THANX 2024

Here's the actual final blog post of the year. I actually didn't post for more than half of the months but I'll try harder 2025 hehehe... That's what everyone says on new year's eve.

New year's actually marks the birth of this blog so happy birthday to Rankaroid the blogger blog.

The first few months of 2024 were truthfully pretty rocky. I was struggling with college and it wasn't so fun. Things got a lot better in May, I finished up my final project and finished my 2 years at college and the cherry on top was being able to celebrate my 19th birthday. A little crazy to me that I'm turning 20 in a few months. Things sped up so much after that with my 3rd anniversary with Kee in June and then Dawntrail launching just a week after that.

I'm walking into 2025 with not much in terms of productivity- I'm not attending school in any form and I'll be job hunting in the new year. I'm hoping to save up money in general but my ultimate goal is to go see my partner. It's gonna be super expensive and difficult but the sooner I save up, the sooner I can go see him.

I hope we get some news on Pokemon Z-A... I'm glad they seem to be taking time on the announcement but I admittedly love pokemon leak season. Obligatory AA7 and KH4(and missing link) mention but those are just for the sake of saying it. How about AITSF 3? Lol.

What are my goals next year?

1. BE KIND TO MYSELF!
2. Draw and study lots
   
3. Get more active and keep my body healthy
   
4. Learn 3D. If I come out of 2025 with no 3D models made of my ocs then I'll have to punch myself in the face
5. Complete video games.... Don't leave them uncompleted for 3 years......

 Obviously these are all kind of vague things that I hope to do over the year but I've been feeling a lot more productive(creatively) as of late and I want to carry it into the new year. It also makes me sound a bit unemployed but that's about what I am. 

Now that I'm writing this blog post I don't really know what to put here. I think something to mention is that the magic of FFXIV has been wearing off recently so I need to take a big break from it once my subscription cycle ends. I've done it a few times but I really need to just put the game down for a while. Roid is forever but my friend is paying for my FFXIV sub and I can't make him waste more money on the game than he already does............. 

(Pictured: me in Jeuno with my friends. I disconnect. I think it's a DDOS but it's actually my subscription running out. I failed to 'moneymaxx'.)

I do really wonder how long I'll keep Aquamarine with me in 2025. I hope long enough that I can see the difference in my characters but also my artwork and writing. It's been really fun so far shaping this OCverse and I hope I can look back to this post next year with something to show. So far I only have 5 characters and only vague ideas of the world. I want to make it more expansive!!!!!

I will be more active on this blog. I will post about things I've watched. (I might make a seperate post later talking about my 2024 interests because I love talking.) 

Thank you to everyone who's made this year a delight. To my dear partner, my friends, mutuals and anyone I've spoken to. I really appreciate the company and the kindness I am given.

Tonight I'm gonna eat a jam rolypoly with custard and then mix some alcohol into my soda. Happy new years everyone! Hope this year treats you well. 

 BLINK AND IT'S GONE: 2024

Blog isn't dead until it's dead!!!! Which is why I'm coming back after 6 months of inactivity!!!!!!! (Truthfully I got too into Dawntrail and forgot about the blog). 

Where have I been since my last blog post? Obviously FFXIV. If you want my honest thoughts on Dawntrail itself, it was an OK expansion! I enjoyed it overall, but found things lackluster in the latter half. The patches are pretty promising if they continue how I hope they do, which I expect my future self to make blog posts about lol. However this isn't a Dawntrail review blog post so let's move on to what I did after finishing DT. I had to let it simmer for about a month because I was so torn about how I felt abut the expac but after talking to friends about their opinions, I was able to have a better grasp on things.

 Truthfully I haven't been doing much of anything that is interesting to post about. I'm currently unemployed and out of education (hurray!) so I am quite literally the unemployed friend on a Monday at 3pm. This post isn't about me trying to find a job either so let's fast foward a bit.

 Something I really appreciated about the latter half of the year was becoming part of a new friend group. It's not like everyone was a stranger, I've known everyone there for a while, but getting closer to them has been so much fun. Our current obsession is Marvel Rivals and even I'm hooked onto it which is crazy because I am a notoriously bad gamer. I think it's a very beginner-friendly hero shooter and I have some knowledge of Marvel from friends over the years. I've had the name "Bucky Barnes" in my head for years but I only just found out what he looks like a week ago. Maybe I should watch Marvel films for funsies...

 

 

 The big elephant in the room is that I've been completely obsessed with my OCverse, Aquamarine (formerly known as Aqua Salvation.... but I still keep that as a secondary name). It was originally just for my college final project where I made a fake game about the world being flooded and people living on oil rigs because I saw a tweet with cool pictures of oil rigs. I'm gonna be 100% real with you I submitted the bare minimum for that project because I was struggling hardd >_> ... (But hey I got merit for my overall grade so I'm not totally unhappy..!) I want to revisit the foundations of Aquamarine and actually make environment concept art and maybe even fake game screenshots. At the moment, I'm focusing on the characters and solidifying their stories.

You might be wondering what the gameplay for the hypothetical Aquamarine game was going to be and honestly I don't even know. I was thinking it could be a survival/crafting game where you dive as Dolly and then give materials to Atlas where you have a crafting minigame... or something! Probably much like Dave the Diver (which I didn't know existed until after I finished the project).

Something I want to do for sure is finally learn how to model 3D characters and eventually make my OCs. This has been something I've wanted to do for years but never started because starting something is the hardest part. I have minimal blender experience thanks to college doing a course on it so I'm not totally afraid... If I really did make an Aquamarine game one day it would probably be a visual novel lol. Point and click...

 For now, I'm working on my OC ask blog (super slowly lol!) as well as doing some art trades because I wanted to get more art of my characters :,3  I'm really flattered that people take interest in my OCs and their universe, even if it's just a little bit. Working on something totally original has been super fun but definitely challenging. I want to draw environments for my OCs but I'm not quite at the skill level to draw what I imagine Aquamarine's facility to look like.

I'm probably going to write another blog post before the year ends so this isn't done YET! I just wanted to get some ramblings done to freshen up the blog a little.