<p><a href="/characters">Characters</a> will be my OC database, so people can see them for Artfight or rp or whatever. But honestly, I just like looking at them displayed on their own page. It reminds me of the cast page of a promo site for an otome game. Those are always the most stylish pages with the most prose. Flash's death killed my old favorite designs, so here's <a href="https://www.otomate.jp/code-realize/switch/chara/?page=cardia">whatever the latest Otomate game is</a> as an example of what I mean. </p>
<p>The <a href="/art">art</a> page can show my pictures. With the exception of OotD/MotD, fashion (designing, patternmaking, sewing, styling) takes a much longer time to produce blogworthy updates than programming and drawing, so it's always awkward to decide if and how to include it with everything else. I think photos and the occasional blog post is the easiest solution for now. Plus, with the variety of media it brings to the page, it makes me feel more comfortable sharing game screenshots and other fun-but-not-necessarily-art pictures. </p>
<p>For the <a href="/me">about me</a> page, I want to provide a brief description of what I do, how to contact me, and what Blessfrey.me is. I'm kind of private and kind of boring, so there isn't much to explain anyway. It was too general before, sharing too much information about each project, when that information is better situated on the projects' pages. </p>
<p>More specific pages were moved under these main pages. Also, more specific pages, like the gdd page, has become a hub for all my game design documents rather than just featuring my latest game. </p>
<p>More specific pages were moved under these main pages. Also, more specific pages have become hubs like how the gdd page lists all my game design documents now rather than just featuring my latest game. </p>
<h2>nav redesign </h2>
<p>The biggest visual change is the navigation bar. It used to be modeled after an RPG skillbar, and I was even trying to mimic the 'cooldown' animation after clicking an icon. </p>
<h2>How do I study all these new words I am learning? </h2>
@ -54,24 +54,24 @@
<p>Graphic novels:</p>
<ul>
<li>よつばと! - common first book, since it is a manga that reflects daily life, has relatively simple grammar, and uses kanji. It's also really funny. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.ganganonline.com/">ガンガンONLINE</a> and <a href="https://comic.pixiv.net/">pixiv</a> are publishers with lots of free manga. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	よつばと! - common first book, since it is a manga that reflects daily life, has relatively simple grammar, and uses kanji. It's also really funny. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	<a href="https://www.ganganonline.com/">ガンガンONLINE</a> and <a href="https://comic.pixiv.net/">pixiv</a> are publishers with lots of free manga. </li>
</ul>
<p>News and culture:</p>
<ul>
<li>The daily newspaper - <a href="https://mainichi.jp/">Mainichi</a> and <a href="https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/">Yomiuri</a> are the big two in Japan.
<li><a href="https://www2.5ch.net/5ch.html">5channel</a> - a widely used textboard, kind of similar to English Reddit. There's a lot of news article summaries and comments reacting to them. I thought it was blocked off to anyone without a Japanese IP now, but I guess they are letting us back in. </li>
<li><a href="http://www.2chan.net/">Futaba Channel</a> - a famous Japanese anonymous imageboard, similar to the English 4chan. There's a lot of internet slang and inappropriate ads, like you would expect. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@PDRsan">PDRさん</a> is a youtuber who performs skits and does reactions, and he's popular with Japanese learners because he is bilingual and sometimes makes his videos available in both languages. I haven't watched him in years, but he seems the same as always. </li>
<li>The Bible (聖書) - <a href="https://www.bible.com/ja/bible/1819/GEN.1.%E6%96%B0%E5%85%B1%E5%90%8C%E8%A8%B3">新共同訳聖書</a> is a popular translation. Christianity is not as influential in Japan as it is in the West, but they also tend to not be offended by it. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	The daily newspaper - <a href="https://mainichi.jp/">Mainichi</a> and <a href="https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/">Yomiuri</a> are the big two in Japan.
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	<a href="https://www2.5ch.net/5ch.html">5channel</a> - a widely used textboard, kind of similar to English Reddit. There's a lot of news article summaries and comments reacting to them. I thought it was blocked off to anyone without a Japanese IP now, but I guess they are letting us back in. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	<a href="http://www.2chan.net/">Futaba Channel</a> - a famous Japanese anonymous imageboard, similar to the English 4chan. There's a lot of internet slang and inappropriate ads, like you would expect. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@PDRsan">PDRさん</a> is a youtuber who performs skits and does reactions, and he's popular with Japanese learners because he is bilingual and sometimes makes his videos available in both languages. I haven't watched him in years, but he seems the same as always. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	The Bible (聖書) - <a href="https://www.bible.com/ja/bible/1819/GEN.1.%E6%96%B0%E5%85%B1%E5%90%8C%E8%A8%B3">新共同訳聖書</a> is a popular translation. Christianity is not as influential in Japan as it is in the West, but they also tend to not be offended by it. </li>
</ul>
<p>Games: </p>
<ul>
<li>Phone games - Nintendo usually lets you play in English or Japanese, so Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and games like that are easily accessible. Japan is a separate region on the appstores, and phone companies make it very difficult to switch over without actually being Japanese. If you can do it, though, COLOPL is the top developer, famous for 白猫プロジェクト and other games. </li>
<li>Simple Nintendo videogames like Mario and Kirby are good because you mostly learn from context and do not need to know the story to win. The Switch is region-free, and I think the DS is, too. </li>
<li>Pokemon - most of the games are in kana and are poor options, but Pokemon Black/White uses kanji. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	Phone games - Nintendo usually lets you play in English or Japanese, so Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and games like that are easily accessible. Japan is a separate region on the appstores, and phone companies make it very difficult to switch over without actually being Japanese. If you can do it, though, COLOPL is the top developer, famous for 白猫プロジェクト and other games. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	Simple Nintendo videogames like Mario and Kirby are good because you mostly learn from context and do not need to know the story to win. The Switch is region-free, and I think the DS is, too. </li>
<li>{{random.choice(['.','•','☆','★'])}}	Pokemon - most of the games are in kana and are poor options, but Pokemon Black/White uses kanji. </li>
<p>I live USA and dabble in lots of things - webdev, gamedev, programming, sewing, pattern-making, drawing, and creative writing, to name a few. Some of my projects are shared on here. Others may be lurking on <a href="https://chimchooree.itch.io/">itch.io (chimchooree)</a> and <a href="https://gitlab.com/chimchooree">GitLab (chimchooree)</a>, though most never see the light of day. </p>
<p>Blessfrey.me is a project in itself, a blog coded from scratch in <a href="https://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/">Bottle: Python</a>, <a href="https://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/stpl.html">SimpleTemplate</a>, and HTML+CSS. Any embedded applications are probably HTML5. </p>
<p>Blessfrey.me is a project in itself, a blog coded from scratch in <a href="https://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/">Bottle: Python</a>, <a href="https://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/stpl.html">SimpleTemplate</a>, and HTML+CSS. Any embedded applications are probably HTML5 and developed in <a href="https://godotengine.org/">Godot Engine</a>. </p>