Monday, April 13, 2015

A Reminder To Myself

I've known this for a while, but I've only realized it just now. Watching the First Look of the Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe documentary just helped put it into perspective. I now have a definitive answer.

Casually, I've always preferred this term over being anything else, but never called myself this. Not only that, it has always been something I wanted to be. I can be this for my future wife, my future kids, a family member, a friend, a coworker, or a stranger. If I have been this to someone already, I don't know about it or simply can't recall it. I do know that I've innately strived to be this for many years.

A Hero.

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Friday, April 3, 2015

March 2015 Entry



Maybe it's just me, but March felt long.

=========================

- I finished watching all of Heroes (Korean variety show 2010-2011) on 03.03. 40 episodes of fun. I ended up liking all of the cast members even though I only knew a handful of them. My favorites ended up being Kahi, Lee Jin, and Hong Soo Ah. It was unfortunate that Nicole wasn't part of the last few episodes (going through contract disputes at that time). But I do recommend this variety show. There was a lot of great moments that happened throughout.  

- Hung out with a friend on the 16th. Nothing big planned. We mainly talked, had a little tea, and played Smash Bros. It was fun. Trying to hang out more often.

- I was asked to pick up my mom early from work on the morning of the 19th. When I locked the door to leave, I hesitated as I felt the lock didn't lock properly. It was only after we returned home that we saw that the bolt on our lock was off the hinge to unlock so it was stuck in locked position. We called our dad, who was out helping his friend and couldn't pick up my mom in the first place. My plan was to break open a window and squeeze through to open the door from the inside. Dad ended up using many tools to remove the lock and force the bolt out of place for us to get inside. It was a very unexpected and frustrating thing that happened.

- The 20th was National Macaron Day. I visited my friend at her shop of Bite Macaron and spoke to her for a while, just catching up. Then I bought some macarons and left them at HER for the agents to snack on.

That same night, a few of us guys got together at Sushi King to help bring the spirits up of our friend that recently broke up with his girlfriend. A bit odd with the exchange of opinions in the beginning (I wasn't a fan of some things said), but the rest of the night was just spent having fun and being dumb, ha.


- On the 23rd...dropped a big bottle of water on the marble floor, jumped around to avoid the water, stepped on the bottle cap that broke off with pointy tips, my foot ended up getting stabbed. It wasn't that bad really, but I believe that was the catalyst of me getting sick. It couldn't have come at a worse time as a lot of stuff was happening with work and friends. It took a while for me to get better (over a week). I also got a new shirt in close to the day my foot got stabbed, but didn't wear it as I didn't want to put sick germs on it.

 

- Wrestling Isn't Wrestling was a fun video. Good tribute to Triple H's career. 


- I got a couple of new wrestling shirts (03.20). Both are NXT shirts, Bayley and Finn Bรกlor. They're both amazing as is the rest of the NXT roster. But I was ecstatic to get retweets and favorites from both wrestlers. Amazing feeling.



- The WWE Hall of Fame took place on the 28th. I was at work when it started, but I was able to listen to Schwarzenegger and Nash's speeches. Caught up with the rest of the HOF the following morning and the day after. Connor's induction was tear inducing, but amazing.  

- Wrestlemania 31 happened on 03.29. While I originally asked for the day off and was granted it, things changed and I was asked to come in. So I missed all preshow stuff and anything before Triple VS Sting. I listened to that match and was going nuts the whole time. Watching the rest of Wrestlemania was so fun. Caught the rest that I missed that same night. From the bottom to the top, everything was enjoyable. Cheers to all the amazing athletes and production people that put Wrestlemania together every year.  

- My dad was asked to dog-sit his friend's dog while he's away in the Philippines. While my dad told me his name was Joe, the whole time he has been here (still here as of typing this), I haven't said a word to him. I only communicate through gestures and he understands. Coming home to a dog after a long day of work is very uplifting. It is good to have a nice puppy around the house.

=========================

- More DLC. Hyrule Warriors had their Boss pack where you can play as Ganon. Man, that was empowering. Curtain Call had more DLC tracks. They ended their second batch of DLC and they've had some good stuff come through even to the end. And yes, I have bought all DLC possible meaning I spent over $100 for the songs.

 


- Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS) - Review

It took a good month of playing on and off, but I finally beat the only Zelda game I never played before. While I enjoyed it, I did feel frustrated with it at times. I do understand why a lot of people like Majora's Mask a lot, but for me, it doesn't rank that high in the list of all Zelda games. I will reveal a list of how I rank all the Zelda games in the near future now that I experienced and have an opinion of Majora's Mask.


- After completing Majora's Mask, I slowly got to the demos I've had piling up. It was only 5, but some have been sitting waiting to be tried out for months.
WRC FIA World Rally Championship (3DS)
Undead Storm Nightmare (3DS)
Citizens of Earth (3DS)  
Azure Striker Gunvolt (3DS)  
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Wii U)  

- Got my Smash Bros OST from Club Nintendo. Seeing as I couldn't recall some of the tracks, it shows how much I played the latest iteration of Smash Bros. The songs are good though.


- amiibo...I'm addicted. This month alone, I more than doubled my collection and I want more...all. I am still going with the "buy the ones I really want day one" while everything else is moved to the "maybe" section of amiibo I want. But I want all of them, ha. Sales will definitely help with buying the ones in the "maybe" list. Shopping around for those rare ones though, yikes. I don't mind paying a little extra for them, but I won't spend twice the amount on one. But yeah, if you have a hard time thinking of something to get me, help me with my amiibo collection, please. No duplicates or custom ones though. I just want the originals in their box.

Something odd, I update my personal Twitter with my new amiibo, but not my gaming account. I'll try to at least do that from now on.







=========================

- The Houston Escape Room has been very busy. The beginning of March, our second room (Grandma Codebreaker) officially opened. It took a while for me to warm up to Grandma's room, but I really like it now. If you haven't been to that room yet, sign up. It definitely is different from the first room.  

- Last month, I talked about the pregnancy reveal we did. The mother-to-be kept asking me questions about my preferences to things as she wanted to buy me something in thanks for what I did. I refused all as the experience was amazing itself. But she persisted and ended up mailing me a nice "thank you" card along with a gift card (03.05). Very touching.


- I had my longest day at HER on the 10th. It was a 12-hour day with 2 corporate events. One started at 10AM and the other was a group of 20 8th grade girls (split into 2 teams). I was drained, but things went well.


- For some odd reason, the traffic was bad almost every day going in to work in March. It seemed like I had to increase my leave time more and more when before I was able to leave 10 minutes after the hour. While it has calmed down, the 17th was the worst. I was 30-45 minutes late. To make things worse, it was a hellacious day. A lot of things went wrong and all the agents were going back and forth with so many things happening behind the scenes. The saving grace was that all the groups that came through were fun.

- As I mentioned earlier, I bought the agents some macarons in celebration of National Macaron Day (03.20). I'm glad they didn't eat them all so I could have a few the following day, ha.


- Sick and work do not mix. On the 24th, I wasn't at functioning the best. I ended up only facilitating half of the last team as I couldn't stop sneezing and feeling so hot. I wasn't feeling good the next day either so I took the day off. but I mainly took it off so I could get better the following day as a friend was coming through the room. I felt a little better, but I wasn't at my best when my friend arrived. It was still good to see her come through after talking about it for so long, but I wasn't being as upbeat as I would have liked to have been around her. She had fun though and that's what matters. As far as my sickness, I got better on Friday (my normal day off) and was way better that weekend.

- One of the most unfortunate things to happen at HER was our a/c going it. It happened the weekend of the 28th. We put 2 fans in Mo's room, but that room just becomes so warm in general. Grandma's room was still cooler, but eventually heated up. The lobby became the hottest unfortunately as that's where the customers have to wait. Not too many customers complained, but it was obvious that the heat was getting to them and the agents as well. As of typing this (04.03), the a/c is finally fixed. But before that, that was a hellish time for all of us.

=========================

- For the first time this year, I was able to sleep normally without any white noise going on. It felt so good. There were a few times when I was sick that I had to go back to having white noise, but I'm able to sleep normal again.  

- Some new Kpop videos caught my attention this month. Gain is just sexy, but the song is so-so. I'm starting to like Red Velvet more now. At first I liked Automatic more, but Ice Cream Cake grew on me. And Minah's solo song is good although I was hoping for a little more. Out of all those, Ice Cream Cake is probably my favorite.





- And I finally watched BoA's Who's Back concert (03.30). I did say I would watch it in March. It was in danger of not happening because I simply forgot about it whenever I had free time. But it was a fun concert. It was good seeing the new songs performed (made me like them more). And then her performing classics were great. My favorite sequence of songs was done during the karaoke portion. Just a good string of songs back to back. My favorite part was during Bump Bump. I always did a hand gesture during "VIP" basically just spelling out the letters with my hands. BoA did it herself and I lost it. I was so happy and ecstatic at that point. So dang cool to see her do what I had been doing for one of my favorite songs of hers.  

- Again, most of my time is spent at the Houston Escape Room. A lot of things are happening (and have already happened). Seriously, stay tuned.

- And that ends March. April is already busy and full of things happening so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved. 


Take care. DFTBA.

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Saturday, March 7, 2015

February 2015 Entry



A lot of things happened in February. For the shortest month of the year, it felt like a really long month.

=========================

- A wonderful content creator, Monty Oum, passed away on the 2nd. While I wasn't always keeping track of his work, any time I saw his work, I knew it was of great quality. I'm more familiar with his Dead Fantasy series. And it was clearly obvious that he touched a lot of lives and was definitely one of a kind. You will be missed, Monty.

http://roosterteeth.com/members/journal/entry.php?id=3302319

- On the 5th, Jimmy Fallon finally got the Saved By The Bell reunion to happen. It was missing Screech and Lisa, but it was still incredible to see.


- I got around to seeing Justice League: Throne of Atlantis on the 6th. It was better than I expected, but not exactly spectacular. I am looking forward to Batman VS Robin coming out next year. 


- Also on the 6th, I went to see Jo Koy perform at the Improv. My cousin had invited me earlier in the week and we worked out our schedules. I met her and her husband there. We caught up as we had not seen her since our grandmother's funeral. This was also the first time I had been to the Improv ever since it moved years ago. I think the lobby/bar/waiting area is way smaller, but the inside is way bigger.

The whole show (opening acts included) was so fun. Jo Koy was absolutely hilarious. He had me in tears just with his opening jokes about Houston highways, ha. And then his bit about music just had the whole place singing in unison, so good. Thanks to my cousin for inviting me. It was a great night out.


- I got a new Running Man shirt. It arrived in the mail on the 13th. This one was a little special because it came with my own name tag.


- On the 20th, a friend and I hung out and caught up. We first went to Korean Noodle House and then to Main Event (both the first time for her). Korean Noodle House sure is super busy during lunch time. Main Event in the middle of the day is very vacant meaning no one was in the way of the games we played.

We tried out the Gravity Ropes, which is a set of ropes and platforms set on what would be a second floor. You're attached with a safety harness and rope and are suspended as you traverse yourself all around. I'll admit to being a little worried. It definitely looks higher than it is. I got around as much as I felt comfortable with. My friend actually fell off (still attached) at a certain section. 10 minutes later, we were done, ha. There was a game where you kick a soccer ball as hard as you can to get a score. I was gearing up for my last kick (taking off my hoodie and removing my wallet and keys. I was just about to kick it when the game said my time was up. We both stood there speechless.

After we left, we played some Hyrule Warriors and Smash Bros. She was pretty good at Smash, which made for some competitive matches. It was a fun day that we both needed to escape the stress we had been experiencing lately. 

- Ever since working at Houston Escape Room, I've missed a lot of wrestling PPVs live. While I ask for time off, something has always come up where I ended up going to work. But this month, I got to watch WWE Fast Lane as it happened on the 22nd. Not the greatest show, but it had a lot of good matches. It was just good to watch wrestling live.

And NXT has been consistently amazing. NXT Takeover Rival was a fantastic show (02.11.15). Almost everything from top to bottom was great. The 4-way Women's Championship match was a great showing by the ladies, Neville VS Balor was my match of the night (Balor's PPV entrance is just so damn awesome), and Zayn VS Owens for the NXT title was incredible story telling. I could not have predicted that outcome. Seriously, even watching NXT events the following day still has impact even if it gets spoiled for me. I still enjoy it.

- RIP, Leonard Nemoy (02.27.15). You lived long and prospered. Thank you for being who you were, sir.


=========================

- I did manage to have more time to play games in February than I did in January. I haven't gone back to the Phoenix Wright Trilogy though. I'll come back to that when I have tons of more free time.

- The demo for Code Name S.T.E.A.M. came out. I was really impressed by it. While I won't be buying the full version, I highly recommend it to fans of strategy games. I even convinced a friend of mine who really likes strategy games to try it and he is now planning on buying the game.

https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/769471523140850

- On the DLC front, there was the Majora's Mask pack for Hyrule Warriors (always fun jumping back into that game). And I also bought more DLC tracks for Theatrhythm Fnal Fantasy: Curtain Call. That $50 eShop card I bought for Christmas has been serving me well. Still have a few dollars left on it too (more DLC tracks).



- Majora's Mask finally came out on the 3DS and I'm finally playing the only Zelda game I haven't played/beaten. I will say that it was a little frustrating at first (that darn 3-day cycle took some getting used to). But I'm doing alright with it now and am impressed with it. I am playing with a walkthrough though because I figured I wouldn't have time to play it again and 100% it so I might as well do it now. I probably would be closer to beating the game had I gone on my own, but I'd probably be missing a ton of things and getting really lost. I'm enjoying it though. I should be beating it some time in March.

And the New 3DSXL is pretty cool. The biggest negative I had with it was the system transfer which took many hours for me to do (at least 3 hours). But the positives far outweigh the negatives. The 3D tracking is amazing and I'm playing games more in full 3D than I used to (not getting headaches). The sound is louder and more clear. It runs faster in general. And the C-stick works really well. I highly recommend the New 3DSXL.



- I had a gift certificate for Best Buy expiring so I decided to get one of the maybes on my list of wanted amiibo. Imagine how popular or the kind of special amiibo they would make were this still the Year of Luigi. More amiibo talk next month including the story of trying to hunt down a Mega Man amiibo.


=========================

So much happened in February at the Houston Escape Room. It's crazy to think that all this happened in the same month.

- Parking outside of HER does cost a few dollars until 6PM and is free on Sundays (downtown parking rules). Workers have been told ever since we started there that it is our choice whether we decide to pay or not. Some of us do, some don't. After months of not paying, I finally got my first ticket on the 4th. Funny thing is that it happened 5 minutes after I parked there. Paying $30 instead of at most $5 sucks, but that is still less than what I should have paid ever since we moved to that location so I'm not mad.


- We had been contacted by someone at KHOU 11 about doing a news story about HER. It had been in the works for a while and we were all excited for it. We had decided to use Grandma's room for this, but change the story and puzzles to make it okay for broadcast as well as to not spoil the room for our customers. KHOU was going to come on the 5th. The weekend before, the project was given to me to do. It was...interesting...and stressful...

Making up the new puzzles took a while, but wasn't that bad. Once I made up the story, things fell into place a lot easier. I labeled it Episode 00: Grandpa Mo's Trials. The story was that Grandpa Mo needed a successor. He chose his granddaughter and locked her up in a room to test her strength, intelligence, and bravery. Sound a little familiar? She passed them with flying colors and was given a crystal heart to commemorate it. She has donated the heart to be the treasure given for future agents as they all must go through these trials to qualify as agents.

After getting approval on the story and puzzles, I recruited Agent Blue to help me shop and put together everything the Monday before it. We spent almost 5-6 hours driving and shopping for what we needed. We also had to alter ideas on the fly as we couldn't find everything we were hoping to get. Then from 6PM-10PM, we were putting everything in place. That didn't go over smoothly as certain ideas didn't work as we planned. More adjusting and thinking on the fly. But once things were done, we still had a few doubts that would need to be addressed the day of.

The day of filming was okay (02.05.15). Nervousness hit an hour before KHOU arrived. The team we had put together to go through the room are friends of the owner (whom he recruited).  One had to unfortunately leave, but we were still okay. We had already planned to stage some of the filming. As they came in, one by one I pulled them aside to brief them on what to not do. I also told each of them the answer to one puzzle and gave them all one part to a longer one. This still meant I did not give them everything and they still had to figure out how to escape. When the reporter and cameraman arrived, they wanted to make sure things were staged as well so we were all on the same page. It was better that way for both of us. That also meant that I clued the reporter in on one puzzle for her to do as well as give her one part of a longer puzzle. I was also put in charge of talking to them as well as instructing them on a few things. And since I am a former videographer, I had an immediate report with the cameraman even going as far as being a bit of a director.

After some final preparations, we were set to film. It didn't go without any flubs. Agent K messed up some of her lines for the new story, some of the puzzles were solved without being filmed, and the lock to the crystal heart actually broke off by force. But it was good that things were staged as we could stop and reshoot certain spots (upon request). Not only that, but the cameraman gave me his GoPro to film what I could, which he really appreciated. It was odd to be directing and filming again after almost a year after I decided to quit doing that. But it went well.

KHOU also filmed interviews with the team after they escaped. Unfortunately, this was when I started to lose it a bit. A couple of coworkers were in another room talking really loud during the interviews. At first I closed the door thinking that would be enough, but we could still hear them. In my rush and stress, I opened the door and said in a low voice "I'm going to be an ass right now so shut up or talk somewhere else." Once I came back to the room, the cameraman gave me a thumbs up. Being a former videographer, I knew how bad it was that we could hear them talking. After that, we took a group photo with the team, KHOU, and some of HER's staff. Unfortunately again, I let a little bit slip out. As I was attempting to organize things, one of the owner's friends spoke up more and was just doing things her way instead. Again in a low voice I said to the owner "I guess I'm not in control anymore." So we took the photo and thanked KHOU for coming. Shortly after, the owner's friends left and we were back to business for the rest of the day.


After all was said and done, I was drained. I spent the next session on the couch trying to decompress. The owner and manager then pulled me aside to talk about my passive-aggressive comments. Totally understandable. I did defend myself in saying that my stress had hit a peak point when those incidents occurred. One, I was given the project under a limited amount of time. Two, the purchasing and putting together of items and puzzles did not go smoothly the day before. Three, the small flub ups during KHOU's visit. And four, the parts where I was passive-aggressive. I really felt that this was my project and that it was going well until those final moments where I lost control. All I wanted was for it to end smoothly and at those instances, they weren't. One thing about this company that amazes me is that they want the workers to improve themselves professionally and personally. They basically pointed out that I could have handled the passive-aggressive situations better and suggested how. While I defended myself at the time, I was still so drained that I wasn't thinking straight. Even talking to the owner about it days later, I still felt I was in the right, but handled it poorly.

We kept in contact with KHOU and they informed us that our news segment would air after the Grammy's that Sunday. I was very nervous as it was getting closer and closer to the air time. There was even a preview video that went up that got myself and others excited.

https://t.co/0i0e6dLzVt

Once it aired, I was relieved, but wasn't fully satisfied with the video. Of course a lot was left on the cutting room floor (I know how that is), but they also kept in a few things we asked them not to (we even refilmed some of those). So once I was sent the video from one of the owner's friend (I wasn't able to rip it so I'm glad he got it), I reedited it. Not only that, but I also set up our YouTube page to make sure it was operational and good to present to the public (subscribe, please).


Ever since the video aired, we had been swamped with bookings. Our booking site even crashed, crazy. While there were plenty of things stressful about the video, it is definitely a positive thing for the company.

- A lot of silly things happen in our escape rooms. One recent thing was I was offered a boob flash for a clue, ha. Not only that, but the person who suggested it offered her friend's boobs rather than her own. In the end, no boobs were flashed. I wouldn't have accepted the offer anyways.

- We also have two new employees/agents. One isn't always available (she has only worked on Valentine's Day). The other has a more flexible schedule and has (as of this typing) finished her training. She still needs to work on the briefing and debriefing parts of her job, but otherwise she has fit in and does her job well. 

- I had another project given to me. One lady asked if we could do a pregnancy reveal. After she went through the room herself with her husband, she continued her correspondence with us via email. All the employees were forwarded her email (02.20) with her ideas asking if this was doable or if we had our own ideas. I remember reading the email that night and just thinking of ideas. Fortunately, I couldn't sleep so I stayed up until 2 in the morning typing out my grand scheme. Rather than changing the room, my idea was to alter it and add some baby things to it (pacifier, bottle, etc). The biggest change would be editing the video that reveals a clue (not much a spoiler for those who have yet to come through the room yet) and to add something else to the item they find. Not only that, but I changed the mission briefing (Special Episode: Mo's Misconception). The other agents liked it and it was green lit by the owner. I was then given the go ahead to continue the emails with this customer and to see if she liked it, which she was head over heels for.

I originally asked Agent K if she could buy all the baby stuff we needed, but she was too busy with school and her HER schedule. So I took the venture myself to Babies R Us (02.22) to get all the items. It was a bit odd being by myself in the store. I'm pretty sure the workers thought I was just a single dad or something, ha. The oddest thing to me was that I just bought one single bottle of baby food rather than a whole lot of food.

Since the video was to be changed, I asked Agents K and Z if they could stay longer (02.25) so we could do this. They did really well as they didn't mess up a lot. I did make them do it 5-6 times just so I could have different angles to use. I then edited it that night (until 2AM), uploaded it as unlisted on our YouTube channel, and emailed all the agents to get some feedback. They all liked it. I then tested the DVD after work (02.26). Unfortunately, it was the wrong aspect ratio and I could not change it on the TV. I reedited it that night. Then I went to work the next day (02.27) on my off day around 11AM to test it. It worked. I do find it...lame...that I spent an hour driving to work (and an hour back home) to test something out in 2 minutes. I did do a few other things while I was there, but only stayed for about 20-30 minutes. I just needed to make sure it worked because there would be no fixing it if it didn't work the day of.

Finally, the day came (02.28). It was already predetermined that I would be running this session solo (even though others wanted to be there as well) to make sure everything went well. Once their group started arriving before 7, that's when I started to get nervous. We changed all the items that needed to be switched after the last group. The pregnant lady was playing the role of observer since she had done it weeks prior. My big thing was telling the revised briefing not so smoothly. There was actually a part that I stumbled a lot and I blurted out "I'm so flustered that this is happening to us" referring to the new briefing, but I really was flustered at that moment. The owner and his wife arrived just as I started bringing the group in so I couldn't even greet them.

Inside, the mother-to-be was very excited. She applauded every time they realized something went to something rather than them completing the task first, ha. There was only one time I told her to sit back and relax. I did tell her a few times not to clean up anything (she attributed it to her OCD). While there was a worry that her group of friends would realize she was pregnant by some of the alterations to the room, they weren't. As I had predicted, they were too engrossed into the game to notice. They actually thought that Agent Mo was pregnant, ha. But once they were at the final part of the reveal, I had the expectant mother hover around them. The reaction and looks on their faces were priceless as they discovered the news and started cheering and hugging her. I even heard the other agents outside cheering as I knew they were outside listening in. I gave the ladies 2 minutes to be caught up in the moment, but I reminded them that they still needed to escape, ha. They went right back into the game and escaped with 59 seconds remaining.

After all the normal business stuff was taken care of, we gave the ladies a bit of time to just reflect on what happened. The mother-to-be clued them into the planning process and I shared a few stories about how it all came together as well as point out a few things that they might have missed. I also presented the mother of the future a card that was signed by all the agents congratulating her on her pregnancy. Talking about this experience to others has been great. This is easily the proudest moment in my professional career. I still tell others about it. I'm just glad to have been part of this process in creating a memorable moment for others. If we ever do another pregnancy reveal, which we could, I already coined the phrase "Houston Escape Womb."

=========================

- Amber of f(x) released her solo album. I really like the main title song, Shake That Brass. It's not the best song in the world, but it's definitely a fun one.


- I received the latest BoA concert on blu-ray on the 28th, Who's Back. I have yet to watch it though. I will some time in March.


- February's sleep schedule is still off. I still have to have background noise on to help my fall asleep. Does this continue in March? I know the answer. Find out in next month's entry.  

- The Houston Escape Room has been crazy for February. I didn't realize that I had these two projects to take care of. But it's good we had them happen. March is already crazy so expect a write up about it in the next entry.  

- That's it for February of 2015. Tune in next month for the next thrilling episode.

Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.

 
Take care. DFTBA.

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Monday, February 9, 2015

January 2015 Entry



This entry is late because I've been pretty dang busy.

=========================

- Thanks to the late Christmas gifts I got last year, I had a lot to watch/rewatch. But I knew I wouldn't sit down and watch all. I finished all of the Legend of Zelda cartoon on the 1st (had it on as background noise for the most part). It had been decades since I last saw this show and I still enjoyed it even though it's bad, ha. On the 2nd, I watched the Rurouni Kenshin New Kyoto Arc. Very well done. I highly recommend that to any Kenshin fans.

- I had ordered some Running Man gear towards the end of 2014. Consider them part 3 of late Christmas presents. They arrived on the 5th. The blue hoodie is from episode 114 and the red jacket is from episode 173 if anyone needs a frame of reference. The Gary nametag (from a different seller) also came the same day. I actually now own 2 Gary nametags. I was never sent a notification to pick up the first one for almost 4 months. I contacted the seller 2 months after I ordered it because I knew it would take long, but not that long. The seller sent out another one. The first nametag actually got bundled with the jacket and hoodie when I picked them up at the post office (so it had just been sitting there for months). The second one arrived the day after, ha.



- Went to the doctor on the 6th just for a checkup. It has been a while. The funniest thing the doctor said was "your bowels are very active," ha. Everything turned out fine. I did mention I had issues hearing out of my left ear so we scheduled a cleaning. Ever since December, it became difficult to hear. Basically, something at the volume of 15 sounded like a 5. Yeah...  

My ear irrigation happened on the 16th. The right one was no problem and got cleaned out easy. My left ear...that was another story. Lots of peroxide and lots of pressurized water went into that ear. 2 hours later, we called it quits. The ear wax was too stubborn. They prescribed ear wax to soften it up and we scheduled a second irrigation for the 21st.

The second irrigation only last about half an hour. We just came to the conclusion that an ENT needed to actually do the work since a normal irrigation wasn't cutting it. Yeah, the ear wax was that stubborn. So I set up an appointment at a different hospital for the 29th.

The ENT had these Phreesia touch pads that they used for patients to fill in their information and I really liked those. I had never seen them before, but I hope other hospitals are using them. They're easy to use and make sure to get all your information properly. And you can even swipe your credit card on them.

Anyways, using the better tools that the ENT had, it took about 10 minutes to get the ear wax out. It was painful, but I had to bare with it. The ball of ear wax wasn't as big as it was 4-5 years ago, but that wasn't the issue. The doctor said that the wax was attached to the walls of my ear canal, which made it more difficult and painful to remove. That was also why a normal ear irrigation was only able to chip away at it and not remove it completely. Everything was so loud after that. I am glad to finally hear properly again.

- Some DragonBall Z items came in the mail. Those include a Funko Pop Vinyl Vegeta, a scouter, and a work shirt. I also ordered another DBZ item in February. You'll see that in next month's entry.





- A friend and I met up (01.09.15) to get a Thai massage, the one where they walk on you. It was my first time getting one of those and it felt pretty good. I found out that my right side of my body is more sensitive than the left. Not only that, I really can't bend backwards anymore. One of the stretches required the masseuse to pull my arms and my back together. I couldn't take it as it hurt too much (much like doing the Snake pose for yoga). The rest of it was great though. Then my friend and I went to eat ice cream and catch up.

- Met up with a group of friends for a board game night on the 17th. Some of them I had not seen for a while and others I met for the first time. We played Resistance and it was my first time playing that. Oddly, I was almost on the enemy side and no one trusted me throughout all our sessions, ha. It was hilarious though. We then played a 3 hour game of Munchkin. It was the first time for a lot of them, but they got into it. The person lagging behind the most throughout the game ended up winning. Well deserved. Fun night.

- There was a WWE Live Event in Houston on the 18th. It had been a while since I went to a live event (non-TV/PPV). My friend and I had a blast. It was the first time I dual-wielded title belts and the first time I brought out my NXT title belt.

Usos defeated Miz and Mizdow. Mizdow was hilarious.
Sin Cara defeated Tyson Kidd. Everyone laughed when Kidd said "ask him in Spanish."
Justin Gabriel defeated Adam Rose.
Jack Swagger defeated Curtis Axel.
Paige, Emma, and Naomi defeated Alicia Fox, Cameron, and Summer Rae. All the Divas look amazing in person. I was crushing on Paige so hard.
Roman Reigns defeated Rusev via DQ. Lana is super pretty in person. Reigns actually passed by us during his entrance so that was pretty cool.
Chris Jericho defeated Cesaro. I wish they had a longer match, but it was good.
Dean Ambrose defeated Bray Wyatt in a Street Fight. Awesome match to end the night.

I might have forgotten a match or two, but that was the bulk of it. It was a fun night.

- Some friends and I went to Empire Turkish Cafe on the 23rd. I had not seen them for months. It was good to see them and to catch up some. After eating there, we went to Sweet Paris to talk more. It ranged from work talk, movies, serious stuff, and more. But it was good to reconnect with them on that level again.  

- On the 30th, those of us that met on the 17th gathered again for more board games along with a couple others. We played Cards Against Humanity (my first time), Resistance (hilarious and I was mostly the enemy again, ha), and then we split into 2 groups with one playing Settlers of Catan and one playing Dominion (my first time). Dominion was interesting, but there are just a lot of cards to learn and remember. I ended up getting second place in points since I ended up buying them a lot throughout. After we finished Dominion, we joined the others playing Catan until they finished around 1AM. Very fun night.

=========================

- I didn't buy a new game this month. Since I had been busy, my gaming time has been cut down. I was able to play more of the Phoenix Wright Trilogy (last stopped somewhere in case 5 of the first game). And I bought more DLC for Curtain Call.




- I needed to reserve Majora's Mask for the 3DS. I went to GameStop, but they could only help order any limited edition copies to be mailed. Apparently that's the way they're going for all/most limited editions of games from now on. So I did that on the 7th. Got the Ultimate Limited Edition version with the game, Skull Kid figure, and the strategy guide.

And then after the awesome Nintendo Direct on the 14th, I went to GameStop again to reserve the Majora's Mask version of the New 3DSXL. So I'm ready for those when they come in the mail on the 13th of February.

Also I got a tons of favorites and retweets since I tweeted to iJustine about the Nintendo Direct. Always a cool feeling when someone you follow gets excited about what you tweet at them and retweets it for everyone.



- Bowser was the next amiibo I wanted. Unfortunately, release dates had been a bit wonky and the preorder window is minimal or nonexistent. On the 30th, I went to my local GameStop in hopes they would have one since their site said they had low stock. Lucky for me, I got the last one. I wanted to reserve Ness, but they weren't taking any preorders. Ness is the next amiibo on my wish list (although I will collect more along the way).



=========================

Lots of stuff happened at the Houston Escape Room. I'll touch on a few of those things.

- On the 3rd, there was this group of older women having a girls' night out. They were already cracking jokes in the lobby while we were waiting for the other half of their team (a group of strangers) to join. One lady asked if there were any hot firemen, ha. Then one fixed the anagram on our desk to say something something "hot cop." Well, the other group was going to be late so we decided to let the ladies in first. They came up with the name "Hot Flashes" for their team. And while introducing all the agents, instead of my usual one, I said they could call me "Hot Cop" much to their delight. Then I (unintentionally) said "thank you for coming" to which they went crazy for again and then I said "you're welcome." And thus, Hot Cop was born. One of the Hot Flashes left us a great review and even mentioned a certain cop in the review, ha.


- We had our second company outing to Austin on the 12th. We were going to the same place again, but we were attempting their new "bigger" room. This was also the first trip the new hires were going to be a part of so it was a good bonding experience. We went to get donuts (same place Natalie Tran went to when she was in Austin), went up a small mountain, went to Dragon's Den again, went to the Panic Room, beat it with 1 second to spare, at a Korean restaurant (I forget the name, but I had been there previously with other friends), and drove back home. During the drive back home, we played a word game (last letter of the first word was to be the first letter of the next word) with the categories of movies, video games (my suggestion), and TV. Then we played another word game (next word starts with the next sequential alphabet letter), but with Pokemon for the topic. That lasted the rest of the way as we named so many. My proudest moment of that was when I was next for V and out of nowhere I pulled out Vanillish much to everyone's surprise as I was mainly naming generation one Pokemon.

The only downside to that trip was that I got a little ill (early in the trip) and I lost my voice after the Panic Room. It was odd trying to reserve the New 3DSXL with no voice as well as trying to work with no voice considering we do have to talk. Luckily others were there for that while I handled all the other tasks.


- The owner was in town for a couple weeks as a lot of stuff was happening. A friend of his was also in town and he was going to help us redesign our lobby and corporate conference room. Not only that, but he was going to help us by setting up team meetings so that we could all get together to come up with ideas to improve the area and flow of our processes.

One thing that happened on the day of our first meeting, the facilitators were surprised with a trip to our competitors a few blocks down, the one with the zombie. It was an interesting experience. It was definitely different from what we offer, but I was more pissed off than anything. My main task halfway through the game was to distract the zombie while everyone else worked. This also had me jumping off and onto a lot of the furniture to evade the zombie (got touched twice). I had no problem with that, but I was yelling at my teammates when they weren't distracting the zombie when I needed help doing something. But in the end, I gave props to the zombie actress and joked around with her. We all got a lot of props from the work crew there, but I feel like they rattled off a lot for me (could be wrong). PS: my nickname for that session was Hot Cop.

And that day in particular wasn't over yet as I had received a phone call from a friend's boyfriend about the possibility of setting up a surprise birthday for her at HER. I called up the owner and asked if it were okay and it was. So my friend and her friends got to beta test the second room. They didn't make it out unfortunately, ha. But that wasn't the last time we would see her that week.

- HER had done an event with Bite Macaron in the past before I started working with them. They wanted to keep that working relationship alive and I was the connection since my friend is the owner/head chef. We were emailing back and forth about offering their team a chance to try out the original room at the new location. We finally settled on a day (the 25th, which was originally my day off to watch the Royal Rumble, but I came in for that last session just for them). It was great seeing familiar faces go through the room. They made it out too. Afterwards, we spent a lot of time talking. My friend and I broke off to just speak one-on-one. We're both of the same mind that after 14-15 years of friendship, it's crazy that we're now collaborating. All future collaborations will fall under the hashtag #BiteHER.


- Construction of the new conference room and lobby did change things for our normal operations. We now lock our front door since that's where construction is happening and reroute our customers through another door. I'm glad that has been working out and no customers have said it was an inconvenience. While I was skeptical of all the changes, I'm excited to see the finished product because it can't be worse than what we started with.

- I say this almost every time it happens, but it's great to see friends come through the room whether they knew I worked there or not. It's always interesting watching them go through it and to talk to them about it afterwards. Unfortunately, all customers can't be great. We have our share of crappy customers and there was one group that really got to me. Some of them didn't seem like they wanted to be there (their boss made them go), some wanted to go back to happy hour afterwards, some made too many jokes (I never liked "that's what she said" jokes), and some flat out said this is stupid. It was unprofessional of me, but I didn't even give them the full debriefing. I through in the comment that "it seems like most of you want to hurry along to happy hour" or something to that degree and just quickly got them their belongings back before ushering them out. My coworkers easily noticed my unhappiness and it was tough for me to hold it back. That day in particular just wasn't a good day and that group topped it off. Anyways, part of the territory.

- There has been more that happened in January that carried into February. As of typing this, a news story was broadcast on KHOU 11. I'll link the video here, but will talk about that experience in the next entry.

http://www.khou.com/story/entertainment/2015/02/09/escape-room-comes-to-houston/23126763/

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- Infinity Challenge is a Korean variety show I don't watch all the time (sometimes just clips), but their Saturday Singers special was incredible. Bringing back singers from the 90s to perform some of their greatest hits was so good. Heck, I'm rewatching it for maybe the 5th time while typing this (02.09.15). I wasn't a fan of all the performers featured, but I knew almost all the songs. I sang and cheered along to almost everyone of them. The standouts for me were SES, Jinusean, Lee Jung Hyun (wow, she doesn't age), Uhm Jung Hwa, and Kim Gun Mo. I literally shed tears of happiness after SES performed. Everything about this special was great from the artists, the songs, the outfits, the old school camera movements and graphics (the little things), and so much more. I really hope they do something like this again with other past artists because there are so many from that era that I was fond of.

 

- One unfortunate thing about this year is that I've to have background noise on for me to sleep. It's nothing new that my brain just keeps thinking and it prevents me from sleeping, but I've had to do this every night this year so far. There was only one day that I was able to sleep for 3 hours without any, but I had to turn something on to sleep the rest of the night. And yes, this has continued onto February although it has felt a little easier falling asleep so far. I'll be trying on and off to see how it works. Hopefully it won't be like this for that much longer.  

- HER is a big part of my life. I didn't mention everything that had been going on earlier, but there has been a lot. And all of us are investing a lot of time into the company because not only do we need to, we want to. It's so fun meeting new people all the time and just helping them have a fun memorable experience. I want everyone I know to come through. When catching up with others, I proudly talk about my job and that I'm actually happy with what I do where I work. So if you wonder why I'm so busy lately, why I haven't been watching wrestling live a lot lately, why I'm not playing games as much lately, or why this entry is late, it's because I'm at the Houston Escape Room.

- And that should do it for January 2015. February has been busy also so you'll be reading about that next month.

Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.


Take care. DFTBA. 

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Friday, January 2, 2015

December 2014 Entry



There really wasn't much that happened in December. It was mostly work. But I'll highlight some things.

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- I got a few AJ Lee items. One was a Pop Vinyl figure. It finally became available again and I immediately ordered it and preordered a new shirt of hers (and got a $25 gift card that order). Although the figure didn't arrive at first. The gift card arrived in a small package with what should have been the figure. The envelope package was obviously too small for the figure. When I opened it, it was mistakenly packed with a Bella Twins bracelet...yeah, definitely the wrong item. Thankfully they sent the figure out and it arrived a week later. The shirt came shortly after.



The $25 gift card went to use later on. After watching the latest NXT PPV, NXT Takeover REvolution, I was pumped and excited. Here's my full quote I posted in a Facebook wrestling group I'm a part of.

"I wasn't able to watch this live, but I just finished it and damn was that a great two hours. From top to bottom, everyone shined and performed the hell out of themselves.

Kevin Owens, got goosebumps as soon as he walked on stage. Finn Balor's entrance and paint...holy sh!t. Charlotte and Sasha Banks showed what women's wrestling is all about and Charlotte showed some great intensity. Zayn and Neville; this is what you get when you put 2 great workers together, build a storyline properly, give them enough time in the ring, and have the crowd emotionally invested from start to finish. Applause and cheers for everyone involved in last night's show.

I'm so invested now with this amazing crop of talent that I splurged and pre-ordered an NXT replica title belt right after watching Takeover. NXT! NXT! NXT!"  

And that NXT title arrived a week later. Now I have 2 titles to carry with me to live events. Can't wait to take a badass picture with them.


And if I ever cosplay in the near future, it would be Finn Balor's NXT REvolution body paint. Videos of the entire entrance have been deleted off of YouTube unfortunately. It's still crazy amazing. I'd need help pulling it off, but I would definitely do it.


- I'm not sure when this happened, but my laptop no longer holds a charge. For the last few months, it was able to hold at least 20-25% of a charge. No more. It needs to be plugged in to be used. I used to take it daily to work, but I just use the PC there. I only use it for blu-rays and watching variety shows. It has served me well for the last 3-4 years. It shall forever be plugged in to be used.

- For the second year in a row, I was sick on Christmas day. I was starting to feel it a few days before and was trying to prevent it from happening, but the last day after work it all hit me at once. I was feeling okay, but texted the manager at work just in case. On the 28th, I felt okay, but not 100% for work. Although it went away once I got to work (maybe adrenaline). As the hours went by, the sickness caught up again and I ended up leaving work early. The goal at that point was to get better to go back into work the last few days of 2014.

- On the 27th, I received my copy of Girls' Generation Love & Peace Japan 3rd Tour on blu-ray. I wasn't sure when I'd watch it, but being sick was a good time to see it (12.29). It was very good and it did make me feel better while watching. Plus it was the last one that Jessica was a part of. I have their latest concert they did without her, but I haven't gotten around to watching it yet.


- Throughout the year, I had been watching Ai Tenchi Muyo. I finished watching the last batch of episodes on the 31st. It was good to see the Tenchi crew back in action, but I wasn't impressed with the overall series. I didn't mind the short 3-5 minute episodes since they were easier to take in, but then they'd waste every 5th episode recapping the previous 4. The story itself felt lackluster and the large new cast wasn't that memorable. I'd recommend this to Tenchi fans, but not highly.  

- A really good friend invited me to his New Year's Eve Party a week before it was to happen. This was around the time I was sick so I had an extra reason to get better soon. Thankfully I was better and was able to attend.

I arrived early and helped with some of the set up. I also met my friend's girlfriend for the first time (congratulations). She's pretty cool. Then more people filtered in. While I greeted people who I had met at other parties he has thrown and met some other new faces, I mainly stuck with a few that I already knew well. I should have mingled a little more.

It was a very fun night. It felt good doing a countdown with others again. While I had been asked to dance during certain songs throughout the night (Michael Jackson songs, Gangnam Style, etc), I declined as I really didn't want to make others stop. But then I had the itch. I requested my friend play Apache and it was on. A lot were shocked that I was "actually" dancing and were wondering where I was earlier in the night (I danced in different areas, just not the main area). It felt good, but it took a lot out of me.

I also made a bold move to start off the new year even though I was nervous to do it. I'm doubting it will lead to anything, but confidence boosters are helpful. So helpful that I reached out to another friend just to wish a happy new year. But we both were of the same mind that we need to hang out more. I'm hoping that comes to fruition. 

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- My activities on my gaming account aren't as much as usual. Same goes for my gaming in general. So to cut back on a few things, my reviews are now shorter (bullet points and 1-2 paragraphs). I did 2 of those for the last 2 games I played in 2014.

- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U) - Review

There really is nothing wrong with the Wii U Smash Bros. I just didn't invest much time into it. At least all the characters and stages are unlocked.


- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (3DS) -  Review

At first I was just going to buy this for collection purposes (digital only), but then I had the itch to play it. It's always great going back to these cases. This time I'm actually not using a walkthrough. Almost every time I used one whenever I would get stuck. This time I'm just going by memory and by paying more attention than usual. As of typing this (01.02), I'm on the 5th case of the first game.


- Games of 2014
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/747226608698675

Just like 2013, I made a list of my favorite games of 2014. While I had less time to play games towards the end of the year, I still played a lot. Hundreds of hours are spent just between a small handful of games. But 2014 was a fun gaming year for me. Looking forward to 2 Zelda games and a new StarFox game for 2015.

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- The Houston Escape Room, the place where I am most of the time now. It's been good to me. And if you didn't know, I'm behind most of their social media. I never used Instagram until now for them. So connect with us to see all the good stuff.

Our HER family is growing. We hired 2 new agents in training. They've been doing really well so far. I'm confident with their ability to reset the room and read the rules. They just need to expand more with other duties (briefing, debriefing, etc) as well as step up when handling the customers. They'll get there soon. But it definitely is great having more hands on deck.

Not only that, but the owner and his wife returned for the holidays. It was good to see their faces and have their energy around. I even made/requested that the owner read the rules at least once while he was here, ha.

And speaking of the holidays, myself and Agent K were put in charge of putting together our first ever HER Christmas Party. My main duties were to come up with the games we were going to play (because I had talked about what I had set up in previous years) as well as do online shopping for decorations. It felt really good as the decorations started arriving one by one. It has actually been many years since I did any Christmas decorating or even had a Christmas tree. I was really proud of how everything looked. The tree was the most problematic as the one I bought did not come with a stand. We had to create a make shift stand and it worked. I was feeling the Christmas magic once the tree stood tall and still.

The Christmas party was on the 19th. In preparation for it, I ordered an ugly (but awesome) sweater since we were supposed to do an ugly sweater contest. And I had a hair appointment that morning. Other than the planning and decorating, I also arranged to get a macaron tree from my friend's macaron shop.



The party was fun. For games, I chose 5 out of the 12-15 games I had set up in the past and they went over well. It was good for everyone (who some had never met until that night) to break out of their shells. Even after those, everyone was mingling well. I will admit, I felt a disconnect from out of nowhere. Negative thoughts of incidents in the past got in my head and I needed to talk to the owner just to vent. But that didn't ruin the night. Everyone had a great time and that was the point. Overall, a success.

On the 21st, I finally had a friend come through the room ever since I started working there. Funny thing is, I had not seen this friend in over a decade. She was visiting family for the holidays and enjoyed puzzles rooms and was overly excited to find out that Houston had one. We caught up for a little bit, but of course work doesn't allow for much talk time between the customers and agents. But it definitely was awesome to finally see a friend go through the room. Hopefully more will come soon as a lot have expressed interest (and I handed out quite a few business cards during the New Year's Eve party).

Something else happened on the 21st. We had our first team escape ever since moving to the new location. The owner happened to be there that day as well. Myself, the agent in training with me, Agent Z, and the owner all gave them a round of applause for being the first team to successfully escape. They finished with 3:22 left on the clock. While it was a cool moment, I was a little disappointed it happened. I wanted us to reach 100-0 before openly challenging people to beat the room. We were so close; 98-1.

It didn't stop there. We had our second team escape on the 28th. They were the 118th team to come through and they finished with 13:34 left. It's good to see teams finally win though. There was a lot of talk that no one being able to win was a bad thing. Even though I wanted to reach 100 wins, I still agreed. We had been consistently altering the room to help make things easier for teams to win. At least we're now at a point knowing that it is possible with how things are set up now.

While we're on the topic of rooms, our second room is very close to being ready to be alpha/beta tested. While the owner was here, he told us that he wanted us to test the room. He understood that we all wanted to just experience the room once it was done, but we also needed to have the room ready sooner than later for customers. I forget which day, but myself and the female agent in training went through it with the owner guiding us when we got stuck (because this wasn't an officially time tested session). We had fun and gave praise to some of the clever puzzles and set ups. I believe a few days later, I went through it again with the male agent in training when we didn't have a session scheduled. By that time, a few extra things were added and that was good to see. And of course we all gave feedback after all of us had gone through the room so that we can improve and have it ready. The second room should be ready for public alpha/beta testing in January. So if you've gone through the old room, you have a reason to come back to us now.

Another thing that happened while the owner was around was that he bought everyone on staff Christmas gifts. All the senior facilitators got the same gift, which was awesome...but half of us already had a 3DSXL. He felt bad, but we appreciated the thought because that is an awesome gift. But of course he told us we can exchange it since we had gift receipts. I returned mine a couple days later. We could only exchange it for a gift card at Target (where he bought it). I wasn't sure what to get so I only bought a $50 eShop card the day of. A couple days later, I just thought to check online for some online only deals. Good thing I did because I was able to purchase a few things off my Amazon wish list as well as a Figma figure I had my eyes on for a while (crazy to see Target have it and others for sale online). So the 3DSXL the owner bought was exchanged to get multiple awesome gifts so...thank you.



On the last day of the year, we had an unfortunate incident. We had a power outage due to an exposed wire being pulled. Sparks flew and the lights in the room (and several adjacent rooms) went out. I paused the game and got the key to escape in the dark and left to call the manager in. Unfortunately we had to get everyone out and hand out refunds/reschedulings. That also went for the team after who we called to tell them we had a power outage. Crazy situation, but at least no one got hurt and nothing else got damaged. We spent the next 30-60 minutes taking down all the Christmas decorations and I got to leave early for the New Year's Eve party. Not the best way to end the year at HER, but that can also be a good sign. I know some people perceive bad occurrences as a sign of good luck. I'm going to chalk this incident as one of those. I'm looking forward to bigger and better things for the Houston Escape Room in 2015.

And if I haven't said it in a previous post, I'm very happy with being part of the HER team. I can't recall ever being excited to go to work or even saying I was happy with my job. Here I am. Thank you, Houston Escape Room.

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- (EDIT 01.03.15: forgot to add this) One thing I did in 2014 was wear a hat every time I went out. Proud to say I only forgot to do this once throughout the entire year. I won't be retiring the hats, but I'm not going to be wearing them on a daily basis in 2015.

- 2014 was full of ups and downs. The biggest down was my grandmother passing away. I still think of her occasionally, but mostly for fond memories of a wonderful woman. The biggest up has been the Houston Escape Room. I can't thank the owner enough for letting me be part of this awesome team as they grow. I have no resolutions for 2015 as past resolutions never panned out. I will just take things as they come and take a few more calculated risks. You can bet that I'll be saying all the bad and good things that happen as I have done for the past few years here on this blog. And while I always thank you for reading, I really do mean it. Those that choose to read what happens in my life and care about it, thank you.

Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.



Take care. DFTBA.

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