January 2011 Entry

Welcome to 2011. You are now reading the January entry for the year of 2011. A lot has happened already this month that I wanted to share. So let's jump in.

=====01.01.11=====

Started the year off with friends as usual. I was a little jaded that we didn't count down to the new year together, but...it kind of seemed like I was the only looking at my phone's clock to know when it came around. As long as I'm surrounded by good people, I'm glad. And to what might become a yearly tradition, a good friend put together an entrance to emulate his current favorite wrestler, Alberto Del Rio. Good stuff. I think I'll change up what we do for next year just to breathe a little extra life into the event.

Barry Del Rio from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

My cousin Pauline turned 18 in December. To celebrate, friends and family were invited to her house on the first of January for her Debut. I had not seen Pauline in many years so I was excited to see her and other family members I haven't seen. The girl is a decade younger, but inches taller than I am, ha. It was nice just being in that family atmosphere. Seeing all my younger cousins all grown up made me feel old and reminiscent. I could easily think back to how tiny Pauline used to be, how Gina Fey would run around laughing, or how Erika used to mispronounce "parallelogram." I brought my video cameras to film this special day for her and later made a video to which she said, "Thank You. I love it. I really do. It made me cry. LOL." I also learned that day that her older sister Chery is getting married in March. That surprised me, but I am looking forward to that day. As a wedding present to her, I'm having 3 members of Royal Flush Media do video and take photos.

Pauline's 18th Birthday Debut from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

=====01.08.11=====

I had just returned home from dropping off a friend's parents at the airport when another friend messages me about an SNSD fan meeting in LA happening at the end of the week. Quick decision making led to he and I flying out on the 7th to Los Angeles to take part in the event. Now this was a fan meeting held by fans for the fans. It was never advertised that SNSD would be there in person, but many of us were hoping for a surprise.

We met up with a few other Texas SONEs the following morning and heard about volunteering to help set up the event. So we went over and quite a few people had already been there doing things. As more and more tasks were being handed out, it looked like my friend and I weren't going to have anything to do. So we just took out our gear (camera and video camera) and were then approached asking if we were the media team. Long story short, we became the media team.

Other than filming and taking photos of the staff and activities the fans were participating in, we were still able to enjoy ourselves and act as normal fans. We got chances to meet and talk to fans and get to know some of them better. We weren't able to participate in any prize giving trivia activities though. A gracious fan did give me a Jessica Star card she won though, awesome.

I became a stand out a couple times for dancing along to SNSD songs that were being played. I could've danced to the majority of them, but then I wouldn't be working, ha. I only did 2 on my own. I did Hoot, which caught fans' attention. Gee played soon after and I just figured I might as well do it. Again I gained attention and adoration and I ate all of that up. Later on in the day I was asked by a staff member of SM Entertainment that was helping put the event together to teach Gee to everyone. So at a certain point I had 200+ people watching me perform the whole song and then teaching the chorus to them. THAT was incredible. It had been maybe 5 years since I taught a dance to anyone or even performed in front of people let alone 200+ people. Videos of me dancing are circulating and I have it captured on my camera as well.

Another task thrown to us (the impromptu media team) was to get fans that were lined up to say "Happy Birthday, Soshified" in honor of the upcoming 3rd anniversary of the international fan site we were all a part of. Not everyone wanted to be on camera, but a good number of them were more than happy to. Soon after that, it was finally time for fans to start piling into the theatre to be part of the private fan meeting. During the fan meeting, they showed MVs, behind the scenes footage, and gave out prizes for various things. All in all a very fun experience.

And to give a clue of how long we were there, we were part of the staff around 11AM. The activities went on till 3 when the actual fan meeting event happened and that lasted till 5. The staff then went out afterwards to eat at a Korean BBQ and then to go sing karaoke. I think we get back to our hotel around 1AM. We flew back to Houston on the 10th.

This was such a memorable day. Not only was it great being a fan, but it was also a business venture also as we were communicating with top Soshified staff on behalf of SM Entertainment. They asked us at one point for some of the photos and footage we took so that they can use in a future article about these fan meetings and SNSD. RFM greatly obliged. Soshfied also wanted the birthday messages to use for a special video on the site's birthday, which they released on February 1st. So thanks to SNSD and SM Entertainment and Soshified, RFM is internationally known.

=====01.19.11=====

My weekly hiphop class was cancelled this week due to Soundbox Studios having a showcase. So a special class was scheduled on Wednesday at 5PM. So I took that and then took another friend's Intro To Hiphop class at 6PM. And then since it was Wednesday, that was also Salsa class night. I was unsure about attending that, but I was under the assumption I was going to help mix a song for the studio later that night because I already did one for them earlier in the week. So I decided to stay and take Salsa to kill time before doing the song and to see if I still remembered my Salsa moves. It was great to see familiar faces and to be the only guy there, ha. I was already tired after 2 hours of hiphop. Good thing I brought a bottle of water. I had remembered quite enough and had enough energy to stay on beat, but I could feel my legs and knees giving in towards the end of my third hour dancing. In the end, I didn't have to mix that song for them and I could've just gone home, but that was definitely a test for me. I had not done a long stint of dancing like that in almost 10 years. I used to do 2 hours of dancing for exercise almost everyday back then. Yeah...age and wear and tear, but I think if I really wanted to I could still go all out. Maybe not to the level that some at the studio are, but at least back to the level I once was and just a little better. So yeah, 3 straight hours of dancing made it hard to walk the next day, but I was glad I did it.

=====01.21.11=====

And then there was Soundbox Studios' Texas Showcase. In celebration of their one year of becoming a studio, they had invited different crews to come and entertain the supporting friends and family of the studio regulars. I almost didn't go, but was glad I did. Again, I became part of the media team (impromptu) doing video work for them. I had a good spot, but was watching all performances from my video camera held high above me via my monopod. All the performances were great and it was great to see familiar faces I've learned to recognize from the studio and had become closer with (some). I almost stayed and went out with them to eat a celebratory dinner, but I remembered I had to wake up early the next day...

=====01.22.11=====

...and go to the beach! Met 2 friends at 7AM and arrived at the beach around 9AM. The weather had been on the colder side so not many people were on the beach and it was very nice. Quiet and serene and all ours. We just went around and took some silly videos and photos of ourselves. We ate lunch and then headed to the town area to venture and do more photo/video things. Another friend then joined us and we headed back to the beach to do more of the silly photo and video taking of ourselves complete with feeding many seagulls and getting our feet wet in the water. We then ended our time there with a 4-Person bike ride around the beach streets. Best part had to be ordering drinks at the McDonald's drive-thru. Such a silly idea, but we needed those drinks, ha.

So we were at the beach from 9-5 pretty much. Arrived back in town around 6 to eat a small dinner, lose a friend, go to a drink restaurant, regain the lost friend, go karaoke, gain another friend, and then go to a cafe to get drinks while we played Rummikub and then a card game in which the loser revealed an interesting fact about themselves to the group. And that lasted to about 1:30AM. Who would've guessed that a last minute beach trip would have surmounted to a enormous day of whimsy.

Ada Day - 4-Person Bike Ride Adventure - 01.22.11 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

=====01.25.11=====

Then I got sick. I guess everything finally caught up to me. I know I got sick starting this day because I was waking up at different hours of the night checking if videos I made were uploaded to Vimeo and YouTube properly. Vimeo, yes. YouTube, no. That issue got fixed and I got sick and remained sick for about a week causing me to miss...

=====01.29.11=====

...Epic Dance Show 2. I had been trying to get myself better for that day and was starting to feel better the night before. But I woke up and was disappointed. I informed Lucia about my absence for the event, but that the RFM team would still be there. I informed other RFM members that were going to cover the event that I was sick and got someone to replace me. Met with one to get all the video equipment and bring it there and talked to the other 2 to make sure they were ready as well. I worried that things might not have gone well especially since this was at a different venue and set up might not go right. I even had a dream that night that I got 3+ hours of horribly shot footage. Thankfully things went smoothly according to each RFM member that went. The equipment was returned the following Monday and I watched it and was pleased with the team's work. I've also already started editing the footage together. And I enjoyed the show itself, but I really wish I was healthy to see it in person.

=====01.30.11=====

I also wanted to be healthy the next day to possibly go see the Royal Rumble live at a sports bar or anywhere that was showing it with a crowd. I was feeling better, but knew I wasn't good to go out. Mostly had a nagging cough and that wouldn't make me a pleasant person to be around in public.

So I watched it from home and I still had a good time watching it. The 2 title matches were great. My champions won, yeah. The Rumble itself was as exciting as it usually is. Plus this was the first time it had 40 participants rather than the usual 30. Was iffy about the idea, but it worked. And the 2 surprise entrants of Booker T and Diesel had me jumping around and going nuts.

I chose John Cena, John Morrison, CM Punk, and Alberto Del Rio as my picks for the final 4 in the match with Del Rio being my top choice to win. I had 50% correct with Cena and Del Rio. And then Albertooooooooo Del Rrrrrrrrrio won! Amazing. My friend called me after because he was excited that his favorite wrestler won. Now it's his favorite and my favorite going head to head for the title at Wrestlemania. Can't wait to see that to go down.

=====Final Thoughts=====

- So, do you like the new format of this entry? Rather than hitting key topics I'm hitting key dates and being more descriptive and less cryptic. It definitely can make these entries longer. Long time readers know I can type a lot. It might just be this month was long because a lot happened. I could've gone longer and explained things more thoroughly, but I think just nailing key moments and talking about those a little make it more interesting. Videos are now sprinkled where they apply to so no more skipping straight to the bottom to watch them all. The Final Thoughts portion will remain and I'll just throw things in there that didn't need a big section to read.

- A friend and fellow SONE has been auditioning to be a full time DJ for Soshified. I'm sure he'll get it. He's had 2 good trial shows so far.

- I added more music to my iPods, but I don't listen to them as much since I'm not working. But I have been listening to them while I can. Lately, I've put more video game music in such as the Ace Attorney series OSTs and Final Fantasy VIII's OST. I've been listening to the FFVIII OST while typing this out. How fitting that "Eyes On Me" is playing as I'm finishing this out.

- As I stated last month, I ended my game review blog. So ratings will only be put on here as well as my Facebook. I only managed to complete one game (100%) in January with how busy I had been and I'm close to finishing Ghost Trick. I will score that next month, but for now...

- Lost In Shadow (Wii) - Rated 3 out of 5

- And I'm surprisingly doing well on my resolutions for the year.

1. Enjoy my time not working. - Yeah, I don't think I would've done half of what I did this month had I still been employed at a 8-5 job.

2. Improve my editing and video camera skills. - As you could tell from reading (IF YOU READ, ahem) I had plenty to do with video and editing.

3. Get more gigs for Royal Flush Media. - If you count the impromptu stuff, which I am, RFM has been busy. Then there's my cousin's wedding in March, more dance events, a possible piano recital, and who knows what else. And now we're internationally known! Yeah, I think this will be a good year for Royal Flush Media.

And that does it for the first entry of 2011. I'm pretty sure there were other things that I could've talked about, but we're already 5 pages into typing.

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