Half of the year 2012 is over. Originally I was going to post a half year retrospective
on how I think things have been going, but it would have turned out very
negative. No need for that.
=====06.02.12=====
A few friends and I went to Austin to take part in an open casting call
for extras in the upcoming movie "Machete Killing." The line was very
long outside and we were there around 10 in the morning. 2 and half hours
outside in the heat...and only 5 minutes inside the building. We just filled
out forms and they took headshots of us and explained a few things. A cool
thing they mentioned was that we were not just there for "Machete Killing."
It was possible that we could also be chosen as an extra for a Lifetime TV
drama or an extra on "Sin City 2."
And as of posting this entry (07.01.12), none of us heard back from
them. Oh well.
On the way home, we decided to visit the Blue Bell ice cream
factory. Unfortunately for us, this happened to be a day they closed early. It
was nice to see, but ice cream would have been so cool to have on such a hot
day.
Later on that night, DC and VC came to visit and talk. DC
had already told me about their pregnancy sometime ago, but this was the first
time I got to see the baby bump. Very happy for them.
=====06.04.12=====
DW had talked to me about making a video for his church
group, the 429. We met to eat and throw ideas back and forth before filming
scenes. It was a fun time shooting and it went pretty well.
After editing the first draft of the video, DW wanted to
reshoot some scenes. We met a couple days later and got those done. We
unfortunately forgot to shoot one scene so I had to meet him again the next
day.
The video turned out great and a lot of his church group
really liked it.
=====06.09.12=====
CC held a going away party in the park. She is now in Japan doing
research there. The party was fun. People ate, took pictures, played with Nerf
toys, and sweated in the heat. Afterwards, a few of us went to an antique
store, others joined us later for dinner at Nardino (good live singer doing Sinatra
songs), went to play pool (which I sucked at...didn't win a game all night),
and then got drinks and sang karaoke at 3 Sheets.
=====06.11.12=====
Today was the first day filming a video game podcast for
"The Game Fanatics Show." RC and I talked about it at CC's going away
party and decided to try things out. It was pretty fun and I enjoy video games
so the content is something I am interested in. I'm just happy to be doing
something with the Royal Flush name. Check out episode 5.
Some of us got together to celebrate BT's belated birthday.
We did a lot. First we ate dim sum, then we spent time at the Phonecia market,
and spent most of our time at the APAHA Festival (got to see a friend there
also). People were also joining and leaving us throughout the day. Next was a
big dinner, dessert at "Nu Cafe," walking around the area, and then a
final late night snack with just myself, AT, and BT. Very full and active day.
=====06.19.12=====
Well, episode 5 was a success so I was asked to film the
podcast again. More silliness ensued. Check out episode 6 of "The Game
Fanatics Show."
DJ Cesca (on Soshified) was celebrating her 2nd year of
being a DJ by doing a 7-hour show. It was a fun show. She did go on longer
(apparently 9 hours), but I only did 7 because...unfortunately I got violently
ill. I'll spare the details, but I ended up not being able to sleep because of
it and even pulled out of the Soshified I AM photo project I planned to do with
Houston SONEs. In the end they didn't do it and rescheduled it. I ended up
sleeping 18 out of the next 24 hours (11AM-3PM then 9PM-9AM).
Felt okay the next day and was back to normal by Monday.
What caused this? My guess was a large intake of sugar that Friday. I started
to feel a little like I did last year when had a panic attack after my
birthday. It is in my best interest to lay low on sugar from now on, which
sucks because I do have a sweet tooth. I'll do it in moderation even more so
than before.
=====06.26.12=====
So the rescheduled Soshified I AM photo project for Houston
SONEs commenced. At the most there were just 6 of us with one leaving before
our last stop. Man, was it hot outside. There was one point that the
thermometer in my car said it was 111 degrees, ha. All our breaks were great.
I'm especially proud of getting our last shot at NASA. I just knew we had to
get that to show off a truly unique aspect of Houston. You can check out all the photos we
submitted with the following link (don't know if you need a Soshified account
or not to view).
Thankfully we ended at a good time because I was still
scheduled to film the seventh episode for "The Game Fanatics Show." I
was exhausted from the heat, but the recording went well and was as fun as
usual. Check out episode 7.
So I spent about 8 hours in a karaoke room for DW's surprise
birthday party. That was so much fun. I pretty much sang every song that was
played as well as going up on stage about 4 times for songs I sang with others.
It was just a fun night surrounded by fun and energetic people. So much fun. DW
always knows how to throw a fun party. I'm glad I was there and helped put it
together for him.
=====06.30.12=====
Met up with Houston SONEs again since our bulk
order of the new "Paparazzi" single arrived. My voice was still
working properly (thanks to years of training) and I was okay even though I
slept for maybe 5-6 hours only.
It was nice just chilling with them and talking for a bit.
We're so silly.
I spent most of the day just chilling, rearranging posters, organizing other things in my room, and exporting all the
video I took from DW's karaoke party the night before. I left 2 video cameras
running for 5-6 hours each, which totaled to 70gigs.
I was actually ready to wrap things up for the day until MW
sent a text wanting to go to 3 Sheets for his birthday. I was cool with it.
Spent some time playing with their dog and playing "You Don't Know
Jack" with MW and AT while waiting for AC to join us. We just spent a
couple hours there having a drink and singing a few songs. I opted out on a
late night meal since I was already running low on sleep. I can't recall any
other time I did 2 consecutive nights of karaoke, ha.
I'm glad we did the 4s29 video and have started doing
podcasts with "The Game Fanatics." Definitely better than not doing
anything at all with RFM.
I also started promoting WV and RFM through my personal accounts more because unfortunately not all my friends/family Subscribe/Follow/Like those ventures of mine. Don't know their reasons, but if you don't want to support me in my hobby or business, that's your choice.
=====Final Thoughts=====
- As of posting this entry (07.01.12), I have been growing
out my beard and mustache for 136 days. Still don't know when I'll shave it.
Waiting for a reason I guess.
- "Hating everything and being dissatisfied with the
world is not sufficient basis for a character." I think that applies to
people in real life also.
- "I have to be educated about my complaints, don't
I." I think others should apply that before complaining in general.
- I did a lot of cleaning up on all my external harddrives.
Literally took days moving an deleting tons of video files.
- E3 was alright this year. Post E3, I plan to give Nintendo
$275-320 for games. Add another $250-300 for the WiiU itself.
I didn't play much games since I am still on my hiatus after
the video game tournament. I did play a few demos and "Mega Man X2," but
that's all. But in July I will get 2 games for my 3DS (and they both happen to
be rhythm games), "Theatrhythm Final Fantasy" and "Rhythm Thief
& The Emporer's Treasure." Those will be fun.
- I can't believe I missed out on buying "Superman VS
The Elite" on the release date. I got confused seeing multiple release
dates and thought it was coming out in July. I'll get it along with one of the
games I'm buying.
- To update on my Ranma viewing progress, I've finished
season 1-6. I took a break for a while, but I'll start back up with season 7
soon.
- I know most of my friends watched this because of Keone
and Mari, but I watched it because I'm part of Team Grimmie. Rawk!
- On one of DJ Cesca's shows, a group of us joked around and
made up "Ces. M Entertainment." It spun off a segment on her show
called "SSF's Got Talent" and me commenting that she needs to start
her own music company. Well...we now have our own site, YouTube, Twitter, and
Facebook. You can find me on there as Vice Chairman/Dancer/Singer. I've also
inherited the job of adding our logo to videos and uploading those as well.
It's all for fun, nothing serious.
I feel like I've already made an entry due to the previous
one about the video game tournament. But other stuff did happen in May.
=====05.04.12=====
I finished "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap."
I actually did everything it, 100% complete. A great adventure. I wish I didn't
miss it when it was first released, but I'm glad I got a chance to play it
years later. 5 out of 5.
And on this day I started to watch the "Ranma 1/2"
series from the very beginning. I found a user on YouTube that posted all of
the series dubbed online. It's missing a few parts, but I found those that were
missing. To this date, I am currently in Season 6.
Went out at night with a few friends to watch "The
Avengers." Fantastic movie! You want to know how fantastic it is? I
watched it twice! The second time I saw it in 3D with AN and some of Lady
Rascals and Riot Squad. AN knew that I really liked the movie just because I
wanted to see it again. I'm not a movie guy and there are only a few I'd see
multiple times in the theatre.
=====05.13.12=====
If you didn't read the last entry, I participated in a video
game tournament. Click the following link and take a deep seat for this long
and detailed read. Please check it out.
Toonami's return was officially announced. Hell...yeah!
=====05.25.12=====
The founder of Soshified came into town. She was here with
her sorority sisters for a convention in Houston.
Not only was it an opportunity to meet new (and cute) people, but it was a
chance for Houston SONEs to get together and meet and hang out with the founder
of Soshified. I had met her previously at the LA fan meet in 2011. So I made
plans for showing them around town. It didn't go exactly as planned, but that's
okay. The girls still had fun.
Lunch at "Tofu
Village"
They took photos at "Fit"
Got dessert at "Juice Box"
Tapioca at "Boba Zone"
A visit to "Soundbox Studios"
Pictures at the "Waterwall" (last time we hung out
with her sorority sisters)
Dinner at "Korean Noodle House"
Walking around at "Town & Country City
Centre"
Food and drinks at "Cafe 101"
And at the end of the night I got a flat tire. Thankfully I
wasn't alone to change it. That didn't bother me because the whole day was just
a fun adventure.
=====05.26.12=====
Friends were to gather to watch some bad movies.
Unfortunately, most came late and we didn't start the bad movie until an hour
later. I only stayed for 10 minutes because I was supposed to meet the sorority
girls again for dinner.
Another friend called me up to hang out at Dave &
Busters since they had fun the last time I took them there and it had been a
while since we saw each other. So I went there thinking that I'd just stay
there until I got confirmation to meet the others for dinner. I ended up
staying at D&B for the rest of the night since the sisters ended up doing
their own thing. It's all good. Had a good time at D&B.
=====05.28.12=====
The SM Town and Google concerts happened a week prior. I
lent one of my camcorders to someone that was going and I ended up watching the
clips she took. I'm still not the biggest fan of fan cams, but there are some
that are just done really well. I spent the majority of this day uploading 11
gigs for her to download. That took a long time, ha.
- On a somber note...I'm losing my patience with certain
people. And I'm losing faith in certain people also. Various reasons and
various scenarios have just made me feel this way. I was planning on venting
here, but I don't think it will make a difference. I've talked to some people
already about my stress and frustrations (business, hobby, personal). I'm not
saying that it's just them because I realize that I might be the problem as
well. I'll adapt and move on, but I can't be the only one that is susceptible
to change. It's even more pointless if me making changes still doesn't bring
anything positive in the end.
- ECCC 2012: Star Wars Trilogy: The Radio Play
Various voice actors doing many of their famous characters
reenacting Star Wars. Total NERDGASM!
- SNSD - Beautiful Restriction (Lalala)
- I spazz any time certain people I follow (celebrities,
etc) tweet me back!
- My health has been a lot better. Just making sure not to
do anything too stupid.
- I am glad to see people I know succeed and achieve their
dreams and goals.
- A couple weeks ago, Yaya Han was a guest on Crunchyroll's
"The Live Show." She gave a really good interview and I looked up her
cosplays. I knew she looked familiar. I didn't know who she was, but I had seen
photos of her cosplays before. She's really cool.
*Normally I just use initials when I speak of people in my
entries, but I need to use names this time. I was also thinking to film some of
the tournament (or all), but I needed to concentrate since I was a participant.
And as another footnote, I worked and attended the wedding of the host of the
tournament.*
I did post a few tweets during the tournament on my Twitter,
so you may already know the outcome, but to get all the dramatic details of
what I went through, please read on.
My friend David hosted a video game tournament back in March
of 2008. I was invited and participated. Read all about it at the following
link (just skip down to the Video Game Tournament section). After reading that,
you'll know that you'll be reading a lot this time too.
4 years later, David hosted another one and I was invited
again. I was really looking forward to this since I had so much fun last time. I
was second to arrive. It was cool to see their new place and then to welcome
returning players from the last tournament as well as people I had met from
David and Frances' wedding. A good number of us arrived and David started to
explain the rules.
First off, David split us up into different divisions;
Pacific, Atlantic, Central, and Midwest. As
seen in the photo above, I was in the Central division and there were a total
of 18 players (originally 20). We were placed into each division based on our
skills as known by David (which he is a good judge of). I...don't think there
was much more meaning behind that though, but it was an interesting way to set
things up. Plus they never wrote anything on it at any point, ha.
Next were the rules for the preliminary round. Basically, we
were all going to play various games on various systems from various genres
with various rules and challenges. You'll see how that turned out as I explain
them in detail. There was a challenge per each game and whether you completed
it or not, you earn points based on if completed it or in some cases if you
were the best overall.
After the preliminary round was the playoffs. The top 8 scores
would advance to the playoffs and be paired off based on your placing (1vs8,
2vs7, 3vs6, 4vs5). I'll get more into those rules when we get there.
"Revenge" was announced. Basically, if you lost at
a game you knew you could've/should've won, you may use your
"Revenge" and have a rematch immediately. You're only given one
chance to use it though. In the end, only one person used their
"Revenge" throughout the course of the tournament. I actually forgot
we had them, ha.
David also had break times for food and just general rest
where he would ask questions for prizes. Again, more on those when we get
there.
And that was it. It was time to get our game on. Personally,
I had not played a game since beating The Minish Cap (May 4th), but I didn't
care. I didn't prep myself last time and I didn't this time. He kept all the
games a mystery except for maybe 5 and we played WAY more than 5. We started
around 1PM.
From here on I will explain things thusly:
(majority of box art courtesy of GameFAQs)
Name of the game (system played on)
Whether I played it before or not
Challenge
My results
- Notes
*the order of games is the order I played them*
=========================
SOLO ROUND
=========================
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2012 (Xbox 360)
Never played before
High Score (10 points for first, 8 for second, and so on)
25252 Points (2nd)
- I really do enjoy light gun games. Anyone can literally
pick them up and play. The rifle accessory we used felt good. The scope was
useless since the reticle was on screen, but I tried it for a brief second, ha.
I sort of set the bar as I made the first big high score. I also was the only
one that got on one knee to shoot, ha. Hey, it helped. Have to do what I needed
to win. MikeG got first and beat me by a couple thousand points, grr. I did
think this was a great way to start off the tournament; a good simple game to
warm us up.
*after this round, all of us were bouncing around from 3
different TVs with different games to help keep things moving and so a bunch of
us weren't just sitting watching one person play the whole time*
Cruisi'n USA
(N64 - Wii VC)
Played the arcade version
Fastest time on easiest track (10 points for first, 8 for
second, and so on)
No time, didn't finish
- This game did not control well. It was the general
consensus as most of us had only played the arcade version and that was and
still is fun to play. It sucked that I didn't place though. I'm pretty sure I
got last place points (1) for this game.
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (Xbox 360 - XBLA)
Never played before
High Score (10 points for first, 8 for second, and so on)
427190 Points (4th)
- I've always wanted to play this game! The D&B in our
area has the arcade version also and I still want to play that with some
friends. That was some frantic fun! I actually was doing bad at first because I
was switching back and forth from the d-pad and analog to see which felt
better. And I'm so glad I discovered the bombs! I didn't know those existed! Those
saved me in sticky situations where I just pressed buttons accepting my doom.
The first time it happened, I thought I ran over a power up just as it
appeared. After the second time, I looked up to see there was a bomb icon and
how many I had left. After realizing that I felt more relaxed and just racked
up points. The highest score broke 500,000, geez.
Kung-Fu (NES)
I had a copy of this on the original NES growing up
High Score (10 points for first, 8 for second, and so on)
83440 Points (1st)
- I knew what I was doing, that's all, ha. The only thing I
needed confirmation on was if your remaining time gave you points, which was
confirmed while watching others play. No one got passed the 3rd boss though.
Holding an NES controller in my hand was so nostalgic and fantastic.
=========================
Break time to eat. Actually, the first team round happened
before this, but I wanted to keep that all grouped together. Yay for pizza.
That also meant David was going to ask us questions for prizes. During this
time he played various game sounds and songs and we had to guess which game it
came from. Feel free to look any of these up online (YouTube).
For the first prize of the day we only had to answer one
question correctly. David played a theme song from I game I never played,
"Rival Turf." I knew the name, knew what system it was on, and even
knew what the box art looked like, ha. I just never heard the music from it.
For the second prize we had to get 3 correct answers to win
it. The first sound was a jumping sound to, which someone answered "Super
Mario Bros." This is where I got geeky, ha. I threw my hand up exclaiming
that he was wrong and others were saying that he was correct. I looked to David
and explained "He's saying it's from the first Mario Bros. game and he's
wrong. It's actually the jumping sound from 'Super Mario Bros. 3.'" David
gave me a look and said to everyone "He's actually right." Dang right
I'm right! I went on to explain to the others that the jump sounds were
different and that's when they knew it was on, ha. The next was a song and I
immediately shot my hand up. It was Fulgore's theme from "Killer
Instinct." I still have "KI Cuts" on my iPod so I know what
those songs still sound like, ha. The next song I answered right away also as
it was Kraid's Lair Theme from "Metroid." While I only said
"Metroid," no one else knew to argue. The prize for that was an
awesome Mario hat. I wore it immediately.
The third prize had the same rules as the second prize, get
3 correct answers. I forgot a few of the questions that were asked. I know I
got geeky again when the theme from "Double Dribble" was played as
they just said "Double Dribble" and not whether it was the NES or Arcade version. He played the NES one, but no one else
except me knew that the Arcade version had
the...very bad voice sampled version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." I
did get the answer for the "Blades of Steel" theme. Others argued it
was "Ninja Gaiden" because of the opening sound effect...but they
clearly (as clear as a voice sample can sound) said "Blades of Steel"
after the sound effect. They just didn't happen to hear that before answering.
I got another answer correct afterwards, but I can't remember what it was.
Could have been the "Double Dribble" thing and I'm just remembering
it incorrectly. And then I got my 3rd answer correct with any easy song, the
opening theme from "Punch-Out!" And I win yet another hat, but this
time it was Sonic! I put that on right away also right on top of my Mario hat,
ha.
I played some games with the hats on and I changed which one
I wore at points. I later stopped wearing either of them as the hours went on.
And that was the end of prizes for that break. Now full of pizza and soda, we
went on to continue the preliminary round.
=========================
=========================
TEAM ROUND (teamed with Kenny - I picked his name from a
hat/cup)
=========================
Final Fight (PS3, Xbox 360, Arcade
Emulator)
Played the arcade and SNES version
Be the first team to beat the 3rd level cop boss Edi E
First place
- Kenny was an awesome teammate. While I had played this
game before, I didn't remember all the things about it like Kenny did. We ended
up playing the emulated one while the others were on a the Double Impact
versions on PS3 and 360 (all the same). Kenny was Haggar and I was Cody the
whole time. No one else we were up against was using Haggar, which was another
advantage for us. It was also a fun round since all the teams and those waiting
their turn would continuously look at everyone's screens to see who was farther
or who reached certain points first. So fun. "They're ahead of us!" "We
caught up! We caught up!" Good fun.
=========================
DOUBLE DRAGON ROUND (teamed with Vince - assigned by David)
=========================
Super Double Dragon (SNES)
Played a few times on the SNES
Get to Mission
3 without using a continue
Only got to Mission
2
- I was the leader for Vince during our Double Dragon
rounds. Our main strategy was to surround the enemy and just double team them
if possible. Later on it changed to do-jump-kicks-to-avoid-danger-and-get-cheap-weak-hits-in-order-to-survive,
ha. Vince lost all his lives first and I was on my last life by that time. I
think we were a few screens away from the second boss before I died.
Double Dragon (Xbox 360 - XBLA)
Played the original arcade version a few times and this
version at the last tournament
Get to Mission
4 without using a continue
Only got to Mission
3
- The last time I played this was at the last tournament. It
seemed...a tiny bit easier 4 years ago, ha. It was difficult. I actually lost
all my lives first and Vince lasted a good amount of time before getting killed
off.
Double Dragon Advance (GBA Emulator)
Never played before
Get to Mission
3 without using a continue
Did not get passed Mission
1
- This game was tough. First off, they couldn't get the
second controller to work so the challenge was to also share one continue. We
had 3 lives so I took the first, then Vince, then back to me. The game kicked
our butts, ha. David was telling everyone about how deep the game is (which it
is with all the moves and integration of stories from all 3 NES Double
Dragons), but not all of us took the time to try to figure it all out. We were
just brutalized. Watching others get far in this was impressive.
=========================
SPORTS ROUND
=========================
Super Dodge Ball (NES - Wii VC)
I had a copy of this on the original NES growing up and
downloaded it again on VC
Bean Ball mode, beat your opponent
Lost using Randy
- I can't remember who I was paired against (I think JR),
but he beat me. My timing trying to catch the ball was just off. I was able to
throw super shots out, but none of them connected with him. I was disappointed
with my performance here.
UFC Undisputed 3 (Xbox 360)
Never played before
Win the Light Heavyweight Tournament
Lost in the 2nd round using Dan Henderson
- I had no idea how the controls were and neither did most
of us there. I also didn't know most of the UFC characters in the game except
Brock Lesnar, but we were only allowed to use Light Heavyweights. So I was
given Dan Henderson to use. I thankfully won my first round match against Aris,
but we were just hitting buttons hoping to connect hits. I actually didn't know
we could use the right-analog stick to grapple until my second fight. We had a
few computer AI opponents to fill out the rest of the tournament bracket slots
and most of us lost to our computer opponent including me. I think the farthest
anyone got was the 3rd round before losing. Technically, no one won, but the
farther you went in the tournament, the more points you got for this game.
NBA Action '95 (Genesis)
Never played before
Win the game, 2-minute quarters
Won with 43 points using the Houston Rockets
- This wasn't a tough game to play. As I was telling a few
people, I'll be fine with old school sports games, not current-gen ones. Sorry,
Vince. No Double-Dragon bond anymore, ha. I got a kick out of just knowing
roster members in this game. Everyone was familiar, ha. The roster for the
Rockets was (I hope I remembered this correctly) Otis Thorpe, Kenny Smith,
Robert Horry, Vernon Maxwell (still have his jersey), and of course Hakeem
Olajuwon.
=========================
MULTIPLAYER ROUND
=========================
Karate Blazers (Arcade
Emulator)
Never played before
Make it to the 3rd level with a limited amount of
continues/credits
Failed with MikeG as my partner
- This was a fun beat-em-up. A lot of just were just amused
by the characters and their actions. The 2nd level boss said "whoo" a
lot so a bunch of started doing Ric Flair's "whoo." For a while,
MikeG and I were the Rush Hour team since he chose the Black guy and I chose
the Asian guy, ha. We got to the 2nd level boss, but lost the remainder of our
pooled continues/credits there.
Golden Eye 007 (N64)
Played it a lot back in the day on N64
4-players, 5-min match, most kills wins (1st 6pts, 2nd/3rd
fewer pts, last 1pt)
2nd with 3 kills
- Went up against MikeG and Jordan...or Marvin (sorry, never
caught his name). We actually only had 3-players as either someone left early
or we were just lucky and everyone else already played before us leaving just
the 3 of us. I know I would've won this had the control configuration had not
been altered. No one else complained about it and I always try to adjust to
someone else's settings rather than waste time trying to customize it the way I
like it. I forgot the weapon type that was chosen, but I know I was using the
shotgun a lot.
Pit Fighter (PSX...I think...we were playing on a PS3)
Only played the arcade version...back when that's all it was
on, ha
Metal Mayhem, highest score wins (1st 6pts, 2nd fewer pts,
last 1pt)
167510 Points, 2nd
Place
- Went up against JR and Kenny. It was chaos. Just hit
buttons and hit whoever was standing. It really went by quick. The only
strategy I had was to go after who had the highest score at the time.
=========================
FINAL PRELIMINARY ROUND
=========================
Splatterhouse (original arcade version - Xbox 360)
Never played before
Reach Level 3 without using a continue
Died before reaching the Level 2 boss
- I was always interested in playing the Splatterhouse
trilogy. I even considered buying them all on VC, but never did. I wasn't used
to how Rick moved so there were a few cheap hits that cost me. I did know about
one strategy to use on the first boss that actually worked. This is a type of
game I know I could beat easily if I spent time with it. I don't think anyone
got to Level 3. Closest might have been Kenny who got to the boss of Level 2.
Punch-Out!! (Wii)
Have it and did everything in it
Defeat selected opponent (skill level judged by David)
Beat Disco Kid easily
- Last time I played this game was when I completed the last
mission challenge for it. I forgot Disco Kid's patterns, but it came back as we
went into the second round where I TKO'd him. Such a fun game. While watching
others play their rounds, I was recalling their opponents' patterns and at
times would yell out to dodge or when to hit them to get stars. I want to say
this was another great crowd pleasing game.
House of The Dead 4 (PS3)
Played the arcade version
High Score after the 1st level (10 points for first, 8 for
second, and so on)
21611 Points (only recall seeing 1 or 2 higher scores than
mine)
- MikeM was my partner for this. While we were assigned
partners, it was still an individual score we were gunning for meaning that
your "partner" could be stealing your kills and points. We played
using the Move controllers with light gun accessories. Like I've said earlier,
I really enjoy light gun games. I got on my knees and used a chair to rest my
arms on to shoot. Oh yeah, I'm a badass, ha.
=========================
Another break time for food. Not like we weren't snacking
and chilling while waiting for our turns for games, ha. But this time they were
tabulating the scores of everyone to see which 8 would make the playoffs.
After some time, the scores were ready and the top 8 were
being announced.
8th Kenny
7th Vince
6th Jordan...or Marvin (again sorry, never caught his name)
5th Arnell
4th MikeG
3rd Fernando
2nd MikeM
1st JR
I don't remember the scores of everyone, but I want to say
38 was the lowest and 60 was the highest. I remember mine and MikeG because we
had only one point separating us; 52 for me and 53 for him. And sorry to those following me on Twitter. I
tweeted I was 4th, but there was a mistake in how things were written out and
announced.
JR vs Kenny
MikeM vs Vince
Fernando vs Jordan...or Marvin (I want to say it's Jordan)
MikeG vs Arnell
As for the games that were to be played in the playoffs,
that was already pre-determined somewhat . The weeks leading up to the
tournament, David asked everyone to pick 2 games they know they will destroy in
as possible choices. I had chosen "Mortal Kombat II" for the SNES and
"Bust A Groove/Move 2" on the PSX and brought them with me that day
since I was asked to. So we had 16 games to choose from (I don't recall there
being repeats) knowing that each of us consider ourselves experts in at least 2
of them. No one knew who suggested what, but then David asked us to pick 2
games from the total 16 (in case we heard another one we wanted to go with) as
their 2 titles they wanted to play. I don't know what everyone ended up picking
because after MikeG and I picked ours, it was time to get serious. I'll use our
picks to break down how the quarter finals of the playoffs were to go.
MikeG picked "FIFA Soccer 12" and "Street
Fighter X Tekken." I chose "Mortal Kombat II" and "Super
Smash Bros: Project M." It's a best of 5 games. We both go head-to-head in
all 4 games we chose and we set up the rules for the ones we specifically chose
(nothing too silly...which I made jokes for). If the score reached 2:2, then we
would play a 5th game (from the 4 we played) that the higher seeded player gets
to choose (that rule changed later for David to be the selector of the 5th
game). The winner continues on to the semi finals. Got it?
And this is when I started to get nervous. The preliminaries
were fine. While I was disappointed with some of my performances, I was still
confident in making the playoffs. And by a weird coincidence, I was in 5th
place...again. I was 5th at David's tournament 4 years ago, ha. AND we played
exactly 17 preliminary games in both tournaments. Might have been by design,
but me being in 5th both times wasn't by design and yet is pretty awesome.
David also held his final quiz prize during the playoffs,
but I'll put it here for similar reasons as before. There was actually another
quiz prize given out, but I forgot when it happened. It was for a 1600
Microsoft Points card. I didn't win, but I still got one answer correct. If I
won, I already agreed to give it to MikeG who was sitting next to me, ha.
And now for the final prize. This was the final big prize so
he made the question hard. The question was to name as many of the games as you
possibly can that we played in the preliminary round. And if you haven't been
paying attention to my well detailed explanation of how I did in each game...I
had been typing down my stats the whole time in a Note document on my phone
(not as super detailed, just the bare facts of what we played and how I did). I
asked David to change the question and he asked why and I pulled out my phone
and showed the Note document to everyone, haha. So David changed the question
to naming all the characters in "Mortal Kombat 3." I told him to
change the question again, ha. But then we went back and forth and we had
conflicting totals for the number of characters. So with that, we started to
write our answers down although only 3 of us attempted; myself, Fernando, and
JR. I wrote down 14, Fernando wrote down 17 or 18, and JR had 24. Then we all
started questioning David who said there were 24. Right then I knew he was
thinking "Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3" because "Mortal Kombat
3" only had 15. It became more evident to David that I was correct when he
started to name all the ninjas (Scorpion, Rain, Kitana, etc) because none of
them were in "Mortal Kombat 3." Yes, my geekiness went off again, ha.
I pretty much could see the character select screen in my head. MikeM then
checked online for the answer and David started checking each of our lists as
each character was being named off. I was missing only Jax (darn it), but I had
everyone else and more correct than the other 2 so I won the final quiz prize;
an Impact X Rocker gaming chair. So to recap; in quizzes alone I won a Mario
hat, a Sonic hat, and now a gaming chair. Definitely wasn't going home
empty-handed, ha.
That quiz happened halfway or a quarter of the way into the
playoffs. I don't remember. I do know that the playoffs started at 9:30PM. Time
flew by. And now it was time get it done or get knocked out. Game time. I will be
giving more notes for the playoffs. Thank you for reading up to this point so
far. We're almost done.
=========================
Quarter Finals VS MikeG
=========================
Originally we were going to play MikeG's games first since
he was a higher seed, but other playoff matches were already going on the 360.
So we went with mine.
Super Smash Bros: Project M (Wii)
Played and own Brawl and Melee, but not this modded version
5 Stock, no time, best 2-3 matches, Smash Ball is the only
item on
- Toon Link (MikeG) VS Pikachu (me)
- Snake (MikeG) VS Peach (me)
- For those that don't know, Project M is a mod created that
balances out the characters in Brawl and has them play more like their Melee
styles. I actually prefer Melee over Brawl so I felt more comfortable playing
my characters this time than when we played Brawl 4 years ago. MikeG said the
last time he touch any Smash Bros game was from that last tournament, ha. I had
played Brawl a few months ago (out of boredom) just trying to get more of the
harder challenges completed so I wasn't rusty by far as you can see by the fact
that I didn't let this go to a third match.
- I had created another "Oh, crap. He uses Peach"
moment. I really don't hear of many people using Peach, but THAT IS MY GIRL!
And thanks to this tournament, I like her Final Smash a lot more now as I have
dubbed it the "GTS: Go To Sleep" after CM Punk's signature move.
Oddly enough, I was wearing a CM Punk shirt for the tournament, ha.
Mortal Kombat II (SNES)
Played the arcade, own the SNES version, and played various
versions
Best 2 out of 3 matches
- Sub-Zero (MikeG) VS Kitana (me)
- Liu Kang (MikeG) VS Scorpion (me)
- Liu Kang (MikeG) VS Kitana (me)
- There's a reason I picked MKII; I destroy at MKII! I'll
always be confident with old school fighters. I'm fairly decent with barely any
current-gen fighters, but I'll most likely lose. During our matches, MikeG gave
me looks afterwards and David said it out loud, "no mercy!" I was
playing to win, ha.
- I couldn't believe that he beat my Scorpion because he had
been my favorite character in that series, but I knew I was deadly with Kitana
too. I could've chosen others like Mileena, Jax, or Raiden, but since I knew I
was going to choose MKII as I game, I had to have Scorpion and Kitana represent
for me. Thank you, Kitana, for a few flawless victories and lopping off
Sub-Zero and Liu Kang's heads, ha.
I was so glad I won my 2 games. Now I could relax and just
try to hold my own in MikeG's games. He had to play catch-up.
Street Fighter X Tekken (Xbox 360)
Never played before
Best 2 out of 3 matches
- Ryu/Law (MikeG) VS Ken/Bison (me)
- Xiaoyu/Kazuya (MikeG) VS Bison/Juri (me)
- Ryu/Law (MikeG) VS Bison/Juri (me)
- I knew that this game was going to be played at the
tournament at some point. It was just a feeling I had. Thankfully I was told
that if I had played "Street Fighter IV" that I would be okay with
the Street Fighters, which relieved some nervousness. Had I not owned and
played the 3DS version then I would have been totally screwed. I knew I wasn't
going to choose any Tekken characters since the last Tekken game I was good at
was the original "Tekken Tag Tournament" and "Tekken 3." I
did play "Tekken 6" not too long ago, but it definitely doesn't play
like 3 or Tag. Had I chosen any Tekken characters, it would've been the Mishima
Clan. The one thing I did ask was how to tag in and out, ha. THAT was important
to know. I didn't bother with the gems.
- I thought my Ken/Bison team was going to be my team the
whole way, but I kind of crapped out with Ken for some reason and lost with him
on my team. Bison stayed the whole time because, as silly as it sounds, his
evil psycho-ness surges through me whenever I use him in any game he's in,
muahahahaha. Then putting Juri with him just made a new Team Evil for me. Had
to stick with Team Evil since they got a victory. Too bad they fell to Ryu and
Law. Had I remembered about our "Revenge" ability, I would've tried
it here because I could've done better. David also gave me props for holding my
own in a game I've never played before against someone he knew was really good
at it.
- By the way, we played using these sweet SFxT controllers.
They're pretty solid and I'd recommend them to those that like using
controllers over fight sticks.
- I was planning on using a VampyBitMe team consisting of
Juri and Poison, but that's one character I was alright with and one I'd have
no idea how to use. At least I still had Vampy represented with Juri. I also
thought of StarSlay3r right before these matches and remembered that she liked
using Chun-Li and Rufus (I think). I did tweet her before the whole tournament
saying that I was channeling her skills, ha. She tweeted "good luck"
back and I had an extra boost for the entire tournament. Thank you, StarSlay3r.
FIFA Soccer 12 (Xbox 360)
Never played before
Highest score after 2 4-minute halves wins
- Manchester United (MikeG) VS England International (me)
- Yeah...so MikeG likes playing sports games, ha. I asked
him what the buttons were and that's all I could really ask. He scored his
first goal within the first minute of the game I think. His second goal came
maybe halfway in the second half and that was it. I kind of spent most of the
time trying to trip his players. I only got one yellow card warning, ha.
And now we are tied! MikeG caught up and David was going to
pick our final game, which was...
Super Smash Bros: Project M (Wii)
5 Stock, no time, 1 match, Smash Ball is the only item on,
Final Destination
- Toon Link (MikeG) VS Peach (me)
- MikeG wasn't looking forward to this especially since I
had 2 straight wins with him earlier in this very game. I beat him to advance
to the semi finals! Other qualifiers were MikeM, Fernando, and JR. David made
the semi finals a team game. I got paired with MikeM and it was us going up
against the pairing of Fernando and JR.
=========================
Semi Finals w/MikeM VS Fernando and JR
=========================
NBA Jam (Xbox 360)
Played a few times
Win the game, 2-minute quarters
- LA Lakers (me/MikeM) VS ...I honestly can't remember who
they chose (Clippers or Bucks maybe). MikeM chose the Lakers for us. He was Kobe and I was Magic
Johnson (classic).
- This went down to the wire. I want to say we were leading
by a couple buckets at the half and they took the lead going into the fourth.
The biggest point deficit was probably 6 points and we had to play catch up.
Down to the last minute and they played smart and started running down the
clock. We just needed one more possession to shoot a 3 to win or go for 2 and
head into overtime. And in the end...57-59. Fernando and JR were heading to the
finals. We were so close!
David wanted MikeM and I to play for 3rd place while the
finalists played for the top spot. He left the last game choice for both
matchups to us. MikeM and I chose...
=========================
Battle
for 3rd VS MikeM
=========================
Super Smash Bros: Project M (Wii)
5 Stock, no time, 1 match, Smash Ball is the only item on,
Final Destination
- Mario (MikeM) VS Peach (me)
- We had a great match going, but I was always leading in
stock lives. MikeM was still putting up a good fight, but most of his defeats
were met by a combination of GTSs and Super Slaps. Thank you, Peach, for
securing the 3rd place spot in this tournament.
- David also gave us the engraving plate that we can stick onto the trophy. He didn't have time to get those ready, but that leaves me the freedom to engrave whatever I might want on it. I might just leave it blank, but if anything I would put "3rd Place" along with my name on it.
- The finalists played another game of "NBA Jam"
with Fernando coming out on top and became the undisputed champion of this
tournament.
=========================
Final Thoughts
=========================
And that is it! My goodness! I won my last game at 12:40AM
and that means that I was there for close to 12 hours! Played 22 games (24 if
you count playing Project M 2 more times), 9 of those I never played before.
That's a lot of games to play in consolidated amount of time! I felt very
drained when I got home, ha.
All the competitors were good and we made a good a crowd
that laughed, shouted, and enjoyed each others' company. I don't participate in
many tournaments (maybe less than 10 my entire life), but there were some where
people just kept to themselves and their cliques and didn't give props to good
players especially when they were performing well. So I really liked this
crowd. Crowd interaction is a big factor to me for things like this. A dead
crowd can really suck the energy out of you while a live crowd that's into it
gives you extra energy and adrenaline to keep going and giving it your all.
I'm glad I didn't leave empty-handed. And here I was walking out with 4 different prizes.
I want to thank David for doing this again. If he ever does
another tournament, I will definitely be there. I got 3rd this time and 2nd 4
years ago. All that's left is the top spot.
Plus I like David's idea of finding the best all-around
gamer. We played many different games of different times and genres on
different systems. We had some who were experts on some games, but not a single
one of us was the best at all of them. David said it a few times that night,
but a good gamer can adapt to any game whether they have played it or not. I
think that's what I am if I'm any type of gamer, an all-around gamer, rather
than an expert in a certain genre. Give me enough time with any game and I can
beat it. Of course that wasn't the case with the tournament. As long as someone
can tell me the basic controls, I'll try to figure it out like I did on that
night.
But this is the start of me not playing games for a while.
While I haven't been playing as much as I used to over the years, I just don't want
to dive into anything right now. Unless some amazing titles are announced at
this upcoming E3 that will come out soon, I'm not planning on buying anything
until 07.03 when "Theatrhythm Final Fantasy" comes out. And I don't
plan on playing any games unless friends get together to play something.
Thank you to David for the excellent tournament. Thank you
to all the participants that made it fun. And thank you to all of you who sat
down and read this whole thing.
I definitely did get out more compared to last month. Also I
think I'll be loading this entry with a lot of videos.
=====04.01.12=====
Watched "Wrestlemania XXVIII" and it was great.
The card was great up and down and I was excited and yelling most of the time.
Yes, Yes, Yes!
Afterwards, I completed a little something I was working on
called "Project Donut." I shipped it out the next day. I have yet to
receive a confirmation from the recipient whether they got it or not though.
=====04.03.12=====
Toward the end of March, I was interviewed by Soshified for
their monthly Spotlight article. They ask for members of the site to nominate
or volunteer to have questions asked of them so that we can learn more about
our fellow SONEs. I volunteered myself and a fellow DJ to be interviewed.
Here's the link to read my Soshified Spotlight interview. Enjoy it.
I went out and bought "Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir"
for my 3DS. I enjoyed it and it was much different than I thought it would be,
but it was too short. I ended up beating the game on 04.20.12 and in reality
that was less than 5 hours of game time. I still give it a 4 out of 5.
=====04.14.12=====
Friends invited me to watch "The Raid: Redemption."
That had been a movie I was curious about, but wouldn't have seen it unless
asked to. I'm so glad I saw it though. If you're in the mood for some
crazy/awesome action and fight scenes then go see this one. A good chunk of the
action was great and insane as well as some of the deaths. I really wanted to
yell (as if I was watching wrestling) because the action just got me hyped. 4
out of 5.
Afterwards we went back to their place. I got some doggy
kisses from Baxter and I played some fighting games with MW. We had some nice
random character matches in MVC3 going on, but for our last one we picked who
we wanted. And...oh...my...gosh, it was so fun. I had my X-Factor on and I
pulled off a triple team super and was going for a cheap victory on MW's last
character, but he pulled off a super and his connected cancelling my triple
team. At that point I was just dumb-founded and at a loss that he took out each
of my characters one after the other, ha. Sucks that I lost, but it was just a
great gaming moment.
=====04.15.12=====
Went out with CC, WC, and met BT to go to the "Asia Society Texas Center" grand opening. It was pretty cool. There were a lot of different Asian cultures performances held and just a good amount of cultures showcased. The gallery itself was a little small.
Something that did suck was about a business deal. During one of the performances, I was filming the whole thing and BT was taking photos. Someone that was part of the society performing asked about getting the photos and the footage. I gave them my business card and got theirs. About an hour later, my group was walking around and we found my business card on the ground. Disappointing.
=====04.17.12=====
I'm on a small quest to buy my favorite anime series on Blu-Ray,
but unfortunately most of them aren't. I did find "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie"
and bought it. I saw it when it first came out, but I forgot everything about.
Watched it both dubbed and subbed within a few days. Good stuff.
=====04.18.12=====
It had been a while since I shaved due to the boils from a
month or so ago, but my skin felt good enough to do it. It didn't hurt, but it
was sensitive, still is. I kept the goatee though, just shaved the sides.
Met up later to have dinner with LN at Yard House. The
weather was nice to eat outside. Unfortunately our food came out very late. I
wasn't really bothered with that since we were just catching up, but the
manager insisted on giving us a free dessert to compensate. Can't say no to
that. Afterwards we walked and talked more before departing.
I started to release my "WingedVoX Adventures."
Read up more on that later on.
I went to have dinner with one of the flash mobbers. I
rarely see any of them ever since the flash mobs so this was nice. We ate at Tofu Village
and just talked and learned things about each other since during the flash
mobs, I didn't really get a chance to talk to any of them personally. Fun time
with good food.
=====04.21.12=====
"The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap" was
available for the 3DS Ambassador Program a while ago and I had not gotten
around to it for some reason. Since I had been running out of things to do at
home, this was perfect. It had also been one of the few Zelda games I never got
around to so I was glad I finally was playing this adventure. Update of when/if
(if, yeah right) I beat it in May.
=====04.22.12=====
My dad was given an old printer from a friend of his and he
gave it to me. It works. Too bad I don't have any color, but maybe later on
I'll buy some if I need to. I'm just glad to have a working printer just to at
least print out documents or coupons. It had been something I was always lazy
about purchasing, but now I don't have to worry about it.
=====04.24.12=====
Ate lunch at Noodle House with MC. It was good to catch up
and eat some good food.
=====04.26.12=====
It had been a while since I had been to Soundbox, but I went
there for their pre-show performance before World of Dance. I said hi to a few
people and got a big hug from AN. Didn't tell him I was going to be there, but
I wanted to show him my support. It was great to be around that crowd and
energy again. I was so proud of AN and all the other people I've made friends with at that studio.
Here are their performances from WOD that weekend.
=====04.27.12=====
I was on DJ Cesca's Radio show on Soshified for my second
time. We talked about being featured on Soshified Spotlight and about a little
bet we had. Here's the link if you wish to listen. I come in around the hour
and 2 minute mark.
MW asked if anyone wanted to do the "Feast of The Brave."
It's a nationwide challenge amongst different cities. You get points for eating
certain types of tacos that these taco trucks were serving. MW, AT, AJ, and I
went to do it. They were free tacos, but not everyone might want to try the
types of tacos. There was alligator, shark, cricket, and mystery. There was
also ostrich, but they ran out by the time we got there. Here were my stats.
And the mystery taco was scorpion. Not bad. My favorite was
probably crickets.
Afterwards, we went to a few different places (can't
remember all). We ended up going to a golf range, which was fun. I've never
been to one before and never did anything more than putt-putt golf. It was a
very satisfying feeling hitting the ball.
Started a new series of videos dubbed "WingedVoX
Adventures." Those are of me and various things I've done and places I've
gone with minimal editing. No fancy skits or anything. Just me out and about.
The reception so far is...good I guess. It definitely is less stressful than
trying to come up with new video ideas and having to film things every week.
Here are the first 2 that were released in April.
- Game Informer's "Test Chamber" episode of
"Sniper Elite v2." It was cool to see the different dramatic kill
shots, but the first one that happens after the 15-minute mark...ouch...
- Hell yeah for HyoYeon on Korea's "Dancing With The
Stars."
- SNSD-TTS "Twinkle" MV
- "Tweet 2000: This year more than any other year have
I felt that support is one of the greatest tools to help anyone succeed."
On the flip side of that, I do get very discouraged by the
lack of support.
- My health has improved, but I do have to still hold off on
being really active. Sometimes exercising can only last about 5-10 minutes.
Little by little I'm starting to get back to it. I still have to watch myself
though.
- Thank you for reading. Be healthy, be thankful, be loved.
