LiederWynd

I was actually thinking to myself last night, being 32 is more exciting than being 31. I think it's because I'm really ready to leave the past year behind. There is so much that has happened that me at this point last year wouldn't even recognize me. And it's not just because I finally got new glasses this year. I think I really made the changes that I needed to. That said, now I have to try and scrounge up five things that happened this month because I literally did not leave my house: I started doing my therapy online. I was a little nervous at first, but thankfully it worked really well. Oh! I did Camp NaNoWriMo, and I wrote a novella. I will share it at some point, just not now. On that note, I had a friend start a writing challenge, and I worked on it. It very nicely kept me busy for a good long while, to the point where I actually posted it on my Wattpad. I wrote a little bit of music, but you didn't hear that from me. I got into a new K-Pop boy band, ...

I know what you're thinking. It's super hard to put together a list like this right now. #OkayEmily what are you even supposed to do in the middle of a pandemic? Well, for starters: I started journaling full-time again. I had stopped for a good bit, only journaling quickly once a week or so, because of how stressed out I was. (There are some of you who know that I have been journaling basically nonstop since 2007. I'm on journal #19.) Ever since I started the new journal, I've made it a point to never miss a day. I also started working from home. This is important because while I am able-bodied and relatively fine, there are people in my house who will die from this virus if we get it. We have to minimize what goes out and what comes in. Mikkun still has to, but he is much better protected now than he once was. They also swapped his hours so I can pick him up from work every day now :) Work from home is fine. It has its own stresses but is quieter than the office, wh...

#OkayEmily where is last month's post? You said you were gonna post one of these every month, you know? Yes, I know that, but last month was important in one very important way: 1: I lost one of my best friends. Have you ever known someone who never really said much, but was always just...there? Any time you needed anything important, they would help provide it, and then they would go back to their hiding spot? But they were always still around to hang with people. She was beautiful, and I'm not gonna go into too much detail. But it was through her that I met Mikkun, that I found the arcade that I did. It's very indirectly because of her and her best friend that I started to get myself back, finally. She gave me more than I could ever repay her for, and I think she knew that. I have to be certain that she did. No other message matters anymore. 2: I played an incredibly failed recital. Which I'm actually really okay with! You learn what works for you and you move o...

Admittedly I totally had this list on the 5th, and then I got pretty well exiled from my computer. So I decided to sit down and put this up before I fall asleep again: I went back to the RAJ gaming event. Last year, it was my first convention after I had a massive mental breakdown at Matsuricon , and I was just happy I could stand on my own two feet for a few hours. This year, the partner and I got a hotel room and stayed downtown, and nobody else could fill the spots. It was kind of nice to have the whole hotel thing down pat, and I went up there midday when I couldn't stand the noise and took a nap. I think I might start doing that at conventions from now on. So if you don't see me on the floor on Saturday afternoons, assume I am asleep, or resting, and if you want to come up to my hotel we will see if I can swing it. On top of that, I got to perform at RAJ! We ironed out the kinks from the previous convention, although we didn't have the time or the money to buy a pia...

This November was actually really busy! Not only did I go through all that life recovery : I flat out did National Novel Writing Month. And I somehow made it through! In conjunction with NaNoWriMo, I went to our region's special event, the "Evening of Writing Uncontrollably." We literally had to drive out to the middle of nowhere to find this gorgeous old library that looked like something out of a Victorian painting. (They hold a lot of Harry Potter fan events.) I got to tour around, get some writing in, hang out with friends, rock a penguin kigurumi, and listen to one of my friends give a great talk about NaNo. It was 120% what I needed to progress forward. Before I went to the EWU Mikkun and I went to the grand opening of the Round 1 near us. We got T-shirts AND a picture with Santa.  I threw a party for The Game, and it ended up being super chill and everyone just petting my cat. Love my cat. Did I mention I have a cat now? I finally, finally, FINALLY got back ...

With my triumphant return to...well, something, I've got my five things that I've done this past month. If I delay too much, then when I'm 40 I'll look back at these things I've done and I'll wonder, what was I up to the summer and fall of 2019? I kind of fell off the face of the earth a little bit. Did I do anything of merit? To which I say, hey 40 year old Emily, remember that mixtape? Yeah. (stupid grin) That was a good one. I brought my Anime Cantabile mix home to a recital in Columbus. It felt good to be playing on 'home turf,' and I really love the recital hall that I've been playing at. There wasn't a lot of turnout, but I'm working on that for my next recital. I played Beethoven's 5th in the SEOSO concert of the century. There was also banjo. It was awesome. My eyeglasses were seriously 12 years old, so I finally went and got some new ones. (I also got to have lunch with my grandma twice this month because of that. Twice!! ...

I bet you're all wondering why I didn't post last month. (Spoiler alert: nobody's probably wondering why I didn't post last month.) To be honest, it started with one of the five things I had to do this month: I put in ADA paperwork for my job. #OkayEmily, you're probably wondering, you're not sick. You're totally healthy. Why do you need paperwork in order to actually perform your job? Well, it has to do with immense stress, the day to day operations of my job changing, and one too many automatic bathrooms. It's a post for another day, and now that I can semi-think straight again, I might actually be willing to write it. For a while there, I wasn't getting anything done. I was waking up, going to work, coming home, and sleeping. I might fit in some "me" time, but that was about it. Nothing as far as planning for my future or what not. And normally, I would just hide it all away so that people don't think I'm sick or damaged. B...

First off, I'm aware that things have been slow around here. In order to prepare for the future that I want, I've had to make some cuts along the way. d-VOR-ak is still being edited for simulpub (yes, there are copyedits that have to be made!) but I honestly can't remember the last time I sat in front of my computer to do so. My guess is we will start seeing those in the fall as production ramps up for Book 6. These next couple of months are also very busy as there are changes coming for my family. I will tell more about those as they happen -- no need to worry too hard. And now, for five things I have done during the month of May -- It took me an extra month, but I finally got to Kings Island. It felt GREAT to be back on the Beast, if you know what I mean :P I'm going to make an effort to go more often. I ran into some tough troubles mentally that I didn't think I would ever run into again. I don't need to fully explain what they are here, but this time w...

Well, I'm 31, and to be honest it doesn't feel much different than 30. The main difference is that I'm feeling an increased urgency to do something. Not because I've peaked, not because I'm getting older, but just this note of okay, no more games. I always say all the time that "nothing's gonna hold me back," that I'm going to make my way forward the best way I know how. This year, I want to strive to actually make that true, as derpy as it sounds. I don't really have a choice otherwise. To that effect: I started the long and tiring process of moving. At the moment I literally don't have enough work clothes at my house because they are all at Mikkun's. Perhaps I should have rethought that part. As we clean and make other adjustments, more of my belongings are being moved in. I shut the door to my room for the first time Sunday and it honestly felt like my space. That is something I've been working toward, and I'm glad I...

I found this to be a particularly busy month, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I started getting into the regular habit of wearing makeup. It's not something I've ever given attention to, but I had someone suggest I start doing it and, well, I finally listened. Currently I only do like three or four things, but I'm sure I'll add more and more as I go on. I even went to Ulta today and got a few more things to try. After letting it sit for a while, I'm finally feeling brave enough to start revamping my Akiba Idol Emily accounts. I'll post here once I know a bit more clearer what I'm doing. Since it finally got nice again, I started walking and have started playing PoGo again. I've been taking new routes at work during my lunches, and it's been a lot of fun to go exploring. I've started publishing SYNESIRIS, which is my pop'n music Bemani fanfiction! You can find it here . (I don't care if it's fanfiction. It's still wri...

Well, what do you know, it's actually still the 5th when I'm posting this :P Thinking back to this month, I thought I wouldn't be able to find anything I had done, but it was surprisingly easy to come up with things: I got a bunch of dental work taken care of. I know this seems silly to put on the list, but I'm proud that I'm taking care of myself and my own physical and mental health. I've been in the process of making a major purchase for my career, and well, FedEx operates totally differently here than they do in New York City :P But it has finally been delivered, and I can't wait to make some awesome art for you all with it. I got so stressed out that I had to take a day off of work. I really didn't want to, but there are some times where you HAVE to. I felt incredibly sick, I wasn't eating, and I couldn't get out of bed. So Mikkun took care of me, I probably ate way too much Skyline, and finally felt better in time to go home and watc...

First month of 2019! And...well, of course when I look at it in retrospect, I'm like "what exactly did I do?" I feel like January just passed me by, but there were things that happened. A lot of it was getting lost in the day to day, and to be honest, I don't want that to be the case. Maybe I should work harder at finding things I'm proud of, and doing those throughout the month. That said: I did go to Ohayocon! I just went on Saturday, and I had a friend go with me so I wasn't scared. But it worked out really well. I was exhausted after and I didn't really sleep LOL but I ran into an artist I hadn't seen in years and got to cosplay and play games. I think I'll be properly ready for Matsuricon -- and anything else -- as long as I can figure out how to sleep on Friday nights! I watched Rent "Live." Yeah, it wasn't really live, who's counting. But I still knew all the words, just like I used to. Guess some things never change.  ...

I gave an extra day to write this month's 5 Things because today is Epiphany! #OkayEmily you're not Catholic, what's up with that? Well, Epiphany is the end of the Christmas season. It's twelve days after Christmas, so you celebrate twelve whole days and then get Epiphany at the end. Catholic people believe that the Wise Men showed up at the stable on January 6th, and celebrate in their own ways. But it's also Armenian and Eastern Orthodox Christmas. And it's also literally the day I met my own Armenian. I don't talk to him anymore, but we mention his name so often that he might as well still be here, getting up to crazy things. So here's to you, Garo. In the midst of the crappiest time of my life, you showed up at work anyway despite being hungover, and you made my days in NYC the best they could ever be. Here are my 5 things for December 2018: I played in a recital for the first time since that fateful day in 2010. It was exactly what I needed: m...

So clearly this is not getting posted in November. What did I do in October? I continued to practice piano. I wrote a few things, and I even published a piece of sheet music for the first time ever. I spent most of my time prepping for NaNo and hoping that my entire month wouldn't dive-bonb. And it didn't...kind of. My big focus over the month was to get to a million words over my 15 years of doing NaNo. It would take about 77K to do so, and it took some extra time and some major stress, but I got there. I also finished my book for this year! You'll get to read it soon...really soon :D One of my closest friends was kicked out of her house by her husband, so I got to help her move. She's staying at Mikkun's for now and will find her own place soon, but I'm glad I was able to help her. I went to Thanksgiving with my grandma! It was the two of us and my uncle, and it was really chill and lots of fun. I got to include them in my Macy's and Dog Show TV tr...

A little behind again with this, as I actually thought about it the day of -- and then proceeded to get slammed at work. That's how life goes sometimes. Anywho, this is my monthly list of 5 interesting things that happened, or 5 things I was able to accomplish in spite of my own busy schedule. When I look back ten years from now, I want to see all of the cool things that happened to me in this period of my life. I started posting spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment videos of myself playing piano on Instagram! You can follow them here. You don't have to, like, follow me or anything, but it's still something I'm kind of proud of. On that note, I really got into the hang of posting more J-Pop covers. The catch is that nobody knows where they are yet! They're out on the Internet somewhere (which means they're on SoundCloud) but only one person knows my username (Mikkun). I'm doing that on purpose. I want to sing, but I don't want to over-promote myself and b...

Okay, so it's a couple of days late, but I was so stressed out last night that I actually got sick. It's a miracle in itself that I'm still awake. Regardless, here are my 5 things I did in the month of August! What's funny is that you probably know most of these already, because a lot of them happened at Matsuricon. I staffed my first anime convention! It was way less stressful than I thought it would be...despite the fact that my body and mind thought it was, LOL. I sang an Akiba Idol Emily song for the first and last time in front of a crowd! It was completely unexpected, but I'm glad I got to sing at least once before I retire the project for good and put my idol days behind me. (That's a whole 'nother story, but I got this.) I went to go see Teddyloid in concert at Matsuricon! I don't really go to concerts, and I really don't go to concerts or anything for Japanese acts. I'm too embarrassed to. But this was one exception I really wante...

All right, all right! I totally forgot I was supposed to post this on the 5th, but I'm only one day late and I spent last night hanging with my partner and CATS. The point is that I'm doing it still. I started my Generator Card collection -- properly, this time. I had a few before, but not a binder to put them in. For those not in the know, Generator Cards are from Sound Voltex, you can get them printed off at Round One locations when you play Voltex, and it's a very physical reminder of how much I love Bemani. Even if I'm not the biggest Voltex fan (I have a bunch of the Grafica cards). I got hit! Normally getting rear-ended wouldn't go on a list like this, but what's important about it is that I'm proud of how I handled it. I didn't freak out, I used my head, and I'm now being smart as far as getting my car fixed and adulting. It's a huge confidence booster and it's increased my own trust of myself.  I played something other than a son...

It's that time again -- for me to give my updates of five things I've done this past month. This month was a little bit more interesting to put together, as a lot of the things I've done are quieter, more like building toward something bigger. There are still things to report on, though! I took one of my best friends ever to Cedar Point. Despite being a HUGE roller coaster nerd, and even working at a park near his hometown, he had never been to the big CP. Even though it rained and we couldn't ride everything, the best part about it was watching him have fun.  I lost two pounds. This is actually kind of a big deal! It means all the walking that I started last month is really starting to pay off. My ultimate goal doesn't have anything to do with weight, though XD I'm finally taking initiative to take care of my health -- mental, physical, and spiritual. No need for details, just know it's going well and I'm not gonna die anytime soon. I've submi...

I just turned 30, and I was thinking of all of the things I want to do in my 30's. Now, I'm not making an express goal, although I know there are certainly a few things I want in life. Instead, I figured it would be good every 5th of every month (since I was born on the 5th) to go over 5 things that I did. Not 5 things I learned, not 5 things I want to do -- five things I physically did this month. So here is my list for this month:  While on vacation, I went on morning walks on the beach, going out to low tide and going exploring. Away from phones and stresses, I was able to focus fully on Jesus. I've kept these morning walks going, even when they're hard, even just by going around the neighborhood once or twice if time allows. No stresses, no distractions, just Jesus and whatever might be on my mind. As mentioned in this same blog , I found something I had been searching for for a long time. I didn't need to find it, but finding it has enabled me to live with s...