Happy Chinese New Year + Website Updates

Happy Chinese New Year!
Happy Chinese New Year everyone! For those who don’t know, January 31st is this year’s Chinese New Year, also known as the “Spring Festival”. It marks as the first day of the Lunar New Year, which is based on the lunar cycles of the lunar calendar rather than the solar cycles of the Gregarian calendar. While most of the world uses the Gregarian calendar as an international standard, the lunar calendar is still used for many traditional holidays in many asian and middle-eastern cultures (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, etc.) although the degree of celebration of the lunar new year varies.

Chinese New Year traditions often include a large dinner with (extended) family (usually featuring fish), setting off firecrackers, giving red envelopes of money to those who are still single, and paying a visit to the local shrine. Unfortunately I’m living alone far from my parents, dislike seafood, and live in a state where firecrackers are illegal, so I didn’t really partake in any of these traditions (still single as well, but with no family around to give me a red envelope… orz)

2014 is the Year of the Horse (also my Chinese zodiac animal!), so here’s two random pics from pixiv \o/

Website Updates
It’s also been a while since I’ve done a website update so I figure this would be a good chance to write about what’s changed since. If you haven’t already noticed, I decided to give Keripo’s Corner a complete design rehaul, which I think looks a lot better now and far more dynamic (I will eventually do the same for BeatsPortable once I get around to it). I’ve also finally gotten around to fixing up/finishing most of the website’s menus/pages, so you’ll notice that you can now easily navigate through my mess of blog posts by category (Development, Gaming, Anime, Travels, and All). I’ve also added a special Projects page where I list a summary of all the projects I’ve worked on, and Game History page where I list the various MMOs that I’ve played. The Links page still need some work and I’m still trying to think of something clever for the About page. After I’m done with those, I plan on setting up a Gallery subsection where I can upload all my figure/Dollfie/travel photos and gaming screenshots for easy viewing and navigation.

Keripo’s Corner’s new Homepage.

My list of past works can be found on the Projects page.

My list of past MMOs can be found on the Game History page.

All my anime-related content (figure reviews, Dollfie photography, anime season thoughts, otaku rants, etc.) can be found on the Anime page.

Plans for the year
After being invited by a few Beats users from the Baidu Beats BBS to an informal QQ chat/interview, I realized that I need a proper plan for the year to stay on track and keep organized. I have a lot of things that I am interested in or spend a lot of time on online (Beats2 development, MMORPG gaming, figure reviews) as well as offline (work, watching anime, practicing martial arts, meeting people and making new friends) so it would be a good idea to try and balance everything. Here’s my current list of to-do’s for 2014. It’s the year of the horse, meaning it’s my year to work hard and accomplish lots!

Short Term
– Complete remaining missing pages on Keripo’s Corner
– Add a Gallery subsection and upload all my old photos/screenshots
– Create playable demo of Beats2 (with basic theming support for Sigma Project artists)
– Clear the top level dungeons in Blade & Soul CN and make notes in prep for the upcoming NA release
– Plan for trip to Comiket 86 (will be my first Comiket)

Medium Term
– First release of Beats2
– Finish unpacking all my figures, do an updated otaku room tour, and clear my figure To-Review list
– Complete Arcueid V1 custom Dollfie Dream

Long Term
– Catch up on my anime To-Watch list
– Complete my TYPE-MOON collection and selling off unwanted items
– Complete and build my target Gundam model kit collection/wishlist (ink lining + paint too)
– Work on creating a TYPE-MOON item database and help maintain Tsuki-kan
– Start developing Beats3??? – I have some good ideas right now but they will come after Beats2 xD

~Keripo

MyFigureCollection: http://myfigurecollection.net/blog/12559