Month Review: May 2026

It's my birthday!

I decided to hold off on my May blogpost until today just to sit with my feelings a bit. I also wanted to wait until my birthday so I'd at least have something positive to talk about lol.

I turned 24 this year!! My age is finally an even number again rather than odd. I personally prefer even numbers since they're easily divisible. I'm feeling pretty lukewarm about my birthday this year, given everything going on. But I'm trying to look on the bright side that I've lived for this long.

I had originally wanted to watch the Amazing Digital Circus movie with my sibling, but couldn't cuz of scheduling conflicts. So we went out to eat instead. I feel like this blog may be a bit longer due to the Jam finally starting.

Job Stuff

You know the drill already, lol. I'm making this the first section to get it out of the way.

I've been in talks with my advisor and my family about going back to university. There's a data-related certificate/Bachelor's that I want that I'd have to take a few medical courses for since I already did the computer science half. I might enroll for the Fall semester or wait until Spring next year.

With everything that has been going on, I've really had to sit with myself and ponder what I want to do with my life career-wise. Yes, I know that pivoting to health won't let me 'escape' the very persistent annoyance that is currently Generative AI, but really, it isn't entirely about that.

I already was doing stuff with data anyways, and I feel like this is actually using my skills in a more meaningful way. Obviously I won't love every job, but I think I'd feel more motivated to get up in the mornings. And I'm not a Morning Person to begin with, lol.

Visual Novel Devlog

The Toxic Yuri VN Jam officially started! I am very excited but also, slightly intimidated lol. I think it's mainly cuz there are double the amount of participants from last year, including well-known indie VN devs. Despite my desire to get over my complex about Being Perceived, this is still something I am working on. Participating in the Fluxer TYVN server has been really fun and is helping me get over this intimidated feeling. Everyone is super chill and supportive! It's a reminder that everyone here is just a person, not some mythical, unreachable figure on a pedestal.

With that aside, I am excited to finally start working on Sanguine Sunrise with Dalys. The nice thing about this being my second VN Jam is that I can learn from my previous one and improve on not only my artistic and technical skills, but my creative process as well.
The main thing I want to prioritize is being more organized. I think I was doing well enough for myself with the Robotic Romance Jam, but I was also doing 'ill advised' stuff like writing my script directly inside Renpy or severely procrastinating on making the sprites, which lead me with not enough time to finish drawing all the CGs I wanted to make. (I still plan on redrawing the Hoarfrost Wires CGs at some point. I'm keeping the sprites as is, though. I think they're still cute!)

So this time, I am making sure I actually plan out everything more orderly. I'm not doing everything solo this time too, so that gives me more time to focus on certain parts of the game development. For the first week, I want to work on the UI and start planning the sprites. I already have the character designs, and since the theme isn't aesthetic/visually-related, I don't have to change anything!

Speaking of, it's funny that me and Dalys agreed that nothing has really changed for the story or the characters. It's a topic that always interested me, so I'm pleasantly surprised that it's the central theme of the Jam this time. I genuinely cannot wait to see what everyone comes up with! My media page is likely going to get very large by the end of the year.

I decided to use the Violet Journal for my Devlogs to document our progress, something I also wanted to do during my first VN Jam but didn't all that much. So there may be more blog entries than usual this month haha.

This Jam will keep me busy for June, which is very much appreciated right now. I needed a fun distraction. And also more yuri. Everyone needs yuri.

Thank you for reading! See you soon! ★