August 2021 Entry
August...felt off.
MISC=========================
- For the first time, I accidentally skipped a stretching session in Ring Fit (08.02). Nothing bad happens from it. I'll just remember forever and ever now, ha.
- Ordered a batch of Cracker Jack boxes for a snack (08.03). I can't remember the last time I had it for a snack. It's still good. The only downside was that 2 boxes had them all melted together so it wasn't easy to eat.
- Here's where I describe something vague that happened between myself and my parents (08.05). Not to get into the details, but one yelled at me for not doing something that I've explained for years we don't need to do and then the other yelled at me for not standing up for myself even though they didn't know I had been for years. Was it a minor thing? Yes, but it is unnecessary to do. In the end, to keep the peace, I'll have to cave in when they continuously ask for me to do this thing.
- My car is now making a horrible buzzing noise when you use the power locks (08.08). I looked up what it was as others pointed out what it was. I'm actually surprised we haven't fixed it yet. It still shocks me every time the sound goes off.
- Batman: The Long Halloween Part Two was good (08.10, 08.15). I think I preferred the first one more. This one was more of waiting for the reveal to finally happen. The Blue Beetle short was amazing.
- Reached posting 100 clips on Instagram (08.14). Shout to the DELTARUNE and FFIX clips for getting over a hundred views each.
- And the car is paid off (08.16). Honestly forgot what year model the car was and how long I have been paying, but it's a 2015 model. So that long, ha.
- Round 17 of movies is in the books. My favorites were Burlesque, The Adventurers, and The Wrestler (which I saw in the theatres). I did hesitate on doing Round 18 as I had an idea to do something different, but that'll happen for Round 20 in November.
WRESTLING=====================
- It's clobberin' time! CM Punk has returned to the world of wrestling in AEW (08.20). The rumors were always there and it seemed obvious that it was going to happen, but I wasn't going to believe until I saw it with my own eyes. And wow, that reception was amazing. Welcome back.
- Summerslam was insane (08.21). Fun matches and awesome returns.
- NXT TakeOver 36 was of course great like every TakeOver is (08.22).
H.E.R.========================
- So here's a recent story. Myself and Agent Ocean set up a meeting with the realtor for our last location we had (08.05). Prior to that, he and I spoke of seeing if it was doable to take that space back. Our sign was still there and it was still for rent. I went on a random day to get the phone number of the realtor to make sure and then called a few days later to set up the meeting. They had tried offering to see the other spaces in that area, but I let them know I wanted to see that specific spot.
Fast forward to the actual day, we met with someone else that I was not in contact with. He was at one of the different spots, but met us at the escape room location. At this point we had not mentioned what business we were going to bring nor that we worked there before. As we were being shown around the escape room space, he asked what we were going to do and I said a content creator space (streaming, videos, music, etc). But we saw how much was gone. The realtor explained that they had to remove a lot of the props because other people that viewed the space kept playing with them, ha. But yeah...so much was gone.
The realtor showed us the other spaces which were actually very nice. Of course the price varied due to the sizes, but they were all in that same area that we could walk to them. We asked to see the escape room space again. As we went through the rooms again, we started messing with a few of the props that were still there and "solved" one of them to his amazement. It was at that time that Agent Ocean and I were whispering about whether we should say who we are. The realtor was checking on things while we were looking around and we asked him to join us in what was Dark Side of the Moon.
That's where we told him that we used to work at HER. Agent Ocean being the manager of that location and me being Personnel Manager at the other one, but I was moved to that location. He was shocked. We pointed out how the wiring and how any of the remaining parts of the room functioned since he and another worker didn't know how to get things to work. We then told him how we wanted to see how the place looked to see what was left to work with. We shared a few stories of how we kept hoping we'd be able to come back, how much we loved the job, our time with the company, interacting with customers, and ultimately how sad we were that we didn't get a proper end. He was moved. We asked if any other businesses had ever ended and if they tried returning, which he did so it wasn't an impossible scenario. He said he would relay what he said to his superior and that we'd move forward with the conversation with all involved via email.
Agent Ocean and I talked for a bit afterwards and made a small game plan such as what rooms we would keep and bring back and what props we'd need to buy etc. Then we split. Earlier in the day, I felt very anxious with the pretense that the dream could end this day. Not only that, it rained really hard on my way there. But we left that meeting feeling really good and thinking we had a chance.
Not to get too much into the rest of the details, but the emails were...not great. It mainly came down to rent and what they wanted was too high and what we offered was not responded to. We got ghosted, which is incredibly unprofessional of them especially since we had worked with them prior. So...the dream is on pause. I say that because I do want to try one final time in the beginning of 2022.
GAMES=========================
- One last round with Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle with Warriors of Fate (08.01). That was an interesting one with the multiple endings. Definitely enjoyed playing all of them. Some stood out more, but it's hard not to have fun with a fun beat 'em up.
- Demo Showcase 70 (08.03)
- Clu Clu Land was our NES game of the month (08.04). It's not great, but I only chose to play it because the SNES game of the month also starts with "CL" and that's it, ha. I also didn't use an ability that was introduced in the demo roll of the game, ha.
- Picked up a physical copy of WHAT THE GOLF? (08.04). It was a favorite from Demo Showcase 68 in July. Always prefer physical copies if they're available. It is currently scheduled to play in December.
- New Zelda stuff (08.06).
- My international copy of Naruhodo Legends Collection arrived (08.06). I still find it odd that I didn't choose to play The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles right away and that I still don't know when I want to play it. Maybe early 2022.
- Spellbreak was our free-to-play game of the month (08.07). I knew what it was prior so I knew what I was getting into. Best match was actually the first one where I had my most kills. However, the highlight was from a new follower who offered a challenge, which was $10 per kill. I took them up on the offer, but thought they meant for one match. They actually accumulated all my kills for about half an hour, which was about 10. And they lived up to their word and made the donation. I double checked to make sure it was real and it was. Definitely won't forget that.
- New Metroid shirts (08.10). Not only were they great designs, but I wanted to make sure I had enough different Metroid shirts for when we play Dread.
- Agent A: A puzzle in disguise was a good game (08.09). It was a favorite from Demo Showcase 62 in May. I wanted to specifically play it on this day because it was my first day of training at HER. While I really enjoyed the game, my mood might not have reflected it about halfway through. That was due to one puzzle in chapter 3 that involved setting lights in a certain pattern. The thing is I had placed the pieces in as I was finding them and it would only show the reverse of the pattern I made rather than the one I needed to create. And I couldn't remove the pieces. I looked at multiple videos online and saw everyone was getting the same answer and thought that might have been for the mobile version only. But after about half an hour of trying, I just tried that answer and it worked. I double checked the VOD after to see if that actual pattern ever showed up for me and if I might have missed. It didn't. So that time wasted on the last puzzle I needed to do for that chapter soured my mood for the rest of the stream. It's a well put-together game and I highly recommend it. Try the demo if you want to find out if it's for you.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle was great to replay (08.11-08.13). It wasn't my favorite of the series back then, but I have a better appreciation of it now. The third stream was mainly only the BJ5 game to unlock the last difficulty and earning money to buy the rest of the clothes (don't know where the 1 shirt I was missing was). Unfortunately other collectibles are missable so it wouldn't have been 100% regardless. Again, my appreciation for this game is more positive now.
- Classic Games Collection Vol. 1 was okay (08.15). Went through all 5 games fast against the computer. Thankfully there were a few people in chat that could play tic-tac-toe against me, ha.
- Solitaire Deluxe Bundle - 3 in 1 (Freecell, Klondike, Spider) was free from an ownership discount as well (08.16). I said this on stream; Freecell can go to hell, Klondike I like, and Spider I like her. Plus, I was very surprised with the turnout for solitaire, ha. Thank you to everyone that showed up and helped out at times.
- Free-to-play game of the month was RPG Maker MV Player (08.18). And wow, that was memorable, ha. Tried 10 user generated RPGs and they ranged from pretty good to not finished to what the heck. The most memorable had to be Cars 4...based on the movie Cars...and it was...bad, ha.
- Demo Showcase 71 had one developer show up (08.19). It was for the last demo; Regina & Mac. It was a 3D platformer, but pretty basic. It functioned and it caught the interest of others in chat. While it wasn't my favorite of the batch, I do have it for a possible community channel thing in the future.
- The second community challenge goal unlocked a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe stream (08.21). Lots of people were excited for it. I also went out of my way to contact others that haven't been in the streams for a while. Also had Discord vote on what day to play. Then the day before it, I was retweeting the images from the Mario Kart 8 Twitter contest I won where I got flags, a spiny shell trophy and a 3D print of my Mii on a kart.
The turnout was a little lackluster. While some people showed up and I met a few new people, a large number of those that said they would be there didn't show up. The one thing I was worried about was the lack of viewers being involved. I did think of things to do when no one was around (200cc, ghosts, driving with the ring-con). Unfortunately my camera froze for the first time with this camera and I didn't realize for a while. Thankfully it was just for the last 90 minutes, which did end with a great group of friends to race against. Thank you to all that chipped in points toward the community challenge and super thanks to those that showed up to play.
- Grimvalor was a favorite from Demo Showcase 57 back in February (08.23-08.24). I really like it. Fast combat, customizable stat building, and it's overall fast-paced. It made going back to 100% all the maps smooth. We almost 100% the entire game, but the last 2 things I was missing were weapons that needed to be bought with certain shards that would just require hours of beating up random enemies to earn. It would have been nice, but I was very satisfied with what I got out of it.
- Akuto Showdown (08.26)
- Got my copy of No More Heroes III (08.27). Until I played it in September, I tried my best to avoid any and all spoilers. And of course stayed out of a few streams that played it. Was it worth the wait?
- We played Infini during a Demo Showcase, but we already owned the game for free due to an ownership discount. It was only a matter of time until we played it (08.28). Even though I knew it was odd with some very creative puzzles, it was still full of surprises and got even stranger, ha. Didn't beat it, but did enough.
- Claymates was our SNES game of the month (08.30). It was part of the last batch of new SNES games on NSO that were all odd. This was recommended to me by G saying it's pretty decent. When he showed up in the stream though "oh, this doesn't hold up so much," ha. It was an odd one for sure. Cool clay things, but there could have been more of that. Cut out the in between level puzzle sequences and refine the stages and clay forms. You can pass on this one.
ETC=========================
- HYO - Second (MV)
Such a fun song. I learned the chorus of the dance. And HyoYeon looked great in the music video. Hard to not like things my favorite SNSD member does.
- Red Velvet - Queendom (MV)
Queendom is a good song. It's not my favorite out of their main songs, but I was just excited to have new music from all five members.
- Jessica - Can't Sleep
- I started having arm pain. Specifically in my right arm. I don't remember the exact date I started getting them, but I might have hyperextended it with my poor posture sitting at my desk. I do know it made it tougher to do things, but oddly it hurt more when at rest. I would take pain medicine, massage it, and not be active with it and the pain would come and go like every other day. But one night, I remember tossing and turning and really feeling like I pulled something as the pain kept me awake all night. Around this time I skipped my first scheduled session of Ring Fit (08.22). Did that for a few more days and also stopped my nightly push-ups. It has persisted into September, but has been better as I've been doing Ring Fit again. As of typing this (09.16), the arm pain has gone down a lot. The inflammations are completely gone and normal motions and actions aren't accompanied by pain. There is still some minor pain so I'm still being careful with it, but it's definitely way more manageable from when it initially started.
- That's a wrap on August 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
