State of the Mint 2022

The Cafe Archive
Hewwo!

I'm working from home again so I'm hoping I have more time to write. I am not going to try and tell you what posts I'm planning to write because that's a recipe for disaster.

However, I *am *actually going to use this blog as a blog, and give a recap on the year and new aspects of the blog as I ramp back up to things!

New Blog!

Yes, new blog! I migrated over to Ghost(Pro). This is a bit of a price bump for me as far as hosting the site, but it's worth the tradeoff – no more having to run stuff out of my DigitalOcean Droplet Command Line for updates and image manipulation, and cool new features, for starters!

New blog means a new visual redesign! I really like it, it has a bubbly, Animal Crossing feel to it. Everything's all rounded off. No sharp pokes here. :)

New Features!

You can subscribe to the blog now! This isn't super important to be honest, but if you do you get emailed when I make a post! So that's cool. Technically Ghost (the platform, not the twink) sees this as a way to open monetization by having people pay for subscriber-only posts, but that will not be happening with this blog. The only tier is $0! It's just a way to keep up with new stuff.

The other cool thing about making an account for the blog is that it lets you leave comments on posts! Pretty sweet!

A Recap

I figured I'd recap 2022 since, as I mentioned, I barely wrote this year. Here's some key stuff!

I'm a Vtuber!


It's true! I'm not in Nijisanji or anything like that, but I stream pretty frequently – usually 3 times a week, although it doesn't always hit the mark like that given that I am very much an adult with a full time job (AND grad school).
[

mintplaysthings - Twitch

POC ENVtuber!! I mostly play fighting games on stream! I’m not the best, but improving is the fun part :) he/him

Twitch


](https://www.twitch.tv/mintplaysthings)
It's really fun! I get to hang out with friends and show off games I like. The whole vibe was pretty unfocused at first but I've started to hone in on fighting games. This in particular is fun because it lets me bring on homies to fight against, and I don't have to focus on one game that needs to be "finished." It also lets me practice fighting games too, which I've wanted to do more consistently for a while now. Swing by if you haven't! I have some exciting ideas and a redebut of sorts planned for 2023.

I'm half-way through Grad School!

Just about. I would have been done in the Summer but my two final capstones can't be taken at the same time so it should be fall of next year. It's been great but I'm excited to be done, especially after how tough this quarter was, lol.

Hobonichi 2023!

I have literally always wanted one of these but never felt compelled. I finally went for it, so I'm hoping to get a lot of use out of it in 2023. It will be ugly and messy and not instagram-ready, but that's fine by me!

I specifically want to use it just so I can decouple from electronic stuff even a little bit. My hobbies, job, and organizational structure all exist on a computer and not to sound too much like a boomer, but I'm worried about what it does to my already ADHD-Addled brain. Some time to just sit and write about my day and things I have to do in a piece of paper will be a nice change of pace – hopefully!

Travel!

I went to hella places this year for work, which was nice after being cooped up in my apartment for two years straight!

New York was my favorite of the places I visited, it's awesome. I hated Vegas even though the food was bomb. San Francisco was a straight 6/10, mostly whatever except for Japantown which was really cool!
Art at the MoMA

That's all for now!

I know I said I wasn't going to try to plan posts, but I AM putting out a GOTY 2022 list – I've already started writing it, in fact!

Overall 2022 was a pretty great year for me. Even if I didn't get to be as creative as I would have liked, I made a lot of personal progress and got out of a shitty, exhausting, and demanding job that was draining my health. I hope you had a good 2022 and that 2023 is even better! :D