Hello there!
Its been a while. I haven't updated here in quite some time, and a lot has happened. I'd like to simply address this, and also the future of this site.
If you've followed me on social media through this year, such as on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or if you're a member of our Azure Infinitum community, you might have noticed that 2022 was a difficult year for me.
RA:N activity has been up and down for a while. There were great years where I covered conventions prior to the pandemic and posted galleries of my own or featured other's coverage, and times I kept you all up to date more often on my own activities, or opinions of news from around the wide world of visual culture. Then there were long moments of inactivity, times when things became hard. I've had private difficulties in my life that have caused my attention and energy to become needed elsewhere. Moments have come and gone when I wish I would have updated on these things a little bit more, or about when I needed a break and why.
The goal here on this site has been the same as my personal work in the industry. It has always been to keep an active site that continued to share event coverages, pop culture news, collectibles, and Japanese Culture- and a lot more that you can see around the site or get the idea by looking at our navigation bar. While this has been accomplished to various degrees, enough that I am proud of if I were to completely walk away from it all today- I feel that in my downtimes from this site, I have discovered a different approach to this site's future, and the future of what I produce in general.
Many things have happened since RA:N first came into being in 2008, following the previous blog's "Run Around:Kazu" which had begun in 2005. From being a volunteer high schooler who could write a lot and give advice & take lots of photos, to a press member and event programming liaison web developer & press skilled industry entrepreneur with an always developing portfolio- today things have taken another step. Things like our community evolving from an FFXI Online group of friends to an enormously successful FFXIV Online community that has slowly transcended the games we share to merge with the same or similar purposes of my personal and RA:N's followers. In that community known as Azure Infinitum, I have found from what began as an initially unintended journey, a many year saga that has lead me through years of leadership and a gauntlet of social interaction, learning, and self discovery.
Amidst hard times several years ago and the era of COVID-19 today, my career has been transitioning towards more online work than field press work. This isn't to say I wont be involved with live events at conventions or attending expos or doing exclusive interviews, it just means my focus going forward fits my life better in the natural direction I've taken to doing mostly private work and leading Azure Infinitum. More about future plans in a moment.
Another great transition for me is that this year, on January 18th, I came out as Transgender, finally finding the courage and learning enough in my own journey of self discovery, in comfort at a time that I felt was best, identifying as female using she/her pronouns, and expressing myself much more comfortably. I am thankful to have a lot of support and kind people around who love me, who have also supported me through this year's great challenges presented by a difficult emergency moving crisis as well, which finally ended this past summer. Since the difficult move settled, I've been rebuilding my home base and work-life balance.
Starting in 2023, RA:N will be carrying on under the name I have become most passionate about: Azure Infinitum. If you are new to Azure or have not heard of our community's name before, know that it represents an enormously positive growing inclusive community of people across the globe who've come together to play, chat, and enjoy hobbies together within our community. We have major online events & activities that have been taking place for many years now- some events equivalent to online conventions you could say. Azure recently celebrated its 8th anniversary, but it will also be a whole new frontier for many people to come. Azure's motto is "As Free As The Azure Sky!" and our philosophy is that together, we all fly as one, amid the seemingly infinite Azure sky, the possibilities and potential infinite as we fellowship together! Our community welcomes all, gamer, otaku, or not, and always works to uphold a no-drama policy and inclusivity for all people in it.
