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It’s that time of year again and yes, today is my 27^th birthday. It seems like yesterday since I turned 26^th when I started my first job. Now that I passed my first year of working at the job I am in, I got a taste of living independently. This is something that most people in my generation doesn’t get to experience due to debt and low wages.

I have to admit that the past year was rough, especially with a lot of things happening in 2016. As I shared earlier, my grandmother past away in March and of course, I experienced car problems late May and early June. It definitely had a damper on future plans such as possibly going to Anime conventions. I need to pay off the car off before I think about going to any. Not only that, I need to start thinking about dating as well since I want to start a family in a few years or so. Aside from this and other priorities, don’t expect this to change anytime soon. It’s mostly because these conventions are very expensive and there is none where I live.

Aside from that, my JLPT preparation is going steady, but I plan on taking the exam in 2017. I need more time to prepare and polish my Kanji knowledge. Aside from that, the blog will also see some changes, especially in the design aspect. The font changes are now in effect since last week. Eventually, the theme will get redesigned with plans of commissioning for a site mascot. With that, I am hoping to get the forums started again after sitting there for a year collecting dust. It will be an addition to this blog, which will allow discussion of series I don’t cover on this blog and other things. Hopefully these changes will improve discussion on this blog.

With that, feel free to say Happy Birthday in the comments below. ¶

Today I turn 26 years old and it feels like I’m not getting any younger. Last year, besides winter being cold like the year before, I finally finished my master’s degree and completed studying the Advanced Japanese Textbook. While the job search was rough and at times, which made me felt discouraged at times, luckily found a job within 5 months after graduating in the Federal Government, although I had to relocate.

I started working on the 27^th of July and so far, it has been a good experience so far. I will be learning more on various database tools, data warehouses, database administration and more on security (yes, I will be getting a Security+ certification, which is being paid by my employer at the end of this month). Not only that, the transition to living on my own has been going well so far as I finally got used to driving and doing chores own my own. It took some time adjusting to this new life, but I can admit that the future looks bright, providing I do not screw up. I highly doubt I would since I worked so hard to get here. Still, I have to admit that I was lucky.

With that, what does the future holds as I turn 26. Well, a lot of things. While I have to pay for living expenses and student loans while living within my means, I plan on going to at least one convention next year and hopefully start saving up on that soon once I strengthen out my budget. I will announce it in the near future which one I will be going to. In addition, I plan on studying for the N3 next year as I focus more on actual Japanese media and start writing some posts in Japanese only for practice.

To celebrate the occasion, it’s time to share my new place where I will be writing posts and yes, it is clean compared to my previous location. While my setup will change as I earn and save more money, I’m hoping to add another monitor to have a dual or even triple monitor setup (which includes the laptop display), a bigger network attached storage, a server of some sort and solid-state disk upgrades. My new setup consists of a Mid-2012 15” Core i7 2.6 GHz Macbook Pro, 24 inch Apple LED Cinema Display, an old 22 inch Samsung LCD monitor, Surface Pro 2, Mid-2010 2.4 GHz Core i5 Macbook Pro, Bose Speakers, Blue Snowball, 3 TB WD MyCloud NAS and 2 external hard drives.

With that, feel free to say Happy Birthday in the comments below. I will be going out for lunch and dinner alone for my birthday (my parents will be coming to visit this coming Friday), although it will not be anything fancy.

Also, this site’s domain turns 5 years old on the 11^th… Yep, time flies. ¶