Hi, I just turned 28 two weeks ago. Not much has changed since, so I thought I’d do the unusual and sum up what’s been up the past year. Interestingly enough, it was right last October that I decided to leave the anime business and accept a friend’s invitation to working as a programmer.

At the point I was working on two projects, at this point both public: Twilight Axis and Origin 5. I had kind of a sense of responsibility and didn’t want to quit until I did my part, so I decided to switch come April. But before that, I got to go to Korea on a business trip. It was my first and so far last time in the country, but it was definitely a great two days (even for a business trip).

October was also the only time I took part in a full GBF Kirin train. It was 2 hours longer than originally scheduled, and that experience was enough to stop me from doing it ever again. I finished Sorn at the airport in December and I vaguely recall hitting HL sometime around then too.

Spring was less fun, mostly because of the stress that is the immigration procedures. I had to renew my visa, and I was changing my employer so it was even worse than usual. On the other hand, I’m still touched by how kind everyone I’d worked with in anime was seeing me off.

Then in April I debuted as a Ruby on Rails dev and that’s been my weekly life since. I’m still going to the gym every workday just as before, but despite the way shorter hours, the commute is taking its toll on my sleep schedule. It’s much harder work than before either, mostly due to the lack of experienced technical leadership. I’ve gone to lots of related workshops and even got to speak with Matz in person once.

I visited my family in July on the occasion of my parents’ gold anniversary – the first time since my first year in Japan that I did that in the summer, and probably the last for a good while too. In August I spent a week of remote-working sunbathing in Okinawa and that’s about it.

Of course I left out some festivals and concerts, but honestly I don’t even remember them all.