EPTI really wanted to save this post for something really special, but unfortunately - and as always - things take longer to materialize than we ever plan for. And by things I mean... well I can't tell you but, I'll let you try to guess from what you've seen from me lately.
Posting-wise my community activity has significantly dropped off in the last year and a half. That's not because I'm getting jaded or losing my passion, but rather that I got officially staffed on TL and started working on a lot of really massive projects in that time:
- Various graphics for posts, fanclubs, and announcements. Also, a bunch of staff usericons.
- TL Strategy, managing and creating layout and platforms for the writers. I wish I had more time to be more active helping them because they are such a hardworking group of guys, but needless to say a number of projects have pulled me in other directions and the result is that I can't be everywhere anymore, but more on that in a bit.
- Liquid'Hearth and Liquid'Dota. I was the main front-end developer for both of these projects, while R1CH made the magic happen. While Hearth consisted of a lot familiarizing myself with the codebase and content strategy for TL, Liquid'Dota gave me the space to really try to improve upon a lot of aspects of how and what we do what we do here.
- I always envisioned the changes I worked on with Dota to be company-wide so we've been working on the new additions and updates to Hearthstone and eventually getting all of them back ported across all of Liquid. This includes some concepts of future ideas here and there that may see the light at some point, or mutate into larger projects down the road.
- Undisclosed Project "Evil Robot" was the first really major project I was brought on to, and boy do I want this to be done because you will be floored when you see it. Unfortunately with passion projects time is always an issue and dev schedules get delayed for a bunch of various reasons. And that's all I'll say about it.
- I actually sat down and starting learning to program javascript/jquery in the last few days. I learned portions of AS3.0 a long time ago, and it was past due that I learned the syntax of a more widely used and more universal platform to improve my front-end skillset and be more self sufficient (and maybe even get more freelance work)!
Due to the crazy amount of work here this does mean that a lot of my personal interests and things that I've wanted to write about (2013 summer sale series, interludes, music theory knowhow, game reviews, etc...) have all been mothballed because of these larger projects, but also in that life recently took a major turn in the last 5 months. Some context regarding that is needed.
<h1>Liquid</h1>I joined TL in 2010 after frequenting on the battle.net forums for few months, and subsequently getting fed up with the relatively un-moderated community there. It was also at a time where I was not doing so great personally. I had lost my recently acquired job due to a crazy boss, and had a notable premiere of a work where the rehearsal process was 'less than ideal' as a direct result of my losing my job. This space of a few months, I can't really explain to you how much of an emotional blow that was to me. I was never the most idiomatic and I always liked to push boundaries but it was hurtful and frustrating to have the performance result so subpar, and almost all of that entirely in my control. I started questioning my career beginning to wonder if I should stop pursuing composition.
I think it was because of the frustration/dejection and subsequent lack of feeling useful that I tried to be productive in other ways. I had other outlets performing as a singer and dancer, and creating platforms as a web developer. Here I felt a little more useful like my skills were more appreciated, and Liquid was at the forefront of my feeling more relevant. So I began researching and exploring esports, and technologies to try to make my time here (and hopefully everyone else's) a more pleasant one. All the while I was continuing to write very sparsely, in part because of the elements that held so much sway over me at the time, finances and artistic upheaval being the most salient ones, sapping my motivation and drive to write at all.
So, what happened between then and now? Well, amidst working on several major projects for Liquid, and performing more expertly in my craft as a web developer I got a job as a radio announcer for a television and radio broadcast company. Almost 3 yrs out of work and I started with a part time job where I got to program music, and talk about classical repertoire (something that I have extensive training in). I also got some more teaching experience, and subsequently actual money for my work as a composer working in school systems. I also made the decision to try one final time (having done so for a few times) to apply to schools to finish my degree track, and in early April I received a letter while at work confirming my acceptance into the Doctoral program at the Eastman School of Music. To say that this was good news would be understating it. Eastman has always been one of the premier schools in the United States for musicians, and to get accepted where the composition program was top notch is pretty amazing (as well as getting a generous financial package). I'm actually finishing writing this blog entry from my apartment having recently finished taking my entrance exams, registering for my courses, and getting all the little things set to begin my degree on Tuesday.
I suppose that brings me back to the crux of this blog entry however. I've been rather terse as of late because of all the work I've been doing here, and the preparation for my degree program - which is only going to get more intense as it progresses - so the result is that you'll probably see even less of me as time goes on, which is really frustrating as I have a lot of passion about bringing TL into the modern web space and will increasingly have less and less time to do so in a proper fashion...
My time here has been one beginning small and growing myself and my confidence towards feeling more assuredly of my skills and abilities, and that deserves a special nod to the people and place that fostered it.
Now... off to write a sinfonietta piece by the end of October. I'll be quoting a few themes and ideas from video games soundtracks, so translating them ought to be fun. :D
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