though, so my mom ended up buying me a random hat for the week. One of my younger cousins really liked said hat, so I gave it to her as a parting gift. I ended up getting another hat again later, this one some brand name fishing hat from the states that ended up in a dollar store. (???)
I have odd luck with hats.

Both drives to and from Hometown went pretty smoothly. I was a butt on the way there and managed to only have to drive ~2 hours of the entire journey. My cousin did a majority as he enjoyed driving though.
The way back was more an even split, as I took the construction zones and slower areas to keep pace on point. (I don't speed much but I'm somehow pretty consistent at my rate of travel..)

Once home, unpacking ate the rest of the return day. But now things are back to 'normal', in that now I'm healed from wisdoms, back from the trip, and have only the future to sort out. I have grad in November, family weddings in January and June, and potentially the cabins next August.
Otherwise, all is up in the air.

Job search round 3 begins! (Or technically continues...)
Drills Infinity Activate!~

[Leisure] New City adventures

With my cousin here in New City, it's been quite busy. We've gone on day trips and biking adventures and are currently out of country even. 

Posting will likely stay delayed as after returning from this trip, more day trips are planned to follow, with the hometown trip coming right thereafter. It's definitely been very helpful not being employed during this time since things have been 'go go go'.

The hometown trip will run until mid August. Posting will likely become slightly more frequent thereafter, since the now real job search will begin. Hopefully, I can find something where I add great value while being worthy. 

Next update coming...eventually! 

PS I joined the dark side

[Leisure] New City Festival!

This has truly been the summer of carnivals so far.

I've been on a strong Roller Coaster Tycoon kick for the past...let's ignore how long I've spent on it so far. Point is, I'm nearly done all the original parks again. (Am on Crumbly Woods, if you know that level.)

Aside from that, yesterday I went to the annual festival here. I wasn't so interested in rides (And frankly, they all seemed to be the same as always...) as I was the indoor bazaar. While there, I finally found a replacement for my wallet! My K-On wallet has been retired after 7 years of use. It's been falling apart for awhile now, and the vinyl outer layer is so tarnished that the characters can barely be made out. If I ever find a similar wallet to the K-On one again, I may switch to it. For now and indefinitely, I will use my ultra-slim yet plain new one.

Aside from that, I also got a replacement pair of ridiculous oversized sunglasses. The last pair I had gotten unfortunately snapped on the frame (It was plastic I had it coming...and have...) rendering it unwearable. (Being stabbed while wearing sunglasses no bueno.) The new pair has a nice blue frame and even it's own carrying case! I'm treating it like it's ultra fragile because I really don't wanna have it break...again.

Aside from those, I had ultra delicious bad food. Y'know, the usual stuff. Mini donuts. Slushie and ice cream. Good stuff.

Next week my cousin comes here to visit. So likely posts about that coming soon...

[Update] Desk Potato

I haven't posted for nearly 2 weeks. Oopsie.

Since the last post, I got my wisdoms out the next morning. I was metal and stayed awake through surgery, but knowing how describing things can cause mishaps (damn hemophobia), I'll spare the details. I'm still recovering, but its been ~10 days with no real issues aside from the first day.

First day I forgot to take the anti-inflammatory and pain pills. So when the anesthetic came out...I felt an ocean of pain. Not a good time for me. Not a good time for my grandmother trying to help me at the time. But, that's life.

Since then, I've been taking it easy. I'm still trying to be productive so I don't turn into a potato. (See: this post existing. It takes personal drive to keep PTE going! Especially since it's been alone 95% of the time.) I've gardened til my green thumb turned injured. I've worked a little on a game. (Lost interest though...) I've ended up playing classic Roller Coaster Tycoon a bunch. I'd do a let's play sort of thing of me crushing at winning it, but I feel like RCT and myself both may be rather boring to watch/hear. I tried doing a lets tour thing of my sisters server before...painful. Trust me. Though I suppose I gotta get stuff out, even if it's trash atm...my standards are high for myself. Which knowing my past work, must be comical to know. But I wanna improve.

Speaking of improving, a random thing I wanna get into is roller-blading. It may not even happen, or if it does, short-lived, but I've just been craving to roll around. I realize I live next to a ravine, so I gotta watch where I roll to...but maybe getting out and blading might help inspire me to work. Or at least gives me exercise so I don't RCT all day and become a potato.

PS I think I broke the Banners Page again.

[Hometown News] Revision

An earlier post stated my availability for visiting while in Hometown.

Appointments have unfortunately come up and pushed around the dates a bit.

The dates available now are:

Friday, August 5. *
Saturday August 6. #
Saturday, August 13.*
Sunday, August 14.
Monday, August 15. **

*Morning and afternoon availability unknown, later plans more likely to work out.
# Morning available only. 
** Mrs. given priority

The leave date is now August 16.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and again understand if timing is too tight for people. I realize much later that this trip was meant as more of a family trip. More Personal Trips to come in the future.***

***When I have money.

[Health] Unwise Wisdom

A while back in Hometown I got my top wisdom teeth pulled. They came out relatively quick and painlessly and the fact they only needed pulling was amazing.

Flash forward to now, the bottom wisdoms are a different story. They attempted to start coming in, and my left bottom wisdom is now creating a sickness loop that can never be broken. My right one is slowly breaking through the gums, but as my lower gum-line is tiny, it has not enough space and is extremely likely to impact.

Abridged version is I now have meds to take, and an appointment with a surgeon tomorrow morning. I'm sure you may wonder why I didn't get all taken care of at once, or earlier yet. Short answer: the top ones came in nearly correctly. I hoped the bottoms would do the same, which sorta happened.
Wisdom teeth are annoying though.

[Hometown News] Let's Build An Empire!

As of today, Dyland has left to return to his hometown. There he will do his practicum, before returning to New City for his next adventure. The logistics of that haven't all been sorted out, so news on that later.

As for myself, now begins a time of hopefully great productivity. I have lots of equipment and theoretical time at my disposal, so I intend to push myself and try to crank out some sort of content over the next month. I will maybe update here whatever I come up with, and I do intend to not obsess over RO or RO-based ideas, so if RO is not your cup of tea, I understand and aim to do other interesting things.

Regarding Hometown, I do have a trip planned for August. I'll be there from the 4-18th, with a family cottage trip in the middle, August 6-13. I realize that leaves little time before and after, which is not great, but sadly I can't afford to stay any longer. Free days would be 4-5, 13-17 (18th is departure or already gone day, one can try but it would be tricky). Also note that later days may get taken as I want to spend quality time with my Mrs. when possible. (E.g. if someone makes a plan for the morning-afternoon, but then leaves evening open, Mrs. could lock that time before someone else tries to claim it)
I hope to see many friends while in Hometown, but I understand many people are busy / out of town too.
At least I gave my availability?? FB will get it soon.

[Leisure] Laptop 2.0 + Botony Business

I'm back!

Alright, it probably didn't feel like I was gone since I post ~once a week.
But since the practicum, my laptop has been going out of wack. Essentially at this point, it is believed that the hard drive was for sure to blame. I'm running my same comp with a different hard drive, and it's bsod and os not found errors seem to have ceased. If this time next week this machine remains, I'll replace the battery and my machine will be back to normal.

Aside from laptop business, I've been a green thumb and house-cleaning mostly. Our gardens have been ravaged by ants for years now, but we've been experimenting with new methods. One is a feed mix that irritates ants so they swell and...pop. The other is we've now planted a spearmint and a peppermint plant in order to repel them continuously. (I've been told ants hate mint..!)
The plants themselves are actually really nice looking, and of course smell wonderful.
We also got a hybrid plant called a 'Ketchup and Fries', which grows tomatoes and potatoes on the same plant.
Science!

It's Gamer Jay's Birthday!

[Update] Summer 2016 and Hometown

As of this past Friday, my practicum has become completed. I still have an essay to write and paperwork to send off, but once done those, I will be set to graduate.

Now with school nearly done, the next progressive step is a job. Things are a bit tricky, as with plans in August, I'm tempted to not try to apply for any work until late August. I'll be looking to find any summer opportunities at least in the meantime, but there's no pressure for me to get a job r-f-n.
That said, I anticipate finding a job past August is going to be it's own hell, so I may be back to retail or the like in the end. But, money is money, and at this point, I just want to start saving up. And succeed at saving this time. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Now if you remember, a few posts ago, I pitched the "What about moving BACK to Hometown?" question.

And Here's the answer:

Living in Hometown taught me a lot. I experienced self-responsibility. I experienced time management. I experienced balancing obligations. I also learned a lot about finances, enough to know that as much as I don't want to base things around money, sometimes it must be done.
If I were to move back to Hometown, it would be for work. No job, no reason to move. I can't afford at this time to move, and once I could, I'd need to be financially stable to stay. Else I end up here again, or worse.

At this time, I'm planning to remain here in New City. I'm lucky enough to have parents willing to put up with me whilst I try to get my bearings. I have nothing to me yet, still new and a nobody to the industry.

My next story is now beginning. Time to PTE Test My Luck.

[Technology] Set-Up and Break-Down

For filming, I've got plans to get a Canon Rebel, I've been looking at T5 or SL1 as potentials. I've been borrowed a Fujifilm S4200 by my mother until then, which...works. As nooby as I am with film, I can tell it's meant more for photography. Still way nicer than the webcam garbage I used to film FNWER.

For editing, I tried running a trial of Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 on my laptop. I did so for practicum, as that program happens to be industry standard at this time. I'm no stranger to Adobe, having worked with their products since the Internetwork Days. I've had notoriously bad luck with their programs, and this one has been no different.
I still keep a certain voice clip from An Animator's Dilemma for every time I have an issue.

Now in all fairness, as was pointed out to me as well, my laptop isn't the best. In fact, it's getting kinda old. It's 6. The battery is flaky, and it blacks out at around 20% if I don't have it charging. It's an i5 running windows 7. Premiere needs a nice beefy computer, and my laptop is minimal running capabilities at best.
Add on top of that that I was editing 4K video, and it's a clear recipe for disaster.

I managed to edit the entire video though. I couldn't play what I was editing when I was in the program, but after exporting I could watch and see what needed fixing. It was a hair-pulling experience, but I was determined to make it work.

Around the end of completing the video, my computer started blue screening a lot. It would also start and say 'OS not found', but upon restart, work just fine.
Eventually I figured out that 'CheckDisk' existed and could repair the issue, which with the constant blue screening, I decided to do. I figured it was likely my hard drive or video card hating me for the 4K editing and playback.

Upon repair, I came back to find that my computer appeared stable. The only difference was...
Premiere had been removed.

I still have more tests to run, and I'm likely going to re-install Premiere temporarily to check again. But as it stands, it seems like my laptop doesn't like Premiere.
I've been looking into using Sony Vegas as an alternative, with my stockpiling I could eventually get Vegas Pro 13. I'll run it's trial to make sure the same problems don't occur, and I'll likely not be editing 4K video on my laptop post-practicum, (At least not the side project(s) for youtube I have been planning) so I'll likely have that.

I'll also be investing in a decent tripod, mounting base, and an extra SD card. Once I actually make a little coin I might invest more into lenses (Once I have the Canon). I know many will caution not to sink lots of money into this, and I'm trying not to. That said, I would like to have a decent set-up for keeping up my skills / making more projects for youtube / demo reels / other things for the work blog.

I have no real ideas yet though aside from the potential FNWER reboot. I'm better at animation ideas it seems. Or maybe just game ideas.
Or maybe just posts. (._.)

[Education] Continuing Improvement

Most of my time is admittedly being spent on the practicum. It's my main business right now, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. I'd say it's going well, I've banked half of the hours required.

Outside of that I've decided that my skills I've learned from school will need constant usage to keep them improving. As such, I'm going to try to afford an entry-level professionally-used camera, for making arts-y side projects and the like. I've contemplated returning the FNWER series, though I might put a different spin on it if I do, to avoid conflicts with Pegvlog stuff.
As well, Someone has also asked me to remake the Petters On The Low cover, but that'll be up to a future version of me as to if that happens.

I mention all this not to get hopes up, as you PTErs already know from a certain other blog that I'm better at typing smoke and plans than following through, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning, to get a conversation and ideas going.
Especially since someone I know recently started a new channel.

On a somewhat related note, how helpful are the post tags?  So far I've used:
[Business]
 [Leisure]
[Health]
 [Update]
[Celebration]
 [Deja Vu]
[Education]
 [Special]

Which seems to be covering most of what I post about..

[Celebration] Tay day!

You didn't think I'd forget, did you?

Taylor in Miitomo:

Happy Tay day~

[Update] May-ward

My one and only exam came and went, and though I was super nervous, it's over and done with, so now there is only celebrating whatever amount of success I gain from it.
It may very well have been my last official exam, but with how crazy the world is, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't.
But I'm going to try to make what I've got going work as much as I can. I can't exactly afford otherwise...

The practicum is set and is starting in early May. As per Drills Protocol, I won't be mentioning it much more than this and the last post. Wish me luck! (Or don't, whatever you want.)

Aside from that, not much has been going on. My family recently got Netflix, and are slowly embracing it. I've gone full obsessed over Mike Tyson Mysteries, which is the first show in a few months that I've really latched on to. A certain someone sees that as a good thing, but we'll see if I ever really get addicted to TV again. Then again, I do consider myself a YouTube sucker, so I suppose the prospect isn't impossible...

Hometown Post still on it's way, I promise.

[Business] Golden Silver

I have good news. I have bad news. The bad news has a silver lining!

I'm an optimist these days, so normally I'd tell the good news last. In this case though, I gotta tell it all in above order.

The good news is: I got a practicum!! There was confusion for a bit, as my e-mail account is glitching out and not receiving messages from certain addresses. The problem is yet to be truly resolved (And frankly I'm most likely just going to switch over to g-mail, there's no excuse for a multi-million dollar company's email service to have this issue. *cough* outlook *cough*) but after a back and forth I got in contact and a practicum was set!
It will run from early May til roughly late June. The goal is to complete 120 hours of work, whilst gaining experience and knowledge as much as I can to prepare me for the field at large.

The bad news is: I'm not going to Hometown for a bit, as I'm now too busy. The silver lining is though, that because this practicum timed in awesomely, August is kept open. It is very likely that in August I will visit Hometown.
More on that will come as plans get set, but for now, August is the month for Hometowners to look forward to.

Now I imagine the next question: What about moving back to Hometown?
Well my answer to that is... To Be Continued. 
(hehehe) 

[Health] EEG

That's no typo, I had what is maybe the final thing in the fiasco that was death by essays.
I had that test today, which will see if anything happened since then. It required a flashing light and short hyper breaths. All seemed to go well, though the breathing aspect felt very familiar, as it essentially simulated panic attack breathing. That part wasn't so pleasant.
 
Now it's simply a waiting game to see if anything comes up.

Aside from that I've just been trying to sort out practicum stuff. And soon to start studying for my exam, which is rapidly approaching...
It's might be my toughest exam yet. (Essays are dangerous!)

[Deja Vu] Sweet Freedom

I'm done my essay~

PTE will now resume to its once a week+ posting ways.

Maybe.

Also: Miitomo appears to be out of questions to ask me...I may have maxed it out...