33!

If the amount of time between blogs has been any indication, this has been one absolutely crazy year. Before I knew it, 2019 is already practically gone and I just turned 33. Absolutely crazy!

While my parents came to visit last time, I was expecting this one to be really quiet. Maybe a nice dinner with friends, but not even any cake.

But my crazy and lovely coworkers had other plans. XD

They decided to set up a surprise birthday cake in the kitchen of our office, and then invite me over from my desk. Only thing was, they didn’t expect me to accidentally walk into them on my way to a vending machine.

I just walked past them, giving them a casual glance…

Before twigging on what was actually happening. XD

The cake was delicious. And I was completely unsurprised by the name on it. XD

I’m really grateful that my coworkers went out of their way for me like this. I was really touched. ^_^

I had a lot of hope for this year to be a good one, but that sadly didn’t turn out to be the case. At the very start of the year, our beautiful puppy of 17 years took a turn for the worst and we had to say our goodbyes to her. It’s been 11 months later now and I’m still no where near over it.

I’d always thought I’d have enough time to fly back to Perth when Nicky’s time came, but it happened all too soon. As a result, I’ve been questioning if coming to Japan was the right choice all year. As a result of that, this year’s been a lot lower for me than I was hoping. I’ll definitely get better with time, but it’s not going to happen soon. Thankfully, many of my friends in Japan have gone out of their way to look after me this year, and I’m very grateful for that.

That stuff aside, this was the first year where I spent an entire year in Japan, and it’s been absolutely wild. Having a fully set up Japanese apartment has been amazing, with all the facilities I need to stream video games and work on my side projects. And after saying “I’ll get around to it” for so long, I also finally worked out how to join a gym in Japan.

So for all the negative things that sadly happened this year, I think I’m slowly but surely starting to make progress in all of the things I am setting out to achieve.

Like I do every year, I’m going to reflect on some of the great things that I was able to do as a 32 year old.

• The anime project in which I sang was aired on TV and Netflix over in Japan. It was ABSOLUTELY SURREAL to hear the song in the context of the show. Also the signs around Tokyo. XD
• While none of the footage I was in was actually used, I was very lucky to help a friend in shooting an Apple Developer Stories video that was showcased at all the Apple Stores in the world.
• I was very lucky to be invited by Google to come visit their Roppongi office for several meetups JUST before they were retired and the company left the area.
• I was very lucky to be invited back to MC try! Swift Tokyo once more. I had a total blast and made so many more friends this time.
• I was able to start streaming a lot more regularly.
• I managed to beat the odds and attend WWDC in person once more! I even got to see the new Mac Pro!
• Discovered that since Realm is used in the Shortcuts app, some of my code was BRIEFLY shipped within iOS itself. XD
• I shipped a variety of libraries in preparation for iComics, including a new reachability scanner, a new alert popup and a controversial rounded button.
• I was invited out to Bangalore and present at Swift India. I had an absolute blast!
• I attended the annual spicy festival again and regretted everything twice in one evening.
• I delivered two presentations and briefly help MC at /dev/world/ in Melbourne.
• I got to visit New York and attend the try! Swift there for the first time. I can definitely see why people love New York!
• Traveled to a lovely Japanese inn with friends in the Kobe mountains.

Through all the good and the bad, sometimes the important thing is to just keep smiling.

2020 is a very special milestone. It’s a whole new decade, and I can’t decide if that’s amazing, or terrifying. I definitely think this is the time when it’s best to make a fresh start on a lot of things, and so I’m already making plans to some amazing things next year.

Some of the things I want to focus on next year:

• Spend maybe 1 more year in Japan and see how we go. 🙂
• Make a serious push on updating iComics in preparation of iComics 2.
• Do more video game streaming. Aiming for Twitch Partner! XD
• Keep it up at the gym and lose a bit more weight.
• Find a much more sustainable balance between work and life.

In any case, I’m grateful for the good times I had in 2019. It was certainly a year that changed a lot of the perspectives that I had, and maybe that’s a good thing in preparation of 2020.

In any case, here’s hoping for a fantastic 33! 😀