February 2025 Entry:
Shortest month went by fast, but felt long at points. It certainly was busy.
MISC=========================
- Caught up on the Royal Rumble the next day (02.02). Already knew who won, but like always I don't know how it played out. I didn't have predictions for the Rumble matches, but I would not have guessed either winner. I did find myself feeling emotional when John Cena came out. Outside of that, I had fun watching the show.
- Spent a lot of time moving files from harddrive to harddrive (02.02). The new external was needed, but I was trying to move things around as best possible with what I had. The biggest move was the 600+ video files of Running Man. During that time, I rewatched the episode with Jackie Chan as a guest star. I miss that show. I know it's still going, but I fell off around episode 600. The last one I could remember watching was when Donnie Yen was the guest star.
- Visited NE at his work (02.04). The main reason was to give him a pack of the Post Malone Oreos. He and I talked about it sometime ago since he's a big fan of Post Malone and I'm a big fan of Oreos. The actual release date didn't have many in stores (lots were waiting for them to be shipped). The next day, more stores had them and the following day they were way easier to find in abundance. Got a pack for him, for me, and for work (which they finished in a day). I did have to wait for NE as he was going back and forth from work locations to pick up merchandise. Went around to drive to different areas to see what food places were around. A few minutes after he returned and brought all the merchandise in, I gave him his pack to which he was very elated about. He then took a break from work and we went to Jollibee to eat and talk. I had an ube pie and a dragon fruit tea. After that, he went back to work and I went home.
- Picked up my copy of ITZY 2nd World Tour [BORN TO BE] In Seoul (02.06). Didn't unbox it until the next day as I originally picked it up on the way to work. I thought the pre-order bonus was only one card and I did see it was a Yeji card. When I finally opened it up, it was actually a pack of cards that had one of each member minus Lia since she wasn't part of the concert. Lots of good stuff inside the package. Can't wait to watch it and relive the concert.
- Had some early plans for this day, but decided to cancel them since I wasn't feeling well (02.14).
- Officially sick (02.14-02.17).I was feeling it creep in on the 13th, but tried doing precautions to prevent it. It eventually caught up and I accepted it as I drove home early on the 14th. I could feel my body shutting down and slowing down. Got home, ate, drank medicine, and almost immediately went to sleep. The 15th was the worst of it as my body was incredibly sore, I had no energy, and I was actually coughing (had not until then). Spent most of the day trying to sleep and eating soup. Felt way better on the 16th. I'd say I was at 70% back to normal. I slowly started to do daily routine things (I was actually online) and finally ate more than soup. The following days were back to business with minor coughing. Still played it safe and took medicine and ate more than usual. Thankfully the worst of it only lasted more than 24 hours.
- The internet went out for 4 hours (02.17). It happened around 6:30PM and the outage tracker listed 7:05PM as the time to get things back up, After that time went by, there was a message saying that it's being worked on and it never changed until it was back up. While I was on the better side of being sick, I didn't think to go out for a drive especially since the initial time wasn't super long. Oh well.
The internet did dip in and out a few more times throughout the week. Don't know what's going on since this hasn't been a regular thing for a while now.
- Watched Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (02.19). I had some digital credit on Amazon and it was half the normal price. Originally I was going to rent it like I have a few movies in the past, but there were only options to buy it digitally. The movie was good. Lots of cool references and spectacle throughout. But a few things weren't clicking with me. One was the dynamic of the two Robotniks. Not that Jim Carrey's performances were bad, but it may have been a bit much for me. The other was Keanu Reeves as Shadow. The voice and the character didn't mesh well for me. Anytime Shadow said something, I couldn't get it out of my head that it was Keanu. Maybe if I didn't know it was him or if it were anyone else, I wouldn't have been bothered by it. Again, a good movie. My favorite scene was actually Robotnik's speech to Stone. That got me. And then there was the tease of the fourth movie. That was remarkable.
I also chose to watch it on this day as this was when I saw the first movie in the theatres.
- I also watched my copy of the TWICE 5TH WORLD TOUR 'READY TO BE' IN JAPAN Ajinomoto Stadium (02.19, couldn't find a photo of it in previous posts). Originally I was going to watch this a few days later, but I figured to relax for the day rather than start anything else. It was great relieving concert moments with the tracklist. Of course hearing them sing some Japanese songs was a treat. And the sight of them performing in such a large open stadium was amazing. Seeing it go from day to night was cool and the fireworks at the end were fitting.
- Same day, I did more things. I went through some of my old Kpop albums to find some to donate (02.19). One of the HeXagon members was doing something special for the kids at the Korean class he works at. I found stuff in general to give, but it wasn't a lot. I also knew I didn't have any duplicates so it was more about what I was willing to part with. In the end I chose 3; a Lee Junghyun album (not a bad album, but one of her weaker albums), a Moon Heejun album (liked one song from it), and a Wheesung album (don't know why I have this). I also found a few BabyVoX prints I bought back in the day along with a keychain (I did use the keychain back then). Forgot I had them so it was quite a surprise to rediscover them.
- There is now a limit on how many hours you can have for Twitch VODs (02.19). The limit is 100 hours and they had legit reasons as to why they needed to limit it. Discovery via VODs is low. While I know people prefer watching VODs, it's not as large an audience as people think. I can understand that it is a preferred way to watch though, but I think some might think they're doing a service to possibly an audience of none. However, someone like me who hasn't streamed in almost 2 years does not need to have 5000 hours of bandwidth storage especially since I'm not coming back. I'm taking up space. And I wasn't upset about it either since I have my VODs stored elsewhere. I understand the plight others might have about this, but I don't think it's bad overall.
I did add a new column to the Master List to have the view counts for the Twitch VODs. It might not be important, but it would suck to lose those records. Took a good hour to type them all out (02.24). I also worked on a list of what streams to possibly keep because originally I was going to delete all of them. The list was longer than I thought as I wanted to keep all sponsored videos (there were more than expected). I also thought about keeping a few of the long series but something like Ace Attorney and AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES are already 80+ hours on their own. If anything, I'll keep streams with guests, every hundredth stream, the first and last, possibly all/some viewer's choice games, and then see how much is left. Trailers and clips will remain as well.
- Plans that were cancelled last week occured this week (02.21). It was fun and exciting. Afterwards, I went and got a haircut. It's been long overdue (since the ITZY concert) and with the eventful day, it was a good time to do it. We had a good chat outside of me asking for hair advice. Then I went to Dave & Busters to possibly see if there was anything fun to play or prizes to win, but I quickly left after using the restroom and walking around. I was just trying to bide my time while waiting to meet with NE at a Kpop shop I knew of that HeXagon frequents. Small store, filled up with so much stuff though.
Then it was off to Kim Shabu for NR's birthday dinner. This place was formerly known as Korean Noodle House (they even still have the sign outside). I had only been to this larger building once before I heard they changed to Kim Shabu, but I definitely went many times in the past when they were in their original hole-in-the-wall building. This building is now 3-4 times bigger than the original and they now are all you can eat hot pot. That didn't mean their food was completely different as they offered a few things they've always had (their kimchi is still the best). But it was busy and good to see they're still doing well. I'll have to go back another day.
Majority of HeXagon were in attendance along with a few other friends that NR invited (10 of us total). Good times with good food and good laughs.
- Went to my ENT appointment (02.26). The actual appointment was at 10AM, but I left at 8:45 and ended up getting there around 9:30. They're still working on the new parking garage and the previous visits had me looking for parking for 15-30 minutes. This time it only took about 5 minutes so I was there super early. The first portion of the appointment with the hearing test started about 10 minutes late. This time I had a student and a new doctor perform the usual tests. The only difference was I got to push a button for one of the tests, which was neat. Afterwards I sat in the lobby again to wait to see the doctor. For the first time I saw him outside of the office area and I later found out that there was an emergency with another patient and that's why he left the area. Because of that, there was about a 15 minute wait for him to do what needed to be done and catch up on other patients. My appointment was at 10:30AM and I didn't see him until 11:10. Then it was routine chat and cleaning of the ears. Unfortunately I did have a bit of build up and it hurt a lot when he attempted to clean it out. He got most, but the remaining third was too painful so he stopped. We discussed the possibility of doing only one visit a year, but he brought up that while most visits lately have been positive, here I was with more build up compared to the past couple of years. While the option is mine to choose, he recommended to continue with two visits a year to help make the larger issue stay away. Makes sense. Left, made the next appointment for August, paid for parking, and left around noon.
I had other errands in mind to do, but since things ran a little later and it was warmer outside and I had not had a meal yet, I decided to hold off on those things until a later day. But I did want to still stop by a boba place I pass by regularly called I <3 Boba. Big sign, but small on the inside. Not that I expected it to be enormous, but I assumed it would be a little bigger. Normally I would choose an Oreo/cookies n cream flavor to see how a new boba place does it (hard to mess up and that's a sign whether to go back or not), but they didn't have it. So I went with a green apple green tea. It didn't take long for them to make and it was actually refreshing as it has gotten warmer outside. Good stuff.
- Don't have enough space on my phone for the latest update so I started the process of deleting old photos/attachments that are in text messages (02.26). During that process, I did find some really old photos from HER and from friends/family. Sent a few to others, but the one that sparked the most conversation was a 10 year old photo of me and MIM. Took a bit, but we realized what was going on in the photo. It was also when she was pregnant, but she didn't know until shortly after. So that brought up talks about her daughter and how she just turned 9. She sent me some photos of her dressed in cosplay and mentioned how she's very much into anime and Japanese culture. It would be great to see her again because all my memories of her are when she was tiny. I think she was 3 or 4 the last time I saw her. Maybe I'll make the trip out to see her for her 10th birthday or both of them will visit me. Either way, she's getting some type of gift.
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continues. Missed a few days due to being sick making it the first time I can recall missing any for a long time.
One demo felt familiar when I saw the name; SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream. And it was familiar. As soon as the start menu started flowing, I knew I had played it before. That's because I tried the open network test in September of 2024. I liked the network test. The only small downsides to the demo were that it was a little choppy at points compared to the network test. And the queue lines were long because no one was playing the demo (eventually got CPU teammates).
2 demos remaining.
- Ecchi Paradise: Complete Edition completed (02.01-02.02). There was a sale with the DLC included making it more than half off so I decided to get it. Wasn't expecting much from it other than the images. The game was functional as there wasn't much to it. Rearrange the puzzle pieces to make the image whole. I appreciated the hint option, which would turn the screen black and then post up random pieces one after the other. I only had to use that during sets that were like 8x5 or higher. Those would take a good 10-15 minutes each while smaller boards could take 1-3 minutes. No big finale after doing everything unfortunately. I liked it, but wouldn't recommend it to everyone.
- Tried out the Game Trial for Dead Cells (02.03). I get why people like the game. I found myself getting into it and having favorite weapons/upgrades etc. But rogue-likes aren't my thing. The game loop of starting from zero when you die is hard for me to get over. Sure there are a few permanent items you keep, but the map not staying the same is also what I can't wrap my head around because I'd rather learn one map instead of having to learn new maps. My longest run was close to 16 minutes and I did beat the first boss. I'm glad I got a chance to try it and see why it gets the praise it deserves.
- Pokémon Quest was the free-to-play game of the month (02.04). Part of me thought I had played it before, but it didn't look familiar. Not only that, I had no screenshots or a blog entry about it. Then I booted up the game and there was no introduction, I had a small roster of Pokemon, and the first two sets of worlds were beaten. I double checked in case I had just logged things incorrectly, but I still couldn't find any records of playing this. And it didn't even feel familiar. I did like that you could have battles play automatically, but then there's not much to do other than aftermath stuff such as preparing your team, doing stuff at camp, etc. It didn't take long for me to lose interest unfortunately especially once the in-game battery was depleted. Time refills it (half an hour for 5 expeditions) or using tickets. Sure, I had 600 tickets somehow, but I only used a few and then was done with it.
- Tetris was the NES NSO game of the month (02.04). Continuing the theme from some NSO games last month. It has been a long while since I've played this version of Tetris. Felt like a glove and was still difficult. But I was able to see the actual ending screens thanks to using the rewind function. Still holds up.
- Tetris was one of the Gameboy NSO games of the month (02.05). I definitely played the NES version more, but Gameboy Tetris still felt familiar enough. Same as the NES one, rewinds helped me see the ending screens. Holds up too especially if you were one of the many that played this popular handheld.
- Tetris DX was the next Gameboy NSO game of the month (02.06). Never knew this one existed. I never heard people talk about it online either. I really liked this one. It just played smoother than the original Gameboy Tetris. It felt easier too and that's probably why I felt I was playing better. While I would still recommend the original from a nostalgia point-of-view, I would highly recommend trying Tetris DX.
- Dr. Mario was the last Gameboy NSO game of the month (02.09). I hesitated about playing this one. I was never good at Dr. Mario in general and I had already played the NES and N64 versions on stream. If I didn't play it now with the rest of the puzzle games, I probably would have either never played it or continuously pushed it back. Thankfully I did enjoy playing it. The goal was to beat level 20 to see the ending sequence. My goodness, the virus stacks were plentiful in those last few levels. Outside of using rewind, my strategy ended up being to work my way down the middle (on the sides if possible) and then working from underneath to get the sides. It sure was not easy, but I'm glad to have that under my belt now.
- Pokémon Puzzle League was the N64 NSO game of the month (02.09). The final game in this NSO puzzle theme. Going out with one I have played before outside of Panel de Pon. I didn't care to do all the extras and only stuck with the single player game. I started on Normal not knowing that you can't face off against Gary a second time. That happens on Hard, which I was able to tackle. Although the shift in difficulty was apparent. There were a few trainers that gave me troubles and needed multiple attempts. Beat Gary and credits rolled. I thought I'd be able to fight Mewtwo because I knew of their existence in the game. I didn't know that was only possible on V-Hard and Super Hard. I attempted V-Hard and I couldn't do it. The difficulty ramped up and I soon knew I wasn't going to be able to battle Mewtwo. Oh well.
- Watched Galerians: Rion (02.09). This wasn't planned at all. I just happened to finish watching the Galerians Super Replay again. They always mentioned the anime/movie and I never went out of my way to search for it until now. I liked it. It strips away all of the game elements, but stays very faithful to the story. I think some of the script was changed, but not too much. Other than flashing lights to worry about, there's a lot of yelling throughout. It felt more dramatic in presentation, but the animation was really good. If you played or watched someone play Galerians, I'd recommend watching it. If you've never played/watched the game, I don't think this will convince you to try.
- LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP finished (02.10). I originally had this scheduled for 02.10-02.14. The estimated runtimes weren't bad in terms of completion so I thought it was a possibility. Unfortunately this became a one-off due to all the technical issues the game has. It wasn't that bad at first, but then they piled one after the other. These include;
Audio doubling (this only happened once, but it happened during the final stage)
Camera (sometimes getting stuck or poorly moved)
Frame rate (it varied throughout, but was extremely bad in the latter half of the game)
Load times (slow in general)
Poor transitions (sometimes you'd see a second of a frame before it blacks out or audio continues)
Subtitles (sometimes they were there and sometimes they weren't)
It seems that most of (or all of) these were strictly for the Switch version, but those were what I ran into (maybe a few others I forgot). If it wasn't for those, I would have put in the time and effort to 100% the game. I got a good chunk of things. I would mainly have to replay all the stages to find what I missed and to gain medals to buy the rest of Juliet's outfits. It's a shame because I did like the campy and dumb story as well as the outdated references and vulgar language.
- In Stars and Time was recommended by a coworker (02.11-02.18). She said it is her favorite game and was trying to get someone else to play it. Honestly out of anyone on staff, I was the most likely. She asked here and there if I got the game, but I let her know that it was on my wish list and I'll wait for a sale. The sale happened in August of 2024 and it was 25% off. I did schedule it a few times, but it was pushed back a few times before solidifying it for February of 2025.
The game sure is interesting. The light RPG mechanics follow a rock-paper-scissors system so it wasn't difficult. The story kept me hooked. I had many guesses as to what was going on and was wrong the majority of the time (I was correct about one character). The main mechanic of looping made sense, but it also was a source of frustration. At some point I looked up a spoiler-free guide and shortly realized I needed to follow it to a tee otherwise I would loop and loop and loop. Thing is, you can do stuff out of order and as long as you do everything eventually, the story will progress. But if you didn't know you missed doing that one thing and did everything else correctly, you'll loop again. My loop count and a few hours definitely were added on until I followed the guide beat by beat. The story is the stand out and goes places. It's an experience. Hard to recommend, but there's a pay-off.
- The next game in the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics was MARVEL SUPER HEROES (02.23). I played this one a lot in the arcades. My favorites were Magneto, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. Playing as them felt so familiar. Trying out everyone else was a challenge at times as I had no muscle memory for them. But playing as the extra characters (Dr. Doom, Thanos, and Anita) was super easy. It's unfortunate that Thanos' ending had copy and paste text from Magneto even though there were different ending images specific for Thanos. Anita didn't even have an ending, ha. My first go around, I stuck with 2 rounds to win a match. It wasn't bad as I was able to beat it, but I figured to bump it down to one round to win like I did with Children of the Atom. But this was so good to replay after all these years. Great back then, great now.
- EA SPORTS FC 25 was a Game Trial (02.24). I had played the Game Trial for FC 24 last year and liked it enough. Pretty much the same for FC 25. Controls felt smoother and graphics were better. Other than that, I got my one game in and won.
WORK=========================
- Still going with a lean and mean crew for Saturdays (02.01). This one wasn't bad either. Still tiring. One party with loud kids. Props did get damaged in multiple rooms, but thankfully they were still operable. A cool note was a set of couples that came through. Each one had done multiple rooms with us and really liked us. They both did replay and they ended up meeting and talking to each other. Oddly enough I mentioned to each about having other couples come through and then they happen to meet the same day. They were our last set of customers and that was reassuring as we knew they wouldn't cause us any problems to end our day.
- No customers on a Wednesday (02.05). It's been a long time since that last happened. I did text KA ahead of time to be on-call instead of coming in. I talked to the ladies for a bit as they were there before I was. Then it was me finding things to do. I restocked drinks, swept a few places, replied to emails and reviews, answered phone calls and created bookings, organized things in general and to make space, etc. Left at 7PM. It was odd going home at that time.
However, I did shoot my shot with the hot customer mentioned in the last entry. She never replied to my text unfortunately.
- Had a slow day at the sister location (02.07). Only two walk-ins and one replay (I think). But it was only 9 sessions. I asked the regular workers there and they were even surprised with how slow it was. At least myself and KH (her first day working at this location) got training for the rooms we weren't familiar with. At one point I went to Jax Burgers with TR to get shakes for the team. You know it's slow if any of us are able to leave let alone two of us. Even though it was slow, we were there until the end of our shift since the last few teams were in the last few slots. Got home 10-15 minutes after midnight.
- And then there was a not fun Saturday (02.08). No teams were particularly bad thankfully. I even hosted a team where one of the team members had an ITZY concert shirt. They were nervous so before entering the room, I asked who her bias was (Yeji). There were nerves, but she was definitely more at ease. And there were a lot of teams that were kind and said they would leave reviews (none did).
Then the door to one of our rooms malfunctioned. The team was doing well, but the password could not be entered. Anytime you pushed a button, it would beep multiple times. I looked around for screwdrivers, but there were no screws on the side I was on. I went in and out a few times to reassure the team we were working on it. But I had to text the management team and even get a video call from Agent Ocean. He and I devised a plan, but at that time, the leader of the team asked if they could leave and be compensated somehow. Coincidentally, that was also what Agent Ocean suggested so we went out to do it. They said they would have waited for us to fix things, but it was his wife's birthday and they had reservations. I was very thankful that they were calm and understanding. But the door issue wasn't solved easily. Kept texting with the management team. I had to search for instructions in multiple bins (the one we had was for a different lock), I had to compare the lock to another one we had (slightly different as you could use a key and the problematic one doesn't have a key), and I had to look up YouTube videos for solutions. All at the same time I still had to tend to the customers coming in and out (checking them in, serving drinks, hosting them in/out, etc because the customers were the priority). We were also at our lowest in the number of active team members at this problematic time with only four. There were at max five teams at once so they were all busy, but I had to always put the door on hold and return to it after handling customers. So my whole project took a good two hours to come to the conclusion that I couldn't do it. The ladies had found the right set of instructions which made looking for a tutorial video easier. I even found a short and to the point video on how to fix things. The only thing was finding the emergency power pack that was mentioned at some point because I had never seen it before and never knew that the door needed it. But I did dig it out of one of the bins, but was worried as the plug was slightly bent (I bent it back). The next step was taking out the rubber stopper underneath the door knob. Comparing it to the video, it should have been larger and easy to take out. This one was crammed way up into the door knob. Had to look for small enough pliers and none of them worked. Ended up using a small enough nail to dig it out. Then I was able to plug in the power pack...and nothing happened. I checked the batteries, but my assumption is that they were drained because the pack was left in the on position when I found it. Got some fully charged batteries and that didn't help either. And that's when I gave up. The main reason to not keep trying was because the power pack we had used AA batteries while the video specifically mentioned AAA. I reported back to the management team, told them I blocked off remaining slots for that room that night and the next day to be safe. One of the ladies mentioned they have another power pack and would bring it the next day. To our delight, that worked. In the end the batteries were dead, but we didn't know until that situation arose. Now we'll be diligent about changing the batteries sooner rather than later.
But that was a headache of a time. It sucked for the team that were playing when the situation happened. There was also another team that was supposed to play that room that night, but thankfully they were understanding and were okay with changing rooms. Sucked for Agent Ocean because this was a situation that happened during a time of having a lean and mean team. I had always said +1 just in case and this was a big example of what could happen when we have less hands on deck. I still thank Agent Ocean for FaceTiming me during that time so he could get a look at the doorknob. I don't know how the rest of the staff were taking the situation at the time, but I do know they were doing their job at least. They definitely had enough time to talk and laugh and make plans for later. I was defeated. Especially since we were so close to resolving the issue, but I didn't have the power pack available anyways. That whole time frame of going back and forth drained me. While it sucks for business that we actually closed early on a Saturday (left at 10:30), I was ready to go home.
- Solo Wednesday again (02.12). This time we had at least two sessions. One of them I helped over the phone and they added a $25 tip to it, which was nice on its own. When the team came through and escaped, they gave an additional $20. Not bad for doing nothing special other than doing my job.
After the two teams, I did some organizing. restocking, returning some voicemails, etc. No one else booked so I closed up shop early again. I did want to try Badass Lemonade, our new neighbors for a few months now, but I didn't realize they closed at 6PM until I went up to their door. The backup plan was Dutch Bros especially since a team of their workers did team building with us the previous week. I ordered a Cotton Candy Shake and made small talk with the employee who was jamming out to music. I knew he was one of the workers that were part of that team building. I asked for some recommendations and he mentioned a few secret menu items I should try next time. Before I left, I mentioned where I worked and he said "I knew you were familiar!" We fist bumped and I headed home.
- Busy Thursday with ZM (02.13). Originally we didn't have a lot of bookings so I put IB on-call instead. While there wasn't much to do, once things started, it was almost non-stop. Whether it be answering the phone, hosting customers, etc, we became busy. It wasn't a large number of bookings (9 total), but we were on our toes making sure the other knew what we were planning to do. Could have called IB in, but it really would have been for the last hour of work when we were at our busiest. Didn't help that I was super tired.
- We had our first marriage proposal (02.14). The person was a customer who did interview with us months ago (we did not bring him aboard), but he still came to play our rooms. At some point he started asking and emailing us about doing the marriage proposal. I wasn't part of the plans originally, but became a part of it within the last month before it happened. He came by at that time to view the room he had not done yet to have an idea of how to pull off the proposal. The day before, he called to finalize things. That phone call lasted about 15-20 minutes. Basically I was saying where he needed to be, when it's supposed to happen for him to get ready, and that we'll rehearse things for a few minutes the day of so he has a better grasp of what to do and where things are.
The day of, he arrived as planned with his girlfriend. There weren't going to be any customers coming in as this was a special early time we created for him. He excused himself to the restroom as we planned and I met him to take him to the room. I had an iPad on me to show him what the camera views would be like and point out where he needed to be, to open this door, where she should stand, etc. He was nervous, but he understood the plan. Then it was game time. I was the game host while RB was the game master. Main reason was that I was also expecting 1-5 family members to come in to watch the event in the VIP room and to celebrate afterwards. In the end, only the mom of the daughter came. She FaceTimed other family members to show what was happening and to be there after everything was done. The game went off as planned. RB and HL were in the control room recording the video to share with the team and I was with the mom so she wouldn't be alone. And in the end...she said yes, yay. We paused the timer for them to celebrate for a bit, but then chimed in a few minutes later to congratulate them and remind them about their mission. They finished everything in the next 10 minutes. I guided them out like normal, but instead of pointing towards the photo wall, I pointed towards the VIP room where the mom was waiting. More tears of joy. They celebrated for maybe half an hour before they left. They were cool with us posting their photo on social media and we eventually sent them the video of the proposal. Cheers.
Then it was business as normal. One of the owners came by to give us some Crumbl cookies (it's been a while since I've had them). I mentioned how the proposal went and that I'd like to revisit offering special events like this for the company. Not only would it be another "product" to sell and that it could get more eyes on us (our most liked post on Instagram), the team was invested and rooting the couple on. It was a special moment and we all wanted to be part of it.
I left early this day as I could tell the sickness was creeping in more. I waited for IB to show up, but he was late due to an appointment going long. Earlier I made sure HL could stay longer in case I needed to leave early. So I left around 7:30. Got gas and bought Gatorade and made the slow drive home. It only felt slow as I could feel my body giving in to being sick. I'm glad it was able to hold up to make sure the marriage proposal went off without a hitch.
- Woke up and wasn't feeling better the next day so I called in sick (02.15). I wasn't told this, but I felt we closed on the following Tuesday and Wednesday because of me. Upper management were going to the conference so they weren't going to be around. I know I would have gotten those hours were I fine. Not the biggest loss as those are slow days in general.
- First day back (02.20). It started slow and we had two bookings that were well spaced apart. I swapped IB to on-call instead. Then we had issues with Resova where it was down company-wide and I couldn't check anything (new bookings, waivers, etc). It came back after about 15 minutes and during that time we got an extra booking. Three wasn't bad as it was again well spaced. But then a walk-in showed up during the first official session and another booking happened online. Texted IB to come in as I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it alone even though it was still a low number of bookings. Was very thankful he was able to make it even though it was only for the last 2 hours of work.
- Lean and mean staffing again on a Saturday (02.22). Immediately when I came in, I tended to a birthday party that was leaving and needed to pay. As I was listening to her phone call to her husband, they were speaking Tagalog so I knew I could at least play that card to make sure it goes smoothly. They had issues with their credit cards so they couldn't swipe or tap. I had to manually type it in, but even then there were issues. They mentioned there were fraudulent charges made on them recently and were worried this was going to happen. After about 10 minutes, I finally got the credit card to work while speaking to the husband on the phone. The wife made sure to reiterate to add the 20% tip.
We did get hit with another Resova system failure. It lasted a long time (maybe half an hour at best) paired with the internet going slower than normal. So we had to write down any bookings over the phone or walk-ins manually and have them pay later. Same with any drinks that were bought during that time. As well as not worrying about waivers as we couldn't check them. It felt so good when the system came back online.
The party after them was simple enough to the fact that I almost didn't recall them being there. However, that might have been because I went to our neighbors across the building since they were having an open house. It wasn't super busy at that moment so I was asked to go over. I was greeted by moms of the owners and one staff member and his girlfriend. It felt a little odd at first because no one said anything and I had to start the conversation even though it was their open house. But the staff member and his girlfriend gave me a tour (nice kitchen/eating area, nice organized back room, nice looking upstairs with staff rooms, etc). At one point I crossed paths with one of the owners who saw my sweatshirt and made sure to exchange pleasantries. I gave him 2 free passes for us as well with Agent Ocean's business cards and he was thrilled. He asked another staff member (or partner, wasn't sure) to make sure I left with a gift bag (shirt, cable organizers, and webcam covers). She also mentioned the food truck and insisted I go get some free food. I looked around a couple more minutes (I think I was there for 10-15 minutes) before stepping out and walking to the food truck. Thankfully they put a tent over the truck because of the rain otherwise this wouldn't have worked out well for anyone. While there were plenty of items on their truck menu, there were only 4 different taco types to choose 3 from as the free food (they didn't bring anything else for the other foods to sell separately). I don't remember what I got specifically, but I shared that with Agent Ocean and AH when I got back.
And at 5PM, two staff members left as their shift was done and there were only 4 of us. Originally it was supposed to be 5, but IB could not work when he was normally scheduled. At least at that beginning point it wasn't super busy with our third party being there and they were easy to handle (the mom was easy to talk to as well). Then we had a string of walk-ins, scheduled customers coming in, scheduled customers coming out, customers wanting to buy drinks, rooms needing to be reset, etc back-to-back-to-back. It went on for a while. At one point KA was game mastering 4 different games at the same time while AH was game mastering 2. KA was doing a wonderful job. At one point Agent Ocean and I pointed at her and nodded knowing she was doing well. I'm sure she would have wanted to only run 2-3, but AH can only do 2 max and Agent Ocean and myself had to take care of resets and the lobby. And whoever else was available took care of hosting out teams. Crazy to have only 4 of us on a busy Saturday, but we survived.
- A day scheduled solo (02.25). That has never happened before. Normally on a slow weekday someone else is scheduled with me, but I might have to switch them to on-call due to low bookings. Not this time, strictly solo. The ladies were there early as the a/c was getting fixed. Caught up a bit with them before prepping things for the day. They left soon after and the a/c people left before 3PM. We had two bookings this day; one at the beginning and one towards the end of the day. I'm going to tell you about the one at the beginning of the day.
This was a mom, her two daughters, and her boyfriend scheduled for our Scooby-Doo room. She and the boyfriend dressed up as Shaggy and Velma while the daughters had Scooby-Doo shirts. They liked what they saw when entering the venue. The adults were surprised that they could buy drinks and did. They were excited for their first escape room for the mom's birthday. Took them in, explained the rules, and left them to be their game master in the back. It didn't take long for things to fall apart. Because it was her birthday, the mom wanted to see and be a part of everything. For example, there is a set of collectibles to find and use and they all look the same. She got upset that she didn't get to see one of them early on before one of her daughters put it where it needed to go. She would get on everyone for little things like that. It didn't help that she wasn't a strong player and didn't solve anything herself. It was mainly her daughters that were figuring things out with hints or without. But there was one part where she yelled at her daughters for doing something they were supposed to because she wanted to do it. I don't recall what she said, but it made one girl shut down and she ended up sitting in a corner at the starting room. She sat there on her phone for the latter half of their time there. I wanted to go in and give her a bottle of water, but I felt that the mom would have yelled at me for trying to parent her kid or get mad at the kid for having a bottle of water. During that last half, the mom seemed done and not as energetic while the other daughter and boyfriend constantly asked for hints to keep progress going. I triggered what I could and even gave answers. I also gave them the final answer during the last minute, but unfortunately they didn't read the code correctly and kept putting it in incorrectly and lost. When I hosted them out, the mom said she really enjoyed everything despite "someone being a brat." Took them out to take photo and she was insistent on using a polaroid camera and having everyone in the photo even though the daughter she upset didn't want to be in it. I didn't push anything and said the minimum. The family left with the mom saying something like "10 out of 10, would recommend." I have seen plenty of bad parents via escape rooms, but she was horrible. I could not believe it and was glad that she was gone.
- Another slow day where I had to put IB on-call (02.27). Initially the day started with one booking only towards the beginning, but then a walk-in came around the same time that started. Both teams were first timers to escape rooms so unless they were purely bad, I was going to be able to help them smoothly. The family needed more help while the couple did really well that they even got out before the family despite going in after.
Other than cleaning and doing some work courses online, I was gearing up to close early. But that's when AH came in with a friend. They wanted to play minutes before I was about to get ready to leave. There was a technical issue that I couldn't fix in time, but was able to after. The session was easy since AH was playing support for her friend to have a good time with it. Smooth slow day.
- Slow start to the day (02.28). The only downsides were a group of boys that were really loud and a group of girls that were louder and a bit destructive of the room (also had to yell at them for running down the hall after escaping). At some point, Agent Ocean went to get some supplies, but also stopped by Taco Fuego. They were the same place I got free tacos from previously from our neighbor's grand opening. Originally I wanted shrimp fries, but they were out so he chose birria fries and they were so good.
The night ended with some nice teams specifically with cute girls. They were young, but I dug their energy and their smiles. Didn't do anything towards either since at least one was on a date and the other I couldn't find a way in with her friend around. Still a nice way to end the last work day of the month.
ETC=========================
- My sleep has been better in 2025. For maybe over a decade, I would need to have white noise playing (old videos) to help fall asleep. The reason for something I've seen many times; it's familiar, but I'm also not as super invested like I was the first time watching it. But I'd only be listening to the audio. Was it 100%, no, but it worked the majority of the time. In 2025, I wanted to see if I could do without it and for all of January I was able to. There might have been a few rough nights, but I would still fall asleep. One thing I do is form a "game plan" for the next day. Even if it's a short list and the majority is the same, I would still list it out in my head. Many times I'd lose my spot because of adjacent thoughts, but I'd eventually make a full list or even fall asleep within those few minutes.
All this got thrown off when I got sick this month. I did resort to having videos play at night as well as using NyQuil or ZzzQuil to help sleep. But I'll attempt to get back onto it in March because it was something to be proud of and it saves on power and will give my PC time to sit at rest.
That's a wrap on February 2025. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
