Woah. It's hard to believe that it's been nearly six months since I last
posted on Gopher. Last year was a rough one and time just folded over itself.
Let's all hope and pray that this year will be better and that things will be
looking up.

In any case, I recently finished the game Omori that came out on Christmas.
It's a pscyhological RPG that on the surface has a tone similar to that of the
Mother series (Mother/Earthbound Zero [FC/NES], Mother 2/Earthbound [SFC/SNES],
and Mother 3 [GBA]) but underneath has a very deep and emotional story tied to
the main character, Sunny (aka Omori). Now that I've beat it it's hard to talk
about it without spoilers, but if you love RPGs and especially ones that are
both cute/goofy and emotionally involved, then I *highly* recommend it. I'm
tempted to play it again as there's a separate path that the game takes for
one of the bad/neutral endings, and I want to see the content, but I'm
currently still cooling down from the true end. It was a 25-ish hour game,
which is a big timesink for me, so we'll see lol.

Since my last phlog back in July I started working as a full-time PC Tech at
my old school district, which has been going fairly well. It doesn't pay super
high so I'm a bit worried trying to step through all my bills and debt, but
hopefully it works out (and hopefully I'll step up the salary scale in July of
this year). I basically just go around the different schools in the school
district all day long and resolve work orders and occasionally work on bigger
projects. It's been nice so far and I enjoy the people I work with, so I'm
content for now. I still have really big hopes for going back to AIU at some
point in the future, but I'll need around $200,000 US to do that (tuition +
paying off my debt + travel + four years of living expenses). I'm def not
gonna get it any time soon making a tenth of that a year after taxes lol, but
I'm working on starting to invest and see how much I can get what little money
I do have left over to grow. Just gonna keep hoping, praying, and pushing
forward and see what I can come up with.

I'm still not done with Millsaps. The date to finish all of my incomplete
classes got extended to January 11th, and I got one of the two classes
finished and passed, but I'm worried about the last class. Every time I've
tried to touch it since April I've either shut down or broken down (or both).
I tried to start on one of the essays again this past week, as I was going to
try and get everything done this week, but I ended up blanking out and then
having a panic attack that lasted over an hour. This one wasn't nearly as
traumatic as the one back in April, but it was on a similar scale in terms of
the effects it had on me. I was able to push through my mental health some
amount to get the other class done, but I'm not sure that I can do it for this
one. We'll see. I've got 8 more days, and I've got to work 5 of them, so I'm
doubtful, but I'll try. If a miracle happens and Student Life owns up to the
fact that it was their failure to give me proper mental health treatment
and accommodations (which they refused me/failed to give me several times) and
I can just get a pass for the last class that I have it would be nice, but
I've already made that argument to my advisor and he dismissed it, so I'm
doubtful they'll try to do anything on their part. But, y'know, it'd be nice.

On a different, more positive note, I've started watching this anime from the
early 2000s called Dennou Coil. It's about these kids who have AR glasses all
connected to a giant AR network that is built on top of the infrastructure in
the world around them. We watched one episode of it back when I was taking
Anime and Contemporary Japanese Visual Culture at AIU, and I'm just now
getting around to watching the full series. It's very fantastical sci-fi
(versus more technical "serious" sci-fi), but it's fun to watch and honestly I
think it's a cool look at a potential world we could have if AR
glasses/goggles became a commodity. The show does have a lot of elements that
are *very* Japanese, which I can appreciate, like there being an anti-virus
program called Searchy that locates and eliminates malware/corrupted data/etc
but it can't enter certain places like temples and schools because it's under
a different ministry of the government than (for example) the Ministry of
Cultural Affairs and the Ministry of Education. The idea of AR in every day
use is something that excites me (and terrifies me but y'know so does
everything else) so I enjoy the world they have built up around it. Honestly a
lot of the plot points/dialogue early on make it feel like a show that would
be a PERFECT adaption into a video game, and I can't believe that it never was
(nix a flash game in 2011 that's since disappeared). It'd be hella cool.

Since it is the new year, I do really want to go into this year practicing
drawing/comic writing more as well as working on my Japanese language
proficiency more. I neglected both of those for almost the entirety of 2020,
so getting back into them would be nice. We'll see if I actually manage it
while also working and also still trying to run my clubs. I've been exhausted
almost every day since I started working and haven't really had a world of
time for myself that I actually get to do anything meaningful with, but I'm
going to try and push past it and do more. I think it's something that would
help me to improve myself over time.

Anyway that's all for this phlog. I hope everyone is doing well and is having
a good start to 2021! Bye for now!