Tuesday, February 9, 2016

January 2016 Entry



A new year and we're one month in already. So much has happened.

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- Happy New Year (01.01).  


- A lot of my Christmas purchases came in (01.03, 01.09). They were just things from my Amazon wish list. Not pictured are some cleaning and physical therapy equipment.



Among those items, I watched a good number of them that I had not seen for a long time or ever.

Ranma 1/2 Movie: Watched on  01.11. It was done pretty well. Although it did seem to be fan subbed and not an official release. Could be wrong. I would recommend the live action movie to any Ranma 1/2 fan.  
Married With Children: Finished watching all 11 seasons, 262 episodes on 01.16. I was amazed with how much I remembered. It was great to relive all those funny moments. Definitely a show for its time.  
Earthworm Jim: Finished watching 2 seasons, 24 episodes on 01.20. It definitely wasn't as funny as I remembered it. It was still clever and good, but I wasn't laughing that much.  

- Went to a WWE Live Event (01.08). The worst part was waiting in line in the pouring rain outside. They did start ushering us in sooner than they were supposed to. A nice mother and son let me in under their umbrella. A friend joined me for the event. We walked around a lot before going to our seats mainly to dry off. I did have a conversation with a father asking about how much the title belts are and how his kid wants one. Then a couple kids told me I was in the wrong place because I was wearing the NXT Title, ha. I also had a mom ask me during the show if John Cena really wasn't showing up because he got injured a few days ago. Her kid did like interacting with me a few times as well, ha. The following wall of text will be the recap I typed in a wrestling group I'm part of. 

Jojo was the ring announcer of the night. She opened with mentioning John Cena was not going to be here as advertised due to his recent shoulder injury and that we can get refunds, but only within the next 20 minutes.

- Chris Jericho def. Alberto Del Rio
I enjoyed Del Rio ripping up Sign Guy's sign before the match.

- Titus O’Neil def. Stardust
Before and after the match, Titus would take a kid out of the audience to do the Millions of Dollars dance.

- Ryback def. Rusev (with Lana)
Nothing different from their recent matches on TV.

- R-Truth def. Heath Slater
They went back and forth at the beginning to see who could get the crowd hyped the most. A dance off was teased, but we ended up with a wrestling match (yay). R-Truth can always get the crowd hyped.

- Kalisto & El Torito def. Los Matadores
I wish Sin Cara wasn't injured. This would have been a fun match.

- Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) def. Sheamus
Damn, Brock and Heyman have a presence. Everyone stood up for most of the match. Brock got a little cut under his eye and bled. As he was walking to the back after the match, Brock did the jack-off motion to a fan talking trash.

- Brie Bella (with Alicia Fox) def. Tamina, special guest referee was Summer Rae
Tamina came out to new Team BAD music, but the other members weren't there (bummed since I was decked out in Sasha gear). Summer Rae was gorgeous in her ref outfit.

- Dolph Ziggler def. Tyler Breeze
Nothing different from their recent matches on TV. I did enjoy seeing a bunch of kids in attendance around me singing Ziggler's theme song.

- Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens in a Street Fight for the IC Title
Lots of kendo stick shots, use of chairs, and Owens powerbombing Ambrose through a table. Owens did a great tease of having Ambrose sit on a chair, ran back and forth a bunch of times off the ropes, and just went into a chin lock, ha.

One thing I did notice was that there was no nods to any factions like the League of Nations or Social Outcasts. It was a house show so it's not like I expected any story advancement.

Highlights for me:
- Unexpected Y2J appearance.
- R-Truth's entrance.
- Seeing Brock Lesnar in person (damn).
- Summer Rae as a damn fine looking referee.
- A kid seated in front of me chanting at/with me and making other fun comments.
- Seeing a daughter hug her dad and saying "I love you" for taking her to the show.

Great night of wrestling overall. Next time they're in town is for the first Smackdown after Wrestlemania.



- Got a few more wrestling items (01.13). Was able to watch the Owen Hart of Gold documentary, which was great. Good stories and matches about a great man. And I also got my Asuka mask. She retweeted one post I made combining her mask with Finn Balor's.



- Rearranged and threw away things in my room for no reason at all (01.16). Guess I wanted a little change in my room.  


- I ordered some more Running Man gear back during Black Friday and finally got them (01.20). I've been proudly wearing them as much as I can.


- Had the day off to watch the Royal Rumble live (01.24). It was great from top to bottom. Great matches and great moments. My top moments were Sasha Banks showing up after the Divas' match, AJ Styles (wow) debuting in the WWE, and Sami Zayn's surprise entrance in the Royal Rumble.  


- A friend from Austin came to visit (01.31). She originally was going to visit the week before, but got caught up with work. Met her and another friend I had not seen in a long time at Mala Bistro for lunch. Ate and caught up before going to the nearby supermarket to do some shopping before she left. That was the most fun I have had grocery shopping in a long time, ha. Hopefully we'll get to hang out again soon.

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*Note: Leaving links out in the open instead of putting them to the text it is associated with. 

- While I didn't play a lot of games in 2015, I still made my WingedVoX Games of 2015 list. Very much condensed from the previous year.  
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/932937623460905

- Had to get me the Shovel Knight amiibo when it came out (01.08). I was actually out of town that day and was able to get it at a GameStop with only 2 in stock. My regular GameStop in Houston actually texted me asking if they wanted me to have them hold one. That was awesome of them, but I wouldn't have been able to get it that day since I was coming back into town and going to the WWE Live Event.


- Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Wii U eShop) - Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/942190272535640

Overall, I liked the game. It's not the best Fatal Frame, but still a good one. Glad I was able to finish it.


- 3D Sonic The Hedgehog (3DS eShop) - Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/942672539154080

I had downloaded this title during a sale. I was always curious to get it and a few other Sega 3D titles. Nothing super special, but definitely good for nostalgia.


- Picked up a Lucas amiibo and a Green & Pink Yarn Yoshi amiibo (01.22, 01.23). Got Lucas on release (possible Mother 3 releasing in the US, cool) and I got the Yarn Yoshis during a sale at Toys R Us.



- Along with Lucas, I also bought Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, but I didn't play it until a couple of days later (01.24). I'm liking it so far. As of typing this, I'm over 24 hours into it. Definitely have devoted a lot of my free time towards playing it.


- A friend was selling off a few of his PSX/PS2 games. He had a few that I thought to add to my collection. He came by and dropped them off (01.25). We talked for a little bit since it had been years since I last saw him. But yeah, more games to add to my collection.


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*Note: I will not upload all the Instagram photos as lately there are a lot of photos uploaded/embedded into these entries. So some will be left as links. 

- Work on New Year's Day (01.01). It was actually alright. We ended the day by eating pizza and playing a game called Codenames. Agent Incognito and myself were bad at it, ha.


- The joke of the Hunks of HER continues. We had plenty of opportunities to do more hunky photos (01.05, 01.12, 01.13). You're welcome.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAL5XwFoXS7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAd7eqeIXeI/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAge3j4IXTl/

- If I remember correctly, we only had corporate sessions this day (01.06). We closed off the rest of the day for renovations. A lot of us got into helping cause destruction (I definitely enjoyed it). We did get done earlier than we thought so we headed out to dinner early.

After relaxing and eating, we went to the Chinatown escape room in the area to try their new one. This was actually the first time doing a room with Agent Pow-Poper, Incognito, and Chisel. Also it was the first time in a long time that we did one with former Agent Cat. It was interesting with a few notable moments. While I would say it was their best one they had, they're actually pretty low on the escape rooms I've enjoyed. Regardless, add another victory in my escape room record.


- This was the day of our HER Retreat to Austin (01.07). I picked up Agent Pow-Poper and we headed off to Austin. We talked the whole way (anime, comics, games, etc). We were one of the first to arrive Titaya's for lunch. Agent Gig was there already. Agent Incognito and Agent Widdershins came next. We ended up getting our own table since the other 4 were running late. They ended up sitting at the table next to us, ha.

Onward to our hotel. Pretty nice. After settling in, Agent Gig and I went exploring. I ended up buying a $3 ice cream sandwich (at least it tasted good) and we rejoined Agent Blue in our hotel room. The 3 of us ended up playing TriForce Heroes. Since I had the full version, we could try more levels outside of the demo. Agent Majordomo joined us as he heard us laughing and yelling. It was crazy fun.

We all then hopped into a couple of cars to head out to Lockdown Austin for our scheduled session. Unfortunately, we ran a little late due to traffic, but they were okay with it. Very nice people. We split up into 2 teams to challenge both of their rooms. Agent Majordomo, PQ, Blue, Yeti, and Gig (Gold Package) did the WWIII room and Agent Pow-Poper, Incognito, Widdershins, and myself (Silver Package) took on the Casino Heist. Glad to report that we both made it out. I really had fun with our room (have said it's my favorite since HER).

Moved to a nearby location so the Gold Package team can get their corporate debrief. The Silver Package team had the paper version of it. After we did that, it was on to our dinner at Pluckers. There was live sports recap happening at the time so we moved to the outdoor area so we could talk. Good food.

Our final activity of the day was to go karaoke. Throughout the day, a friend and I had been talking about meeting up (let her know I was in town a week prior). She couldn't stick around to sing along with us and she actually preferred to just catch up. We just sat at the lobby area (other close by areas were closed) and talked for a while. It was great seeing her and I was glad she actually made time to meet up with me.

I rejoined the team and immediately started singing. I was a little worried about championing karaoke for activity as some had expressed they weren't big on it, but it ended up being very fun for all. Everyone sang multiple times and we had a blast.

Then it was back to our hotel. We actually gathered to knock out some emails that had been piling up. Once we were done, we all headed to our separate rooms to end the night.  

The next day, I was immediately reminded that the Shovel Knight amiibo came out. I mentioned it to Agent Blue and he actually suggested we go get it. He called up a nearby GameStop (that only had 2) and we went and got it, yay. And as I mentioned earlier in this post, my local GameStop contacted me about holding one for me. Getting a Shovel Knight amiibo would have happened regardless.

After we got our stuff packed, we met in the lobby and then headed out to Hopdoddy's for lunch. While some waited in line, I took others to Dragon's Lair. We joined the others back in line minutes later. Lunch was good. At some point, Agent Incognito disappeared. Agent Widdershins thought he said he was going to the coffee shop when he actual said comic shop (Dragon's Lair). We all went back there to buy stuff. I got a print by a local artist of an ice cream bar NES controller. Some of us were playing with the shop's cat. It's always friendly, but apparently it didn't like me that much (even though it did earlier). Ended up getting scratched by it, ha.

Once we were done with our purchases, everyone had to get ready to go. Agent Yeti joined me going home early since we both had previous plans made. The others were to tackle 3 more escape rooms from different businesses before coming home that night. Agent Yeti and I had a good talk on the way back to town (mostly shop talk).

I delivered Agent Yeti to her boyfriend and then actually headed to HER since I had time before the WWE Live Event. Agent Raynor and Agent Chisel were there continuing their work over the last few days of renovations. It was looking pretty dang good. I did come back to chill there after the WWE Live Event. Agent Raynor was there doing work with a friend and Agent Z joined us later. It was nice seeing work get done and just having some fun talks. And that ended the HER retreat for me.
 

- A mish mash of thoughts popped into my head at the end of one night (01.15). I actually left really upset. Agent Yeti texted me after to see if everything was okay because she thought it was work related. It wasn't exactly what she was thinking. It was a combination of work and personal stress. I just left abruptly without saying anything so I wouldn't accidentally direct any of it towards any of them that night. It was odd, but yeah...  

- The Maximum Pleasure Boys had their final night together (01.16). This fearsome foursome took a nice photo to commemorate their awesomeness.


And the reason the Maximum Pleasure Boys are no more is because Agent Pow-Poper was leaving us (01.17). He let us know a month prior that he would need to concentrate on school and other activities. Sad to see him go as he was really good facilitator. Definitely a great gear in the system of HER. Good luck in your future endeavors, Agent Pow-Poper.


- We have an About Us page now, yay (01.18).
http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/about-us

- We ended up closing early to celebrate Agent Gig's birthday (01.19). We went to a nice taco place to eat and then walked over to a bar. Just a good time sharing stories.


- Similar situation the next day (01.20). No reason to celebrate anything, but we took advantage of closing early by going to eat at Smash Burger and Bite Macarons.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BAyeUVWoXW5/

- Had a short Twitter exchange with YouTube star Anna Akana (01.21). She recently did an escape room so I invited her to HER. It would be really cool if she did take us up on that offer.


- Quite a few changes happened all around HER. I mentioned renovations earlier in this post. Agent Gig was able to get our dossiers up (01.14).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAjHV1kIXU7/

He also got some placards for our rooms laser engraved (01.28).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBEZDvkoXfk/

And we added signage to the lobby and had our rules redone with the same artist that did our Halloween chalk art (01.29).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBJsRImIXZc/

- Agent Raynor and Husky Panda came to town to help with a secret project that happened (01.30). Not allowed to talk about it for the time being though. You'll definitely know about it in February though.

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- Gary - Lonely Night (MV)

This might be my song of the year. It's a feel good song.

- And while she was born in February, I did want to say "welcome to the world" to Alessandra. Can't wait to meet you soon.

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


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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