Thursday, June 9, 2016

May 2016 Entry

May has ended. Felt like a lot happened. 

========================= 

- Payback (05.01) and Extreme Rules (05.22) were fun events to watch. Definitely great talent on the roster. AJ Styles has been having great matches. And Seth Rollins has returned. I really can't wait for those 2 to have a feud somewhere down the line.  

Eric Young's debut on NXT (05.05) was great. So far he has only had his match against Samoa Joe. Hope he gets used more in the near future. 

And Smackdown will finally go live starting July 19th. Having the brand split again will be interesting. This should make for further character investment. Wonder who will be on RAW by the time they come back to Houston at the end of August.  

- Got my copy of SNSD's Phantasia concert (05.11). It took flipping through the photo book to realize I already watched the concert. Wouldn't have been the first time I've done that. Just saved some time. I might go back and watch it though if time permits. 




- I don't know when and which video it was that made this happen, but I have been binge watching REACT videos. I have been watching a few here and there, but all of a sudden I started to just watch them back to back. I really enjoy the Teens more than the rest and I have my favorites (Tori is absolutely my ideal daughter). I've recently been bouncing back and forth between Kids and Adults as well. And an odd thing is seeing older videos to see some of the Kids graduate to Teens and Teens to Adults. It's actually pretty amazing to see them grow and evolve. 
  

One of my absolute favorite videos was Teens VS Food - Crickets. 


 - A friend asked to borrow some video equipment some time ago. It took a while for us to meet up again, but he finally came over to return the stuff (05.28). We had a nice talk to catch up. It's good to hear that he's still involved and enjoying Dragon Boat racing and training. And it's good to see he's still doing fine in all other aspects in his life. Still one of the most genuine people I know. 

- Went to an escape room, but not with coworkers. Friends that have been to ours and enjoy them got a Groupon and asked me to come with them. It was my first time doing an escape room with others ever since my first escape room. It was interesting working with others. We made it out with just under 8 minutes left. Great doing that with them and catching up with them. My record is now 12 escapes out of 14.  

- And I don't remember when I started taking it, but I'm taking Biotin now for my hair. Don't see the difference yet. Hopefully soon.  

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

- Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (Wii U) - Review (05.09) 

I received a free download code from a gaming Facebook group during the Nintendo Humble Bundle. I had always been curious about the Shantae games so this was a good time to see what it was all about. I did enjoy it and ended up 100% the game in one sitting. I was attempting to do it all in one day, but it did leak into the first hour of the following day. I do plan to buy and beat the rest of them some time soon. 

 

- The next installment of the Ace Attorney series got announced, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. (05.11) Definitely getting it when it comes out and devoting time to beating it. 


- I have a document that is a list of all the games I own (physical and digital). I added a category to it about which ones I reviewed. (05.12) There were a lot. Doing game reviews was (and still is) a nice outlet). You can see how my writing style changed over the years (over a decade of reviews). I was really surprised to see that I actually reviewed 23 games in 2005. That's almost 2 games a month, crazy. Now I'm lucky if I even play a game in a month let a long beat it.  

- Retro City Rampage DX (3DS) - Review  

This was an alright game. I played it a couple times here and there and finally beat it (05.22). I remember I was really interested in the game when it was first announced, but felt a bit underwhelmed when I actually played it. Not a horrible game, but just not something I would highly recommend. 


- It has been sitting in the game slot of my N3DS ever since it came out, but I finally started playing Mega Man Legacy Collection (05.23). My goal is to beat one Mega Man per week if time allows.  


- Friends/Coworkers went to New York. I mentioned they should stop by the Nintendo Store while they were there and they asked what amiibo I was still looking for. They ended up going to a few other stores before finding a Lucina amiibo. Yay.  



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

- We celebrated HER's 2 Year Anniversary at the beginning of May (05.01). It's not true to the actual date (which we debate about, ha), but better to celebrate it than not. We had crawfish for our meal, went around writing questions to draw and answer from a hat (I ended up having to dance again), tried make a Rube Goldberg Machine for an activity, had a little talk to wrap things up, and played a few rounds of Guesstures. A memorable event.  

- I mentioned last month that we did a promotion for Teacher Appreciation Day. Along with that, we did a Houston Astros Tickets Giveaway (05.05). We'll probably be experimenting a bit more with these types of advertising ventures.  

- Just like last year, we did a small little thing to make Mother's Day special.  

- We had to release a trainee this month (05.17). It's unfortunate as the trainee was getting better. Just couldn't meet our expectations we laid out in the time frame given. Training people is interesting. It's more interesting seeing some exceed expectations. The ones that struggle, we help them if we're able to. In the end, they are provided with the tools necessary and they have to utilize them properly.   

- Finally have my PC up and running again (05.27). Thanks to Agent Gig and Agent Yeti's boyfriend, the issue(s) was finally resolved. Pretty much started editing on it as soon as possible so you should be seeing some new videos soon. Feels good. 

- One of our best Hunks of HER photos taken was provided by Agent Voxel. He was actually being very silly that whole night and it culminated in the photo you see. Agent Obsidian and I laughed so dang much, ha. Great way to end the night.  

- And this month's HER Blog (05.31) was written by me. Since we were celebrating our 2 year anniversary, me being chosen was appropriate (according to Agent Majordomo).  

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

- Tiffany - I Just Wanna Dance (MV) 

- Jessica - Fly (MV) 

Jessica - Love Me The Same (MV) 

I do like Love Me The Same more as a song. But after seeing her performance of Fly and hearing the fan chants, I grew to like that song more. Wish she did more performances at least. 

I also received both Tiffany and Jessica's albums at the end of the month (05.31). I like both, but I'm leaning towards liking Jessica's more. Don't know if it's because she was my bias when she was in SNSD, but I just like it more. But if you want to talk about all 3 solo albums from the SNSD members, I actually like TaeYeon's the best as of right now. It might be because I listened to it more. We'll see if my mind changes after listening to Tiffany and Jessica's albums more. One thing that's for sure is that Tiffany has been looking so damn hot.  



- And lastly...I started using a dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel (05.12). I won't get into any details about why I never used one before until now, but I had to dive in. Plus I didn't want to use anything common. A friend of mine recommended Coffee Meets Bagel because she has other friends that use it. Did my research and thought it was different from the ones I hear others use. Don't expect to hear/read constant updates about it. If something positive happens, you'll most likely know. Until then, stay tuned.  

That's all for May. Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

April 2016 Entry

We’re already a third of the year in. It’s fast at times, but thinking back, it felt slow.

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

- Didn’t get to watch NXT TakeOver: Dallas live, but I listened to it on the way home from work and finished it the next day (04.02). Great matches from top to bottom. American Alpha winning the tag titles was a great way to start the show. Zayn VS Nakamura, I’ve rewatched that match so many times. The crowd was amazing and it was reflective of the action they got.  

Wrestlemania 32 (04.03) was good. A lot of memorable moments. Great IC Title Ladder Match to start things off.  Wrestlemania moment with Mick Foley, HBK, and Stone Cold. The Women’s Championship being revealed and the match between Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte was amazing. Shane of course had the spot of the night. The event did end on a sour note, but I think most were expecting that.  

RAW the following night (04.04) was fun, but a little tame compared to previous years. Still very memorable with cool debuts. Enzo Amore and Big Cass, that was much anticipated and lived up to the hype.

Smackdown (04.05) was live in Houston and I went with a dear friend. The Main Event and Smackdown tapings were fun. We chanted, cheered, and booed a lot. I was going nuts as usual. I also realized I was sporting only Women’s Division gear (Sasha shirt and rings, Asuka mask, and Bayley wrist bands). Only downside was that this was the second live event I sported Sasha Banks gear and she wasn’t there. Maybe next time as me and two friends will be going to RAW at the end of August.


- I’m a fan of the Naked Gun movies. It was after watching those that I learned that it was based off a short lived TV show, Police Squad. When someone online mentioned that there was DVD collection of it, I had to buy it (04.11).  Didn’t watch it right away, but I did watch all 6 episodes in one sitting as well as the extras. Great comedy. Highly recommend it.


- My parents went with aunts and uncles for a 2 week trip to Barcelona (04.12). It’s always interesting with them gone. The main difference is I buy more fast food, ha.  

- Picked up the latest DC animated movie, Justice League VS Teen Titans, and Straight Outta Dudleyville (04.12.16). I really enjoyed the DC movie. While this iteration of Robin has been my least favorite, this was his best movie. All of it was done well. Can’t wait for The Killing Joke.
The Dudley Boys documentary was a good one. I was really surprised that they spoke about their TNA careers for a few minutes. No mention of Aces & Eights, but they talked about Bubba/Bully being world champion. Defiitely a good watch for fans of the Dudleys.  


- Went to the Japan Festival (04.17) for the 8th year in a row. Called up a friend I made from those flash mobs I used to coordinate to come with me. While we had gone a couple years ago together, this time was more fun. More of the same stuff as usual, but I enjoyed it a little more than recent years. Surprisingly, I did not see anyone I knew this year. Usually I’d run into someone I had not seen in a while, but not this time.

One thing we did that I normally don’t do is stick around for the cosplay contest. Not that I have anything against it, but I wasn’t really interested to watch them. We also stayed to watch a Jpop star perform. I forget her name. Had I liked her music more, I would have bought one of her mascot plushies that I thought looked cool. The weather started to get cold and rainy so we left as they were announcing the winners.

We ended up going to eat at Ramen Jin for dinner. I like the aesthetics of the place, but think that Tiger Den has better ramen. During the rides in the car and dinner, we were just catching up with each other and learning more about one another. We even made plans for future hang outs. But we weren’t done with stuff yet.

I suggested we go to eat rolled ice cream. Unfortunately, they’re closed on Sundays (but the Open light was on…). We ended up walking around and came across a bunch of massage places. After thinking about it, we tried out one of them. Originally, we were just going to get foot massages, but we opted for the back as well since it wasn’t that much more. It was the first time for both of us to be massaged with hot stones. Yeah, they’re hot. Gradually got used to it though. We ended the night by running through the rain (it got heavy during our massage) and heading home.   



- My PC is still out of commission. I did finally send the motherboard to get checked (04.22) so I’m still using my laptop (as I type). I did feel dumb in not thinking to hook my laptop to my monitor so that everything would be easier to read. My eyes really were hurting from reading off my laptop for so long.  

- Jo Koy was back in Houston and I found out about it the week of. I asked Agents Majordomo and PQ if they were interested. They accepted and we were set to go watch Jo Koy (04.23). Sucky part of the night was waiting in line. The show was to start at 11, but the crowd wasn’t let inside until a bit after midnight. It was okay though as I saw some familiar faces waiting in line.

It was the first time either had seen Jo Koy live and it was my 3rd. Some of the opening acts were the same from when I last went with my cousins. Jo Koy himself was great as usual. 40% of his jokes were recycled, but it was still enjoyable. I laughed so much that my throat hurt, ha.   

- One of my closest friends and I finally found time to catch up (04.24). We met to eat lunch at Cool Runnings, a Jamaican restaurant Agent Obsidian had recommended to me. The food was so good. Spent a good amount of time catching up and talking about work stuff. Afterwards, we drove out to get boba drinks and talk some more. We stayed there for a long time since the rain started to pour.  We joked around that it rains whenever we hang out, ha.

Our last impromptu stop was HER so I could show her how much has changed since the last time she was there. She was very much impressed especially since she knew where we first started. Definitely felt good showing her something I’m so proud of.  


- More female wrestler merchandise (04.25).  


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

- I’ve been using Miitomo every day since it was released. There really isn’t much to it, but I do like the rewards you can unlock. Coins you earn can go to costumes, games, or discounts. I know eventually that those will add up. I have enough coins to download WarioWare Touched, but I just haven’t pulled the trigger on it. I have until July 1st to get it anyways.

I do enjoy taking weird pictures with Miitomo. If you follow me on Twitter, I’ve been posting them there.


- The Mr. Restti amiibo was cheap on Amazon, almost half off. So I decided to get it and take my obligatory photos with it (04.05).  


Same type of deal on Amazon for the Dark Turbo Charge Donkey Kong. It came with all the Skylanders stuff and those were actually cool (04.08). There were more and I preferred them over the normal set.  


- An extra reason for buying the Mr. Resetti amiibo was to get an early access code for Mini Mario & Friends amiibo Challenge (04.08). It’s pretty much the Mario VS Donkey Kong/Mario Minis concept, but with different amiibo characters of varying abilities. I tried it out and had some fun with it. I occasionally go back to it when I have a small bit of time to spare. The only cruddy thing is that you can’t 100% the game if you don’t have all of the required amiibo.

- The Mega Man cartoon on DVD lowered in price so I decided to snag a copy (04.15). While I knew it was bad back then when I watched it, rewatching it now…it’s so bad. I’ve only watched the first disc of it…it’s bad. Worse than I remember.  


- I played a bit of Twilight Princess when I had time (04.19). I don’t know why I’m trying to 100% it. Following a walkthrough probably helps with that. I really intended to just play the main story, but I find myself getting sidetracked. I’ll beat it eventually. Perhaps I should set a deadline for it. Maybe when another big game gets announced so I’ll know to set time aside for it.  


- Bought Star Fox Zero and decided to get the Fox and Falco amiibo as well (04.22). I told myself I would only get them if both were in stock when I went to get the game and they were.  


- Star Fox Zero (Wii U) – Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/1003524373068896
Had my first play through of the game on the 25th and beat it. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a tough adventure and my body was actually aching afterwards.  I understand the criticisms over the control scheme, but that was something I adapted to easily. And while I liked playing the game a lot, I only have gone back to play it once to use the amiibo. Someday I’ll go back and unlock the rest of the stages.  It just isn’t a high priority since I have other games I need to play.  


- Star Fox Guard (Wii U) – Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/1007925855962081
The extra game that came with Star Fox Zero is quite enjoyable. I found myself getting sucked into it quickly. The game mechanics are so simple to understand and the game offers quite a challenge at points. This will be one I’ll go back to when I have pockets of time to spare to play.


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

- A few things happened on the first day of April. The last thing that happened was that the Agents that were closing were tasked with painting the walls of escape room 4 (04.01). It was actually fun to do and definitely a different thing we’d be doing whether it be work or fun.  
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDqXGZZIXbJ/

The other thing that happened earlier was that a guest was hitting on me a lot. It was very interesting. I played along as much as I felt appropriate as I was still working. The main thing I did do was tell her my real name afterwards. Agent Obsidian was very disappointed that I didn’t ask for her number. It was…odd. While all signs pointed that she was interested, I did feel like she was putting on a show for her friends. Plus it was April Fools’ Day (stupid reasoning, I know). I could be wrong and should have just gone ahead and ask for her number. Oh well.  

- The first of April also signified Agent Yeti’s 1 Year with HER. Since she had that day off, we planned a surprise for her the following night (04.02).  It helped that Agent Majordomo had friends occupying the conference room for a special birthday gathering. I asked that he and Agent Blue decorate our briefing room while she was doing tasks in the break room. Agent Widdershins and I were busy doing some cleaning so she wouldn’t have to.

Once the briefing room was decorated, I had Agent Majordomo “ask” all of us to help him with a problem he was having with the doors leading to that room. I filmed Agent Yeti going in to see her surprise. Her reaction was great, ha. I also got her a silly gift of a children’s board game called Yeti In My Spaghetti. We then proceeded to play a couple rounds of it before we cleaned up and wrapped up that work day.  
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDvgsikIXTS/

- Agent Blue and I went to meet some previous customers on our off day (04.03). It was the first time he and I had met customers outside of HER to pick their brains. This couple had done and escaped all 3 of our rooms and the girlfriend even brought her work team to try out Episode 1.
We met them for lunch at Sushi King. After some general introductions and ordering our food, we asked a series of questions and listened to their answers, observations, suggestions. After lunch was over, Agent Blue and I went to Bite Macarons to recap everything. While we did get some good information from them, a good number of things were typical things that other customers have said/asked. Still, it was a good experience. Both of us agreed that we would do it again with select customers.  

- Something Agent Incognito had been working on was to convert Mo’s Safehouse into Spanish. It was a good project for him that took a while to complete. There were a few test trials here and there, but we officially started accepting Spanish Sessions at the beginning of April (04.04). So if you’re interested in booking a Spanish session, click the link below.  
http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/spanishsessions

- Not the first time we’ve had to do it, but we had to close up shop for a day due to the flood (04.19). Don’t want to put the staff or customers in any danger.  

- As usual, we had our monthly meeting (04.20). It was the first time (that I can remember) that Agent Raynor was not part of our meetings. Either way, it was business as usual.  Afterwards, a few of us stuck around to play Cash N Guns. Pretty fun to play with more people.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEcnCLOoXU_/

- We started promoting our Teacher Appreciation Day/Week specials early (04.21). Wanted to make sure that teachers had a lot of time to plan things out. Turned out alright for being our first official thank you that we’re going to probably do more of in the near future.  
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEeEwK-IXSt/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEoX4_5oXST/

- And the monthly blog post is up (04.30). This one has a puzzle you can try at the end.  
http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/blog/herapr2016

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

- It’s been rough without a fully functioning PC. Not that operating with the laptop is difficult. It’s just more convenient with the PC especially since it was upgraded to perform better and faster. The main thing I’m missing out on are a few video projects I need to get done for HER. Soon though.

- Tiffany – I Just Wanna Dance (MV)
Didn’t have any videos to post for April, so I’m sharing this one early. I’ve only seen the video and haven’t heard the rest of Tiffany’s album yet, but I suspect it to be good and definitely reflective of her style. Congratulations and having more of your dreams come true, Tiffany.

Thank you for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.



“Reprise the theme song and roll the credits.”


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Monday, April 11, 2016

March 2016 Entry

Apologies for the delay. 

========================= 

- It’s been a long time coming, but I finally went out and got a new PC (03.07). Agent Gig helped me buy the parts and put it together for me. It was definitely worth it as every little thing was running faster and smoothly. I did a few video projects since getting it running and that has greatly decreased the time it takes to produce. 

Unfortunately, something happened a few weeks later and the computer is out of commission. I’m using my old laptop of 5+ years as I type this and have been using it ever since. We could not figure out what happened. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. It just one day decided to not turn on anymore. Agent Gig hasn’t had luck with finding out the exact problem as weird set of instances have happened (one thing turns on, but can’t access such and such and so on). I’ll be sending it off to get checked on soon by Geek Squad I suppose.   

- For a while now, any time I have to get gas, I would buy a drink and snack. On one of these random days, I picked a pack of Lifesavers Gummies Collisions (03.08). I didn’t eat them right away, but when I did, wow. These are the first candy in a long time that really caught my attention. The next time I fueled up, I got to packs. And since then, I ordered a 6 pound box of them. Yeah, I like them that much.  

- New Finn Balor shirt (03.09).  

- WWE Roadblock (03.10) was very entertaining. There needed to be some type of event between Fastlane and Wrestlemania and this show delivered. All the matches were great.  

- I picked up NXT Greatest Matches (03.15). It took a few days to watch all of them, but it was worth it. There actually were a handful of matches I had not seen before pre and post WWE Network. They’re smart to release these as there will always be great matches to add to the collections.  



- My parents had toyed with idea of getting a new car for a while now. The Bonneville is not safe to drive and is coming apart (a recent accident made it necessary to strap the trunk down). They went out looking for cars and finally landed on one. I went with them to help them buy it (03.19). I don’t mind car dealerships, but I don’t like the time it takes to process the deal. Add my mom to the mix and the time is extended further (explaining things over and over, her trying to get a better deal, etc). 2 hours later, they drove out with a new Nissan Rogue. I’ve only driven it once since we bought it and it is very nice.  



- I met up with one of my favorite couples at the end of the month (03.31). We ate at the Halal Guys, my first time there. The food was good. I just really enjoyed catching up with them as it has been over a year since I last saw them. Good to see that things are going well with their lives. 

========================= 

- Picked up The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (03.04). I didn’t play it right away because I wanted to beat Project X Zone 2 first. So far it’s better than I remember. When I get a chance, I try to play a good amount of it. But I will be putting aside when Star Fox Zero comes out as I know I can beat that faster.  






- Project X Zone 2 – Review

Invested a lot of hours into beating Project X Zone 2 (03.15). It was just as good as the first game with a lot of improvements. Definitely would like play a third installment if it were ever made. 


- Got more amiibo this month (03.18). Ryu is one of my favorite amiibo along with Wolf Link and Chibi-Robo.  



- And since I put the game aside. I looked to see if anyone uploaded the cutscenes from Xenoblade Chronicles. Someone definitely did along with any other Xeno game (Gears, Saga, Chronicles). Took a while since I wasn’t as far as I thought, but I did finish the remainder of the cutscenes (03.27). The story definitely had quite a few twists and turns. Glad I at least know how it unfolded. 

========================= 

- It had been teased in my last entry, but now I can finally talk about it. The Little Couple came to film at the Houston Escape Room in February. The episode aired at the beginning of March (03.01). It was very interesting. Agent Blue took the task of altering Grandma’s room since they were going to film there. He was also the facilitator for them. I was given the task of sticking with the producers. I was telling them what they could and could not film as well as give a few other directions. 

The episode itself turned out well. We were on for 15 minutes at least. I was disappointed that they showed stuff we asked them not to and that they didn’t show the specifically list of things we asked. At least the episode was fine. The wife of The Little Couple was live tweeting as it aired so that was actually exciting to see happen. A few guests have referenced the show so we know it was great exposure for us. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCdiwgMoXdy/ 

- We had two new trainees join us. They also were some of the fastest to be promoted to a full-fledged Agent. Welcome to the team, Agents Solaire and Obsidian.   

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCxytQjoXft/ 

- We had our monthly meeting as usual (03.24). Afterward, we went to another new escape room that opened in town. Since we’re a larger team now, we had to split up into 2 teams and do different rooms. Both teams escaped and we set the new records for escaping. My escape room record is now 11 escapes out of 13. 

Unfortunately, that place was one of my least favorite escape rooms. It was very manufactured and felt soulless. Nothing about it impressed me other than the size of their lobby. But I will be going back there to try the room I didn’t since a group of friends bought a Groupon and invited me. They are looking forward to making comparisons though.  

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDdYQC0oXR-/

- March 2016 Blog Post (03.31)
http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/blog/hermar2016 

========================= 

- Hyomin – Sketch (MV)

Hyomin’s second album was better than her first. I actually like a few of the songs on it better than Sketch. Sketch is fine, but it does feel like they’re trying too hard to make her sexy. She’s sexy enough, but it they definitely are steering for her to be more so.

- Red Velvet – One of These Nights (MV)

Definitely was surprised by Red Velvet’s new album. The ballads are all great and I’ve been listening to them consistently. One of These Nights is in contention of being my favorite song of 2016. It’s a really good song. I have since thought of Red Velvet as this generation’s BabyVoX.  

- I finally got to meet Alessandra (03.25). My best friend texted me when she was in town for Easter weekend. Her time was limited so I went there late night after work. Almost immediately, my friend handed me Alessandra. I was actually nervous, but she said she knew I would be a natural. This honestly was my first time holding and feeding a baby for such a long period of time. She was only a little fussy because she was gassy (she farted a lot, ha), but otherwise she was fine. I really needed that moment with her. She helped me forget the stresses of the world.  

Thank you for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.


“Reprise the theme song and roll the credits.”




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Monday, March 7, 2016

February 2016 Entry



A little late typing up this entry, but I remembered.

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

- Watched Batman: Bad Blood (02.03). You can read my thoughts with the link provided. In short, it was the best of that trilogy of Batman animated movies.
https://www.facebook.com/arnell.ragasa/posts/10154000835096929


- Normally I don't go out on Mondays because of RAW (been that way almost ever since RAW started). But I did go out for work related things on 2 big days.

Daniel Bryan announced his retirement (02.08). Very unfortunate, but no one would have wanted anything worse to happen to him. He gave his life to the business and will be remembered as one of the best wrestlers ever. Thank you, Daniel Bryan. 


Shane McMahon returned to the WWE (02.22). When I read the news of it on the way back home, I literally screamed out loud "SHANE MCMAHON?!" Amazing. It has been many years since he was last on WWE TV. His match at Wrestlemania is going to be exciting. I'm sure he's planning some crazy spot to do like he has done in the past.


- A high school friend came in to town (02.14). She let me know ahead of time so we can plan stuff for the weekend. Almost none of those plans happened. The only thing was eating dinner the day she came in and to hang out. But it was good to catch up with her. We're planning to take a road trip some time in the summer to visit another high school friend and her husband and son.  

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

- The final DLC characters for Smash Bros came out (02.04). Corrin was a pretty good character. I was a tad disappointed with Bayonetta. She was just weaker than I would have thought. I did like using both of them though. Thanks, Sakurai, for all the awesome DLC.


- Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS) - Review 
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/960769477344386

I beat Paper Jam on the 8th. So it took a little less than a month to do. I made sure to put in as many hours as I could on days off. That averaged to around 6-8 hours of game play on those days. I did enjoy it. While I was souring on both series, this was a good collaboration of them. I also feel I should end my time with those games with this one. 


- Started playing Project X Zone 2 (02.16). Similar to Paper Jam, I'm maximizing my time off to play it. I did add some weekday times (before work) to play and beat a chapter. Just like the first game, the fights are getting longer and more difficult. I don't think I've had a 2 hour battle yet, but from at least Chapter 10 or 15, the fights have lasted at least an hour (including story). As of typing this (03.07), I just finished Chapter 30.


- I did buy the Mega Man Legacy Collection for 3DS (02.23). I mainly got it for the Gold Mega Man amiibo. I do plan to play it, just not any time soon. But I feel I might beat one of the six titles whenever I feel like it rather than trying to beat one after the other during long gaming sessions.


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

- A couple of Agents went to PAX South and brought stuff back for everone. They got me a Zelda tote bag (02.02). Thanks. I still haven't used it yet simply because I don't want to carry more than I already do. But I know I'll use it when packing for trips and such.


- We had a slow day (02.04) so we closed up early and did a few things around the office. Agents Majordomo and Gig took the task of frosting one of our windows. The smell was strong and carried throughout the place. I and a couple other Agents started setting up fans to blow the frost smell away and out towards the front door.

Since we wrapped up early, I suggested we go out to eat and play arcade games at the nearby theatre. In the end, only myself and Agents Blue and Gig came. We had a nice dinner and then spent some time playing games. The biggest downside was that they recently removed the DDR machine that was there (I was really wanting to play it). The biggest upside was that I won a new owl from the crane game. 


- One year ago is when KHOU 11 did a news piece on us (02.08). I made sure to plaster that on our social networks. I even emailed Jacqueline Crea (reporter) to thank her and got the okay to give her 2 gift certificates. It definitely is one of our first big breaks.


- Agent Majordomo invited us to a game night at his place to coincide with Agent Raynor coming back (02.08). I had always said no in the past since the game nights were usually on Mondays and like I mentioned earlier in this entry, RAW. Plus it was quite far; an hour drive and two tolls both ways. But it was a fun night. Agents K and Blue were also there. Pictomania, where we all draw pictures at the same time (played it to being and end the night) and the other was Cash 'n Guns where we pointed foam guns at each other and tried to get as much of the cash and valuables. Both were really fun and simple to understand. Definitely would play them again.


- Agents Yeti and PQ received surprise gifts for Valentine's Day (02.14).


- I had been meaning to do this for a while now (months), but I finally contacted the woman we did a pregnancy reveal for (02.16). I was worried about how to phrase the email. She did tell me how she and her husband had troubles conceiving in the past that I thought she also might have had problems with the pregnancy. Thankfully, she responded quickly and was very glad to hear back from me and for the 2 gift certificates I gave her. She also sent me photos of her son (5 months). She was already planning to come back to HER with her friends for a birthday. I actually switched with Agent Gig so I can work that day and be their facilitator.  

- And now for a few more Instagram photos. Planning (02.03), career fair at UH (02.24), making fun of Agent Raynor (02.25), and the Hunks of HER for February (02.28).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBVyLSZoXcc/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCLiT6SoXb7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCOQcfBoXcf/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCVfwteoXRP/

- While we have been doing the blog posts on the HER site for a while, the one for February hints at a couple of big projects that have been going on (02.29).

http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/blog/herfeb2016

- And finally, I would like to officially welcome Agent Voxel on board. It took him a little extra longer to become our new Agent, but I knew he could do it.

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

- TaeYeon - Rain (MV)

- Can We Be Too Inspired 

- And I already said it in my last entry, but welcome to the world, Alessandra (02.05). Hopefully I'll meet you soon. I'm very proud of your mother.  

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


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

January 2016 Entry



A new year and we're one month in already. So much has happened.

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

- Happy New Year (01.01).  


- A lot of my Christmas purchases came in (01.03, 01.09). They were just things from my Amazon wish list. Not pictured are some cleaning and physical therapy equipment.



Among those items, I watched a good number of them that I had not seen for a long time or ever.

Ranma 1/2 Movie: Watched on  01.11. It was done pretty well. Although it did seem to be fan subbed and not an official release. Could be wrong. I would recommend the live action movie to any Ranma 1/2 fan.  
Married With Children: Finished watching all 11 seasons, 262 episodes on 01.16. I was amazed with how much I remembered. It was great to relive all those funny moments. Definitely a show for its time.  
Earthworm Jim: Finished watching 2 seasons, 24 episodes on 01.20. It definitely wasn't as funny as I remembered it. It was still clever and good, but I wasn't laughing that much.  

- Went to a WWE Live Event (01.08). The worst part was waiting in line in the pouring rain outside. They did start ushering us in sooner than they were supposed to. A nice mother and son let me in under their umbrella. A friend joined me for the event. We walked around a lot before going to our seats mainly to dry off. I did have a conversation with a father asking about how much the title belts are and how his kid wants one. Then a couple kids told me I was in the wrong place because I was wearing the NXT Title, ha. I also had a mom ask me during the show if John Cena really wasn't showing up because he got injured a few days ago. Her kid did like interacting with me a few times as well, ha. The following wall of text will be the recap I typed in a wrestling group I'm part of. 

Jojo was the ring announcer of the night. She opened with mentioning John Cena was not going to be here as advertised due to his recent shoulder injury and that we can get refunds, but only within the next 20 minutes.

- Chris Jericho def. Alberto Del Rio
I enjoyed Del Rio ripping up Sign Guy's sign before the match.

- Titus O’Neil def. Stardust
Before and after the match, Titus would take a kid out of the audience to do the Millions of Dollars dance.

- Ryback def. Rusev (with Lana)
Nothing different from their recent matches on TV.

- R-Truth def. Heath Slater
They went back and forth at the beginning to see who could get the crowd hyped the most. A dance off was teased, but we ended up with a wrestling match (yay). R-Truth can always get the crowd hyped.

- Kalisto & El Torito def. Los Matadores
I wish Sin Cara wasn't injured. This would have been a fun match.

- Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) def. Sheamus
Damn, Brock and Heyman have a presence. Everyone stood up for most of the match. Brock got a little cut under his eye and bled. As he was walking to the back after the match, Brock did the jack-off motion to a fan talking trash.

- Brie Bella (with Alicia Fox) def. Tamina, special guest referee was Summer Rae
Tamina came out to new Team BAD music, but the other members weren't there (bummed since I was decked out in Sasha gear). Summer Rae was gorgeous in her ref outfit.

- Dolph Ziggler def. Tyler Breeze
Nothing different from their recent matches on TV. I did enjoy seeing a bunch of kids in attendance around me singing Ziggler's theme song.

- Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens in a Street Fight for the IC Title
Lots of kendo stick shots, use of chairs, and Owens powerbombing Ambrose through a table. Owens did a great tease of having Ambrose sit on a chair, ran back and forth a bunch of times off the ropes, and just went into a chin lock, ha.

One thing I did notice was that there was no nods to any factions like the League of Nations or Social Outcasts. It was a house show so it's not like I expected any story advancement.

Highlights for me:
- Unexpected Y2J appearance.
- R-Truth's entrance.
- Seeing Brock Lesnar in person (damn).
- Summer Rae as a damn fine looking referee.
- A kid seated in front of me chanting at/with me and making other fun comments.
- Seeing a daughter hug her dad and saying "I love you" for taking her to the show.

Great night of wrestling overall. Next time they're in town is for the first Smackdown after Wrestlemania.



- Got a few more wrestling items (01.13). Was able to watch the Owen Hart of Gold documentary, which was great. Good stories and matches about a great man. And I also got my Asuka mask. She retweeted one post I made combining her mask with Finn Balor's.



- Rearranged and threw away things in my room for no reason at all (01.16). Guess I wanted a little change in my room.  


- I ordered some more Running Man gear back during Black Friday and finally got them (01.20). I've been proudly wearing them as much as I can.


- Had the day off to watch the Royal Rumble live (01.24). It was great from top to bottom. Great matches and great moments. My top moments were Sasha Banks showing up after the Divas' match, AJ Styles (wow) debuting in the WWE, and Sami Zayn's surprise entrance in the Royal Rumble.  


- A friend from Austin came to visit (01.31). She originally was going to visit the week before, but got caught up with work. Met her and another friend I had not seen in a long time at Mala Bistro for lunch. Ate and caught up before going to the nearby supermarket to do some shopping before she left. That was the most fun I have had grocery shopping in a long time, ha. Hopefully we'll get to hang out again soon.

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

*Note: Leaving links out in the open instead of putting them to the text it is associated with. 

- While I didn't play a lot of games in 2015, I still made my WingedVoX Games of 2015 list. Very much condensed from the previous year.  
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/932937623460905

- Had to get me the Shovel Knight amiibo when it came out (01.08). I was actually out of town that day and was able to get it at a GameStop with only 2 in stock. My regular GameStop in Houston actually texted me asking if they wanted me to have them hold one. That was awesome of them, but I wouldn't have been able to get it that day since I was coming back into town and going to the WWE Live Event.


- Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Wii U eShop) - Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/942190272535640

Overall, I liked the game. It's not the best Fatal Frame, but still a good one. Glad I was able to finish it.


- 3D Sonic The Hedgehog (3DS eShop) - Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/942672539154080

I had downloaded this title during a sale. I was always curious to get it and a few other Sega 3D titles. Nothing super special, but definitely good for nostalgia.


- Picked up a Lucas amiibo and a Green & Pink Yarn Yoshi amiibo (01.22, 01.23). Got Lucas on release (possible Mother 3 releasing in the US, cool) and I got the Yarn Yoshis during a sale at Toys R Us.



- Along with Lucas, I also bought Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, but I didn't play it until a couple of days later (01.24). I'm liking it so far. As of typing this, I'm over 24 hours into it. Definitely have devoted a lot of my free time towards playing it.


- A friend was selling off a few of his PSX/PS2 games. He had a few that I thought to add to my collection. He came by and dropped them off (01.25). We talked for a little bit since it had been years since I last saw him. But yeah, more games to add to my collection.


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

*Note: I will not upload all the Instagram photos as lately there are a lot of photos uploaded/embedded into these entries. So some will be left as links. 

- Work on New Year's Day (01.01). It was actually alright. We ended the day by eating pizza and playing a game called Codenames. Agent Incognito and myself were bad at it, ha.


- The joke of the Hunks of HER continues. We had plenty of opportunities to do more hunky photos (01.05, 01.12, 01.13). You're welcome.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAL5XwFoXS7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAd7eqeIXeI/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAge3j4IXTl/

- If I remember correctly, we only had corporate sessions this day (01.06). We closed off the rest of the day for renovations. A lot of us got into helping cause destruction (I definitely enjoyed it). We did get done earlier than we thought so we headed out to dinner early.

After relaxing and eating, we went to the Chinatown escape room in the area to try their new one. This was actually the first time doing a room with Agent Pow-Poper, Incognito, and Chisel. Also it was the first time in a long time that we did one with former Agent Cat. It was interesting with a few notable moments. While I would say it was their best one they had, they're actually pretty low on the escape rooms I've enjoyed. Regardless, add another victory in my escape room record.


- This was the day of our HER Retreat to Austin (01.07). I picked up Agent Pow-Poper and we headed off to Austin. We talked the whole way (anime, comics, games, etc). We were one of the first to arrive Titaya's for lunch. Agent Gig was there already. Agent Incognito and Agent Widdershins came next. We ended up getting our own table since the other 4 were running late. They ended up sitting at the table next to us, ha.

Onward to our hotel. Pretty nice. After settling in, Agent Gig and I went exploring. I ended up buying a $3 ice cream sandwich (at least it tasted good) and we rejoined Agent Blue in our hotel room. The 3 of us ended up playing TriForce Heroes. Since I had the full version, we could try more levels outside of the demo. Agent Majordomo joined us as he heard us laughing and yelling. It was crazy fun.

We all then hopped into a couple of cars to head out to Lockdown Austin for our scheduled session. Unfortunately, we ran a little late due to traffic, but they were okay with it. Very nice people. We split up into 2 teams to challenge both of their rooms. Agent Majordomo, PQ, Blue, Yeti, and Gig (Gold Package) did the WWIII room and Agent Pow-Poper, Incognito, Widdershins, and myself (Silver Package) took on the Casino Heist. Glad to report that we both made it out. I really had fun with our room (have said it's my favorite since HER).

Moved to a nearby location so the Gold Package team can get their corporate debrief. The Silver Package team had the paper version of it. After we did that, it was on to our dinner at Pluckers. There was live sports recap happening at the time so we moved to the outdoor area so we could talk. Good food.

Our final activity of the day was to go karaoke. Throughout the day, a friend and I had been talking about meeting up (let her know I was in town a week prior). She couldn't stick around to sing along with us and she actually preferred to just catch up. We just sat at the lobby area (other close by areas were closed) and talked for a while. It was great seeing her and I was glad she actually made time to meet up with me.

I rejoined the team and immediately started singing. I was a little worried about championing karaoke for activity as some had expressed they weren't big on it, but it ended up being very fun for all. Everyone sang multiple times and we had a blast.

Then it was back to our hotel. We actually gathered to knock out some emails that had been piling up. Once we were done, we all headed to our separate rooms to end the night.  

The next day, I was immediately reminded that the Shovel Knight amiibo came out. I mentioned it to Agent Blue and he actually suggested we go get it. He called up a nearby GameStop (that only had 2) and we went and got it, yay. And as I mentioned earlier in this post, my local GameStop contacted me about holding one for me. Getting a Shovel Knight amiibo would have happened regardless.

After we got our stuff packed, we met in the lobby and then headed out to Hopdoddy's for lunch. While some waited in line, I took others to Dragon's Lair. We joined the others back in line minutes later. Lunch was good. At some point, Agent Incognito disappeared. Agent Widdershins thought he said he was going to the coffee shop when he actual said comic shop (Dragon's Lair). We all went back there to buy stuff. I got a print by a local artist of an ice cream bar NES controller. Some of us were playing with the shop's cat. It's always friendly, but apparently it didn't like me that much (even though it did earlier). Ended up getting scratched by it, ha.

Once we were done with our purchases, everyone had to get ready to go. Agent Yeti joined me going home early since we both had previous plans made. The others were to tackle 3 more escape rooms from different businesses before coming home that night. Agent Yeti and I had a good talk on the way back to town (mostly shop talk).

I delivered Agent Yeti to her boyfriend and then actually headed to HER since I had time before the WWE Live Event. Agent Raynor and Agent Chisel were there continuing their work over the last few days of renovations. It was looking pretty dang good. I did come back to chill there after the WWE Live Event. Agent Raynor was there doing work with a friend and Agent Z joined us later. It was nice seeing work get done and just having some fun talks. And that ended the HER retreat for me.
 

- A mish mash of thoughts popped into my head at the end of one night (01.15). I actually left really upset. Agent Yeti texted me after to see if everything was okay because she thought it was work related. It wasn't exactly what she was thinking. It was a combination of work and personal stress. I just left abruptly without saying anything so I wouldn't accidentally direct any of it towards any of them that night. It was odd, but yeah...  

- The Maximum Pleasure Boys had their final night together (01.16). This fearsome foursome took a nice photo to commemorate their awesomeness.


And the reason the Maximum Pleasure Boys are no more is because Agent Pow-Poper was leaving us (01.17). He let us know a month prior that he would need to concentrate on school and other activities. Sad to see him go as he was really good facilitator. Definitely a great gear in the system of HER. Good luck in your future endeavors, Agent Pow-Poper.


- We have an About Us page now, yay (01.18).
http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/about-us

- We ended up closing early to celebrate Agent Gig's birthday (01.19). We went to a nice taco place to eat and then walked over to a bar. Just a good time sharing stories.


- Similar situation the next day (01.20). No reason to celebrate anything, but we took advantage of closing early by going to eat at Smash Burger and Bite Macarons.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BAyeUVWoXW5/

- Had a short Twitter exchange with YouTube star Anna Akana (01.21). She recently did an escape room so I invited her to HER. It would be really cool if she did take us up on that offer.


- Quite a few changes happened all around HER. I mentioned renovations earlier in this post. Agent Gig was able to get our dossiers up (01.14).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAjHV1kIXU7/

He also got some placards for our rooms laser engraved (01.28).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBEZDvkoXfk/

And we added signage to the lobby and had our rules redone with the same artist that did our Halloween chalk art (01.29).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBJsRImIXZc/

- Agent Raynor and Husky Panda came to town to help with a secret project that happened (01.30). Not allowed to talk about it for the time being though. You'll definitely know about it in February though.

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

- Gary - Lonely Night (MV)

This might be my song of the year. It's a feel good song.

- And while she was born in February, I did want to say "welcome to the world" to Alessandra. Can't wait to meet you soon.

Thank you for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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