Elsie Quarterly - Q1

Uuuuuuuuhhhh...it has been a quarter.

How has the start of your year gone?

I don’t want to admit it but my work-life balance was in the gutter this quarter. From an all-time high to almost an immediate crash (which I’ll get in to) it has been rough waters.

It was a little secret that I and the rest of the product team at VShojo had joined VStream earlier this year and were actively working on improving the existing product. We made such incredible progress and had a ton of cool features coming in the pipeline and then...

Unfortunately the team could not secure funding and we had to shut down operations. It has been a literal whirlwind of emotions. I was so pumped about the potential of VStream and its partnership with VShojo and it just didn’t pan out. Well I suppose that’s startup life. I don’t regret my time and effort there at all. That team had some of the hardest working and lovliest people I’ve ever worked with.

Michelin has finally landed in Toronto and there were a few choice options for us to pick. We landed on our favourite type of food - Japanese. We showed up and it was aan omakase style nine course tasting menu. My favourite course was the Uni Niku: an uni, wagyu, and foie gras combination torched right in front of us.

I definitely got some time back to sketch and I think I’ve developed a style I quite like and am quick at! I also started inserting my Hotdog mascot (Glizzy Bro?) for some added humour.

Despite the turbulence at VStream, I still was able to keep up with doing art and design at VShojo. This quarter I think I found my stride and produced some of my best work yet! (And within a short span of time too!) Practice certainly pays off.

Ah yes, my lifelong dream to design a box of chocolate has finally been accomplished! Jokes aside, working on the design of actual products you can buy is a pretty incredible experience and I’m grateful for the position I’m in today.

Sometimes I get inspired on the weekend to just build something. This time it was a dungeon crawler ala Wizardry except with Hotdog characters...who are also wizards. I named it Hotdog Wizards. I do plan to finish this game at some point.

Our first film outing in months and it had to be for Dune Part 2. As always Denis Villeneuve did and incredible job with the filmmaking. The worldbuilding and imagery were just a sight to behold. I can only really say that the story was great from a non-book-reader, but from others I’ve heard from it would be difficult to adapt Dune for film.

I don’t think I’ve been so engrossed in a tv show in such a long time. All I’ll say about The Bear is that it is an expertly crafted television show. Definitely watch it.

My heart shattered on March 7th when it was announced that Akira Toriyama had passed away. He was my idol growing up (and honestly still is) and is in my top 3 favourite artists of all time. His impact on manga, anime, and games cannot be undersold and his passing will leave a massive hole in all of those industries. Rest in Peace Toriyama-sensei. You will be missed.

All good things must come to an end and unfortunately one of our favourite diners in Toronto is closing its doors for good due to a disagreement over rent. It’s such a shame as Flo’s Diner has the best staff and breakfast in the city. Long Live Flo’s!

My most anticipated game of the year has released and it is a blast to play. I love the battle system and party formations and tactics crafting. This will likely be my Game of the Year.

I played Final Fantasy 7 Remake all those years ago during the pandemic and I enjoyed what I played and was intrigued by what the story would hold. Having not played the original, it was clear there was some shenanigans going on with the timeline. And now we finally get some answers in this latest installment.

Well...not really. The ending of this game only confused me rather than intrigued me (yes, I fully understand -what- is happening, just not the -how- or the -why-). The beat-to-beat story that, from my understanding, was in the original game was still a lot of fun. The minigames that others have complained about I enjoyed most of them. Though I will also say that most of the open world, while astonishing at first, was boring and mundane to get through and I would have preferred the classic approach to an "open world", not the Ubisoft towers philosophy. There was just never any landmarks on the map that piqued my interest (think Breath of the Wild’s world map) enough to go and explore. Chadley also needs to shut up.

I played Persona 3 Reload and it is exaclty what I was expecting. It is Persona 3, but with Persona 5’s fancy coat of paint. I haven’t played Persona 3 is almost a decade so experiencing it again like this was a real treat.

OH YEAH WE FINALLY BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! It is closing in a few days and we are currently in the arduous process of packing everything up. When we stepped in to this house to see it for the first time, I fell in love with it. I really hope this becomes a place we can stay for at least a few years. Say bye bye to lighting money on fire in the form of rent.

It’s not every day a family member gets to the big 100. My grandpa turned 100 this year and he is still in good spirits! I only hope to get to that age one day.

It has been a pretty rough quarter all things considered, but all I can really do is be grateful for where I am, the work I’ve done, and the people I’ve met. I am going to keep working hard next quarter and keep developing all the dream projects I have in the pipeline! If you’re curious about that sort of thing, I’ve set up a Patreon where I post about my life and progress as it happens! Please look forward to it~