January Round-Up '25

I was already anticipating this year to be rough, but it feels like life really wanted throw more at me than I expected!! I've been in an incredibly dry spot creatively thanks to a million pounds of stress, but I'm still grateful for each day that comes where I'm able to relax with my partner. Here's a little bit on what 2025 has brought so far.

Fire Danger

Chris and I woke up one morning, looked out the window, spied huge black clouds of smoke and ash, and immediately packed important items to flee our home. As we drove away we got an official "Evacuate NOW" message blaring on our phones, so we'd just gotten ahead of the traffic to escape encroaching flames from devastating, huge fires. We were some of the lucky few - we were able to return home after a couple days once the air became less toxic (the air quality at home reached 434, "HAZARDOUS," which is the worst I've ever seen anywhere).

We've actually kept most of our belongings packed in a suitcase the past few weeks in case we needed to leave again, but thanks to a tiny bit of rain this past weekend, it seems like we may finally be okay to unpack. It's been extremely stressful, but it means such a great deal to have friends who immediately supported me when they found out we were in trouble - a big thanks to everyone who reached out, and especially to those who supported me rebuilding funds to replace all the food we had to toss due to the power outages after the horrible 100 mph winds. That support has really kept me going this month! Also shoutout to Spacey for streaming to raise money benefitting the firefighters and others affected by the fires!

I think that red dot is the sun? This was taken shortly after we evacuated our home...

To face the horrors, we got a red velvet whoopie pie that was literally larger than my face (I could only eat a little bit of it at a time)!! It was yummy!!!

Tax Weirdness

On the first day of tax season I was sent a form that taxed all the donations I received toward my medical crises last year!! Cool!!!! As a result I've already filed my taxes and now I pray that they'll accept them without asking for info on the corrections I made. If they do need more info, I may need to reach out to those who helped and get a written confirmation of the donations, but I'm trying to stay positive that it won't come to that.

I sure am tired of being hyper-anxious all the time.

Square Enix Pop-Up

Something actually cool that acted as a bit of relief from all of life's little stresses was checking out the official Square Enix Pop-Up! Just being immersed among things that bring me joy for a bit lifted my spirits. Chris and I also got some delicious food afterwards, such as bread from our favorite bakery, and I got some shockingly delicious inexpensive sushi from a Japanese convenience store. It was a nice day.

There were a lot of neat things that were different from last year's Pop-Up!

Valentines 2025

Despite all the uncertainties, I'm hand-making Valentines this year! 2025's design features a handsome little hyrax sporting heart bobbles on his head and a cute bow. Thanks to those who wanted one - I'm looking forward to bringing these cuties to life!! I also plan to make a digital version for those who live outside my country so love can be shared all around the world (keep an eye on my Itch page!)

Here's the work in progress pic for the Valentines!

Streaming

I recently started streaming on Twitch again after taking a break for the holidays! The biggest thing for this year is playing one of my favorite games ever, Yakuza 0, on Mondays with my "Majimonday" streams (you can see the first part's VOD here)!! You can check those out every Monday at 9am PT, and then I'll have "Wildcard Wednesdays" at the same time where I play a little bit of something different each week!

Majima's introduction has to be one of the coolest things in video games EVER

Chrono Gear News

It's finally been announced that my bestie Spacey's Hololive fangame - Chrono Gear Warden of Time - is officially a part of Holo Indie and being released through Steam!! Please give it a wishlist if you'd like to help out the team, and especially to keep tabs on one of the most fun 2D platformers out there!! It's been such an honor to playtest this game, and the whole team is putting a lot of pizzazz into making this a game anyone can enjoy!


Games

  • Starting near the middle of last month, I began playing the Silent Hill 2 Remake little by little, and I finally finished it at the beginning of this month. SH2 is one of my all time favorite games & I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of what they did for this version of the story. The voice actors brought so much life to their roles, the action was incredibly fun, the atmosphere was just as exceptional as the original and honestly felt even MORE tense due to certain changes (like not being able to pause to look at maps). I'm really glad to have this game!! I think the original version of SH2 should be experienced to see the vision this one came from, but I believe the remake is a good way to play the game for those who don't have the OG (tho it's very easy to find and play with the enhanced version on PC)!

    • The vibes were SO good and the combat was shockingly fun!

  • Since just before the fires started, Chris and I started playing a brand new save of Pokemon Crystal to wind down in the evenings. This the very first Pokemon game I owned and played, and I hadn't restarted the game since my very first playthrough, so I've been having an absolute blast reliving one of my favorite games! As a kid I didn't really understand how Pokemon "worked," so I did some things that weren't "optimal" (such as letting the main legendary - Suicune - faint, and using my Master Ball on a Ditto), and it's been fun discovering secrets that I hadn't even stumbled upon despite maxing out the hours in my original cartridge. I'm having so much fun!!

    • Go beep with many people!!!!

  • I've been watching my partner play 1000XResist and it is absolutely STELLAR. Genuinely heartbreaking and super relevant, it hurts so good. I can see why it won "Best Narrative" at the Indie Game Awards last year; I'm going to be thinking about it for time to come. Please consider playing it if you can handle heavy topics (though you still might consider checking trigger warnings before you do). I'm glad I went into it completely blind, but it's A LOT.

  • One of the gifts my partner got me for Christmas is Fitness Boxing featuring Hatsune Miku (with matching colorful Joy-Con grips!) and I've been having a blast punching to Vocaloid music!! I've enjoyed previous iterations of the Fitness Boxing Switch games, but this one is going to be my go-to since it's very relevant to my interests with its music selection.

    • Get Miku Miku'd for reals!!!!!

  • One of Chris' favorite games of all time is one I finally had the opportunity to try: Final Fantasy 11!! Thanks to the lovely free fan server HorizonXI, I get to play this MMO that's always been out of reach for me. Chris has been playing with friends on the weekends recently and I'm looking forward to giving it more of a shot. I didn't grow up with MMOs personally so it's a pretty big learning curve, but I'm grateful to have people who want to enjoy it with me.

    • ~praying for the rest of all creatures~


    Media

    I haven't actually been keeping up with currently airing anime because of everything happening so much, but here's what I have been watching:

  • Windy Tales is a laid back collection of stories centered around - you guessed it - the wind! The striking artstyle is what roused my curiosity in the anime, but the stories themselves are lovely to wind down with... plus, a big part of it is cats that fly through the sky, so how could I NOT love that?

  • David Lynch's death is one of the few passings outside of people I personally know that has touched my heart. I wouldn't call myself a "fan" of all his movies, but I do love Twin Peaks very much, and respect Lynch deeply with how much of himself he imbues into every work without compromise. To celebrate such an affecting life, Chris and I have been watching through Twin Peaks Season 2 since we'd recently rewatched Season 1... it's still very good!!

    • Twin Peaks is a totally normal show, trust me.


    Glad this month's over.

    February is coming up, which is going to be a very busy month. There's a lot in the air, but I know for sure that my time's going to be very occupied. On the bright side, I should be streaming more consistenly and hopefully I'll be able to start making more art again too. Thanks for reading this - see you around!

    01/17/25 - Rest in Peace to my friend Salem. I memorialized them in my Pokemon Crystal since I remembered they liked Wooper.

    Neko