This is a journal I wrote on December 23, 2023, while I was sitting at home making plans for the holidays. I originally planned to cut it down, remove personal details, and release it via PasteBin, but I never got around to it. I just remembered it existed, so I decided to post it here to reflect on when 2024 is over. A lot has changed since I wrote this!
2023 has been a fun, cozy year. I wanted to summarize some of the fun things that happened this year, my accomplishments, and what I’m looking forward to in 2024.
January – March
At the beginning of this year, I played a lot of DanceDanceRevolution (DDR). I visited Round1 Holyoke Mall and D&B Albany more often to practice, socialize with friends, and improve. I got to know and spend time with the regular crew there, including Spug, Akemi, and Limitin. They’re great people!
In January, I traveled to San Jose and competed in Genesis 9, which was a hectic trip. Because my flights got delayed and rerouted, I arrived in San Jose on Saturday morning, just hours before the tournament started. On the way to the venue, I lost my suitcase and spent hours calling people to find it. It was a lesson in proper trip planning — DO NOT BOOK A TRIP WITH 3 FLIGHT SEGMENTS ON A FRIDAY FOR AN EVENT ON SATURDAY. Spending time in California brought back some bittersweet memories, though, and it was nice to see some faces from the Bay Area again.
In March, I was invited to Upbeat 2023, an international DDR competition in Denver, CO. That trip went much more smoothly. Competing alongside the world’s best DDR players was a huge honor that reinvigorated my drive to improve. Now that I carry the honor of holding an Upbeat jacket (a souvenir given out to every competitor), I know I must keep practicing to justify it. Some of my favorite memories were sharing a drink with BLSTOISE, a top-ranking player from Australia that I never thought I’d get to meet in person, visiting Wal-Mart with PacRob and some SF Bay Area players, and going to the aquarium with Akemi.
Akemi filmed a very long vlog about Upbeat 2023, which can be viewed tomorrow:
April – June
April and May had a ton of birthdays, so I spent much of my spring celebrating with friends. In late April, I went out to dinner for my friend Leah’s birthday, and immediately after, I drove down to Baltimore, MA, for a close friend’s 40th birthday. In Baltimore, we had drinks at the MGM National Harbor and clubbed in DC, where I saw DJs playing a set with vinyl records for the first time. While in Baltimore, I met up with Sitrhaven, an online friend I met years ago through a Discord fan server for the band Tally Hall. On the way home, I stopped in Manhattan and saw the bands Disheveled Cuss and Pinback with my friend Vince. I’d discovered Disheveled Cuss just months before, so it was great to hear their songs live.
In May, I celebrated my dad’s 75th birthday by eating hibachi with him and his fiance. A few days later, I traveled to Sea Isle City, NJ, to celebrate my closest friend’s 31st birthday. I’d never been to a beach condo in New Jersey and was surprised at how beautiful and peaceful it was. While there, my friend also proposed to his girlfriend, which made me so happy. To cap off a busy month, I traveled to Dahn Dahn Right in Pittsburgh, PA, for my third DDR tournament of the year. Even though DhDhR was a small tournament, I still met many new faces and had a great time. It was probably the best “regional” tournament I attended this year. My favorite moments were opening Pokemon cards between matches at Dave & Busters, having drinks at the Holiday Inn, and going candy shopping with Dwayne and Eli before driving home.
In May and June, I reconnected with my ex-girlfriend from California. We decided to give things another shot, and she visited me for a couple of weeks in June. It was great introducing her to some of my friends and showing her around my hometown for the first time. Some highlights were visiting Flushing in NYC and playing Ichiban Kuji, spending time at the beach and playing SMX in Lake George, and visiting the Clark Museum in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, she had to return home at the end of June due to unexpected complications, but the trip was a highlight for me this year.
July – September
After such an exciting spring and early summer, the next few months were relatively laid-back and melancholy. Things slowly fell apart with my ex after she flew home, but we tried to make it work by playing games together and calling via Discord. I became fixated on Tower Unite, an MMO with many party minigames, such as minigolf, kart racing, and ball races (like Super Monkey Ball). That was a great way to spend time together.
In the meantime, I started focusing on my job and playing DDR by myself often. I also completed a few audiobooks and puzzles and returned to a 4-a-week gym routine. At the end of September, I caught COVID, which fucked up my workout and DDR routine, but luckily it went away quickly. I started working on more content for my YouTube channel as well.
October – December
Fall brought back the DDR tournament season, so I became busy again. The year’s largest DDR tournament, Mistake on the Lake 5, was in October, so I drove to Ohio with my friend Pureblue. MOTL was the best tournament of the year for me. Since I was around many close friends, spending time doing even mundane things like sitting at the mall was exciting. I celebrated my birthday that weekend, and my friend Freddie bought me a bottle of tequila in a crystal skull bottle. I shared it with many people at the hotel, which became a conversation piece that helped me meet even more players. (Miraculously, nobody caught COVID after this tournament.) I competed in Dancerush for the first time, which allowed me to meet talented dancers from an entirely different Bemani scene. It’s crazy how talented and creative they were.
November was the Game Underground Arcade Championship, a regional DDR tournament in Boston, MA. It was also a blast despite being much shorter than MOTL. I mostly saw familiar faces from the New England area. The best parts of this trip were having Korean food after the tournament and playing ITG at Akemi’s house while eating nachos.
Lastly, December was Eclipse East, my 6th and final tournament of 2023. I don’t know how I managed to attend so many events. I stayed at my friend’s house in Maryland again, which helped me save a ton of money. We went clubbing in DC for a night and went to Annie’s Steakhouse, which had excellent food and cocktails. EE itself was fun, too. It had the party atmosphere of Upbeat or Mistake on the Lake, just on a smaller scale. I reunited with a few friends from the Northern Virginia DDR community, some of whom I hadn’t seen since 2017, and some players from NYC/Long Island that I haven’t spent time with since 2019. Reuniting with old friends was a great way to cap off the year.
I’m wrapping up December by enjoying time off from work for the holidays and meeting up with local DDR players. I’m also finally getting back into “DDR at home” to save money. That way, I can focus my mall arcade sessions on spending time with friends, which is more important to me these days.
Checking in on my goals
In December 2022, I threw together a list of goals for 2023 in about 10 minutes. I want to review the ones I achieved and the ones I want to work on next year.
Here are the goals I think I achieved this year:
- Read more books (at least ten pages before bed/after waking) – I fell off a bit in the later part of the year, but I read a lot compared to previous years (see next section)
- Listen to more music I enjoy
- Play DDR a couple of times a week
- Go to more DDR meetups
- Mentor others: I’ve gotten better at supporting other DDR players, but I think I could always be more encouraging and less self-centered. I also have some younger friends who deal with relationship issues. I want to be more caring and helpful to them.
- Put more effort into my health and appearance: I’ve been trying to eat healthfully and dress better when I’m out of the house, but I can always do better.
- Reapply to the airline: I did! Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but other opportunities have opened.
Things I could have done better:
- Create new music, learn new skills for writing music, and collaborate with others: I created about 25-30 demo tracks this year, but I didn’t share them with anyone except for a small group. I wish I had collaborated more, but I feel less passionate about creating music since my ex and I stopped talking.
- Go to a dance workshop: I lost some of my passion for partner dancing this year because I relate more with DDR players, so attending DDR events makes me happier and more comfortable. I’d still like to improve at dancing and take classes if time allows.
- Be more loving and appreciative of my friends, family, and loved ones: It’s often an effort to step out of my comfort zone and talk to people, especially when I am fixated on something deeply, like DDR. I must balance spending time with friends and indulging in my solitary hobbies. I wish more of this year were like the April-June period.
- Visit Korea and Japan: Postponed for various reasons.
The “censored” part of that tweet was “Have more sex.” I didn’t achieve it!
Books
This year, I participated in an online book club, encouraging me to read and listen to many books. Here are the ones I completed this year:
- Journey to the End of the Night by Celine Louis-Ferdinand
- Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
- Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
- Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
- The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami
- The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
I also tried to read Crime and Punishment, but it was too long… fuck! I’m also hoping to finish Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami and The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima by the end of the year.
Music
I checked Last FM, and these are some of the albums I enjoyed the most this year. This isn’t necessarily limited to music released in 2023; these albums felt like the “soundtrack” to my 2023.
- The Life of Pablo – Kanye West
- UTOPIA – Travis Scott
- God Save the Animals – Alex G
- pale machine 2 – Bo En
- Body N. Will – Kumo 99
- ULTRAREALISM – Hylen
- Patagonian Rats – Tera Melos
- Wallsocket – underscores
- Into the Couch – Disheveled Cuss
- Air Guitar – Sobs
Next Year’s Goals
- Pay off all credit card debt by May 1st
- Get a significant pay raise
- Attend one major DDR event in the first half of 2024
- Achieve Onyx 1 in Life4 (requiring 15 gold lamp and an 18 PFC)
- Improve my Korean and Japanese proficiencies
- Set up my laptop so that I can work remotely indefinitely
- Visit Korea and Japan
- Publicly release a major creative project (video series, written work, album, or simfile pack)
- Earn 500 subscribers on YouTube and get monetized
- Spend more time in the sun and nature
- Go out with friends and family more regularly
- Break the habit of checking social media as a way to put off work tasks or unpleasant things.
That’s all for 2023! Here’s a timeline of all the places I visited:
