Thursday, October 4, 2018

September 2018 Entry

September 2018 Entry

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- Got stood up (09.02). Very lame. 

- Spent the morning catching up with a dear friend (09.03). He was off due to the Labor Day holiday. Went to Starbucks first and then to Chic-Fil-A. Did you know that on Labor Day Chic-Fil-A skips serving breakfast? That was a nice surprise. Anyways, we caught up on quite a few things. I really don't like info-dumping a bunch of negative things, but he assured me it was okay as it was better than keeping it in. He's a good friend. 

- Got some new clippers (09.04). Had these in my Amazon wish list for a while and finally decided to get them. They're pretty good. Quiet and smooth. 


- DEATH BATTLE - Optimus Prime VS Gundam (09.05) 


- Saw this pop up on Facebook and immediately stopped what I was doing to find a full video of the California Dreams Reunion (09.11). How did I not know about this? It was so cool seeing the cast together (minus a few of them). And hearing them sing the theme song live was so dang cool. 

- Ever since working at HER, I stopped going to the gas station minutes from my house. I'd always need gas closer to work so I would go to one frequently close to it. But since switching locations, the one closer to home was most convenient. It really had been about 4 years since I last went there. To my surprise, the older lady working there recognized me (09.13). Her mood changed the moment I stepped up to the counter. She greeted me warmly and even said how long it had been. I mentioned about being closer to downtown so she understood why she didn't see me. She ended the transaction with being glad that I'll be around again. 


- I woke up in the morning with horrible neck pain (09.21). It hurt so much to move the tiniest bit and my neck was extremely sensitive. Definitely had to remember to keep my neck stiff throughout the day. The only thing I can think that caused the pain was from rearranging my room the day before. Nothing else could have caused it. Took a good amount (not overboard) of pain pills over the next few days. I even bought some patches to relieve the pain. It got a little better as the days went on for the next week. 

- Got to catch up with another dear friend at Merchant (09.26). We were going to hang out at the beginning of the month, but she was incredibly busy. Part of our talk involved what she was up to. I was worried it was some bad news. Glad that things had been going well for her. She's a wonderful friend and I'm glad she's always there for me. 

- DEATH BATTLE - Nightwing VS Daredevil (09.26) 


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- The Mae Young Classic 2018 has begun (09.05). As of typing this (10.02), the first round has finished airing. I got 11-16 of my predictions correct. I definitely have not looked at spoilers as I want to be surprised. I actually only knew of a couple of things that happened due to news spreading. My top 2 main picks are Kaitlyn (welcome back, Houston represent) and  Deonna Purrazzo. 

- Went to a Smackdown house show with my cousins (09.15). Met up at one of their apartments that is across from NRG Stadium and then we took an Uber to the Toyota Center. What a fun show. All the matches were great. A non-show highlight was that Vickie Guerrero was in the audience. She was actually about 5 rows away from us. During the intermission, she was letting fans come to take photos with her. The line was really long. They also announced that they would be coming back for RAW on December 3rd. I purchased tickets from me and a friend to go. Excited for it. 


- Hell In A Cell  was an awesome PPV (09.16). I really was contemplating going and getting cheap seats, but I ended up having to work since I took the day off to go to the house show the day before. Randy Orton VS Jeff Hardy, wow (watch the clip). And Becky Lynch, you deserve it. 


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- Miss Click is a Twitch affiliate and YouTuber that recently became a Nintendo Ambassador. She was a recommended channel on Twitch and I decided to check her out. Shortly thereafter, I started watching her videos on YouTube and followed her on Twitter. She's cute and has lots of energy. Her reaction videos are amazing to watch, ha. But I definitely recommend her as someone to follow as she has great potential. 


- 100% completed The Messenger (09.04). The game play was great, the music was awesome, and it was just a fun adventure. Highly recommend it. 


- Tried out the Mega Man 11 demo (09.06). I tried it on the Normal difficulty and had some troubles. So I bumped the difficulty down and was able to beat Block Man. It definitely got me hyped for the full game coming out in October (currently playing this as of typing 10.03). 

- Agent PQ went to San Japan and got me a Samus shirt (09.07). 


- Started the final installment of the trilogy with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials & Tribulations (09.09) While I was casually playing it when I had time, I did speed up during the last case to finish it (09.13). Still a great set of cases and a wonderful way to end the series. 


- Got some of my Toreba prizes (09.12). I named him Godot since I was playing Trials & Tribulations at that time. 


- Nintendo Direct delivers again (09.13). There were quite a few titles I was interested in. And since more release dates became cemented, I did have to decide on which games to skip out on (Luigi's Mansion, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe). But the biggest takeaway are all the Final Fantasy titles that were announced for 2019 (Crystal Chronicles, VII, IX, X, X-2, XII) as well as XV Pocket Edition HD being released that day (the reason I sped up with finishing Trials & Tribulations). 


- Downloaded Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD the day it released and played started playing it the next day (09.14). While I did know it wouldn't be exactly like the original XV, I didn't realize how short it would be. Below is a quote I said to a friend who asked my opinion on the game after I beat it (09.18). 

"I didn't play the actual XV, only watched all of the cutscenes. It's very condensed and simplified. Very much a mobile version of the game. I was expecting more of a challenge too (only had a few times where it was rough). I liked it to an extent. It's not horrible and it functions fine (minus some choppiness and long load times). But I don't see myself recommending this to anyone without the current sale (that's ending soon) or if you own and have already played the original." 


- The Switch online service started and I bought my subscription. The first game I decided to try out was Super Mario Bros. (09.18). Fun to play through the game again. 

While I was done messing around with the online service, I did jump back on when I saw a tweet from Arda Ocal challenging other to play Ice Hockey. So I took him up on the challenge and we had a competitive match (tied into a shoot out that tied so they removed the goalies ending with 8-7 and a victory for Arda). Other than some lag, that was so fun. I haven't played anyone else in any games online, but I definitely want to. 


- The next NES game I tried out was Excitebike (09.19). Had not played that game in many years. I couldn't get first place after for the last track though. Tried many times and at least was able to work my way from bronze to silver. 


- Had a coupon from GameStop for 20% off used games. I had been meaning to buy a copy of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse on the 3DS so I finally did with that coupon (09.20). Couldn't find new copies locally and the price for new online was too much. I called the store to make sure it was complete with the box and instructions, which it was. So now I have a copy to add to my collection. 


- Child of Light: Ultimate Edition announced a release date (09.20). I was on the fence before, but I want to support the game in hopes of helping push the sequel. I won't play it right away since it comes out on the 11th, which is a day before The World Ends With You and that will be the priority. But there is a gap of time between that and Smash Bros. So I will playthrough Child of Light during that period of time. 

- Had an itch to play another NES game on the Switch. I chose Gradius (09.20). I actually don't recall finishing the game back in the day. It was more obvious as the stages after the first were not familiar at all. But it was cool to finally finish the game for the first time. 


- The Ace Attorney Twitter account has been saying they were going to announce something soon. And they did; the Ace Attorney Trilogy will be available on all modern systems (09.22). I found it funny that I just beat the trilogy on 3DS this year and now I'll be playing through the trilogy again in 2019, ha. 


And to continue with the same theme, I ordered a copy of Dai Gyakuten Saiban and that arrived on the same day as the trilogy announcement. Continuing my yearly purchase of collecting all the games in this series. I'm only missing Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 and the original trilogy on GBA. 

- Wanted to play something short on the NES Switch app. Chose Donkey Kong (09.23) It really did not take long to finish. I continued playing until I lost all my lives. I was able to finish all the levels twice before losing my last life. 


And then I finally had a chance to play the Dark Souls stress test demo. Tried out all the characters (the dark knight was my favorite). Man, that's a tough game. I can see why people like it, but it's not for me. I'm glad I was able to try it out. 

- Donald Duck - Simple & Clean (too amazing, ha) 


- Remembering Final Fantasy VI 


- You'll read more about it more below, but I played and completed The Legend of Zelda (09.28). 

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- For the first time ever since I started working when I was 18, I had to come in to work (09.02). This was also a requested day off. There was miscommunication between the Downtown location and what we offer at the Memorial location. Agent Ocean informed us how he now had to set up for a gender reveal. I asked if he needed me to come help him and I did. While we were able to pull it off, it was just not pleasant to have to scramble and for me to have to come in at all. 

- Since we have not been getting steady customers, our hours have decreased more. Basically on any days our last available times don't get booked, we close up shop (all 3 of us agreed to it). So for example, if the latest session is 9:30PM, we can leave at 8:30PM because customers have up to an hour before the time to book. For me, my Thursdays are extremely short already at 5 hours. But with no customers, I leave at 2PM. So for the past month, all my Thursdays have only been 3 hour work days. It's not a good thing on all ends.  

- We had our first company meeting separately from the Downtown location (09.07). We technically did not have a meeting as Agent Ocean makes sure that myself and Agent PQ always are in the loop about major things. For our first company activity, we went to an escape room. We actually joined a couple of strangers (their first time, but they sure did contribute) and were able to escape with over 20 minutes remaining. My record is now 23 victories out of 28 escape rooms. 


And around this time was when Agent Hourglass stopped showing up for work. That was certainly a crappy way to quit a job. 

- Because the beginning of the month was bad, I reached out to a few select people. One of them was Agent Gig. He had been away from the company for a couple months in pursuit of his masters so we needed to catch up (09.09). Similar to the stories of catching up with others in this entry, it was great getting to see him again. But this conversation brought up a couple things. One I will touch on later. The other is how the Memorial location is and if he was able to help us or not. A few days later, the wheels were in motion. Shortly thereafter, Agent Gig was back with the company. His official first day was the first of October. While he is working a very limited schedule this time around and only at the Memorial location, it's great to have him back. 

- As mentioned last month, our new system still has bugs. While sometimes it is very minor and we can cover for it, it sure wasn't like that one Saturday night (09.22). It was Agent Ocean and I. His girlfriend and some of her friends signed up and they were partnered and battling against a group of strangers that all knew each other. Some hits weren't showing up on our end so we paused the game (I went in to the rooms to let both teams know) so that we can reset the system. We did that a total of 5 times. After the last one, Agent Ocean called it off. We explained what was going on and offered the participants to come back in the future for free. They were all having fun too...it was such a shame. Once they left, Agent Ocean was ready to go and said I could go too. I said I'll close up and he can go because he was pissed. So he left. Agent Blue actually was there and witnessed everything so he stayed to help me close up. And I was able to hand over a few gifts for the Downtown location before we split. That...was a rough session to say the least. 

- My thoughts on the company...it's only a matter of time. We're close to having actual escape rooms finished and ready to go and we're constantly making sure the new concept runs smoothly. However, if no one comes, those mean nothing. If everything we offered is the best in the world, what good is it if no one experiences it? That is the bottom line. We need customers to come. 

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- Hyomin - Mango (MV) 


- Amber - White Noise (MV) 


- Weezer/Weird Al - Africa (MV) 


- Dad went to the Philippines for vacation (09.06). He will be gone for one month. I definitely miss his food, ha. 

- It has been a year since my mom had heart surgery (09.11). She's a lot better since then and I'm glad. I can still think back during that time and start to tear up. It's something I'll never forget. 

- As I have mentioned a few times in this entry, the month did not start off well. I did have a point where I was frustrated and crying and reflecting on a lot of things. I was texting a couple of friends back and forth during this time and I am thankful they were there for me. One of them (my best friend) mentioned she would be coming to Houston in either in October or November and that made me incredibly happy. The other friend made suggestions about doing more things related to my hobbies. The main one being video games. 

I've thought about streaming on Twitch for a while. I definitely have had more free time due to less work so I had been playing games more. A few friends/coworkers have suggested it since I play games they don't play and they want to see. So I put it out in the world in the form of a tweet (09.05). I was just concerned that I would spend time, effort, and money into this and it would fail like a lot of projects I have tried over the years. No one replied to that tweet so I was a little down on it and wasn't doing much about it. 

Then I met up with Agent Gig. We talked about it because I recently sent him a photo of me and Agent Ocean watching an old stream of his. We started spitballing ideas and basically came up with an idea to which he said if it became a thing, he would be on board and help. He even went out of his way to help me get started by gifting me a mic a pop filter (09.11). 


So I started to rearrange my room (09.12). The set up had been the same for many years now. Earlier in the year I took down a bunch of posters. Had I not done it then, I probably would have at this time. I only did a little bit, but it helped free up a lot of space and made things easier to access. And there sure was a ton of dust, yuck. But I stopped after that initial adjustment and left it alone for about a week. I mainly wanted to see if the slight change in my bed's position would make it tough for me to sleep or not. It didn't. 

I continued rearranging the room, but to completion this time (09.19). Things were thrown away, lots of dust was swept and collected, and everything except the TV and the stand it is on was moved. Basically, all shelves and drawers are now on one side of the room, my bed is up against the wall with the windows, and my computer is now opposite the bed closer to the TV. I also had to change the direction of the vent because the a/c was blowing directly on me where the computer now resides. The biggest downside is that bed creaks a lot more. 

The other thing I was holding back on was ordering equipment. I did ask around and got some recommendations for a capture card and a webcam. I even bought a deck to help with streaming (have yet to use it). But I did try out all the items to make sure they worked when they arrived (09.24). Unfortunately, the cord for the webcam was too short for where I wanted to set it up and where my computer was. So I ordered an extender as well as a clamp to position it above my TV (09.26). 


Spent some time setting up OBS and a few other settings and did a few test recordings to make sure things were at least working for me. Then I had my first test stream (09.26). I played Super Mario Odyssey since a new outfit became available. Stream went smoothly with only the mic being very low for some reason. I was glad that the stream was running reliably though. I had a second test stream the following day and played Fortnite (09.27). Same as before with the mic being the only bad thing. 

I was able to figure out the mic issue (it was turned down very low on my computer for some reason, never used the mic function before). And I'm glad it worked out because with or without a mic, I was going to have my first official stream (09.28). My game of choice, The Legend of Zelda on the NES Switch app. I completed the game in about 5 hours. No hiccups on stream other than me having to fix an overlay graphic. 


And that is how I began streaming on Twitch. It's going to take some getting used to. I don't talk while I play games and I make it a point to mention that on stream. However, if people talk in the chat, I'll talk with them. Otherwise I'll just play the game. So if you tune in for a stream, say "hi" and keep me company in the chat. Shout outs to those that have already.

I am also figuring out a way to schedule sessions too. I just have to now because the way I was playing was "nonstop" with a lot of breaks in between (eat, catch up on social media, watch videos, etc). Now I have to play in a sitting. While I can take breaks, it won't be as convenient as before. Plus I do find it a little blah for a streamer to take a long break and leave the stream on (just my opinion). It's safe to say that I will start a stream at the earliest at 1PM. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, I'll play until wrestling comes on. Streaming is definitely based around my work schedule. Definitely won't stream Saturdays unless it was really late at night. 

Over the last couple of months, I have definitely contributed more to the channels I watch (bits, subscriptions, gift subscriptions, hosting, etc). Seeing the out pour of community support on various channels is amazing. The one thing that helped push me to want to do this was a recent stream on VampyBitMe's channel. She was celebrating her one year anniversary on Twitch. Her friends started gifting subs to pretty much every person on stream. She cried, she wanted to giveaway more stuff, and it kept coming. It was insane. Having followed her for years now, seeing this happen live was inspirational. The craziness starts around the 2 hour mark and goes on for a while.


I need support. As of typing this (10.03), I'm not an affiliate. I can hit all my other goals, no problem. But getting 50 followers in a month is the one that will take some extra effort. So if you are reading this and you want to help me out and you have a Twitch account, please give me a Follow. Please tell others that you know would be interested in this about it. I know this is something I can really put a lot of myself into, but I need the support to get things off the ground. Once that happens, any additional support would be greatly appreciated. 


- That's it for September 2018. This was a long and emotional and event filled month. Thanks for reading. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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