Saturday, May 15, 2021

April 2021 Entry

 April 2021 Entry


At times I felt April was a long month. Looking back at it, it also felt like it zoomed by. And apologies for the lateness of this entry. 

MISC========================= 

- I learned that I can't have Fanta anymore (04.03). Very disappointing as my options for drinks are slowly narrowing down to only water. 

- Because of health issues that started last month, I was regularly drinking sleeping medicine to help me sleep, but I wanted to stop taking it (04.13). That first night took a long time for me to fall asleep. The second night, not so much, but the third night was tough again. I started to take the sleeping medicine again, but with smaller doses than before. 

- Finally followed up with the cardiologist I started seeing at the end of last month. They called saying that they could schedule me to come in for a stress test on the 18th, but I asked if I could come in the next day. So I had scheduled to go the next day (04.15). I went in, waited a few minutes in the waiting room, was brought into one of the offices to get all the normal tests (heart rate, temperature, etc), waited a little longer, then was brought into the room for the stress test. Stripped down to my shorts, had the wires and cables connected on me, got on the treadmill, and waited to start. Then the doctor came in and asked a few questions with one of them being how often do I exercise. When I said I didn't, he decided to not continue with the test. At that point, it had been over an hour being there. I think everyone except the doctor realized my mood changed. They took off all the wires, I got dressed, and was brought back to another office. My mom joined as they explained they didn't want to risk me passing out from the stress test especially since I wasn't exercising regularly. They opted to do a nuclear test, but needed to submit another EKG to the insurance to approve it. As they were getting ready to do that, I asked for a few minutes because I was not in the mood at that time. Talked to my mom for a bit before having the nurse come back in to do the EKG. The nurse asked if I was okay and I straight up said "no." She could tell in my tone as well that I wasn't in the mood. As we were leaving and waiting for final words from the staff, I refused to make eye contact with anyone. The staff did apologize for any inconvenience they might have caused. I looked at them, bowed, and then we left. 

They were the ones that suggested doing the stress test. They were the ones that said it was okay to come in to do it. They were the ones that decided to no longer do it after finding out I didn't exercise regularly.  While I was glad they were looking out for me not passing out, this was a big waste of time. This could have been easily avoided had they asked that question over the phone. Or they could have asked that when they originally wanted to do the stress test. Even then, if the stress test was too stressful, I could have stopped. That's the point of the stress test, to see how much I can take. Not to make me pass out. I don't think the doctor realized how stressed I was about the whole situation and how he might have possibly made things worse. 

We did go back one more time a week later to do a sonogram of my heart. That visit went smoother. Had to get more blood taken afterward as well as get a prescription of vitamin D pills, which I take once a week now. But there has been no update on going in for the nuclear test as of typing this (05.10). The doctor also said there was something in the sonogram he was worried about...but didn't say what it was. Even the appointment reports don't state what it is...

My mom has already scheduled a check up with her cardiologist. This has been the second time within a couple of years that I have been dissatisfied with a doctor. Last time was with the ENT. There are similarities with how those doctors were and how they treated me (as if they don't recognize me, etc). At least with this cardiologist, the staff was good. Here's hoping seeing my mom's cardiologist works out better. In the end. I want to figure out what's going on. 

- Saw a friend from high school who I'm still in contact with (04.21). Went to eat at Lopez. Finally got his physical copy of Captain Toad. He's been in the loop of the medical stuff that's been going on lately and has been acting as a third opinion for things. It was good catching up with him especially after all the stuff we've both been through lately. 


- Got my copies of Yes, I am Sana (04.21). I knew I wanted to buy one of them, but I pulled the trigger and got both. The main content in the photobooks are the same, but the random card and postcards were different. Even though I had seen some of the photos, the ones I didn't see amazed me. Definitely had a few times that I stopped on longer than other pages, ha. 


- Friends and ex-friends have been popping up in dreams lately. One involved dating someone (04.23). Thing is that I woke up multiple times from the dream, but the dream continued when I would fall asleep again. That rarely happens. 

- So I've been getting cuts on my legs for years. I wouldn't know where they came from because I wouldn't notice them until I see I'm bleeding there. But the cuts would be around the same spot no matter which leg it was. But I finally realized why (04.26). It's from bumping into the corner of my bed's metal frame. Mystery solved. 

- Round 13 of movies is in the books. My favorites this time were The Hot Flashes, Who Gets The Dog, and Detective Chinatown. And of course the Back to the Future trilogy was fun to rewatch. 

https://twitter.com/ArnellragasA/status/1377606684026097667 

WRESTLING========================= 

- Both nights of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver were fantastic (04.07-04.08). Of course NXT delivered. They always do. 


- Wrestlemania 37 was so good (04.10-04.11). To be back in front of a live audience of that capacity, you couldn't help but appreciate what they were doing. Nothing like that energy and emotion you get from a crowd. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- There was this group I was facilitating while training who became Agent Obsidian. The organizer of the group had been to HER before, but this time she was here with a new group of coworkers. The group was loud in the lobby so I had to raise my voice in a kind way with a smile on my face to get their attention. It's a volume I've used when getting  rowdy teams to listen. They then calmed down as we brought them to the briefing area. Back then, the briefing area had tons of items on the shelves and sometimes groups would take things and play with them. One popular item was a Star Wars Clone Trooper helmet. It was never a shock to see anyone put it on. But as I was explaining the rules, one of them put it on. With a smile on my face, I walked over and took it off and everyone laughed...except the organizer. Anyways, we carried on and eventually got them into Mo's Safehouse for their session. 

I don't remember if the team escaped or not, but they had a fun time. I remember sitting on the windowsill by the door as they were leaving and the organizer asked if there was a manager around. I replied with "I'm the manager in charge," which is what I was told to say when there weren't any actual managers on site. At that time I was Lead Training Facilitator I believe. She said nevermind and left. I recall talking to Agent Obsidian letting her know of how the organizer was during the session. She also agreed that she seemed like she wasn't having a good time and that she was actually being rough with some of the props. We mentioned how she tossed things to the floor that were "done" even though some were fragile. If I didn't ask Agent Obsidian to tell her to be careful with some of the items, I did. Because she should have known already since she had been to HER before. 

The next day, the manager pulled me into a private meeting. He and the owner got an email from the organizer from the group about how I treated her group. How I yelled at them, how I took off the Clone Trooper helmet, etc. They mentioned that they already refunded her group, asked that I write an apology email, and didn't want to hear my side of the story. I was not cool with that, but I complied. After that, I also got a phone call from the owner reiterating similar things and that he was disappointed. I half-heartedly wrote an apology email draft and sent it to the manager and owner. The owner replied with something along the lines of it being generic and that "you know what you did, you yelled at them." To which I replied "now you're asking me to lie. I did not yell at them at all." Either I added my side of the story to the email or the manager pulled me aside privately again and I was able to tell him what really happened. I raised my voice to a level they've heard me use multiple times. I kindly took off the Clone Trooper helmet, which was funny to everyone except the organizer. I talked about the organizer's mood, her attitude, how she handled the props in the room, and that she asked to speak to a manager, but didn't want to when she realized I was in charge that night. After hearing that, I believe he spoke to the owner over the phone. Then he apologized to me and said I didn't have to write the apology email anymore. The owner called me again and also apologized. 

During all that, I was also talking to Agent Obsidian about what was going on. I don't remember if she was also pulled aside by the manager or if she spoke to the owner, but I wanted to make sure she knew what was going on. She knew what went on, she was there to see it. 

While I was glad I didn't have to write an apology letter anymore, the refund was already sent. And even though things were cleared up, I really was disappointed with how I was treated. Were there instances in the past that might have made them think I was capable of yelling at the team, maybe. But I would have expected that in year 1 or year 2 of working there. I had changed a lot during my 6 years there, but this was a negative moment that sticks with me. It really did cement for me that I need to hear multiple sides of the story before making decisions on this or similar matters at work or in life. 

GAMES========================= 

- Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle | Captain Commando (04.01) 

- Demo Showcase 60 (04.02) 
A good crop of demos. A shame that the AVICII demo was mostly muted. It was fun. Getting to play The Wonderful 101 after its original Wii U release was satisfying. Made me realize how crazy and fun it was back in the day. 


- Nightshade (04.04) 
Getting to play Nightshade after seeing reviews from it years ago, what a crazy game. I don't think I would have dug it back in the day. I can appreciate it now for what it was trying to do. Wish I could have 100% it, but didn't know that a factor of something I did early on would have affected that outcome. 


- Apex Legends (04.05) 
Cool to finally try Apex out. It wasn't as bad as a lot of people have said, but that might be because it was my first time with nothing to compare it to. It sure did take up a lot of space on the Switch though at 30GB+, which was the main reason I pushed it ahead of the line for free-to-play games. 


- KUNAI (04.06) 
Such a fun game. Combat was good, traversal was smooth, and it all flowed well. Unfortunately, it did have some missable treasures. Granted those were all money chests, but I technically didn't 100% it even though I did everything else. And...this game is the reason I won't be doing streams over 8 hours anymore. The last hour was almost exclusively fighting the final boss. Combine the twitch reflexes necessary to beat it and that I was low on energy...I was visibly shaking. That hasn't happened since...Star Fox 64. So I need to better regulate stream times. A game that can be beaten in 9-10 hours minimum, those will have to be split into 2 streams from now on. 


- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (04.08-04.12) 
I had so much fun replaying Super Mario 3D World. Still shocked that we 100% completed it. But it was so satisfying to do after so many years. Following that up with 100% Bowser's Fury was phenomenal. While Bowser's Fury was short, everything about it was done so well. It was a great mesh of 3D World on Odyssey. Highly recommend both of them. 


- Monster Hunter Rise amiibo (04.10) 
Even though I had all 3 reserved, they were delayed. The store wasn't even sure what was going on. Got 2 of them and had to wait a few more days to get the last one. But these are superb amiibo with awesome detail. I thought Magnamalo would be bigger, but it's still a beefy boy. 


- Indie World Showcase (04.14) 

- Cooking Tycoons - 3 in 1 Bundle (04.14) 
I had 2 out of the 3 for free, Burger Chef and Pizza Bar Tycoon. Food Truck Tycoon was on sale so I purchased it with the DLC. But I gave each one a solid 90 minutes. They were what I thought they would be, but I had fun trying them out. 


- Trials of Mana (Angela + Duran, Hawkeye) (04.16-04.20) 
I really enjoyed the 3D remake of Trials of Mana. Almost everything was improved upon. It played well, it hit the "nostalgia" note for the SNES version, and the combat was fun and satisfying. There were a few downsides with obvious pop-in and some audio glitches, but they were small blemishes on an otherwise wonderful experience. Plus we did all the extra stuff to unlock New Game Plus and even beat the secret boss slime. I do plan to play it again in the future to play as the other 3 characters (and possibly a 3rd time for the final pairing), but that's most likely going to be on the one year anniversary of this playthrough. As much as I enjoyed this remake, I needed to take a break from the Mana games in general. 


- The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (04.21) 
Very excited to finally play these. Part of me is heavily considering playing it in auto mode the entire time. Like I will attempt to figure things out, but then switch to auto to see whether I was correct or not. While I haven't reserved the US version yet, I did pre-order the Japanese version. And I don't plan to play it day-one. I kind of need to know how long the game/s will be and then plan from there. 


- Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (04.21) 
Got my physical copy from my friend when I met him for lunch. We both got the digital one on sale and he no longer needed the actual cartridge. He sold it to me for $10. Still saved more than half with it and the digital copy. 


- Demo Showcase 61 (04.22) 

- Batman: The Enemy Within (04.24-04.25) 
A year after playing Batman - The Telltale Series, we played the sequel. Since we were all kind and compassionate in the first game, I decided to be a jerk in this one. Even though we were a jerk, we didn't let anyone die. It was really tough making those decisions. The story was really good though. Very much like the first game, I kept wanting to see more. Highly recommend either playing it yourself (because you can make your own decisions) or watching my playthrough of it. 


- Mini Trains (04.27) 
This game does not take an hour to beat, ha. It's unique for sure, but it was deceptively difficult. Those watching started helping out. And Reversed2 and KrispyChicky made guest appearances via Discord to tell me how to do one puzzle that they were trying to do themselves, ha. Definitely memorable. 


- Cadence of Hyrule | Frederick (04.28) 
Unlike our Aria playthrough, we actually beat the game as Frederick. His challenge of needing rupees to stay alive was interesting. It was more of a factor at the start, but once we had a lot we only had to worry about not losing our hearts like normal. Despite it being our fastest run ever, it wasn't as easy since we only found one bottle to rely on for extra health. Next month, an Impa run. 


- The Peace Keepers (04.29) 
This was not a good brawler. With most of the beat-em-ups we played, we usually beat it with every character. 2 out of 6 was enough. They did do an interesting thing with having multiple paths and different endings. But it's just not a good game. Found out afterwards that they also took out almost all of the music. There's maybe 3 in the US version, but 24-28 in the Japanese version. They also changed all the super moves. Can't believe they did that. 


ETC========================= 

- YEJI - River 
Yeji is definitely my second favorite member in ITZY. This and other things lately have solidified that. 


- WENDY - Like Water (MV) 

- WENDY - When This Rain Stops (MV) 

To no one's surprise, Wendy's solo album is absolutely incredible. I really hope she gets to do more solo songs in the future. 

- TWICE - Kura Kura (MV) 

- ITZY - Mafia In the morning (MV) 
A great song. For me, I always feel it ends too soon. However, I really like it. Been learning the choreography in my chair. 


- Heck of a month. Loaded with health stuff and loaded with long running streams. For those reading this, I will say that I have been feeling better. As of typing this (05.15), I have actually been able to sleep flat on my back for a little over a week now. 

- That's a wrap on April 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
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Thursday, April 15, 2021

March 2021 Entry

March 2021 Entry

March...

MISC=========================


- My cousin had texted me about hanging out (03.02). She was taking one of her new puppies to a vet that was near my place so we made the arrangement for her to hang out. She also agreed to play a game with me on stream. She said she would just sit in the back while I streamed, but I convinced her to play. Afterwards, we just spent time catching up. Asked lots of questions and learned stuff that we didn't know. It was a wonderful bonding moment. 

- Ordered a bunch of snacks (03.02). Ate one bag of chips per day and the cereal whenever I hand a hankering (finished 04.10). Hadn't had these chips in a long time and the cereal was so delicious. 

- After my cousin came over to hang out, we made plans for me to go to her place and hang out with her and her husband (03.12). About an hour drive to get there, but I knew that from going there many years ago. We went to eat ramen, take a hike on a trail (got to look at animals and enjoy the sun), played with their new puppies, ate some ice cream, and of course talked a bunch and bond. Such a good day. 

- Shout to KrispyChicky who started streaming (03.13). Krispy is Agent PQ from HER. She had asked for some help setting up stuff as she was prepping for weeks before her first stream. For anyone reading this, please follow her on Twitch. She's someone I look at as family. 

- Didn't know a shirt for Just Shapes & Beats existed so I bought it (03.27).

- Prime Movies Round 12 is in the books making it one year of watching free movies. Had a lot of favorites in this batch, but my top 3 have to be Chick Fight, What If, and CHI-RAQ. Had to end it with a solid favorite that still holds up, The Truman Show. I'm still planning to watch more movies after a year of doing this, but I'm only going to watch 12 now instead of 16.


WRESTLING=========================

- Lashely became WWE Champion (03.01). Well deserved. Absolutely earned.

- And Fastlane was a fun PPV (03.21). Good matches all around.

H.E.R.=========================

- This story is about my favorite interview I ever conducted. At HER, I was at one point the Lead Training Facilitator. Even on the tail end before that when I was a Senior Facilitator, I was sitting in and then helping conduct interviews. I enjoyed them. Have plenty of horror stories from bad interviews. I would say the majority were okay. Only a few were very memorable for better or for worse. 

For this one, I was still doing interviews along-side Agent Majordomo. He had made the interview process at first and then I helped refine it to what I used for many years. Other than the normal set up of the table and cubes (we had comfortable and expensive cubes), we also printed out the resumes of those we would interview. I normally would glance at them quickly taking in anything interesting outside of what you'd expect from a regular resume. That way I can ask them about it during the round of miscellaneous questions we might have had. 

The interview was normal. Nothing spectacular and not bad. Just good, which most interviews should at least be. When it came time to ask anything extra, I double checked her resume. There was something that I saw beforehand and remembered after looking again. I asked her about her Nigerian society she was a part of. Her face brightened up and she had the biggest smile as she was telling us about it. Her energy was higher and she was visibly more excited. And that's when I knew I wanted to hire her. I mentioned it to Agent Majordomo. If she gets happy and energetic about something she was so passionate about, imagine how she would be if she enjoyed working with us. Shortly later, we hired her and Agent Ca$h was born. 

I forget when and why, but I did tell her about why I hired her. This story is something I shared over the years and have even told to others outside of the company because it was my favorite interview and one of my best hires ever. Miss you, Agent Ca$h. 

GAMES=========================

- Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle | Battle Circuit (03.01)

- Untitled Goose Game (co-op w/mangostick15) (03.02)
Playing this again with my cousin was so fun. Definitely is a lot easier with 2 geese than with one goose. 


- Demo Showcase 58 (03.04)
Made an alternate profile for when I tried the Age of Calamity demo. I had contacted Nintendo online to make sure if playing the full game and going backwards to the demo would overwrite it. They weren't sure and I couldn't find an answer online. So for any future games that I've played the full game of and then I play the demo, I will make a new profile to avoid any data overwriting.


- Pyra/Mythra (03.04)
Using Pyra/Mythra was really fun. I preferred Pyra over Mythra. But they are probably in my top 5 favorites of the DLC fighters. 


- Eliminator Boat Duel (03.05)

- The Elder Scrolls: Blades (03.06)
This was fun. I'm usually hesitant when playing free-to-play games. We've been burned before, ha. And this was also my first time playing an Elder Scrolls game in any form. It wasn't bad. You could see I was getting into it. 


- Super Mario 3D All-Stars | Super Mario Galaxy (03.08-03.10)
Galaxy was amazing to replay after so many years. The music, the levels, everything. I didn't think I'd get all 120 stars, but that still doesn't count as complete as there is a second play as Luigi that unlocks a little more. Will I play Galaxy again as Luigi? For now, no. I considered playing it the month after, but thought to move on. I most likely wouldn't mind playing it one year later or on the off hand we get Galaxy 2 released. Then I'd play as Luigi a month prior. 


- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (03.10)

- supershigi - The Natural Playboy (03.11)

- Flowlines VS (03.13)
Not a bad puzzle game. I think I would have finished it were I not extremely tired. 


- Collection of Mana | Trials of Mana (03.15)
Finally beat this game after removing myself from it. And it wasn't easy. I think we died 5 times to the final boss. It really sucks to be very excited to play this multiple times only to be glad it's over. Hopefully I won't feel this way with the 3D remake. 


- Space Otter Charlie (03.18)
Sponsored by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. It was a fun game. However, the glitches that came from the post game to try and 100% it were bad. I took some time to email the developers with time stamps to show them what happened. I did get thanked for the bug findings, but I don't know if they're working on a patch or not. But I've completed it so there isn't a reason for me to go back to it. 


- Demo Showcase 59 (03.19)
Portions of playing the Just Dance 2021 demo were muted as expected. I was glad it had 2 songs to try instead of 1 like in previous demos. 


- Jumping Joe & Friends (03.20-03.21)
This got split into 2 parts because our internet went out for over 5 hours. Sucks that it happened because the second part was finished in 90 minutes. 


- Neo Cab (03.22)
This was a favorite from Demo Showcase 34. It was scheduled multiple times for 2020. As it got farther and farther pushed, I decided to play it on the year anniversary of playing the demo. It was worth the wait because it was great. And there's a reason to play it again because of all the characters you can pick up as well as how you react to them. Next year? 


- Flatland Prologue (03.24)
Sponsored by QUByte Interactive. This was a short prequel to Vol. 1. And by short, I mean really short. It only took close to 90 minutes to do it all. That was too short so I did it a second time. Didn't feel this game was necessary. 

Sadly this was the last sponsored stream I got from them as of now. They used to DM me every month with a new code for another new game. They're still releasing more games so I hope they'll reach back some day with another fun game. 


- HALF DEAD (w/Firewalker56) (03.25)
Another guest on stream, but only voice. Firewalker56 was there when I played the demo so I thought it would be fun playing it with him. It went on longer than we thought, but we could not finish it. While he was doing the bulk of the work, it was very helpful. He was drawing maps on his end when there weren't maps. But that last stage (which was the next to last stage I think), was tough. But it was fun great playing with him. 


- amiibo (03.26, 03.28)
Got Banjo, Terry, and Byleth. However, there was a shipping error for the stores and they got as more Byleth amiibo instead of Banjo. So I had to go back a couple days later when it finally arrived. This was also supposed to be the same day the Monster Hunter Rise amiibo were released, but those got delayed (got them in April). 


- Lost Lands: Dark Overlord | VIEWER'S CHOICE (03.27)
Winner of the last Viewer's Choice Vote (exclusive to Discord). I personally haven't played a point-and-click find-the-image type game in a long time. I did my fair share of brute forcing and had to look up answers a few times. But there is also a second and third game available so I might get around to those in the future. Broken record for this blog entry already, but maybe next year? 


- Cadence of Hyrule | Aria (03.29)
This was impossible (for me). I didn't realize Aria was a one-hit run. I tried my best, but died so many times in mere seconds. You only get half a heart and hearts, fairies, or potions won't refill it. Not only are enemies a threat, but so is moving off beat. Yes, you can die by trying to move. I turned that off and it was a little more manageable, but still difficult. Took 2 hours just to get through and beat one dungeon boss. That was enough for me. 


- The Ignition Factor (03.30)
Never played a game where I was a firefighter. I didn't really get it at first, but I got into it and had fun with it. It was silly, broke the fourth wall, poked fun at itself, etc. Definitely wouldn't have played this were it not free on the SNES app. 


ETC=========================

- MOMO Performance Project Behind

- Utada Hikaru - One Last Kiss (MV)

- ITZY YEJI - River (Artist of the Month)

- So a few health things happened this month. After visiting my cousin, I felt very tired the next day. Never felt that fatigued in a long time. Then I started to notice other symptoms related to COVID. Getting massages helped, but the fact that I was relying on them every day was worrisome with everything else. I spoke with a friend who is a nurse as well as my mom and they suggested I get a COVID test. Took a while to find a place to schedule one the next day, but finally did (03.16). It was only 20-25 minutes away. Actually had a little trouble finding it as it was behind the building with very small signs pointing to where it is. Minutes later, we were done and I went back home. The next day, the results were negative. 

While feeling fatigued and other symptoms started going away, something new popped up. I was having trouble sleeping flat on my back. If I did, it would be very hard to breathe. On my side, not so bad. Mentioned it to my mom and she insisted to keep doing massages before sleeping so I would be more relaxed. My dad wanted me to drink the sleeping aide he uses to help him sleep, which was a sleeping medicine. I didn't do that as I worried about my breathing if I did fall asleep. And that worsened things as I became incredibly anxious about it. I did learn that being reclined while sleeping helped. Got an extra pillow so I wouldn't be flat on my back. Thing is, if I lay down while watching a movie or playing a game,I was okay as my mind was distracted. After a couple of days, I became hyper aware of my breathing in general where I kept thinking about it (minus streaming). So watching videos or other distractions didn't help as much or at all anymore. Anxiety got worse as the night drew near and I was worried about falling asleep. It got so bad that my mom suggested going to an emergency center and so I did (03.22). We already planned to go the next day, but it was too much at the time. My parents drove me to the nearby emergency center (went there 6 years ago). They had to wait in the car as I was there from 11PM-2AM. Got an EKG, blood drawn, x-ray, and another COVID test (just in case). I thankfully remembered I had not finished listening to a New Day podcast episode so listening to that while waiting for doctors and nurses to come by during that time was very helpful. Everything came back negative, but the doctor suggested seeing a cardiologist if things persisted, which they did. We went home, I drank some of the sleeping medicine, and went to sleep. For about a month I drank the sleeping medicine as I really needed it. 

We did go to a cardiologist (03.31). They did another EKG and asked more questions. I also got weighed for the first time in over a year. I thought I was 10-15 pounds heavier, but it was only 4, which was very surprising (all in the gut). While they found nothing new, they suggested an ultrasound and a stress test in case there was something wrong with my heart that may be linked with not being able to breathe while lying flat on my back. 

And as of typing this (04.14), those tests had to be rescheduled. I have been feeling better in general and have attempted to sleep without the medicine (lost more sleep that way), but I want to slowly get back to being able to sleep normally again. The one thing I forgot to mention was not feeling great overall. My anxiety was at an all time high and simply breathing was an issue. I did have a heart-to-heart with my mom during all this as she was very worried why all of these were happening. We talked about our relationship, the winter storm, me being lonely, losing my job, and so much stuff. It felt good to finally have that out there as our communication is now more open. And while the health issues have been less and less as the month went on (and into April), I do have to watch myself. Exercise is out of the question for now, singing is tougher, not being able to drink certain drinks anymore, cutting back on certain foods, and monitoring what I do on a regular basis is...things haven't been normal in a long time. 

So many health things came up at once. It was stressful and draining. It made the month feel longer than it was. I am okay, I'm worried, and I'm lonely. 

- That's a wrap on March 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
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Thursday, March 11, 2021

February 2021 Entry

February 2021 Entry

Heck of a month. Heck of a month.


MISC========================= 

- Twix Cookies & Creme are delicious (02.03). The ice cream version is great and so are the regular candy bars. I have been eating half of one bar for each break on stream. But I did need to pull back on it some and not eat them every day as I noticed I was getting similar feelings for eating too much sugar. So at least every other day. 


- A friend from the dance studio (I used to go to) and I recently reconnected online sometime last year. We weren't super close back then, but it was nice to talk to someone I had not seen in 5+ years. We decided to meet up for dinner (02.07). It was nice seeing her all grown up now and to simply talk to someone and see them in person. Definitely talked about things I never thought we would talk about, but I guess we're cool like that, ha. Hopefully it won't be another half decade before we see each other again. 

- New TWICE face mask (02.08). Had a $5 coupon to use at YesAsia so I figure this would be a good purchase. 


- The winter storm happened (02.15-02.21). I'll recap stuff per day, but I may forget some small details. 

02.15 - Lost power from 6:30AM-3:30PM. The snow had fallen that night. It wasn't a crazy ton of snow like in other places that regularly get snow. It was nice to see the snow. Plus it wasn't too cold during that outage. During that time, I listened to podcasts that were already saved on my phone and leveled up in Trials of Mana (to a certain point) and Wheel of Fortune (one full game). When the power came back on, I didn't think to recharge all my devices because I thought we were good, but the power went out 4 hours later. That first night I put on extra layers of clothes and got one extra blanket. Wasn't too cold that night. 

02.16 - First full day without power and water. Tried keeping contact with others as best as I could. Unfortunately, my phone doesn't stay charged for a long time anymore. Plus there was also the struggle of having a weak internet signal. I think the power came back on for 5 minutes at one point. Sucked to see it go. It was colder too so all day I had at least 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pajama pants, 3-4 shirts/hoodies on with the hood up, gloves, and a ski mask. Also slept with 2 more blankets and had one set up against the wall since my bed is next to the windows. I listened to music from my iPad to help me fall asleep. I think on this day that I left a message on Discord so people knew what was going on. This was the day that my brother and mother opted to go to a cousin's who still had power. Dad didn't want to go and I didn't want to leave him alone. So they went and we stayed. Later learned that they lost power there around 10PM. We ate dinner around 6PM and the lights were already out. We ended our day at 7PM. When I went to my room, I had an overwhelming sense of loneliness. It was pitch dark, it was incredibly cold, and I was by myself. I cried. I went to go see my dad and we ended up having a heart-to-heart, which we normally don't do. Some already know the details, but things are set in motion for things to happen if I can't personally make it happen myself. I messaged a group text about it too as I really missed seeing them (been over a year). One ended up calling me and it was good to talk to him for about an hour in general and about what may happen. I felt better going to sleep that night after that call. 

02.17 - Still no power or water. I went out with my dad as he helped some of his friends with pipe issues. We also went to Hong Kong Mall, which was open. It wasn't completely open, but the grocery store and some restaurants were. They also had wifi so I got a good hour of being able to check on things. I also helped him with some pipe stuff when we got back home, which required a trip to Home Depot. That was bad. A line outside to get in,  a line inside to wait to shop, and once you were out of that line...no social distancing was enforced and everyone was in the same aisle for pipe stuff. We got the pipe faucet we thought we needed and left maybe half an hour after we got there. Unfortunately it was the wrong piece. I wanted to end my night with Wheel of Fortune again like I did the previous night. Towards the end of the game was when our family in Canada called. They actually had no idea what was going on. The power actually turned on for 10 minutes 2 separate times. It finally came back around 8:45PM and stayed. 

02.18 - Brother and mother returned around lunch time. The rest of the day was kind of normal. I did start to discard blankets and extra layers of clothing as we had heat again. But I had everything ready just in case. Thankfully the power never went away from this point on. 

02.19 - Same with water returning, but at low pressure. 

02.20 - Back to normal minus the low water pressure. 

02.21 - Water pressure was finally back to normal. 


- Sonic The Hedgehog became free on Prime Video the day before the one year anniversary from when I saw it. I felt it was highly appropriate to watch it the following day (02.19). It was just as fun as I remembered it being. After the winter storm, this was one of the best pick-me-ups to happen. 


- Prime Movies Round 11 is in the books. They weren't all winners, but there were some I really enjoyed a lot. My top 3 were A Simple Favor, Sylvie's Love, and Life In A Year (director liked my tweet, yay). 


WRESTLING========================= 

- NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day was excellent (02.14). I feel like I say the same thing over and over for TakeOvers. It's always true though.


- Elimination Chamber was full of surprises (02.21). Definitely not one to miss out on. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- One of the best things I got to do during my first year at H.E.R. was a pregnancy reveal. I might have told this story before. The email request came on February 18th, 2015. When it was forwarded to the staff, I jumped at the opportunity in coming up with a way to alter Mo's Safehouse to make it work. I don't know if anyone else had ideas because no one said anything and my idea got greenlit. There were a couple of things I remember being funny about buying specific props. One was just going to a Babies 'R Us in general because I can't even remember if I had been to one prior. The other was having people stare as I was buying very specific things. Like here's possibly a single father buying things that make no sense together. I also started to correspond with the customer we were doing this for. Other than asking if she liked the idea or not, I asked for a few things like her sonogram (and a few other things I can't remember). She had also done Mo's Safehouse already and that's why she thought it would be a great idea to do this. 

I was obviously going to run the session too as it was my idea. I explained to the group since she had done the session before that she was going to be an observer and stick by me, which made it fun for her to see things from our perspective. I'm sure she was also nervous and excited to see her friends and family figure things out. While the plot of the room led the participants to think Mo was pregnant, it wasn't until a planned key point towards the end that it was revealed that the one who invited them was pregnant. That part in itself was great because the majority of the group found out one after the other as they couldn't all crowd around and read the clue. As others were figuring it out, the ones that did went to hug her as she cried so it was a kind wave of emotion flowing. I think I was either texting the rest of the staff what was going on or they heard. Afterwards they told me they were wondering if they should join the room to congratulate her as well, but they didn't. After a few minutes, I reminded the team we were still locked in and they almost immediately went back into game mode while the true main character was wiping her tears. They eventually escaped, I explained the differences in props, and the story of corresponding back and forth was revealed to them. 

While we had done wedding proposals, birthday surprises, gender reveals, and more, there was only one pregnancy reveal. It was the story I told the most and is one of the more clear memories I still have of a specific group. The link below is the thank you card that was sent to me a week or so later. I might still have it. If I do, it's in a box of memories. That kid would be 5-6 years old now. 


GAMES========================= 

- Something I had forgotten to mention (or maybe I forgot that I had already mentioned it) months ago was I found a work around for the PC audio jack issues. I remembered that I had an audio splitter so that 5 sets of headphones can be connected to the same device (bought and used twice for separate Christmas events). Plugging that in and then plugging my headphones into nullified the issue by 90%. The other 10% is just a small touch or adjustment and it's good. Yay for a simple fix. 

- Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle | Armored Warriors (02.01)
Started the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle. The plan is to play one of the 7 games a month in alphabetical order. I've only played a few of the titles and Armored Warriors was not one of them. The game itself was fine. Played like most beam 'em ups, but with different mechs with different weapons you can pick up. But it was fun. 


- Demo Showcase 57 (02.02)
While Grimvalor might have been my favorite out of the batch, a large chunk of this Demo Showcase was from Fitness Boxing 2. I threw so many punches, ha. According to one friend, they bought the game after watching me demo it. Always nice hearing stuff like that. 


- S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team (02.04)

- Super Punch Patrol (02.06)
While I was looking forward to playing Super Punch Patrol, it was a little disappointing. The art style is great and one of the main reasons I was interested in it (same creator of Gunman Clive). If you're in the Discord, you'll know why. But yeah, not as great as I hoped it would be. 


- Super Mario 3D All-Stars | Super Mario Sunshine (02.08-02.10)
Playin Sunshine for the first time in decades was great. I was worried at first as I was going slower than I expected, but we did finish with a little over 100 Shines. The remaining Shines would have taken another stream to do so and I didn't want to add another stream to this. It was still as challenging as it was back in the day. Despite a new generation not liking the game (understandable to a degree), I enjoyed getting to replay Super Mario Sunshine. 


- GRIS (02.09)

- RUINER (02.11)

- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity acrylic (02.11)

- Overcooked! 2 (02.12)
Added this game to the stream schedule. Overcooked is fun, but I'm not great at it (as I knew from playing the first game before). Someone did join the stream who was an expert with thousands of hours logged into the game. It was cool learning interesting techniques and exploits for it. Still enjoyed it overall. 


- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (02.13)

- Florence (02.14)
Originally wasn't going to stream on Valentine's Day, but this was an appropriate title to play that day. Short and sweet and lives up to the positive hype I've heard about it. 


- KUNAI (02.15) 
This was a scheduled post as I did not have the internet at the time it went up. 


- amiibo (02.20)
I picked up Bowser Jr. from Best Buy the same day I got Bowser's Fury from GameStop. The Cat Mario and Cat Peach amiibo arrived one of the days during the winter storm surprisingly. 


- Forgotton Anne (02.21)
Forgotton Anne was the first stream back after the winter storm. The ones scheduled during that week were to be pushed to the following month. But this game was great. Wonderful animation, voice overs, music, and a deeper story than expected. I knew it would be a long one. My voice wasn't keeping up with such a long stream after a week, ha. But I definitely recommend giving Forgotton Anne a try (there's a demo on the Switch). 


- Ninjala (02.23)
Our free-to-play game of the month. It was...okay. Fun at times, but I agree with others that say the matchmaking isn't good. It sucked going against players hundreds of levels above you and they're infamous for showing no mercy. But I enjoyed parts of it. 


- Space Elite Force I & II (02.24)
Sponsored by QUByte Interactive who had given us games in the past. Both are decent horizontal shooters. The first game was short, which gave me false expectations of how long the second game would be. It was double/triple the length. The only downside was the slow frame rate at a specific point in the second game. Other than that, not bad. 


- Cadence of Hyrule | Shadow Zelda (02.26)
This is something I'm looking forward to each month now. The music, the world...so good. This run as Shadow Zelda was the second fastest I went through the game (first being as Cadence). That was thanks to finding an item early that negates lava damage. The fire dungeon was done in 5 minutes or less. Can't wait to play this again next month.


- Super E.D.F. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE (02.27)
Wow, this was tough. From the beginning, it's tough. But I got into a flow and thought we'd be able to get a second playthrough on Expert. Nope. The last boss took a good hour in itself. Cheat codes only worked in the Japanese version so we were stuck there unless we wanted to start all the way over. Glad to have beaten it, but geez. 


ETC========================= 

- TWICE - Switch to me (DAHYUN and CHAEYOUNG)

- GoBuKuRo (Special Version with SANA)

- TWICE - MOMO Performance Project

- February will be remembered because of the winter storm. That was not great at all. I was dreading writing about it, but figured I needed to keep a record of what happened. Honestly, I don't think I've recovered from it mentally. 

- That's a wrap on February 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

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Thursday, February 11, 2021

January 2021 Entry

January 2021 Entry

One month into 2021. Felt long. 

MISC=========================

- I knew of JoAnn's Fudge a long time ago, but it was brought up to me recently in a stream. So I ordered some for myself as a Christmas gift. They arrived at the beginning of the new year (01.06). They're great and thick and delicious. Ordered peanut butter and rocky road. Been eating a small slab of one as a snack for streams to make it last. As of typing this (02.04), they're almost done. 


- Got the new crown put in place (01.12). It was a busy day for them. Busiest I had ever seen them. The new crown felt fine, just sensitive to cold drinks. Went in a couple of weeks later to get another one that fit better (01.26). Honestly felt very similar, but they liked it better, ha. 

-  Took me a while to figure out how to spend a $5 credit I had on Amazon. It was limited to certain items sold by Amazon. Nothing on my wish list was available to use it on. I ended up looking at boxers and socks, but the ones I wanted were either on back order or not my size. Then I randomly searched for Snoopy clothing and found a nice baseball shirt that the credit could be used on. Fits nicely (01.13). 


- Now I own a Sonic shirt (01.16). 


- I had some issues sleeping for a good week this month. It was the week of playing Trials of Mana. I did have to take some NyQuil to help for a few nights and ensure I got 10 hours of sleep each time. It ended at least (01.18) and sleep is kind of back to normal. 

- A friend from college has asked a few times to hang out. Usually I was busy streaming or had things to do. I apologized for always turning him down and actually hammered out a day that would work for both of us. He chose a couple of places to go to, but that didn't work well with the day. So I chose Korean Noodle House, which he was also familiar with. We finally met to catch up and enjoy a great dinner (01.19). Hugs are good, hugs are good. Nice to see him doing well and just talking to anyone in general. And it was good to see Korean Noodle House still succeeding during the pandemic. I was excited to see the familiar faces that have been there since day one. 

- Every now and then, I get the urge to watch YouTube videos of choreography I used to know (01.21). I figured this would be a good way to do some type of weekly exercise. Unfortunately, I haven't kept up with that. Maybe it came at the wrong time, ha. I'm still doing my morning stretches consistently. 

- TWIX Cookies & Creme ice cream bars are delicious (01.26). It had been a few months that I had ice cream and was really craving it. I wasn't looking for anything in particular when I went to the gas station, but I knew I wanted it to be an ice cream bar. And that's when I saw them. Never had a TWIX Cookies & Creme ice cream bar. The only ones they had remaining were Right ones otherwise I would have bought a Left as well. But those things are yummy. 

- Picked up a copy of Batman: Soul of the Dragon (01.26) and watched it a few days later (01.29). I was excited for this one because of the setting and theme, but I was actually disappointed by it. 


- Found out I could not use our printer (01.27). Reason being was that it was tied to a subscription to HER. I had printed something since inheriting it, but I suppose that subscription ran out. Tried setting it up myself, but ran into difficulties. The online chat wasn't helpful so I ended up calling them. The person on the other end of the line was very helpful and was able to help sign me up for the cheapest subscription. 

- Prime Movies Round 10 was crazy. It was mainly because a good number of the choices became unavailable. The biggest plus was that I watched the entire trilogy of The Expendables. The second was my favorite out of the three. The Grand Heist and Instant Family were also my favorites for the batch. Round 11 is up. I am contemplating if I want to change things up once we hit one year, but we'll see. 


WRESTLING=========================

- It has now been over a year since I was at a mass gathering. That last event was the Royal Rumble 2020. 

- The Royal Rumble 2021 was so much fun (01.31). Great action, cool surprises, etc. 


H.E.R.=========================

- Renamed this section to H.E.R. since these will be stories from that time. If work became a thing again, I'll probably make another section for it. 

I do want to try something with this section with recalling stuff from the Houston Escape Room. I think mentioning a negative thing instead of trying to only tell positive stories might be good. It would help to get it out there and not keep holding onto them. I know I've mentioned them in the past, but the good times wouldn't be as good if there weren't any bad times. 

And I think I'll start with a big general overall thing. One thing that bothered me were the family/friends that always said they would come, but never did. You had 6 years to come see me do something I was very proud of and that you would really enjoy. Offering discounts and even coming in for free didn't work for some as they were too busy. That's understandable...but you had 6 years to carve 2 hours out of your day to visit and experience what we did and did so well. 

Thank you to the friends and family that did come out. Those were some of my favorite sessions because I got to see you participate in something I helped create. Thank you so much. 

GAMES=========================

- Aviary Attorney: Definitive Edition (01.01)
This was very interesting. I thought there would be more to the trial aspects, but it definitely was story heavy outside of it. Didn't know there were multiple endings. I got one and watched the rest on YouTube. Going for the rest would have taken another playthrough because there were things sprinkled throughout that could have been different dialogue-wise. 


- Demo Showcase 55 (01.03)

- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Feuled was free to play for a week so I needed to add it to the schedule (01.04). I was not great at it, ha. Shout out to polly58033 for playing with me the majority of the time. 


- The Immortal...my goodness (01.06). I knew of this game from Game Informer doing a video many years ago on the Genesis version. It's not a good game. Definitely needed a guide for it. I don't recommend it, but if you have a choice, perhaps go for the Genesis version. 


- Island Saver is a fun FPS tied to recycling (01.07). I do think it was pretty good for all ages. It's not violent, it's colorful, it functions like other FPS games, and you get hours of gameplay for free. 


- Saw these Super Mario 3D All-Stars coins on sale for half off (01.08). They're nice. 


- Finally started Super Mario 3D All-Stars with Super Mario 64 (01.09-01.10). My skills have diminished after 20+ years. We did get all 120 stars within 2 streams (originally planned for 3). Despite not performing at my peak, I did things faster than expected. Still great. 


- 2048 Battles (01.13)

- Back to the Collection of Mana with Trials of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 3 (01.15-01.18). This was originally planned for 3 streams at 8 hours each. Based on an FAQ I was using (which was not good but the most recommended), I was towards the end. However, there was a difficulty spike. Those happened here and there, but nothing overly daunting. I really thought we would wrap it up in that 4th extra stream, but 2 screens over was a boss that was too strong. Leveling up off stream for 2 hours in between each stream wasn't enough. Spent 7 hours to gain 8 levels (I tried facing him each level gained) to beat the boss and it was...frustrating. There isn't much left (a few more boss fights) and I probably could have kept adding extra streams, but I was burnt out and needed to step away. So I'll return to it in February and be done with it. It might be done in one short stream, but I still reserved 3 days for it in case there is another level spike for possibly the last boss. The original plan of playing through this game 3 times with the different pairings is no longer happening. March will be the start of the 3D Remake of Trials of Mana. 


- Twitch Recap (01.15)

- Demo Showcase 56 (01.20)

- Party Treats was a game I got for free because of an ownership discount (01.21). I would not have paid for this. I suggest you don't either. 


- Panzer Dragoon: Remake was not that great to be honest (01.23). I enjoyed what I played of it, but it was too short and there really weren't any reasons to play it multiple times other than the extra options (God mode, etc). It was a little disappointing. 


- Bust A Move/Groove is still my favorite rhythm game. Never looked for merchandise outside of the games and soundtracks. But now I own a shirt for it (01.23). And because of this, I think I know which series I want to complete collecting now that I have finished collecting the Ace Attorney games. 


- Skybolt Zack was my favorite demo from June of 2020 (01.25). I didn't think I wouldn't be able to beat it, but I couldn't. The latter levels get tough and I ended up mostly beating the easier path of the map. I did go back and was able to unlock and beat most of the first world. But the "easier" boss still had bottomless pits and multiple phases (checked a video). I could only get to the second phase. I got further little by little, but there were times that I'd have a case of the yips and would lose faster. 


- Blackjack Hands was sponsored by QUByte Interactive (01.27). We had played Poker Hands on stream before and it was interesting. I like Blackjack more in general, but this was over really fast and not as challenging. 


- Started playing the DLC for Cadence of Hyrule (01.28). We used Shadow Link this time. It did take a while to get back into the flow, but it's great returning to this game. Not only that, the new tracks are great (can't wait to hear the rest in subsequent plays). We also got our (at the time) 3rd largest party to come into the stream (20-25) thanks to RaptorKitchen for sending fresh eyes my way. 


- Never played Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (01.30). It is definitely tougher than the original. Still enjoyed it. The added plus were the 3 parties that showed up with our largest party ever (47 from SolaceAndDread) and our new third largest (27). We also hit 550 followers at the very end of the stream, which was a great milestone. We never gained an extra 50 followers in such a short amount of time. We did lose a follower minutes after the stream and 2 more within the following 24 hours, but oh well. 


ETC=========================

- yukaDD - Superhero (feat. Momo)

- ITZY - Not Shy & WANNABE (BTS Performance)

- ITZY - Performance Practice: End of 2020 (Seoul Music Awards)

- January was an odd one. I feel it was fine overall, but the streaming part was rough at points. Nothing else comes to mind for the month other than my crush on Ryujin has grown, ha. She's the absolute coolest. I started watching some older variety/reality shows ITZY has been on to catch up on what I've missed. But other than that...nothing much to note. 

- That's a wrap on January 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

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