Slayer-1412

Time for an update:

1. Heading to Singapore in a few days to visit a friend
2. Heading to Hong Kong to see my family and spend my 24th birthday
3. Planning to visit Disneyland (Shanghai) relatively soon
4. Didn't keep my instagram updated much, whoops. That working life
5. Creatively feeling stuck, personal and other aspirations included (hello La-Pokafe) -- un-kept promises, always great for the personality that enjoys picking at itself.
6. Oh hey I got into a bike accident about 2 weeks ago. Came out of it with two scrapes, one on my hand and one on my knee. I hit a moving car. My bike got pretty messed up. Always wear a helmet!
7. Rode in a stranger's unmarked car thinking it was a taxi. Whoa, stranger danger--luckily nothing happened.
8. Visited Taiwan, and it felt a lot like a Mandarin version of Hong Kong. In which case it's surrounded by Chinese people that use traditional characters but speak Mandarin. Also, English is powerful. (Saying "excuse me" on a bus cleared the aisle much faster compared to politely prodding strangers' shoulders.)
9. Also stayed in a love-hotel by myself. No wonder it was so dang cheap to stay in. My personal love-life is hardly of interest to discuss at the end of the year, but had been mildly interesting in the summer. As life goes.

I don't think I can stay in China another year. Visiting Taiwan (where I meet my aunt from Canada, for a few days) just drove the point home that I despise staying on my own with phone calls to family as the closest I'll get to them.

Oh, and 10, I've consumed more alcohol in the past 4 months than I have in my entire life. Giving my apparent coping mechanism for homesickness is to drink soju (a Korean rice wine)--something I shared with two friends on my 19th birthday (legal drinking age in Ontario).

Apparently drinking one bottle on its own would kill me with its alcohol content and I can certainly believe it after drinking a full bottle by accident (though I had paced myself and drunk it with my dinner). Not a pleasant experience. Just going to lay that out there.

Given that I have no clue who'll read this journal up to the next one (I honestly don't know who's active on my watchlist, given my mostly negligible presence on here). I'm curious as to how you'd rate 2018?

My rating is, mostly encouraging. It's been a heck of a year, despite the negativity I've put above for the latter 1/3 of it. Probably a 7/12.

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Note: cancelling your CORE subscription does NOT automatically cancel pre-approved payments by Paypal. IF, however, you have accidentally purchased something on dA because of Paypal, make sure to get on that refund process in 24 hrs because if not, weeeeeeeeell then you're me this Christmas. Thanks for taking my $50USD dA, even though you acknowledged I cancelled my annual re-billing. Thank you. So. Fricken. Much.

10 years. Wow.

I'd imagine, ten years prior, I'd have I'd be as active on dA as I was then. Clearly, there is a far cry from then and now.

My peak of activity was back roughly in the last two years of highschool, after which came university, and... I never exactly stopped arting. But I didn't pursue it with a single-minded purpose as I had before. I'd even argue that instead of mass-churning out things for people to see, I became more conscious about the quality of my work and strove to improve one or two things from the last piece.

Or something profound like that.

I've made promises and it feels as though at times I've broken half of them (if not more) to the community here. Makes it a bit of a guilt trip dropping by to be honest.

Here's to life and seeing whether each day can be much greater than the last.

Cheers all. China's been...a strange place, neither here nor there (there's a word for it, but it does not come to mind right this second).

Ps. How I spent the actual day of my anniversary: getting out of an art slump, ironically (?)

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Instagram: #ykt_ag

It is both with excitement and an insane amount of anxiety that I make this post. I'll be teaching English to a primary school in China this up-coming year.

I don't know if I'll be back. From what I heard, I can access Discord in China. So whatever RP groups I'm involved in will hear from me primarily from that platform.

This is mostly a notice of sorts, since this is still one of my bigger sign-posts on social media (and it's not connected to my instagram, whoops). If interested in connecting through instagram, please drop a note before September rolls in!

I'd say I've been well, but I've been fighting a throat infection for close to two weeks now and I'm hoping it will sort itself out before I leave Canada. Really hoping.

Quick to do list:
La-Pokafe Don't leave hanging, get shit down when lucid.
Pocket-Crest Stat sheets, work out battle system. Huzzah.

Cheers all,
Slayer

Two journals in the same month? How bizarre.

Almost as bizarre as being officially finished with my undergrad from U of T. Shiny expensive as eff diploma and everything.

"What now?"