January 10, 2021

8: 2020 in review

Happy new year, everyone!!

With 2020 in our rearview mirrors and 2021 ahead of us, I’m in reflection mode - thinking about how last year went and how I can keep progressing. Time to review how I spent my time in 2020:

January

• Participated in Ryan's Lil Jam and developed a short, cute whodunnit game called *Bird Cop* with Alex Carlson and Thrasher.
• Attended SF Sketch Fest to see the *We Bare Bears* panel, where I met creator Daniel Chong and animator/musician Louie Zong.
• Booked flights and AirBnBs for an August trip to Japan (specifically, Tokyo and Osaka) with Alex - our first overseas trip together!

February

• Applied to Everland's sound designer opening, and was invited to complete an audio test at the end of February. Worked on this audio test through the end of the month till the beginning of March.
• Applied to work on Roscoe Rappaport's animated thesis film *Hellhound*.
• Redesigned Dark Cosmic Jhin's Captive Audience ability from *League of Legends*.
• Purchased a secondhand native Japanese Sony PCM-M10 from a seller on eBay. Constantly needed to refer to the English version of the manual to do even the littlest thing, but was very much worth it - it lives up to its reputation!
• Joined Mintlodica's Cute Keyboard Club, a lil Discord community that discusses cute keyboards, cute art, and cute general life things, and started developing an interest in the keyboard-building hobby.
• Commissioned a piece from one of my favorite artists, Keana Almario, for Valentine's Day as a gift for Alex.
• Went to the zoo for the first time with Alex and saw a capybara. I had been experiencing creative block for a few weeks by this time, and Alex brought me to the zoo to help me de-funk and destress.

March

• Completed and submitted the audio test (first audio test!) for the *Everland* application. Thus began the long, long wait for updates and news - the next step was to discuss the test with the audio director on the project, but that next step was delayed by deadlines and various complications.
• Landed sound designer contract role on *Hellhound* and started working on the sound design.
• California's Stay-At-Home order issued on March 16 - the start of a very long (and still ongoing) quarantine.
• Applied for unemployment insurance, because at the start of quarantine, my company Micross Components closed without giving me any means of working from home or providing paid leave (grrrr).
• *Animal Crossing: New Horizons* released on March 20 - became obsessed with the game and started meeting people/making friends in the Cute Keyboard Club who were also playing it. Also started using the game as a means of spending time with Alex during quarantine, when we didn't know if it was safe to visit each other.
• Started going back to work on March 30, because Micross was considered a government-adjacent business that needed to stay open and my manager didn't want to consider letting me work from home; was able to bargain for just 1-2 days of work a week in order to keep my immunocompromised parents safe.
• Purchased some cute duck goodies from Komomorebi.

April

• Redesigned Mei's Endothermic Blaster ability from *Overwatch*.
• After being inspired by the Cute Keyboard Club's cute spreadsheets and data tracking abilities, started a sound design log spreadsheet! Used it to log decisions and changes made in the course of designing a sound, in order to track my design process and to keep a reference.
• Cancelled bookings for Japan trip, as it became much more clear that the pandemic situation in the U.S. would not likely improve before August.
• Celebrated Alex's birthday in quarantine - the first time we'd been able to be together since quarantine started.

May

• Contract on *Hellhound* essentially terminated due to COVID-19 forcing universities to close, send students home, and effectively botch the syllabus.
• Embroidery: new hobby acquired!
• Purchased my first set of special keycaps - Infinikey Pastel PBT Peach kit.
• Rewatched *Avatar: The Last Airbender* and finally finished the entirety of *The Legend of Korra*.
• Celebrated my 24th birthday in quarantine! Got to spend time with Alex again, and video-chatted with my sisters.
• Participated in the *Animal Crossing: New Horizons* Fall Fashion Fest at my friend Danny's island, and had a heck of a (virtual) time despite the Nintendo servers being very unkind.

June

• *Black Lives Matter*.
• Redesigned Mei's Ice Wall ability from *Overwatch*.
• Redesigned Mei's Cryo-Freeze ability from *Overwatch*.
• Came to the realization that I'm somewhere on the bi spectrum, where I'm bisexual but not biromantic! Started with Janet Garcia's tweet about her own bisexuality, and realized I identified similarly: I have never been with a non-male partner, and I'm wonderfully happy with Alex, but I do know that I'm sexually attracted to women.
• Adopted a Philodendron cordatum and a Peperomia hope from Leafy Palo Alto into my lil plant family!

July

• Designed sound for DeeKay Kwon's *Character Font* animation.
• Received an (somewhat final) update on my *Everland* application - not outright rejected, but legal and financial complications have made the project's future indefinite. Will have to wait for those issues to clear up before I can try to follow up with the team again.
• *Big Boss Battle (B3)* published an article about *Bird Cop*!
• Started my *Mint Jams* newsletter for fun, and started writing and sharing more about my life and sound design journey.
• Started learning 3D modeling using Blender with Alex.
• Watched *The Baby-Sitters Club* series that released this month on Netflix - absolutely loved it! (I'd read some of the books when I was younger - we only owned a few installments - so watching the TV series reboot was super nostalgic and sentimental for me.)
• Finally got around to watching *The Office* - didn't like the characters too much at first other than Jim and Pam, but slowly got really into it.

August

• Collaborated with DeeKay Kwon on *Zombie Run* animation.
• Redesigned Mei's Blizzard ability from *Overwatch*.
• Designed sound for FITS and Isadora Zeferino's *All in the Golden Afternoon* animation.
• Designed sound for Jen Nie's *Orange Soda Shop* animation.
• Started collaborating with my friend Robert on the sound for Matt Herring's *Twilight Guardian* sequence as a fun side project.
• Started working with Chase Steele on organizing his sound library and re-doing the metadata and naming system to follow the UCS standards.
• Left Receptionist/Office Assistant role at Micross Components on August 13 due to their lack of consideration for employee and employee family safety during the pandemic, as well as the lack of compensation for work performed.
• Prepared for possible evacuation from my childhood home due to the California wildfires.
• Started studying Japanese with Alex.
• Started playing *Spiritfarer* and developed a spreadsheet for *Spiritfarer*-related things.
• Started reading *Nice to Meet You* on WebToon after Alex recommended it to me. It's an absolutely adorable, slice-of-life shoujo comic!
• Finally received refunds for cancelled flights to Japan.

September

• Redesigned a section of the Scepter of the Pious-related cutscene from *Final Fantasy XV*.
• Designed sound for Andry Rasoahaingo's *#weekend* animation.
• Designed sound for Amy Wibowo's *spoopy crystal ball* animation.
• Participated in the Potion Challenge from Dani's House of Peeps - drafted a suite of sound effects for an imaginary potion shop game.
• Started new role as HR/Office Assistant at CE2 Corporation on September 9 - came on board as an on-call employee which thankfully allowed me the flexibility to choose how much I work depending on other commitments.
• My oldest sister got married! Attended her socially-distanced wedding with my family, in the middle of a raging pandemic and the California wildfires/heatwaves. I now have a brother-in-law - first son in my immediate family.
• Got a vinyl record player as a hand-me-down from my third sister.
• Finished *Final Fantasy XV*'s main story (sans DLC) two years after initially starting it with Alex - cried my heart out for my sons.
• Also finished *Ghost of Tsushima* with Alex, which had an amazing story.
• Started playing *Going Under* - not very good at playing roguelikes, but really enjoying the movement and sound design.
• Started and finished *Final Fantasy VII Remake* - never got to finish the original *FFVII* because I got stuck in Cloud's hometown in a battle with Sephiroth, but luckily I did get through the entire Midgar section at the beginning so I could feel the differences in *Remake*! I really enjoyed the added sidequests and extra exploration in *Remake* - Square Enix did an amazing job making Midgar come to life.
• Binged *Gourmet Hound* - was a super remarkable romantic comedy. Highly recommend!

October

• Applied to Proletariat’s Audio Designer role. Received an interview invitation; interviewed by phone with Marian, the Recruitment Coordinator.
• Applied to work as a sound designer with Octosoft
on *Renaine*. (Still waiting to hear back - I honestly don't know if they've chosen or reviewed applicants at all, and I can't follow up because they didn't want DMs.)
• Released my first ever reel - a collection of the pieces I'm proudest of!! Learned that a demonstration of cohesive design choices and aesthetic sensibilities is far more important than demonstrating indie-vs-AAA desires.
• Participated in the first ever Wholesome Game Jam and prototyped a small digital toy, the pastel version of the Simon toy with Risky, Joe, and Manuel. Wrote up a brief thread on the experience of the jam and the process I had for the sound design!
• Participated in Ludum Dare 47 with Simon and the rest of the gang from Windmill Games, and developed a short game called Ouroboros - placed 22nd in Audio! Also realized that the competitive nature of LD combined with the very, very short timespan kept me from enjoying the development process - won't be participating in LD anymore, lol.
• Wrote up a newsletter on my creative process working on the *Final Fantasy XV* Scepter of the Pious redesign.
• Started meeting with old classmates from San José State about potential creative collaborations.
• Attended GameSoundCon virtually.
• Attended a virtual Boston Game Dev Meetup where my friend Juliet Rascon gave a talk on the importance of foley as a storytelling device in game development!
• Started meeting with [REDACTED] to discuss and negotiate for [REDACTED]. (Further talks were postponed till after the New Year, so hopefully I'll have an update on this soon!)
• Started playing *Genshin Impact* with Alex. We came for the *Breath of the Wild* aesthetic and gameplay feel, but stayed for the waifus and husbandos and A+ story!
• Started playing *Hades*, *Spellbreak*, *Part Time UFO*, and *Super Crush KO* with Alex as well.
• *Ikenfell* released this month so naturally, I started playing this, too! As expected, am totally in love with the witch school setting, the diverse characters, interesting narrative, and flexible battle system.
• Celebrated my mom's birthday with my family over Zoom!
• Went on a socially distanced "date" with Alex: Drove to San Francisco and visited Land's End, ate "picnic food" (so: Din Tai Fung beef xiaolongbao and chocolate xiaolongbao, Safeway egg salad and potato salad, Ritz crackers, prosciutto, and brie) and watched the sunset in the car.
• Had a cozy Halloween “date” with Alex: played *Luigi’s Mansion 3*, ate Korean soft tofu soup, and went pumpkin shopping.

November

• Passed the phone interview stage for the Proletariat application and was invited to complete the audio test. Completed and submitted the audio test.
• Redesigned the Traveler's Palm Vortex ability and Amber's Pyro Arrow ability from *Genshin Impact* as part of the audio test for Proletariat.
• Redesigned some Light and Shadow deck gameplay from *Legends of Runeterra* as part of the audio test for Proletariat.
• Redesigned some sections of Sypha's battle vs hell demons from the *Castlevania* anime as part of the audio test for Proletariat.
• Continued working with old SJSU classmates on potential collaborations. Made the collective decision to form an audio outsourcing agency that would contract for multimedia/games and animations.
• Started using MonkeyType to improve typing and take breaks for fun.
• Went on a socially distanced “date” with Alex: Drove to/visited Berkeley to see the sights, shop for plants, and pick up milk tea.
• Pulled Childe/Tartaglia in *Genshin Impact*, by some stroke of luck! (...And, well, with some spending of actual money for Primogems...)
• Purchased some cute planters from Shopzoki.
• Purchased a *Final Fantasy XV* bucket hat made by Xtine.
• Celebrated Thanksgiving with my family over Zoom!
• Binged *Schitt's Creek* and watched *My Octopus Teacher* with one of my sisters over the Thanksgiving weekend!

December

• Rejected from Proletariat’s Audio Designer role, but connected with Dave Shumway and gained a person in my corner. Discovered that I was among 9 who were chosen out of 200+ applicants to do the audio test, which was a *huge* milestone.
• Interviewed with Awry Studios and Ubiquity6 for different contracts.
• Officially landed my first game audio contract - work with Ubiquity6 on *Backyard*!! Started working on contract, and can't wait to be able to work on audio full-time.
• Officially landed a couple animation projects: *Chiizu no Tatakai*, an short animated film for the OA Film Fest; *A Fleeting Moment*, a short animated thesis film for a small cohort of SJSU animation students.
• Applied to [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. (Sorry, I don't want to jinx it or get my hopes up about these applications, so you'll have to stay tuned for updates!)
• Continued production and bizdev work on audio outsourcing agency.
• Redesigned Mona's Ripple of Fate ability from *Genshin Impact*.
• Updated website – moved to SquareSpace 7.1 (which has everything I could want at this point in time) and redesigned website again.
• Celebrated my three-year anniversary with Alex! Ate lunch together (spam and rice, complete with his special buttery eggs), exchanged gifts/showed gifts that were coming in late (hehe), picked up 34 pieces of take-out sashimi from Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, cuddled and watched *The Great Pretenders*, and played *Genshin Impact*. A perfect day <3
• Purchased second/third set of special keycaps - DSA Magic Girl cleric core + summoner core kits. Also purchased related deskmats and cables.Looking forward to having a *very* cute desk setup in 2021!
• Purchased a Cute Keyboard Club bomber jacket. Officially a part of the club!!
• Purchased a cute "Hello World" sweater from Amy Wibowo's Bubblesort Zines shop.
• *Hollow Knights Piano Collections* vinyl, CD, and piano book finally came in. It's SO GOOD.
• Picked up another Peperomia hope from Leafy San José because I'd been a little *too* neglectful with the one I already had - took its love for the drought-then-drench watering for granted. Lesson learned, and I'm keeping a closer eye on my new bb ^^;
• Completed my Genshin Impact boy band - Kaeya, Diluc, Zhongli, and Tartaglia. They're beautiful ;v;
• Yay for Christmas movie marathons!
• Celebrated Christmas (you know what that means - arroz caldo for Nochebuena!) with my family over Zoom!
• Got back into anime and watched *Maid Sama* and *Violet Evergarden* with Alex - which quickly joined the ranks of my favorite animes of all time.

Looking back, there were a lot of things that were difficult this year, but so much to be grateful for. I’m glad (and proud!) that somehow, I was able to make the most of it, find joy in the little things, and keep going!

I won’t pretend that the arrival of 2021 will suddenly make everything right with the world again. (I mean, it’s only been ten days since January started, and already we’re burning.) But I hope to carry the same energy that kept me on fire last year into this new year, and bring about a wonderful year for myself and for others. Let’s all do our best, be kind to each other, and continue trying to do good things.

Thanks for reading, and be well.