2006 was a year for Life Changes. 2016 was a year for?
So, 2016...
First off, a year when it really felt that Major Life Change happened - to quite a few people around me.
My brother - not on LJ (never on LJ, not the kind of person to have ever been on LJ; only on Facebook for a bit, and not for a while - but hey, there's at least LinkedIn!) - but, moved to Boston, got the kind of job that he went to grad school for (...helps, of course, when your graduate program leads to a master's in business analytics)...within a few months, was able to do something that I never could, never figured out how to, also, yeah, never even put myself in the *position* to be able to - went back to Moscow for a business trip that started out as a week, and ended up being like three months. Still a bit surprised he's not using where he is for all it's worth, and hasn't gotten either a nice, shiny, impressive, properly yuppie condo - not like downtown Boston or Cambridge or hell, up in Malden lack for those, or an actual house (his office is out in Waltham); but hey, he's perfectly happy sharing the first floor of one with a roommate in Allston, so, hey, whatever works for him.
My parents - sold the Brighton Beach apartment that they had bought in 2003, as soon as they felt comfortable *buying an apartment*. Like I've said elsewhere, I never managed to think of that place as Home, because I always came back there from somewhere else, but nonetheless, that *was* where I came back to, from DC and from Bloomington. Oh, and where I actually lived, for what, almost a year after DC, for a few months after B-Town, and then again for...two years...between the place on H and this one all over again. Yeah, who moves out from one apartment into another - two different times? I do! Hey, if nothing else, that was the place of Many LJ Posts! But, after everything, the building didn't fare too well after Sandy, and the neighborhood has been changing *a lot* - and not really for the better. Plus, now that both me and my brother were definitely not going to come back any time soon, there really was no more need for my parents to have a 2BR duplex. So, parents moved - granted, just a couple of blocks over - but still!
Anna...got what she wanted, what she had been pushing towards since what, at least 2010.
---
Travel on the year - actually, pretty good. Little Rock - and then on to Hot Springs. Chicago for a conference; passing the ACen hotel on the train, hello, ACen hotel, do you remember me? No, you don't, it's OK. More LA - finally now getting a bit more of a sense of Silver Lake - how many years after everybody else? Moscow, and *really* on the way to making a week in Moscow an annual thing. Hey, a weekend in DC, hello 1334 Q Street NW, man you look fancy now! Is this what happens when I leave you? Baltimore barely even counts, Baltimore is a blur always. A Shirobako-colored blur.
Oh, yeah, New Orleans - that was new, now that check mark! And a LOT of gumbo!
Oh, let's just drive up from Boston, not even very far, just up along Revere Beach, and then up along 1A, and then up along 127, as far as Gloucester.
Oh, and, LA again. Only, LAX to Anaheim (this time around, no, *not* doing the Green Line to the 460), to the convention center, to the Hilton - to Disney. Though, the next day, *now we're doing the 460*! Grand Central Market - first time. Actually going into various places around K-Town, first time. KBBQ at Quarters. City Center - which I'd already stopped by in 2015...and the realization that EMC Seafood & Raw Bar - which I had checked out this summer - *is* actually in City Center too, just on the corner! The Anaheim Umami - I've now been to 3, walked by one more, and introduced a friend to another one. The Packing House. Two different Daiso locations. Filipino breakfast at that one place on Ball and Dale. Oh, so *this is* how Southern California...is...with a car!
(Some more travel, just day trips and quick overnights, not even worth mentioning...but, LOVE IT!)
---
Anime on the year - a steady pace...but, nothing like Shirobako.
...games on the year, though - man, yeah. At this point, the extent to which the Trails universe of games and everything else associated with it is *almost completely* unknown in the U.S. is long past even being a joke. I guess the only thing you can really compare it to is Sakura Taisen. But I still can't quite get over it - people immediately recognize damn near any single character and setting and scene and event in FFVII, and at least the characters in P4 - but show them anybody from Trails of Cold Steel, and the reaction will be, whuh?
(...then again, to some degree, Falcom's own fault. You can't get your characters into people's minds if you don't market the hell out of them!!!)
---
I'm sure there were many more things I could reflect on that happened this past year. Maybe, as they pop into my mind, I *will* reflect on them.
---
Oh, yeah, got married.
And that was my 2016.
First off, a year when it really felt that Major Life Change happened - to quite a few people around me.
My brother - not on LJ (never on LJ, not the kind of person to have ever been on LJ; only on Facebook for a bit, and not for a while - but hey, there's at least LinkedIn!) - but, moved to Boston, got the kind of job that he went to grad school for (...helps, of course, when your graduate program leads to a master's in business analytics)...within a few months, was able to do something that I never could, never figured out how to, also, yeah, never even put myself in the *position* to be able to - went back to Moscow for a business trip that started out as a week, and ended up being like three months. Still a bit surprised he's not using where he is for all it's worth, and hasn't gotten either a nice, shiny, impressive, properly yuppie condo - not like downtown Boston or Cambridge or hell, up in Malden lack for those, or an actual house (his office is out in Waltham); but hey, he's perfectly happy sharing the first floor of one with a roommate in Allston, so, hey, whatever works for him.
My parents - sold the Brighton Beach apartment that they had bought in 2003, as soon as they felt comfortable *buying an apartment*. Like I've said elsewhere, I never managed to think of that place as Home, because I always came back there from somewhere else, but nonetheless, that *was* where I came back to, from DC and from Bloomington. Oh, and where I actually lived, for what, almost a year after DC, for a few months after B-Town, and then again for...two years...between the place on H and this one all over again. Yeah, who moves out from one apartment into another - two different times? I do! Hey, if nothing else, that was the place of Many LJ Posts! But, after everything, the building didn't fare too well after Sandy, and the neighborhood has been changing *a lot* - and not really for the better. Plus, now that both me and my brother were definitely not going to come back any time soon, there really was no more need for my parents to have a 2BR duplex. So, parents moved - granted, just a couple of blocks over - but still!
Anna...got what she wanted, what she had been pushing towards since what, at least 2010.
---
Travel on the year - actually, pretty good. Little Rock - and then on to Hot Springs. Chicago for a conference; passing the ACen hotel on the train, hello, ACen hotel, do you remember me? No, you don't, it's OK. More LA - finally now getting a bit more of a sense of Silver Lake - how many years after everybody else? Moscow, and *really* on the way to making a week in Moscow an annual thing. Hey, a weekend in DC, hello 1334 Q Street NW, man you look fancy now! Is this what happens when I leave you? Baltimore barely even counts, Baltimore is a blur always. A Shirobako-colored blur.
Oh, yeah, New Orleans - that was new, now that check mark! And a LOT of gumbo!
Oh, let's just drive up from Boston, not even very far, just up along Revere Beach, and then up along 1A, and then up along 127, as far as Gloucester.
Oh, and, LA again. Only, LAX to Anaheim (this time around, no, *not* doing the Green Line to the 460), to the convention center, to the Hilton - to Disney. Though, the next day, *now we're doing the 460*! Grand Central Market - first time. Actually going into various places around K-Town, first time. KBBQ at Quarters. City Center - which I'd already stopped by in 2015...and the realization that EMC Seafood & Raw Bar - which I had checked out this summer - *is* actually in City Center too, just on the corner! The Anaheim Umami - I've now been to 3, walked by one more, and introduced a friend to another one. The Packing House. Two different Daiso locations. Filipino breakfast at that one place on Ball and Dale. Oh, so *this is* how Southern California...is...with a car!
(Some more travel, just day trips and quick overnights, not even worth mentioning...but, LOVE IT!)
---
Anime on the year - a steady pace...but, nothing like Shirobako.
...games on the year, though - man, yeah. At this point, the extent to which the Trails universe of games and everything else associated with it is *almost completely* unknown in the U.S. is long past even being a joke. I guess the only thing you can really compare it to is Sakura Taisen. But I still can't quite get over it - people immediately recognize damn near any single character and setting and scene and event in FFVII, and at least the characters in P4 - but show them anybody from Trails of Cold Steel, and the reaction will be, whuh?
(...then again, to some degree, Falcom's own fault. You can't get your characters into people's minds if you don't market the hell out of them!!!)
---
I'm sure there were many more things I could reflect on that happened this past year. Maybe, as they pop into my mind, I *will* reflect on them.
---
Oh, yeah, got married.
And that was my 2016.