A lot happened in May, but something felt off about this month.
=========================
- Son of Batman was alright. The
story was fine. There were just a few things I wasn't fond of (voice acting,
animation). It's my least favorite Batman animated movie, but it's not the
worst of the DC animated movies. That goes to Superman Unbound.
- A friend gathered a few of us to go to the beach on
05.10.14. The month prior to it, I was working out more than I had been to get
my body ready, ha. It was actually tough because I started lifting weights
again and my body has not done that for a long time. For a while, push ups were
troublesome (heart couldn't handle it). But I gradually got better and things
were easier. I didn't bulk up in the end, but I had gained some of my lost
definition I was proud of years ago as well as lose a couple of pounds.
I ended up riding with another friend I had only met a
couple times. She didn't want to go alone either and unfortunately her husband
wasn't able to go. She and I actually ended up being about an hour early. We
actually walked to the beach after parking next to the restaurant we were to
meet everyone else. I didn't mind though since the weather felt great. The wind
was hitting us just right. We headed back to the restaurant, ordered our food,
and then the others arrived (7 more). After eating, we all made the short drive
to the beach.
As I said before, the weather felt great. The sun wasn't too
hot (still got tanned), but it wasn't intolerable by any means. One of the big
highlights was playing volleyball. I did step away for a while to calm myself
down (ugh) and I came back to see everyone from Taiwan VS the one white girl
there, ha. She had been serving and earned way more than 10 points. I decided
to join her to make it us versus Taiwan. We also took silly
pictures/videos and even made a football boob sand castle.
After half the group split, the rest of us made plans to
have a cookout back at one of our homes (the one I rode with). We headed back
home, she and I went to HEB to pick up meat and beer, we arrive at her house
where her husband was ready and waiting to fire up the grill, he and I caught
up, I played with their cute puppy, the friend that set up the beach event
arrived (minus one), and we had dinner outside by candlelight. One of the girls
from the beach rejoined us as we were playing Munchkin. That day ended around
1AM. Definitely a fun day. I was super tired and sunburned, but it was a
memorable day.
- Gathered with a few friends I normally don't hang with to
watch Godzilla on the 17th. I enjoyed the movie. The story was...meh, but the
monster fights were exciting to watch. I would have taken 15 minutes from the human story and added it to the monster fights. That final deathblow was great and
earned an ovation from our theater, ha.
Afterward, we ate dinner nearby and started having a good
long talk about relationships. We decided to continue the conversation
elsewhere at a Starbucks. It was pretty good to get different perspectives
outside of others (whom I might already know what they're going to say beforehand). I think
I made it home around 2AM that night.
- The following week I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past with
most of the same crew with more on the 24th. X-Men was amazing. There were a
lot of clever call outs, great casting, a good story, and it actually
encompassed all the previous X-Men movies. I would definitely watch it again.
Unfortunately, this movie viewing reinforced one thing I
don't like about watching movies in a theater. Unless it's a comedy, I prefer
the audience shut up. It didn't help that those talking were people that were
invited. They didn't talk the whole time, but that's more than I want.
- In wrestling watching, I picked up the Wrestlemania XXX
and Greatest Wrestling Factions blu-rays. I actually was able to finish all 8
hours of Wrestlemania in one day and it was great to see again. Greatest
Wrestling Factions was alright. I had hoped they would talk more about the
factions, but they did go through a lot of them. The selections of matches were
great too especially the last extra involving the Shield.
NXT Take Over was amazing. It topped NXT Arrival. My
favorite match had to have been Charlotte VS Natalya. Best women's match in a
long time. Great athleticism, great emotion. And it was an amazing shot seeing
Ric Flair with genuine tears in his eyes celebrating with his daughter becoming
the new NXT Women's Champion. NXT definitely needs more of these PPV type
events. At least 4-5 a year.
This isn't a new thing, but I've been crushing hard on Renee
Young a lot more recently (don't worry, Song Ji Hyo is still at the top of the crush list). I had always liked her even before she made it to
the WWE. She definitely has been an asset to the company. She had a super cute
moment when she got called out by Triple H for not wearing shoes during
interviews. Her reaction, priceless and adorable.
And in one of the classiest things the WWE has ever done,
this video was made for one of the youngest fans of the WWE and his experience
before unfortunately leaving this world way too early. Connor, you are a
champion to us all.
- On the 26th, my long time friend since high school
graduated. He is officially an RN, MSN, BS. I had
originally asked a few friends to come with me and surprise him at his
graduation in San Antonio.
Only one out of the 7 I asked was able to go and he was actually heading there
a day early and staying a day after with his family. So in the end, I drove up
to San Antonio
alone, which made it my first solo road trip.
The original plan was to leave
Sunday morning to save money on a hotel. So that plan stuck even with the last
person I was supposed to carpool with that had to cancel the night before. I
was awake at 4:30AM, left at 5AM, and fought tiredness even though I slept
early the night before. I did sing a lot, which I normally do in the car alone.
The only big hurdle was finding a proper place to stop for a bathroom break,
ha. Buc-ees was about 40 miles out when I realized I had to go. I didn't think
I would make it and there wasn't another exit for about 20 miles. But it didn't
seem long before I hit that 20 mile mark so I attempted to just hold on until
Buc-ees. But I had more doubt and ended up pulling over. Pulling over was a
good idea as I felt better after stretching. Too many cars were passing by so I
didn't relieve myself, ha. I was only 5-10 minutes away from Buc-ees at that
time. Thank you Buc-ees for having very clean restrooms.
Finally made it to San
Antonio after a 3 hour drive. I found St. Mary's
University, which was the same place my friend graduated from 4 years ago. Our
other friend was already there. I met up with him, but we switched to the
opposite side of the arena so we could see the graduates as they walked off the
stage. We were pretty much where I was 4 years ago. We were able to hold the
top row for our friend's wife, son, and family who arrived minutes later. We
were all proud to see our friend graduate. The added bonus was that his son and
nephew were there to see him graduate.
After the ceremony, we met up with him to take pictures and
then split up to have a celebratory lunch at the Cheesecake Factory at the mall.
I was very hungry since I had only some snacks in the car. We split after lunch
except for myself and the other friend that drove to San Antonio. He and I went to the Lego store
and bought some Simpsons blind bag toys. I was hoping for Mr. Burns, but did
not get him, ha. We also went to See's Candies. The worker gave us an amazing
dark chocolate sample. I then asked for them to open a store in Houston. There already is
one, awesome. I'll have to find it some day.
We then made plans to go play miniature golf with our
friend. First, we went to where my friend's family was staying, his sister's
place. It was my first time meeting his sisters. They had some friends over and
I introduced myself as another son. The dad said I wasn't tall like his son,
ha. I changed into the shorts I brought (so I would be dressed comfortably on
the ride home) and we were all watching the Lego Movie while waiting for our
friend to tell us when he was ready. I got to see maybe 30 minutes of the movie
and it was very good and funny. I need to finish it some time.
We met up with our newly graduated friend at the Embassy
Miniature Golf course. It had been years since I last played putt putt.
Thankfully we all sucked, ha. The people behind us were definitely better than
us as they were waiting for us to finish most of the time. Good thing we didn't
make a bet of push ups we had previously suggested because we all would have
had to do a bunch of them. It was really fun though.
After our 18 holes, the graduate invited us to dinner with
his family at Red Lobster, yum. We met up later since he needed to pick up his
family. My friend and I just went around to a local Best Buy and Target to look
around and kill time. Dinner was good. I had a little fun messing with our cute
waitress. The food was delicious, but I couldn't finish it all. I got stuffed
fast. And it was also the graduate's mom's birthday so we did a cheers for her.
We said our byes to the graduate's family as we went back to
my friend's sister's place so I can get my car. The graduate and his family
insisted I stay the night at a hotel and they got a room for me. I was later
told my eyes were bloodshot red and that they didn't want me to fall asleep on
the drive home (dinner ended at 7 and I would have made it home around 10-11).
So I met up with the graduate at the Best Western, got checked in, and parted
ways. I got a much needed shower and went to sleep around 11PM. Keep in mind
that I didn't plan for an over night stay otherwise I would have packed more
clothes and my laptop at least.
Woke up the next morning around 8AM. I checked a few things
online before getting ready to leave. I was originally going to leave at noon,
but there was no reason for me to stay around longer than I needed. So I left
at 11. Unfortunately, it had been raining since early morning and the rain
picked up heavily just as I was leaving. I got soaked running to my car.
Thankfully I still had my formal wear in the car. I spent a good 10 minutes
changing and drying off before setting off.
Wow, I drove in the rain the whole way. According to the
forecast, it was going to rain all day. I thought I would be driving away from
it, but it seems I brought it along with me. If only I left an hour or two
early, the beginning wouldn't have been so bad when leaving San Antonio, which was the worst part. There
were times where I could not see a thing in front of me. It was all white and
bright due to the rain. I also forgot that it can easily flood in San Antonio. Luckily I
didn't hit any flood spots. And thankfully other drivers were smart as we were
all turning on our warning lights just so we could see anything on the road. It
was very stressful. I think it was a good 45-60 minutes before I was out of
that rough patch and heading straight down the highway towards Houston.
All drivers were going 10 miles lower than the speed limit
turning a 3 hour drive to 4 hours, but that's okay. Better safe than not.
Throughout the whole drive, there were a good 5-7 spots where the traffic
grinded to a halt. I took one stop just like before, but at a McDonald's. Once
I hit the Katy area, I let out a sigh of relief. I got some Chick-Fil-A and
made it home a little after 3PM.
San Antonio
was a fun trip. I am very proud of my friend and it was great spending time
with his family. I was proud of myself for completing my first solo road trip
with no issues. I was nervous going alone because...it was lonely and boring.
Plus I didn't want a stupid health issue to kick in and then I had no one to
help me. I sang a lot, but having one friend would have made the trip easier
to deal with especially that rain situation coming home. At least I know I can do it and
would travel solo given the proper reason to go, but I'll opt to have anyone
accompany me if possible especially for anything exceeding 2 hours to drive to.
=========================
- I played a lot of games this month, but first...
- DAYTONAAAAAAAAA!
- Bravely Default (3DS) - Review
I already mentioned beating Bravely Default last month, but
I wrote my review in May. I always seem to forget stuff when writing these.
That includes the next game I beat.
- Child of Light (Wii U eShop) - Review
Child of Light was amazing to look at. Much like Wind Waker
HD, I wanted to screen cap everything. The soundtrack is amazing as well. I
listened to that a lot the week after beating this game. I think this would be
a game for anyone to try even those that don't play games that much. One
negative I forgot to mention was that the text was very small to read. It might
just be my eyes, ha.
- I had not completed everything by the time I wrote my
review for NES REMIX 2. But completing the rest of the stages and beating Super
Luigi Bros didn't change anything I mentioned in the review.
- I finally had some down time to play A Link To The Past,
which I downloaded back in January. I could have done it all in one sitting if
I only realized it the day I booted the game up. Literally, I was doing stuff
online and remembered I had this game and immediately stopped what I was doing
and turned on the Wii
U. I am proud that I
remember the majority of the game to this day.
- Mega May happened all month. They released a new Mega Man
VC game for the 3DS each week. I was thinking hesitant on getting them at
first, but I ended up downloading each title. I didn't play them all right
away, but tried to play and beat each one the weekend of their release. All
were done in one sitting since they were usually around 2-3 hours long. The only
one I haven't played as of typing this is Mega Man Xtreme 2. I do have it downloaded though.
Mega Max Xtreme was amazing. I thought it would be a cruddy
port of the SNES classic, but it was pretty faithful. And like all the classic
Mega Man Game Boy titles, it took half of the bosses from the main game and the
other half consisted of half of the bosses from the next installment. But
everything about Xtreme was great. The stages, bosses, and music were
faithfully recreated (for a GBC title). I was extremely impressed with this
one.
Mega Man II was alright. The controls felt smooth, but the
biggest downside to the game was the music. Definitely didn't capture the
attention like the much acclaimed tunes did on its NES counterpart. It was
still a good game though.
Mega Man III...for some reason...I had a lot of trouble with
this one. I know I spent a good hour alone beating Dust Man's stage because of
one area, geez.
Mega Man IV had to have been the best of the classics. Game
play, music, and recreating everything else about the NES games were pulled off
really well.
Mega Man V was actually all new (for the Game Boy games). I
didn't know that at first. The bosses were all named after the planets in our
solar system. The stages were all different, the music was all new, everything
about this was new and I liked it. Worth the extra dollar.
- I compiled a ranking list of all the Mario Kart games in
honor of Mario Kart 8 being released. Check it out via the proceeding link.
And Mario Kart 8 itself is so much fun. Everything looks
gorgeous too. I'm having a lot of fun using the highlight editor. It's such a
simple and easy tool to use for creating highlight videos to share. I've been
uploading them to my WingedVoX YouTube channel so you might have seen some.
They're all short. 30 seconds is the shortest you can upload and a full race (possibly
3-4 minutes) is the longest.
=========================
- On 05.28.14, I forgot to wear a hat when going out. That's
the first time this whole year. I was a little bummed that I actually forgot to
do something that had become so routine. No big deal though. I wore one at home
for the rest of the day, ha.
- My health has been weird all month. One thing that has
happened a lot lately (not consistently) is being dizzy or having my left arm
feel numb after eating a big meal. Each time, I also had issues sleeping. I
would have to use some of my sleep tactics to help me somewhat slumber. I have started to eat smaller portions and
not stuff myself. That has actually helped a lot.
I did have one bad scenario happen. A coworker offered to
make me some tea. I took it and it tasted really good. What I didn't realize
until later was that he loaded it with sugar. The last hour of the work day was
a little tough to complete. The rest of the day I felt light headed, things
felt like they were going slower, and I couldn't really do much. Everything was
fine the next day, but it had been a long time since I had something like that
mess my body up that much. It really sucks though because as much as I had
exercised the month prior for the beach, I pretty much can't do that anymore.
And I was very happy with my progression with that. Per usual, things reset to
0 when stuff like this happens. Thankfully, things have been getting back to
normal, which is good. I'll just have to monitor myself a little more than I
have been.
- While I typed about a lot of events this month, a lot of
things got cancelled. I remember in April, it was easier to meet up with
friends. This month, it was difficult or impossible to see them. I know we all
have our lives and priorities, but it was nuts how many scheduled meet ups
didn't happen. Oh well. Here's to hopefully seeing them more in the near
future.
- Comicpalooza happened on the 23rd-26th. I opted out on
going. I'm just a little bitter about all the work I did last year for the
gaming community I was once a part of that went under appreciated. Like I said
on Twitter, the new people we recruited to help were great and I appreciated
their hard work with this being their first big gig they did for us. The main
guy...I only realized it in retrospect that he did nothing for us even though
he was the one that wanted to do the event. He only did stuff for his job, the
TV station he works for. He didn't do a thing for us and didn't promote all the
videos we did like he normally would (and he pretty much was that way for
anything he didn't have a hand in). I personally did so much (training the new
crew on the spot, scheduling their tasks, finding people to interview since all
we wanted to didn't go through because of the same person mentioned earlier,
etc) and got so little out of it. Plus I was in a lot of pain since I wasn't
used to going around such a big convention.
And there were a lot of wrestlers I wanted to see that were
there (Kevin Nash, Bret Hart, Lita, etc) and other guests like a lot of the
original Power Rangers and Stan Lee. But I just couldn't get myself to go, not
even just for one day. I'll probably go next year though. Just couldn't this
year. That gaming community (mainly the top guy) really took a lot out of me
looking back on everything. I'm glad I left them. Not everyone was bad and I
still support those people (some who left after I did), but not that
community. Feel free to unfollow them unsubscribe to them, and unlike them
because I did. Thank you for supporting me during that stint though. I
appreciate it.
- Maken-Ki was suggested to me by a friend. After he told me
about how much he liked the anime, I checked to see how long the series was and
then decided to watch it all for the month of May, Maken-Ki May. What I didn't
expect was the amount of fan service it delivered. Now, I have nothing against
fan service, I just didn't know there would be a lot of it. The second season
toned it down a bit (no nipples or panty shots). All in all, it was only an
okay anime. Season one was at least building up to something, but then it felt
rushed since there were only 12 episodes and was anticlimactic. Season two
wasn't leading to anything. They were just random episodes that you could watch
out of order and not miss a thing. I really wouldn't recommend it unless you
just like fan service.
- I've gotten more into 2NE1 lately. It's not that I didn't
like them before, but I didn't have a song of theirs I really liked. It took
listening to Come Back Home a lot and then looking up their performances of it
to make that my favorite song of theirs (as well as Gotta Be You). I'll keep my eyes on them a lot closer
from now on.
Thank you for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and
be loved.
Take care. DFTBA.
