July Entry 2025:
This month went by slow. So much happened. Get ready to read a lot.
MISC=========================
- Took the day off to help G (07.03). Won't go into all the details, but he and Rannchan have had car issues and this was another one on top of everything else. I let G know I could help, they agreed, I asked for the day off, and then went to meet G at their home around 1PM. Followed them to drop off their car for inspection (neither of us factored in the holiday so it would be gone longer), brought them home, talked for a bit, and then they got busy on with things. I brought my Switch 2 with me to finish Golf and then start NES Open Tournament Golf on NSO. The plan was to go pick up Kai, then pick up Rannchan after work, and go to Dough Zone for dinner. G had been to a Dough Zone elsewhere and the rest had never had it. Went to a location I never went to and it was nice and big. We ordered a lot of food, a lot of us were trying things we've never had, and they all turned out to be good stuff. It was good to get our mind off of things and laugh with some good food. Brought G and Rannchan to Kai's and ended my night.
- I ordered some new Sonic shirts (07.04). There was a new line of shirts available for some color customization on Amazon and I saw a few designs I liked. These were luckily available for free shipping without a Prime account so I went and got them.
- 3/5 of CAB DJ met up (07.06). It has been a year or more since any of us got together. I chose to eat at Rice Box and the time they chose was 3PM. I'm glad to finally go there as it has been on my list of places to try for a while now. Aesthetics are amazing. I did make a mistake by trying to fill my cup of water without realizing the cap was on it, ha. Got their house fried rice to see how the basics are. Ended up finishing my whole box. Good food and good talk.
I had suggested we go to Paleta Bar for dessert. It looks great online. Unfortunately the store was small. Not a lot of places to sit and I knew we were going to stay and talk for a while so I opted for us to leave. We walked to nearby areas. DW wanted El Rey as he was hoping for something with alcohol. We passed by it and it was not what he expected so we continued walking. The next place we went to was Crumbl...and they were closed on Sundays. 3 strikes and we were out, ha. We went with an early default of Marble Slab. Not that the place is bad, but I at least wanted to try some place we haven't been to before. I forget the actual name of what I got, but it was a combination of cookie dough and cookies & cream. More talk before we split around 6PM.
- Rest In Peace, Tita Banchi (07.11). My mom told me of the funeral right before she went to it. I had no idea she had Alzheimer's. The last time I saw her with my uncle was at a dim sum restaurant. I was there with my cousin and her husband and son. He had wanted to go there as it was a go-to for whenever they were in town. At some point I started to follow their son who would occasionally get up and wander around the restaurant. I didn't mind as it gave my cousin and her husband time to relax and eat. But during one of the walks around the restaurant, I saw my uncle and aunt. They thought he was my son, ha. We caught up for a few minutes before I rejoined my cousin. And that was the last time I saw my aunt.
- The screw on the right side of my new glasses had been loose since I got them (07.11). I didn't think it was much, but at some point I could feel that the screw was sticking out more compared to the left side. It eventually came out on my desk...but I didn't realize that at first. When I saw the screw, I didn't know what it was and quickly swiped it off my desk thinking it might have been a clump of dust. When I heard it clatter on the ground, I checked my glasses (which was hard to notice) and realized it was the screw. It took a couple minutes to find it. Thankfully I did and my dad was able to put the tiny screw back in.
- First Saturday off in a long time (07.12). I was actually off Friday-Monday (had to request Monday off) and it's definitely been an even longer time since I had a whole weekend off. I reached out to a few friends to see who was available. In the end, Rannchan was able to hang. Kai was added to the mix and later Triple S was the last to join.
I drove to pick up Rannchan and Kai so we could go to Layne's. Rannchan suggested it since there was one close to where we live that was doing a grand opening. Unfortunately that one wasn't a dine-in restaurant. I looked up to see if there were more and there happened to be one in proximity to where we were planning to go after. So we went there, ordered our food, had a good laugh at some of their decorations, ate the food (their mild spice had quite a kick), and spent a long time talking. Thumbs up to Layne's.
Afterwards we went to the nearby town center to walk around. Never went there before even though I thought I had. I liked it, but wasn't sure there was a lot I was interested in with what I saw outside of a few food spots. But Rannchan spotted an IKEA and we went in. It was a small store, which none of us were used to seeing as IKEAs are normally the large buildings you can spend hours in. You could have fit 20+ of this into one normal IKEA, ha. It's always cool to walk around an IKEA because everything is presented well and it makes you want to buy something. I ended up buying a set of 10 hangers because a lot of old ones in my closet have been breaking when getting some of my shirts out. Once it was close to 2PM, we headed out.
The escape room we went to wasn't far away from where we were, but we wanted to get there early. None of us had been there before. On my end, customers have highly recommended it. Their visual presentation in the lobby was very cool. A lot of it was not necessary, but it is primed for photo opportunities. Other than that, it's rather small. I couldn't picture having 50+ customers navigating themselves properly on a busy day. The staff seemed relaxed. That's good and bad. Good as in they weren't worried about anything. Bad as in they weren't trained well. They thought I was part of another team at first even though I clearly came in with others. They also didn't properly reset the room. When we were brought in, another door was open so we had to wait in the small hallway as they prepped it. That wouldn't have been so bad had the Game Host told our Game Master that the room was ready. The Game Master also spoiled part of the room for us letting us know that we had to split up at some point. I didn't like that. The game itself was fun. I originally was giving it a 3 out of 5. Unfortunately after thinking back on it...it's a 2 out of 5. The briefing video volume was so low compared to the music being played so it was hard to hear our mission. It was also one generic (possibly AI) graphic playing as the dialogue was happening. The hint screen gave us a hint for a puzzle we already finished. The part where we had to split up made sense, but then the Game Master had to tell us what needed to be done because there was nothing properly leading you to do things (like pushing open a small hidden wall panel). Not going to spoil other things, but that's probably where we wasted a lot of our time. The Game Master not only told us what needed to be done (not the answers) when it was unprompted, but they never responded when we were actually asking for help. Apparently one part of the room didn't properly turn off/on when it needed to as well. Even when we placed the final item in to finish the game, a buzzer sounded. It didn't sound like a victory buzzer. It sounded like we made a mistake so I took it out and tried again. Our Game Master had to say over the speaker that we won...as the timer still kept counting down. Had fun at the moment with my friends, but I wouldn't go back unless someone else paid for my ticket or there was a really nice discount.
We then went to Mango Mango Dessert where Triple S met us. Good variety of drinks and desserts. I was a little disappointed with my waffle ice cream sandwich. It itself wasn't bad (got a scoop of mango and vanilla with it). There just wasn't a proper way to eat it as most likely advertised. You couldn't grab it with both hands otherwise the ice cream would fall out. And you couldn't cut through both waffles as...the ice cream would fall out. I ended up eating the top waffle portion with the occasional scoop of ice cream and then I was able to cut through the ice cream and bottom waffle to eat together. If I ever go back, I'd get a sundae as those looked good when other customers got them. We played a few card games that Rannchan brought. I sat out of the first game, but joined them for Cabanga (really enjoyed) and QWIXX. I split from them around 6PM so I could go home.
The main reason to split when I did was to catch Saturday Night's Main Event and the rest of All-In. There was a lot of wrestling this weekend so I wanted to at least catch some of it live. I enjoyed what I watched. NOt only that, both events ended at a reasonable time. Because of that, I popped onto Mario Kart World to join Rannchan, Triple S, and G who were playing. It was my first time doing Game Chat and it functions really well. The camera keyed me out well enough and the mic on the Switch 2 dock picked up all our voices without us having to shout or adjust how far we were. Spent about a good 90 minutes with them finding stuff in Free Roam (one Knockout Tour before exploring). The graphic display of the other players was as shown in videos where it's not perfect, but suitable. There can be really good uses for it in the future and after this, I'm not opposed to (almost) anyone inviting me to Game Chat as I play something. The only exception would be if I'm playing a new game and simply want to focus on it.
Yay for having a fun-filled Saturday off. I was worried that no one would be able to hang out or do anything, but I'm glad plans came to fruition.
- Caught up on the Great American Bash the next day (07.13. NXT never fails to put on the best wrestling consistently. All matches were great and there were some surprises.
Evolution...my goodness. The best wrestling show of the weekend. Women's wrestling has been the best thing and they shined tonight. Started hot and ended hot. Flowers all around.
- Got my annual CT scan (07.14). Arrived on time instead of early per usual due to traffic. I was still brought back as I was filling out my paperwork. I was taken to a part that I had never seen so I asked if it was new and they said it wasn't, ha. Sat there for a few minutes before being brought in to get the scan and then headed out.
On the way back I tried another new (to me) boba place called Bubble Boba. It's a small venue, but their main draw is their variety of snacks. While I was there mainly for the drink (got a Sunset with popping boba, got a free cookie with it) the snacks were tempting. I ate prior, but if I'm ever back there again, I'll try a snack. The drink and the cookie were good.
I did have a headache when I got back home and was tired. Despite that, I still played THE PUNISHER (mentioned earlier). Then I watched Panda Plan. Jackie Chan mentioned it in an interview I saw not too long ago so I added it to my watch list. It was a decent movie. The normal Jackie Chan charm was there. The thing I couldn't get over was Jackie Chan playing himself. I understood the payoffs for it, but I think they could have gone another way with it if he was another new named hero for the movie. But because he was himself, I couldn't ignore it and it stuck out so much that I couldn't get completely into it. It's not a bad movie, but is probably towards the lower end of a hypothetical list of my favorite Jackie Chan movies.
- Accidentally left a bag of candy in my car while at work (07.17). Oddly enough, the other bag of candy didn't melt, but this did. Must be the packaging. Yes, I still ate it. Pulled off chunks of blended sour and sweet. It was...okay, ha.
- Monday Night RAW was in town (07.21). Took the day off to see it with D-Generation HeX(agon). Picked up NE and we headed to meet the others at Rodeo Goat. We did hit a pocket of traffic, but thankfully it wasn't too long. I had been told Rodeo Goat was good and it didn't disappoint. I got the Marvin Zindler. We chatted it up talking about wrestling and Kpop before heading out at 6PM to walk to the arena. For MG, it was the first time going to a WWE show and boy did he get a good show. It was one of the best in town.
Kairi Sane w/Asuka def. Ivy Nile (Main Event taping)
Penta def. Grayson Waller (Main Event taping)
CM Punk and Gunther segment
Sheamus def. Rusev
LWO def. New Day and American Made
Trick Williams crowd interview
Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria segment
Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez def. Lyra Valkyria and Bayley
Karrion Kross def. Sami Zayn
Iyo Sky VS Stephanie Vaquer (no contest due to outside interference)
Judgement Day crowd interview
Roman Reigns segment (Bron, Bronson, Heyman, and Jey Uso)
No post match match, but I was okay with it. It was still close to three hours by the time the Roman segment was done. But we got such a stacked card. The fact that we got The Kabuki Warriors in some form and Iyo VS Stephanie when that match wasn't advertised was amazing. After the show, JC split so he could go to his car. MG, NE, and I went to the car, but it also was on the way to the "send-off" area. We stood there for a while and saw Kofi Kingston, Alicia Taylor, and Triple H leave. Then we walked a little more to a different area that wasn't crowded and stayed a few more minutes. Ended up seeing Sami Zayn and the Creeds drive off. If we ever do send-off again, we know where to wait next time. Dropped MG home and then dropped off NE. I was home a little before midnight.
- Another day off to attend NXT (07.22). It's been many years since they've been in town so this was a no-brainer for me to go. Only NE was able to join this time (his first NXT show). Went to park at his place while he drove. We went to Stuff'd as it was a place he suggested a long time ago and it wasn't far from the venue. Unfortunately they were actually closed...for no reason that we could find. Google showed they were open. Their posted hours said they were open. They simply weren't open. We took a few minutes to figure out what's nearby. Settled on Home Slice for pizza. I only got one slice as I had pizza for lunch. Plus it was a big enough slice. It was fine, but nothing stellar. Then we went to park close to the venue. I mentioned to NE how you can reserve spots with this one website. He did that, but when we got there he was unsure. It may have been because he chose a parking lot instead of a garage as a garage would ask you to scan something while a parking lot doesn't. He was worried and understandably so. But we went on and walked a few minutes to the venue. We got there just as the pre-show started. My first time at that venue and it was pretty cool.
LFG coaches come out
Penina Tuilaepa def. Dani Sekelsky (LFG taping)
Drake Morreaux def. Harlem Lewis LFG taping)
The Culling def. ZaRuca and Hand & Tank
Fatal Influence segment with Lash Legend and Jaida Parker
Jasper Troy def. Ricky Saints
Trick Williams segment with The Undertaker
Blake Monroe def. Wren Sinclair
Ethan Page segment with Santino Marella
Oba Femi def. Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura
Solid NXT show. We were so close (fifth row, fourth from the ramp). There were a few issues where we were sitting as someone had a seat that...didn't exist, but they were told to sit in our row (next to me). When the actual seat holder came by and no one wanted to budge, she got a staff member to straighten things out. The previous person barely reacted. The new person was definitely a wrestling fan as she knew people in the crowd, shared pictures with me, and even said she was friends with Wren Sinclair and Blake Monroe. That was further solidified by Wren giving her a hug after her match. The LFG matches were fun to watch, but I only knew who one of them was outside of the coaches. I did miss when the stage broke during Ricky Saints and Jasper Troy's match. I heard it, but didn't catch when it actually happened. Others were standing around so I couldn't lean over.
One sucky thing overall was one guy sitting in front of me. He was okay to share banter with, but he did spill his beer before the show started. Not only that, there was one point during Ethan Page's segment where he wouldn't sit down and kept pointing to his shirt, which was relevant...but then he kept saying "I'm trying to get on TV..." as he had his back to the camera...yeah. But NXT always delivers. NE drove us back to his place and I went home to top off two straight nights of wrestling.
- Our a/c went out in the morning (07.24). This was thankfully only about 2 hours before I had to head out to work so I didn't feel the brunt of the heat. But I did forget about it when I got home until the heat hit upon entering. Thankfully it was in the state of getting back to normal after dad had done what was needed. By the time I headed to bed, it was running at a fair cool rate.
- Watched Happy Gilmore 2 (07.27). The original is one of my favorite Adam Sandler movies. Man, this was wonderful. The callbacks, the returning characters, the new characters, the silly story, the fact that Adam Sandler's actual family was a part of it...it had my attention the entire time. It's crazy how many celebrities were a part of it. I knew of some like Bad Bunny, Becky Lynch, and MJF. But I didn't realize who some of the cast were until it was pointed out in a reaction video I watched after. If you enjoyed the original Happy Gilmore, you will absolutely like the sequel.
I also took the time to put together the Peanuts Nanoblack I got from NRM last month. I was hesitant to attempt it as I don't normally like building things like this. That set in more once I took out the pieces to see how small they actually were. I dropped some of them a few times, which I was so worried about losing. Having instructions is great as I would definitely not be able to build something like this. But I was still a little stressed while doing it, especially if I accidentally put the wrong piece/s in and had to remove them. Some were on tight while others felt like they could easily slip off (specifically the feet). And wow, this thing is tiny. I added dice in the photo I took for size comparison. I do worry that it will accidentally get knocked over at some point and it will come apart. Until that day comes, it will sit on my desk.
- Watched WWE: Unreal (07.29). For some reason I thought this was going to be a movie, but it was 5 one hour episodes. I don't normally binge watch shows, but I did with this since I had nothing particular scheduled for the day. It is what I expected with them pulling back the curtain. Behind the scenes type of things are a category I like. The timeline went from RAW's debut on Netflix to Wrestlemania. That was a good set of time as a lot of things happened. There were definite focuses on certain wrestlers, which made sense. I hope they do another type of documentary highlighting others as that was my main criticism. Other than that, I really enjoyed what they put together.
- Final purchases delivered (07.31). More compression socks, replacement TV remotes, and refrigerator filter replacements.
- Shower update: The guy was ignoring my mom and dad's calls. Mom wanted to report him to the Better Business Bureau and I was helping with that. The thing is that his business was not popping up. She called the BBB again to let them know what was going on. Shortly after, I called him and he picked up. I let him know who I was and he remembered the job he did in our house a year ago. I handed over my phone to my mom for them to talk. In the end, he said he was going to come to the house in two days. I told my mom not to agree to any of the suggestions he might make when he comes, but to discuss it as there is a possibility he'll want to redo the whole thing, which would take time and a lot of money. The day came and he called saying his schedule was too busy and that he'd come the following day. The following day...no show. Mom said she's reporting him. Fine by me. We gave him a chance. I don't understand even with how busy you may be that you couldn't squeeze us in for one hour in two months. Don't know who we're going to go with now, but I'll be glad when we get to use the new shower again.
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continues. 12 this month. It felt like there was a huge gap in between the initial batch and the last one. WILD HEARTS S is officially the second Switch 2 demo. And for the first time in the eShop's history, there are now over 1000 demos on the US eShop.
- Beat Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (07.01-07.02). I played the original on Wii and really liked it, but I didn't do everything. I didn't do everything this time around either, but I did more than usual, which was the Golden Temple stages. They were tough, but not impossible. I did spend quite a bit of time on that last level. At first I thought I would attempt to 100% the game, but once I realized my reflexes aren't what they used to be, I abandoned that thought. Collectibles and secrets were all found along the way and I never went back to get anything else. The game itself still holds up so it's definitely recommended for those that enjoy platformers.
Originally this was scheduled for November along with other Donkey Kong NSO games. But with Bananza coming out later in the month, I had to decide whether to get in the mood for it or hold off on Bananza for November. Reading this, you know what the plans are now.
- Palia was the free-to-play game of the month (07.03). I had seen streams of the game so I was familiar with it. That also meant I knew I wouldn't get too into it. Nothing wrong with resource gathering and having tons of quests along with town building, but those aren't the type of games I gravitate to. I definitely know people I'd recommend this to, but my time with it was more than enough. Not bad, but not for me.
- Golf was one of two NES NSO games for the month (07.03). I definitely have tried the game in the past, but not for a long amount of time. Just bits of it here and there. Playing through all 18 holes went by fast since the game was bare bones. It didn't take long to get used to and feel a groove for. Once it was done, it was on to the next game.
- NES Open Tournament Golf was the second of the two NES NSO games of the month (07.03-07.04). Never tried this before, but I really liked it. Coming off from Golf, there were many quality of life improvements (club suggestions, music, speed, etc). Very solid. Still very bare bones, but I'd recommend this over Golf any day.
- Mario Golf was the N64 NSO game of the month (07.05-07.08). Never played this one either, which I found a little odd as I'd try other Mario spin-off games. It's probably because it was golf. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. The main complaint is the input lag. I got used to compensating for it, but I can see how that would turn anyone else off of it. The other thing was the amount of time needed to unlock everything (characters and courses). Once I realized that, I opted to use the code to unlock all characters and almost all the courses. I still had to unlock the final course manually. I made sure to try all the modes. I beat all the mini-golf courses and beat all the main courses at least once. Once I made the credits roll, I was done.
- Donkey Kong '94 was our extra GB NSO game of the month (07.11-07.13). I beat this once before when it was on the 3DS eShop in 2011. It holds up so well. If you've never heard about it, it starts off like the original Donkey Kong. And then you get extra ways to move such as a backflip, handstand, etc to work around a hundred levels of platforming challenges. I didn't collect all 3 items in each stage, but I got a large chunk of them (just didn't feel like going back). The only downside is probably the easy boss levels. Other than that, it's still as good as it ever has been.
- The seventh and final game in MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics collection was THE PUNISHER (07.14). I played the arcade a few times. Never beat it. I recall it being tough despite the game being (from knowing now) short. It controls really well and is a standard beat 'em up. I played through it twice; once as The Punisher and once as Nick Fury. Other than a few of their attacks being different, the game was the same outside of some of the text in their dialogue. I could have saved time by skipping to the last level the second time through, but each playthrough was only a little over an hour.
After I beat it, I checked in case I was missing any of the achievements and I was. One for MVC and one for MVC2. I thought I had checked through those because that's what I do every game. The one for MVC was tough to pull off. Plus I didn't know that was a thing you could do. The one for MVC2 is something I knew how to perform, but I didn't pull it off during my runthrough of it. But after getting those, the whole collection is now completed.
- Picked up my copy of Donkey Kong Bananza (07.17). I also went to Nothing Bundt Cake to get a Banana Pudding Cake. Felt it was appropriate to get them together, ha. Ended up sharing it with co-workers when we were talking about go-to road trip snacks and favorite flavors of food in general. They liked it.
- A week later, returned to GameStop to get No Sleep For Kaname Date - From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES (07.25). Unexpectedly, I stayed there a bit to catch up with the manager. While we had bonded ever since I started going there, we haven't had time in a while to have a conversation like we just did. Talked about family, work, the Switch 2 launch, etc.
- Donkey Kong Bananza rounds out the small set of Donkey Kong games played this month (07.18-07.25). This was so dang good. It handles well. Being able to destroy anything is satisfying. This helped with creating your own paths. Even then, I never felt lost as the map is one of the best maps I can recall in recent history. The main positive of the map is that it will face Donkey Kong in the direction you set the map to so you won't have to recaluculate where to go. This is super helpful for collecting everything, which comes complete with a checklist. The game is also very colorful and expressive and surprisingly longer than expected. It just kept going. Even with the big reveal, there was still a good chunk of game left and it was all good. Not to mention that there is a lot of post-game material (currently working through).
It's not perfect though. The majority of the boss fights were easy. Only the finale and post-game boss refights have given me trouble. And during my first few days of playing it, my hand hurt after pushing the buttons so much because...you push the buttons a lot.
For some reason I kept track of how many total bananas I had each day I played. 165, 200, 355, 430, 470, 520, and 610 was what I ended up with when credits rolled. But the total is actually less because the ones you can buy per layer only count for one while the rest you buy thereafter goes towards your skill points. My guess is I bought close to 20 in total. I'm working through collecting all bananas, fossils, and more to eventually 100% the game. Using videos online helps. This will be done in between games. Who knows how long it will take, but I'll definitely post when the deed is done.
I could go on and on, but I think saying that this is a top contender for my game of the year is strong. Welcome back, Donkey Kong.
- My copy of Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution Collector's Edition (GBA) arrived (07.28). As much of a Shantae fan I am, I forgot about this. It's cool to have it though. The fact that it actually works in a GBA is cool. But I did lose excitement for it as there was a current console version announced. That would be the preferred way to play it, but that does mean I will spend more money on it. Yay with a question mark.
- I was able to get into the Nintendo Switch Online: Playtest Program. The game that ended up being playtested was okay. I played half an hour during the first night and thought it was neat. Only experienced a little bit of lag, which was not bad considering how many users were playing and on screen. Mechanics worked well, but I had a bit of trouble getting a grasp on it. But for the type of game it was, it wasn't for me. I won't go into too many details (maybe in the future), but there was a reason I only played it for half an hour before stopping. I was curious to see how the play world would look after coming back to it so I tried it again the next night. The world grew and that was cool to see. However, I wasn't motivated to do much more. And then the next morning, there was a notification that that specific event is now cancelled due to a technical issue that they weren't planning to resolve. It's still accessible, but it seems they're going to change up what you can do for the rest of the playtest. This definitely was the kind of game I was expecting to play, but I'll keep checking in to see what changes happen.
- Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase (07.31). I'll admit it wasn't the strongest Direct for me, but there was a lot for others to enjoy. Considering that two of my standouts were already announced shows how many other games didn't catch my eye.
My standouts:
- Plants VS Zombies Replanted (yay, supershigi)
- FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: The Ivalice Chronicles (Switch 2 physical announced)
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
- Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (demo)
- The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (demo)
WORK=========================
- Not such a busy Wednesday (07.02). My notes only said I did more proofreading of the website. The highlight of the day was reaching 800 reviews. That was the goal for the day and we got it.
- My first technical Friday at the sister location (07.04). The other times were me being scheduled at the main venue, but opting to go to the sister location since the main venue wasn't busy. Got to meet the newest trainee KP. He worked at a different escape room company prior so he was picking up on things easily. Later on in the day there was a phone call where they were asking for me specifically. It was the throuple. Agent Ocean and I had been mentioning we need to contact them since I was working more consistently at the sister location. He sent them a text and they almost immediately called (Agent Ocean said they didn't even reply to his text, ha). I booked them for the next day and we were all excited.
At the end of the day, we had a team with a few kids. At one point, one of the boys and the dad came out as the boy was scared by some of the sounds in the room. After a while, they went back in. Soon after the boy came back out with his mom and sister. I asked what was going on and they mentioned it was the sounds in the room he didn't like. The sister and mom wanted to go back and play, but the boy didn't want to. I asked if he would be okay watching them on an iPad so that they can play. He nodded and I brought out one of the iPads we use to monitor things. After explaining it, he felt better and was okay with his mom and sister going back in. Basically for the last 30 minutes of the last game of the day, I was babysitting, ha. I was fine with it as I've done something like that multiple times (just not for that long). He was definitely more talkative now that he wasn't scared. I asked if he wanted to go back into the room when they were done so that he could see it in person. At first he didn't want to, but once it was close to them winning, he said he wanted to go. He followed me back as I went to get the family and he was again very talkative.
Once they were done, we wrapped up our closing duties and left early. The amount of bookings were less than usual as the company wanted to allow time for the staff to go celebrate July 4th whether they had plans or not. I originally had plans before I was added to the schedule a few days beforehand. Since we left early, I had a brief thought to see if those plans could happen again, but I figured I didn't want to rush myself or anyone else. Sticking with the already rescheduled time and simply going home early. Made it back home around 8PM.
- Went to the sister location early (07.05). The reason; the throuple. I had not seen them since January. I was greeted with hugs and smiles. The ladies had swapped hair colors, ha. They got wine and I was their Game Host as usual. I did get a short opportunity to be their Game Master and they were doing well. But I made sure to exit host them. I made sure to exchange numbers and social media with them so that way I could contact them the next time I would be working there. Highlight of my week.
That early shift was busy. When I drove into work, we only had 12 bookings throughout the day. Ended up with 32 by the end of the day. The biggest rush was within the first 2-3 hours. Shout out to SP who at one point was Game Mastering 5 games while myself and KS were hosting and resetting teams. We Game Mastered when we could, but when we had to get up, we got up. But she was holding down the fort like it was nothing.
One sucky thing about that workday was the amount of customers that refused to do reviews. We still got a few, but with the number of customers, it should have been higher. The meal of the day was Dave's Hot Chicken. Never had it before, but always heard of it. It was okay, but I don't see the hype. Ended the day with just the boys and we handled what needed to be done.
- In the morning, the manager chat group was sent a video (07.07). Thieves stole our copper wiring in the early morning and we had no power. I was eating lunch at the time the video was sent and that threw me off. I could tell that I was minutes behind on things and it carried over to my shift at the sister location (first official Monday working there outside of construction). Thanks to Agent Ocean for the supportive messages, but yeah, I had lots of slip ups (a few reset errors, stumbling on my speeches, etc). But other than blocking off any other slots that weren't booked, Agent Ocean called customers that had bookings at the main venue to see if they would transfer to the sister location (some did).
At the sister location, there was an issue with the alarm. Even though I was there for about an hour, upper management was getting notifications that the alarm was going off. It wasn't. I showed them the messages that were appearing on the alarm and they advised me to re-arm the alarm and then disarm it again and thankfully that did the trick. In terms of opening, there were quite a few items left out that weren't being charged (mentioned it in the work chat at the end of the night). Then there were a few screens that myself and KP weren't familiar with turning on. The big one was simply in another option we didn't try until Agent Ocean showed us.
Despite the issues that were happening and my not perfect performance, the day was busy but went smoothly. Our main goal was to get our 1000th review, which we did get at the end of the night. We felt proud and immediately shared it with others. Yay for reaching that milestone.
In a way to celebrate, I finally went to The Sweet Swirl. It was a dessert place I found while searching online, but never got around to it. Even on this day, I was debating whether ice cream was a good idea to have at 9PM. But I decided to make the 5 minute drive since they were open for another hour. I greeted them and let them know it was my first time there. I asked how big the mason jars were (not so big) and if it was wise to get one to-go for a one hour drive. They said they offer covers for them, but I'd be losing the top half that they normally add if it was served open. But they suggested I could eat the top first before leaving and then cap off the rest, which was a great idea. I went with that and got their Tripple Cocoa. It was delicious. After eating the top and capping it off, I thanked them and mentioned where I worked. They were definitely interested in going with one of them even knowing about one of our rooms. I said they could talk to their managers about doing it for team building otherwise to simply come by with family/friends since it was 5 minutes away. Drove off and...ate some of it while driving. It fit in my cup holder and it was easy to spoon it into my mouth. Only a little bit dripped onto during one bite. It was still cold after the hour drive, but it definitely melted. Unfortunately there wasn't any space in the freezer to put it in so I had to finish it late at night. All-in-all, I'm glad I got it. It was a good way to celebrate 1000 reviews.
- First time in the main venue in a week and after the theft (07.09). I immediately noticed the front door didn't chime when I walked in. So I went around and checked on all of our exit doors. No chime. And one had a security light knocked off. It was either the weather or the thieves. Most likely the thieves since one of the wires was cut. I attempted to put it back up, but it fell off and more wires were undone. But I got it back up there at least (ladies said they'll fix it).
We initially blocked off all bookings since things were getting fixed and tested. But we opened them all back and we did get bookings and ended up with seven.with the majority being at the end of the day. In between bookings, I replied to reviews from the week I was gone. There was also a young girl that called asking about the rooms we had and if she could get the escape times from when they previously were there. This extended through 3 different calls as she had to look up when they were at the venue and another time where there were a lot of customers. She was also curious if we were going to have more rooms as they've done all at both locations. I appreciate her asking which room I would put in our venue. During one session, a team dropped one of two keys down a hole that opened, but they couldn't see it. So I had to go in and open the lock and retrieve it. That rarely happens for that room, but I can see how it can happen.
When there was a lull between the final sessions of the day, I saw that the footage of the thieves were pulled up. There was also a piece of paper set aside with times and descriptions. I recall the two employees that were there...kind of pushing it off even though they were assigned to do it by the owners. I figured this was a good time to examine the footage out of curiosity, but in the end I also exported the video and wrote down timestamps for them. It...sucks. Just to see the act happen. License plate was visible as well as one of the thieves. It was hard to make out either, but I'm sure someone knows how to enhance and make them identifiable. I won't go into all the details, but they weren't even slick about it outside of wearing a hardhat and safety vest to pretend to be a worker. But I'm sure we have enough to get them.
Other than the last minute bookings, there was one room booked that I went to prepare. Unfortunately, the final door would not stay magnetized. There wasn't enough time to ask for help as the customers were there, but I let them know. It was either play the room knowing one door is easily openable or to play another room that was available that was fully operational. They were understanding and swapped rooms. The ladies suggested to test if anything else would magnetize to the lock and nothing did so they will fix it the next day.
Adding to more of the things that happened after the theft and losing power, our outside lights were off. Our sign was fine, but once night time hit, it was very dark outside. One of the ladies advised me to check the breaker out back and I did after all the customers left. I FaceTimed one of the ladies as I did not know which was the correct one. In the end, we couldn't identify it. So she suggested changing the timing of our sign outside and walked me through it. And because of all the things that were going on, we forgot to take out the trash at the end of the night. Other things were taking priority, but that doesn't mean the small things are to be forgotten. But I'm still going to test out things and see what else I notice that might have been a side effect of the theft and power outage.
- Started Thursday off with a large kid group (07.13). This organization has come by 1-2 times a year with a fresh batch of kids. The main adult is very helpful with making sure the kids understand and to group them up. Once they were in their rooms, it was fairly easy outside of a few bad apples. Thankfully when a team would finish, they'd take their group photo and then wait on the bus making it easy to have space for any other customers coming in. Once they were done, it was a normal day.
I checked around the venue to see if there were any other residual effects from the thieves. The only thing I didn't catch the day before was that our Exit signs were not illuminated. Looked up videos online to see how to check on them. Once I knew there was a button, I tested each one and none of the test buttons worked. Popped one open (it took a while because I thought I was breaking it) and the guts were fine. So it's probably that they got fried.
Only other thing to remark is drinking a Minute Maid Lemonade. The main thing is because it's WWE branded. I feel like Agent Ocean saw that when he was buying drinks to restock and got those for me, ha.
- First time seeing Agent Ocean in over a month (07.15). We greeted each other with a hug and got to work. We'd catch up on things here and there, but work was the main focus as we started with a large team. This company had been with us before. Usually they'd get a food truck to come by, but this time they didn't as the main person in charge wasn't there. However, they were easy to work with and things went smoothly. At one point Agent Ocean ordered some of us some Potbelly and I got a simple Oreo shake (good stuff).
Seamless transition to getting the teams out to set up for the next set of customers. No issues to report. There was a group of young girls later that were late due to traffic, but they came to us a year ago for one of their birthdays. They kept saying they had 5 seconds left last time. This time they had 20 minutes left. They were so proud of themselves. I offered the mom half off if they wanted to do another room that same day. She thought about it and mentioned it might not be possible due to parents coming to pick some of them up and other schedules. After a few were picked up, she asked if the offer was still available and I granted it for them. The remaining girls had a fun time and got out with 5 minutes remaining.
Throughout their session and the other last team's session, I added a visual hint to one of our rooms. This one puzzle we usually have to give a nudge towards. After the escape room I did the weekend prior, I thought about ways to improve each room's game flow. it's been a while since I've thought about something like that. Got approval from Agent Ocean who saw the final look before leaving. Then I looked on Amazon to order stickers for another assist in game flow for another room (to arrive soon). I asked the customers about that type of improvement as they had issues with it and they thought it was a good idea, yay. But I'll do more of these as we have time. Small changes that can go a long way to helping teams is a win in my book.
- Got some snacks at CVS before clocking in for a slow Wednesday (07.16). Agent Ocean got snow cones for those that were there, which we haven't had in a long time. But there wasn't much to note outside of our frequent customer that does games by himself. I had to swap rooms with CP as she was getting frustrated with him (apparently I'm still the only person that has no issues with him). At one point I realized he physically could not do a puzzle on his own. Since he was one of the last teams and the doors were locked, I told CP I was going in to play with him. It was actually easier to do that with him so that way I could be his partner to give him less to worry about (I'll remember passwords, tell me what you want me to do, etc). Good kid.
- Busy Thursday (07.19). It was slow to start so I took the time to reply to reviews. Then I worked on my project of making suggestions for quality of life improvements for all our rooms (stemming from the poor escape room I did). It did require logging into the sister location's system to properly name and label things.
Other than walk-ins happening, we also had a late party come in. Originally that party was going to be 50 at max. Over time, the number dwindled to being 9 in the end. It added to the business as they came in late and didn't know what rooms they were paying. Even in the end, they all had to pay individually and I had to call the person in charge (who wasn't there) to get them to pay the remainder of the balance. It wasn't the worst, but it was unnecessary extra stuff.
Cheers to CP for sticking around for an extra half hour when it got busy. Shout out to IB as it's been a while since he and I worked together. It was good to catch up with him. We did end up leaving half an hour late as we had to reset almost every room as we had little time to get to it when the last set of teams were around.
- My first Saturday at the main venue in over a month (07.19). It was slow so most of us in the starting shifts left at least an hour early). Thankfully it wasn't too busy as we had tech issues with multiple rooms. Thing is we wouldn't know there was an issue until we took the teams in and would have to ask them to go back to the lobby. And this was my first time getting to eat the earned food of the month (first time for the venue), which ended up being Chili's and it was great.
Shout out to two teams. One with a hot mom (she was very nice bordering on possibly flirty). The other was a family coming for their mom's birthday. They were fun to talk to and really enjoyed themselves. They chilled for a bit after as they were waiting to figure out if one of the kids' friends' parents was going to pick them up or not. During that time I offered them a replay for a discount, which they thought about. Once they learned that they were going to take the kids' friend home themselves, they took the offer to play again. We signed them up, they paid, and they had another great time again. I actually clocked out around 7:30 (shift ended at 9, but it was slow like I mentioned earlier), but stayed to exit them out. Good way to end the day early.
- Back to the sister location after a few weeks away (07.23). Agent Ocean was there early, but left before I got there. Met the ladies there as they were doing their things. KP came in and we were setting things up. Eventually RB joined and it was my first time seeing her in a while and our first time working at the sister location together. TR was last to round out the team. I showed the ladies an idea for a social media post and they really liked it. Once the last of teams left, I had the others film go and film it and another. It was good seeing them have fun doing it. The ladies approved so those will be scheduled soon.
I clocked out for my shift at 7PM, but went to The Sweet Swirl as I had a coupon for a buy-1-get-1-free. Originally I was going to share that with Agent Ocean, but he left early. I offered it to TR and he gladly took it. Drove out, got our orders made, and returned to the team. We shared a bit, but mainly I had mine and TR had his. Both were large ice cream cups. Mine was a mango sorbet scoop with a birthday cake ice cream scoop, a vanilla & chocolate swirl, and Nerd cluster toppings. The clusters were great and the mango was strong in flavor. Definitely like this dessert place.
- Slow day at the sister location (07.24). Adding to the slowness was the bad traffic on the way because of 3-4 pockets of traffic due to accidents. During the work day, one of our rooms had a prop malfunction. Thankfully this happened after a team as done. KS and I asked for help from CG and the management team. Eventually the prop fixed itself...yay I guess. Unfortunately there weren't many bookings. I tried to give the staff an assignment of creating more social media videos like the day prior. While they did look up ideas and I volleyed a few to them, they didn't make them, which was very disappointing. I kept myself busy by scheduling the previous videos made, attempting to fix a door handle (I couldn't since something was missing), and by starting a new project of proofreading our prepped hints. To top things off, I did leave an hour early (save labor), but it happened to be around the time that traffic was bad and I forgot about that. I could have waited and hung in the area for half an hour and still would have made it back home around the same time. It took 90 minutes plus a few extra minutes since I had to get gas. I did think to get something along the way home to cheer myself up, but I figured that this traffic was strike three and not to take my chances. This was probably my least favorite day working at the sister location.
- Slow Saturday (07.26). It's crazy to say that as a year ago was one of our busiest days we've had. I did spend a good chunk of time fixing the a/c unit in the lobby as it leaked again. It took longer than I wanted as the hose I needed to siphon (that part was easy) was a pain to reattach simply because the tube was small. Stretching it over the pipe was near impossible especially when water was leaking out of it.
One bright side, there was a birthday party where the theme was aliens. They had little alien antennae to wear, alien decorations including a banner, and a cake with aliens on it. The room they chose was highly appropriate. They did offer some of their leftover cake...which I didn't get to eat because coworkers immediately dove into it. I was bitter about that because I had been talking to the family the whole time and even made jokes about the cake in general. I think I would have gotten a piece had the timing been better. The cake was offered whenI was a very long phone call (10+ minutes). By the time I was done was when I saw the cake being devoured. Couple that with being denied trying some Dubai chocolate a coworker brought. She asked if anyone wanted to try and I was one of the few that did. When pieces were handed out by another coworker, I was left out even though I was in the room and they heard I wanted to try it. That coworker even offered some to another coworker who wasn't interested. I've also talked about wanting to try Dubai chocolate in the past. I walked out of the room. That's some bull.
I did the task of making sure the staff got their reward of food for the month. Agent Ocean was on a short vacation, but he didn't leave his company card or leave the task to anyone. I made sure to ask the possible employees that would have been given the task and none of them knew. I asked the ladies and they said to set up an order and they would DoorDash it to us. The food of choice from the employees was Chic-Fil-A. I did notice not everyone was interested and only realized after that one employee that was showing up later wasn't asked even though one went to the trouble of texting others for their orders. In hindsight, I probably should have opted out or just got a milkshake. The greed for food is dumb.
To add to things, one of our props was not functioning. All of us that had some small idea of what to do tried what we could and it wasn't happening. One of the ladies did come by and was able to get it functioning again. Soon after, I left early (7:30PM instead of 9PM), which I was planning to do since it was a slow day. I didn't need to have one employee ask me 4-5 times if I was going to leave early. I was the one telling others they needed to leave early and that cast of employees included myself. I get it, I'm not liked. But that along with everything else that was done just
- Morning Monday (07.28). It's been a while since I had to open up shop at the main venue. Unfortunately there were some issues. One I knew about as one the ladies mentioned they were coming to fix it. But as I was setting up another room, two issues occurred. One was from what happened the previous Saturday. The other was one I did fix, but what I did then didn't work this time around. On top of that, a/c had issues again. I unfortunately couldn't fix the a/c this time as the tube was not attaching. The owner that came to fix everything (except one that we have to manually trigger for the time being) was able to make it work by adding another tube that wasn't part of the recent set up. Other than that, it was a slow day AH and CP were able to handle even after I left (half an hour early). On a positive note, we reached 900 reviews, yay.
- Slow Wednesday (07.30). PH and I opened up. Other than needing to fix the a/c again (seems fine now), we had a lot of phone calls during the first few hours. Most were random calls, but the other reason for the flux of calls were return calls after I left voicemails. Left an hour early since it wasn't very busy and finally went to Busy Bee Boba. It's a nice little boba shop I found a long time ago when doing searches in the area. The plaza itself is small and there were less than five businesses there. The shop itself was a nice size. It also had large plush dolls to sit with you if you wanted. I didn't get a good look at all of them, but I think most were Pokemon. Their menu seemed smaller than what was presented online so I got my default passionfruit tea. It was fine, nothing special. Not a bad place, but the draw is definitely the plush dolls.
- Slow Thursday to end the month (07.31). Had to call off RL and IB, but IB didn't read their texts and came by. We talked for a bit before sending him off. It was just me and HL who I suggested do some projects that they agreed to...but they ended up mopping. Hopefully they did what they suggested later. I was continuing a long term project, but taking all the calls that came in. It wasn't as much as yesterday, but it was still a lot. KH came in an hour later since that was agreed on and that's when I was going to leave two hours early.
Before I left was when the announcement for the Leadership Retreat was sent to certain staff members. It was happening from 08.17-08.19 in Baten Rouge. I questioned what the travel accomodations would be and the ladies responded with driving. Then I made sure with my mom if she or my dad needed me during those dates and they don't. And I have nothing specifically scheduled for those days...so I guess I'm going. Excited.
ETC=========================
- My So-Called Gen X Life is a new YouTube channel I found due to a recommended video (linked). Nostalgia overload and memories being unlocked.
- TWICE - THIS IS FOR (MV)
Not a bad song. I don't think it's their best, but I liked it. The rest of the album has a good number of songs though.
- HyoYeon - YES (MV)
Not my favorite song of hers. I think if she had a few performances I would have liked it more. But it definitely works for her DJ playlist.
- TWICE - ENEMY (MV)
- Normally this is the section of the blog where I would talk about a specific topic. This time, I don't think I have anything because I said a lot in this post. Don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. Maybe it's simply not a thing at all. We shall see what comes out next month.
That's a wrap on July 2025. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
