Sorry I haven't posted any recent updates. There's been quite a lot going on for all of us, not just me.
On the upside, my boyfriend is back in the states for a month-long visit. We went out with his friends to do some sightseeing in Chicago. Got to go Chinatown for the first time, though it was late when we got there, so not much sightseeing done. And he got to go to an aquarium for the first time.
Now on the downside... the night we stayed in the hotel and I had terrible sleep and when I woke up, I was greeted with the results of the election... To make make worse, his friend kept talking about how this was going to usher in the Apocalypse and mind sleep deprived mind went into panic mode. I was having thoughts like "Am I safe? Am I going to get raped as a female? Am I going to be lynched by the KKK? Is the healthcare I was so happy to have renewed going to be gone? Is everything all in vain? Inflation is going to happen again and I can't afford to live... I'm going to ACTUALLY die in a gutter..."
And from then on, it was a bit difficult to enjoy the trip to the aquarium and I was quite irritable and distraught... I had work the following day and walked into work like a zombie... I nearly broke down in a sobbing fit as soon as I walked onto the floor. A few tears leaked out, but I managed to suck the rest back in and force myself to get work done. I'd contemplated calling off, but I'm glad I went in because I think the exercise helped snap me out of my funk and brought me back to level ground. It felt like I woke up from one of those nightmares where you wake up, but you discover you're still in the nightmare. However when you finally wake up, you're tentative, but ultimately relieved to be over the horror and panic. There's probably some negativity in the future, but I ultimately made it past that ravine...
Cut to today... I noticed I had an Android upgrade waiting on my phone. I was in the middle of play the My Little Pony game (by Gameloft) trying to collect shard for one of the latest competitions. So I think, "I'll just upgrade my phone and get back to it while I also work on my own game." Well, it took maybe 15-30 minutes to upgrade. When I went to go back into my game, I noticed it wasn't there... Everything else was, just that one game was missing. I've been playing this game every day since I got it about 3 months ago (about the same time I got this phone, my FIRST smartphone) so I've made it very far in the game (I think I was about level 80, my name was Apple Star). So anyway, I decide to redownload it since it's still in my google play list. I try opening it and it won't load or it crashed. So I restarted my phone and on the second try it loaded... only to show that my entire progress was reset to the very beginning. I'm talking when you first start the game "Enter Your Age and Gender" beginning. I was devastated... Not only did I put in a lot of time and effort, but I also spent almost $100 in gems and bundles to get where I was.
I sent off a form to Gameloft (after trying the support email which told me to go back to the website I was on that didn't have my issue in their list...) and I'm still waiting for a reply. I recently sent a form with a concern on the quests in the crystal empire and the particular ones I'm on apparently you can only collect shard from the shops for. That was a bummer but not the end of the world. But this is a really distressing thing... And my birthday's right around the corner (Saturday after Thanksgiving) so they just gave me a free pony. Everything's gone =(
My boyfriend contacted me prior to this event (I'd been passed out after having a beer after work and chores) saying he was worried and he missed me and didn't want me to think he was ignoring me. Which made me feel bad because it seemed more like the opposite. I wasn't ignoring, but self medicating through alcohol (which I never do... the beer was really gross anyway, so I wont' do that again, not with beer, anyway). I should've sent him a message to let him know I was gonna do that before I did so he wouldn't worry too much...
Anywho after spending most of today being upset and low, he got back to me and I may have bummed him out a bit. I say that, but he would tell me I hadn't, which is most likely true because I tend to overworry. After leaving the call to force myself to eat, I decided I wasn't hungry and called him back. We had a discussion and he sorta snapped me out of thing and told me I should work on my game since I'm very close to completing it.
So to more good news. The only thing I have left to do on Elemental is create a credits sequence. Then I'll be sending it to my beta testers to make sure there aren't any more game-breaking problems and if all goes well, I'll be putting it up on itch.io for free for 3 days. If the timing's right, I'll make those 3 days the days before my birthday and on my birthday, it will go to its regular price of $2.99. I really do need to earn more money, hopefully this will give me some pocket change. On to of that, it's a slight launching board to regenerate interest in my artwork =w= I'm trying to hard to hold on and move forward in my craft, so I hope things go well. They don't have to make me rich, but if things just get marginally better, this year's worth of work will have been worth something... One day I want to see drove of fan art based on my characters =QwQ= Then I'll feel like I affect people <3
Okay, gonna go eat some chili and try not to cry. Sorry for the long post =^^;= Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and what's up. Thanks for reading this far if you did, I appreciate the time taken =QuQ= *starting to cry anyway*
