Where did the year go?! I think that’s the side effect of being busy or active - time seems to fly. That being said, 2018 brought fun, laughter, peace, joy, food, love, travel, games, adventures, and most importantly, great changes. Authorpreneuring If anything, I’m incredibly grateful for all the opportunities for this year - aside the many panels and boothing experiences, I was able to finally finish the first (unedited) draft of ‘The Saccharine Vote’, so I’m looking forward to another journey of sorts to come soon! EVENTS - #BUYSINGLIT 2018 Second year running! Am so happy that this event managed to come together to become another annual anchor in my calendar. We didn’t booth this year, but Kenny (Books Actually) gave us the opportunity to sell our books once again with the rest of the Books Actually titles. Unstable Foundations, my debut comic, was also launched during this festival with the rest of the Phase 2 COSH titles then. This festival is shaping up to be pretty amazing on its own, with its own identity. Looking forward to seeing more in the years to come! ALL IN! YOUNG WRITERS FESTIVAL Thanks to Carlo, the Book Council, and the organizing committee behind All In!, Pulp Toast became a partner to 2018’s All In! Young Writers’ Festival again. Apart from taking selfies with raised eyebrows, Wayne, Mickey, and I were given the opportunity to either speak or moderate various panels this year - be they about storytelling and writing in various genres, formats, rejection, and mentorship. READ! FEST 2018 Sometimes, milestones tend to breed more milestones. The launch of Unstable Foundations later led to more events - READ! Fest 2018 being one of them. The Tiger got to give a workshop on partnership a couple of times, while I managed to get a spot to speak about Unstable Foundations and talk a little bit about creating Heritage comics with the rest of COSH. ILLUSTRATION ARTS FESTIVAL Jerry dragged us into organizing committee status this year. LOL. On top of the added responsibilities, it was a hectic time running between both booths for the Ronins and COSH Studios. Regardless, it was still valuable experience - an event to learn from and look forward to in the years to come. 24-HOUR COMICS DAY Like IAF, I found myself in a more administrative / organization role for 24-Hour Comics Day as well. It was definitely an experience - staying in LASALLE overnight and watching all the students and participants go through with their works. What was more amazing was how everyone still came together after 24 hours of blazing through their comics for the final photo. NANOWRIMO 2018 I left my Municipal Liaison position a couple of years back to concentrate on working with Jerry and Wayne, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy Nanowrimo for the wonder that it is! Our usual spot has been closed for a while, so we’ve moved Write-In operations to Chevron House this year instead. PUBLISHED WORKS - UNSTABLE FOUNDATIONS I’ve said it once and I will always say this - Elvin Ching (a.k.a. Zeropointfive) is a sweetheart. Unstable Foundations - the comic we have been working on for COSH Studios - was released at the beginning of this year. After that, it was just a series of panels and launches talking about this piece. While Unstable Foundations is my first foray into comic-writing, it’s also my first solo writing project, so the stakes just got higher, among other firsts. First mention in The Straits Times, first panel invitation, first time working with a distributor. And hopefully, the first of many to come. Thank you all once again for your support, feedback, and encouragement for this comic! PULP TOAST / ROTI BAKAR #4: THIS IS A TEST It’s amazing that we have made it this far. When I first started Pulp Toast, I thought it was going to be just single print runs for a couple of issues before we were done. Once again, thank you all for supporting Pulp Toast (we even got our first overseas order this year!) - and here’s to many more to come. Friends & Family New friends, and spent more time with the Valkyrie Knights, the Ronins, and my family. I wouldn’t say we had a particularly good year (I’ve been to the hospital multiple times this year - as a patient and a visitor), but I’d say I’m still grateful for how well we managed to recover after. TABLETOP ADVENTURING Perhaps the greatest thing to happen to me this year - I finally got into a longer-term RPG group. I had a single session about 2-3 years ago with a few friends, but nothing really panned out after. This time, however, I pretty much dove in - 3 different RPGs on my roster at the moment, with about 2-3 more games I have yet to read up on on my end. Regardless, to this group of adventure capitalists, thank you all and here’s to more adventures! Adventures! I was blessed enough to get a few trips in this year - not including the most frequent trips to Petaling Jaya to visit the Tiger - and whether or not they are out of or still within the country, I’m glad I managed to loosen up and have some fun. That being said, I’m definitely looking forward to Nihongostan 2 and Comic Fiesta 2018 - can’t wait for the rest of December! FEED ME-NANG #2 What can I say? We got hungry again. LOL. This time, the Tiger and I went to celebrate Eugene and Katrina’s wedding. And while the rest of the girls added more food to the list to eat, we emerged with a valuable piece of advice to manage about 12-15 meals in the span of 32 hours. “Eat Faster.” OSAKEJIAK! 18 This trip was many things - New sights, new sounds, new food, new company, and a test of patience. Haha. Despite it all, I was glad I was able to bring my mom and cousins on this trip - we’ll definitely be back to Japan again, perhaps with our sights set on new locations. # 2018 has been fun-filled and action-packed for me - sometimes a little too much.
That being said, 2019 is when I set out to delve deeper into minimalism, at least physical minimalism - paring things down to just what brings me joy and recalibrate my focus. Unfortunately, this means that I will be minimalizing my blog and reduce all updates to this site to just be news of any upcoming events, and interviews of fellow local / regional authors. That being said, some of my blog serials will be updated and put into eBooks available for download. The first of these books will be available for download when my email newsletter is sent out! Once again, thank you all for your support. While we mark this close to a part of this website, I do hope to see all of you again on our new email list. Sign up to receive news of my works-in-progress, trips, tips, and whatnots here.
0 Comments
I never thought I’d make it this far. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin. When I started writing this post, I thought to keep it simple and just list things I'm happy about, grateful for, and want to improve as I go into my 3rd decade of mortal existence. Since I drafted that post and now, the actual date, many things have happened:
That being said, I will never be grateful enough for all the good things that have happened, especially over the last few months and years. To the people around me (even the ones I probably see too much of), thank you for sticking around =). Last year, a friend asked if I was afraid of turning 30 this year. I said, “I’m not afraid of turning 30, I’m more afraid of looking back and forward and realizing that I’ve been wasting my life, not working towards a purpose I resonated with.” There are many things to be grateful for, to be happy about, to improve, and to look forward to. While I don’t really feel much of a change, I thought this’ll be a great avenue to take stock and appreciate the good, the bad, and the future. Happiness and Gratitude As I turn 30, I would say that I’m incredibly grateful for the following (to spare all of you from exposition):
Improvements At the same time, I only hope to go on and try to improve myself on these areas as well:
What’s Up Ahead While I take a break this coming quarter, I’m looking forward to:
# I’ve never really been fully confident in myself - I’ll be the first one to admit that it’s incredibly difficult for me to compartmentalize and organize. However, another good friend gave me a good piece of advice:
"In a time where you have no idea who "yourself" is, try reframing it to think about who you want to be." We are a combination of our own stories and doings, after all. I have so much more to say, and so many more people to thank. But to be incredibly concise, I’m grateful that with the support of my friends and family, I do feel improved, at least in this aspect. So now that I’m entering the third decade, here’s to another decade of living, learning, loving, and pretty much, new adventures! First off, Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, especially to the Tiger - here’s to 5 more years and many more beyond that =). That being said, the red and pink hearts were most likely greatly outshined by the red and gold of Lunar New Year decorations. So without further ado, I’d like to wish all of you, readers and supporters of this blog and my works: Most people who know me will say that I’m a very competitive person. While I’ve been trying to tone down on this, there’s also something good about the drive you get that typically comes from someone who sees everything as a competition. And that was for me to channel this energy to compete with who I was a year ago. 2017 came with many highlights - speaking at All In! Young Writers’ Festival, launch Pulp Toast #3, being in the Best New Singaporean Short Stories, and going to Jakarta and PopCon for the first time with the Ronins. Suffice to say, I had a very eventful year. MY BEST MOMENTS OF THIS YEAR: #BUYSINGLIT, ALL IN! YOUNG WRITERS' FESTIVAL, AND THE SINGAPORE WRITERS FESTIVAL 2017 Literary-wise, I couldn't really have asked for more - I got to booth at a literary market, speak at a panel, give a workshop, listening to the legendary Junot Diaz, Ken Liu, and JY Yang, and even meet Marie Lu. On top of that (and not pictured), the many other launches I went for in between (J's launch of "The Red Threads of Fortune" and "The Black Tides of Heaven", Best New Singaporean Short Stories Vol. 3 etc...) were just encouraging and inspiring. POPCON ASIA, ILLUSTRATION ARTS FESTIVAL, AND COMIC FIESTA 2017 Boothing didn't just stop at the #BuySingLit Festival. We also had fun as the Rolling Ronins at the Illustration Arts Festival, Comic Fiesta, and our first stint at PopCon Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia. Loads of fun and eating, loads of talking, people falling sick after, will do it again. PULP TOAST / ROTI BAKAR There's a lot of talk about when you want to talk about Pulp Toast / Roti Bakar. But instead, I'm just going to leave this collection of pictures here to remind myself that if you keep at something you love doing, together with a group of people who are as committed as you are, you will see results. #LONGBKKEND & FEED ME-NANG 2017 From a fulfilled promise to possibly the shortest itinerary I've ever seen, this year's travel bug caught on and caught on good. Apart from that, I cannot have a great year without great friends, food, and amazing destinations - Bangkok (after 16 years), and Penang (because, you know, we were hungry). Many thanks and kudos to Lyn for her travel planning prowess as well! So as I enter a year where the first digit of my age is going to change, I’d like to increase my focus and get to improving my current skills and make time for the things that are the most important to me. First in this year’s endeavour, I hope to finish and pitch my novel (finally) and get to work to finishing a fictional podcast I’ve been researching and working on since last year. Pulp Toast #4 will definitely come out, but I’ll be taking a more managerial role with it. You can also expect a bit more from the Ronins this year as well - now that we kind of have a general direction of where we’d like to go. Second, I’m hoping to spend more time with the Tiger, my friends, and my family - something which, somehow, hasn’t been happening too much even though I’ve been working from home. And finally, I’d like to take some time to engage in personal development - things which I’ve said I wanted to learn but ended up not doing because of time or just plain tired laziness. That being said, I’ve a list to cross for this, so here’s to learning as much as I can! So that’ll be me for this year. Moving onwards to the big 3-0, and many other experiences!
Since the barrage of Convention weekends, I’ve been sick on-and-off until recently. With that, I’ve stopped posting as regularly as I had. Instead, I decided to take this time to zero in on my focusses when I first started this new site – Urban Speculative Fiction across mediums and Arts Management.
I hit my final year in my 20s today. And one of my friends asked, “Aren’t you afraid of turning 30?” My reply was, “I’m not worried about how old I am. I’m worried about wasting time.” Earlier this year, I told myself that I’ve found a balance between stability and aspiration which I could handle. As the year comes to an end, I find myself with a better focus and possibly, a better pattern to ensure that I can continue practicing my craft but also post, manage, and give back to the community I appreciate. Site Focus – Stories and Planners In a couple of terms: Urban stories and creative planning. I’ve been writing for a while now, short stories, attempts at novels, flash fiction, the lot. And there have been many times I came close to throwing in the towel because of a variety of reasons. It was not until the last couple of years when I felt a little better doing what I always wanted to do, and I cannot attribute it to a singular change. I can, however, say that focus and specialization played a huge part in reorganizing the chaos that I was feeling (sometimes even until now – I have this tendency to pack myself so tight, the slightest tip of the scale can send me into an explosive frenzy). So this site will soon become an area for my dribbles, thoughts, and tips as I practice writing my Urban / Spec Fic stories (for any medium) and any Arts Management aspects that could help creatives get organized. What you can expect: Most of this site will stay the same, but starting next year, there will be content on Tuesdays, Thursdays (as and when), and every other Friday. TUESDAYS – STORIES Where my dribbles for writing challenges, snippets of projects I’m involved in, novel previews, and reviews will have their spot, mostly hovering in the space of urban / speculative fiction. THURSDAYS – THOUGHTS Posts will come up here as and when a thought sticks long enough to give birth to a post. Or when I travel. LOL. FRIDAYS – PLANNERD I won't be doing #hobonichi365 next year, but this will still be the spot where I talk about other planners, journals, and tips on Arts Management. I don't know if I will be posting as regularly as I'd like for the rest of this year, but I know that I'll be staying here for a bit. Regardless, I am grateful for your support, and I look forward to seeing all of you during my next post. Thoughts: The second (unwritten) rule of trade, an attempted explanation with The Settlers of Catan8/31/2017 A couple of days back, I woke up to a line which got me thinking. That line in question: “Trade has nothing to do with diversity." Needless to say, this phrase probably came from a place of ignorance and / or hate. Regardless of the intentions of its origins, it got me thinking about the human condition in objective, or logical actions like trade, law, and any of their affiliates. Many a times, we make a good amount of decisions based on our logical sphere. What many of us don’t know or admit is that there will always be a level of bias. Actions cannot be 100% logical because they’re still made by humans. Human psychology has not reached a level of disregarding subconscious, bias, and emotion. So what is the importance of diversity in trade (or a facet of life which requires logical procedure and solutions)? However, I’m not brilliant at economics, so I’ll use an example I’m familiar with: The Settlers of Catan Brief summary of the game – Catan is based on a world where one particular kingdom / state does not have all the resources they need. To win the game, you need to develop your kingdom and survive each turn until someone gets 10 victory points. And because one didn’t have all the resources they needed, there were three ways of going about winning this game – hoarding & praying for something good to happen to you, conquest, or trade. The first option is too circumstantial. The second option takes up too many resources. Also, this doesn’t guarantee good resources (and there’s no option of doing so in Catan). So trade still makes the most sense. The Rules of Trade The first rule of trade is simple – You get what you need / want by trading something the other party doesn't have, for something you have and they want. The second (unwritten) rule of trade is this – people need to like you. At least on some fundamental level. You may present the most convincing argument and deal to the person you’d like / have no choice but to trade with. Given how globalized our world is now, you’d be one of a few (at least) choices. To paraphrase Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke in ‘The Imitation Game’, in a situation where you are just one of many choices, you “don’t have the luxury of being an arse”. Businesses are built on resources, but more importantly, they are built on relationships. Diversity in Trade There is justice in the world. There will come a point of time when you will need materials or necessities from the other side of the globe. Given how globalized and specialized the world is now, there are not a lot of options outside of import-export. The Silk Road proved that relationships, needs, and diversity were essential to long-standing trade. Current trade routes done without duress prove that. If anything, understanding needs, wants, and an authentic understanding of the cultures you’re trading with is essential to trade. Even within the same town, the person on the other side of the cash register will be different from you. And yes, that’s why contracts and trade agreements are drawn up. But let me bring this up again – have trade agreements signed under threat or duress ever lasted long or well? Example – You have a surplus of sheep and ore, but you need wheat because you need to develop your Settlement into a City. Now, you know that Player B has a surplus of wheat, but not as much ore or sheep as you. So basic economics, right? However, you have been cutting into their roads with yours, and on top of that, accused Player B of hoarding Development Cards because they are a “stereotype” you never bothered to learn about. What is stopping Player B only giving you your needed two wheat cards without draining you of everything? After all, you came to their lands, laid all your roads so theirs have nowhere to go, and then accused them of something without listening or understanding them properly? The Complexity of Circumstance and the Strength of Diversity Before I leave this discussion, here are some perspectives to think about as well. On top of diversity, circumstances cannot be ignored when decisions are made. This is personified by the dice in Catan – there’s always a 1 in 12 chance (basic odds) that a player can call a robber to the table. And that’s when the biggest question starts: “Do I place the robber on a person who has a resource I need? Or do I place the robber on a person who has been a crap person this entire game?" Sure. At the start of the game, everyone goes in going, “Yeah, no hard feelings, it’s business.” However, almost every game I’ve played gets increasingly intense when someone is close to winning. That’s when the alliances kick in, that’s when understanding and the strength of relationships show – who can you count on to pull you up from just the two victory points you started with?
So perhaps what I’m trying to say is this – diversity is essential in trade because it provides strength to both sides of the table, it gives you options, it makes you richer both in profits and in knowledge. And yes, it is very simplistic to use my above examples, but the truth of the matter still remains – diversity makes us all richer, but it cannot come or help you when it’s constantly stereotyped, and not respected in the first place. A sage once said, "When I was younger, I wanted friends who were smart. Now that I'm older, I want to be around people who are kind." I’m writing this while the playthrough for Uncharted 3 is playing and my cousin is laughing at the Try Guys giving their fathers a shave. And soon enough, I’m going to lift my head away from this screen and it’s going to be the weekend.
2017 has been a year of ups and downs on an individual, community, societal, and global scale. So as we’re approaching the second half of the year, here’s what changed and what’s still the same in my life: What Hasn’t Changed:
What’s Changing / Has Changed:
Not to mention many more aspects, but I’m leaving those up for the moment. Moving forward, I do hope to stay on the course for Arts Management, especially in the Indie scene. With so many of us doing so many things on our own, having some level of management on our belts will only serve to help us in the long run. Apart from that, do stay tuned for the following projects to come: Pulp Toast / Roti Bakar Good news – Pulp Toast / Roti Bakar #3: (Not) The Chosen One is right on schedule and is getting typeset as we umm… blog. This issue is turning out to be one of the strongest collections I’ve worked with, so I’m incredibly excited to see this to fruition. #Hobonichi365 There will be more updates on this in the coming Hobonichi Plannerd post for the last couple of months, but the gist is this – I’ve found a system which I quite like, so my posts for the second half of the year will mostly feature my notes, fan art, fonts, and quotes. Hope you’ll all enjoy my posts for the rest of the year. Rolling Ronins Most of us are still running around with personal and collaborative projects, but stay tuned! We might have something for all of you at the end of the year. And I guess that’s a wrap for my first half of the year. I’ll see all of you around and thank you all once again for reading. |
ThoughtsWhat I think when I think about daily incidents. Archives
December 2018
Categories |