Forever Graceful Impact: June 2009 Entry

This has been a busy month.

-----

Work…is okay. We did hire 2 new workers; one editor and one guy to crank out some of our new programs we’re producing. That guy happens to be someone from high school. I had choir with him and…he is just as I remember him…yeah…work is as lame as ever.

-----

Latest game review is for “Punch-Out!!” on the Wii.

Punch-Out!! (Review) - click

I recently beat “Sonic and The Secret Rings.” I did enjoy it very much. It had its frustrating moments, but it was still a good game. I’m not going to review it although while I was playing it, I was thinking of how to write a review for it, ha. I’d rate the game 3 out of 5.

Currently, I am playing “Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.” It is a sequel to the original “Final Fantasy IV/II” on WiiWare. It’s released episodically, but you only need 2 chapters to get the main story. The rest of the chapters are side stories of the characters that are part of the game, but do add a lot to it and are must plays for fans. It didn’t take long to beat the available chapters. Right now I’m just maxing out my characters and collecting rare treasures. Can’t wait for more chapters to be released next month.

-----

I recently bought my own video camera. Spent some time researching it and others with Mike before spending a nice chunk of money on it. So I’ll be taking it around a lot because there is no way I’m going to spend as much as I did and not use it.

I did have to find a new uploading service so I can share the videos in HD. I’m using Motionbox and I’m pretty satisfied with them right now. Next up MIGHT be upgrading my computer to produce videos faster. I’ll have to think about that for a bit because if I’m not having more editing to do, I can still work at the same pace.

-----

Went to Dallas for Barry’s birthday. It was a nice road trip. We went to different museums and did a lot of tourist/sightseeing stuff. For me the highlights were the TMNT van and seeing Michaelangelo, doing the late night surprise for Barry, the Dallas Aquarium, and the bear statues we saw before leaving. This was also the first time I used my new HD camera.

There were a few negatives about Dallas that I won’t delve into though. The one thing though that effected me a lot was being dehydrated after the trip and running a fever the following week. Those conditions lead me to miss 6 days of work. I’m fine now though. I did try to go back to work, but within less than 30 minutes I was very dizzy and light headed. They let me go back home for me to rest. I did see a doctor also just in case. Nothing severe since I had pretty much recovered 90% before actually seeing a doctor (needed a doctor’s note to return to work). I still haven’t gotten my blood results back though…odd. But I’m feeling good and am back to doing things normally.

-----

I went crabbing with friends for the first time in my life. We left around 2:30AM and got there around 4. It was pitch black when we got there, but we had enough lights to see what we were doing and to allow to not have to use night vision on my camera. The sunrise was great to see. It was a nice activity to do and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. I’m very happy to have caught the biggest crab of the trip. It was a tough fight. It took a good 20 minutes of concentrating in the same area to catch that crab (it escaped once, but not the second time). We left around 9 and actually caught the majority of our crabs before we left. Good times. Got back around noon.

And then later that day (don’t worry, I took a nap) I went with Mike to a surprise party for one of Darrell’s friends who I have known for a while, Melissa. We all ate at California Pizza Kitchen and had some nice conversation with the guys we were around. We then left and surprised Melissa again by playing a few rounds of Mafia at Darrell’s. I’ve got to say that this was the best Mafia outing I’ve had in a long time. 3 long rounds of Mafia with the first 2 going to the killers. Last round went to the cop…ME! Sure…all but the last 2 citizens out of 15 people were the only ones left, but that was a hard fought victory. I had to eat fire to get people on my side. Yes, I pulled out my fire eating trick for the first time in public and DAMN it was awesome, ha! Ah…great night.

-----

I’d like to take a portion of this post and just express my feelings about the recent string of celebrity deaths. It was sad to hear Ed McMahon pass away. He had a great personality. Farah Fawcett…I actually didn’t know she died until I heard about Michael Jackson dying. I don’t have much to say about her, but I wouldn’t think it would be her time yet. Michael Jackson…he’ll be sorely missed. Seeing a lot of his videos air reminded me of how much I enjoyed his music. He was actually the reason I started to like dancing. I remember when I was younger that I would actually learn his dances for fun. Whenever his videos would play, I’d just dance along with him and eventually had most or all the step down. It has been a long time since I had done his dances so I don’t remember the steps by heart, but watching his videos sure made those steps return to me. His passing was a definite shocker and we definitely lost one of the greatest entertainers ever. And Billy Mays was another surprise. The short time I knew of him, he left a strong impression. To their families and friends, we miss them also.

-----

And now to talk about SNSD. They’re back with their second mini-album “Genie.” My copy will mail out soon and I can’t wait to receive it. They recently released their new music video and have started their Comeback Performances. At Soshified (which I haven’t joined), they’re doing a contest for members to send in videos of their reactions of watching the new MV for the first time. Had I done that, they would’ve just seen me smiling and singing along with a few brief momentary pauses of “mouth in awe,” ha. I’m a fan, I’m biased, but I won’t talk/type too much about it. I’ll leave you with a the MV and one of the Comeback Performances. Welcome back, SNSD.

Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) - MV