sym and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad 2024*
*this is a silly clickbaity title
i'm not sure how to start this exactly, but since i've already made my own personal reflection, it'll kinda be a 'sparknotes' situation.
the bad
so, i've talked about this in the past, but, in july, my hard drive on my laptop crashed.
it was such a traumatic moment, as for a moment, i thought i lost almost all of my artwork over the course of 15 years of digital art. it was scary man! i thought my life was over for a moment.
but, i made it out, as i was able to get a recovery service that recovered 99% of my files.
some of my files did get corrupted permanently, but, from what i'd seen, were either pngs of master files i still had, or the clip files of an already exported image. some of them i did end up losing almost permanently, like a comic page or two. but, celsys, clip studio's developer, has a service where you can send them corrupted files, and they can attempt to repair or extract non-corrupted layers off of the file. so, i was able to get some pieces of some of the working files, thankfully! now i have everything back, though i am still a little anxious about making sure my stuff doesn't get lost again. comes with the territory!
it put me out of work for 2 months, working on an ipad that had low memory and low space, and kinda into depression. BUT! LATE AUGUST, I RECEIVED MY BABY AND RECOVERED DRIVE, AND WE WERE SO BACK!
it all would have been fine and dandy but...
then, this past month... my phone's battery started swelling. this meant i had to replace my phone!!!!
and after surprise medical bills draining my wallet, baby's first credit card to pay off the recovery, and funds sunk from repairing the laptop only to have to get a mini pc because the (6 year old?) old laptop started to show signs of wear and worried me that the mother board may have started to go...... i was NOT having it.
LUCKILY FOR ME, it's a google phone. after running around on reddit, i discovered that due to the hazard, they would likely replace my phone with an identical model. HUZZAH!
so, new phone that i managed to transfer everything onto, and new pc i'm learnin' how to use going into 2024. nice! it all worked out in the end, it seems.1
but lets get into some of the cooler things that happened. had to start with the bad to talk about the good!
the good
in march, i started therapy again. i love my therapist and i've been making huge strides, more than i think i have been in a while.
stardew 1.6 also updated, and i still haven't finished it. i've seen a lot of speedruns, though!
in april, i rebooted my autofiction comic justice avenue. after figuring out what i wanted for the series, i made a full new debut on my birthday! it made me really happy, being able to spend time with my ocs in the comic space, and i'm excited to do more in the future! there's so much i want to explore, and so much i want to show. one day, i'll be more open about where the core of JA came from. but that'll be another day!
i also put the old pages and episodes on an archive site. justice avenue is the current iteration of an older comic called 'fabulous at failing', that i made when i was 16. it was named after the (now deleted? man.) comic 'fail by error' on tapas.
i also went to my first ramen place with my cousin, feza. it was really fun! it was the grand opening, so there was a lot going on as they were celebrating, and it was great being with a bunch of folks who were fans of japanese culture and anime nerds >:) (especially since i got back into anime and manga a LOT this year) i also got my mom hooked in the food later on😌
in july, i went to my second ajr concert. it was wonderful, and i got to share it with my mom and my older nephew. it was his first concert, and he was super excited :D i later got to watch the same performance in october with dan, as they had recorded the show i went to and made a patreon moment livestream :)! love that band to bits.
and in august....
my best friend came to visit for the first time!!!
it was exciting to see dan in real life! he stayed for a week and i will always remember it fondly :) it was surreal.... though it didn't feel any different than when we were calling on discord, to be honest 😂
i hope i can see him again soon :)
i also played so many games this past month or so, it was nice getting back into a hobby i hadn't visited in quite some time (◡ ω ◡)
artistic wise, i did some stuff, but other stuff ended up to the wayside, as my mental/physical health got worse at the diagnosis of having sleep apnea. the trauma from the hard drive crash also bogged a lot down, and while i made a fair amount of things, my focus was all over the place.
but i did at least work toward my website! so that's something.
next year, i have a few goals i want to focus on.
the future
i'm trying to be very practical with my goals this year i think.
life wise, these are the goals i want to prioritize:
- better mental/physical health
- organizing physical space and digital spaces
- have fun and enjoy hobbies
- low stress
i really want to bring these to the forefront, because, they're so important! and being a ex workaholic (it feels so nice to say that rather than 'recovering'), sometimes i forget to prioritize it when i'm distracted with other things. so! important.
for art
- work on my website
- work towards launching guide creative
- finish and submit viz media one-shot pitch
- finish and submit kids comics unite pitchfest entry
- untitled return
- make shorter comics for fun
- finish some animatic wips
- finish the outline for One shorter story
i really want to prioritize some of this stuff so i can sort of... advance in my career? i suppose. i've been thinking on and off about getting an agent and going towards publishing2, but am still a little scared because i don't know what to expect, and having that uncertainty scares me, along with worrying that the publishing industry may burn me out, BUT! worse case scenario, i still have my part time job.
i love comics with my entire being, and would rather do it than anything else. i truly do. so working at a library part time and making books seems like an apt path, doesn't it?
plus, i still have animation, illustration, game dev, music, etc etc etc as my other art hobbies. i'm kinda enthralled with most art forms, lol.
always wanting to explore and learn...
anyway, getting a possible pitch review through the pitchfest, and submitting a one-shot will open doors if it goes well. so i'm excited to see where it takes me, if anywhere!
i'm hoping for the best :>
i'm also going to try to Stick to these goals, and these goals only. i have a nasty habit of veering off the path, and then my attention gets split trying to do multiple things. hopefully i can ground myself on keeping to my goals this time!
this feels like a lot, but a fair amount of it is finishing things i already started! but, if i don't, i at least know i've gotten further than i was before.
guide creative is a bit of a passion project, and while it'll be a while before i fill every page, i at the very least want to start publicly building it, rather than hoard everything. it won't help anybody if i do, especially since it's supposed to be a resource for artists.
i also just wanna be more active in spaces again. i got really exhausted from life and it severely cut me off from being able to interact with folks on discord especially. wanna change that! maybe try to reconnect with friends irl again, too. we'll see, i suppose!
well, it's not quite a 'my top of 2024'3, but, thanks for reading :)
i'll see you all in 2025!
stay safe, and live.
sym 🍓
oh and my computer chair broke but it's ok cause my dad gave me his which is identical to the one i had but a different color LOL↩
mostly because i think that i don't want to be bogged down by admin of running an independent business, it'll only stress me out— plus it's an old dream of mine to see my books on shelves :)↩
i wanna make one!! but no energy 😔 maybe i'll do some 'what i've been reading/watching/etc lately' another time.↩