Monday, September 1, 2014

August 2014 Entry



August was very busy.

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- My office job is very boring and stagnant. The "bulk" of my job now is putting our new logo on our videos and replacing them on YouTube. It's a lot of waiting around for a project to finish and upload. At least I get to use up that free time to read stuff online and listen to podcasts.

One task I had to do was replace all the links I put into the descriptions of our hundreds of videos because we had to move our site over. That in turned made all the links inactive. It took over 2 weeks to complete, geez.

A cool thing that happened though is that one of our custom videos won a Telly Award. That's accomplishment was a surprise, but very well deserved. We actually invited Fiesta a couple weeks later for a presentation and lunch to celebrate. And of course, I took a silly photo with it a couple days after we received the award.


- I didn't get to watch SummerSlam live as I was busy, but I caught the replay late that night. Very awesome show. And wow, Lesnar dominated Cena. Never would have guessed that he would be conquered by so many suplexes.

The Paul Heyman documentary is fantastic. Any wrestling fan should watch it.


And for some reason, I went back and watched all the Scramble matches. I actually like that concept. They should bring it back for a PPV here and there for fun.

- Batman: Assault on Arkham was great. It came out in retail on the 12th. I really enjoyed the direction and pacing the most and the rag-tag cast of villains. Not my favorite of the Batman DC animated movies, but it's up there.


- A friend had a gathering called My Blueberry Night on the 16th. I came a little late and missing the beginning of a Japanese movie they were watching called Key of Life. That was actually pretty good. We then played Munchkin Zombies. 4 teams of 2 with each team having a person who has played and one who had not. And like every game of Munchkin, it went on for hours. I still haven't won, but some day I will, ha.

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was very good. I saw it on the 19th with another friend who really liked it. Other than us, I haven't heard/read anyone else that liked it. I'm not going to go out of my way to "convince" anyone to watch it, but I will tell anyone that asks that I enjoyed it.

- On the 21st, I got a text and call from a friend who needed help due to a failing car. After work, I went out to the Heights to meet him, follow him to return his rental car, drive to a Carmax on the other side of the town so he can get a new used car, wait for his car to be towed there, get dinner nearby (Firehouse Subs is delicious), and be there for the whole process as he bid farewell to his old car and finally get a better functioning vehicle. That all took place between 2-9PM. It was a long day, but we got what we needed done.


- My parents left for the airport on the 28th for their annual trip to the Philippines. One month with no home cooking, darn, ha. It definitely has felt different since they left. Days feel a little slower.

- The 29th was a very interesting day. The plan was work until 2, haircut at 3, GameStop either at 4-4:30, rest at 5, then Uno at 7:30. Work was normal, but we were informed that we'd be leaving an hour earlier. After hearing about that, I changed plans around and went to GameStop after work at 1. I picked up a game (mentioned later) and was talking to the workers there since they're familiar with me. Not only that, but the rain was pouring down badly. I made it home around 1:45 to eat lunch and rest a bit before heading out to get my haircut. Left at 2:15, but didn't arrive until 3:15 due to the rain (which let up) and heavy traffic. My stylist joked that it wasn't as bad as the other time I was late (I think 30 minutes). We caught up and also had a laugh about my hat. I happened to be wearing my Zotto Mola hat and my stylist is Korean. While I knew what it meant, I didn't know about the slang part and that it was bad, ha. She didn't say the slang herself, but she recommended not to wear it around older Koreans, ha.

I left there around 3:45 and was caught up in traffic again. Didn't make it home until 5:15 I think. But that was still enough time to catch up on online stuff and rest before leaving at 7. I had never been to this friend's apartment before, but it was a nice place. Two more friends showed up and we were treated to pizza. We caught up, talked about movies, and then got into heated rounds of Uno. It had been years since I played and it's still fun. Plus it didn't hurt that we were all being silly and saying stupid things the whole time. The following photos were our scores. The first to 150 was the loser. My name was OIDUA-M because while coming up with names, I turned to see a keyboard that was M-AUDIO. That was a really fun night.



- I thought I had plans for the Labor Day Weekend, but I didn't. The only thing I knew I would do was play the new game I bought. So I did that for a few hours on the 30th. A package arrived in the mail and it was the Metroid Hatchlings I ordered from Vampy and JRYU. They are awesome necklaces.


I did end up texting a few friends hoping they'd be free to hang out because I didn't want to just spend the whole weekend with no plans. One was too tired to join. I met up with the other friend for dinner at George's Pastaria at 7. It had been a couple months since he and I caught up so it was good and the food was great. We were done around 9, but I didn't want to go home yet. So I suggested going to see a movie (and I rarely suggest that).

We met up at Studio Movie Grill at the City Centre. We were either going to watch Guardians of The Galaxy (his suggestion and he didn't mind seeing it again) or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (my suggestion and I didn't mind seeing it again). The movie of choice was Guardians since that was guaranteed to be something I'd like. TMNT would have been a gamble for him to like since it was hard to champion knowing a lot of people had their doubts and negativity towards it and only my friend and I liked it. But Guardians of The Galaxy was excellent. I'm glad I finally saw it. That ended the night and I was home around 1AM.

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- I had not played any video games (seriously) since July 19th. The last game I played at that time was Dillon's Rolling Western on my 3DS. I still haven't beaten it, but I'll get back to it some day. I did make time to play games the last couple of weeks of August though as I found myself having more free time around then.

- I beat Super Mario Bros. 2 (Wii U VC) on the 20th. It was offered from Club Nintendo as a prize and it was a good deal. Plus I had a bunch of coins I was sitting on not being used. I actually attempted a no warp run, which I don't recall ever doing. It was tough. It actually took my 2 attempts to complete.


- Capcom had released a Mega Man Wii U VC title every Thursday in August. I downloaded a few of them. One being Mega Man 5. That one sat in my Wii U for a bit before I finally played and beat it. I'm fairly sure that Mega Man 5 is my least favorite of the NES Mega Man titles.


- The other Mega Man title I downloaded this month for my Wii U was Mega Man 6. This was the easiest of the Mega Man classic games. I didn't die that much and most of the Robot Masters were a pushover. It was good that it finally got released on the Virtual Console.

I also downloaded Mega Man X3, but haven't played it yet. I'll get to it eventually.


- Mario Kart 8 released its update and free DLC on the 27th. The updates were very much welcome. And while a lot of people thought the Mercedes-Benz karts were blasphemous, I don't mind them at all. We also got news of the DLC packs coming in November and May, Mario Kart X Zelda and Mario Kart X Animal Crossing. Each pack adds 3 new characters and 8 new tracks. I did the advance purchase on them because there is no way I'm missing out on those.


- Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney came out on the 29th. This is actually only my second retail 3DS purchase this year with the first being Bravely Default. I'm really liking it so far. I've never played a Layton game so the puzzles are interesting. And playing as Phoenix feels obviously and amazingly familiar. The drama is heating up and I can't wait to delve into the story more.


- And yes, I do plan to buy a New Nintendo 3DS.


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- On the 12th of July, a few friends and I went to the Houston Escape Room. I wrote about it in my last entry. Bottom line, I really enjoyed that place. I enjoyed it so much that I emailed them to see if they were hiring. I actually had an interviewed scheduled the following week, but that was around the time my grandmother passed away. The owner/manager was understanding and we rescheduled my interview for the 8th of August at the escape room.

The interview went really well. It lasted for 90 minutes and was the easiest job interview I've ever had. It actually didn't feel like an interview. Sure, we talked about business like what I thought about the room and how I would handle things in certain work situations etc, but we also just go to know each other better. I was even asking him questions. In the end, it felt like more of a formality and the means to just get to know our personalities. He emailed me later asking to start a trial period that weekend.

The 9th was my first day. Not only was the owner there, but so was one of the girls that was there when I went through the room with my friends. We clicked well. The groups that I was there for were hazy. The main thing I did was exclaim to the other agents (those that work in the escape room) about how I don't remember half the stuff in the room, ha. I was only there for 4.5 hours the first day. It went well and went by fast.

The next day I worked with the other girl that was there when I went through the room. She and I clicked also clicked well. It was another 4.5 hour day. The owner took us out to eat during the hour break scheduled (after my hours were done) and the other agent joined us. We ate at Fat Bao since it was close by and the owner had us download and play Spaceteam on our phones as a team building exercise. It was fun. So fun that we snuck in an extra game while he was catching up with another friend that was also there when we were actually supposed to head back to the room, ha. He went ahead of us since he needed to unlock the place and I rode back a few minutes later with the girls. While they took care of the next team, the owner wanted to talk. It was just to get my impressions on things and if there were things I thought could be improved upon. I also met another agent that's actually a volunteer and not an employee of the room. He is very supportive of the business and brings a lot of insight. I ended up staying a couple hours for that talk and left around 9.

The next week, I was scheduled for 5 straight days in a row. I was also still going to my office job in the morning. I worked a 49 hour week that week. Not only that, but from the 7th to the 19th of August, I worked 12 straight days. I was very exhausted, but the fun and excitement of the escape room gave me lots of energy.

I actually worked a full day on the 17th. That was our last day at the current location. Yes, we're moving to a new location to be announced later. That was one reason I didn't really advertise that I worked there to others since I didn't want to get a lot of people excited for it and then not be able to go until we move into the new building. But we're all looking forward to the new place since it will be bigger, easier to find, provide better parking, and have new rooms added in the future.

While I worked the whole day on our last day, it wasn't that bad. I had gotten comfortable and just been my goofy self with fellow agents and customers. I still had not memorized the scenario story we tell, but I was good at reading the rules, keeping the teams informed of their time, and resetting the room and knowing where everything belonged.

Watching others tackle the room is fascinating. Every group has been different ranging from the super excited to the skeptical to nurses to students and much more. Some groups have alpha leaders, some groups have jerks that don't cooperate with the rest of their team, but overall they had fun. My favorite is watching children participate. They express the most excitement going into the room, finding things, and figuring stuff out. One little girl actually asked me to help her move something. I told her to ask her parents, but it was too cute. The other agents also like watching children have fun in the escape room. In general, it's awesome to meet new people on an hourly/daily basis because that is something I had not been doing for a long time. It's very refreshing.

My favorite group has to be this group of 4 college students and 6 elementary school teachers. The teachers were dominant and were still in teacher mode for a while. Some were catching themselves when they were about to say bad things, but they later let loose and would occasionally throw out a "let's go, b!tches." But the highlight was one teacher that was flirting with me throughout the hour trying to get me to tell her clues, ha. She actually had bonded with me because she needed a hair tie and I gave her one of mine. From then on, she proceeded to call me "love bug" and would always look my way for a reaction whenever they had questions hoping I'd give away something. I would flirt with her back, but never gave her any extra hints to anything. It was really fun.

I became an actual employee on the 20th after having a brief phone conversation with the owner. I honestly forgot I was on the trial period, ha. But yeah, I really enjoy working for the escape room. The ones I've told about me working there, they can tell I like it and are excited to try it themselves. I even told GameStop employees about and my stylist since it came up in conversation and they're interested in participating soon. Can't wait for the new place and to be part of this growing company. So once we get the new location ready, I'll be putting it on blast and letting everyone I know about the Houston Escape Room.

http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/

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- RIP, Robin Williams.


- RIP, Brad. Reading the news was not the best way to start the morning of the 19th. We met in college and while we didn't hang out a lot, I knew you were a kind soul. Every time we did meet through mutual friends, it was always good talking to you.

I clearly remember the last time we met. You were the best man at our friends' wedding. We had a good one-on-one talk at the after party events we went to. And we experienced a hilarious situation when your car was towed that night. You were kind to everyone and no one I knew that met you had anything bad to say in regards to you. It's unfortunate that you were taken away from us so early as you had many years of joy left ahead of you. You can rest peacefully knowing that you left a great impression to those you met in your life. You will be missed, Brad.

- I purchased a lot of stuff at the end of the month. While some of it was planned like a few games, a good number came from eBay. Talking to a friend about eBay lead me to search for stuff again. But I did get some good deals though.

- Anime August was interesting. August itself was fairly busy so I couldn't adhere to the schedule I made for myself. Trigun was actually the final series I was going to rewatch this month, but I just couldn't find enough time to watch it. But I've seen that series at least 3-5 already (Japanese and English) so I didn't feel so bad deciding to skip it. I did make sure to watch Badlands Rumble at the end of the month though.

Gatchaman Crowds - Did not like it. I think it didn't need the Gatchaman name as it barely was a factor. You remove that name and it's a generic anime. I don't recommend it.

Paradise Kiss - Never thought I'd watch an anime about fashion, modeling, and teen angst, but I did. It really was different from a lot of anime I normally watch and that's probably why I liked it. I also really liked that the opening theme was "Lonely In Gorgeous" by Tommy February6. I'd recommend mend Paradise Kiss, but only to a select crowd that I think would enjoy it.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble - I really liked this movie. Trigun's world was always one of my favorites due to the setting, technology, and likeable/dislikeable characters. I recommend this to any Trigun fan.

- The episodes of Running Man have been pretty good this month. My favorite had to be 209 as it combined older generation idols with current ones. Plus Soyu is slowly clawing her way to being my top bias from Sistar. She's great.

Same can be said for Yura in Girl's Day. Her being on We Got Married really helps with that. Her personality is very infectious. I find myself smiling the whole time watching her on We Got Married.

- BoA hit a milestone in her career when her 14th Anniversary happened on the 24th.

Korean MVs - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9753A669DA7DBEFE
Japanese MVs - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL63DBB14089AFEEEC


- Sistar - I Swear


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


Take care. DFTBA.

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