September 2026 Entry:
One month of vacation. Get ready to read a lot.
MISC=========================
- Lots of things to start off the month (09.01). Started wearing my new sunglasses. I did order them back in August, but waited to start wearing them this month. Went for another routine physical therapy session. New staff member applied the electrodes and I laid on the massaging heating pad again. Picked up two treats from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Galactic Brownie Cake was their newest limited time flavor (fairly good) and the other was a free Red Velvet thanks to their rewards program. Never had that flavor from them and Red Velvet just released Surfin' Boy not too long ago. There was more insurance talk (further delays due to changes within the company). And I ordered a few things from Walmart thanks to the gift card I got from the last work meeting. They were things I needed rather than wanted.
- Thank you to those that remembered (09.02).
I watched the TWICE [THIS IS FOR] WORLD TOUR IN INCHEON Blu-ray. Every single bit of it in one sitting. It was cool to see the songs that weren't performed in Austin (obviously we didn't get to see Chaeyoung or Dahyun's). Funny that they brought out the cool roulette wheel and didn't even use it, ha. And all the behind-the-scenes videos were amazing.
Then I met up with a couple of friends at Bobo Tea. Even though they aren't big on boba, it was close to where they worked. Plus I got to use a coupon. It was good catching up with them, especially one who I haven't seen since March. Great way to end the night.
- Fourth session of physical therapy (09.03). Did the same thing during the last couple of sessions. As they mentioned, the doctor would talk to me on the fourth round to see how things have been progressing. Overall my pain is less. However, my elbow is still the same. The plan for future sessions is stretching exercises. They will focus on everything that was in pain, but there is a small shift from shoulder focus to elbow focus. It also rained while I was there and I had to run out in the rain to get to the car.
- Had a get-together with the members of HeXagon (09.04). BL picked me up from home so we could carpool. That was around 5PM and our first activity was at 6:40PM. So we met up at the mall where NRM and HD were. Met them at Barnes & Noble and then went into the mall. The main thing we hit up was Pop Mart (my first time in one). Didn't see anything that caught my eye, but HD was on the hunt for something. Then NRM saw some aespa figures and immediately started grabbing them. I took one out of the five that were there and figured why not. NRM also got to take the display box since it was now empty. And with our purchases combined, we got a free gift (a fuzzy bag), which he let me have, ha. We walked around a bit more before heading back to our cars and driving a few minutes to the town center.
We went to the new location I'd be working at to play a game I had not played so it was free for them. It was cool to play with new players (it's been a few years since I've done that). We escaped with 3 minutes left (took the moral high ground). Was greeted by the manager who I had met before and met a few of the other staff members. The game itself was fun. I did go through things in my head about what they did differently (no lock wall, briefing inside the room itself, old briefing video, etc). I'll probably bring some of that up when I officially start working there. I stayed a bit longer to talk with them while the others walked to our dinner location.
Originally I wanted to have dinner at Dough Zone, but we would only have an hour as they would close soon. So we pivoted to Jupiter. When I rejoined the team, they mentioned that it would be a 20 minute wait. But less than 5 minutes later, we were seated. Everyone had been there before so we all knew we were in for good food. Funny enough, the side of the table I sat at all ordered something spicy, ha (I ordered the Torchic pizza). We were definitely stuffed, but we weren't done yet as dessert was still to be had.
We all split and drove to Midnight Cravingz. I've wanted to go there for the longest time. It was finally happening and it did not disappoint. I ordered the Cookies & Dream. It was so good. The majority of us were still stuffed so we didn't finish (I had about a fourth left). This was when we decided to open up what we bought from Pop Mart. I never really did an unboxing with anyone else before (minus cards at the air BNB for the TWICE concert). My box had Whiplash Ningning and I was very satisfied. I wouldn't have minded any of them as the possible options were from either Dirty Work or Whiplash (two of my favorite themes they've done). Part of me wants them all (minus the secrets as I'm not too big on what they are [saw what they were online] or at least both Ningnings and both Karinas).We started to depart around 10PM as dogs needed to be fed or we were just too full and getting sleepy. Said our byes, BL dropped me off, and I took photos of things I received.
Thank you, HeXagon.
- Had some YouTube issues (09.05). Basically I was signed out of my account somehow and could not log back in the way they described. Did a Google search as to what to do and the consensus was clearing my cache. That did the trick, but now I had to recall or recreate passwords for a lot of accounts. Oh well, at least it was a minor inconvenience.
- Got to watch Sunday Night's Main Event as it aired (09.06). Fun night of wrestling.
- Added another week for the car rental (09.07). I called them like I did last week, but I forgot it was Labor Day and they were closed. I wonder how that would have worked with me originally having it scheduled to be dropped off that day. Thankfully I was able to modify my rental time online.
- Started the new sessions of physical therapy (09.08). Instead of simple massages from machines, I now do a set of stretches. They gave me a folder with a lot of different exercises outlined with drawings and pictures, the number of reps, and how many seconds I needed to hold any pose. These are mainly for my back and arm. The majority are fairly simple. A few were tougher to hold due to the position and because of tiredness over the hour I did it. Once I was done, the staff member took me to a patient room to do a heated massage machine similar to ones I've had other times I was there. Once I was done, I scheduled the next session and left a little over an hour later.
On the way home, I went to Burger King. They had a collaboration with Dragon Ball Super called the Dragon Ball Super Power Up Pack. I figured this would be a nice small meal. There really wasn't much to it; medium fries and 10 piece nuggets. The Dragon Ball Burst Lemonade was the best part (although mine didn't have popping boba for some reason). I also forgot to ask for the Super Saiyan Sauce (didn't realize it until I was almost done eating). They also didn't have the Dragon Ball Super crowns available. Ended up with a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku, which was cool. It was okay, but nothing I'd tell others they have to try unless they really wanted the figures. If I had to compare it to any other collaboration, the McDonald's Kpop Demon Hunters one was way better.
- Had an MRI scheduled for the day (09.09). I was 10 minutes into my drive on the way there when they called me and asked to reschedule. Their machine broke and they didn't know when they'd have it online again. I said I would call back as I needed to double check my schedule before committing. Ended up going to GameStop to reserve Ocarina of Time stuff before heading home. Checked my schedule, the offered coming in later the same day at 7PM (I declined since I'd be there until 9PM), and I chose Tuesday at 3PM. It would be after physical therapy and the locations are about 10 minutes away from each other.
And then there was AEW's Rebel Heart episode. I had no idea how emotional I'd get about this. I shed tears when it happened and I still tear up anytime I rewatch this clip.
- Had another round of physical therapy (09.10). I was able to go through them faster now that I was familiar with them. However, I did ask the worker to help explain some of them or help me get into the correct position on ones I was unsure of last time, but was too shy to ask. By the time I was done, I was actually out a little before 2PM.
Went back home to relax before meeting up with the GGSN crew. As I was waiting for Triple-S to pick me up, G messaged the group saying they had a migraine and had to drop out at the last minute. I was also trying to recruit a 6 team member, but they unfortunately declined. So it ended up being 2 VS 2. Triple-S came by around 3PM and we headed to Rannchan's. We watched her play Date Everything as we waited for Kai who showed up around 4PM.
Triple-S drove us all to our first stop at the Great Big Game Show. I used the gift vouchers that the HERetirees got on their grand opening a couple years ago and was able to use a birthday code meant for The Escape Game for this instead (didn't need it in the end, but that's okay). We pulled color chips to decide on teams and it was me and Kai (blue) VS Rannchan and Triple-S (red). Fun times. Played completely different games from when I first was there. One was the first time a game was tried (it was okay). The highlight had to be the end where we had to spin the wheel for points. Anytime a panel was picked, it would turn into a Lose All space. We ended up turning 5 sections in a row into Lose All spaces, ha. It was insane. Kai and I were behind most of the time, but did catch up in this round. In the end, I lost with one final spin where I ended up on one of those spots. Fun times.
Next stop was for dinner at Tumble 22. None of us had been there. We got a trainee and they did very well. We tried a couple of sampler platters (I joked about getting two and they ended up doing that for us, ha). I got the Korean BBQ O.G. along with a side of beans. There was definitely a good number of things I would eat there so I wouldn't mind going back. The final stop was dessert at Cosmic Ice Cream Co. None of us had been there either. I got Ice Cream Nachos (scoop of Cookie Monster, scoop of Mango Sorbet, Oreo crumble, gold sprinkles, and Nutella). Very good. And the area the venue was at had a lot of other food options that looked good so I might visit the area again in the near future.
Went back to Rannchan's around 9PM. We greeted G who was feeling better. After spending some time there, I took my Nothing Bundt Cakes (thanks Kai), and we drove off to drop off everyone else. Kai was next and then I was last arriving home around 10:30PM. I was still full from the dinner and dessert and that's a good thing.
Thanks for hanging out, GGSN.
- Wrapped up season 2 of Ranma 1/2 (09.01-09.12). Continued the tradition from watching season 1 last year in September. It's Ranma; full of chaos. More characters were introduced. That might have been one reason I wasn't as invested. While season 1 was also introducing everyone, I felt it had more of a direction. It wasn't bad, but I was reaching for my phone more often. One thing I really did like was all the transitions, ha. Don't know why, but I simply enjoyed them. Excited for season 3. Sure it's coming out soon, but I think I'll wait until next year to keep the tradition going.
- Had a random/planned set of adventures with CP (09.12). She unfortunately was late so all plans got pushed back by half an hour. First stop was to Spa World. I had not been to a Korean spa in decades and this was my first time there. It was very much just like the one I went to a long time ago. Got a locker/changing room along with a shower and bathing area, multiple sauna rooms, an eating area, and a lobby. This one also had a golfing area (indoor digital and outdoor putt putt) along with an outside area. We tried the medium hot room first to sweat it out, moved on to the bead room (buried my legs in it, propped some around my neck, cooked all sides of my body), went upstairs to check out the lobby area, went to the forest room (quiet room with a projector looping of trees), the infrared room (laying down on a heated floor area), went outside to chill, did the pyramid room (a little over medium hot), back to the medium hot room, then the pizza/oven room (last for at least 2 minutes, had to leave since my feet were burning), then the freezer (good cool down), and ended with the downstairs lobby before deciding to leave after about 2 hours. Went to clean up. At first I was only going to rinse myself off then soak (didn't do the cold dip as it was too cold), but ultimately used shampoo and soap when I cleansed myself again. Got changed and CP exited the ladies locker room around the same time.
Next was lunch at Kanau Sushi. Never been there before. It was also my first time seeing a restaurant using a QR code to launch a browser to order food. Didn't know you could order for the table and order separately. But we ate well and got our money's worth. That sushi tower was not what I expected, ha. We were stuffed.
Third stop was the museum to check out the Clickbait Exhibit. It was okay. It sure does teach you about social media (interesting facts and impact) as well as have you perform a few things and take photos if you wish. They do an interesting thing where they gather your information throughout and use it. For example, there are cameras at almost every station when you step up to it, they know it's you and put your name on the screen. In the end, they give you a small synopsis of you and create a few AI images based on your photos and answers you provided. It's interesting, but I can see how others can be put off by it. It was also a fairly short exhibit. While interactive meaning you can control the pace, I didn't think it was worth the money.
We changed plans for the next activity. On our way to park in the garage, we noticed there were a lot of people walking outside and having specific merchandise with them. Then I asked if the Japan Festival was happening. I knew it was this month since Agent PQ and Majordomo were planning to go. CP double checked and yes it was happening. We shifted our plans like I said and walked over to the Japan Festival. It was way bigger than ever. I was so used to seeing the same set of rows for vendors. That was still there, but they utilized the space more and used more of the park area. The main park area was mainly for food and there were so many options. Before we checked out the food, we did a lap around to see what the vendors had to offer. There were a few things I saw for others I would buy. CP bought something for her wife after video calling her in to be sure (first time I greeted her in years). On the way back, we went to check the food. There was so much. I didn't think I'd find anything specific, but I saw a booth called Lumpia Bucket and immediately went there. I greeted them and asked why no one was at their booth. They mentioned they were at the beginning of the day and that they were running out. I inquired about their business (no brick and mortar store...yet), asked about what they serve, got general information, followed them on social media, etc. I didn't plan to buy food since I was still full from the sushi, but I asked if they sold their plush mascot. They said it was their last one that was out on display. She double checked with someone in the tent and they said I could have it for $10 (later checked that it sells online for $15). Done deal. The worker asked if I wanted any food and said it was on the house since it basically would cover the charge of the plush. I graciously accepted as I wasn't expecting it. They fixed a small bowl of spaghetti with 2 eggrolls. I thanked them. We walked around to check out the other food vendors as I did my best to eat (ate the eggrolls and some of the spaghetti) as I was still full, ha. After making our round, we went back into the museum to cool off for a bit before going to the car to our final destination.
Went to Hella Bubble to wrap things up. It was in an area I wasn't too familiar with. Decent boba place with enough variety. We sat down to drink for a bit before heading out and back home. Arrived back at my place around 7:30PM, we thanked each other, and she drove off to see her family.
Thank you for the eventful day, CP.
- Had an internet outage (09.15). It's been a while since that has occurred. It went out around 10:30AM and I don't know when it came back as I went out to do things. First thing was physical therapy. This was the hardest session I've had. Nothing was different in the stretches I did, but it hurt more and I was cramping more. Also I was feeling dizzy while doing one of the first stretches, which is odd because it's a stretch I do at home every morning. I let them know when I was done and got my massage.
Next stop was to get an MRI. The venue was less than 10 minutes away from where I do physical therapy. Checked in at 2:30PM and filled out digital papers. The appointment was at 3PM, but I didn't get in until 3:30PM. The whole session was 2 hours long; 20 minutes for my lower back, 40 minutes for my wrist, and 40 minutes for elbow. There was time to set up for each body part so I wasn't stuck in the machine for the entire 2 hours. Plus I took a 5 minute break to drink water and stretch before the elbow. It wasn't as bad because the time frames didn't feel as long as they were. For my back, I was singing songs in my head. For my wrist, I was thinking about how I was going to write my entry for the random adventures with CP and that took up the majority of the time (I was thinking as if I was telling it to someone). For my elbow, I was thinking about the rest of the plans I had for the month and how I was going to plan out those days. I'm glad they provided soundproof headphones as I didn't know the machine was going to be loud. Thankfully it was mainly muffled. I only heard the true loudness when I needed to adjust them as they were on tight and were hurting. The other thing that sucked was trying to stay in one position for those durations of time. I could thankfully move my feet and legs and my free arm. However if I had to scratch my face and when I needed to adjust the headphones, I was told to move slowly and I wasn't sure if I was going slow enough (wasn't told otherwise). Once everything was done, they told me the doctor would get the information in 2-3 days. I waited a few minutes after as they gave me a CD of the information for me to keep...and it was only later that I realized I had no way to look at it, ha.
Then it was to GameStop to preorder the other two Metroid Ravenouse amiibo (they weren't taking preorders on the limited edition). Couldn't preorder the Kirby Air Riders amiibo for some reason. And then it was a trip to House of Chimney Cakes. Any time I was in the area, it would be closed. This time I was there and it was open and I had to go. If it was closed when I went, oh well. I ordered a Cookielicious, waited patiently, told a kid my name (they asked), got my order and ate it up. The flavors were great. The one negative is that it was tough to eat the cone part without making a mess. Still good stuff though. It was worth the wait. After that was a small stop to fill up on gas and then back home. For those keeping track, I was out of the house for about 7 hours.
- Last minute lunch plans with JW (09.16). We knew we were trying to meet up on that day, but plans had not been hammered out. It was literally an hour before we met that we finalized going to Dough Zone. Never went to the location we went to and wasn't familiar with the parking garage that the building had. As I was walking from my car through the parking lot, JW pulled up beside me and parked nearby, ha. We had a good time catching up and sharing some great food (his first time there even though I thought he had been to a location before). We talked about so much stuff (car accidents, mutuals, work, etc). The one thing I'll remember him saying at the beginning is that I looked refreshed.
That man is a wonderful friend. As I said when we left; thank you for your time and your friendship.
- 8th round of physical therapy (09.17). Every fourth visit is when I'd speak with the doctor after. Plus this was after the MRI. When I got there, they didn't have the information yet so they called them to make sure they'd get it. I brought the CD with me just in case and they also said that they would have no way to view it either, ha. I did my normal stretches, but in a different spot since someone was there before me and was using the space I regularly choose. When I was done, I was brought into a room per usual to get the machine massage. We talked about how I'd see the doctor, but she was out as she normally takes her break when I actually schedule to come in. There was a possibility that I'd see her when my time with the massage was done. When that time came, she was not there. I spoke to some of the other workers and they reiterated how she's on break and when the optimal time would be to see her if I couldn't wait. If I didn't have plans after, I would have waited longer. I scheduled my next session to be an hour earlier than normal so I could see the doctor and discuss things.
BL messaged me the night before about wanting to meet him and NE for some food at 3PM. My original plan after physical therapy was to go to GameStop to pick up an amiibo, but I would end up being maybe half an hour late. I decided to forego GameStop because in the end I'd have to fight against some traffic and school zones. So instead of being late, I was 10 minutes early. BL was waiting in his car as I walked to Lao'd District. We sat down and ordered. NE was about 10-15 minutes late. But the food was good (forgot to take a photo of the cool art). I ordered something simple as I knew I'd eat something later at night. Good catching up with the guys. I suggested going to Sweet Memes after since it was nearby and I had a coupon to use, ha. But first we walked to the Popfancy store to see the Sailor Moon themed decorations. They were really nice. Then it was short drive to Sweet Memes. I originally was going to get a drink, but went with a dessert so it cost half thanks to my coupon. The dessert I got was larger than I thought it would be, but it was great. However, it did have coffee on it. Sure, coffee was in the name, but I thought it was a flavor...not actual coffee as a topping. I realized it when I had my first bite. It wasn't bad and it didn't affect me as much as in the past, but I did scrape a lot of it off.
We spent a lot of time there just talking about random things. At some point I said "I'm feeling generous, let's go to Eve Pink and I'll buy you guys something." I don't remember what brought that on, but they were down. It wasn't far away either. We looked around for a long time and nothing was really catching our eyes. I didn't want them to get something super expensive, but I also didn't want a random blind bag/box. If they had idol specific blind bags/boxes, that would have been nice. Many minutes later, BL found the binder of cards and that was it. We each took turns seeing what was there. The only groups I would have got something from was ITZY and TWICE (no aespa unfortunately). In the end we got a Jisoo for NE, Lia for BL, and Momo for me. It was a simple gesture and I hope they appreciate it. We ended our day around 7PM.
- Met up with 3/5 members of CAB DJ to watch The Transformers Movie (09.18). I arrived first and BR arrived shortly after (he had the tickets). We were worried the DW wasn't showing up as he didn't say anything that day so I called him. He sounded like he just woke up and said that the movie was tomorrow and then seconds later walked in, ha. They each bought a beverage before we walked in. The movie had already started so we missed the opening. The movie was great. There were key moments I remembered, but there was a fair chunk I didn't recall at all. The one thing that surprised me was that the movie was going at a breakneck speed. Almost constant action with the appropriate (and sometimes not appropriate) music. And wow was the kill count higher than what I remembered. Good stuff.
Then it was a 3 minute drive to eat dinner at Urban Skillet. New for all of us. I knew what I wanted ahead of time when I initially looked up the menu online. That did not disappoint. Very flavorful and delicious. The shake was only okay (the Urban Honey was there, but was low on flavor compared to the vanilla). We spent a good couple of hours just talking (random things, life, they didn't know about the accident, etc). We called it a night around 10:30PM.
As always, good times, guys.
- I was going to add another week to the car rental (09.20). To my surprise, I couldn't. There was a message that popped up saying that the maximum time for a rental was 30 days. So I'll need to call them tomorrow to talk about it because...I still need a car.
On top of that, I wasn't feeling too great so I decided to take a nap. That lasted a good two hours and I needed it. The one thing I could remember as I was going in and out of consciousness was that my body felt heavy. Not in a bad way, but in a relaxing "don't get up" type of way.
- Called Enterprise about the rental car (09.21). They mentioned they could extend it by one more week as contracts are normally for one month. They gave me the option about ending the contract and starting a new one. When they said that, I mentioned I wouldn't know how much the insurance would cover. That's when they reminded me about something I forgot. Leaving out the details, but basically I needed to decide how much longer I would rent a car in general before as who knows how much I would be reimbursed. It comes at an odd time as even though I'd still have it to cover the rest of the events I had planned during vacation under the current contract, I obviously will need transportation when I start working again and for the rest of my physical therapy sessions. Just more to think about.
I messaged the attorney about things. They called and reiterated what was going on and what I could do. It's still a waiting game while I hold onto receipts. It's been a month so it's just frustrating that all I can still do is wait.
And since I knew how much longer I'd have the rental car for the time being, I decided to schedule a haircut appointment. I was always planning to get one right before going to work, but I was always lazy about actually setting it up. I normally go on a Monday, but I remembered she said she works on Fridays as well. I texted her to make sure and she had a couple spots available in the morning. Yay for something positive.
To top off frustrations for the day, the rain brought on brief power outage blips. Sure, these happen here and there, but what really concerned me was hearing crackling noises coming from my PC when it occurred. I immediately tried turning it back on and it was doing the analysis whenever the PC shuts down unexpectedly. About a minute into that, the power blipped again. That's when I figured to wait until the rain died down before trying again. I was incredibly worried as this was not something I needed to happen at this time. About an hour later, I tried again and it booted up properly with no issues. To be safe, I shut it down again since it was still raining. That crackling noise I heard might have just been the fan shutting off loudly for some reason.
- Went in for another physical therapy session (09.22). Had to go in an hour early (12PM instead of 1PM) to make sure I saw the doctor since I wasn't able to last time (she was on break when I normally go in). Halfway through my stretches, one of the workers said I can see the doctor whenever I was ready so I went then and there. She mentioned I didn't need to finish the rest of the stretches too. I waited as I was getting my massage. The doctor went over what the MRI found (fluid in the wrist, nothing in the elbow, and a small misalignment in the lower back). Now that my stretching sessions were done, the next rounds will be strength training. She also recommended doing chiropractic adjustments at the end of each session. The reason being that I did see a chiropractor decades ago when my back issues occurred so why not add it as it doesn't take long. The other thing she added on was to schedule doing laser or shot treatments for the pain. Shots are steroid shots so they'll be more immediate while the laser will take time. It's my choice unless said otherwise, but we shall see how those go. The session ended with my first adjustment. It wasn't bad. There was only one time where it actually hurt. She also used a massage gun to test for tenderness as well as another tool (forgot the name) that sounded like she was stapling me. I definitely felt the aftereffects of it right then and there and she warned about feeling the pain later on in the day. It was there for the first few hours and eventually was like normal by the night.
I planned to go to Teaa Byme to use my $4 off coupon before it expired. While I was in the area, I decided to check out Moshi Moshi first. Last time I was in the area, it wasn't open. It had been decades since I stepped into a Moshi Moshi in general. Lots of stuff. I was looking to get a Peanuts/Snoopy blind box. I didn't find any so I asked and the worker mentioned that those usually sell out first, darn. She double checked just in case, but they were out. I was worried I would walk out with nothing, but saw that they had Kpop cards. They had a lot in piles so I had to search from the back to see the group to make it easier. Out of what was available, the only ones I cared about were for TWICE. And since there was a buy 5 get 1 free deal (they were each $1), I figured why not. I got one Momo, Sana, Mina, and 3 group photos. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure they aren't official photocards. As soon as I touched the cards, the quality was different. Plus they were just in piles for anyone to touch rather than be protected in sleeves or a binder. I could be completely wrong, but that was my impression. I spent longer in there than I thought I would just sifting through the cards. Made my purchase and walked to Teaa Byme. I already knew what I wanted; Peachy Stawberries Fruitea. Yes, I looked at my past two purchases via emailed receipts just to make sure I tried something different, ha. This was not bad. The flavor wasn't super strong, but I wish it was a little bit stronger. But there were tons of fruit and boba to chomp on. Stayed there for only a few minutes before heading back home around 2PM.
- Started the day with a call with Fidelity (09.24). My mom has been wanting me to do investments with them. I signed up earlier in the year, but did nothing with it. However, I figured I was ready to start putting some money into it. The call appointment was at 9AM and lasted about an hour. I told them to explain things again as if this was brand new just so I had all the information needed. I had some questions that I asked, but most were answered as she went on explaining things. She asked her own set of questions to get a feel of what I was looking for and what I wanted to do. What I was comfortable investing wasn't going to meet a minimum for them to manage it. Basically, I wanted to invest, but didn't want to put in the work. My two original offers were low and would require me to do all the research, which I knew I would be bad at. She understood and said she'll allow me time to think things over and reach out in a week. A couple hours later, she did call back with some extra options that did fit my investment comfortability. It sounded really good, but I was about to leave so I didn't want to start right then and there and mentioned that I would still think about it until she reaches out in a week.
Next up was physical therapy. The first day of new exercises. However, I did not know it would be combined with the stretches I was already doing. I thought it would be replacing the stretches, but it made sense. I messaged G letting them know I'd be late by half an hour and that actually did turn out to be an extra half hour. Some of the older ones had "add weight" to it. The others were mainly yoga stretches. Some I were familiar with and have done. And of course planking was the one of the toughest, ha. One of the workers even asked if I was okay. I said I was never good at planking and they totally understood, ha. Once I was done, I was brought into the massage area. I had ultrasound done on my elbow (been a while since I had that) and the regular massage and heat on my back combined with the electrodes. During the ultrasound, I mentioned to the worker that I forgot if she was the one that said they were going to move soon (she was not). Then I mentioned how I actually don't know much about anyone, not even the main doctor's name. She mentioned everyone's name even though I am not sure who is who. I asked about ethnicities because I knew they were all Hispanic, but didn't know what specifically (mix of Salvadorian and Mexican). I mentioned how I don't mind talking to workers, but sometimes it's hard to tell if someone just wants to do their work or not, but she said not to worry. Once the whole massage procedure was done, I asked about getting an adjustment. I thought it was naturally added on, but I had to request it so I did. The doctor came in and did a different set of adjustments and said that a couple more adjustments should let us know if I need to keep doing that or not. Scheduled my next set of appointments and left around 2:30PM.
Got to G's around 3PM and headed off. First was to the barber so they could get a haircut. The second was to the post office so they could drop off a couple of packages. Then it was to the main event; Bonfire Wings. G wanted to make up for not being able to join the game show with the GGSN crew and I had a coupon for Bonfire Wings. I mentioned that and they were in. On the way, they called to ask about using my coupon for the deal we wanted; The Bayou Feast (includes 30 wings and 3 flavors, 1 order of large fries, and 4 boudin balls). It's an online order only and I called a couple of days to ask if you could order it online and dine-in (you could). G called to see if my coupon could apply because that particular deal was not showing up as an option in the app. They verified and said it wouldn't. That was okay as The Bayou Feast was already saving us on money. We got there around 5:20PM and still had to wait for about 10 more minutes for it to be done. I figured it was because the order G placed while I was driving was set for 5:30PM and they were being as close to the time as possible. I still wanted to use my coupon while I was there. That's when we realized it didn't come with drinks so that's what I spent it on, ha. Then we dug in. The flavors we got were creole spice, lemon pepper, and honey BBQ. All were good. I had my share of fries, a boudin ball, and about 9 wings (3 of each flavor) before calling it. It was a lot for a good price. We packed up the rest and headed to our next destination.
I had two coupons for The Sweet Swirl. It had been a little over a year since I last went to the one close to the second location. During that time, a new location had opened up and was 15 minutes away from where we were. Found it in an area I wasn't too familiar with, but there were a good amount of other restaurants (some still in development) there to try. I mentioned that I had been to the other location and they said they worked there, but we never crossed paths. Later on she introduced me to someone else that worked there that was doing things in the back. Never met him either. I mentioned I only saw the "kids" that worked there, ha. But I asked about using both of the coupons. She said she would do it, but it has to be separate transactions. G got a kids scoop, but the worker gave them 3 scoops in total (one extra flavor that was almost out). I used the $5 coupon on that and G only had to pay a few extra cents and tip. I double checked what I could get for the Free Item coupon and they reiterated anything. I went with what they said was their favorite and got the Chocolate Dreams (chocolate bubble waffle, midnight chocolate ice cream, soft duge brownie chunks, dark chocolate chips, gooey chocolate fudge, chocolate soft-serve swirl, house-made whipped cream, an Oreo cookie, and a drizzle of chocolate sauce). It was a lot and it was good. The tiny chocolate chips kept falling off and the ice cream was dripping out from the bottom portion of the waffle that was hanging off the cup. I ate the majority of it only leaving maybe a quarter of the bubble waffle. As we left, I mentioned how anytime I go to them, I know it's good. Just that they are far away. I mentioned where I was from and they both gasped. So they at least know people are coming from far away and that maybe opening up another location deeper into town would be a good move. We left a little after 7:30PM.
The final stop was to GameStop. G was searching for a physical copy of the new Shinobi game, which just came out out for Switch 2. It was a ways away (but most places we went were). In the end, it was actually the GameStop I regularly passed on the way to work when I went to the (what was then) the main location. The worker there was cool, very informative, and was into a lot of G's interests. They also enjoyed Shinobi. He rang up G's trade-ins and the Sonic figure they found (forgot which it was, but it was the DC crossover one they were still missing). Good shop, good worker.
Got some gas on the way back to G's. Got back to their place around 9PM. I thought we'd be back sooner, but it's all good. Lots of back and forth conversation and catching up was had.
Thanks for the quality time, G.
- Started off the day with a haircut (09.25). I had been planning to get one before going back to work, but the timing for this was good. It was nice catching up with my stylist as there were a lot of things that happened (fake match, life coach, accident, work, etc). It was also Chuseok. As I paid, she gave me some Kit-Kats (matcha). Nice little treat.
Next stop was to Boba House to use one of my remaining $5 coupons. When I first saw the coupon, I couldn't recognize where it was, but it was where I met my life coach. I went with a Pink Cloud with popping boba. Waited a few minutes for it and sat with it for a few more minutes before heading out. The drink was very flavorful and lasted a long time.
The final stop was for Oh My Gogi. I had an email code for free Street Tacos. I asked the worker if it was alongside a purchase or by itself. He said it was by itself unless I wanted anything else. It did take a while for him to get the code to work, but I'm glad he took the time to make it happen. I waited a while for my two kimchi tacos to be made before taking them to eat at home. With the tacos and the drink, everything should have been around $17. Thanks to the coupon and email code, I spent a little over $3. Yay for saving money.
Didn't do much the rest of the day. Just took it easy for the most part.
- Went to the Improv to watch Martin Amini (09.26). This was the plan for the HERetirees. Unfortunately not all of them could make it. Agent Ocean was obviously out of the country. But a few days beforehand, Agent Blue got sick. He felt better, but the day of he backed out because he wasn't that much better. I was able to find someone else to take his ticket. I put out a message to BC (originally met at the TWICE concert, brother of JC). For some reason, he was the first person I thought of. He was excited as he'd be getting off work early and had been looking at clips of Martin Amini and was wanting to go.
I arrived first around 5:30PM. I was maybe 5th in line for the preferred table section. When they finally started to let us in, a larger crowd was around the front of the door making me about 10th in line. However, everyone in front of me didn't take the front so I took the middle front table. BC joined around 6:20PM. He was surprised I got the front as he didn't want to get roasted by the comedians, ha. I thanked him for coming, we caught up, and we ate the food we ordered (I got Hamburger Sliders and Peach Lemonade). Agent PQ and Agent Majordomo arrived around 6:45PM. I brought them in and they were also surprised I got the front table. Sorry to Agent PQ, she didn't want to get heckled, but I said I would take any heat that came her way. I should have asked ahead of time, but my thinking was I thought the surprise of the front middle table would have been a good thing (I'll keep that in mind for next time). The show itself was fun. Two openers (Redneck Al and Darius) before Martin Amini came out. He did his normal stuff. Shout out to Jayden, ha. He talked directly to me a few times. The initial moment was to ask my ethnicity (he asked the others at our table minus PQ as I think he could tell she didn't want to interact). He gave me a high-five for some reason I can't remember. The second time he gave one was for dissing someone in the audience saying they have a flat booty and that's not what I like, ha. When it came time for the matchmaking portion, he chose a girl sitting at the table next to me. 3 girls, 2 were married. The single girl went up and I recall when they initially sat down that I thought she was pretty. He asked her ethnicity preferences and I wasn't one of them so he apologized to me, ha. Cheers to her for getting 7 suitors and cheers to the guy she ended up choosing because he didn't want to go up in the first place. And then cheers to the other girl that went up and chose a guy that was previously on stage and them for instantly matching. As we left, I congratulated both the guy and girl of the first match. I asked her friends if they knew she was going to pick him and they said yes because he mentioned playing video games. Wow.
Afterwards, we pondered waiting in line to meet Martin Amini, but it was too long. We went to Dave & Busters to use the free restrooms. We then walked back to the Improv to check on the line. It was all cluttered now with the influx of the next show waiting. But we did talk to Darius outside for a bit. We then asked a worker to take our group photo. Initially, I didn't plan to do anything after, but it was only 8:30PM. Agent PQ brought up a couple options that were a bit of a drive (maybe next time). But I remembered a dessert option I had for GGSN that was in the area, Churromania. Everyone was cool with it. We could have driven, but we were all cool with walking for 9 minutes. We talked about the show and other random things. The closer we got, we realized it was in the Walmart. We still weren't sure, but we went in and there it was. We took a look at what was there. BC and I decided to split a cup of ChurroBites (half caramel filling, half with no filling). Agents PQ and Majordomo got theirs and we sat down and enjoyed them. Good random talks (Philippines, vacation hopes, the accident, etc). Once we were through, we walked back to the Marque center before splitting up. BC and I were heading the same way so we passed by the Improv once more. By that time, the next show had filtered in. From the outside, we thought we saw Martin Amini at his merchandise table. BC mentioned how he wouldn't have to go on until later since there were two openers. So we went in. We showed our wristbands to the workers and they were cool with us going back into the lobby. But the merchandise table was covered and Martin Amini was gone. I went to the restroom to wash my hands...and I swear he was in there getting comfortable and ready before his set. I went out to rejoin BC and mentioned that. We waited for a couple minutes before thinking it would be odd to wait there like that. We went outside and stayed in front of the Improv to talk for a bit while checking through the windows to see if he reappeared. 10 minutes passed and he did not. Oh well. That's when we called it a night.
Thanks for the laughs, BC and half of the HERetirees.
- Went to return the car rental (09.28). We still needed a car, but the rental contract can only go up to one month. But you could re-up the contract and that was the plan. What wasn't part of the plan was the rental rates going up. It pretty much doubled...and that was hard to hear. They thankfully gave me a deal by knocking it down by at least $100, but it was still higher than I would have hoped. And this is already with me having the cheapest car available so it's not like changing cars would have helped. The contract was for a week and I said I'd re-up it if needed. They felt bad, but that's what they were told to do. When I got home, I updated my parents and the lawyer about it. Then I looked online to see if any other rental places had better prices. They did if you got zero coverage. Otherwise all that I found was around the same price, but maybe $20 less. So that's the situation we're in...
- Went for another round of physical therapy (09.29). Nothing new to the routine. But I did speak to the worker more when they brought me in for the ultrasound. Talked about our weekends (Martin Amini for me, dancing for her). After the massage, I asked about getting adjusted, but the doctor took a late lunch so I had to skip it. I asked if there was anything else they offered and she mentioned cupping. I had not had cupping done in decades. I asked if it was part of my deal and she reassured me it was so I accepted it. I never had it where they used the suction gun to set the cups in (had the fire and the glass cups). Initially it was supposed to be 10 cups, but the ones around my shoulders were hurting too much so we removed them. During the 10 minute session, one cup fell off. It hit the ground so the sound was loud. She came back to reapply it. Once it was done, I asked her to take a photo of my back after removing the cups. She pointed out that only one spot didn't show much while the rest did. When I left the room, she said to show one of the other girls there my photo. She never had cupping done so she was curious.
After that, I went to deposit a rebate check I received from my insurance company. The teller mentioned that the check was bad. It was their 7th-8th one they received within the last couple of weeks and they could not accept it. She mentioned to call my insurance company and not the number on the check to make sure about it. Went home and called my insurance. They assured me that it was real. I even checked online to see if it was a scam and signs pointed to that it was not a scam. I called my bank and mentioned being declined and calling my insurance. They were very surprised that out of all the bad ones that mine would actually be legit. They cautioned very hard to not cash it because of the repercussions for myself and for the bank. I was...thrown off by that because they reiterated how people get scammed, they kept asking if I actually called my actual insurance company, etc. After that call, I called my insurance one more time. Got a different person and they also assured me that the check was real. They said to try depositing it at another bank and if no one else accepted it to call them back. This bothered me because...I got a rebate check last year. I checked on that blog entry and there was no mention of any issues. But I plan to try with two more banks tomorrow. If neither accepts it, I will call my insurance again.
- Went to the movies to watch Forgotten Island (09.30). It only released a few days prior, but I only knew of it between then and when I watched. All I knew was that it had Filipino culture in it and I was sold, ha. Originally I was thinking I should end the month by watching the new Resident Evil movie, but once I knew about this, Resident Evil got bumped. It was showing in two areas in the theatre I chose, but went with the cheaper showing. It was earlier in the day and had less people in it. Reserved my ticket online.
I was first in the theatre. The other two people showed up right when trailers started. The movie itself was very good. The pace was fairly fast throughout. I will say I enjoyed the beginning the most as that's where all the culture stuff was mainly in. The rest of the movie was silly. There were a few emotional scenes I teared up for (some making me think of things). But I definitely enjoyed watching it and was glad I went out of my way to do it. Tayo na!
Next was dessert at Heaven In A Jar. This was one of the first dessert places I added to my food/dessert list. It was 10 minutes away from the theatre. I looked at the menu ahead of time and had two options. I was either going to get a jar (Cookies 'N Reese's) or a shake (Kit-Kat Ice Cream). Ultimately I chose the jar since that is their staple. The flavor I wanted only had the smaller jar (8oz), but that was fine. I took a few minutes to eat some of it (very good) before heading out.
Last stop, the bank. Continuing from the rebate check story from the day before, I chose two locations that were along the way home. I figured if those two didn't accept it, that's three strikes if you include the day before. This one was about 7 minutes away. A smaller one than what I was used to seeing. Sent my stuff through the shoot, waited as the teller said they were tending to a few people ahead of me, and...success. No issues, no extra dialogue needed. I did bring my letter from the insurance company just in case, but the teller was able to deposit the check, yay. Good way to end the day and month.
https://www.threads.com/@wingedvox/post/Dd7d0oLiCLr
- Rest In Peace, Pac/Neville/Ben (09.30)
https://youtu.be/z9xRLJ6OV0U?si=8gm-a6SOxTVXyCte
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continues. 25 this month. 10 ups, 10 sideways, 5 downs. Standouts include FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE (pre-ordered), Sniper Dan, Ducks In Disguise (almost instantly downloaded to add to this month's theme), and Well Dweller.
3 demos left on deck to try.
- Continuing the tradition of playing Best Friend Forever (09.01). This time it was to romance Anders and pick the raccoon (Anders wouldn't have noticed). Interesting storyline. But the main thing was that he was the last person to romance. I loaded up my Astrid playthrough hoping I would simply get to see her final image...but it didn't happen. When I played her path years ago, the update for the image endings weren't available. So I had to play through her again. However, even with a previous save proving I had played her path, I couldn't skip any of her dialogue. It was almost as if I was romancing Astrid for the first time. Anyways, it didn't take long to go through it all again to get her ending image.
And with that, the 6 year journey of playing this game is over. It was fun to come back to every year. I don't know if I could do that for any other game although one comes to mind. We shall see if I'm feeling up for doing that or coming up with a new yearly game tradition.
- Picked up my Chef Kawasaki amiibo (09.03). Went straight there after physical therapy. Waited in line and then was greeted. In a rare instance, I brought in some things to trade-in. One was my copy of Captain Tsubasa. I bought it on sale for $20 on Amazon...and it kept getting pushed back on the gaming schedule that I never played it in 5 years. It was on the schedule for 2027, but it's usually the first thing that gets pushed back if anything else takes priority. Figured to cut my losses and at least get $10 back. I also brought in my set of red JoyCon. I have not used any of the NS1 JoyCon since moving to the NS2. I realized they were just going to continue collecting dust. Not only that, but over the last few years of stream when I used them they had a severe case of drift. I looked at the prices online and it was low...but better than nothing for a defective product. Got about $6 for each one and 50 cents per JoyCon strap. I plan to bring in my blue JoyCon for next time. After that I'll have my original grey, the white for the OLED, and the Skyward Sword JoyCon. More than enough where back then I liked thinking I have enough if I ever had enough people over to play multiplayer.
- Finished Star Fox (09.03-09.05). Right from the top, this game is absolutely gorgeous. No denying that. Since it's a remake of Star Fox 64, stages and enemy layouts felt familiar. However it felt tougher. It's either that or my reflexes are dwindling. I did a total of 4 run throughs. Started with the hard path and easy path (09.03), the medium path (09.04), and wrapped up playing the hard path again to get the only level I missed which was Sector Z (09.05). I did have to look up a few things to recall how to get to certain areas. This also meant I did not go through every path possible as a few stages have alternate routes. The reason I didn't try is because I knew of the challenges in Challenge Mode. While some seem doable, my skills made me realize there was no way I'd be able to do them all. Heck, I didn't even earn any medals until my final run and I only got two of them. But I was also playing in Normal mode. Anything higher would have been too much as some challenges are only unlocked via Hard mode. I didn't touch multiplayer and some unlockables are achieved that way. I got what I needed out of it; nostalgia with a fresh coat of paint. Those extra cutscenes to flesh out the story was awesome and hearing them in different languages was a plus. Shout out to the camera mode where you can become a V-tuber, ha. It works really well.
- Faaast Penguin was the free-to-play game of the month (09.06). It reminded me of Tray Racers in that it was a downhill racer. It functions fine and the sense of speed was good, but then it was like any other free-to-play game with purchases with in-game or real currency. There was also a mountain climber game that was similar to other "climb the mountain" games that are cropping up more lately. That was good too, but would have been better with more players. 1 race and 1 mountain climb and I was done.
- Donkey Kong Land was the first of three Gameboy Nintendo Classics games of the month (09.06). Never played the Donkey Kong Land games, but knew they existed. It's very impressive to see how they squeezed as much of the SNES game into a Gameboy. Levels were familiar and it played similarly to its predecessor. But it lacked mechanically. There were quite a few times I felt deaths were not my fault.
Playing through it, I ended up with over 80% of collectibles. Before the final boss fight, I looked up a video and went back to get everything else and ended up completing the game. Not a bad way to spend 2-3 hours, but the SNES version is far superior.
- Donkey Kong Land 2 was the second of three Gameboy Nintendo Classics games of the month (09.07). Definitely played better than the first game. Again, it's impressive with how they fit this into a Gameboy game. My major gripe was not knowing the animal buddies having an extra ability tied to the Select button. The only reason I knew something was missing was because I knew the spider was able to create platforms, but I couldn't make it happen. I had to look it up once I reached a level where it was necessary. And then later mapped that to the Y button to make it easier.
While it was good, something wasn't clicking with me. It might have been that there were more collectibles and not knowing how much I had obtained percentage-wise because you could only see that when you save the game, which was only free the first you reached a new Kong Kollege. So I was just running through levels and finding what I could along the way. By that time, I had spent as much time as I did with the first game and was okay with beating it there and not doing more. A good game though.
- The Legend of Zelda Direct was amazing (09.08). We got the movie date, we got a concert date (yay, there's one happening next year in town), and we got the game release date. A lot of other things got announced such as the 40th Anniversary Switch 2, Pro Controller, and carrying case. I'm hoping to get a Pro Controller and the carrying case (might put that on my wish list). If they Joycon were sold separately, I'd be highly tempted to get them. I preordered the game and the two amiibo the next day.
The game itself looks stunning. So many details in everything. It all seemed familiar, but new. All the gimmicky stuff with the microphone is neat and I'll give them a try. The voice acting is good although I'm wondering if they'll offer extra languages. Having the ability to jump and dash without a stamina wheel is going to be so good.
Originally I had the game slotted for December since it was supposed to come out this year, but the release date wasn't known then. With it being November 5th, I bumped it up (originally was going to play Final Fantasy Resonance and that is now moved to January). November has always been a Zelda month for me for some reason so I figured why not let that be the case again. I'm willing to let that be the only game I play that month if need be. No word on extras added to the game, but if it's going to be the same adventure, I'm ready to do it all.
- Donkey Kong Land III was the third of three Gameboy Nintendo Classics games of the month (09.08). More of the same from Donkey Kong Land 2. This one went by faster though. But on the main map, I saw my character travel to a new area and the credits rolled. And at the end there was a "The End?" and I knew there was more. There was a message from K. Rool that said I didn't have enough DK coins to enter the new area. I looked up how many I needed and I had half. Found a nice video walkthrough to make finding them easier along with being able to leave a stage as soon as I found it. I got all of them...but the number didn't match. There were some DK coins to be won in the card matching game in the shops. I didn't know there was a card matching game in the shop as they never talked about it whenever I went into one. I did the card matching games and then I saw that the full section/area was marked as completed so I knew we were on the right track. And then I got to one of the later shops and I didn't have enough Bonus coins. 45 were needed and I needed about 5. I looked up how to get those and it would be by finding all the B Barrels for Bonus stages. Beat enough of them and get the next one for 45 Bonus coins and beating the card matching game. And then the last shop asked for 60 Bonus coins and I was done. All the work I did from making credits roll was an additional hour already and now I'm basically having to do everything in the game anyways. I didn't want to do that. I just wanted to play the extra levels. Didn't know they were locked behind strict requirements. Had I done better research or if the game had relayed the information better (or at all), I would have prepped myself for it. I was done. That last hour and the lack of communication to the player made me not like the game.
- The next day was a proper Nintendo Direct (09.09). Below were the notes I typed for things that stood out to me.
- FINAL FANTASY REVELATION (04.08.27)
- Star Fox (free update, 09.29)
- Star Fox Adventures (GC NC, later today)
- Kirby Air Riders amiibo (Sword Kirby, Noir Dedede, 11.12)
- Resident Evil 2, 3, 4 (10.16)
- Metroid Ravenous (amiibo and game 01.28.27)
- Mario Kart World (free update later today)
- Mega Man Dual Override (amiibo, Spring 2027)
- Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World (demo available today)
- Switch 2 versions (Crisis Core - later today, Age of Calamity (discount - 02.25.27)
In the end, the biggest things for me were all the amiibo (7 announced, 9 total if you count the Zelda Direct), Star Fox Adventures being available for the GameCube Nintendo Classics (added it to this month's schedule, bumped other games out to make time for it), and Metroid Ravenous (scheduled for February). The Ravenous SKUs were not available when I went to GameStop and pre ordered the Zelda things. And since there seems to be more scarcity with some of the latest announced items, I decided to preorder the Metroid Ravenous Special Edition from Best Buy since it was still up. While I had to pay for it all, Best Buy is very good at refunds for preorders so I'm not worried about it if I'm able to reserve it elsewhere. Just wanted to secure this since it comes with an amiibo.
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong was the GBA NC game of the month (09.09). I'm pretty sure I never played the game before, but it felt familiar. I might be thinking of the Switch version that had a demo (played two years ago). But this game is really good. Fast and snappy with excellent controls. The challenge was fair, but began to ramp up as you progressed. At a certain point, I knew I wasn't going to do the additional levels post-game. Even then, I was satisfied with what I played. I had no major hiccups, progression was smooth (one set of levels every half hour with a short break taken in between), and I only had to look up a video for less than 5 stages. Quite enjoyable.
- EA Sports Madden NFL 27 was the latest Game Trial (09.10). Not much to say about it as it played just like the 26 version (literally copied and pasted my posts on social media).
- Donkey Kong Jr. Math was the extra NES NC game of the month (09.11). I knew ahead of time there wasn't much to this game. I double checked online to be sure. No ending, no credits. You keep playing until you're done. I figured to at least go through everything once. Calculate A once through, Calculate B once through, and Math Exercise all the way through. That took about half an hour and that's all. It's fine for what it is, but definitely play against someone else to have some fun with it.
- Crush Crush is now 100% completed (09.11). I've been on the final run for a while working towards getting the final ending. It wasn't the actual last thing you have to do, but I had done it so that sacrificing myself would be the last achievement that needed to be attained. But of course, I wanted to make sure all the girls had their wants met one last time, which meant sinking in time to earn the daily diamond/s. And I knew it was getting close to the end, I just wasn't timing it for any specific time or day. Once I realized I needed to earn one more diamond, I figured I would not wait until the next day, but actually wait out the hour and wrap it up. Got the diamond, finished the last few things needs of the girls, unlocked the final one again, and then chose the ending where I sacrificed myself and got the true ending. Once that was done and the game reset itself, I looked to make sure the achievement was accepted, looked at my character's profile, turned off the game, and archived it once and for all. And then I deleted the Crush Crush alert I had on my phone for 3 years, ha. It's done. Started it on stream 872 on 02.10.23 and the game was playing idly for 4655 hours. Thanks for the memories, Crush Crush.
- Star Fox Adventures was the extra GameCube NC game of the month (09.11-09.14). It was announced in the latest Nintendo Direct a few days ago and I figured to add it to the schedule to fit with the theme of the month (figured out it yet). Plus after playing Star Fox earlier in the month, it seemed like an appropriate time to knock it out. And knock it out I did.
It's...okay. I knew ahead of time about the criticisms the game has. I have my own. It's a 3D Zelda clone and it's not a good one. The story was very bland (can definitely see how they shoved Star Fox stuff into it). The subtitles were way off sync and not just a few times, almost all the time. The Arwing sections were not great and they were short. After playing the Switch 2 Star Fox, this was very much lacking. It also took a bit for me to get used to the controls. I got lost a lot and used a guide any time I spent too much time wandering around. And the combat was bad. Enter combat mode and hit the A button over and over until the enemy is defeated. Plus they never taught you about the block button (if they did, I missed it). I didn't realize it was a thing until the latter half of the game. I eventually got into a groove of making progress and checking the guide to not waste too much time. But the last negative was I didn't know there was a point of no return. That wouldn't have been so bad had I not seen my final game percentage being 94%. I really considered going back to do it since I knew where two things would have been (one cheat token and one side quest), but since you can't go back, that was it. It's not a good Zelda game and it's definitely not a good Star Fox game. They tried. It's not horrible, but I'd rate it a 2 out of 5 (3 at most).
- The Toree games were originally on the schedule...and then removed after Star Fox Adventures was released on NC...and then added back on since that went by faster than anticipated. Toree 3D is the first of the series (09.15). It's only $1, but I spent part of my remainder of Gold Coins to make it free. It's a simple 3D platformer. It has a good sense of speed, and the levels are very well designed. It offers enough of a challenge while feeling accessible. And there were 8 main levels and 4 extra levels so the total playtime was under an hour. There were stages that were tough to traverse and there was only one level that I missed 3 stars along the way and had to redo the stage with the secret character I unlocked. Those extra stages took the longest where each run was close to 10 minutes. While the only other thing to do was unlock the last extra character, there was no way I was going to be able to achieve a higher rank (I got all C ranks). I was satisfied with collecting all the stars in this short and sweet game.
- Toree 2 was a good sequel (09.16). Everything good about Toree 3D is still there. Minus the Bonus stages, all the other stages seemed shorter. There was only one time I missed stars, but I found them shortly after when retrying the stage. And there was a boss fight at the end, that surprised me. Very unique and took me a good chunk of tries to defeat. I was fine with just doing what I did for the first game, but then I learned there were hidden CDs in each level (minus the Bonus levels). Found a guide online, used the infinite jump character I got from getting all the stars, and took a few extra minutes to grab all of those and unlocking another character. Then I was done. I prefer this one over the first game, but they're both good for the value of $1.
- Toree Panic Pack was next up (09.17-09.18). This is a compilation of 3 different Toree games. First was Toree Genesis. It was only 3 levels and they weren't the toughest or easiest. Just a simple set of stages to run through. Next was Toree Jumbled Jam 2. The difficulty ramped up. 3 stages were from Toree Genesis and those were already marked off so I didn't have to play them again. The rest were large stages that required different sets of tasks to do such as collecting all the lightbulbs and placing them all in their spots. The number of stars to collect were usually vast and I did not collect them all (first time in all the Toree games). And like I said, the difficulty ramped up. This took the longest to do over the span of two days. Last was Toree Missions...the biggest challenges of them all. Any and all skills were necessary. 4 sets of 6 stages that unlock as you beat the previous one. Alongside Jumbled Jam 2, this took even longer. Some stages had you collect stars, some had you get to the goal while being chased, some had you defeat all the enemies, etc. Some levels took me a good hour to beat even after looking up how. I got the fourth stage of the last row of levels meaning I did not beat 3. In the end, I beat 2 out of 3 games in the Toree Panic Pack.
- Picked up my Mineru's Construct amiibo (09.18). The staff said it was in a box they had not opened yet so I had to wait for a few minutes while they found it. I mentioned I had another set of Joycon to trade in and they joked that they don't take them despite me trading the previous set earlier in the month, ha. They also knew what to suggest for me to preorder as they now know I'm the amiibo guy. Not all know I'm a Nintendo guy so when I preordered Final Fantasy Resonance and Final Fantasy VII Revelation, they still asked which system. Originally I was only going to preorder Resonance, but they asked if I was going to get the Deluxe Edition because they knew they were limited on how many they would receive. Cheers to them for informing me about that.
- Toree Saturn was the last Toree game (on Switch) (09.19). This was the reason I bought any of the Toree games. I enjoyed the demo back when I played it on 10.03.25. This was the most refined Toree game to date. Everything felt better and there was a ground pound into a roll boost move they added. There was a story to follow which was very Sonic Adventure 2 inspired. There were plenty of Sega (and other games) references all around. They did take out needing to collect all the stars per stage and had 3 ice creams to find and a few mini-game collectibles hidden. I did my best to unlock the extra characters (only missed one because you needed at least A rank in all stages) and stages (could not reach the area to unlock it). And I did have to look up how to get 6500 points in the skateboarding mini-game and that took the majority of my gameplay time in it. Great way to wrap up all these Toree games.
- Royal Vermin was an extra free-to-play game of the month (09.20). A simple 2D platform fighter game where you grab items and toss them at the other players. This is only local play for 2-4 players. No solo, no online. I had to sync a second control and spend the time to see it play through at least one set of games. That didn't take long either. After that, I was done. It's not horrible, but there's not much you can do by yourself.
- Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution completed (09.21-09.22, 09.23). I had been looking forward to this one for a while. I did my best not to spoil anything to the point I didn't know there was a Classic Mode. So I decided to play that way first and that took a couple of days with using a guide at the end to do clean up. Not bad. I figured out a way to get easy money early on so I didn't have to worry about not being able to afford all the power ups. The big hang up was not remembering what shifts when you hit revolution switches (especially with one stage in particular). Then I played it once more in Story/Modern Mode. The exact same game with the HD images and UI. I was able to finish that run a couple hours faster.
The game itself was good. It's probably the easiest Shantae game. It also didn't have a final area where all your skills are put to the test like previous games. The humor was excellent as always with a few jabs at themselves, ha. I enjoyed my time with this one.
- Banjo-Tooie was an Extra N64 NC game for the month (09.25-09.28). This was a last mintue addition as I thought Shantae would last longer. If I didn't add this, there would be a week of no games and needing to figure out how to occupy my final vacation days. It was either this game or Donkey Kong 64. I went with Banjo-Tooie for two reasons. One; I was at least familiar with the world of Banjo-Kazooie while I've never touched Donkey Kong 64. Two; I played the first game on stream about 4 years ago.
The game was...okay. Unfortunately I needed to start using a video guide within the first hour. It was because the areas are large. I knew that ahead of time, but didn't realize the scope of it. There was a lot of going back and forth in these large areas, tasks seemed long and drawn out for almost every Jiggy (and other collectibles), there were so many moves you learned throughout the game, things felt formulaic (a first-person area, a different transformation needed, etc), I thought the humor was okay (but it got old fast), and...I wasn't having that much fun.
That really sunk in on two different parts. One was trying to find a character's missing kids. If I didn't look it up, I wouldn't have known that was RNG. I was trying to find the last one. I checked online for the spots and I couldn't find them. After about an hour, I decided to just check one of the spots that another kid would be...and THAT kid was still there. I swear before leaving the area, that was the second kid I found. The reason I came back to that area was because I was missing the ability to get the third. And since I thought I was missing the first one I found, that's who I was looking for...when it was the second one I needed. The other instance was trying to clean the clothes of six characters. The first one listed in the guide was the one I couldn't get to. A door was closed stopping me from reaching them. I looked up multiple guides (text and video) and none mention how to open the door. It happened along the way for almost all of them and no one ever talked about the door being closed (all videos had the door open). Both of these instances were about an hour each of trying to figure things out with one not getting done.
I'm glad that early on I looked up what was minimum needed to beat the game. At least I had a goal to work towards. Once I got my 70th Jiggy, I went straight to the final area. The last few sequences were unexpected, but I was glad to be done once the final scenes happened. It's not that the game is bad, but I wished it was smaller and not so drawn out. The first Banjo game was big in itself, but felt fine. I could remember areas, there wasn't too much back-tracking, and it felt fun. Banjo-Tooie...I could see why some would like it, but it's not for me.
- BUBSY in: Claws Encountered of the Furred Kind was the Extra SNES NC game of the month (09.29). It really was added last minute, ha. I kept thinking about if I could knock it out in a day. I double checked to see what the requirements were to finish the game and it was to beat all 16 levels and that's it. Nothing seemed to be available in terms of having to collect things other than for a higher score. I hesitated as I have played this game before. Rented it when I was younger. Back then I knew it wasn't that good. That opinion remains the same.
Two things; the controls and how easy you can die. The controls just don't feel good. Sometimes it felt like I was fighting it to go in certain directions. Other times it was the speed; either too slow or too fast. And going to fast is an easy way to die as you can run into an enemy, obstacle, trap, etc. With so many ways to die in one hit, it makes exploring not worth it (on top of no real reason to explore other than a higher score). Then the ending was very short and lackluster. Oh well. I knew going in it wasn't good and it wasn't good coming out of it. No big deal as it wasn't too stressful to run through.
- And in case you couldn't tell what the theme was this month, it was games with animals; Zoo-tember 2026. The only exception was the Game Trial of Madden (but I could say some teams have animals). Crush Crush just happened to happen (there were animals you could date). The main games scheduled were the Toree games and Shantae so I needed to find a way to tie them together and find other games to fill in the slots. Even though I wanted Shantae to be the last game of the month, Banjo-Tooie was a good bookend as it was the last themed game played for Zoo-tember 2022 (before the anniversary stream...and I typed this a day before I added Bubsy, ha). This is probably the record for most games played (22 if you count Shantae twice) and most games beaten (18 if you count Shantae twice) in one month.
WORK=========================
- I was sent a couple of Discord invites for work (09.02). I didn't join them until a few days later as I didn't want to have to worry about anything work-wise. One was specifically for the location I'll be at. The other is for all the locations under these owners. Thankfully there isn't a lot in terms of channels in each. The big one has a lot of automated things that are interesting. But both seem lowkey for the most part. I introduced myself and that's it. Cheers to those that replied.
- Went to play a game at the new work location (09.02). The only one I had not played that they have was Narco (yes, I'm saying the room names from now on to make it easier to describe). If I didn't mention this earlier in the entry, this was my first time playing with the HeXagon crew. I knew how some of them were when they played Saving Santa at the old location at the beginning of the year. It was NE's first time and I knew HD really enjoyed escape rooms in general. HD and NRM were the strongest players. Everyone else were filling in roles and helping solve puzzles here and there. I was definitely playing up the support role by handing things to those that needed them, shining things with a flashlight, writing things down, relaying hints, etc.
The room itself was pretty good. There was only one prop that wasn't working (we asked afterwards about it, but they had put something else in play to compensate). We needed hints here and there to help push us as we were figuring out some tough puzzles, but didn't know what we were missing. I had heard that the game doesn't sell well...and I think I get it, but I still thought it was fun. The biggest thing I found lacking was the ending when you get to make a choice. I wanted something to happen and it was only a moral decision that stopped the timer. Other than that, we had a great time.
Before everything, J was there to greet us. Wasn't sure if he was going to be there, but I'm glad he was so I at least knew a familiar face. I was introduced to I who was our Game Host and D who was our Game Master. They all said we did well and remarked that I found an unlocked cabinet that most usually miss (yay Explorer skills). Afterwards, I met M who was resetting our room. He was new too as he had only been there a few days, but came from another escape room business. I thanked everyone that I met, gave J a hug, and then left to continue the night.
- Decided to check in on the old location's reviews. After one week of me not being there, they received 9 reviews. I haven't checked in on anything else such as how busy they may have been. It is the slow season in general and I don't know how many bookings they've actually had, but I was still surprised seeing the number of reviews they've gained since then.
- Back to work next week.
ETC=========================
- Tiffany Young - Lovers (feat. (JUNNY) & Moment Live Clip
- I rewatched a few episodes of Running Man this month. Shout out to the Hearts2Hearts videos where they did a super power name tag episode. Those got me in the mood. I picked a few specific ones and then some brought me on to others (SNSD, Byul, various guests from girl groups, ddakji, 7012, etc). Good times.
- Vacation over.
That's a wrap on September 2026. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
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