Monday, December 3, 2018

November 2018 Entry

November 2018 Entry

Lots of things occurred in November. Let's get into it. 

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- My Running Man jacket had been sitting in the back of my car as a spare jacket for a long time now. But I did wear it recently (11.10). However, I did notice that the R had been coming off. It wasn't by a little bit either. I felt it would be accidentally ripped off bye either me being careless or someone pulling it off. So to make sure it stayed intact, I did it myself. It now sits on my desk at home. 


- The last random prize I won from Toreba came in (11.11). I haven't opened them. Don't know if I'll ever need to use blue light cut glasses any time soon, ha. Have yet to win anything from Toreba since then. 


- RIP Stan Lee (11.12). 


- I caught the flu (11.18-11.25). On Sunday night, I could feel myself getting sick. Monday was okay, but I knew for sure I was sick at that time. Tuesday was the worst as I was in constant pain especially in my lower body), I was too hot or too cold, I couldn't keep any food down (vomited and dry heaved a lot), sneezing and coughing fits, and I had no energy. I did ask my parents for a lot of help and spent a few hours with them as I was actually freaking out that my body was not showing signs of improvement. The worst part might have been me waking up towards the middle of the night with intense stomach pains. Since I wasn't able to keep any food in me, I was incredibly hungry. I ran down the stairs for my dad for help. As he was preparing some food, by body tensed up as if I was having a seizure. But once I was able to get a little bit of soup and bread in me, I went back up to sleep. 

The following days were bad, but I was slowly getting better. Even though I felt somewhat okay on Friday, I called in sick to get an extra day of rest as I lost many hours of sleep that week (my coughing fits mainly came at night when I tried to sleep). I actually lost my voice on Wednesday and didn't get it back on Saturday on my way to work when I forced my voice out by singing in the car the whole way there. I wasn't 100%, but I could function. And the last thing to happen for this flu week was waking up with a bloody nose on Sunday. I really don't remember the last time I had a bloody nose. The earliest memory was when I was maybe 5 or 6 when I got a bloody nose while at a Mr. Gatti's pizza place. 

My voice was the last thing to return. It took to the next Wednesday for it to sound normal again. Getting the flu was horrible. I think my body gets sick once or twice a year now, but there is a 50-50 chance that it hits me hard like this.

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- Becky Lynch is incredible. She is on a roll with her recent push. Seeing her lead the SmackDown women's roster was superb (11.12). The blood made her look more badass. Unfortunately she got a broken face and concussion, which took her out of Survivor Series. But it kind of makes her even stronger to everyone. It is just wonderful to see everyone get behind her and go nuts for everything she does. 


- NXT TakeOver: Wargames II was so good as expected (11.17). Every match could have qualified for match of the night for different reasons. 


- Survivor Series was a lot of fun too (11.18). It was lame that RAW swept all the matches (minus the preshow) and there were some dumb things that happened, but overall, it was fun. 


- Got some new shirts during a buy-1-get-1-free sale (11.18). Had Becky Lynch's "The Man" shirt been available at the time, I would have gotten that instead of the nWo one. But that's definitely on my wish list for my next purchase. 


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*Twitch note - For any Twitch links, I will now link the highlight videos as the past broadcasts expire. Unfortunately I did not do this for the first stream so I had to reupload The Legend of Zelda.*

- The last Smash Direct before the game comes out (11.01). Ken and Incineroar are awesome additions. I'm sure no one expected Pirahna Plant as a fighter, ha. The game is coming out soon (a week from typing this) so you know I'll be playing in on stream.
 

- Beat Save me Mr. Tako this month (11.01, 11.07, 11.09). The big thing about these last 3 streams was that the creator of the game (and at one point the whole staff) came to my streams and watched me play. It was insane knowing that they were all watching. He even helped me a few times when I was stuck so I can continue with the game. It was cool talking to him on stream to as we actually bonded over the game in a different way. He even asked for feedback (which I detailed in an email for him) and also mentioned things he was planning to fix and patch as I was playing. At one point he called me a pioneer for the game as only a few people were streaming it and I was the farthest out of that small group. The only thing I wish happened was me beating the game with him in the stream. It was so close to happening, but he's from France. While I did a long stream, it was 4AM for him when he decided to head to bed. I knew I was tired and hungry so I can imagine how he was feeling as he was alost there the entire final stream. I beat the game 30 minutes later after he left. But before he left, I made sure to gift him a sub to my channel. While I do a gift sub program for when I beat any game, there was no doubt that he deserved one. This game is currently my favorite game series I have streamed ever since I started on Twitch. It's going to be a hard moment in my streaming career to top. 
 

- I had my 5th Demo Showcase on stream (11.12). I have decided to make all Demo Showcases from now on to be 5 different demos total. I've actually got a Follower that really enjoys them and has added a few to his wish list. 

For this one I played Demetrios (not a bad point and click), RISK (my first time playing it and it actually flowed very well despite my poor performance), Shift Quantum (an awesome puzzle platformer), Trivial Pursuit (nice digital representation of the game), and Word Sudoku by POWGI (great take on Sudoku). I enjoyed all of the demos, which I think rarely happens. But the clear winner among myself and the stream was Shift Quantum. I definitely think I'll buy it if it gets discounted. It also birthed the favorite side character on my stream dubbed "Lady Person (with a yellow scarf)." 


- Brawlhalla came out for free on the Switch (11.13). I knew nothing about it outside of it being a Smash clone. It was fine. I needed to not think to play it like Smash before I started to get into. One cool thing was a worker for the company came to the stream. It was their second day and I got some laughs out of him. 


- The next game I wanted to tackle on stream was Metroid (11.14). It came out on the NES Switch app along with Mighty Bomb Jack and TwinBee. This also marked the first time I played the game to completion. Last time I played it on the Wii U was just to use the JUSTIN BAILEY code. It took 2 streams to do it, but I got a nice amount of viewers to come in and watch. Since the second stream didn't last too long (11.16), I decided to play more NES games. I tried out Baseball...and failed horribly, ha. Since there was no actual music playing in the game, I played some TWICE in the background. And I didn't want to end the stream on that low note. So I took Double Take's request and played Balloon Fight. Went back and forth from the main game to Balloon Trip and set little goals of beating my previous scores, which really helped. And there were a couple of people in chat that were genuinely interested (shout outs to them especially a high school friend). 


- Having the flu caused me to miss out on streaming for over one week. I actually felt like I missed out on a lot not just for me, but for participating in other streams (I tried, but didn't have the energy to). So coming back with Coloring Book was a good way to start (11.26). My voice wasn't 100% yet either so it was good to play something that was chill. I didn't realize all the pictures were available so there were only 12, but the viewers got into it, ha. Since this was cut short, I decided to play more NES games. Took on TwinBee and if I remember correctly, I died 158 times trying to "beat" it (the same levels loop for a total of 64 levels). After that, I went to the original Mario Bros. Similar to Balloon Fight, I set small goals of beating my high score to have something to shoot for. 

Other than coming back to streaming after 10 days, I did get to see a lot of first timers in the stream. I was worried that those I connected with before having the flu caused them to forget about me. I'm grateful that they tuned in after the absence. 


- My Thumper Collector's Edition came in (11.26). There is so much in there. I'm very tempted to play the game again just for the stream. Maybe if I have nothing to play before Smash comes out. 


- Warframe was another game that got delayed due to having the flu (11.27). I was actually going to try this before Coloring Book. Warframe is intimidating at first because there is so many things you can do and they don't properly explain it. I did start to get used to the controls and mechanics, but it definitely helped that there were a good number of viewers in chat helping with explanations. One of them was a college friend who I had not seen in years and it felt good knowing someone familiar was there. Another thing that helped were playing with a couple of viewers online marking the first time I played online with viewers on stream. The little boy that played with us was overpowered and kept rushing everything that we couldn't keep up. But the other guy was fun to play with since we were both on the same level. Much like Fortnite, this can be a game I can return to if I have nothing "new" to play. 


- Had our 6th Demo Showcase (11.28). This showcase had Art of Balance (physics puzzle that I've tried on other platforms before), Energy Cycle Edge (another puzzle game, but having no tutorial made it impossible to play), Hot Spring Story (a fun sim game that I and the viewers really got into), Uno (good digital version of Uno with only 3 plays), and Just Dance 2019 (felt great to dance again). This was actually an interesting group of games that would not have lasted long. But I did play Hot Spring Story twice as it lasted at least an hour while the rest were 30 minutes or less. I really enjoyed it, but shy away from buying it since I don't want to get addicted to it (but it's still on my wish list). And Just Dance 2019 had to end the showcase. I knew it would only be one song as all Just Dance demos always were. But I got a good turn out of viewers (new and old) to tune in. Most of them don't know about my dance experience so they were amazed and were okay with me playing and getting better at the same song. I think this part of the stream last 60-90 minutes and I only played the song 6 times at best as I took a break in between each dance. The only downside was that I was told to flip the horizontal camera to match, but it actually didn't. Other than that, I was very pleased with the turnout and excitement had between myself and the viewers. 


- Double Take brought Drop Mix to work (11.29). I had always wanted to try it. I definitely see the appeal. The only downside for me is not being familiar with a lot of the modern artists. That still wouldn't stop me from creating some cool mixes. 


- And the final game I streamed for the month was Fallout Shelter (11.30). It came out during E3 for free, but I never got around to it. Plus I'm not into the Fallout series so it wasn't a priority for me to play. I was getting worried as I played it as I actually didn't set things up too well to where the citizens were all unhappy to the max for over an hour. It wasn't until deaths, raids, and babies (who I named after viewers) happened that I got invested. It did start to peter out again towards the end of the stream. I even played some Kpop in the background at points (yay for none getting muted). It's okay, but it's not like Warframe or Fortnite where I wouldn't mind going back to it. Although I might come back to it one time for a short stream just to see what has happened after leaving it. 


- The last demo showcase that happened was also to celebrate my 2 months on Twitch. And it was also to celebrate hitting 100 Followers. Streaming has been interesting. I'm glad to have met a lot of cool people through it (abomination1212, the8bitdee - yay for our Kpop connection, SolaceandDread, zoukiji, and many more) and it's cool to see other people I've lost contact with be drawn in (even those that don't play games). The sense of community is great. I still wish for more community interaction and viewers in my channel because I sometimes think my streams are boring because I don't do anything more than play the game really (no name for the community, don't have a gimmick, etc). It's definitely not a source of income as I think I've maybe earned $30 or less after 2 months. Definitely have spent more in giving gift subs than I've earned from streaming. Not saying those need to equal out. I enjoy giving gift subs and free bits and seeing people react to the positivity and community growth. It would be awesome to see that stuff happen when I stream. I just want more to happen with this. Don't get me wrong though. I do appreciate all the awesome things that have happened so far (community, developer interaction, etc). It has been great, but I worry about possibly burning out on it. We shall see how next month turns out. 

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- I was asked to go to our Downtown location to run sessions and I actually got to this time (11.15). It was good to see Agent Hypnotic after so long. But I was looking forward to seeing Agent Striker. At the end of the night, he did ask to go out to eat. Even though I was tired, I was more hungry. He took me to a place with multiple eateries and we got pho. Not only was the food good, but it was great catching up with him. It did suck to hear of his frustrations, but I know he'll be okay no matter what he decided to do. 

- The Memorial team had our meeting and we went to another escape room again (11.16). We had been to this location before, but didn't know they moved to a different part of the complex. The escape room itself was okay. We escaped, but we had our gripes such as solving puzzles to get passwords that weren't ever used. The victory does bring my record to 25-31 with an 81% escape rate. The best part was driving back to work when we rolled our windows down to a grandma next to us in her car. She said it looked we were having fun, but then left us by saying I needed to wash my car to which we all busted out laughing, ha. 


- We recently had a session where the program malfunctioned. I had to go in and relay messages to Agent Ocean and we also had to reset the game. The customers did have fun, but one of them actually emailed us with some feedback. We stopped collecting them, so it was good to see someone care to send us some without asking for it. They expressed some things that we have had concerns about and I couldn't help but be frustrated that we still have issues with this thing.  

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- Ninja Sex Party - Africa (MV) 


- Happy Birthday, BoA (11.05). 


- TWICE - Yes or Yes (MV)


- Happy Birthday, Momo (11.08).


- Hyo & Lau - Punk Right Now (MV)


- Tiffany Young - Peppermint (audio)


- Amber - Countdown (MV)


- Red Velvet - RBB (Really Bad Boy) (MV)


- My best friend mentioned back in September that she was planning to visit Houston in November. The time came. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the days off I requested so I missed out n the first 2-3 days she was here. But I finally got to meet up with her (11.04). She was staying with someone we mutually knew. Her mom was there as well so it was nice to see all of them. More importantly, this was the first time I have seen her daughter in 2 years. She was really shy at first, but slowly started to warm up to me, show me things, and play with me as I was catching up with my best friend. After about an hour, they were getting ready for bed. Before I left, I gave her daughter a gift. It was the penguin I won from Toreba and she absolutely loved it. It was almost as big as her too, ha. I'm glad we bonded. 

The next day, they came over to my house (11.05). This is actually the first time our parents met each other in all the time we've been friends. My mom really took a liking to her daughter. My friend mentioned that was the most excited she ever saw my mom, ha. My friend's daughter was so excited in my room because of everything that was on display like the game systems and amiibo. She actually really liked the Asuka masks on the wall and wanted to try a couple of them on, ha. We tried planning out where to take her, but the best places for kids (like the children's museums) were closed. So for the next few hours we went to eat at La Olla, Funplex (it was closed), visited my work place, walked around Hong Kong Mall (first time there in years), and then went back home to watch Dora. I felt bad as it wasn't the most exciting trip, but both of them were fine. Her daughter was tired, but did enjoy going around to places. I then dropped them off at her step-mom's place so they had a place to sleep and I returned home to rest for the night. 

The next day, I went to pick them up so we could go to Austin (11.06). We left an hour earlier than planned so that we can stop at another Colombian restaurant before leaving town. Her daughter was enjoying every bit of food we had, ha. The only other stop we made was to Buc-ees to buy stuff. It was crazy to see her daughter get complimented by several people there. I agree that she's adorable, but seeing others stop to react to her was a treat. On the ride there, we did more catching up. I actually told her of a few things I was worried about telling her, but she reminded me that doesn't judge me and understands that I have reasons for everything I do. So she was glad and excited for me to tell her those things. Once we reached her step-dad's place, I spent some time with them before leaving. 

Since I knew I was going to be in Austin, I contacted a couple of friends seeing if they were available. One couldn't, but the other was. So I drove over to her apartment. This marked the first time I ever visited her in Austin as she would always be the one to come to Houston to visit. Got to play with her dog, ate a small snack, and caught up as we made plans for dinner. On our way to a nearby chicken strip place, my best friend called to see if we could meet up for dinner, but we couldn't. She made sure to put her daughter on the phone to say bye. After we hung up, I immediately started crying. It was very much how I felt 2 years ago when I visited them in San Antonio and had to head back home. I love them both so much. My friend and I brought the food back to her place (although we joked that I should keep crying in the restaurant pretending that she broke up with me, ha) to eat and continue the conversation. We exchanged gifts (both happened to be Final Fantasy related) and I made my way back home. While I would have stayed over night, my parents needed the car the next morning and I would rather drive at night while I'm awake rather than early in the morning feeling tired. The trip back was fine with only one stop for the bathroom and one small hiccup on the road. 

It was amazing seeing my best friend and her daughter. Her daughter is incredible. She's well behaved, fun, talkative, and smart. She's going to grow up to be something special. The tweet below is a great summary of how I felt. Can't wait to see you again. I miss you and I love you both. 


- That's it for November 2018. Thanks for reading.


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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