2012 Neko Finale

As I mentioned recently to people, I'm looking forward to taking time away from Neko Nation, while earlier in the year this would never have crossed my mind at all, I've had no choice recently as mentally I no longer feel I can devote enough love, time and dedication to the show as I normally have been.

I'm far from being over Neko Nation, it's a huge part of me and for a lot of people, it's pretty much what everyone associates me with.  While the job is rewarding not necessarily financially (I do have another job), it is personally mostly in how much people tell me they enjoy the event and the satisfaction knowing that I've pulled off an amazing event.  However this is also counterbalanced by the stress and time involved, a few interesting stats, each hour of the event has around a week's worth of work behind it, there's something like 30-50 people I need to deal with per event and then there's the matter of the huge and complex master spreadsheets and walk-throughs.  Despite all that, it's usually worth it.

At the moment, I feel that it's not and it's actually in no part due to my work in Neko Nation, it has been a stressful year on my end, having been caught up in a myriad of work and involvements with Tokyo Hardcore and uni.  There have been many personal problems involving others that have created problems but aren't worth talking about since the best way to deal with them is to move on and not resurrect any drama (which isn't really that exciting or interesting anyways).  I will say the timing of these problems have popped up in times when I truly needed a break.

I've looked back onto my year with Neko Nation and while it hasn't gone perfectly (the recent loss of NYE sticking out), I can be quite proud with what I've achieved this year.  I managed to pull off what was a pretty successful Australian tour and met so many wonderful people along the way, there was the incredible show with AVCon which was something I never pictured was happening anytime soon (in any convention) and our mega show in Perth where we not only proved we could stand up to a Wai-Con event on the same night but also smash attendance records.

So how did I celebrate all this?  The tour, I got involved in some of the worst personal drama I've ever had, AVCon I started uni and had lots of catching up to do and Perth I had two events on the next weekend, followed up by lots of assignments, hitting that final assignment, my body absolutely crashed physically and mentally.  While it could be just bad luck of catching something going around, regardless I'm seeing it more as huge sign of overworking.

While I can't drop my current commitments I can stop taking new ones from Neko Nation Sydney till the end of the year.  I have struggled to unwind and de-stress, so while I may be going a bit overboard with watching anime and gaming, I'm more or less making up for lost time here, heck my girlfriend bought me a PS3 at the start of the year I barely touched.

It's also a good time to actually reflect on what I've achieved so far this year and be proud of what I've done so far.  I've had a habit even after some amazing achievements to start writing notes on how things could have been done a lot better.  For once, I'm actually just going to focus on the positives and soak in some motivation and achievements and remember that if I can't make myself happy I sure as hell can't make others happy.  I've got some pretty exciting plans on the table for 2013 and this time off has allowed me some pretty awesome ideas to come to me, there's some pretty awesome new things I'm trying to involve into the show.

Don't expect to see me out too much over the next month or two, the irony of me working in a job like this is that I'm incredibly introverted and not a huge fan of places with lots of people!  I will be open to talking to people online and very small catch ups but I'm a lot happier being home since I've spent too much of my year being on my feet and dragged everywhere that I'll rarely be out much.

At the moment slowly starting to enjoy my semi-holiday off work, it's not all over yet, I've got involvement with Neko Domination, Chinatown Harajuku, Necromancy, an exam and Neko Sydney, although honestly with that on my plate that makes it the quietest period for me coming up!

For now, I'll see a lot of you later, for those playing LoL hopefully I'll see you on the battlefield soon!