2013

I debated making a new year's post, and I ultimately decided for it. I am making no promises on how good it is.

I started this blog a year ago as an "extension of my YouTube account". My main resolution for 2013 was to vlog -- and I'd say I did pretty well with it! I recorded vlogs during Katsucon and Otakon (though I skipped Anime USA, aka Chillcon), as well as a bunch of videos with my friends which I have since made private. I don't think I'm at that point yet where I can sit down with my camera at home and just talk. That's what everyone pictures for the word "vlogging". I'd love to start, eventually, but I think there are still some things I need to improve on before I can vlog in a "traditional" sense.

I also wanted to become better at cosplay and blog more. The cosplay thing is still up in the air -- it's not like there's any point where you can say "I'm perfect at cosplaying and there's no way I can improve". Even if my cosplays haven't improved, I can say I'm more confident with my cosplays. At first cosplaying was a little nerve-wracking, but by Anime USA I could say I was completely at ease while riding the Metro in a green wig with lines drawn all over my face and wearing a hoodie with a Cheshire cat-like face painted on it. Going to cons and cosplaying has definitely improved my self-confidence, and I hope that will continue even further in 2014. I did okay with blogging this year but I definitely could have done better.

A smaller resolution I made for this year was to record good things that happened every day. I found the inspiration through tumblr -- the idea was to write something good that happened on a slip of paper and put it into a jar or container, and then at the end of the year open it up and see how many positive things happened over the course of the year. I decided to do it in a more organized way and on a daily basis:

I'm really glad I decided to start the journal, because it's a good way for me to look back and figure out what I did each day without having to blog about it. Some of the entries aren't very long, and there are a lot of repeats, but I have managed to find at least a small good thing about every day this year. It's a really positive way to keep track of the year! I'd totally recommend it (or some other similar version) to try during 2014. 

For 2014, I think I'm going to keep the same resolutions. They're still things I want to work on, and there's no reason to change something that's working. I'd also like to add:

• keeping my room better organized because I absolutely sucked at that this year
• eating a little healthier because I tend to eat all of the unhealthy food in the house first
• not being so lazy because I'm sure I can accomplish a lot more in 2014 if I just suck it up and do something instead of sitting around on tumblr all day

Anyway, I think that 2013 turned out really well for me, and I hope 2014 is even more so. 

Books I've Read -- Dec.

I keep telling myself I'm going to keep up with these posts as I read the books, and then I push writing it off until the end of the month.

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong, finished 12/5. The Awakening kind of ... fell flat for me. I mean, the first book did too for the most part, but I was at least somewhat interested in what was going to happen next. I don't want to say The Awakening fell into a cliche, because I can't exactly pinpoint it, but it wasn't exactly new and exciting for me. I guess there's a re-occurring theme regarding the supernatural and the bad guys trying to capture and lie to the kids. However I am still in the minority for this and at least one of the book bloggers I follow really enjoyed it. And really, it's not a horrible book, it's just not a totally interesting one for me. I'm probably not going to finish the series.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, finished 12/17. (Ironically, this book has the same Goodreads rating as The Awakening.) Most of my friends starting reading this series back in middle school. I didn't. I had no idea what to pick up from the library (AGAIN), and then one of my friends pointed out the series. So I decided to give it a try. And I'm glad! I really liked The Lightning Thief. It kind of reminded me of the few episodes I've seen of American Dragon: Jake Long because they both deal with mythology, but of course they're totally different mediums and focus on different aspects. I liked the narration and how things were explained -- I have almost no background knowledge on Greek mythology. Anyway, I'm hoping to pick up the second book as soon as I can get my hands on a copy of it.

Asunder by Jodi Meadows, finished 12/20. I didn't plan on reading Asunder, but I just needed to have a book in my hands. I thought Incarnate was just okay -- not great, but not terrible, either. I liked how Incarnate was something new for me with the concepts of reincarnation. I read it over a year ago, so I really can't talk much about that. However, I didn't like how Asunder focused so much on the romance. (Incarnate probably did that too, and I just don't remember.) I felt like there was a lot of action that could've been happening, but a lot of the book was just focused on Ana's (as well as some other characters') seemingly mixed feelings for Sam. So, if you start Asunder looking for romance book, then you might enjoy it. I apparently just don't like romance books.

I'm posting this a little bit early because I don't think I'll finish my library books by the time the month ends. I picked books off the shelf at random and I'm having a hard time focusing on the words when I could be on tumblr instead...

Otakon Vlog Reflections

My photography teacher is always telling us to write reflections about how our assignments turned out so we can figure out where we went wrong and how we might be able to fix it in the future. As I'm going through and finishing the last half of my Otakon 2013 vlogs, I'm noticing some problems, and I figured I could talk about it! I'm at a loss for what to blog about right now.

I recorded my Otakon videos with a new camcorder I had bought this spring. I had recorded my Katsucon videos with my digital camera, but I wanted something that would take "better" video, as well as avoid having to switch between the photo / video options. Unfortunately, the camcorder is bulkier than my digital camera, and because of that I didn't use it as much as I probably would have with the digital camera. I'm still trying to find settings on the camcorder that work for me, but as of right now I haven't found how to make the quality better without making everything on my computer run slow while trying to use that footage.

It was also harder to get things in the frame while recording with the camcorder. It had a hand strap, but that made it hard to turn the camera around to my face. The camcorder is also heavier than the digital camera so I had trouble holding it up high enough while I was recording. I ended up cutting off my friends' faces a lot...

My camcorder does have a better zoom to it and doesn't have dust in the lens (as of yet) like my digital camera does. It can also take pictures while you're recording, and often takes them automatically every few minutes, though those usually aren't the best. (All of them somehow made us look bad ...)

This point isn't related to the camera issue, but with time management of sorts. I didn't really vlog while we were doing things. A majority of the video I have is while we're sitting down and resting between going to panels or Artist Alley / Dealer's and photoshoots. I'm not sure how much of this could be avoided, because I know at least Anime USA had a policy against photo / video recording in their Dealer's Hall last year. I'll have to look into that for Katsucon.

So, ways that I can improve for Katsucon 2014:

• Aim -- getting everything in the shot is good
• Vlogging more -- hopefully not just when we're sitting down and resting. I'd love to get more "action" video, or at least give a recap of what I did. 
• Content -- more talking! I need to get better at talking while I'm vlogging. 

Of course, I'll probably come up with more later, especially as it gets closer to Valentine's weekend. I'm already excited for Katsucon and it's still about two months off! I'm not sure how I'm going to bide my time until then. 

Williamsburg VA

The weekend of Nov 15 - 17, I went with my family down to Williamsburg! It was a week-long stay for my parents' anniversary, but my grandparents and I also went down for the weekend.

This post is really photo-heavy, so read more cut:

Results of NaNo

I can't believe it's December already! November kind of went by in a blur since I was trying to win NaNo. And I did! My final word count was 70, 415 words.

Once I hit 50,000 words on the 20th, I kind of lost motivation. I validated my word count a few days later and it jumped about 100 words. Then, at 8pm on the 30th, I decided I wanted to get up to 70k. Which meant writing it in four hours. And I did it in three and a half. I'm so amazed at how much I was able to write in that amount of time -- and it also left me pretty mentally tired. I can promise you about 98% of what I wrote on the 30th was crap. 

However, that rush on the last day helped me come up with a better plot for when I re-write my novel. The last scene I wrote introduced a new character on a whim and I decided that I want to continue with that rather than just let that scene go. 

Also, based on the amount of scenes I wrote on just two of the characters, I've decided to make my novel focus more on them. They're fun to write and I usually imagine scenarios or conversations between them when I should be paying attention to class. (It's more fun, anyway.) 

TL; DR I won NaNo for the first time and I'm so proud of how much I accomplished.