Wednesday, December 4, 2019

November 2019 Entry

November 2019 Entry

November...you were an interesting month. 

========================= 
 
- I went to a new ENT (11.06). This was after taking my mom to one of her appointments so I visited the medical district a couple times today. I really liked this place. Everything was way better than the last ENT I went to. I didn't even get to finish filling out my paper work by the time we were done with everything. Seriously, the last thing I did was finish my paper work. But they brought me in as soon as they could. The doctor was very chill and easy to talk to and he did what I wanted to be done, which was take out the blockage in my left ear. It took a while as he had to squish and move things around. I want to say that whole process took 15-20 minutes. There were a few times we took a break because of the pain. Once he took the main chunk out, I could hear perfectly out of my left ear. The bad news was that I immediately became dizzy. The room was spinning and I got nauseous. After things settled down, the main ENT (who was also cool and easy to talk to) came in with someone shadowing him. They also set up a camera so they could show me the inside of my ear. The right ear was normal, but the left ear was obviously damaged (I have pictures). Other than me taking care of it, they were also concerned about the possibility of damage behind the ear drum that they couldn't see. They think the dizziness might be in conjunction with that. So I'm scheduled to come back for a CT scan as well as a hearing test and follow up.

I left to go pick up some prescribed ear drops. The ENT mentioned that the drops he is prescribing could cost $300 if my insurance wasn't accepted. In that event, he would have prescribed something cheaper, but less effective. So I went out...into traffic for almost 2 hours. But I made it to the Walgreens I asked to send the prescription since it was close to home. I had forgotten that Walgreens doesn't accept my health insurance. They recommended going to CVS, which does take my insurance, so they can transfer it there. Went there (10 minutes away) and the price was definitely under $100. They even helped me get a coupon to make it cheaper. But they were very busy so I was there for almost an hour. 

Quite a day, but I can hear out of my left ear. Everything is so loud now. I noticed it the most when I stream due to the ear buds. It's good, but I no longer hear other noises such as my phone vibrating or someone knocking on my door. Small price to pay to have my hearing back. 

- Picked up part 2 of season 2 of the Ace Attorney anime (11.07). It took a few days to finish watching all of it (11.12). So good. The anime is faithful to the game with some changes, it's shorter, and has original content for the series. I definitely recommend it to fans of the game series. I'm currently rewatching the whole thing with the English dub. I'm halfway through it all and it's pretty good. 


- I started to feel a little under the weather the weekend before a scheduled doctor appointment (11.11). It was busy when I got there and in the end, they confirmed that I had the flu. Picked up a prescription on the way home and then let work know I was possibly going to need to take time off. I actually did feel better and went to work a couple days later and streamed. But the flu came back that Friday. Took Saturday off. Felt better on Sunday, but played it safe and took that day off as well. The flu was gone by 11.18.

Other than eating a lot during my time with the flu, but I caught up on so much sleep. Ever since daylight savings kicked in, my sleep schedule had been thrown off. Thanks to Nyquil, I had at least 10 hours of sleep each night. 

- Finally got around to watching Wonder Woman: Bloodlines while I was sick (11.16). It was okay. Unfortunately, it was hard for me to get into the story and the characters so this one is hard for me to recommend. I really did enjoy the mini showcase of Death. And Superman: Red Son is coming out next and I've always heard that was a good series.

- My younger cousin had a wedding (11.23). He married his girlfriend of 10+ years. The ceremony was nice. Arrived with my parents at the church, but another wedding just finished so we and others thought we were at the wrong place. Another guest and I went in as we were both hesitant to go alone and they were there. We helped direct others in and during that time I saw the bride arrive and go to where she was to wait. I went and greeted family and took a seat. Saw my younger cousin enter the building and go up to front and waited for the bride. The ceremony was nice. After it was done, it was good to catch up with other cousins who I had not seen for a while. Took photos with the family and then the guests had to leave. 

The reception was about 10-15 minutes away and most of us went there, but the reception wouldn't be ready for another couple of hours. Hung out with cousins and took some time to relax as more guests arrived. The reception was great, the food was good, lots of dancing. Wonderful night. Congratulations to the newlyweds. 

One negative thing about that day was that I knew the DJ. He used to work with us at HER 3-4 years ago. He didn't stay with us long as he all of a sudden stopped showing up after a couple weeks into training. Then something else happened where he lied about something that I won't go into. Leaving without notice already left a bad impression, but this added to it. He wouldn't have been a good fit for the company in the long run. I wouldn't have hired him. I'm pretty sure at the time I was only training staff, but not hiring yet. But fast forward to the wedding, his voice was familiar. Then I saw him and recognized him. I told a couple of my cousins how I knew him and they were shocked. I knew he did DJ gigs because he had mentioned it when we worked together. At some point, he went to every table to hype them up and I kept staring at him. He didn't recognize me and that's probably a good thing. I finally got to tell my cousin and his new bride about this during Thanksgiving, ha. 

Thanksgiving was great too. Small gathering, played with the young boys, caught up with others, ate, shared stories, laughed, and it was a short event. No complaints from me. 


- Normally I don't buy a lot during the Black Friday season, but this time I did (11.27-11.29). Wednesday started with Nintendo's Cyber Deals. I was already planning to buy a physical game as well so I did some math and bought 4 games. Downloaded Hob: The Definitive Edition, GRIS, and Batman - Telltale. Originally, I was going to go to a GameStop the same day, but then Amazon had the same deal for half off of AI: The Somnium Files. Saved myself the trip. The next day, I bought 2 wrestling shirts, Io Shirai and Undisputed Era. And finally on Black Friday itself, I checked my Amazon wish list for the webcams I was suggested to get. One was no longer available, but the same model with a privacy cover was $20 off so I ordered it. 

=========================  

- Didn't watch WarGames live due to my cousin's wedding, but I stayed up late to watch it after (11.23). NXT always delivers and this was no exception. The 2 WarGames matches were fantastic. Great job from all the men and women involved. Dakota Kai...so evil and done so well. 



- Survivor Series was great too (11.24). Went to a friend's home where I've gone before for other wrestling get togethers. Good to be around other wrestling fans. There were some fun surprises on the show too such as Dominik getting involved in the Mysterio/Lesnar match. 



=========================  

- Company meeting at the Downtown location (11.08). It has been a while. Good to have all of us together. We also did take our picks of stuff that was to be thrown away. We took some stuff back the Memorial location. That's about it. It was just nice to have everyone under the same roof. 

- Agents Blue Heeler and Striker came to the Memorial location for a couple of reasons (11.13). One was to have Agent Blue Heeler learn our version of Dark Side. She shadowed me for one session and she good after that similar to the others that had helped our location. The second was for Blue Heeler and I to talk about the holiday party. We were chosen to put it together since we put it together a couple years ago. Worked on some of critical items and I brought up ideas I had planned for the previous year, but was not given the chance. Can't wait for it to happen...in January. 

- And unfortunately because of the flu and the Thanksgiving week, I barely worked this month. It was nice to sort of take a break from work, but I was definitely excited to be back to work at the latter end of the month. 

=========================  

- First game of the month was Luigi's Mansion 3 (11.01-11.04). The main word I used to describe the game was "charming." Luigi and everything in the game is very expressive. It's hard for me to choose which I liked better, the first game or the third one. But for the third one, I did make sure to catch all the Boos and to find all the gems. There's a lot more to do, but I wasn't interested in doing that. 

I also played the online multiplayer game with a dedicated follower, softguitar. She was also working through the game too and neither of us tried the online mode. It was fun, but difficult. Within the hour we played, we only got to the second floor. I liked it though and wouldn't mind trying it again...but probably with 2 more players, ha. 



- There were 2 game sales that I missed. The first one was AI: The Somnium Files (11.05). I've been keeping an eye on it for sales and when it finally happened, I didn't jump on it right away and scheduled when I could get it. The day I planned to get it, the sale ended. But if you read earlier, I eventually did get the game. The sale was the same, but I got it from Amazon instead of GameStop. 

The second game I missed out on was Gal Metal: World Tour Edition (11.13). It was $10 new at Best Buy for a little over a week. This time I actually went to the store, to buy it. The store was sold out even though I checked online beforehand. Then the game was out of stock completely online so I couldn't even order it. A few days later, the sale was over. Because of these two instances, I made sure to jump on sales within the first 48 hours hence me getting those games I mentioned during Black Friday pick ups as soon as I could. 

- Terry Bogard is in Smash Bros (11.06). I tried him out the first day he was released and did what I do with every DLC character that was released. I have to say, Terry is my favorite out of the DLC characters. I really enjoyed using him. I do think it's because he's the one I have the most history with. 


- Demo Showcase 24 was sports themed (11.07). 

Desktop Table Tennis - Nothing special. Similar to other Desktop sports games I've tried. 
NBA 2K20 - As much as I found enjoyment trying this, I had a hard time playing it. I'm very used to passing the ball to a team mate and I take control of them. This time I was only me. So when I had to do things like stay out of the paint or be more of an assist man, I would forget to do that and try to do everything. It was hilarious getting benched, ha. 
Pocket League Story - Another Kairosoft sim game. This time we took on the role training a soccer team. Not bad. It was interesting watching the soccer matches take place. 
Super Kickers League - Another soccer game, but this time I was in control of the action. 3v3, no rules, and special powers. Made for a fast paced game. 
Super Mega Baseball - It took a while for me to get used to the targeting for hitting and pitching, but I did like this game. The last baseball game I can recall playing was...Wii Sports. 

My favorite out of the bunch was Super Kickers League and it now exists in my wish list. 


- At the time I thought I was over the flu. So the next game that was scheduled to play was R-Type Dimensions EX (11.14). This was a special stream because this was a Viewer's Choice stream. For one month, those in Discord voted from a selection of Demo Showcase favorites. And they chose R-Type Dimensions EX. 

It was a challenge. I died so many times even when I switched to the mode that continued respawning me where I was instead of having me start at a check point. The goal was to beat both R-Type and R-Type II in the modern and classic looking mode as well as attempt to see how far I could get with other viewing options. Definitely had fun playing this. Thanks to all those in Discord that voted. 



- Got the latest amiibo that were released (11.15). Chrom, Incineroar, and Simon all look fantastic. I also reserved the upcoming Dark Samus and Richter amiibo. 


After getting the amiibo, I played Growtopia on stream. It was our free game of the month and...yeah...it was not for me. None of it clicked with me and the flu kicking back in didn't help. This is the first time I decided to end a stream under the 3 hour normal limit I set for streams. One hour only and I was done. Can't recommend this one. 


- With the flu gone, I got to finally play Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors (11.19). I really liked the SNES version back in the day and this did not disappoint. For the first stream, I beat it 3 times as each of the original 3 characters. The second stream was for the 2 new characters and then one play through of hard mode switching between everyone. Shout outs to arctheladder who is a fan of the game and gave some helpful tips and advice. Overall, a fun brawler that I can easily recommend. 



- NES game for the month was Kid Icarus (11.21). Never played it before, but always knew it was difficult. Did my best without save stating, but had to use them. The main frustration was that someone came to check our internet connection as I was streaming. It lead to the connection getting cut and I had to wait about an hour before finishing the last hour of the game I had. So what would have been a one shot video ended up being split. Other than that, I'm glad I got to play this and beat. 



- More demos with Demo Showcase 25 (11.25). No theme this time. But we are still going with 1 retail game and 1 Kairosoft sim game. 

Cafeteria Nipponica - Another fun sim from Kairosoft. I really enjoyed this one as you manage a restaurant. Shout out to softguitar for helping name the restaurant (MOMMA Givin') and for helping with some decisions. 
Grass Cutter - Mutated Lawns - Simple puzzle game where you mow all spots of a lawn without dying. The one big thing that caught my attention was a victory theme that played that was just like the victory theme for Naval Warfare, ha. 
KILL la KILL -IF - A fun fighter based on the anime. It seemed to follow the story in the anime and the battle system was fast and frantic and fun. 
SCRAP RUSH!! - A Bomberman clone that wasn't bad. It felt slow, but I do think I would have had more fun with actual players instead of all CPU. 
Strikey Sisters - A fun take on the break out genre of games. It had interesting abilities you can use to attack your enemies, has a lot to collect, and really good voice acting (yes, a break out game has a story and voice acting). 

For this one, it was tough to choose because 3 of them really got (Cafeteria Nipponica, KILL la KILL -IF, and Strikey Sisters). In the end I chose KILL la KILL -IF. The fact that I watched the anime helped a little even though it has been 5-6 years since then, but it really got me interested in it again. 


- Our SNES game of the month was Super Metroid (11.26, 11.29). So...this was an interesting one. I think it didn't help that I saw how well I played it last time. Back in 2013 was when I played it on the Wii U Virtual Console. I collected 76% of the items in under 5 hours. That set a bar that I didn't need. In the first stream, I did hit a brick wall and got incredibly frustrated. One was the sand that I could not easily jump out of and two was being told I was where I needed to be when I actually wasn't (didn't have the Gravity Suit or Grapple Beam). Then I tried referencing the FAQ I had opened, but it was good if I had followed it step by step so I couldn't find out where I was supposed to be. I don't being lost in general, but the extra pressure of being stuck on stream...don't remember if that's ever happened before. At the time, no one was active in chat to help, but thankfully Taycake came in around that time and helped find videos for me. I was grateful for that, but also a little dumbfounded that I didn't look at videos like I normally would. Thing is...this all happened after so many cool things happened on stream. Multiple gift subs and multiple raids and more kept happening. An hour later, I hit that brick wall. 

The second part of the stream, I had some determination. Sand was still problematic at times. But I was making tons of progress and finding things. The day before the stream, I actually scrubbed through the last one and marked down which items I found alongside an FAQ. There were only a couple items I messed up in keeping track of so there was a little bit of wasted time. But I also ended up taking the longest break I ever did because cousins I had not seen in 20+ years made a surprise visit. I told chat what was going on and that I was catching up with them. I just didn't think it will be 2 hours, ha. It was great catching up with them (old memories, stories, etc). I came back to the stream and then it took about another hour to complete it 100%. So this stream of Super Metroid was very interesting and very memorable. 



- I started uploading old Twitch streams to YouTube (11.17-11.25). These are unedited and will go up as is. I had thought about doing this before and was going to start it and announce it on my anniversary stream, but I didn't pull the trigger on it. But when I had the flu, I wanted something to do that wasn't strenuous and so I started. It took 8 days to upload all the streams from when I started streaming up to Demo Showcase 25. All are uploaded and scheduled to post. For the rest of 2019, a stream from 2018 will be published every day. Once 2020 hits, every stream will be published on their one year anniversary. For example, if a stream happened on January 2nd in 2019, it is scheduled to be published January 2nd in 2020. And now after every stream is finished, not only do I highlight it for Twitch archives, but I upload and schedule it to YouTube as well.

There were a few issues while doing this: 
1. Some videos won't let me edit the information any more. Even after they go live, I get the message that an error occurred. And this happened for several game titles. I believe it was because some of the game category titles were very long such as Child of Light: Ultimate Edition/Valiant Hearts: The Great War. 
2. One stream can't be uploaded. It's Part 08 of Travis Strikes Again. The reason being is that part of the conversation were Japanese artists and laamb_s introduced us to one...and that resulted in 5 copyright strikes on YouTube. One was enough, but wow...5. Other streams had copyright claims for songs being played during the stream, but the video will only be blocked in some countries.
3. 2 videos ended up having the message "Processing abandoned. The video could not be processed." That sucks because there was no message prior or during their "completed" uploads. I only found out after thinking to look back on the videos for some reason. The 2 videos that happened to were Part 01 of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission. I'll reupload those soon. 

Reasons for doing this and why in this fashion: 
1. Archiving purposes. I've always been like this with videos. I have all the streams on a harddrive, they're all up on Twitch still, and now they'll be on YouTube (minus that stream of Travis Strikes Again). 
2. Another way to reach a different audience and another way to view the content. 
3. Having Twitch streams go up a year later on YouTube doesn't take away from Twitch. Watching on Twitch allows for interaction and a visible chat while YouTube (in this form) won't. 

So if you need another way to see my old streams, you now have that ability. Subscribe and such. Funny story, I lost one subscriber after the first archived stream went up. I'm only a little over 40 so I'm not expecting views or subscriptions to skyrocket. 


=========================  

- Happy Birthday, BoA (11.05).


- RIP, Goo Hara (11.24). 

- It was good to hear your voice (11.28). I was getting worried and thought the worst had happened. We'll talk soon.  

- That's a wrap on November 2019. Thanks for reading and take care. 





"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, November 16, 2019

October 2019 Entry

October 2019 Entry

Late post. One, I forgot. Two, I'm currently typing this while getting over the flu. 

=========================

- Death Battle - Ganondorf VS Dracula


- I picked up my dad and aunt after their vacation in the Philippines (10.23). I think I waited in the car for 30-45 minutes for them as they were going through customs. It was good to see them again, but it wasn't all great. They did get assistance from the staff to wheel them out (both have bad knees) and helped with all their luggage. My aunt gave one of them a tip and then asked me to give the other person a tip too, but I didn't have much. I pulled out $3 and the person refused by pushing my hand away while saying "this is wrong. We gave them assistance and that's all they're giving us? No. This is wrong." The other staff member said nothing and still kept the tip my aunt gave ($5) and they left. The whole ride home, I kept thinking about that. Isn't it part of their job to assist the elderly like this (my dad is almost 70 and my aunt is in her 70s)? I've also picked up my parents multiple times from the airport where they required assistance and never had to tip before. I even offered a tip and it was refused when I could have given nothing. It really bothered me and a couple of my coworkers were in shock when I told them this story. 

- Bought Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (10.23). I didn't get around to watching the movie until the day that I'm typing this (11.16). 



=========================

- NXT is now on USA (10.02). Every show has been great as each NXT show has always been. I do tune in to watch AEW, but I still need more time with them to be more invested in their roster.


- Hell In A Cell was interesting (10.06). Understand criticisms others have, but I enjoyed the show overall. The biggest highlight for me was the Kabuki Warriors winning the tag titles. Asuka and Kairi turning evil has been splendid. 



- Bayley, so awesome (10.11). While a lot of people predicted it would happen eventually, seeing her turn heel was so good. 


- Women's War Games, it's happening and I could not be more excited (10.30). It was something I did not know I wanted, but can't believe we're getting it.


=========================

- Went to our Downtown location to help with sessions (10.01). It went smoothly. I really liked the Halloween decorations they had up, but it was also the first year we didn't change a room to be Halloween themed. This also marked the day one of our coworkers was let go at our Memorial location. I won't go into all the details, but I feel way better now.

- It has been a while since we had a company outing, but a few of us Agents and their significant others went to a haunted house together (10.20). This was also my first time going to one ever. I did cling onto Agent Blue's back the majority of the time. It was fun. 


- Agent Apollo helped us out for a couple days at the Memorial location (10.22-10.23). Didn't take him long to get used to how to run Dark Side there and how we do things. He was supposed to be there the week after, but got sick. Agent Striker tagged in (10.30). Luckily he was available and there were no sessions happening Downtown (plus it was game 7 of the World Series so parking and traffic would have been horrible for him). He quickly got acclimated to things at our location too and was a big help as I needed someone there while Agent Ocean was on vacation.

=========================

- My SNES controllers for the Switch arrived (10.01). They are really good and are just like the original SNES controllers back in the day.



I also set up different webcam scenes for stream. These will have a different emote in them each depending on where I am on the screen. This is for if the webcam ever craps out again and thankfully that has only happened once since setting this up.

- Started our month of horror games with Resident Evil 0 from the Resident Evil Origins Collection (10.02-10.04). This game was harder than I remember. I did make some foolish mistakes such as not saving as much, but I slowly got into the groove of it. I remember liking it a lot back on the Gamecube. I actually remember last playing it when our family used to own a Filipino rental store. I brought my Gamecube there a few times to play during slow days and I remember doing the leech side quest one day there.




- Demo Showcase 23 was themed to have elements of horror or monsters involved (10.07).
Kitty Love -Way to look for love- - I had seen the Game Grumps play it so I knew I was in store for tons of grammatical errors that would be hilarious.
Monster Puzzle - A simple puzzle game where you guide your monster from one end of the map to another. Some of the puzzle paths were pretty difficult.
Professor Lupo and his Horrible Pets - An interesting point and click puzzler. You click on where you want your character to go while avoiding different monsters that have different movement patterns. It also had a great art style too.
Viviette - A 16-bit horror adventure game. The aesthetic really pulled me in and the demo ended on a cliffhanger making me very curious as to what would happen. 
The World Next Door - Nicely styled story that turned out to have an interesting twist on the match-3 concept.

This was a good batch of demos that had the viewers choosing their favorites as well. I ended up choosing both Viviette and The World Next Door as my favorites. And if either of them weren't in this batch, Professor Lupo probably would have been chosen. I downloaded The World Next Door towards the end of the month as it went on sale from $15 to $3. Viviette is still on my wish list. 


- Back to the Resident Evil Origins Collection with Resident Evil REmake (10.08-10.17). I first started by playing as Chris as I can't recall ever using him in the original or remake. It wasn't that bad. Then after beating it with him and then a game in between, I beat the game as Jill. My biggest worry was that the mansion wouldn't be easy for me to remember like in the past. But after some time in Chris' game, it was no problem (minus a few bursts of forgetfulness). It really was great playing this one again after so many years.






- Knight Terrors was the break in between Chris and Jill's play throughs (10.15). This was an addicting runner. I like that it had varying modes to unlock instead of being the same the entire time. I did hit a road block and could not unlock the final mode (came close a few times). Shout out to RaptorKitchen who ended up buying the game and was actually able to unlock the final mode.


- My copy of Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors arrived (10.17). I'm so glad I learned that there was a physical copy of it available. Can't wait to play it in November. And I got a cheap copy of SUPERBEAT: XONiC brand new, which I have scheduled to play in December.



- While randomly looking for price deals on games, I saw that GameStop was selling new copies of Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom for $20. No stores in the area had it new and you couldn't order it online. So I looked into price matching, which I had never done. With some advice from a friend, he suggested Best Buy and Target. I went to Best Buy on the 19th and found a copy. Went to ask a staff member if they would price match it, but he said GameStop wasn't listed in their system. That sucked. Had the copy in hand and was ready to buy it. And since I was on my way to work, I stopped at a nearby Walmart that had no copies. After work, I checked a Target on the way home and they had no copies either. I wasn't through that night as I decided to try Best Buy's online chat service. Didn't hurt to ask. Shout out to Rex who was helping me out and let me know that Best Buy's in store and online price matching services differ and that he could get me a copy of the game with free shipping. Such an awesome way to end the night. My copy arrived on the 22nd.



- I have never played Ghosts 'N Goblins before (10.21). Never thought I'd beat it either, but thanks to save states, I have accomplished a difficult feat. It's still tough as heck. There is no way I'd be able to beat it by playing the game normally.




- Back to the world of Resident Evil with Resident Evil 4 (10.24-10.28). This was very fun to come back to. Sure did die a lot, but I had a heck of a time beating the game, beating Separate Ways, and attempting Assignment Ada. And I totally made sure to keep as many eggs in my attache case as I could and even threw one at the final boss, ha.




- Found another good deal on a game. Toki: Retrolllector Edition was originally $40 new, but was being sold at GameStop for $10 only. The problem was that not many stores had it in stock. I kept checking on a daily basis and one a few in the area started popping up. Went to one of the stores I used to work at briefly and it was their display copy. Luckily they still had all the parts inside the big box. Add another game to the collection (10.26)



- To finish off this month of games, we tackled the tough as nails Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts (10.29). I had played this a few times back in the day and really enjoyed it, but never beat it. Similar to Ghosts 'N Goblins, I would not have been able to beat this one without the help of save states. This one wasn't as frustrating because I was enjoying myself more. Plus I was able to use my Switch SNES controllers for the first time.




There were 2 other games planned to be played this month. One was Wolfenstein: Youngblood and it would have been our free game of the month. However, I did not know that you needed a buddy pass in order to access this. I only found out an hour before stream and that's when I decided to move all games up. The other game that got axed was another SNES game and a favorite of mine, Demon's Crest. It was good that we were busy at work, but this day of streaming had to be removed. But I will definitely play Demon's Crest in the future.

- Bought my copy of Luigi's Mansion 3 on Halloween (10.31). Played and beat it in November.



=========================

- Jang WooHyuk - WEEKAND (MV)

- Tiffany Young - Run For Your Life (MV)

- TWICE - Fake & True (MV)

- TWICE - Be as ONE (MV)

- Bada - OFF THE RECORD (MV)

- TaeYeon - SPARK (MV)

- Rest in peace, Sulli (10.14).


- That's a wrap on October 2019. Thanks for reading and take care.


"Reprise the theme son and roll the credits."
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 7, 2019

September 2019 Entry

September 2019 Entry

Busy, busy.

=========================

- Had dinner with a 20+ year friend and his son (09.02). Thank you.

- Got my copy of the Ace Attorney anime season 2-1 (09.09). Much like the previous season, I enjoyed this one. I was surprised that they had a case that was made just for the anime.


- I had some really bad hip pain at the end of the 27th. I lost a lot of sleep because of it. The following day it still hurt, but it slowly subsided as the day went by. It had me worried as I couldn't figure out why it happened in the first place and that it hurt so much.

  - I think I've done this once a year for a while now, but I stopped using dating apps for a month. Nothing came from it. 
 
=========================

- Clash of Champions was a fun PPV (09.15). Maybe it is just me, but I'm enjoying almost every PPV that has been happening. They aren't all perfect, but there's always something worth watching.


- Got my Royal Rumble tickets (09.18). This was the first time I had to wait in a queue for about 20 minutes, but that's understandable for this event. Ended up buying a set of 8 tickets for cousins and friends. Should be good. We have almost a whole row for that event. We might be seated far away, but my first live event was Wrestlemania XXV in the cheap seats and it was amazing.

=========================

- I sent an email to the owner of the company (09.15). It was in regards to some things that had been going on. I did have it drafted towards the end of August, but held off on it until this point. As of typing this (10.02), issues were addressed.

- Agent Blue came to the Memorial location (09.22). I was going solo due to a scheduling issue. So it was great that Agent Blue was able to come in. Showing him around and then shadowing the last session was like I was training someone again after such a long time. He said he was confident resetting and running sessions after that day, which is awesome.

- Such a busy weekend to end September (09.28, 09.28). I actually booked both of these when both groups came at different times for site visits. Both had daughters turning 10. The first one on Saturday was large with 2 groups of girls coming out to about 16-20. I didn't run these sessions, but Agents Ocean and Wolfman both mentioned how the sessions were rough. I was outside helping with the conference room rental as well as relaying messages to them. But the parents were all glad that the girls had fun. They left us a couple boxes of pizza too. 

The second one on Sunday was a lot easier. The only bump was the beginning because the birthday girl and her parents weren't the first to arrive. The other parents and kids were chilling and waiting, but that was a first. The birthday girl also asked one of the adults to join the session, which I ran. While the girls were loud during the session, it was easy to help them throughout their mission. Afterwards, I went around to all the parents to talk to them about their kids' performances and they really appreciated it (we don't normally do that, but I liked the kids). And then the parents of the birthday girl ran things so smoothly and were the easiest parents I've ever had to work with. I also thanked the parent that joined me in the sessions by giving him 2 free tickets. And then the parents gave us lots of sandwiches and cake to eat.

In the end, both birthdays are excited to come back for more.


=========================

- Our 7th (and final) month of starting a month with a Final Fantasy game. This time with Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (09.03-09.11). The release date for this came late so it nearly beat out Astral Chain. It was so good to come back to this game. It's one of my favorites of the series. As with the other Final Fantasy games I replayed this year, I forgot a lot about this game. I did enjoy getting to show off my Final Fantasy VIII collectibles especially my Triple Triad cards. The only downside to this playthrough was that during a couple of streams, the power went out. Worst was that it went out during the ending, which made the second part really short (but it wasn't super short as I showed off the collection again).



- Got my copy of The Messenger from Limited Run Games (09.03). Wish I got it in time for the Picnic Panic DLC, but I'm glad I have it.


- Nintendo Direct (09.04). Good stuff as always.


- Continuing buying something for my Gyakuten Saiban collection each year by purchasing all 3 Gyakuten Saiban GBA games (09.05). I actually didn't know there were special variants for the 2nd and 3rd games (shiny covers) so I'm glad I got those and each game complete in box.


- Demo Showcase 22 happened (09.13). Another fun batch of demos. 


Brawlout - Fun fighter similar to Smash Bros, but much like Brawlhalla, I had to constantly remind myself not to play it like Smash.
The Charming Empire - Our 5th visual novel in a row. Not a bad one, but nothing really stood out from it.
DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition - Very much a solid RPG with amazing visuals and an interesting story.
Rain City - Simple point and click puzzle game. I really liked the art style.
Them Bombs! - Very similar to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. It was very interesting to play alone as I had to consult the guide and do all the actions myself. Would have been more fun with an extra player. 

Out of this group of 5, Dragon Quest XI was my favorite.

- Got my third Twitch payout (09.16). It surprised me to get one, but it was at the lower rate, which is fine. It was just unexpected.

- QUByte Interactive reached out to me in August about playing VASARA Collection. They had actually given me a code to download 99Vidas late last year and played it at the beginning of the year. So when they contacted me to play another one of their games, I was on board. But I let them know I couldn't play it when the game was released in August and they were okay with it. Finally played it as our free game of September (09.16-09.17). It's a crazy bullet hell shoot 'em up. I enjoy them, but am not the greatest at them. In fact, I had to use a method of calling in a second player in order to beat both VASARA games. Good fun. Thanks, QUByte Interactive.


- For our NES game of the month, I went with Vice: Project Doom (09.18). I knew little about it except for a friend who praised it. So with that, I played it on stream and then started to recognize it (most likely from Game Informer). And the game was really good. It had different action scenes that all handled well and a fun story with Ninja Gaiden type cut scenes. I thought the game was so good that I ended up beating the game twice on stream. And now I am another person that will highly recommend this game to others.



- Sayonara Wild Hearts was released (09.19). It has been on my radar ever since the first trailer was shown. It didn't have a release date and it was dropped on the 19th of this month. I'm excited to play it and I have it slated to be the first game I play in 2020.


- The remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening came out (09.20-09.25). Overall, I really enjoyed playing this remake. It looks really good and had a lot of quality of life improvements. In the end, I did everything possible in game (collected all hearts, shells, bottles), but I did not do the final Chamber Dungeons (those were okay, but repetitive after a while). And I unfortunately did not get the best ending due to my only death happening early on in the game (watched it online). But I really liked this adventure.





Unfortunately I did have audio issues throughout this stream. It started after my PC updated the day the game was released. I couldn't hear any audio through my headphones. Thankfully the viewers were able to hear me and the game, but could not hear notifications. The notification noises came back for the second stream, but that was the only thing I could hear in my ear buds). And then on the last stream of the game, all of a sudden my mic defaulted to my webcam and I did not know for the first hour. Thankfully a frequent viewer helped me out with the issue to get it back to what it was for this series. And it was good that I did get to gauge how loud the audio from the TV was coming out through the stream because I never really tested it. So it is possible, but of course the TV volume can't be too loud or else the audio will come through on the stream too.

- New additions to my amiibo collection arrived (09.24). Very great quality for each one. And I'm glad the Link's Awakening one arrived for the finale of the game on stream.


- After having the PC issues (mainly the audio) during Link's Awakening and not having success with others helping me or myself figuring out on my own, I brought it to work so Double Take could try his hand at it (09.26). It didn't take more than maybe half an hour for him to figure it out. After a few test streams, I was satisfied with it. 

When I took it home, more issues cropped up. First it was me connecting a few wires incorrectly, but that got sorted out. The main thing was that my Switched would not go into docked mode. During the wire connecting, I did drop the dock from about a foot high. I tried multiple things and even looked online, which seemed to come to the conclusion that I possibly needed a new dock. Luckily I was able to test things with another Switch and dock. Those worked fine with my stream set up and my Switch was able to dock in that one. I hooked my dock back in and was able to get both Switches to dock. I have no idea why it all of a sudden started working again, but I was glad because I was so worried that I would have to buy a new dock or possibly push back or change or cancel the anniversary stream.

- This day marked my 1 Year Anniversary Stream (09.27). My first stream happened on September 28th last year, but I wasn't able to do it the same day due to work being very busy that day. So while my Fridays are usually off, I requested the day off just in case.

I asked a friend of 20+ years to join me for the stream. She had mentioned a game in Discord as well as that I should have a guest come on to play it with. So I asked her to be that guest and downloaded Burnstar for free (originally $20, on sale at the time for $1, used gold coins to pay for it). The day for her coming to be a guest would have happened earlier in the year, but our schedules didn't mesh. Thankfully it worked out for the anniversary stream. 

The stream was fun. While the game didn't click with us at first, Akikobean and I really got into Burnstar. More her than me as she is better with puzzles. We didn't beat it because we were both hungry and she was very tired. We have already discussed beating it (we were so close) the next time she comes on stream. And because of her, I'm more comfortable with the idea of having future guests. Normal viewers definitely saw a different energy from me as I was bouncing off someone else rather than it being another chill stream.





A few things about the anniversary itself and one year of streaming. It'll be a mix of positives and negatives. I was expecting a bigger turnout. Considering that I had mentioned it in a few streams (mine or others) prior, advertised it a day before, and posted it in all the Discords I was in I thought more would show up. But this is how it has been for this past year, I have to stream at these times because those are the most convenient for me. It has been mentioned to me in the past that I should stream at different times when others are able to watch. I have. The turnout is the same or even less. More on the less side as the later I stream, the chances are those that couldn't watch me during my normal times are streaming themselves. So if the time I stream doesn't matter, then I need to stream at times that work for me and that's how it has been. 

For those that did show up, I was grateful for them. The familiar faces I've met throughout this year that were there meant a lot. Part of me was expecting the normal turnout or even less (for no real reason). But there was a small group of new faces that were from the Burnstar community and one of them was the designer of the game too. That is always awesome to have someone that made the game in the stream and that has happened maybe 5 times throughout this year of streaming (something I never even thought of). That made playing the game more fun. So while I was disappointed not to see some other familiar faces for this anniversary, I can't complain about those that did. Thank you.

After the stream, Akikobean and I talked a lot about streaming and general and she asked me about my goals for it. I really didn't have one at first. Double Take was the one to push me to stream because (and I always say this) if I wasn't streaming, I'd still be playing these games. It might not have been a goal at first, but hitting a year was important for me to see if I even wanted to do it for that long. But I mentioned that night that after 3 years, I would know for sure if I want to continue or not. And it was mentioned on stream, but becoming a Nintendo Ambassador would be dream goal to come from streaming. I mean...I only play Nintendo games already, ha. And I've always been a Nintendo player since the NES. So if that was attainable, that would be fantastic.

A few specific thanks:
Double Take - Thank you for pushing me to stream. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be where I am now in the streaming world.
y0nderboy - Thank you for the additional push by helping me secure equipment before I started streaming. And for the PC that you built for me 4-5 years ago that now is used for streaming.
ClottyCola - Thank you for the emotes. I don't think I'll ever grow tired of them.
kenchien22 - Thank you for being a friend of 20+ years and for continuing to stay connected with me through streaming and in life.
Akikobean - Thank you for being a friend of 20+ years like kenchien22. And thank you for being my first guest on stream.

A special thanks to those that I've met through Twitch. There's a lot of you. But a larger thanks to those that have reached out to learn more about me outside of streaming. It makes me want to start talking to more of you and become better friends and not just names we see in a stream chat. You are more than welcome to reach out to me as well.

And to anyone that spent any amount of time in any of my streams, thank you for your time. Thank you for your company. Thanks for letting me be me.

- Played our first SNES game off the SNES app with Super Mario World (09.30). Second stream ever was Super Mario Bros 3 so the second one of the second year was another Mario game. While it was great to play it again, my mood was dampened by because the webcam stopped working 3 hours in. I tried ungpluging and plugging it back in, swapped to the original webcam...nothing. On the fly, I put my emote on screen instead (which I made a permanent afterwards if the webcam ever goes out again). I was glad that the chat was trying to help out, but it leaked into my performance as well as I messed up a lot and forgot stuff. So while the game is still fine, this won't be a favorite stream of mine.



- I have now started to post my monthly schedule in Discord. It's more of a list. I decided not to put hard dates on them just in case the schedule changes due to work/life. But now those in Discord will know what's coming that month.

- And I figured out what to do with the favorites of Demo Showcases. In Discord, there is a Demo Showcase Vote section. Much like a Demo Showcase, 5 favorites will be chosen by me and those in the Discord can vote on which one I end up playing. The first vote consisted of Shift Quantum, Octahedron: Transfixed Edition, Bad North, Gabbuchi, and R-Type Dimensions EX. The voting ended up being 0, 1, 3, 0, 5 with R-Type Dimensions EX winning. I plan to play it in November, but won't buy it until it is either on sale or the day before. Thanks to those that voted.
 
=========================

- FinKL - Like the song remains (MV)


- Jessica X GIRIBOY - Call Me Before You Sleep (MV)


- TWICE - Feel Special (MV)


One, I'm very proud of TWICE. They keep getting better all around. Two, I am glad that Mina participated in the mini album and music video, but I really am glad they are letting her take time off to be healthy. Three, Sana with straight pink hair is amazing. Four, Momo without bangs...wow. 

- That's a wrap on September 2019. Thanks for reading and take care.




"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)