Life
No major mishaps, but a lot of new additions and surprises and good things in my own life, which I am thankful for. A lousy year for the Singapore economy and region. Keeping up the world news became a painful ordeal. Indonesia's denial of ALL terrorist presence on its soil before October and the Bali blasts on Indonesian soil in October worked to make me a very angry person. I found myself needing more fantastic reading to escape, but getting more sensitive to even fictional tragedy.

Love
My father got a phonecall from his family in Hong Kong before I left for Clarion, and scribbled a note next to my name. It was a prediction. I had laughed and been incredulous when I first read it. I am not really laughing now. The feeling of incredulity is still with me. Not in my wildest imaginings could I have thought I'd meet someone like Jason. Even our Chinese birth-signs seem to be nicely paired. I have lost my cynicism on love.

Family
Ma and Bro in Sydney. Visited them in January, while Ma and Bro returned to Singapore every once in a while (Ma more often). Ma thinks Pa and I apparently live like pigs. But ah, we are happy pigs.

Friends
Felt like I regained a group of friends this year when my ex-classmates from Victoria Junior College had a few reunions (one smaller one at the December 2001 showing of The Fellowship of the Ring) and resolved to meet up more often. The "Geek Group" was formed to meet up and watch sci-fi and fantasy movies together. We have been pretty good on it. Grace's wedding was also a great night when the class got together again.

The friends from my one year at local university sometimes seem to be all over the world, but the rest of us who are here got together whenever we could.

And of course I got a whole big new bunch of friends from Clarion 2002. Woah. The whole experience is too much for words. We all lived in the same building and on the same floor for six weeks, and we all liked, read and write speculative fiction. FUH-REAKIN' KEWL doesn't begin to describe it.

Exercise
Hahaha! The only regular exercise I had been getting was from a dance class. After I quit, it was mostly from walking and hefting loads to and fro the grocery store and post office. It was pretty regular, but the distance is puny. I love biking. Got to do some of that in Michigan. I need to fix up the bike here and cycle more regularly. It's the only thing I really love doing, all the more because it's outdoors.

Travel
I go to the US almost every year, ever since my being a student there. In January 2002, I got to (re)visit Australia. Bloody amazing! The first NOT-US country I'd been to in a LONG time. They use metric! They care for the environment! They talk funny! Though part of the trip was for visiting my mother and brother, I did get one and a half weeks to myself traveling from Sydney to Melbourne to Sorrento and taking a long and winding route back. I wore a wetsuit for the first time (those things were invented by Satan!) and discovered I still hate being in the water in the middle of the sea. Almost ran out of money. Met lots of great people, including an old friend from online. Met a guy who was very like Steve Irwin and Peregrin Took wrapped in one. Lagged WAAAAAY behind my group walking up to Australia's highest point, but I enjoyed the trip by singing "Climb Every Mountain" and "The Happy Wanderer" along the way. Felt really high during that climb, I must admit. It was wondrous. Went to many beautiful places and took pictures that I'm still admiring. I'd visit many of the same places again.

Then in June, July and August, I was back in the US, adding more states to the list of US states I'd been in. The MSU campus was the biggest and flattest college campus I'd seen yet, and a pleasure to cycle around. North Carolina reminded me of Singapore (weird!) because it seemed such a well-kept state. The bus ride from NC to Chicago was extremely interesting, Gen Con this year was a blast and more fun than last year's. I got to see Pittsburg, Philadelphia and New Jersey. I got to see some really nice landscapes going up to Cape Cod and between there and NYC. Going back to Cary, NC, I went through Washington for the first time where the bus surprised me by taking a detour past the monuments and notable landmarks there. Definitely got to see a lot more of the US on this trip than some other trips I've had. And I met and got to be with Jason, to boot.

Day Job
None. I quit my last one in early December 2001. I spent lots more time on art after that, until I spent 3 weeks in January 2002 traveling, and after that, trying to get into Clarion, and after that, trying to prepare for Clarion, while doing art all the while. After my 3 months in the US, I returned to go for a couple of interviews. The number of unemployed graduates in Singapore has been in the tens of thousands. I didn't wind up getting hired, but have been working full-time on art. The number of commissions I've gotten after Clarion has been astounding. I have been very, very lucky in this, and thankful.

Reading
I read the Clarion authors for 2002. I picked up a lot of great books. I haven't read them all yet. My reading rate dipped near the end of 2002. Even now I feel like I just cannot touch anything that might have real or fictional tragedy in it.

Selling/Publishing
I worked on a book cover. Before the end of 2002, I also accidentally discovered that I had credits as an interior illustrator for a couple of RPG books published in 2001. Woah, big surprise out of nowhere. I wasn't told. But I suppose that I can say, in 2002, I have both interior and exterior book illustration credits! Didn't even think or was planning that I'd do either in 2002.

Stories: One submitted. It did not sell, but the correspondence over the story was very, very encouraging.

Writing
Completed five first drafts of stories. Four were at Clarion, one was for my Clarion application. Cleaned up Nine Daughters and sent that to Ellen Datlow. Besides that, nothing. Bad Janet. She gets a slap on the wrist.

Resolutions
Write more and submit more stories. A wild fantasy novel's in my head too, I have to work on it. Keep making better art, and have more confidence trying to sell myself as an artist. I have been cheating myself on that for a long time. I'd love more money. I need art show experience. I mustn't forget how to dance. And I'd like to be with Jason more. I think that's quite a handful of resolutions for this year.

It was a great and fantastic year, 2002. It got me new experiences and new friends, Jason, and a couple of extremely tame and cute hamsters, Sam and Frodo. If I just get to keep all these with me in 2003, it'll be a great year this year too.