On June I found myself in Malaysia and Singapore for my brother-in-law's wedding. I got to visit Malaysia for the first time, had a lot of great food, check out where my fiance grew up, feed the local mosquitoes, and witness what a traditional Malaysian wedding looks like. Pro tip - get a young boy to jump and roll around on the groom's bed to ensure you get a desired offspring of the correct gender! :-b
The week after Malaysia was spent in Singapore with the bride's side of the family and a second wedding. I got to see how different Singapore was, after having last visited 18 years ago. Singapore is a shining example of what a "benevolent dictatorship" can do to build an ideal and economically successful country. The economic equality/mobility, social benefits, and public offers (transit, parks, pools) are nothing less than impressive.
The very next week was my younger brother's wedding in Vancouver, Canada. It was wonderful to see my brother on his happiest day, and it's also a reminder for me to hurry up and tie the knot as I'm 10 years older than him. sweatdrop He dropped by for a visit two weeks ago for his friend's wedding, and we got to do some archery, visit the redwood forest, and check out nerdy attractions such as the computer history museum.
I couldn't make it to Anime Expo because of the traveling, but was still able to attend San Diego Comic Con this year. I was always worried that as popularity increases, less and less Gaians would be able to attend the Gaia panel at SDCC. But again this year we have a group of supportive Gaians who joined us on the panel which I'm very grateful for.
After John's passing in early July I was in a bit of a slump, the only thing I could remember was spending time thinking what I should have done or could have done better. For the better part of July and August I did not feel like sharing my more lively moments and keep my head down, and very soon, days became weeks and weeks became months. In conjunction with the injury on my left hand, I spent more time at home than any other summers in recent years.
I recently discovered that there are some good anime on my Amazon Prime video account. Last time I watched something popular on Amazon was Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and that was less than impressive. Today there's Inuyashiki, Made In Abyss, Vinland Saga, Just Because, and Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku and they're all nice and entertaining in their own ways. There's also Re: Creators, Kokkoku, and Rage of Bahamut which are very well animated shows that passes as screensavers and nothing more, with Re: Creators and Kokkoku having endings that wrecked my frontal lobe as I regret reading the subtitles. So that's been what's happening last month.
The injury I had on my fingers are finally healed. Back in July I still couldn't hold my bow without my fingers hurting, but I was able to shoot properly again in late August during my brother's visit. So does that mean it's time to shoot more? Not exactly, Monster Hunter World's new expansion just came out last week, so now I'm a slave to the PS4 controller. Hopefully I'll be able to find some time to experience the outdoors. At least Strider still wants his walk every evening.
On the Gaia side, we have finished planning for the Halloween event and we're planning to build a feature that will remain after the event if it's well received. A team is finishing up dark mode for the forums, and avatar messaging on the Go Gaia app is also being tested.
Here are a few photos I took when I was in Singapore, plus two bonus pics from a hardware store in Malaysia that was selling really weird knock off toys.
