Damn electronic gate... aaah ⚡📉

Another bad morning for my workouts 😢. I woke up early to make scrambled eggs with banana and cheese, but then I noticed the power was out. To open my house gate, I had to unlock the gate motor manually. Unfortunately, it had been a long time since I last touched that mechanism and I couldn't get it unlocked in time. By then, my swimming had already started, so I gave up.

I even sent a message to my city's power company chatbot and it replied that there had been an incident overnight and it would take some time to fix. Not even six minutes after the class started at 7:00 AM, the power came back on... It feels like this month started off on the wrong foot, it rained with lightning on Saturday and now on Tuesday I couldn't swim or go to the gym.

This date, 11/11, reminds me that in the year 2011, eleven weddings were held on that same date in Japan or was it on 12/12/2012? I’m not sure why my memory holds on to random stuff like that 😑.

Just like before, I decided to make the Girl 👧 from People1_2 and People5_2 a bit different from the Character design. I tried giving her a similar dress, but since she "grew up" in this new format, it looked pretty strange to me. I don't think I'll go back to edit the People characters that are used as NPCs in games. Unfortunately, only the Face/Bust art for the People characters up to number 4 was ever made, just like in the 2000/2003 version. I never understood those decisions, leaving parts of the RTP without art, with only some getting Battlers/Faces and others not... So the main difference was the Face/Bust design for People1_2, which now uses pink tones instead of red, almost making her look like a different character.

Is killing alien dogs wrong? 👽🐕💥🔫👩‍✈️

Unfortunately, it rained around 5:20 AM on Saturday. I had already woken up at 4:30 AM to make my coffee, scramble some eggs, pack my backpack, and change clothes ahead of time for the event that was supposed to start at 6:00 AM. I was really disappointed when they had to cancel it because of the thunder, even though it wasn't that bad and by 6:10 AM, the rain has already slowed down and there was no more thunder. Since I had already eaten, drank my coffee mixed with cinnamon, cocoa powder, honey and taken my creatine, I couldn't fall back asleep. To shake off the frustration, I decided to play a bit more Zero Tolerance, continuing from where I left off last week.

I think I missed a secret room inside Floor 163. I remembered there were cameras with alarms on this floor of the building, when the alarms went off, doors would open and enemies would rush you, which was risky. So I destroyed the cameras from a distance. But when I reached the far south of the map, I found a completely sealed room... too late.

Honestly, that building level wasn’t hard. It was really easy to find shotgun ammo on every floor and the robots weren't that tough either. I even used the Laser Aimed Gun they drop when they die, but it's not very accurate and takes a lot of shots to bring down the enemy robots. The only real trouble I had was with an infected human enemy who threw a grenade, but since I was wearing a vest, I was protected and didn't let them get close again. The maps have wide spaces, so you just need to move slowly and take them out one by one. The dogs, they went down easily with a shotgun from a distance. I stockpiled the Rocket Launcher up to Floor 151 to fight the boss, after clearing the maps, I collected a total of 60 rockets and only used 10 on the boss, leaving 50 for the next stage in the Sub-Basement. However, I ended up losing my bulletproof vest, which is a very important item. Even so, I was well-equipped with 99 Pulse Laser, 50 Rocket Launcher, 60% Fire Extinguisher, 99 Shotgun and 6 Handgun rounds, thanks to the character's unique ability to use handgun ammo and her superior firearm skill compared to the others on the character select screen.

The 2nd phase was quick. I could’ve continued playing the Sub-Basement, but I'll leave that for next week. I woke up early and had breakfast really early, so I got hungry again before lunch. I also need to review my studies, it's good to keep things balanced. I don’t want to spend the whole day gaming or binge-watching series and even doing pixel art all day can get exhausting. So I try to divide my day with different activities to avoid burnout.

On Sunday, I got up later. I wanted to stay in bed longer but couldn't. Since it rained through the night and early morning, my sleep was great. I caught up on some anime series like I usually do on weekends.

Boku no Hero, It felt like a final episode, but it wasn't. It was one of those episodes where the side characters reminisce about moments with the protagonist from previous seasons. There are so many characters in this universe, some I barely remembered. The animation is still excellent and the story is quite different. The anime keeps delivering great fights and memorable scenes between various characters. I wouldn't mind if the ending went in a different direction instead of relying on the usual display of overwhelming powers and massive explosions.

Spy x Family, Great setup for the next episode! I feel like the story is progressing and getting closer to the Desmonds. It's already the third season, so the characters and their story arcs need to evolve.

To Your Eternity, So they became too small to be noticed, yet they still seem to have traces of evil. Also, Mizuha attacked her mother, so she definitely has a Nokker inside her. If Fushi lays eggs, would the offspring be natural? Since he copies the genetics of objects and beings, I think so.

Gnosia, A cat passing through a guy’s neck, never thought I'd see a design like that. This anime is really unique. They even added a "Doctor" role to the game, I mean, anime. A story with time loops really needs fresh ideas to keep us entertained.

The Long Walk, That’s right... a movie among the anime list. I felt like watching something with real actors for a change and I'd seen the trailer for this movie a while ago, it caught my interest. I liked how it was put together, the situations each participant faces, their struggles, their personalities and the actor's performances. From what I read online, the ending is different in the movie than in the original book. I read the book's ending and between the two, I preferred the movie, it felt more satisfying. I think I'd have done the same.

Starting the week going to the gym, I struggled a bit. Maybe I didn't eat enough dinner last night, or maybe it's the lack of sleep... or perhaps the days I skipped workouts to rest before the event that didn’t even happen. I'm not sure, but I was feeling unmotivated and ended up skipping my run. I'll wait to see if the swimming event happens this Saturday,  if not, I'll go back to doing two workouts in the morning, one after the other. After the gym, I worked and studied until night.

Since last week was so busy and tight, I almost lost motivation to continue with the redesigns and palette adjustments for a few days. So I decided to switch to the People sets, since they only have Face/Bust and Character as design variations, it might give me a little boost to stay on track until I finish them. I started with People1_1 and People5_1, the Boy👦, unlike other RTPs, in this case, set 5 is just a recolor of set 1, with no changes to the character's features, just color swaps. Initially, I had planned only two designs in the center of the image following the Face/Bust idea. For People5_1, I thought about improving the outfit to my liking. I ended up making two more versions for both sets, faithfully following the Character design, but I still prefer of center sprites.

Anything goes to win! 🥇🚴‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏊‍♂️

Today I woke up a bit later than usual because I skipped the gym to let my body rest for tomorrow. I also started shaving the remaining body hair early in the morning, while it was still bright out. In case you're wondering why I shave before swimming events, it's because it reduces drag in the water while swimming. Just look at professional swimmers who compete, in swimming and other endurance sports, every little detail matters. For example, the proper way to pull with your arm in the water to maximize power and movement, the correct leg position when kicking in freestyle or in another sport like running, how the right foot strike and body posture can help you gain more distance while reducing impact on parts of the leg that can easily get injured.

I remember there was a time when full-body swimsuits were banned in competitions because, just like swim caps that keep your hair from getting soaked and therefore reduce weight and drag in the water, those suits were cutting drag so much that records were being broken too easily.

Finishing up the Spiritual set, God as the eighth design has a slightly more interesting design variation than Goddess, in my opinion.
Recapping the design order, 1º Battler VX Ace (ART BOMB Inc.), 2º Battler VX (Miho Midorikawa), 3º Face/Bust (Fumio Minagawa) and 4º Character (MACK).
I know that pointy ears are common for magical creatures other than elves, but looking at these four, the third one to me would be a deity for the elves, while the second would be for humans. The first and fourth could represent, respectively, the elder and the middle-aged ones.

“A goddess, a crazy woman, a sorceress. She's amazing.” 🎶

I woke up more rested today. This time, I swam just 2 km at an easy pace, using fins for the last thousand meters. The trainer made the session lighter so it wouldn't interfere with our swimming event on Saturday. When I got home, I started shaving my arms and back, tomorrow I'll shave my legs. I always used to shave before competitions when I was a teenager, it's been so long that I’d forgotten the feeling afterward, like when you put on a shirt or dry your arms with a towel. Now I don’t have to rub the towel over and over to dry my back, arms and chest.

Spiritual_7, Goddess, honestly I think I could have made only these versions: Battler VX (2nd), Battler VX Ace + Face/Bust (1st and 3rd) and of course, the 4th matching the Character design like all the previous ones. I believe three designs are enough since they all look very similar. The Battler VX, for instance, looks like a Goddess corrupted by something or someone.

15 more minutes... 😴🛌

So sleeeepy aaah（＞人＜；）, I woke up really tired, but that didn't stop me from hitting the gym. Today my leg felt better, no pain near where the shin splints probably were. Still, I didn't run today, I want my body to be ready and rested for the 10k on Saturday.

Here's Spiritual_6, Angel 👼. I hadn't made her version to match the Character design before. I also tweaked some of the colors. Looking at the second angel from left to right, her hair reminded me of a character from an anime I only watched the first three episodes, the premise was about the protagonist's girl childhood friend returning after having destroyed his family's sunflower field.

Rest is also important 🙄

Today I was still feeling pain in my left leg. Yesterday I put ice on it, and today I did the same. I hope I'll feel better tomorrow and that the shin splints won't get any worse. I went swimming as usual on Tuesdays. But this time, I decided that for this week I won't overdo it, I'll do one activity per day and on Friday I'll rest, because this Saturday I'm going to swim 100x100m, a total of 10km. It'll be my first time doing that, the most I've swum so far was 80x100m, 8km.

As for Spiritual_5, the Fairy🧚‍♀️, there's little variation between her Battler VX Ace and her Face/Bust versions, so I thought about leaving her out. The only difference would be the drawing or some detail on the wings. Her VX version Battler looks to me like one of those enemies from dark fantasy stories, the kind of Insect that disguises itself as a Fairy to deceive children, you know?

Since the Fairy's Character version is already small in size, I think if I made her even smaller, her details would barely show, even though many have already seen them in VX version. I actually made a Fairy in the "correct proportions" compared to the characters on the cover of RPGツクール Dante98Ⅱ and I found it quite strange, maybe it's just a matter of not being used to it. I even posted it on my X.com account:

I, without realizing it, made the hairs similar... 💇‍♀️💇‍♂️

RPGツクールDante98Ⅱ (RPG Maker Dante98II)
Cover Art by 米田仁士 (Hitoshi Yoneda) pic.twitter.com/OOCK1fwQuW

— Victor SenArt (@Victor_SenArt) August 9, 2025

Cleaning up the area 👽💥🔫👩‍🚀!

On Saturday, I went swimming I wanted to test my swim goggles with the new strap that arrived last Friday. The old one had snapped and next Saturday I'll be participating in an event, so it's essential to test it a few days beforehand. I'll still need to make some adjustments because it's a bit tight and caused a small sore spot, but I really liked the strap's material. Now, what I didn't like was the pool water, it was way too warm. According to a friend's watch, the water temperature averaged 32.2°C, maximum 32.4°C.
My plan was to swim half the total distance I'll in the event, half of 10 km, but I couldn't even reach 3 km, I only did 2.8 km. I tired, I still went to the gym afterward. I joined a Google Meet meeting at 2 PM, it was my first time using it and I didn't like it much. I think it's because I'm used to talking face-to-face with people, so it felt quite different to me. I imagine that's not an issue for people who work remotely or study/take courses online.

On Sunday, I woke up early and tried to stay in bed to get some more sleep, but I couldn't. So I got up, made my coffee and started my day. I reviewed my studies before and after lunch, even with visitors at home and later that night, while it rained, a refreshing night 🤗, I caught up on the episodes of the animes I've been watching.

Boku no Hero Academia, the animation is still great! The villain got so strong that they need to come up with a rather strange solution to win the fight 😄.
To Your Eternity, I thought the new being would be a Nokker that came from the girl, since she scratched her arm and follows her will, but it seems not, as there are other Nokkers that have evolved apparently. I liked the episode overall, they gave a good reason for the school-life setting to appear in the anime. I thought Fushi was naive about relationships, but he actually understands his imortal situation with the people around him quite well.
Gnosia, I suspected the villain might be the AI, but maybe it's actually this living being inside they? More mysteries in this episode... and poor protagonist, he's going to suffer a lot to fill this living being with information.
Spy x Family, the episode focused more on Yor, which she really needed. I didn't expect her new friend to be that important and what a coincidence! If Yor's secret identity might be at risk this season?

After finishing the episodes, I felt like playing Zero Tolerance for the Sega Genesis when I learned about the Zero Tolerance Collection released a few years ago 😅. I ended up finding the Postcard Set artwork from Beyond Zero Tolerance on X.com, by Yasushi Nirasawa, incredible designs! Unfortunately, that game remained just a prototype.
When I started the game, I chose Captain Satoe Ishii and began clearing the levels. Strangely, a level called Engineering Level 2 was locked, the elevator just skipped it. I remember this map being accessible. I explored the lower levels to try to find it, but couldn't. When I reached Reactor 1, as you can see in the image below...

If you notice, the passwords for the other levels I've cleared don't appear until I finish the one listed in order. On the left side of the screen, it shows 60 enemies and on the right, my character's health at the max 99. Since I like to fully explore and complete games, I went back through all the levels I had cleared. Turns out, I just had to go back through Engineering Level 4, let the elevator skip Eng Level 3 and then it would go to Eng Level 2, how didn't I think of that before 🤦‍♂️.

One thing I noticed while clearing the areas in Eng Level 2, if I move away or take too long to pick up the Handgun ammo from enemy bodies, I can't collect it anymore. Luckily, I was well-equipped after going through so many levels. After cleaning out the enemies there, I went back to the previous ones to grab the passwords, since I had already cleared them, until I returned to Reactor Level 1.

It wasn't hard to beat the boss on the Space Station in Reactor Level 2. The Pulse Laser weapon is quite overpowered, I only used 29 shots to defeat it. I'll take on the next mission, at the Corps Central Command building, another day.

Today, I went to the gym again but still couldn't get past 10 reps on the pull up bar, felt a bit down about that. But that didn't stop me from running, I ran using only my watch's stopwatch because the battery was low, so it didn't allow me to activate the specific exercise mode that tracks and records detailed data in the phone app. I just ran straight for 11 minutes and 43 seconds, no idea how many kilometers or what my heart rate was. My legs felt really sore, I just hope it's not shin splints, my left leg hurt more than the right. Once I got home, I checked my social media, worked and studied until nightfall.

As for Spiritual_4, she got more variations this time. Like I said before, I like strong women and seeing her pose in Battler in the VX version, being the Earth Spirit 🌍, she must be stronger than the other element Spirits. In that same Battler VX, her skin doesn't look as light as in the other designs or maybe the lighting in the artwork is just deceiving me, but either way, it's nice to see more variations.

Fridaayyy! 🏋️‍♀️🚶‍♂️💼📚👨‍🎨😴

Aaaaah, I slept badly, took forever to fall back asleep and woke up really tired today. I still went to the gym, but I didn't run this time... the day dragged on and it took me a while to finish today's sprites.

Spiritual_3, the Wind Spirit 🌪, follows the same logic as the Fire Spirit. I just represented, from left to right, the Battler from the VX version, the Face/Bust and the Character. I left out the Battler VX Ace because it looks similar to the second and third designs. I only made the first design because she's floating and wearing a cloak along with that dark blue silk around her neck.

The supermarket cart thief 🛒, how low have we sunk 🤦‍♂️...

Today, like every Thursday, I went swimming. But this time I skipped the gym because I needed to go to the supermarket earlier to do some shopping. I went through a bizarre situation, after grabbing a shopping cart and putting two items in it, I went to get a third one, I had to crouch down to find the exact product I wanted among several similar ones so I pick one unit. In that brief moment with my back turned to the cart, suddenly, when I turned around, "where's the cart?". I walked a bit further down the aisle and noticed a guy walking quickly with a similar to my empty cart at the end of another aisle. "Could that be him or not?" I don't know. Since I didn't catch the person red-handed, it wasn't worth causing a scene without being sure... bizarre, stealing just for a decent shopping cart. It's disheartening to see how much respect has declined in recent years. Honestly, I felt like confronting the person or slashing their car tires. In my 29 years of life, aside from the classic "cuts the line", I'd never seen something like this before...

Unlike Spiritual_1, with Spiritual_2 I was able to create four different designs. Although the first one, Battler VX Ace, of the Water Spirit 💧, is identical to the fourth, Character VX, except for changes in skin tone, ears and outfit, the hair stayed the same even though I tweaked the palette to a more vibrant blue. The second one, Battler VX, looks like she’s wearing wide boots, but her footwear is actually more like skin-tight boots or something very close-fitting. Unfortunately, I can't represent that very well due to the sprite's height, maybe I'll change it later. I really liked how she turned out in the second version, the shape of the dress combined with the water effect flowing from her waist resembles a mermaid's tail.

While checking my social media and pages, curiosity catch me, it had been a while since I looked at the control panel of my itch.io page and suddenly I got a surprise, the download count was such a exact number "999".

"Don't give up, Victor! Don't stop running now!!!"😤🏃‍♂️💭

I woke up with the transverse part of my trapezius muscle sore on both sides, I think I slept in a bad position. I did a few shoulder rolls backward, which helped relieve the pain. Obviously, I didn't skip the gym, I did my daily workout, but I still feel like I'm not progressing enough to get past 10 reps pull up, I want more! After the gym, I ran back home, 1.91 km in 12 minutes and 6 seconds, at a speed of 9.4 km/h and a pace of 06'19". I almost gave up at two points during the run, I felt a lot of pain at the start and halfway through, but the discomfort slowly faded as I got closer to home. I hope that on Friday I'll be able to run as well as or even better than, today's session. After a good cold shower, I worked and studied until the evening, reviewing the things I've been getting wrong.

Having finished Evil, I'm going to start on Spiritual_1, she's the Fire Spirit 🔥. The Battler VX Ace doesn't show much because of the angle, so I decided not to draw it, only with the VX version of the Battler, where her clothing pieces look like armor and her hair is slightly darker, while the rest seems to be made of fabric... After finishing them, I realized that her hair reaches the ground like an actual flame. However, I think I'll keep that idea only for when she's using her fire powers to float, like in the Battler VX, maybe as an alternate walking sprite.