MasterOfGeckos

What's up. It's another year round-up. This one's a little early but that's fine. At this point I'm doing these for me. Even if I don't keep checking back on them as intended. Uhhhh

In 2022 I:

-The big one is that I completed my Zookeeping certification, and then got a job as a real actual zookeeper. I had to move away for the job, and now I live alone and it's all been a very big life adjustment. My job is VERY COOL, but. That's about it. I make no monies, and it's stressful, and I don't know anything, and I haven't made a ton of friends as I wished.

-Didn't really do a whole lot of art this year except for those dang fabric pieces. Which are fun to do and to give as gifts, so there's that.

-Made some pizza from scratch a bunch of times

-Went to an art exhibit

-Read some books (just like last year)

-Ate plenty of good food, sometimes with people and sometimes with myself, which I am trying to embrace. I make a point now of eating somewhere new on my weekends because there are a lot of hidden gems out there.

-I'm still playing my silly little Q-Chord. Cringe is dead and I post myself singing and playing it on social media

-My friend got married! I was in a wedding! And the bachelorette party was fun too!

-I played just a feeeww video games this year, but including a couple co-op ones with a friend.

-I went to a huge food festival

-Did a giant Easter egg hunt

-Saw a couple movies. Saw a couple plays.

-Went to a big aquarium and a big ocean

-Went to New Mexico for a wedding (again)

-I jam packed my last weeks at home before moving full of friends and food and wandering around to soak it all in.

-There's a lot of nature where I live now, so I've been wandering around a lot here too. Also to discover new places. There has been a lot to explore, which is good.

I almost wasn't going to do one of these. I started doing them because I stopped doing journals or really updating anyone on what my life had been up to. So these end of the year review things were a good way to just summarize what had happened in my year. I thought that maybe I would like to reminisce and look back at these here and there, buuut no I haven't. And now there isn't a lot of activity on my deviantart, so I feel no urgency to make a year roundup. I keep wanting to get more active online and make friends; I'm sure I'd have a lot of fun! I think I need the right outlets and motivation at this point. how do

Anyway, for now, I'm still doing the roundup. Here's a 2021 roundup of (good) things that happened to me this year or stuff I've been up to:

-I read a lot of books again this year (not as many as least year, but I guess reading is something I still do). Uhhh I also got into reading a lot of fanfiction, which wasn't really something I used to spend a lot of free time doing. haha

-Still playing video games. Return of the Obra Dinn was probably my favorite one I played.

-in 2020 I got a Suzuki Qchord for Christmas and I spent time off and on playing it this year. It's still a little silly, but I love the way it sounds.

-I went to speech therapy (which I totally forgot was a thing that I did in 2021) and it definitely benefitted me so that my dang tongue doesn't push my teeth around as much

-Got those Posca pens and got to make cool art with them this year

-My family (well, my mom) got a puppy. He's like... 80% a good boy

-Went to a beach and a fancy hotel

-Oh hey! I made that DnD comic this year! It was such a project and I'm so proud that I finished it.

-Went to a casino for my birthday (not my choice, but still appreciated)

-Bought my new drawing tablet and Clip Studio Paint... still reluctant to use it

-Did ArtFight again this year; that was fun

-Went to a dog show event thing

-Biked around a lake I had never been to (it was very exhausting but super pretty)

-Took a trip to Sacramento to see old friends

-Went to New Mexico for my cousin's wedding

-Drove to the Grand Canyon after that, which I saw for the first time

-I took a last minute trip to Hawaii for two days to help capture feral cats. Freakin exhaustin

-Working on an online Zookeeping certification program

-I did some cool crafts, like the fabric picture of the puppy, and some little lantern scenes

-I went to Knott's Berry Farm for the first time, that was fun! And I hate roller coasters.

-Did a lil hiking

.

now onto the next year

I haven't made any art since the last thing I posted, which was July's ArtFight. This makes me kind of sad. I got a new tablet and I bought Clip Studio Paint, but I think the fact of trying to learn it is daunting to me and I don't want to bother. Most of the time I just want to be sleeping.

But also hoo-boy life has been so busy. I just got back from trapping feral cats in Kaua'i (as a part of a volunteer program). I'm taking online classes to get a Zookeeping certification.

So uh this is all just to say that I'm still here. In case you wondered.

Every year I try to do a roundup of what happened this year. Mostly for myself, because I will forget. And sometimes every year feels the same, but then I look back and I'm like 'oh yeah this all happened.'

But I do not focus on the bad things, because let's forget about those. So... uh... that brings us to 2020, which was a universally awful year, as we know. Remember when I said 2019 was the worst year? Yikes.

2019 was partly bad because I pressured myself to find a new job, move out, and I was unhappy with my volunteering job. But, at least for me, I didn't have to think about any of that in 2020. So those pressures mostly slowed for me this year. So that's good. I am also thankful that in 2020, my health has been good, I still have my job, and it could have been a lot worse. Anyway, some good things I did in 2020 are:

-I went to Thailand in the beginning of the year! It was awesome! Super cool! Ate some bugs, saw some animals, saw a ton of temples, absolutely roughed it in the mountains for two days, stayed on a resort island.

-Saw a show on Broadway (Dear Evan Hansen)

-Continued my obsession with paint-by-numbers (I completed 3)

-Got really into reading this year I guess. I read over 50 books this year, which is very unlike me. I guess I like reading now.

-I got a new car (but only because my previous one got destroyed while parked on the street). Shopping for a car gave me so much anxiety and was just the worst for me. BUT I did it. I feel accomplished and now it's on this list.

-I, too, got very into cooking. Yes I did make bread (but I was making bread long before this).

-Did some paper mache fun things, among other arts & crafts.

-How about video games?? I beat The Outer Worlds, Omensight, Later Alligator, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Battleblock Theater, and the Ace Attorney Trilogy.

-Video Chatting definitely became a thing and I'm pretty sure I talked to more people than normal because of it. Did stuff like played Jackbox remotely with pals, which we never did before, even though we've always lived very far away from each other.

-Ate good food. I found a place that sold Turkish delight, and got it all the time until it closed. I participated in a fish taco eating contest. I discovered a new Hawaiian seafood place.

-Took a trip to a beach. Twice! (Different beaches. These were not the beach right next to me, which does not count). I also saw snow on my trip coming back.

-I went absolutely ham doing ArtFight and it was great! It made me love drawing again. (That was in July, I have since fallen out of love again but it will come back I'm sure).

-The holidays were good for me-- I liked not having to deal with a lot of people.

-I got a Suzuki Q-Chord (kind of a silly instrument, but I love the way it sounds) that I am learning how to play.

That's it! Ending it here, I'm not going to say anything to jinx 2021.

I didn't. Alternative title: get out of here, 2019. But honestly, I can only think of one person I know who had a truly great year. It seemed pretty bad for everyone else, myself included.

I will clarify that it's easy for me to say I had one of the crappiest years of my life because I'm only in my mid-20s and my life has been overall pretty good.

Also this year I did have a many very good individual days or weekends. As per tradition, here's a round-up of the good:

-Went to a wildlife discovery center

-Saw a few good movies

-Played some video games I'd been wanting to get to for a while

-Played some video games with friends

-My sister got married! It went very well, and I'm very happy for her! The build-up to it was actually very enjoyable for me, and I was the maid of honor. My sister was very considerate of my busy schedule and how overwhelmed planning could make me. I liked hanging out with the bridal party and the rest of the organizers in a way that we would never be able to do again.

-I went axe throwing, because that's a trend these days

-Did an escape room

-Went to some casinos which was fun? and interesting?

-Read a handful of books

-Went to a northern California beach

-Then went to a different one a separate time

-Ate lots of good food, of course

-Went to the fair for my birthday weekend

-Went to Nashville for the 4th of July! They boasted having the most tons of fireworks? And yeah... you know like the fireworks finale part of the show? No it was like that the whole time.

-Went to two different reptile expos

-Went bowling

-I had a three-day weekend and impulsively bought a plane ticket to New Mexico. It was a really cool decision!

-I started volunteering at the local museum (I'm proud of me for doing it, but it's mostly boring and unfulfilling)

-My cousin got married so I visited them for the wedding. It was fun, and it was good to see them because I'm working during Christmas this year and won't be able to visit them as I usually do

-I had a really good Thanksgiving

-Went to Christmas stores and looked at Christmas lights (which I've never done)

-Went to Disneyland! And spent the night at a friend's place who lived near there

I'm very thankful to have such a long list. However, my week to week life with work was miserable this year. I also started applying to new jobs since February. I think I've sent in 30 applications, and I got two interviews, but no offers. That's kinda just how job hunting goes, I think, but man I really feel like I've been suffering through each work week. The stress has really been messing me up. There is so much more to this, and I could write a whole new journal about my whole situation (beyond just the job and job hunting), but I'm going to stop here. It would get too dang long and I want to use this as a recap for the things I did in 2019.

In regards to my art, I had considered doing one of those 2009 vs 2019 comparisons that are popping up right now. But I didn't produce a lot of art this year-- I didn't feel like creating anything, or I have things I made but I'm not ready to share yet. I got into doing those elaborate paint-by-numbers kits because they're really zen to do, but they're not my original works. I especially didn't make any digital pieces this year that would make a really good 2009 comparison. Also... some of my art from 2009 I still think is pretty good. If anything, something like that would have taken me days in 2009, but now I can make something of similar or better quality in a few hours. So that's something I'm proud of, but I wouldn't exactly say that the quality of the art I'm making has drastically improved over the years. I think I'm just getting lazier and spending less time on projects. If I spent the same amount of time on the things I made in 2009, they might be amazing! Maybe I'll make that a 2020 goal; one art piece that took real time to do.

Alright, get out of here 2019. Happy new year everyone! Hopefully 2020 will be kinder.